Cognitive Engineering

While Aleph Insights is on a summer break from recording podcasts, here's an episode from our archive.

Are personality tests any use? What can they tell us if anything? Or is it like a star-sign?

Take the test!

• www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Is it meaningful to assign personalities to the decades?

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• The thirty-year nostalgia cycle
• When did the sixties really begin?
• Did the nineties ever end?
• Life satisfaction over time

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

GAME OF THRONES - SPOILER ALERT

Was the ending contrived? Were you satisfied by the way it ended? What makes a good ending?

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• ‘Creative Writing Now’ on endings
• NYT article: closers and clinchers
• Unconventional ending tropes
• An IMDB poll of the ‘most iconic endings’

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Why did Jamie's Italian fail? What goes wrong when businesses try to scale.

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• Problems in the casual dining sector
• The largest restaurant chains

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

How can we avoid the end of the world through nuclear and other cataclysmic accidents? Could Chernobyl happen again? How can we design our systems and train our people to prevent accidents? We discuss with our guest Tom Plant.

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• World nuclear industry status report
• Timeline of nuclear accidents
• NYT article comparing nuclear with coal
• Long-run fatalities according to HSE

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Grumpy Cat dies aged seven: 'Some days are grumpier than others'. A loss the meme world. Memes, what are they? Do they have some property that makes them reproduce more effectively than other ideas.

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• Guardian obituary
• The Independent’s ‘Top Ten Memes of All Time’
• Know Your Meme
• A Unified Theory of Meme Death
• Dancing Spiderman (not Ze Frank)
• Ze Frank
• The 'E Meme'

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

The Perfect Chalk

Chalk has been used by humans as a communication tool for thousands of years. Are some technologies too good to be replaced?

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• 2015 article expounding the virtue of Hagoromo chalk (

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Does listening to The Grateful Dead make you yearn to meet your maker, or do you acknowledge the seminality of their music? Is the term ‘influential’ overused nowadays?

Things mentioned in this podcast

• Article analysing influence in pop music
• Stanford School of Business on social media influencers
• Article analysing survey data about why people follow influencers
• Federal Trade Commission reminding ‘influencers’ to disclose sponsorship

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Crystal Palace goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, provides an unintentional insight into the links between ignorance and stupidity.

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• Wayne Hennessey’s Nazi salute
• Seymour (1929), A Study of the Relation between Knowledge, Intelligence, and Character (
• Furnham and Chamorro-Premuzic (2006), Personality, Intelligence and General Knowledge (
• Furnham et al (2010), Typical Intellectual Engagement, Big Five Personality Traits, Approaches to Learning and Cognitive Ability Predictors of Academic Performance (
• Psychology Today, Why Criminals are Less Intelligent than Non-Criminals (
• Oberauer et al (2005), Working Memory and Intelligence (
• Bauducel et al (2009), The Impact of Different Measurement Models for Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence on the Correlation with Personality Traits (
• Stojanoski et al (2010), Targeted Training (
• Larcienese (2005), Does Political Knowledge Increase Turnout? (
• Lynn et al (2017), Differences in Intelligence and Socio-Economic Outcomes across the Twenty Seven States of Brazil (

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]

Some things seem difficult to purchase in the right quantities. Why do we always end up with too much celery in our fridge?

Things mentioned in this podcast:

• WRAP report on food and drink waste

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [email protected]