Counterintuitive

Just finished reading this article by Malcolm Gladwell (I've recently been reading more of his stuff, his articles are really usually quite good). Anyway, this one was very interesting. Basically, he talks about people buying big SUVs because they perceive them as being safer. However, they are only safer from a "passive" perspective: if you get hit, or if you hit someone, you have a better chance of surviving. But from an "active" perspective, they are much more dangerous: maneuvering a heavy truck is much harder than maneuvering a small sports car. This is further made worse by the fact that big SUVs "separate" the driver from the road more than other vehicles, giving them a false sense of security and encouraging them to drive faster, or more recklessly, than they should.

(None of this is rocket science, but as this profile of Gladwell states, he is very good at pointing interesting things out and making you think about them in new ways)

So, it turns out that, somewhat counterintuitively, surrounding people in a ton of metal and rubber and making their driving experience "smoother" is potentially more dangerous than not. How you view this of course depends on your mindset. I personally would rather hold more control over what happens around me and therefore prefer a small nimble car.

This also reminded me of another article I recently read about a guy who was experimenting with reducing the number of traffic signals, opening up driving areas, etc. He found that taking away all these signals actually made people think more defensively and slow down, thereby reducing accidents. When people are told the speed they can drive, are completely isolated from pedestrians, etc., they pay less attention, are more reckless and are involved in more accidents. Again, this is counterintuitive in a similar way to the SUV/car thing.

I just found the article. It was in Wired.

Both of these form an interesting lesson in always questioning whether current trends, or even established forms of thinking, are all they are cracked up to be. Also I think we have to be careful nowadays with not becoming excessively lazy (physically and mentally) and relying on our posessions and/or surroundings to protect us.

Comments

[Steve Shu]

I read "The Tipping Point" recently, and I plan on reading Seth Godin's ideavirus thing too (basically Seth wrote it to complement Gladwell [who wrote the forward]). Download PDF for free here ... http://www.sethgodin.com/ideavirus/01-getit.html

I have also been thinking about blogging about the following Gladwell article. The premise is a bit troubling to me - what happens when an organization that cares only about smart people? Gladwell picks on McKinsey a little, but also condemns the Enron culture:
http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the post. I didn't realize he was actively writing. We just read some of his writing from the Tipping Point in Network Structures - which by the way, ties perfectly with some of what I wrote previously about personal networks, etc. Still dreaming about the best system...