Just a moment...
Human brains are wired such that we get rewarded for attending to surprisal. If we turn our attention toward things that surprise us we get excited —and our model of the world changes. It grows more complex.
A Blog Post Is a Very Long and Complex Search Query to Find Fascinating People and Make Them Route Interesting Stuff to Your Inbox
A study by George Loewenstein of Carnegie-Mellon found that we get significant feelings of anxiety when there’s a gap between what we know and what we want to know.
Jean added
The place of maximum curiosity – the zone in which storytellers play – is when people think they have some idea but aren’t quite sure. Brain scans reveal that curiosity begins as a little kick in the brain’s reward system: we crave to know the answer, or what happens next in the story,
Will Storr • The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How to Tell Them Better
We're drawn to artwork that subtly deviates from our predictions of the world—“Too much prediction error is unpleasant or even disturbing; none or too little is boring"--and new art movements may emerge as our predictions adjust to (and get bored with) the new images around us. (We initially reject cutting-edge art because it's too far afield
... See moreBianca Bosker • Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me
Debbie Foster added
We're drawn to artwork that subtly deviates from our predictions of the world-"Too much prediction error is unpleasant or even disturbing; none or too little is boring"-and new art movements may emerge as our predictions adjust to (and get bored with) the new images around us. (We initially reject cutting-edge art because it's too far afi
... See moreBianca Bosker • Get the Picture
Debbie Foster added
The Wundt curve shows that overly simple and predictable stimuli provide only neutral hedonic value. Positive hedonic value requires stimuli that are somewhat novel/complex/ambiguous. Too much novelty or complexity, however, leads to negative hedonic value. There is, then, a “sweet spot” for the right amount of stimulus novelty/complexity: slightly... See more
Culture is an Ecosystem: A Manifesto Towards a New Cultural Criticism (2)
Andrew McCluskey added
the holy grail for recommendation systems
Control is why brains are on constant alert for the unexpected. Unexpected change is a portal through which danger arrives to swipe at our throats. Paradoxically, however, change is also an opportunity. It’s the crack in the universe through which the future arrives. Change is hope. Change is promise. It’s our winding path to a more successful tomo
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