Strands of Genius: Master of Many, American Culture, Statistical Significance
Strands of Genius: Master of Many, American Culture, Statistical Significance
Plus: Hello Ren
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | hiding, learning, planning, health & head
LOOKING AHEAD
Nov 5 - Dec 21 | Chattanooga, TN
Dec 21 - Jan 2 | Isla Mujeres, MX
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
oh. huh. Well, that’s something, isn’t it? Don’t we keep getting our worldview recalibrated, and why is that? Why did I (Faris) get persuaded by vibes? Wishful thinking, motivated reasoning, media consumption….hmm. Faris is concerned, broadly of course, and about not seeing clearly once again, being somehow surprised once again. How did that happen? Lots to consider. Hold tight, we f’d around and now we gonna find out. History endlessly re-cycles through familiar feeling phases, as we struggle towards, but never achieve, some kind of kind, stable, civilization. So it goes. It’s going to be a long few weeks, months and years. Hugs for everyone.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Rachel&Mike,Chase&Emi, Milk&Honey, patience & a sense of humor, pottery lessons, old Playboys, wandering around town, crisp weather and apples, yoga, good friends, long walks and Slow Horses.
Hi! Thanks! Appreciate you. You feeling OK? Reach out if you want, no worries if not, we should stick together. We love you.
:: THE LINKS ::
MASTER OF MANY
If there is a master thesis underlying our work and life, beyond “Genius Steals”, which is obviously core, it is that the most interesting ideas (and people) traverse various domains. (this is also part of Genius Steals, that’s why we have guest curators). You don’t need to love MATH to be a polymath LOL but if you don’t get math/s to some degree it is going to be harder to navigate the world. At more lofty levels, innovation is almost always a function of breadth of thinking. “We hear the descriptive words psychopath and sociopath all the time, but here’s a new one: monopath. It means a person with a narrow mind, a one-track brain, a bore, a super-specialist, an expert with no other interests — in other words, the role-model of choice in the Western world. You think I jest?” (Aeon)
AMERICAN CULTURE
The Frameworks Institute is “think tank that helps mission-driven organizations communicate about social issues in ways that build public will to support progressive change.” The most recent report on the state of USA culture seems instructive.
Here’s a quick outline of the findings:The idea that our “system is rigged” can be leveraged to build support for change.
Individualistic thinking about racism and health has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
More than ever before, we are seeing Americans think at a systemic level about our economy and financial success.
Mindsets around gender are in flux—and lie at the center of a volatile site of contestation in American culture.
Individualistic and reactionary thinking is gaining traction among younger people.
Some mindsets cluster together. This could have major implications for social change work. (Frameworks)
STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND WHY IT MATTERS
Statistics are quite hard to understand and so whenever we are confronted with findings from a statistical model we often assume incorrectly what significance means. You might have heard of p-hacking - the p stands for probability. “A p-value, or probability value, is a number describing how likely it is that your data would have occurred by random chance (i.e., that the null hypothesis is true). The level of statistical significance is often expressed as a p-value between 0 and 1.
The smaller the p-value, the less likely the results occurred by random chance.” - Got that? The hacking bit means finding statically significant correlations in large data sets where there is no underlying effect.
“The phrase “statistically significant” is probably one most people are familiar with, or have read before. Media coverage of academic results will often use it — as in, “In this study, the relationship was statistically significant.”
When it is used in common parlance, I think people often read it as meaning “true.” This phrase somehow implies that the result is right, or real.What does “statistically significant” mean?
BONUS: XKCD Significant
Want to chat, comment, question, compliment?
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:: HELLO REN ::
Faris is very into this song atm.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)