Quora Newsletter

Simple: Elude law enforcement in a jurisdiction with a strict pursuit policy. In my department, unless a suspect vehicle was an obvious DWI (swerving white line to white line, erratic speed changes) or had committed a violent felony, vehicle pursuits got cancelled by a commander almost instantly. There is so much liability at play in a pursuit situation that many departments are getting very conservative in their response protocols to situations like this.

As far as maneuvering tactics when they’re actually pursuing you, there’s really no … Read More »

Street performing is the best job in the world when it is going well. You’ve just shown up, convinced hundreds of complete strangers to stop what they were doing, watch you for 45 minutes to an hour, and then pay you for the pleasure after they have seen the show. People laugh at everything you say, they will comply with your every request, they will applaud your every action. The feeling of looking out at an adoring crowd of people so thick you can’t see passersby in any direction is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. You turn th… Read More »

I think the cardinal rule of input of any kind is to not take it personally. Always focus on the substance of the input – is it valid? If so, what does that mean for your work?

I’ve found the most impressive leaders to be those with the greatest ability to hear input. They don’t get hurt by negative feedback, and they equally don’t get unduly high from positive input. They focus on what they can learn from everyone. So, over time they accumulate the most wisdom.

I think it’s also true that leaders who are good listeners attract the b… Read More »

According to Steven Pinker, we are living in a historic period of peace:

Gathering reliable data for conflicts before 1946 becomes increasingly difficult the farther one goes back but Pinker points to other indicators showing rates of violence have dropped.

For example, murder rates have been going down in Europe since the Middle Ages and have dropped by 10 – 50 times.

Pinker cites archeological evidence that shows about 15% of pre-state societies suffered violent deaths while 3% of people living in early states did.

Pinker wrote an… Read More »

Lobsters and other crustaceans have a carotenoid pigment called astaxanthin in their shell, which provides a red coloring. However, in most, this reddish color is mixed with other colors to form the animal’s normal, often duller coloration. This coloration helps them blend in well with their surroundings.

Astaxanthin is stable in heat, while the other pigments are not. This means that when a lobster or shrimp is cooked, the other pigments break down, leaving only the bright red astaxanthin, thus a bright red animal on your plate!