Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Knowledge Illusions

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Screenshot of the Alexa app. She thinks Tim Roth played Doctor Who.

Optical Illusions trick your brain into seeing something that isn't there. Whether it is spirals which don't exist, movements which don't occur, or faces in curved lines - our optic centres are trivially easy to fool. Humans are not alone in this cognitive deficiency. Other animals are also conned into believing something which isn't true. This tomfoolery is not restricted to animals -…

The Policy Hack

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Clip from the film "The Matrix" - a young bald boy is saying "There is no spoon."

I've found a delightfully exploitable social hack which I presented at UK GovCamp. It applies to any uncooperative bureaucracy. Here's how it works. You ask someone to do something and they reply with "I'm sorry sir, that's against our policy." You should say "I'm sorry to hear that. Please can you send me a copy of the policy?" Turns out, most times, there is no policy! Shocking, I know. …