Dunce Dynamics Bulletin
Serious Research. Questionable Priorities.
The one where we accidentally became an institute
August was supposed to be about answering more dumb questions. Instead, we gave the operation an Institute, started looking deeper into the everyday systems and behaviors behind ordinary life, and somehow ended the month with 77 permanent answers on the site. This is generally how institutions form. First somebody asks why receipts fade. A few weeks later there are departments. Here are five of the late-August additions that deserve another look.
Editor's picks
Why do prices end in .99?
We all know $19.99 is twenty dollars. Until we're buying it. Then suddenly that penny becomes legally significant and we're explaining to ourselves that the thing only costs “nineteen.” Retailers have spent decades preserving this arrangement because apparently the human brain can be negotiated with one cent at a time.
Read the full answer →Why do websites ask you to accept cookies?
You open a website because you want to read one paragraph. Before you can do that, you're asked to review six privacy categories, three “legitimate interests,” and a settings menu apparently designed for someone preparing testimony before Congress. Five minutes later you hit Accept All just so you can find out how long to boil an egg.
Read the full answer →Why do phone screens work with fingers but not most gloves?
Your phone isn't waiting for pressure. A capacitive touchscreen is looking for an electrical interaction with your finger, which an ordinary glove can interrupt. This is why every winter eventually ends with you standing outside, pulling one glove off with your teeth because somebody sent “ok.”
Read the full answer →Why do receipts fade over time?
Many receipts are printed on thermal paper, so the image comes from a heat-sensitive coating rather than ordinary ink. Heat, sunlight, oils, and time can make that image fade—which explains why the receipt you carefully saved for six months becomes a nearly blank strip of paper approximately four minutes before you actually need it.
Read the full answer →Why does restarting a device fix so many problems?
Restarting clears temporary running states and reloads software from a cleaner starting point. This is a perfectly reasonable technical explanation that nobody wants to hear after spending twenty minutes checking cables, changing settings, blaming the latest update, and finally fixing the entire problem by turning the thing off and back on.
Read the full answer →By the numbers
77 questions live. 20 new permanent Q&A pages were included in the late-August launch batch. And Dunce Dynamics now has an Institute, which is what happens when a website keeps asking questions long enough that somebody eventually gives it departments.
Coming soon
More questions. More Institute investigations. More unnecessary research into things most organizations would have had the judgment to leave alone. The priorities remain questionable.
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