Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. People want to forgive criminals if they’re attractive

In 2002, Jeremy Meeks was arrested for robbery and assaulting a 16-year-old boy. He served two years in prison. He had better luck when he was arrested again in 2014 because this time the police put his mugshot on Facebook, and he is undeniably quite gorgeous.

The picture got thousands of likes due to his good looks so his savvy family setup a GoFundMe page to help with his legal costs. Due to the donations from Internet fans, he got a lawyer who helped reduce his sentence, and when he came out of prison he walked straight into a modelling contract. He seems to have sorted himself out, but I would assume he thanks his good looks every day for the lucky breaks they’ve given him.

These is just one high profile case. There are lots of scientific studies confirming how we are all much more forgiving to a pretty face in many circumstances, sometimes referred to as the Halo Effect. I expect it's some subconscious hope that the pretty person will mate with us 🤷‍♂️

2. The only real kilogram is in France

Who decided what a kilo weighs? What about a gram? You may not have realised it but as recently as 2019 the metric system used to be based around a slab of metal under glass in Paris.

Yes, it was only 5 years ago that scientists figured out how to define a kilogram without this thing. They did it after decades of research and making using of Planck’s constant from quantum mechanics - yes, it was that hard.

But I think the main reason they figured out a new method was that every country in the world was obliged to have a representative meet up in Paris on a regular basis to doublecheck what the old relic weighed. That just sounds so annoying.

3. The Hitler beetle is nearing extinction

In the 1930s, an Austrian Nazi-supporting scientist named the beetle he had just discovered after his favourite politician. It is a small cave-dwelling beetle mostly found in Slovenia. But it's not damp cave conditions that's causing its demise today - it’s all the bumbling Neo Nazis who go on holiday to Slovenia wanting to capture one.

If God exists, then, He "has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles," as biologist JBS Haldane famously said. With over 300,000 species, the beetle order dwarfs every other order and family in the animal kingdom - for comparison, mammals only have about 10,000 species.

But I don’t think most of those other beetles have names that might offend nor have racists trying to find them. The debate about renaming poorly-chosen scientific names continues.

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to get started without hesitation

Tell yourself: “I’m doing this in 3… 2… 1… go!”

Often we don’t feel like getting started on something. Sometimes even getting out of bed. A solution that works for many people who are hesitating or procrastinating is to say a little countdown out loud: 3, 2, 1, and go! Try it from 5 even for extra oomph.

Why does this stupid-sounding advice often work so well? It’s because you don’t hesitate over the counting. And once you get to the end it feels like a natural progression to follow through. Try it - it’s weirdly effective.

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading. Here's a photo of a monkey giving a high five in Gibraltar.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

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