Small details that make big differences

Big heads, small details and autism.

Autism is thought to be associated with a bias towards detail-focussed processing. While the cognitive basis remains controversial, one strong hypothesis is that there are high processing costs associated with changing from local into global processing. A possible neural mechanism underlying this processing style is abnormal neural connectivity; specifically reduced structural or functional con...

THE BIG IDEA Before You Make That Big Decision

Before You Make That Big Decision… Hbr.org

THANKS TO a slew of popular new books, many executives today realize how biases can distort reasoning in business. Confi rmation bias, for instance, leads people to ignore evidence that contradicts their preconceived notions. Anchoring causes them to weigh one piece of information too heavily in making decisions; loss aversion makes them too cautious. In our experience, however, awareness of th...

Big extra dimensions make Λ too small *

I argue that the true quantum gravity scale cannot be much larger than the Planck length, because if it were then the quantum gravity-induced fluctuations in Λ would be insufficient to produce the observed cosmic “dark energy”. If one accepts this argument, it rules out scenarios of the “large extra dimensions” type. I also point out that the relation between the lower and higher dimensional gr...

Small changes that make a big difference 2 ) Whither GDSS in CSCW ? 3 ) CSCW Design Methodologies