Readers, my sincere thanks for following the “Something Interesting” blog! Over the past 6 months I’ve tried to provide you with a steady stream of content on, well, a little bit of everything. Your interest has made this effort fun.
For now, though, I’m putting the column on temporary hiatus to deal with some personal stuff.
That said, I firmly believe in approaching problems behaviorally. In cases of competing operants, the one that predominates is contextually determined. Though “Something Interesting” moves to the back burner for now, I’ll gladly bring it back when your behavior says it’s time. This is applied behavioral economics: Just click the little thumbs-up symbol at the top of this page, and when collectively we hit, say, 50 “likes” (or whatever those tiny phalanges are**), that is the operational definition of “it’s time,” and I’ll carve out the bandwidth to get “Something Interesting” going again.
I look forward to continuing our conversation.
— Tom
** For the sake of cultural sensitivity and complete transparency, note that in Iran and a few other Muslim countries the thumbs-up gesture means, roughly, “up yours.” Feel free to enjoy that factoid while you’re clicking.