The Culture of Stupidity

Did you ever find yourself  working long hours on ‘boring’ and ‘pointless’ routine work? There are companies, believe it or not, that pride themselves on hiring the brightest and the best and fritter the assets by a corporate culture which encourages them to become 'yes' men or women and commends and positively encourages them not to use their intelligence. The full article by André Spicer which references the book, The Stupidity Paradox, which he wrote with Mats Alvesson: Article

CES 2016 - robots, drones, wearables and smart home

Here's a summary from BBC technology of CES in Las Vagas this year. I like the idea of the Fleye a drone that has protected rotors. The robots in the article are focussed on the traditional idea of a robot i.e. the kind of thing that was in 'Lost in Space'.

Anyway I think that soon we will just accept that drones are robots as they do fall into the description: "a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer".

Smart homes will continue to be developed. I am surprised frankly how slow the ideas are making progress. I do like the idea of the Amazon Trilby fridge speaker but I think the true genius will be when we have a production version of the speakers that are like a sheet of material - I am sure that there are inexhaustable uses.

Need to spot a liar?

This has been a conundrum since humans were able to communicate. Much recent press was given to looking for tell-tale signs in body language but some new results show that the conversation itself maybe a more fruitful way to get to the bottom of it.

In this article on the BBC Future website you will find that these steps can improve the likelihood of spotting a liar:

• use open questions
• employ the element of surprise:- ask an unanticipated question that might be slightly confusing; ask the person to report an event that might be backwards in time;
• watch for small verifiable details;
• observe changes in confidence;
• use the art of persuasion, for example, start by asking 'how honest are you?'

And if you notice that something does not add up do not draw attention to it and let their confidence build. It is never pleasant to find out that someone has been lying to you, I'll be using these techniques in 2016 to try and reduce the risk of that happening.