Learn why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for an extension when you’re up against a deadline; why we used to use lead in gasoline; and what causes that feeling that time is standing still. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: This New Study Busts a Myth About Deadlines — https://curiosity.im/2GsniuI Why Did We Ever Use Lead In Gasoline? — https://curiosity.im/2Gs2t2T (from Sunday) What Makes Time Stand Still? — https://curiosity.im/2Gs3zeH If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for an extension when you’re up against a deadline; why we used to use lead in gasoline; and what causes that feeling that time is standing still.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/always-ask-for-a-deadline-extension-leaded-gasoline-and-what-makes-time-stand-still
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for an extension when you’re up against a deadline; why we used to use lead in gasoline; and what causes that feeling that time is standing still.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
This New Study Busts a Myth About Deadlines — https://curiosity.im/2GsniuI (Cody)
A new study busts a myth about deadlines. Picture this: you’ve got a deadline coming up, but it's gonna be a struggle to get the work done on time. Do you rush to finish the project by the deadline, which might lead to burning yourself out and producing work that's less than your best? Or do you ask your boss for an extension and risk looking like a slacker? Well thanks to this study out of Harvard, it turns out that’s not even a choice you have to make. And that’s because the researchers found that most people just think their bosses will react negatively to a request for an extension. In reality, though, managers give employees more time in an incredible 95 percent of cases. And on top of that, they also don't negatively judge those who ask to push back deadlines. To come to this conclusion, the researchers looked at data from a series of 10 studies involving 10-thousand workers, by the way. Pretty solid sample size. They also found that female employees were particularly prone to worry about negative consequences from asking for a deadline extension. But managers actually judged both male and female employees who asked for an extension as more motivated than those who did not, as long as that employee didn’t regularly show up to work late. Managers only saw employees as less competent if they asked for an extension on a very urgent assignment. So unless you know that the task is incredibly urgent for your boss, or you have a history of missing deadlines, asking for more time is all upside. You'll look mature and motivated, avoid stress, and probably hand in better work thanks to the additional breathing room. So go ahead and ask for the time you need.
Why Did We Ever Use Lead In Gasoline? — https://curiosity.im/2Gs2t2T (from Sunday) (Ashley)
If you’ve ever filled up your car’s gas tank with unleaded gasoline, you might have wondered: why did we ever use lead in gasoline in the first place? Believe it or not, we did it to make cars safer. Here’s a little bit of chemistry and a little bit of history all in one. WAY back in the day, you didn’t turn a key or push a button to start your car — you used a hand crank. You’d literally attach a crank handle to the engine crankshaft and then turn it repeatedly, until the engine got the energy it needed to run on its own. The only problem, besides the physical effort, was that crank engines were incredibly dangerous. If the engine kicked back while you were cranking, the handle could kick back, too — pummeling you in the process. And on a fateful day in April 1908, a car engine kicked back on auto manufacturer Byron Carter so hard, complications from his injury led to his death just days later. Carter had been a close personal friend of Henry M. Leland, who was the founder of Cadillac. And Leland swore his company would build a crankless car to prevent a tragedy like that from ever happening again. Leland made the 1912 Cadillac the first car to use an electric starter, but its engine was deafening and inefficient — fuel chemistry quirks made pockets of air and fuel ignite when they weren’t supposed to. Scientists worked for years on fixing the problem, but they didn’t come up with a solution until 1921 — nearly a decade later. They discovered that when you mixed it with kerosene fuel, the magic ingredient to make an engine purr was — you guessed it — Tetraethyl lead. Soon, companies began manufacturing the new "ethyl" gasoline, and nearly as soon, workers in factories began hallucinating (at best) or dying (at worst). And unfortunately, auto manufcaturers knew about the dangers — they just didn't make it public. Scientists looked into the risks associated with lead in gasoline, but their industry funders required approval of their findings before they were published. In 1925, Dr. Alice Hamilton testified at a government conference that when it came to lead, any amount was too much. And this wasn’t new information for scientists. Still, it wasn’t until the 1970s that lead was finally banned from gasoline in the U.S. And it’s made a BIG difference. The average blood lead level in the U.S. has dropped to barely detectable levels. One study found that preschool children in the 1990s had IQs up to 4.7 points higher than children in the 1970s. Today, only three countries use leaded gasoline — a far cry from the 1960s, when more than 100 countries did. Mistakes can be devastating, but sometimes, we bounce back.
[NHTSA]
CODY: Today’s episode is paid for by NIT-suh.
ASHLEY: It can be a little frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry or running late, to find yourself at a railway crossing, waiting for a train. And if the signals are going and the train’s not even there yet, you can feel a bit tempted to try and sneak across the tracks. Well, don’t. Ever. CODY: Trains are often going a lot faster than you expect them to be. And they can’t stop. Even if the engineer hits the brakes right away, it can take a train over a mile to stop. By that time, what used to be your car is just a crushed hunk of metal and what used to be you… well, better not to think about that. The point is, you can’t know how quickly the train will arrive. The train can’t stop even if it sees you.
ASHLEY: The result is disaster. If the signals are on, the train is on its way. And you... just need to remember one thing… Stop. Trains can’t.
What Makes Time Stand Still? — https://curiosity.im/2Gs3zeH (Cody)
Trains can’t stop, but sometimes it feels like time can. Why does time seem to slow down sometimes, and what's going on in our brains when it happens? Here’s the scoop. The easiest way to experience a moment of slow-mo time is through the stopped-clock illusion. It's as simple as glancing at an analog clock. That first click of the second hand... didn't it seem to hang in the air for a moment too long? When you rapidly shift your eyes in one direction, your brain makes a guess at what you'll see when you get there and what you'll see en route. And your brain, as smart as it is, has gotten in the habit of guessing that when you land on the clock, the second hand will be moving. But that's where things get tricky — since you expect it to be moving, and it usually won't move right away, you'll get the sense that it's a heartbeat behind. There are other times when your brain modulates your perception of time, but they're harder to engineer for yourself. The oddball effect is a way our brain has of picking out the differences in a string of events. In a series of identical or similar events, we tend to overestimate the time of the first one in the series, as well as any deviations from the series. So the first gutterball of the night is the most painful, but all the ones after that fly by. Until we get a strike and time slows down all over again. But when you think about time standing still, you probably think about that classic example of moments of great fear and excitement — like falling out of a plane — or moments of breathtaking awe — like standing at the altar waiting for your spouse-to-be. Well, in those cases, neuroscientists don’t think your perception of time is slowing down; they actually think the feeling has more to do with your memory of what happened afterwards. We don’t have a concrete answer for that one. But maybe, like oddball events, that kind of time-shifted memory is meant to give you space in which to reflect on what happened.
ASHLEY: Read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com!
CODY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!