15 Interesting Things We’ve Learnt in 2023
“I am still learning.”
As we near the end of another year, it's time to reflect on some of the interesting stuff we’ve learned in 2023.
The 42courses team are constantly reading and getting lost down various rabbit holes.
It’s worth it, though, for all the fascinating things we discover.
Let’s delve into 15 interesting things we've learned this year, each a riveting tidbit in its own right.
1. ‘Wizard of Oz’ prototyping
Elizabeth Holmes once graced the front cover of Forbes magazine as the youngest self-made female billionaire.
Her company, Theranos, promised to give blood test results instantaneously from a finger prick via a compact machine.
This technology was set to revolutionise health care and make investors even wealthier than they already were.
Holmes demonstrated the ‘Edison’, a home printer-sized device, to prove her invention performed how it was supposed to.
This was enough to fool some people but not everyone, as the enjoyable book about the fraudsters’ downfall, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, explains.
The machines were ‘Wizard of Oz’ prototypes, which fake the functionality you want to demonstrate to users, saving you the time and money of having to create it.
In truth, the company was using Siemens lab equipment in secret to process blood results, but Theranos could only keep this game up for so long.
Source: Stanford d.school
2. The long history of brands
When we think of the history of brands, we tend to think about the last 200 years or so.
But they go back way before then.
Indeed, evidence of sophisticated branding from the prehistoric era can be found on pottery and textiles.
The British archaeologist David Wengrow wrote, “Systems of commodity branding, involving the combined use of seals and standardised packaging played a central role in the emergence of the world’s first large scale economies…the urban cultural networks in Mesopotamia and surrounding regions during the fourth millennium BC”.
Source: Prehistories of Commodity Branding by David Wengrow h/t Eaon Pritchard
3. Why free samples overcome status quo bias
Human beings are lazy.
Once we make something a habit, it takes effort to change it.
This extends to our shopping behaviour - we normally buy the same brands every time, even if a new alternative comes along. Our reluctance to try new products is often due to the uncertainty of evaluating them.
To overcome this, companies offer free samples that reduce the risk of trying something new.
Source: Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
4. The barcode turns 50
2023 marks 50 years since the barcode was first introduced.
The original inspiration for the barcode design came from one of the inventors’ memories of using Morse code during the war.
He realised the principle of dots and dashes could be adapted into lines of varying thickness to represent data. This is a great example of how one idea can inspire another.
Source: Octane Magazine
5. Darwin’s ‘Thinking Path’
There’s plenty of evidence that walking is a great way to stimulate the problem-solving part of the brain.
Steve Jobs used to stroll around the Apple campus while trying to crack a difficult challenge.
Charles Darwin built a ‘thinking path’ around an oak grove near his home, Down House. He would walk this path multiple times a day whilst working on his grand theory of evolution.
Source: @stevenbjohnson tweets
6. The Law of Least Mental Effort
The human brain likes to conserve energy, so most of its decisions are ‘good enough’.
Paying proper attention to something requires effort (it’s why you feel so mentally exhausted after taking a tough exam) so if there’s a shortcut to arrive at a solution, the brain will take that option every time.
This is known as the ‘law of least mental effort’.
It serves us well most of the time, but anyone who has taken our Behavioural Economics course will know that under certain conditions, it makes us prone to misjudgment.
Source: Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains by Matt Johnson and Prince Ghuman
7. The Focus Dividend
When we think something is in short supply, we behave differently.
In other words, scarcity impacts our choices.
In one study, some participants were sent a coupon with an expiration date, while others were mailed a similar coupon that didn’t expire.
Even though the coupons with no coupon expiration date were valid for longer, they were less likely to be redeemed.
Without the time scarcity, there is no ‘focus’ on the coupon and it will likely be forgotten.
This positive outcome of scarcity when the mind pays close attention is known as the ‘focus dividend’.
Another example of this phenomenon is our heightened productivity when facing a looming deadline.
Source: Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
8. How Captain Cook prevented scurvy
Captain James Cook made many long voyages at sea.
One of the challenges these arduous trips included was scurvy. This disease first rots your gums, and various other unpleasant things happen to your body before you die.
Dead and dying sailors on a sailing ship in the middle of the ocean is a far from ideal situation.
Solving the problem of scurvy was an important challenge. The wise cook observed that Dutch sailors seemed to be less affected by the disease than the English.
So he asked, "What are they doing that’s different?”
He noticed that the Dutch ships carried barrels of sauerkraut. Cook reasoned that there must be something in the ingredients that prevents scurvy.
But he knew convincing English sailors to eat Dutch food wouldn't be easy. So, he employed a clever psychological trick.
In the ship's mess hall, the officers were separated from the rest of the crew. Cook ordered the officers to be fed sauerkraut but not the sailors.
After a while, Cook said, “Well, the men can have it one day a week”.
And thus, the captain had every member of the crew eating sauerkraut.
Source: Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charles T. Munger
9. Implicit-egotism effect
We’re tribal beasts.
This means that we’re constantly working to find our particular tribe.
Goths hang out with other Goths. Metalheads hang out with fellow Metalheads, etc.
The phenomenon of being drawn to the people and things most resembling us is called the implicit-egotism effect.
Source: $100 Million Dollar Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
10. Why you should read NEW journals but OLD books
Balaji Srinivasan is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor full of brilliant insights.
One of those was how to find inspiration for breakthrough ideas.
The trick is to look in different places from everyone else. Balaji suggests one approach: reading new journals and old books.
New journals are a rich source of ideas because they contain the latest information on various topics.
Old books can be a powerful source of ideas because most people read the latest ones.
For example, Brian Chesky got the idea for AirBnb from reading about how rooming houses and room sharing were popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Source: The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future by Eric Jorgenson
11. Ichi-go Ichi-e
Anxiety comes from regretting past decisions or worrying about the future.
‘Ichi-go Ichi-e’ is a Japanese term that has been roughly translated as "for this time only" and "once in a lifetime".
It means that we should enjoy and be present in the moment and not lose ourselves in thinking about what lies behind or ahead of us.
Source: Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life by Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles
12. Darwin invented the modern office chair
Not content with his groundbreaking theory of evolution, Charles Darwin also found time to innovate in the chair space.
He put wheels on the chair in his office to get to his specimens more quickly.
Source: @rainmaker1973
13. Americans keep a staggering amount of stuff in self-storage
The global self-storage market is estimated to be over $58 billion in size. This is roughly three times the size of the music industry.
The United States has more than 2 billion square feet of self-storage space.
The Self Storage Association notes, "Every American could stand - all at the same time - under the total canopy of self-storage roofing”.
Source: Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
14. Shakespeare was a bit of a wordsmith
William Shakespeare is credited with introducing over 1,700 words to the English language, including “alligator”, "eyeball," “puking”, "lacklustre," and "bedazzled."
He also wrote some pretty good plays.
Source: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
15. Novel ways to keep fruit and vegetables fresh
Storing carrots in damp sand helps retain flavour, and keeping potatoes with apples prevents sprouting.
These are just two of the discoveries made by Jihyun Ryou during her investigation into food storage methods used before the advent of refrigeration.
Oh, and did you know that leaving an avocado stone in a salad bowl stops any avocado slices from turning brown?
Source: SOS Cuisine
Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash
