Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people
https://mcdreeamiemusings.com/blog/2019/4/13/gsux1h6bnt8lqjd7w2t2mtvfg81uhx
PowerPoint Does Rocket Science–and Better Techniques for Technical Reports
https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US ‘dropped the ball’ on innovation
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54100001
In the battle for tech supremacy between the US and China, America has “dropped the ball” in funding for basic research, according to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
And that’s one of the key reasons why China has been able to catch up.
Dr Schmidt, who is currently the Chair of the US Department of Defense’s innovation board, said he thinks the US is still ahead of China in tech innovation, for now.
But that the gap is narrowing fast.
“There’s a real focus in China around invention and new AI techniques,” he told the BBC’s Talking Business Asia programme. “In the race for publishing papers China has now caught up.”
China displaced the US as the world’s top research publisher in science and engineering in 2018, according to data from the World Economic Forum.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deviations from the standard model of particle physics could be discoverable using a humble spectrometer
Enlisting spectrometers in the search for new physics
https://www.natureindex.com/institution-outputs/russia/peter-the-great-st-petersburg-polytechnic-university-spbpu/5139070b34d6b65e6a001c3a?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nindx-Sep20RH&utm_content=SPU#highlight
Calculations of the shifts in atomic spectra indicate an accessible way to search for new physics.
When considering the search for new physics that lies beyond the standard model of particle physics, it is natural to consider massive particle colliders that smash particles together and analyse the resulting debris.
But a team that included a researcher from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University has suggested a much smaller scale and accessible approach — performing highly precise atomic spectroscopy measurements of isotopes, atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons.
The team performed calculations for different isotopes of the element argon having four, five, and six electrons and found that deviations from the linear plot predicted by the standard model could be detectable using current equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
100 Years Ago, Thomas Edison Perfectly Described the Difference Between Successful Innovators and Those Who Only Dream
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/100-years-ago-thomas-edison-perfectly-described-difference-between-successful-innovators-those-who-only-dream.html?cid=sf01002
According to Edison, you don’t need to come up with new ideas. You just have to do this.
Thomas Edison is often described as America’s greatest inventor. Phonographs. Motion pictures. Microphones. Electrical grids. Light bulbs. Medical devices.
He even created the first industrial research laboratory, turning creativity into a rigorous process.
The result? Edison held over 1,000 patents in a staggering variety of fields, making him a role model for people who hoped to come up with their own big ideas.
But according to Edison, he never had a single idea.
Not one.
“Everything on earth depends on will.
I never had an idea in my life. I’ve got no imagination. I never dream.
My so-called inventions already existed in the environment — I took them out. I’ve created nothing. Nobody does. There’s no such thing as an idea being brain-born; everything comes from the outside. The industrious one coaxes it from the environment; the drone lets it lie there while he goes off to the baseball game. The ‘genius’ hangs around his laboratory day and night. If anything happens, he’s (sic) there to catch it.
If he wasn’t, it might happen just the same… only it would never be his.”
Light Bulbs
Edison didn’t dream up the idea for incandescent lamps; arc lights already existed. But they were too bright — and used too much power — for use in homes.
So he worked the problem, testing thousands of materials to find an efficient, long-lasting filament.
The solution “existed in the environment.” He just had to stay the course until he found it — hence his famous quote, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blogi.meom.fi/innovaatiot-syntyvat-reuna-alueilla-jopa-walt-disneylla?utm_campaign=Hintalaskuri+rema+testi+9-20+%E2%80%93+Copy&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid&hsa_acc=63781965&hsa_cam=6199573097536&hsa_grp=6199573097336&hsa_ad=6199581577736&hsa_src=fb&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ver=3
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why does amazing technology actually seldom reach the shelves?
https://thorgate.eu/blog/why-does-amazing-technology-actually-seldom-reach-shelves
It is actually a little known fact that quite a large number of ideas for new technological advancements actually never see the light of day or reach more than a few hundred people. There can be hundreds of reasons why this might be but in my experience thus far, this boils down to 3 major factors: Skill, time and money.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The idea itself can be revolutionary and appealing to many but if the people behind the idea don’t have the necessary skills to bring the idea to market or don’t know who to ask for help, then the power or spark behind it can fade before the project is ever successful.
https://thorgate.eu/blog/why-does-amazing-technology-actually-seldom-reach-shelves
Tomi Engdahl says:
MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT DESIGN – AND HOW TO CORRECT THEM
https://blog.taiste.fi/en/misunderstandings-about-design-and-how-to-correct-them
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bicycles Built Based On People’s Attempts To Draw Them From Memory
https://www.sadanduseless.com/bicycles-velocipedia/
Designer Gianluca Gimini decided to ask his friends and strangers to draw a bicycle from memory. While some got it right, most made technical errors. After collecting hundreds of drawings, he started building realistic 3D renderings of the bikes based on these sketches…
Tomi Engdahl says:
22 Microhabits That Will Completely Change Your Life In A Year
https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2018/09/18/22-microhabits-that-will-completely-change-your-life-in-2-years/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.taiste.fi/en/misunderstandings-about-design-and-how-to-correct-them
Tomi Engdahl says:
PoC tai ei – testata sinun täytyy, sanoisi tuoteomistaja Yoda
https://blogi.meom.fi/poc-tai-ei-testata-sinun-taytyy-sanoisi-tuoteomistaja-yoda
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.digivallankumous.fi/5-ikivihreaa-strategiaa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reading any other way is basically pointless.
Neuroscience explains the astonishing benefits of reading books like a writer—even if you don’t plan on becoming one
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/27/neuroscience-explains–how-successful-people-read-books.html?__source=facebook%7Cmain
Bill Gates is highly committed and attentive when it comes to his reading habits. “I refuse to stop reading a book in the middle, even if I don’t like it,” Gates once told Time. “And the more I dislike a book, the more time I take to write margin notes. That means I sometimes spend more time reading a book that I can’t stand than a book that I love.”
Inside the mind of a writer
Reading like a writer can help strengthen your skills in communication and storytelling. More importantly, it can help you to become a more persuasive person, which is an essential skill to have if you’re trying to convince someone you’re right, pitch an idea or sell yourself for a job you really want.
The goal of every writer is to really draw you into their idea — they want you to be engaged, committed and convinced that their words are worth reading. Fiction writers do this by creating captivating plots and relatable characters. Non-fiction writers do this by gathering data and facts and putting it together in an authoritative way.
What good writing does to your brain
The best writers know how piece together certain concepts and information in a way that can hack into different parts of a reader’s brain.
A 2006 study published in NeuroImage asked “participants to read words with strong odor associations, along with neutral words, while their brains were being scanned by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine.”
Whenever participants read words like “perfume” and “coffee,” their primary olfactory cortex (the part of your brain that processes “smell”) lit up like fireworks on the fMRI machine. Words like “velvet” activated the sensory cortex (which processes “feelings”) of the brain. Researchers concluded that in certain cases, the brain can make no distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life.
Good writers know how to choose the right words.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ron Howard: ‘I’m introverted and risk-averse. But not when there’s a story to be told’
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/22/ron-howard-im-introverted-and-risk-averse-but-not-when-theres-a-story-to-be-told
As a young star, he found fame as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days. Now one of Hollywood’s biggest directors, he discusses friendship, wildfires and workaholism
Hadley Freeman @HadleyFreeman
Tue 22 Sep 2020 06.00 BSTLast modified on Tue 22 Sep 2020 14.45 BST
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Director Ron Howard
‘It gets me out of the house’ … Ron Howard in Connecticut. Photograph: Joshua Bright/The Guardian
While some celebrities spent lockdown in their Malibu beach houses or Beverly Hills compounds, Ron Howard – one of the most powerful and prolific men in Hollywood – spent the first two weeks sleeping in his editing office near his home in Connecticut. The image of Howard living in his workplace fits so well with his public image that it sounds almost storyboarded: the hardworking, humble guy who happens to be an Oscar-winning director (of 2001’s A Beautiful Mind; he was also nominated for Frost/Nixon in 2009. His mother thought, rightly, that he should also have been nominated for 1995’s Apollo 13). Yet Howard’s work-based isolation was not just for professional purposes, but personal ones, too: his wife of 45 years, Cheryl, was sick with Covid-19. He needed to isolate from her, but he wanted to stay close by.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dealing With A Hacked Brain; Let’s Talk About Depression
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/26/dealing-with-a-hacked-brain-lets-talk-about-depression/
Tomi Engdahl says:
In a Brain Fog? Probiotics Could Be the Culprit
Probiotic use may lead to bacterial overgrowth and brain fogginess, study finds
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/201808/in-brain-fog-probiotics-could-be-the-culprit
Probiotics are big business. In 2017, the global market was about $46 billion. By 2022, experts forecast that the “digestive health, immunity, and probiotics” category of consumer products will exceed $64 billion.
Taking probiotics can cause a higher prevalence of something called “small intestinal bacterial overgrowth” (SIBO) and “D-lactic acidosis,” which may result in disorienting brain fogginess and belly bloating, according to a first-of-its-kind study. These findings were recently published in the journal Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology.
“What we now know is that probiotic bacteria have the unique capacity to break down sugar and produce D-lactic acid. So if you inadvertently colonize your small bowel with probiotic bacteria, then you have set the stage for potentially developing lactic acidosis and brain fogginess,” lead author Satish Rao of the Digestive Health Clinical Research Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University said in a statement. Rao is the director of neurogastroenterology and motility at AU. His Augusta Health team performs state-of-the-art research and cutting-edge clinical trials focused on improving digestive health.
According to the authors, “Brain Fogginess (BF) describes a constellation of symptoms comprised of mental confusion, impaired judgment, poor short-term memory, and difficulty with concentration, which is often transient and disabling.”
Although this study is a first step towards understanding a possible link between probiotic use and brain fogginess, more research is needed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How design engineers can effectively engage with technical documentation
https://www.edn.com/how-design-engineers-can-effectively-engage-with-technical-documentation/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=link&utm_medium=EDNFunFriday-20200821
Tomi Engdahl says:
There’s a whole other kind of creativity, and on average it doesn’t reveal its genius until well into middle age.
There Are 2 Types of Creativity and 1 Doesn’t Peak Until Your 50s
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/there-are-2-types-of-creativity-one-doesnt-peak-until-your-50s.html?cid=sf01002
Science provides plenty of encouragement for late bloomers.
But science shows this is only half the story. There’s a whole other kind of creativity, and on average it doesn’t reveal its genius until well into middle age.
Conceptualists vs. Experimentalists
Think of Charles Darwin, who was 50 when On the Origin of Species was published, or Mark Twain, who was 49 the year Huckleberry Finn came out.
Lightning can strike at any age, but according to exhaustive and fascinating research by University of Chicago economist David Galenson, genius tends to manifest either very young, or much later, when someone is approaching or even well into their 50s.
This is because there are two very different approaches to creativity. Those who burn brightly young and sometimes flame out early, Galenson terms conceptualists. Their best work tends to be the result of one, brilliant, radical, overarching idea.
Picasso thinks up cubism and executes on it.
But there is another more halting path to genius. It’s the road Darwin took when he spent decades minutely observing the natural world and piecing together his theory. Or when Twain rewrote and revised Huck Finn for a decade.
These geniuses figure it out as they go along, piecing together their ideas through trial and error. That process of observation and refinement takes a while. Hence their best work usually doesn’t get done until their 50s.
It’s true of entrepreneurs too.
They are industry veterans, who over time figure out better ways to do things and then start companies to actualize those insights.
In short, they’re experimentalists, and though they get less media coverage, they’re geniuses too. Which should cheer up those of you muddling your way along trying to figure out your own big contribution to the world. Just because brilliance didn’t explode unbidden in your brain by the age of 29 doesn’t mean it’s not on its way.
You might just be taking the route of the experimentalist to find your own big idea.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/09/24/patenttihakemusten-maara-kovassa-kasvussa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/09/24/leuvenista-innovaatiopaakaupunki-espoo-jalleen-kuuden-joukkoon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Productivity Keeping Pace With Complexity
https://semiengineering.com/productivity-keeping-pace-with-complexity/
Without productivity gains, design size and complexity would face huge headwinds. Those gains come from a diverse set of improvements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA commissions report to show its economic impact: $64B and 312K jobs
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/25/nasa-commissions-report-to-show-its-economic-impact-64b-and-312k-jobs/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Perhaps anticipating budget pushback from the federal government, NASA has released its first-ever agency-wide economic report, documenting the agency’s impact on the nation’s jobs and cash flow. Everyone knew NASA was impactful, but now we know exactly how impactful it is, some $64 billion and more than 300,000 jobs’ worth in FY2019.
It seems clear that the 2,670-page report is meant to show just how valuable the agency is to the country, and how it’s very much an investment in the economy and not, as some suggest, a hole we throw money into and pull science out of.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Student Just Proved Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Possible
Now we can all go back to 2019.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/math/amp34146674/paradox-free-time-travel-is-possible/
Time travel is deterministic and locally free, a new paper says—resolving an age-old paradox.
This follows recent research observing that the present is not changed by a time-traveling qubit.
It’s still not very nice to step on butterflies, though.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meet the Black Woman Who Created VOIP — The Technology Behind Skype, MagicJack and More!
https://www.blackhistory.com/2018/05/marian-croak-black-woman-who-created-voip-technology.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&m=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nano Technology – Elements, Types of Nano Fabrication, Applications, Advantage & Disadvantage
https://electricalfundablog.com/nano-technology/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/humans-are-still-evolving-but-in-ways-that-might-surprise-you/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://thorgate.eu/blog/why-does-amazing-technology-actually-seldom-reach-shelves
Tomi Engdahl says:
We’re Not Doing Nearly Enough To Stop The Planet’s Spiraling Plastic Problem
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/were-not-doing-nearly-enough-to-stop-the-planets-spiraling-plastic-problem/
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Seven Questions Claim To Reveal How Much Common Sense You Have
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/do-these-trick-questions-reveal-how-much-common-sense-you-have/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Physicists solve a 140-year-old mystery
Scientists discover the inner workings of an effect that will lead to a new generation of devices.
https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/physicists-solve-140-year-old-mystery?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1?rebelltitem=1
Researchers discover a method of extracting previously unavailable information from superconductors.
The study builds on a 19th-century discovery by physicist Edward Hall.
The research promises to lead to a new generation of semiconductor materials and devices.
In 1879, the American physicist Edward Hall discovered the Hall effect, showing that you can measure how electricity in a conductor flows. He found that because a magnetic field deflects the movement of electronic charges in a conductor, you can measure the amount of that deflection. This number will describe the voltage perpendicular (or transverse) to the flow of charge.
Modern researchers recognized, that you can also make Hall effect measurements using light in so-called photo-Hall experiments that generate multiple carriers (or electron-hole pairs) in superconductors. Unfortunately, while the Hall voltage provides crucial information about these charge carriers in a semiconductor, it is limited to the properties of the dominant (or majority) charge carrier, explain contributing authors Oki Gunawan and Doug Bishop in a post on IBM’s research blog.
Figuring out the information about both the majority and minority charge carriers, which impact changes in conductivity, would be key to advancing applications utilizing light, including optoelectronic devices like solar cells, LEDs, and lasers as well as artificial intelligence tech.
The method, dubbed Carrier-Resolved Photo Hall (CRPH), measurement, can simultaneously extract information about the majority and minority carriers like density and mobility, carrier lifetimes and lengths of diffusion. In fact, compared to the three parameters of measurement traditionally derived by engaging the Hall effect, the novel technique can get up to seven parameters of information.
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/10/physics-photo-hall-effect/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/LADbible/videos/lads-amazing-chemistry-tricks/665342620779047/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://theworstthingsforsale.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gallup: Americans Tend to Trust Only News That Confirms Their Beliefs; Highly Educated Americans Are by Far the Most Closed-Minded Group
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/27/gallup-americans-tend-trust-only-news-that-confirms-their-beliefs-highly-educated-americans-far-most-closed-minded-group/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Future Of Business Innovation Is Not Based On Coding Alone
Accelerate innovation with APIs, no-code, and automation.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/googlecloud/2020/09/08/the-future-of-business-innovation-is-not-based-on-coding-alone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electron Hole, Meet Your Fractional Cousin
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/nanotechnology/electron-hole-meet-your-fractional-cousin
Researchers have designed a nano-electronic circuit that can tease into existence a strange new kind of quantum “particle.” Its existence confirms decades of speculation about the behavior of electronic circuits in very low temperatures and high magnetic fields—and opens the door for possible applications in next-generation quantum computers.
However, this quasiparticle carries only a fraction of an electron’s charge. It is, to be clear, not substantively an actual single particle but rather more likely an ensemble of electrons acting collectively in certain extreme quantum environments. The excitation does, in other significant ways, behave like a particle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s time to use science to help humanity thrive, rather than simply survive, says the head of the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The foundation is seeking ideas for a new $US40 million funding program in human flourishing.
A new quest to uncover what helps humans flourish
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-020-00317-3?utm_source=display&utm_medium=banners&utm_campaign=bcon-templeton_sep20&utm_content=1_TWCF_nrg_CustA_UK%2CIE%2CDE%2CFR%2CDK%2CIT%2CJP%2CNL%2CNO%2CES%2CCH%2CSE%2CFI%2CBE%2CAT%2CPT%2CLU%2CHU_Facebook-Feed
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mathematics Reveals Time Travel Is Logically Possible, But Not How To Do It
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/mathematics-reveals-time-travel-is-logically-possible-but-not-how-to-do-it/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/elektro-the-motoman-had-the-biggest-brain-at-the-1939-worlds-fair
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineer’s perspective of the future of engineering applications
What’s next for industrialization as the industry begins to prepare for Industry 5.0.
https://www.controleng.com/articles/engineers-perspective-of-the-future-of-engineering-applications/?oly_enc_id=0462E3054934E2U
Engineers play a critical role in integrating legacy systems into the digital landscape of today’s businesses. The new-age enterprises thrive on technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Big Data and analytics, and robotic process automation (RPA). To optimize these technologies, organizations need to either overhaul their operations completely or make use of the existing setup and intelligently transform them as per the business needs. This makes strategizing a very important gamut of the digital transformation exercise.
A complete overhaul is not only cost-intensive but also risks compromising business continuity. As a result, organizations generally opt for the latter option and gradually transition legacy systems while keeping a close look at the lifecycle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Well this is a relief.
Being Forgetful May Mean Your Brain Is Actually Working Properly
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/being-forgetful-may-mean-your-brain-is-actually-working-properly/
A story making the rounds today is that being forgetful may be a sign of your brain working properly. Not remembering trivial details may actually be a sign your brain is better at separating the wheat from the chaff.
This is an idea that’s been mooted before, but this latest research, conducted by the University of Toronto in Canada and published in the journal Neuron, backs up the claim.
They found that the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, the part of our brain associated with memory, seemed to promote forgetting. The purpose was to make room for more important information, and do away with more useless things.
“We always idealize the person who can smash a trivia game, but the point of memory is not being able to remember who won the Stanley Cup in 1972,”
“The point of memory is to make you an intelligent person who can make decisions given the circumstances, and an important aspect in helping you do that is being able to forget some information.”
“The process of forgetting serves a good functional purpose,” Michael Anderson of the University of Oregon told New Scientist at the time. “What these guys have done is clearly establish the neurobiological basis for this process.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://askelterveyteen.com/tiede-kertoo-alykkyys-periytyy-aidilta/?utm_source=mcfb&utm_medium=org
Tomi Engdahl says:
For OTW — resources for those interested in rolling their own Death Ray
http://www.fieldp.com/cpb.html
http://www.fieldp.com/cpa.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Putting the Reality in Virtual Reality
RoomShift creates physical copies of virtual environments with the help of a swarm of robots.
https://www.hackster.io/news/putting-the-reality-in-virtual-reality-8c21db67e605
Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are able to create realistic, immersive experiences that leave a user feeling as if they have been transported to another place. At least until the user attempts to interact with the virtual environment, that is. Deciding to take a seat in a virtual chair would be a disappointing experience that ends poorly.
Current solutions to this dilemma typically take the form of wearable devices that simulate haptic experiences on the hands, or provide some form of force feedback. While these types of devices have mobility and portability advantages, they are not well suited to simulate an entire virtual environment. RoomShift was created by a team at the University of Colorado Boulder as a novel technique to simulate complete virtual environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Laiskuutta ei ole – on vain erilaisia hidasteita
https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2019/07/12/laiskuutta-ei-ole-on-vain-erilaisia-hidasteita
Onko laiskuus luonteenpiirre? Vai onko “laiskojen” ihmisten käyttäytymiselle jokin syvempi syy?
“Olen nähnyt kaiken ikäisten opiskelijoiden lintsaavan, lykkäävän tehtävien palauttamista ja välttelevän osallistumista opetukseen, mutta en usko, että yksikään heistä on ollut “laiska”. Näin kirjoittaa Medium -lehdessä chicagolaisen Loyola -yliopiston sosiaalipsykologian apulaisprofessori Devon Price.
Kyse ei hänen mukaansa ole halun, motivaation tai moraalisen ryhdikkyyden puutteesta.
“Itse asiassa uskon, että laiskuutta ei ole olemassakaan.”
“Laiskuus” onkin erittäin tulkinnanvarainen ilmiö. Laiskuudeksi kutsutaan usein esimerkiksi asioiden lykkäämistä, eli niin kutsuttua prokrastinaatiota. Se on psykologian alaan kuuluvissa tutkimuksissa todettu kuitenkin jo vuosikymmenien ajan olevan toiminnallinen ongelma eikä osoitus laiskuudesta.
Laiskaksi nimittäminen voi johtua myös nimittelijän tärkeilyn halusta
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hate Washing Dishes? So Did Josephine Cochran, the Inventor of the Dishwasher
This Socialite Hated Washing Dishes So Much That She Invented the Automated Dishwasher
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-history/this-socialite-hated-washing-dishes-so-much-that-she-invented-the-automated-dishwasher
The dishwasher, a popular appliance in kitchens around the world, has gone through a number of iterations throughout its 170-year history.
The first dishwasher to be granted a patent was invented in 1850 by Joel Houghton. It was a wooden box that used a hand-turned wheel to splash water on dirty dishes, and it had scrubbers. Ten years later, inventor L.A. Alexander improved on Houghton’s machine by adding a “geared mechanism that allowed the user to spin racked dishes through a tub of water,” according to an entry on reference website ThoughtCo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Hot Wheels Uses a Surgical Simulator and 3D Printing to Turn Real Life Custom Cars into New Toys
https://www.designnews.com/automotive-engineering/how-hot-wheels-uses-surgical-simulator-and-3d-printing-turn-real-life-custom?ADTRK=InformaMarkets&elq_mid=14657&elq_cid=876648
3D Systems Touch X haptic feedback device and Stratasys 3D printers aid Hot Wheels sculptors in translating exciting cars into 1:64-scale models.
We are accustomed to engineers and designers developing production cars and trucks from prototype models, but the team at Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand has the challenge of going the other direction: from full-size to pint-size.
While Hot Wheels has always built tiny 1:64-scale die-cast replicas of production models and has also developed its own unique custom designs, starting for the brand’s 50th anniversary in 2018, Hot Wheels has picked a fan’s real-life custom car for immortalization as a Hot Wheels toy car.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Friday Funny: The Simple Logic of Scaling
If you make the decision to recycle a small piece of electronics, then scaling up and recycling a larger piece should follow the same logic.
https://www.designnews.com/automation/friday-funny-simple-logic-scaling?ADTRK=InformaMarkets&elq_mid=14700&elq_cid=876648
This is a short and sweet demonstration of engineering logic. That which works on the micro-scale should also work when scaled to a larger platform. Countless engineering decisions are based on this simple logic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do You Have an Engineering Failure Resume?
All engineers fail, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
https://www.designnews.com/industry/do-you-have-engineering-failure-resume?ADTRK=InformaMarkets&elq_mid=14700&elq_cid=876648
Failure is an integral part of the engineering experience. It is so common that it has become an expectation and even affectionally referred to as Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.
It has been stated that the great American inventor Thomas Edison was once asked by a reporter how it felt to fail 700 times in the creation of the light bulb. His response: I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Henry Petroski, the famous American engineer specializing in failure analysis, wrote the following in his book, To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design: “I believe that the concept of failure… is central to understanding engineering, for engineering design has as its first and foremost objective the obviation of failure. Thus, the colossal disasters that do occur are ultimately failures of design, but the lessons learned from those disasters can do more to advance engineering knowledge than all the successful machines and structures in the world.”
Of course, engineers struggle to design things in such a way as to avoid failure or at least catastrophic failures which could result in loss of property or life. By studying past engineering disasters, modern engineers can learn what not to do and how to create designs with less of a chance of failure.
One common failure was the desire to “rush into the fire” to solve everyone’s problems as quickly as possible. But that’s an impossible goal. The best than can be done is to focus on the problems that are within one’s ability to address, explained Boyd.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s the secret to turning your kids into potential geniuses?
Here’s What It Takes To Raise Seriously Smart Kids, According To A 45-Year-Long Study
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/heres-what-it-takes-to-raise-seriously-smart-kids-according-to-a-45yearlong-study/
The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) is one of the more colorfully named scientific studies. Now on its 45th year, it tracked the careers and accomplishments of up to 5,000 individuals, starting from when they were children or teenagers. As detailed by Nature, it would go on to transform the way gifted children are both identified and nurtured by the US education system.
Unsurprisingly, many of those in SMPY – which is coordinated by Vanderbilt University – have gone on to become high-profile scientists. So what’s the secret to turning your kids into potential geniuses?
Well, it appears that, contrary to many other studies, SMPY’s data seems to suggest that a lot of it is born and bred in youth, and that inherent intelligence beats repeated practice when it comes to becoming an expert in something. In fact, early cognitive ability has a greater effect on achievement than either continued practice or other factors like the family’s socio-economic status.
This finding also runs against the grain of most Western educational ethoses, which prioritize improving the abilities of children who struggle in this regard rather than those who have potential to reach great heights. Essentially, SMPY finds that if you’re smart, and you are identified as such and nurtured, you will make it.
Along with the partnered program at Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Center for Talented Youth, the program tended to admit those who scored in the top 1 percent in their university entrance exams.
Alumni included Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, along with pioneering mathematicians Terence Tao and Lenhard Ng. “Whether we like it or not, these people really do control our society,” says Jonathan Wai, a psychologist at the Duke University Talent Identification Program in Durham, North Carolina, and a collaborator with JHU, told Nature.
Initiatives like the SMPY have also been criticized for how it may be putting too much emphasis on the smartest kids. Some worry that those with slightly more limited potential may be ignored by such initiatives. Additionally, labelling kids as smart from an early age could undermine their willingness to learn.
Importantly, it has not been conclusively shown that there’s just one single factor that will guarantee your child will grow up to be the next Richard Feynman or Rosalind Franklin.