Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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The 33 Things That Make Us Crazy

Wired feature this month is 33 Things That Suck, explaining why annoying things are the way they are.

A few highlights: DVD sound (“Basically, DVDs are just too lifelike for the living room. Their dynamic range — the continuum of sound levels they’re capable of reproducing — is more like the real world, where exploding cars and hails of gunfire really are a lot louder than casual conversation.”), plastic packaging (“Factories are loath to invest in new equipment, and most companies don’t want to pay a single penny more per item, even if doing so would keep your sanity — and fingers — intact.”) and air travel (“If anything, flying doesn’t cost enough: The average domestic fare in spring 2007 was $326. That’s $50 less than a decade ago, after adjusting for inflation. During the same period, fuel costs nearly tripled.”).

January 22, 2008