Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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sociology

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Dec 14 / 2:58pm

As Facebook Aims at Millions of Users, Some Are Content to Sit Out

Erika Gable, 29, who lives in Brooklyn and does public relations for restaurants, never understood the appeal of Facebook in the first place. She says the daily chatter that flows through the site — updates about bad hair days and pictures from dinner — is virtual clutter she doesn’t need in her life.
more on nytimes.com

An investigative article on obscure subculture of seemingly normal people who hide the dark secret: they're not on Facebook. So far the journalists discovered that such strange lifeforms exist, though further research is required to establish how is that possible.

Filed under: facebook   social media   sociology  
 
Oct 17 / 10:04pm

All the Single Ladies

I was her first and only recruit, marching off to third grade in tiny green or blue T-shirts declaring: A Woman Without a Man Is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle
more on theatlantic.com

The longest and most elaborate justification of 39-year old women's singledom I have ever (for some unbeknown reason) read.

Filed under: singles   sociology  
 
Jul 17 / 2:57pm

Leaks, riots, and monocles: how a $60 in-game item almost destroyed EVE Online

Such decisions aren't made lightly; CCP employs two full-time economists to keep the economy running as smoothly as possible and to deal with changes such as the introduction of Aurum.
more on arstechnica.com

Fascinating story of the clash between virtual and real-world economics in EVE Online. Despite having fewer users than World of Warcraft (300k vs. 12 million), EVE seems to have created much more sophisticated virtual society.

Filed under: economy   games   sociology  
 
Mar 28 / 11:24pm

Don’t touch me, I’m British

Latins are luckier. They can touch and talk to strangers even when sober. But they, too, follow one ground rule shared by the French, Americans and British: they only get naked with people of the opposite gender in sexual situations.

To us, this rule seems so obvious as to be universal. However, it isn’t. Laborier notes that Germans will sometimes get naked in public without intent.

more on ft.com

Reminds me of some traumatizing experiences in Germany ;).

Filed under: sociology  
 
Mar 20 / 8:38pm

The Tyranny of the Extroverts

Society rewards extroverts. They get the job, the money, the girl (or boy), and the front page. Fortune 500 companies are run by 499 extroverts, plus Bill Gates.
more on allendowney.com

Introvert's rage, introvert style: plain text rant on obscure blog.

Filed under: psychology   sociology  
 
Jan 6 / 11:26pm

Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Understimulation

After a much-needed break, a drawing was held. Some of the winners got a DVD called "Helvetica," a 2007 documentary about typography.
more on online.wsj.com

A no-thrill report from a conference celebrating boredom. Great read.

Filed under: boredom   sociology  
 
Sep 6 / 12:05am

There is a Horse in the Apple Store

THERE IS A LITTLE PONY IN THE APPLE STORE. What the hell? A beautiful little pony, with a flowing mane, the likes of which my sister would have killed to get for Christmas when she was 7 or 8. And, NOONE is looking at this thing.
more on blog.frankchimero.com

Yes, a pony. See a link for the picture.

Filed under: apple   sociology  
 
Aug 29 / 10:43pm

How panhandlers use free credit cards

Over the past two weeks, I wandered Toronto’s downtown core with five prepaid Visa and MasterCard gift cards, in $50 and $75 denominations, waiting for people to ask for money.
more on thestar.com

Sad, but interesting story.

Filed under: sociology  
 
Aug 15 / 2:55pm

Hey, Guys, It's Totally Okay If You Don't Get Rich

And I think that matters, and I think it’s worth saying again: We put a lot of pressure on men to build empires and to get rich doing it. And men process this deeply, and it can be as insidious as a young woman’s obsession with being thin. And we don’t talk about it. We don’t actively discourage men from feeling this way.
Why? I’ll offer that this imbalance comes from a one-sided "feminist" culture that emphasizes all the ways in which women are victims while neatly overlooking the emotional struggles of the modern man. “You poor things,” we tell women, “the world is a mean place, and you’re something that can be easily hurt.”
We would never say that to our men. We would never project an inherent weakness onto men the way we do when we write about how the pressure to be beautiful hurts women.
more on seattle20.com

Great article that gives a healthy perspective on self-imposed struggles of many men.

Filed under: sociology   startups  
 
Jul 25 / 5:38pm

Die young, live fast: The evolution of an underclass

Consciously or subconsciously, women do seem to take their future prospects into account when deciding when to start having children. At a meeting last year, Sarah Johns at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, reported that in her study of young women from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds in Gloucestershire, UK, those who perceived their environment as risky or dangerous, and those that thought they might die at a relatively young age, were more likely to become mothers while they were in their teens. "If your dad died of a heart attack at 45, your 40-year-old mum has got chronic diabetes and you've had one boyfriend who has been stabbed, you know you've got to get on with it," she says.
more on newscientist.com

Why early pregnancy in poor areas is an adaptation strategy and why current efforts to fight it are largely misguided.

Filed under: sociology