The discussion in the last few blog posts; this one, that one, and the other all have connections to an idea I stumbled upon recently thanks to manga, the Matthew effect. For new readers, we include a defintion of the concept:

the tendency of individuals to accrue social or economic success in proportion to their initial level of popularity, friends, wealth, etc.

Today's post varies slightly in that, rather than get into an informational or entertaining frame of mind to discuss these topics, I wanna reflect.

While it seems to be the case, "the rich get rich, and the poor get poorer" we underestimate the factors that play into these scenarious. For example, authority bias makes us more likely to follow any given individual under the pretense of some authority. As our world revolves around social media, followers means figureheads.

Many don't want to comply with that idea that we're likely to acknowledge someone's position based off the sheer number of followers, but sadly, it remains a form of cognitive bias to which we succumb.

Don't think so?

Think Again

Then, take the Matilda effect. It's a bias against acknowledging the achievements of women scientists whose work is then attributed to their male colleagues. I don't feel it needful to highlight the long list of individuals this occured to, as I would rather highlight their achievements individually, even if it only assauges the personal guilt of compiling and reducing each of their situations.

Ultimately, the mind makes heuristics in order to process the myriad of information via countless stimuli the world produces. However, the issue of parsing information doesn't justify the mental avoidance we sometimes are guilty of, simply because there is 'too much.'

Rather, precisely for the reason there exists so much to understand, consume and respond to, we must take our time to enlighten ourselves, whether by entertainment, curiousity, conversation or personal vocation. Ignorance breeds ignorance, as does chaos unto chaos. The more people settle for the banality of idle hands and minds, the sooner we sign off on our almost assured downfall.

Post Summary

• I write not for anything but the increased comprehension of complexities that surround me.
• Authority bias means I may not make any noise unless I get 10,000 followers.
• The Matilda effect means I'm more likely to get credit for a breakthrough that a woman produced.
• Knowledge is not only power, but a precious resource in an attention economy saddled by debt and the inflation of ignorance.