This is a great list of interesting ideas, from a wide range of fields, to understand how the world works.
Some examples.
Principle of Least Effort: When seeking information, effort declines as soon as the minimum acceptable result is reached.
The 90-9-1 Rule: In social media networks, 90% of users just read content, 9% of users contribute a little content, and 1% of users contribute almost all the content. Gives a false impression of what ideas are popular or “average.”
Bizarreness Effect: Crazy things are easier to remember than common things, providing a distorted sense of “normal.”
Second Half of the Chessboard: Put one grain of rice on the first chessboard square, two on the next, four on the next, then eight, then sixteen, etc, doubling the amount of rice on each square. When you’ve covered half the chessboard’s squares you’re dealing with an amount of rice that can fit in your lap; in the second half you quickly get to a pile that will consume an entire city. That’s how compounding works: slowly, then ferociously.
Clinicaltrials.gov counts 104 active studies in the US.
There is also SOLIDARITY, a WHO megatrial announced on Friday.
Drugs in Clinical Trials:
Chloroquine (Plaquenil) – 70 year old treatment for malaria repurposed. Only small open label trials done so far (here, here and here) show encouraging early results.
Siltuximab, Sarilumab and Tocilizumab – all IL-6 inhibitors (for anti-inflammatory conditions) repurposed and being clinically tested.
Remdesivir – previously tested for other viruses including Ebola. Two phase III studies initiated.
