Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch

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Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Idempotence

Idempotence is essentially an operation that, no matter how many times you do it, you’ll still get the same result, at least without doing other operations in between. A classic example would be view_your_bank_balance being idempotent, and withdraw_1000 not being idempotent. It’s a property that’s often handy as you can retry the operation without worrying about unintended effects. Idempotence is a concept from mathematics and computer science but can be applied more generally. For example, simple on and off buttons are idempotent, a property that can be very useful in emergencies.…Idempotence is essentially an operation that, no matter how many times you do it, you’ll still get the same result, at least without doing other operations in between. A classic example would be view_your_bank_balance being idempotent, and withdraw_1000 not being idempotent. It’s a property that’s often handy as you can retry the operation without worrying about unintended effects. Idempotence is a concept from mathematics and computer science but can be applied more generally. For example, simple on and off buttons are idempotent, a property that can be very useful in emergencies.

27 Jan 2017

Stand diagonally on transport

It took me many years to figure out that if you stand diagonally you brace yourself better for both front-back jolts and side-to-side jostles.…

20 Jan 2017

The nocebo effect

The nocebo effect is how the expectation of pain or negative effects of a treatment increases the chances people will feel them — even if they're aren't any. So, tell someone that a treatment will hurt or have side-effects and they're now more likely to feel that pain or find something wrong. Taken together with the placebo effect I guess we might do well, for normal affairs, to let people know that what they will get will probably help them and not raise unnecessary expectations that something might hurt.…The nocebo effect is how the expectation of pain or negative effects of a treatment increases the chances people will feel them — even if they're aren't any. So, tell someone that a treatment will hurt or have side-effects and they're now more likely to feel that pain or find something wrong. Taken together with the placebo effect I guess we might do well, for normal affairs, to let people know that what they will get will probably help them and not raise unnecessary expectations that something might hurt.

12 Jan 2017

The placebo effect

The placebo effect is the remarkable yet commonplace phenomenon that when people expect a treatment to be effective, it can be, even if the treatment itself doesn't actually have any therapeutic value. But where do we get these placebos? (video) Related Ideas to the Placebo Effect Also see: The nocebo effect The dilution effect…

5 Jan 2017

Earth is a big magnet.

Which is kind of amazing. The magnetic field is produced by some remarkable result of the convection of molten hot iron alloys in the core of the Earth. Kind of hard to really get your head round if you’re sitting calmly at your desk or walking on a nice stable surface. Periodically, the poles switch round it seems but at the moment the magnetic South pole is actually near the point we’d normally call the geographical North pole. They’re pretty close, but the geographic axis doesn’t exactly coincide along the geographic axis of rotation of Earth. And the lines of force go from magnetic North to magnetic South so your compass needle is actually pointing towards magnetic South. Remember iron filings and bar magnets from physics class?…Which is kind of amazing. The magnetic field is produced by some remarkable result of the convection of molten hot iron alloys in the core of the Earth. Kind of hard to really get your head round if you’re sitting calmly at your desk or walking on a nice stable surface. Periodically, the poles switch round it seems but at the moment the magnetic South pole is actually near the point we’d normally call the geographical North pole. They’re pretty close, but the geographic axis doesn’t exactly coincide along the geographic axis of rotation of Earth. And the lines of force go from magnetic North to magnetic South so your compass needle is actually pointing towards magnetic South. Remember iron filings and bar magnets from physics class?

29 Dec 2016

MOSCOW Prioritisation

A way of helping decide what to do next based on Must do, Should do, Could do and Would do. Strangely, so many of the things you’d really like to do when put in this organisation end up in the Would bucket.…

20 Dec 2016

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