Category: evolution

One of the most perplexing aspects of the modern workplace is the pervasiveness of weather-related small talk. According to an unscientific poll I recently conducted, 0% of people find the weather an interesting conversation topic. Nevertheless, actual research suggests that 94% have discussed it within the past 6 hours alone.

Just today, I counted myself having no less than three conversations that were some variation on “the weather is weather outside!”

If no one finds it interesting, why do we all do it¹? Continue reading “Ubiquity of the Dull: The Phenomenon of Weather-Related Small talk”

Whether a species survives or goes extinct depends on its ability to access crucial resources, such as food and water. Species are in constant and fierce competition with one another for limited resources and different species only learn to coexist when they can occupy unique niches within their environments (i.e. when they use different resources from one another).

For example, small beaked finches and large beaked finches coexist within the Galapagos islands because they eat different sized seeds. If both types ate the same types of seeds, one would eventually get better at it, and the other would die out. Luckily for the finch lovers of the world, large and small mouth finches occupy different niches, so they can live in harmony alongside one another. Continue reading “Organizations are Organisms”