From the Metropolitan Museum of Art via NYTimes: a Japanese Print to teach us about the modern world
The artistry in our journalism can be remarkable. Spend a few minutes zooming in and out of this Japanese print with Mr. Farago. It is inspiring and completely engrossing.
From an informatics perspective, can we take an EHR screenshot, and zoom in and out as entertainingly? Could we =gasp= make learning about EHR’s as engaging as an art exhibit?
Zero Kelvin! Lagrange Points! Infrared parabolas! Light years and Time Travel! wtf?! We are living in the future.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-james-webb-space-telescope-is-in-position-now-its-booting-up/
If you have not been following the journey of the James Webb telescope, here is your chance to catch up. TL;DR: it is going well and in a few months we can look forward to astounding images from further away than ever before, and from further back in time than ever before. I can’t wait. Read the nice summary article from Wired.com, above.
I don’t know where I land in this debate. Certainly, I agree that open-office cubicles are not helpful. I also agree that zoom meetings leave something out of in-person discussions and side-bar conversations before and after our meetings. This article made me think.
Here’s this month’s prompt, how to submit, and an illustrated archive of past favorites.
— Read on www.wired.com/story/six-word-sci-fi/
https://www.wired.com/story/to-do-apps-failed-productivity-tools/
Ah, yes, the eternal search for more productivity by downloading apps and other tools that “promise to boost your productivity!” How could you not? These (mostly) free apps and click-bait make it sound super-easy!
Use our checklist app! This is just like “Getting things done, but modern!” Try our technique; just $14.99 for the book that explains our system! Never be unproductive again!
Sure.
Read the article. Yes, it is on the longer side, and it will be 10 minutes you won’t be getting something done.
But, you’re already here wasting time reading my blog. Whatever you were trying to get done, you were already unproductive. Sorry.
Clive Thompson says it much better than I will, so go read his article above in Wired.com. I’ll just say: apps won’t create more time, and our present selves overpromise what our future selves might be willing to do. You are your own worst enemy.
Every to-do list is a midlife crisis of unfulfilled promise. Winnowing away things you’ll never do in a weekly review is crucial, yet we dread it for what it says about the boundaries of existence. Our fragile psyches find it easier to build up a list of shame, freak out, and flee.
Clive Thompson in wired.com
Sigh.
My take on the whole productivity thing? Pomodoro technique. I wrote about it in a this blog in 2017 and I still use it as my primary productivity tool. Any time I have protected time in my schedule, as little as 30 minutes, but better if it is a 2 hours or longer, I break out my Focus Keeper app, a pencil and yellow pad to park distracting ideas, and get down to serious business.
CMIO’s take? Here! Try my app! Here’s my idea, behind my paywall! Kidding. Pomodoro technique guys. Let’s get to work. (ironic – see what I just did there?)
https://www.wired.com/story/3d-imaging-shows-shark-guts-work-like-nikola-tesla-water-valve/
I only know Nikola Tesla from his competition with Edison over electrification. However, Tesla, like Edison was an inveterate inventor. In this article, scientists recently deconstructed the gastrointestinal system of sharks, and found that they resemble Tesla valves.
What is that, you say? It has nothing to do with anything you think you know about Tesla. And it is a fascinating read. Here is a taste (video) of a Tesla valve system, illustrated with flames.
CMIO’s take? Super cool! But, what does this have to do with informatics, you say? I leave that for you to puzzle out. 🙂
https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-time-to-talk-about-facebook-research/
This article above is a disturbing, quick take on Facebook research and the lack of transparency in what is being done, from a researcher who recently quit working there, and left this quote behind.
Chilling, the use of data by social media titans with a critical lack of oversight. The Cambridge Analytica – Facebook scandal, it seems, has not mitigated the giant’s appetite to turn their data about you, against you.
The other quote that disturbs me about this is: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” I’m not sure how to attribute this quote, and some dispute the accuracy of its pithy claims, but it does make you stop and think.
And if you are as disturbed as I am, maybe you’ll make some changes in the way you use Facebook. For example, I have:
CMIO’s take? I’m certain I’m still leaking a data online, but I’m trying hard to throttle my bit-torrent down to a bit-drip. And I’ll keep looking for ways to take control back from the big guys (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple). What efforts are you making to protect your current and future privacy?
Arthur C Clarke said this (Clarke’s First Law). And now … TED talks bring it to life. Spend 3 minutes and be amazed. We live in a wonderful time.
I have followed Andy Goodman’s work (he teaches storytelling to nonprofit organizations), and have learned so much about how to be effective at my own work.
It is nearly an hour long, and who has an hour? You do, if you know what is good for you.
But, I know you’re busy, so, if nothing else, watch at 10:30 minutes for 7 minutes. It will be the best 7 minutes.
Then, since you’ll be hooked by then, watch the whole thing. You won’t regret it.
No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.
Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking, Fast and Slow
CMIO’s take? Storytelling by masters like this change lives. He did mine.
This was a good week. Like many of my medical colleagues who are plowing through our next surge of Covid patients, we have feelings of exhaustion, angst and sadness, or as one of my Twitter colleagues on #medtwitter calls it, a new emotion called ‘emptysad.’ So apt.
So it was great to get out of the house, and learn to occasionally ‘put my own oxygen mask on before assisting others’, as our airline colleagues would say. Today, I’d go for a 35 mile loop around Denver. Come along on my visual travelogue!
There’s lots of construction on the Highline canal, the Sand Creek trail, and the Cherry Creek path. I can’t wait to see what turns out. Meantime, we have detours upon detours. Here’s one near Northfield, an expanse of wild sunflowers illuminating the margins of I-70.
This is a 3.5 hour loop for me. The great thing is: very little bike or foot traffic even on a holiday weekend. The smoke is less noticeable today, the sky is blue, the Colorado zephyr winds still cool through the day.
Then, the Confluence of Sand Creek and Platte River, both the wild fowl that frequent the area, and also the industrial ‘aromas’ of Commerce City and the Purina Puppy Chow plant. Such a juxtaposition.
Then it’s a quick dash upstream along the Platte, to Confluence Park, where Cherry Creek meets the Platte. Here, see the crowds for REI and the splashy mess of shore that is kid and dog and kayak friendly.
The hot dog stand is reliably yummy.
On the way home, I found my informatics and physician colleague Steve Rotholz at his outdoor photography booth at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Further surprise: he’s reading our book club book for the month: You Look Like a Thing And I Love You. A great explanation of AI and the weirdness that ensues in the development of these tools.
On the quieter parts of the trail, I listen to my current audio book: Vacationland, by John Hodgman, read by the author. I have loved his previous stories on The Daily Show and on public radio. He doesn’t disappoint in this autobiography.
I hope you’re finding ways to have a restorative summer. Go out and do something you love.
