issue # 30
the future of science, what comes after clickbait, a resignation letter
Mood
Cool things curated in our universe
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On what comes after clickbait
A great piece by Ted Gioia arguing that people are getting tired of the soulless manipulation on the Internet and seeking out different forms of media that are more human, with some really interesting stats on the dropping engagement of big tech platforms: On Facebook, the average engagement rate—the number of likes, comments, and shares per follower—fell by 34%, on Instagram it fell 28% and on Twitter 15%.
I haven't investigated these claims, but the overarching message feels right: we still bite at the clickbait, but it doesn’t taste so good and a new game is beginning with totally different recipes for success.
Bonus: the dreaming of a new Internet collection has lots more musings on rethinking the Internet.
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On good questions
My personality type is optimist, but asks lots of questions, so I've been loving the recent additions to the good questions collection on startupy:
Who has the right answers but I ignore because they’re not articulate?
Which of my current views would change if my incentives were different?
Which of my current views would I disagree with if I were born in a different country or generation?
What do I think is true but is actually just good marketing?
What do I ignore because it’s too painful to accept?
Will our gateway to the metaverse be text-based (eg: through a search engine), app-based (through individual portals), or voice-based (eg: through instructing digital assistants)?
Plus, a good set of weekly review questions:
What is the right lesson to take from this week?
What am I currently procrastinating about?
Whose advice will help me solve my problems?
What is my current biggest priority?
What’s weighing on my mind?
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On finding the words
Timeless advice on positioning and finding the words to describe what you're building:
From Derek Thompson: consumers are torn between two opposing forces: neophilia, a curiosity about new things; and neophobia, a fear of anything too new. As a result, they gravitate to products that are bold, but instantly comprehensible. Loewy called his grand theory “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”—maya. He said to sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising.
From Donald Miller: In every line of copy we write, we’re either serving the customer’s story or descending into confusion; we’re either making music or making noise.
From Al Ries: The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what's already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist. The mind, as a defense against the volume of today’s communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it. In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience
From Claude Hopkins: Don’t think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Think of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want what you sell. Don’t try to be amusing. Money spending is a serious matter. Don’t boast, for all people resent it. Don’t try to show off. Do just what you think a good salesman should do with a half-sold person before him.
From Martin Weigel: Strategy is an imaginative act, and narrative is how it thinks, expresses itself, and brings others along. Which is where words come in. Whether expressed as conversation, brief, or presentation, strategy is meaningless and powerless without words. If you can’t put your strategy into words others cannot follow.
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Revisiting Sam Hinkie's resignation letter
If you haven’t, take the time today and read Sam Hinkie’s resignation letter from his position as the General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Also highly recommend Sam's interview (highlights here) with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on why people are everything, what he looks for in founders, and the importance of leaving digital breadcrumbs.
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Just for fun
We made this spotify playlist to accompany you on your rich rabbit holes. We're always open to new tunes, so if you have suggestions, reply to this email.
Curator spotlight
Johanna Einsiedler
startupy.world/johannaeinsiedler
curatedcuriosity.substack.com/
Rabbit hole: Future of Science
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Why is the future of science interesting?
According to Wikipedia 'science may be as old as the human species' - nonetheless we are certainly not at a point where we have figured out the one best way to conduct science.
The world around us is constantly changing and accelerating, creating not only new subjects of investigation for science but also opening up opportunities to change the scientific system itself.
Is the current grant system the best way to identify and enable breakthrough research? How can we make scientific knowledge & data more easily accessible and searchable? Is scientific progress slowing down and if so, how can we speed it up again (if that is desirable)? How can we design systems that incentivize scientists to work on big problems and don't fall prey to publication bias?
And these are just a few of the big questions that need answering. Considering how big the potential impact of 'better science' is for the whole word and how many new ideas have popped up recently, I can't help being extremely excited to see the future of science unfold.
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Podcasts worth listening to on the topic?
Max Roser on building the world's best source of COVID-19 data at Our World in Data The importance of data visualisation, how to communicate scientific findings to a general audience and the challenges of collecting accurate data.
Alexey Guzey - Improving Structures of Science Results from doing metascience on life sciences, hypotheses of whats wrong about the way research is currently funded and how to improve it.
Jason Crawford - The Roots of Progress Why we need a theory of progress, how we can potentially speed up scientific discovery and what we can learn from history.
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Things worth reading and watching on the topic?
An “Omics” Answer to the Replication Crisis AI and digitalisation are giving us new possibilities to aggregate information - this article outlines how we could use this to generate new scientific insights more efficiently.
The Only True Wisdom is Knowing that You Can't Draw a Bicycle What does it mean for science to be replicable and how can we make it easier for lay(wo)men to replicate scientific experiments? A rather unconventional take on potential solutions to the replication crisis.
The Deluge of Crappy Papers Must Stop An opinion piece on how we should deal with the ever increasing number of 'crappy science papers', what to do about research fraud and the 'minimum publishable unit'.
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Projects worth following on the topic?
On the one hand, there are many smart people that explore new ideas for science in their blogs - for example:
There are also fascinating organizations trialing new approaches to open science and research institutions like
Also - doing some shameless self-promotion - I try to keep up with new cool things happening in the future of science space (& other fields that I am interested in) in my bi-weekly newsletter CuratedCuriosity'.
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