Category Archives: Science

Friday Fun: Correlation

Posted on March 6, 2009 by John Hunter

From the excellent xkcd comic. Related: Correlation is Not Causation – Does the Data Deluge Make the Scientific Method Obsolete? – Understanding Data – Theory of Knowledge – What Makes Scientists Different 🙂 – Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Fun, Science, Statistics | Tagged Data, Fun, Statistics | Comments Off

Embrace Diversity, Erase Uniformity

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Guest Post

Guest Post by Jurgen Appelo, author of the Managing Software Development blog. Five years ago, when I started working for my current employer, the entire organization (about 30 people) consisted only of 20-something white straight single males. The atmosphere was … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Science, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged guest post | 1 Comment

Does the Data Deluge Make the Scientific Method Obsolete?

Posted on September 29, 2008 by John Hunter

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete by Chris Anderson “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Innovation, Science | Tagged cool, Data, engineering, George Box, Google, Innovation, IT, quote, Science | 7 Comments

Multitasking Decreases Productivity

Posted on August 1, 2008 by John Hunter

The problems with multitasking are becoming more and more well know, thankfully. Here is another article on the lower productivity multitasking produces – Multitasking Madness Decreases Productivity [the broken link was removed] by Barbara Bartlein: In a recent study by … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Science | Tagged management research, Psychology, theory of knowledge | 2 Comments

Fairness Matters

Posted on June 9, 2008 by John Hunter

Sense of Fairness Affects Outlook, Decisions Burnout has been long associated with being overworked and underpaid, but psychologists Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter found that these were not the crucial factors. The single biggest difference between employees who suffered burnout … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Psychology, Respect, Science | Tagged Psychology, respect for people, Science | 1 Comment

Packaging Improvement

Posted on April 9, 2008 by John Hunter

McDonald’s Branding Makes Food Tastier for Tots Researchers at Stanford University have found that children tend to rate food that is wrapped up in McDonald’s-branded paper as tasting better than the same food wrapped in plain paper — a finding … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Management, Psychology, Science | Tagged marketing, Psychology | 4 Comments

Drug Price Crisis

Posted on March 18, 2008 by John Hunter

In 2005 I posted about some of the problems with drug pricing. It is nice to find at least a couple of people at MIT that want to have MIT focus research on the public good instead of private profit. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Health care, Science | Tagged commentary, economy, Health care, Science | 3 Comments

Inside Honda’s Brain

Posted on March 7, 2008 by John Hunter

Inside Honda’s brain by Alex Taylor III why is Honda playing with robots? Or, for that matter, airplanes? Honda is building a factory in North Carolina to manufacture the Hondajet, a sporty twin-engine runabout that carries six passengers. Or solar … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Science | Tagged Asia, cars, engineering, Innovation, Japan, research | 1 Comment

Car Powered Using Compressed Air

Posted on February 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Jules Verne predicted cars would run on air. The Air Car is making that a reality. The car would be powered by compressed air. Certainly seem like an interesting idea. Air car ready for production: Refueling is simple and will … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, India, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Science, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged cars, cool, engineering, France, global, green, India, Innovation, lean manufacturing, Manufacturing, pollution, Toyota | 11 Comments

Losing Consumers’ Trust

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Last week their was a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in the USA. Lets take a short systemic view at what is going on. The public has an interest in a safe food supply which is difficult to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, export, food, government, health, Psychology, regulation, safety, Systems thinking, trade | 5 Comments