Conformity is hard-wired into the brain

You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?

via CNN on Why So Many Minds Think Alike

Neuroscientists have experimentally confirmed that the brain reacts to disagreements with the larger group in a similar manner to punishment. Groupthink exists, and exists on a massive scale. This makes more and more sense in the mass media age where we consume the same media (NY Times, TechCrunch, and Hacker News for me) and read the same forums and talk about all the same ideas. While the Internet revolution has brought many more voices to the foreground and reduced the role of traditional media (1000 channels on TV instead of 5, 1 million blogs instead of 1 local newspaper), this effect still plays out heavily throughout society. Whenever there is a crowd, there will be group consensus.

The CNN article mentions that groupthink will overwhelm even obviously correct thinking: "The most famous experiments in the field were conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. He found that many people gave incorrect answers about matching lines printed on cards, echoing the incorrect answers of the actors in the room."

This is significant for entrepreneurs. Apple was absolutely on to something when it said: Think Different. Why think different? Because the masses are wrong. (In fact, the masses are asses. =) ) And this is why many startups and entrepreneurs are perceived to be pursuing inane, crazy or irrelevant ideas. Prevailing wisdom isn't, and it takes a crazy dreamer to ignore the massive and overwhelming tidal wave of group think.

Classic Hip Hop Rapper Ahmad now enrolled at Stanford -- he's the artist behind one of my fav songs "Back in the Day"

He was 18 when he landed a hit single, “Back in the Day,” on the 1994 pop and R&B charts from his album Ahmad. The message and sound had plenty of street cred, combined with an ironically sweet nostalgia about a dicey South Los Angeles childhood. His enrollment at Stanford, after being named last spring’s valedictorian at Long Beach City College, put him back in the news. The 14-year transition had taken him from nostalgic lyricist to nostalgic celebrity.

via Stanford Magazine

To see Ahmad break down a lot of stereotypes of folks who go into the music industry in general, let alone hip-hop or rap, and then return to higher education and go to Stanford is a remarkable story.

via LA Times

What an awesome story. You can hear Back in the Day on Youtube -- It's definitely a classic 90's chilled out hip hop tune I remember listening to it on repeat all these years.

The power of twitter search: A rice cooker just added you.


via Twitter

Earlier that day, div_conspiracy tweeted something related to Posterous and it appeared on my tweetdeck: "tumblr or posterous? I don't have room for both. I see that tumblr just rev'd today." Moments later, I fired a quip back, "posterous.com revs every day." He then tweeted offhandedly about rice cookers, and Eugene suddenly got added by a twitter ricecooker. All within the span of a few minutes. People are definitely listening.

I wonder if people will tweet less often if they know people are watching. Perhaps some will. But I doubt it. At the risk of pontificating about twitter vs facebook (that most egregious and trite of Web 2.0 blog offenses), I'd say that's the what makes twitter significant. Facebook is all about communicating with your friends and people I already know, but Twitter lets you talk about anything publicly. And that's the point.

Someone told me once that online action is all about appealing to baser instincts -- greed, lust, thirst for fame, and the like. That's where Twitter fits in. Every time you tweet, you have a chance to expand your circle of influence. It's compelling because it is public. Psychologically, this results in a hedonic ramp of wanting to get more followers. People won't admit it, but subconsciously people want to become Internet famo (aka Web 2.0 famous, or almost not really famous). Hell, there's even a class at Parsons New School for Design called Internet Famous, on how to spread your work to the widest possible audience online through the 'online attention economy' of blogs, social media, etc.

The same famo principle is at work with MySpace as well. Much has been made of the socioeconomic class divisions of social networks. But maybe those poor huddled masses of MySpace users are more likely to admit they want to be famous. Heck, it worked for Tila Tequila. How many services out there have made people famo? Twitter and MySpace. Others?

To paraphrase the Hacker Manifesto: I am a twit, enter my world. The world of the electron and the tweet, the beauty of the blog.

Truly excellent Batman and Robin Quotes from Batman the TV Series (1960s)

This had me just rolling with laughter. I saw this on franjie's posterous and just had to repost. What a bygone age it was on television when you could get away with totally awesome campy lines like this!

Robin: "You can't get away from Batman that easy!"
Batman: "Easily."
Robin: "Easily."
Batman: "Good grammar is essential, Robin."
Robin: "Thank you."
Batman: "You're welcome."

Batman: "Haven't you noticed how we always escape the vicious ensnarements of our enemies?"
Robin: "Yeah, because we're smarter than they are!"
Batman: "I like to think it's because our hearts are pure."

Robin: "I guess you can never trust a woman."
Batman: "You've made a hasty generalization, Robin. It's a bad habit to get into."

Robin: "That's an impossible shot, Batman."
Batman: "That's a negative attitude, Robin."

Robin: "Where'd you get a live fish, Batman?"
Batman: "The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin."

Batman: "The green button will turn the car a la escarda o a la drecia."
Robin: "To the left or right. Threw in a little Spanish on me, huh, Batman?"
Batman: "One should always keep abreast of foreign tongues, Robin."

Robin: "We better hurry, Batman."
Batman: "Not too fast, Robin. In good bat-climbing as in good driving one must never sacrifice safety for speed."
Robin: "Right again, Batman."

Robin: "I am a little hungry."
Batman: "Of course, Robin. Even crime-fighters must eat. And especially you. You're a growing boy and you need your nutrition."

Batman: "Ma Parker's girl is more dangerous than her three boys."
Robin: "Her legs sort of reminded me of Catwoman's."
Batman: "You're growing up, Robin. Remember, in crime-fighting always keep your sights raised."

Batman (about to cross the street): "Remember Robin, always look both ways."

And a personal favorite for dishing some Batman wisdom on economics...
Robin: "Gosh, Economics is sure a dull subject."
Bruce: "Oh, you must be jesting, Dick. Economics dull? The glamour, the romance of commerce... Hmm. It's the very lifeblood of our country's society."

Many thanks to franjie for the hilarious post.

Goddamn if it doesn't happen. 'Cause she makes it happen.

One day one of the accountants comes over to me and he says to me, "Hey, Paul, what are you doing working for somebody else? Why don't you get a pharmacy or a drugstore yourself?" So I told Eleanor. And this is the way my whole life has been with Eleanor: I get an idea, I tell her, and goddamn if it doesn't happen. ‘Cause she makes it happen.

via Salon's new series on American Love

Very heartfelt short story. I really liked the matter-of-factness of the prose.

The Fig Cafe - all the laid back gourmet flavor of North Berkeley next time you go wine tasting

My girlfriend Steph and I took a little mid-week retreat in Sonoma this past week. After checking out a few wineries (St. Francis, Sebastiani and Gundlach Bundschu), we headed over to Glen Ellen for an early dinner at the Fig Cafe. It's a casual, pretty inexpensive restaurant in a sleepy village called Glen Ellen in the hills smack dab in the middle of Sonoma Valley. You know, the OTHER California wine country. There seems to be a bit of a rivalry with the Napa Valley-ites.

To start, we had steamed mussels, and I ordered the top sirloin burger with dutch crunch roll and cambozola cheese (breathtakingly good) and Steph had the Salmon with chestnut spaetzle. The burger was incredibly hearty, and the cambozola I think has now firmly taken the #2 spot in my list of favorite cheeses to put in cheeseburgers. American Cheese of course can't yet be beat. Overall, the place feels as much at home in Glen Ellen as it would in the gourmet ghetto of North Berkeley. And that's definitely a good thing.