vladojsem

That study actually didn't find that optimistic people slept better. They were just more optimistic about their quality of sleep :-)

I can speak 5 languages but having a drink didn't help me to learn any of them :-) Quite the contrary.

The data visualizations look really cool. Firstly I have a bit of issue about how to browse between different charts. Then I got it, but I find it still complicated. The navigation elements could be more clear. I am an economist and I didn't get the ECI ranking at first sight. Now I understand the more complex the better, but it could be explained better. I would also welcome the possibility to compare two countries in some basic metrics. Anyways, great job. Keep up the good work!

I know already all of the advice. Yet, I don't follow any of them. Maybe would be great to write an article about how to get rid of those bad habits :-)

Not a bad chart.

I can imagine it a bit more useful and less cluttered by removing bathroom selfies. Yet I understand the viral element: Burn it with fire!

> About 1.46 billion smartphones were produced in 2018, while 1.56 billion were sold. If production drops back to match lower sales, that could mean 38.44 million fewer phones made. And if all those phones were about the size of an iPhone X, that would mean about 400 pounds each of mined ore, water, and other resources were conserved, a total of 15 billion pounds.

The problem is that capitalism is running on selling always the latest products. The product, in general, shouldn't last long. So even if you don't need a new phone, they are going to force it to you. I don't think this latest trend is going to last. After all, "Smartphone sales will drop 2.5% worldwide by the end of 2019" as it is stated in the article. Not a huge drop.

I really like the idea. It is like an aggregator of internet trends on different topics. I can imagine many use cases where it is helpful. (Not just marketing and PR.)

I checked your site but didn't get if you can search those trends by keywords. My area is quite niche so going throught the list of topics can take quite a long time.

I get your point. So is roof-based solar pure marketing?

That is true, people (and especially politicians) nowadays seem indifferent to climate change.

Think about it, it is partly because of the narrative of the story.

If you imagine a hypothetical situation that there is big asteroid flying towards the Earth and there is a 95% chance of the impact in 2050. The governments would finance and do everything to stop this impact, to look like saviors of the planet Earth.

The consequences / or better the probability would be the same. However, the asteroid story is different, much more tangible.

I like how the story ends: The Internet is full of chimpanzees.

So true :-)

I was thinking exactly about effective altruism! I really like the approach.

I agree with smartphones as the fundamental change. But what else in the last 10 years?

Totally agree with that.

1 minute with the vehicle slowing down and speeding up again? If it is bus it goes to the bus stop, other cars have to allow it to go back to the main road.

Edit: 5 minutes would be way too much if I think about it again - you are right.

World population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (up from the current world population of 7.3 billion).

I can't imagine we can extinct, we are the least-threatened of the species living on this planet.

I would argue here that fully self-driving cars are not so close. Not in 10 years definitely.

The problem is not so easy and we are quite far from solving it. It can work on the highway and great weather conditions. Yet, what will happen in the narrow streets of Italian cities? What will happen in a situation that is hard to predict? Would there be some service guy who would come and 'help' the car off the road? Not to mention traffic and safety regulations tec.

Larger tiles would probably help a bit. And to be honest, at the beginning I liked the idea of solar roof tiles. The more I think of it the more it seems as a not-so-good idea. You are solving some problems in a very inefficient manner.

Exactly, that was my point. I don't know if it makes sense to pay a large premium for the roof aesthetics. From my point of view, it is just a bad design of the product. Maybe it will change in the future, but for now, I wouldn't put those tiles on my roof.

Why do you believe the 2020s will be a period of rapid change?

Great article. When you design in that niche in your mind, it gives you a different perspective. It is a similar approach to what feature to have in the product is equally important to what features not to have there.

I was in Antwerp this year for the first time thus I can agree with the article. It really is super easy to move around with the bike. Countries like Belgium, Holland, and Denmark are famous for that. They even have big parking lots for bicycles next to train stations. So that you can come by train, pick up your bike and continue your way. And they do so despite bad weather.

In general, in the European cities east Berlin wall, the bicycle infrastructure is not that great. Yet, there are European funds that close that gap and you can see many cycling roads in countries like Poland or Hungary.

There are also European bicycle 'highways' called Eurovelo that are being built from the European money. I think Europe is going into the right direction.

I live in Europe (in Prague right now) and I never needed to own a car here. I would say it depends on the city in Europe. However, if you occasionally happen to be outside of the city center where only cars go you would call Uber. I am fine with that when 90% of my daily transport is covered by public transport.

I am living in Prague now and you really don't need a car here. The same applies to Antwerp that I visited this year. I am not sure how well you know Europe, but there are many cities where you don't need a car and public transport is even faster (often it can be harder to find parking lot than just walk from the metro station).

I agree with you. In the case of LA metro area, it is just too spread city = badly designed.

If you imagine even fast public transport, to get from one side of LA to the other side, it would still require a lot of stops in the low population density areas. Let's say every stop would cost you 5 minutes which means that even a car could be faster than public transport.

Yes, this is very true. That is how European cities from US cities. In Europe cities are built for pedestrians, in US for cars. All these US suburbs areas with one-store buildings are making transportation ineffective because the US city is often more spread. However, there are some positive things happening, like walkability studies in US cities. Hopefully, that will help in the near future.

I am not sure this is the right approach to the problem, from the article:

- While traditional solar panels can be installed in a day, it took a team of 10 to 15 workers two weeks to install this roof.

- Winds roofs cost him about $100,000, though he didn't need to replace his roof anyway: I don't think it will ever pay itself, honestly.

- Tesla's goal is to make the tiles a cost-effective option. Partly by ensuring they're more durable than other rooftops. Tesla's promising 30 years of solar power generation.

Yeah, the solar roof tiles look great. Yet, why wouldn't you go for solar panels instead?

People tend to overestimate the technology growth in the next 10 years. The good idea is to pause and look back for the past 10 years? Were there some huge inventions during that time, something groundbreaking that changed a lot? Yes, there were few amazing inventions that happened (spread of smartphones), but in general daily human life did not change dramatically due to technology.

In general, in the business venue, the big share of income goes to those that can offer some form of command and control to a business venture.

Maybe the regulators can say to Google or Facebook that they can't collect those user data, or they limit the collection somehow. I can't imagine how else you can stop this duopoly. The problem with the whole ecosystem is that every system they have feed the other one, ie. Chrome gathers the search data to be used for Ads etc.

really cool and simple method. hope it helps to turn this world into slightly better place.