Causation without Correlation, becoming a Chainsmoker & Plastic Bottle Caps
CC#34 - Process over Outcomes,Aversions vs Attraction & 1989 to 2021
Hey there and welcome to ✨ CuratedCuriosity - a bi-weekly newsletter delivering inspiration from all over the internet to the notoriously curious.
Things I Enjoyed Reading.
📊 Control and Correlation
As an Economics student I regularly got 'correlation ⌿ causation’ hammered into my brain. Little did we discuss the fact that sometimes causation exists without correlation.
Weirdly enough, sometimes there are causal relationships between two things and yet no observable correlation. Now that is definitely strange. How can one thing cause another thing without any discernible correlation between the two things? Consider this example (…). A sailor is sailing her boat across the lake on a windy day. As the wind blows, she counters by turning the rudder in such a way so as to exactly offset the force of the wind. Back and forth she moves the rudder, yet the boat follows a straight line across the lake. A kindhearted yet naive person with no knowledge of wind or boats might look at this woman and say, “Someone get this sailor a new rudder! Hers is broken!” He thinks this because he cannot see any relationship between the movement of the rudder and the direction of the boat.
🤯 Managing people
A collection of an experienced startup tech-team manager’s best practices on management. Bullet point style, crispy and insightful.
As a manager, everything is your fault
I know… very positive start
There is no point being angry at your team – ever
You are in charge of processes and people
And you got more information than they do, always
You either created the processes where this outcome happened
or you hired (or did not fire) the wrong people
Ultimately everything is your fault
👌 Unlearning Perfectionism
I definitely did find myself in some of the described behaviors and was able to take away some learnings for myself (process over outcomes!)- maybe you too?
There is a common idea that perfectionism is the need for perfect results: the maximum test score, the flawless recital, the unanimous verdict. But this idea misses the deeper reality. More generally, perfectionism is the tendency to stake your identity on achieving fixed outcomes.
Fixed outcomes vary by person. The perfect performance is the stereotype, but a fixed outcome might be feeling smart, beautiful, and right, or getting that car or job we've been craving for so long. Every perfectionist has their own personal ideal.
None of these outcomes are problems. But they become so when they intertwine with our identity and self-worth. If a perfectionist of fame ever feels unknown, then he feels worthless and ashamed.
Food for Thought.
🚬 Want to save society some money? Your best chance might be in becoming a chain smoking, wing suit flyer…
🇺🇦 Very soon, Ukraine will be the country with the highest absolute increase of refugees that has ever been recorded within a year. How will the rest of the world react? 🕊
🍭 We all have our ‘little addictions’ and unwanted behaviors we fall back to when lacking will power. Only after reading this I realized that, at least for me, the majority of them seem to be driven by aversion rather than attraction.
Random Stuff.
☀️ The Shadow Calculator shows you what kind of buildings would cast what kind of shadow at any given time of the day.
🧃 Have you ever wondered about the engineering of food packaging caps? I haven’t, but turns out its fascinating.
😲 Comparing Image Classification AI from 1989 to 2021
Personal Update.
Very much enjoyed the nice weather in Copenhagen during the last weeks. Also had a good friend from Austria visiting and spend lots of time outside, cycling and exploring the city.
Now back to snowy Austria over Easter and to (hopefully warm) Lisbon for some holidays.