Want to Make More People Believe Something? Censor It!

People are more likely to believe restricted—that is, censored—information.

That was one of my biggest takeaways from Robert Cialdini’s Influence.

If I tell you that ‘the sky is orange’ is censored, that you can’t post pictures of orange skies on social media, that newspapers will refuse to publish stories about orange skies, that painters who depict orange skies will have all of their artwork removed from galleries, then you are more likely to believe that the sky is, in fact, orange.

If I told you that the media censored pictures of orange skies, would you be more inclined to believe this photograph of an orange sky?

Let’s see how this relates to the recent bills banning ‘critical race theory’ in classrooms.

I’m So Excited About Rosendale’s Debut Album That I Pre-Ordered It

I’m not a ‘music’ person. I only find out about musicians after they are famous, and usually not even then (you’d be amazed by how many ‘famous’ songs I don’t know). Never before have I pre-ordered a music album.

Last month, I watched the Taiwanese American Cultural Festival on YouTube. Looking at the schedule, I asked myself, “Who is this ‘Rosendale’ and what are they doing at a Taiwanese American festival” (I missed the section in the program which explains who everyone is). When his segment came up, I was like, “oh, he’s a singer.” Then I heard his songs and his commentary. (Note: his segment was only available on livestream, the recording is not publicly available.)

Since then, I’ve listened to Rosendale’s YouTube songs many times.

Confession of a Vaccine Shopper (Who Sympathizes with Vaccine Hesitance)

Last month, I read the article “This entitlement is beyond me’: Canada hits COVID-19 vaccine milestone, but people are still ‘shopping’ between Pfizer and Moderna” and I felt irritated. Why? Because I was a ‘vaccine shopper.’ I could have gotten a Pfizer/BioNTech dose a few days before I got my J&J vaccine, but I chose the J&J appointment. I don’t like being told I’m ‘entitled’ just because I make a calculated choice about what was better for me.

Did I hurt anybody by delaying my vaccination for a few days? Nope. I even reached ‘fully vaccinated’ status faster by choosing the appointment for a J&J vaccine.

Another problem with the urging to ‘get the first possible vaccine dose’ message is that, if I took that advice literally, I would have potentially done more harm to myself than others. I could have gotten a vaccine dose faster if I had been willing to board a taxi/bus/streetcar/etc. However, between March 2020 and my vaccination, I made a rule not to board any vehicle unless absolutely necessary. If I believed that my only choices were ‘board public transit to get vaccine’ or ‘never get vaccine’ I would’ve taken my chances on public transit, but I had a third option, ‘wait until vaccine is available at a site within walking distance of my home.’ That’s the option I chose.

Link

I’ve published my first story on Medium. Get past the paywall with this link.

I Haven’t Stepped a Toe Past City Limits in 15 Months. How Do I Feel?

I haven’t left the City and County of San Francisco since February 2020. I haven’t been to anywhere other than San Francisco or Alameda County since October 2019. 47 square miles / 121 square kilometers has been the limit of my physical world.

How do I feel? Surprisingly, I feel fine.

As soon as pandemic restrictions became serious, people complained about cabin fever and how much they want to ‘get out’ and travel far from home. Even now, over a year later, I… still don’t relate.

My life is such that I rarely have an ‘essential’ reason to leave city limits. Among people in my physical social circle, I’m unusual in not having crossed city limits at all since the first stay-at-home order. Many people I know have essential reasons to cross city limits, but I also get the sense that they are surprised by how seriously I’ve taken the ‘no nonessential travel’ thing.

I’ve been lucky to have already done quite a bit of travel in my life, and even before the pandemic, I felt I was getting diminishing returns from additional travel. For me, personally, staying in San Francisco city limits for over a year wasn’t bad.