ENGI

nikkigraziano:

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. 

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…

How many other things are we missing?

(via circlingskeleton)

(Source: Washington Post)

dihard:

Remember this? Well you can “put aside your beef with their beef.” J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats gets to the bottom of the myth of the non-rotting McDonald’s hamburger that recently circulated the internet.

Per his experiment, it turns out that the McDonald’s hamburger does not mold not because it is made from “inorganic materials,” but rather because its small size and large surface area help it to lose moisture very fast. Without moisture, there is not mold of bacteria growth. Read about his Burger Lab here.

Die bad science, die!

nostrich:

jakelodwick:

This is a self-management experiment. Living by myself and reporting to no boss makes it easy to fall into a mindless routine. I have not been living up my potential as an ‘untethered creative person’. My lack of discipline has allowed me to drift into a hazy groove. I need some accountability.

Here are my “STANDARDS” for the next week. Each day, I aim to meet all of them, and will keep track of my success or failure.

• Eat each meal within 1 hour of 9:30, 1:30, & 8:00
• One 3-hour creative block
• One 1-hour book reading block

I really like Jake’s STANDARDS experiment — save for the annoying capitalisation. Like Jake, I’m relatively untethered (insofar as I’m an unemployed bum for the time being) — though my creativity is questionable — and I tend to find it difficult to make productive use of my free time without some sort of forced routine. I like how this differs from most GTD systems, in that it’s a lot less demanding — rather than telling you what to do, it merely requires that you do something.

This is a very handy experiment. Being an unemployed college student, it is indeed very easy for me to fall into a mindless routine of Tumblr, checking messages, surfing the web, and playing games. I’ve always felt useless after doing these things and realized that hours have passed and I still have a ton of work to do. I generally don’t fall into this trap anymore, but I still occasionally procrastinate at critical times when I should be studying or doing other important things.

Now to get a whiteboard…