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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2518 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 16, 2022

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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There's only three types of people who don't own watches: hippies, women, and people who spend too much time looking at their smartphones.

too much time looking at their smartphones

I see, seeker, that you are yet to learn the ancient art of taking your phone out of your pocket to check the time and then putting it back in again.

I prefer the more traditional technique of picking it up, checking the time, putting it down, immediately forgetting the time, picking it back up again, checking for new messages, putting it back down, and still not knowing the time.

This sounds like me going to the kitchen to look at the thermometer outside its window. Walk in, look, walk out, realize you haven't actually read the temperature.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/

i'd bet like 99:1 this isn't a real effect in the real world with a significant effect size, given the replication crisis, cuteness, and general implausibility. people are smart! if doorways consistently caused forgetting, people would compensate! Even optical illusions can't trick people consistently - if you walked through a corridor with one of the depth illusions 1k times you'd just ignore it

I noticed it myself though. Like, browse the webs on the toilet, make a mental note to look up something when back at the computer, completely forget because of the doorway on the way.

Yeah, but ... a lot of non-replicating psychology bits are things the experimenters 'noticed themselves'. growth mindset is something hundreds of thousands of people noticed for themselves. Or see the people who are confident that zinc cures colds 15 minutes after you take the zinc because they felt it happen (biologically implausible), etc.

I have a bunch of complicated but untested ideas about why that happens but w/e

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