Americans say they need a 30%-50% raise to feel happy, regardless of their income. People making $50k need about 75k, and people making $200k need 350k.
All Threads
Want to get into Harvard? Make sure your parents went there. Legacy students have a 33% chance of winning a place vs 6% for the rest. (Alternatively, become an elite athlete and your chance of getting in goes up to 86%)
At Heathrow airport, 80% of noise complaints come from just 10 people.
In 1944 two researchers, Heider and Simmel, showed people some basic animated shapes and asked them to describe what they saw. The abstract shapes soon became a story. Viewers saw characters with emotions, motivations, and purpose. They personified the inanimate figures using words like “escaped,” “slammed,” “danced,” or “kissed” to describe their actions. They depicted them with tempers; as cowardly, or as viciously conspiring. If you ever needed proof that humans are meaning making creatures, this is it.
They were the most successful industrialists of the 20th century, but their philosophies were poles apart. For Ford the car was everything: a means of improving welfare and achieving global peace. For Sloan it was merely a product: “the primary object of the General Motors corporation is to make money, not just to make motor cars.”
We only have the Church of England because of one man’s personal problems: Henry VIII needed to free himself from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who had not provided him with a male heir. However, the Catholic Church continually refused to annul the marriage, so he set up an independent branch and declared himself leader.
Or is it Specsavers? Weetabix? Cillit Bang?
We still don’t know how many homes are built in the UK each year. Housing data has historically come from the National Housebuilding Council (NHBC) – an organisation established to provide warranties on new homes. But NHBC’s market share has deteriorated in the last few years – from 85% to 60% – which means a significant proportion of homes aren’t counted. By comparing to other records, like council tax, it’s estimated that half of new homes in London were missed in 2023.
Henry J Kaiser’s company built the Hoover Dam even though he knew nothing about shipbuilding. But he used his ignorance to his advantage; redesigning the assembly process using prefabricated parts to avoid hiring expert workers, and having workers use cheap fuel torches for cutting metal – unaware that heavy machinery was supposedly necessary.
In 1776 James Watt needed a simple way to explain the power of his improved steam engine. So he framed it in familiar terms, claiming that one of his improved steam engines could produce enough power to replace 10 cart-pulling horses, or 10 ‘horsepower’ . In doing so he made the term a standard measure of engine power still used today.
Passengers at Houston airport frequently complained about the long wait at baggage claim. Conventional wisdom says speed up the process or hire more baggage handlers. But the airport simply moved the arrival gates so that they were further away from baggage claim; increasing the walk time and eliminating dead waiting time. Complaints soon disappeared.
Ask the right question. In a control study, usage declined dramatically when cashiers, instead of asking “how many plastic bags do you need?”, asked “would you need a plastic bag to carry your shopping home?” A clever tweak to change the default from taking a bag to not taking one.
Stamp a best before date on them. Sales of Tontine pillows tripled as a result of this innovation.
Hide it in a song. The Colombian army created a dance track called Better Days, whose chorus disguised a Morse code message saying “19 people rescued. You’re next. Don’t lose hope.” The song was then played on national radio to let captured soldiers know that the Colombian army was infiltrating FARC-controlled areas and coming to rescue them.
The 2011 UK census showed that a whopping 58% of residents in England identified as English only. Skip forward a decade and this number plunged to 15%. Was this a significant decline in nationalism? No, a botched survey. In 2011 “English” was the first option and “British” was the fifth; in 2021 “Britain” came top of the list.