Sunday, June 24, 2012

The narrow gate of possibility


Many - too many options in life are forthwhile only under a very narrow set of conditions. (timing, right conditions, doing it right or other conditions)

These are great options. but they work only within this narrow corridor.


Which explains why these are many time overlooked. when we do not manage to enter the narrow corridor, we imagine it does not exist. 


Indeed, like many hidden options, it sometimes makes sense to avoid them for "you will not get everything right" which is a heuristic that is right at times, but not always. 


Another reason why some hidden options are not used.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Better social life with facebook and "weak" friends

There are two kinds of relationship, "deep" long terms etc. etc. and low maintenance "weak" realtionships of which we hold many.

Are "weak" relationships less useful? Most of us do not like these much, while some people with huge networks seem to like it very much. 

One may say that "weak" relationships Suffer from "friction" problems. It takes time to start a conversation, to get the basic update on what is up etc. 
(vs. the theory that only "deep" relationships are useful. A widespread belief, I am questionaing here)

Friction may decrease significantly with online tools like facebook etc. 

If this theory is true, then having more "shallow" facebook friends rather than a few "deep" ones, may simply be that people like it more. And the internet changed the math by reducing friction a lot. 

There is an interesting study, where resachers found that kids need very little to feel friends. Just to hang together.
It blows many myths on the "reality" of friendships, but so be it.


May facebook improve our social lives, indeed?