Leads Gladwell to invoke an interesting experiment once performed involving San Diego to explain why Isaiah Thomas is a terrible GM for the Knicks:
There’s a famous experiment done by a wonderful psychologist at Columbia University named Dan Goldstein. He goes to a class of American college students and asks them which city they think is bigger — San Antonio or San Diego. The students are divided. Then he goes to an equivalent class of German college students and asks the same question. This time the class votes overwhelmingly for San Diego. The right answer? San Diego. So the Germans are smarter, at least on this question, than the American kids. But that’s not because they know more about American geography. It’s because they know less. They’ve never heard of San Antonio. But they’ve heard of San Diego and using only that rule of thumb, they figure San Diego must be bigger. The American students know way more. They know all about San Antonio. They know it’s in Texas and that Texas is booming. They know it has a pro basketball team, so it must be a pretty big market. Some of them may have been in San Antonio and taken forever to drive from one side of town to another — and that, and a thousand other stray facts about Texas and San Antonio, have the effect of muddling their judgment and preventing them from getting the right answer.
I’m getting ready for the March First Friday Open mic for prose writers at The Grove in South Park…. trying to edit my piece down to 3 minutes! arrrrgh. I’m following up my Barbie rant with the true Hollywood story behind the Barbie / Ken break up and Ken’s makeover. Too many juicy details to cut!
Last night I went to Thurday Night Thing at the Museum of Contemporary Art for what I’m pretty sure was the last time. It’s like pure inertia that keeps me going to this thing. 200 or so good looking hipsters wonder around pretending to be interested in the music and art and pretending to not be checking each other out which is the real reason everyone goes.
Before that my friend Simone and I walked to Balboa park to get some exercise and look at the Storycorps trailer, which has been traveling all around the country collecting stories which will be added to the library of congress. In San Diego it’s being produced by local blogger Nathan Gibbs. It’s definitely worth checking out the stories of Chunky Sanchez, Blanca Alvarez, and Sandra Younger.
Anyway, like Ikes, I have no sympathy for Cunningham and hope that he cries again. Also, mad props to Conor for this list of runs. I’m contemplating doing the Rock and Roll Marathon in June and need some good training grounds.
i am waiting for the sentencing of ‘duke’. then i will giggle like a schoolgirl. may this stupid, greedy jackass rot in prison.
i have no sympathy at all for the man. none.
that’s what’s on my mind!
An interesting conversation between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell over on ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060303
Leads Gladwell to invoke an interesting experiment once performed involving San Diego to explain why Isaiah Thomas is a terrible GM for the Knicks:
There’s a famous experiment done by a wonderful psychologist at Columbia University named Dan Goldstein. He goes to a class of American college students and asks them which city they think is bigger — San Antonio or San Diego. The students are divided. Then he goes to an equivalent class of German college students and asks the same question. This time the class votes overwhelmingly for San Diego. The right answer? San Diego. So the Germans are smarter, at least on this question, than the American kids. But that’s not because they know more about American geography. It’s because they know less. They’ve never heard of San Antonio. But they’ve heard of San Diego and using only that rule of thumb, they figure San Diego must be bigger. The American students know way more. They know all about San Antonio. They know it’s in Texas and that Texas is booming. They know it has a pro basketball team, so it must be a pretty big market. Some of them may have been in San Antonio and taken forever to drive from one side of town to another — and that, and a thousand other stray facts about Texas and San Antonio, have the effect of muddling their judgment and preventing them from getting the right answer.
I’m getting ready for the March First Friday Open mic for prose writers at The Grove in South Park…. trying to edit my piece down to 3 minutes! arrrrgh. I’m following up my Barbie rant with the true Hollywood story behind the Barbie / Ken break up and Ken’s makeover. Too many juicy details to cut!
Last night I went to Thurday Night Thing at the Museum of Contemporary Art for what I’m pretty sure was the last time. It’s like pure inertia that keeps me going to this thing. 200 or so good looking hipsters wonder around pretending to be interested in the music and art and pretending to not be checking each other out which is the real reason everyone goes.
Before that my friend Simone and I walked to Balboa park to get some exercise and look at the Storycorps trailer, which has been traveling all around the country collecting stories which will be added to the library of congress. In San Diego it’s being produced by local blogger Nathan Gibbs. It’s definitely worth checking out the stories of Chunky Sanchez, Blanca Alvarez, and Sandra Younger.
Anyway, like Ikes, I have no sympathy for Cunningham and hope that he cries again. Also, mad props to Conor for this list of runs. I’m contemplating doing the Rock and Roll Marathon in June and need some good training grounds.
Os, you nailed TNT. Exactly why I haven’t been in a year.