Recency

I've written before that:

Human beings have evolved a very strong association that cause and effect are simple and linear; that cause and effect are local in space and time.

One of example of this is when contestants on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire phone a friend. It's easy to think that the friend could simply watch the program and start trying to find the answer before they're called. They can't. What you're watching happened some time in the past. The program is not live.

Another example is this blog! At the recent ACCU conference several people commented on what a fast reader I was. I often blog three or four book snippets in a week. And I am learning to increase my reading speed. And I do read a lot. But it's an illusion. I have a stock of hundreds of books I've already read and all the best bits from them are already marked. I simply take a book from my shelf and blog the best of its best bits as a book snippet. And then put the book onto the ACCU charity book-stall pile.