the egg theory

When instant baking mixes were introduced in the 1940s, some did well (piecrusts, biscuits) and others did not (cake mixes). Marketers wondered why this was the case.

One theory was that the cake mixes simplified the process so much that women did not feel as though they had actually made anything. A piecrust or a biscuit were just a component of a larger meal, but a cake was its own course. A psychologist and marketer at the time, Ernest Dichter, speculated that leaving out some ingredients would combat this. Hence, the “egg theory.” Pillsbury changed the recipe to remove the dried eggs and instead require the addition of fresh eggs, milk, and oil. With that, sales took off.

This is a part of a larger idea that researchers call The IKEA Effect - we assign a higher value to, and typically overvalue, what we have a hand in making. We’re more likely to appreciate a piece of IKEA furniture, albeit cheap and janky, that we had a part in assembling, than another piece of nicer furniture.

Innovation!  A new company called Streetline has come up with some solutions to improve parking. Using sensors on the street, they can detect which parking spots are free and then relay the information to you via your phone.

They’re testing it in San Francisco. Man, I wish I had this when I lived there.

Watch the disease spread. This is the map of unemployment by county since 2007 according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

why is a turkey a turkey

Today I learned how turkey got its name, thanks to the newsletter to which I am newly subscribed, Now I Know. Now I Know was recommended to me by a w.i.l.t. reader who sends out a daily dose of something he finds interesting.

So turkey. It’s actually indigenous to the US and Mexico. The bird, considered a delicacy, was brought to Europe via merchants in the East. It wholesaled out of Turkey so the British referred to it as “turkey birds,” as everything sold out of Turkey, regardless of its origin, was named. Now I know..

great, thanks california.

great, thanks california.

“
Economic Man makes logical, rational, self-interested decisions that weigh costs against benefits and maximize value and profit to himself. Economic Man is an intelligent, analytic, selfish creature who has perfect self-regulation in pursuit of his future goals and is unswayed by bodily states and feelings. And Economic Man is a marvelously convenient pawn for building academic theories. But Economic Man has one fatal flaw: he does not exist.

The Marketplace of Perception : Harvard Magazine

(new ambition.. neuroeconomics!)

After a discussion over whiskey last night about the need for a better measure of value than GDP, I was pleased to come upon the Human Development Index - a global index based on health, education and wealth - in the Economist. The Economist combined the global UN Development Program’s HDI by country with the American Human Development Project’s HDI by state to see where America’s states would rank if they were countries. That’s above. You can check out your city’s HDI by zipcode at the American Human Development Project. Mine is below. View high resolution

After a discussion over whiskey last night about the need for a better measure of value than GDP, I was pleased to come upon the Human Development Index - a global index based on health, education and wealth - in the Economist.

The Economist combined the global UN Development Program’s HDI by country with the American Human Development Project’s HDI by state to see where America’s states would rank if they were countries. That’s above.

You can check out your city’s HDI by zipcode at the American Human Development Project. Mine is below.


Patagonia is such a great company. I just came across their Footprint Project where you can choose one of their products, take an interactive tour of how it is made, and then read about The Good and The Bad about the product, as well as how Patagonia is trying to improve themselves.  For example their board shorts are Designed first in Ventura, CA.  The nylon fabric is acquired in Nagoya, Japan.  The fabric is shipped to Ho Chi Mingh City, Vietman to be sewn in a factory that meets Patagonia’s four-fold criteria for quality craftsmanship, competitive pricing, strong environmental standards, and fair labor practices.  Then the boardshorts are shipped to Reno, Nevada to Patagonia’s LEED Certified Distribution Center.  I love the transparency. View high resolution

Patagonia is such a great company. I just came across their Footprint Project where you can choose one of their products, take an interactive tour of how it is made, and then read about The Good and The Bad about the product, as well as how Patagonia is trying to improve themselves. 

For example their board shorts are

  • Designed first in Ventura, CA. 
  • The nylon fabric is acquired in Nagoya, Japan. 
  • The fabric is shipped to Ho Chi Mingh City, Vietman to be sewn in a factory that meets Patagonia’s four-fold criteria for quality craftsmanship, competitive pricing, strong environmental standards, and fair labor practices. 
  • Then the boardshorts are shipped to Reno, Nevada to Patagonia’s LEED Certified Distribution Center. 

I love the transparency.

best thing i read today: Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died

This was a celebrated essay written by Tom Wolfe, first published in 1996. It was referenced in an article I recently read, and it’s great - especially reading it in retrospect.

It’s describes Wolfe’s fascination with neuroscience, and his fear for the repercussions of the prominent idea of neuroscience at the time that we are all hard-wired.. genetically predispositioned to be the way that we are, that every human brain is “born not as a blank tablet waiting to be filled by experience, but as an ‘exposed negative waiting to be slipped in developer fluid.’”

The repurcussion, Wolfe said, is the loss of the values, self control.. the soul.

“Meantime, the notion of a self - a self who exercises self-discipline, postpones gratification, curbs the sexual appetite, stops short of aggression and criminal behaviour - a self who can become more intelligent and lift itself to the very peaks of life by its own bootstraps through study, practice, perseverance, and refusal to give up in the face of great odds - this old-fashioned notion (what’s a bootstrap, for God’s sake?) of success through enterprise and true grit is already slipping away, slipping away … slipping away … The peculiarly American faith in the power of the individual to transform himself from a helpless cipher into a giant among men, a faith that ran from Emerson (“Self-Reliance”) to Horatio Alger’s Luck and Pluck stories to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People to Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking to Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World - that faith is now as moribund as the god for whom Nietzsche wrote an obituary in 1882.”

Remember this? Well you can “put aside your beef with their beef.” J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats gets to the bottom of the myth of the non-rotting McDonald’s hamburger that recently circulated the internet. Per his experiment, it turns out that the McDonald’s hamburger does not mold not because it is made from “inorganic materials,” but rather because its small size and large surface area help it to lose moisture very fast. Without moisture, there is not mold of bacteria growth. Read about his Burger Lab here.

Remember this? Well you can “put aside your beef with their beef.” J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats gets to the bottom of the myth of the non-rotting McDonald’s hamburger that recently circulated the internet.

Per his experiment, it turns out that the McDonald’s hamburger does not mold not because it is made from “inorganic materials,” but rather because its small size and large surface area help it to lose moisture very fast. Without moisture, there is not mold of bacteria growth. Read about his Burger Lab here.