Fun
Freakonomics
Dear Ann,
I resisted the Freakonomics radio show/podcast for a stupid reason: I’m not very interested in economics.
It turns out, it’s not about economics per se. It’s a really interesting show exploring the hidden explanations for all manner of things.
The episode that got me started was this one: #323: Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Late–And What To Do About It.
I was driving on the highway with two college students when the episode was rebroadcast on the radio, and all three of us were riveted. (I’m sure this is strongly related to our lives filled with deadlines for term papers, in their case, and the MDK editorial calendar in mine.) Not sure we really learned “what to do about it,” but now we have a fancy new concept to blame for this familiar phenomenon: the planning fallacy, combined with optimism bias. No matter how many times you have done something, if you are a human, you are pretty much always going to predict that you are going to do it faster this time. It’s kind of sweet, and kind of discouraging.
The Freakonomics archive is chock full of intriguing episode titles.
See you later! (Really, later.)
Love,
Kay
I just read (skimmed) the transcript, because who has time to listen to the whole podcast? (So what if it’s Saturday?) Anyhow, thank you for bringing this to my (our) attention. I was impressed enough that I sent it on to one of my colleagues, in the hopes it would make him feel better about how much we beat ourselves up about not getting everything done. In fact, we get a hell of a lot done, much of it on time and on budget, but I think that’s because my colleagues are often working unpaid hours on a project. I was going to say I don’t put in unpaid hours, but here I am on a Saturday, thinking about work and communicating with my colleague about it. Hmm…. (And we just won’t talk about the WIP closet, right?) (Closets, actually.)
“Continuous partial attention” – I love having labels for my day at work!
I just read the transcript and loved it, I even took notes. Due to the fact that I procrastinate whenever possible I am always behind on any given project. At my age I am still optimistic….so maybe there’s hope.
I stumbled onto Freakanomics one Saturday while driving. As the show started I assumed I’d be bored. Boy was I wrong! This is one of my favorite NPR shows now (along with “Science Friday”, and “Wait, Wait”). Relevant subjects presented in an interesting and amusing manner… sometimes educational, and always entertaining.
Oops, spelled that wrong… Freakonomincs.
I read their books before I knew there was a podcast! I’m your token economist knitter I suppose . . .
Don’t worry, Dawn, you are not alone, either as a Freakonomics reader or as a knitting economist. I’m a sister practitioner of “the dismal science.”
I started listening to the radio show while waiting for kids to get out of whatever activity I was picking them up from…
Several people got the book as a gift…