Our friends at Rocket Matter brought our attention to an interesting story about the future of algorithms. Ah yes, the algorithm.  Defined by Merriam-Webster quite simply as “a procedure for solving a mathematical problem…in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation”, algorithms are purportedly the very phenomenon that may lead to that often repeated Sci-Fi movie scene when humans realize they are no longer in control of their surroundings. The BBC reported this week that algorithms have taken over a tremendous amount of work that humans used to do on their own, and we don’t even know it. From search engines of all kinds (yes, even Fastcase uses algorithms) to social networking capabilities, stock market transactions to daily household chores, algorithms determine a great deal of our day to day functionality.

photo credit to Bsivad

Seeing as the average person has probably never given algorithms a second thought, experts in the field are concerned that this lack of awareness can and already has led to some problems. While many speculate over the possibilities of more major catastrophes, stock market crashes, hackers obtaining access to personal data, etc., perhaps even more disturbing is the shift in human reliance.

Psychologists have launched studies showing that our brains have stopped remembering things because they know we can get access to the information easily elsewhere. Whether it’s a quick definition that you Google (guilty, see definition above), or directions to dinner, humans are relying less on their own knowledge and more on the artificial knowledge handed to them. It seems unlikely that “Revenge of the Algorithms” will hit theaters anytime soon – although they could easily predict box office success – but it’s an interesting thought.

Making Poor Decisions? Well, it might be because you’ve been making too many. John Tierney’s recent column in the New York Times examines a study by Jonathan Levav of Stanford and Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University that takes a clinical look at our ability to make decisions. As it turns out our ability to perform mental tasks wears thin when repeatedly exerted and the harder choice, or the severity of the consequences, the greater the toll on our mental energy. Decision Fatigue, coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, helps explain, “why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new cars” says Tierney.

The study by Levav and Danziger took data from prisoners being granted parole in an Israeli prison and found that the time of day at which a prisoner faced a parole board gave the greatest indication of the board’s decision. After analyzing more than 1,100 decisions the researchers concluded that prisoners judged early in the morning received parole 70 percent of the time while prisoners who were judged late in the day received parole less than 10 percent of the time.
The study found that when your brain gets tired it begins to look for shortcuts in two distinct ways. One shortcut our brains take to avoid a thorough assessment of available choices is to act impulsively. The other is to simply opt out of the decision making process all together. The parole judges in the study were likely guilty of the latter. By denying a prisoner parole the judge avoided the energy intensive process of weighing the pros and cons of potentially releasing a known criminal. The study seems to suggest what many may have already suspected: legal professionals work a lot.

It’s often helpful to have your comments and analysis in one place for easy reference. To create such a document, follow the simple steps below:

On Fastcase, identify the relevant cases and save them as one file using the batch printing feature so that you can easily maneuver from one case to the next. Open the case either as a document in Microsoft Word or as a PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

Go through the document and identify key issues, facts, and legal points. Then if you’re using Adobe, highlight the passages or words of interest and annotate with sticky notes. If you’re using Word, highlight the passages and annotate using Review → New Comment.

To view all your notes in a concise format, hit “comments” (if you’re using Adobe) in the upper right-hand corner and they will appear in a side tab. In Word, go to Review → Reviewing Pane and they will appear in a side tab.

To print just the notes, go to Print → Summarize Comments in Adobe, or Print → List of Markup in Word. This way you’ll have all your comments at hand, labeled with the page and paragraph they refer to. This is an easy way to create a master document that you can use to dictate your brief, statement of facts, statement of the law, or argument.

Hat tip to J. Burton Hunter III who shares this tip on his blog “A Small Town Lawyer.”

Visit him here: http://burtonhunteresq.blogspot.com/2011/07/practical-technology-102.html

With the start of a new school year fast approaching and fall just around the corner – at least as advertisers would have us believe –  we can’t help but think about one group in particular: first year associates. The ABA Journal reports that law firms are starting to conduct interviews earlier on and plan on increasing their hiring in the coming year. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s not still a tough world out there for young lawyers. An article out of the Harvard Business Review blog piqued our interest and we couldn’t help but pass along the advice. Detailing just how to manage your managers, we thought this would be a valuable set of lessons for just about anyone in the workforce to consider.

Photo credit to freefotouk

For all of the expert advice, be sure to take a look at the full post here. We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite suggestions below:

1. Recognize the challenges – Be careful when it comes to taking on too much and watch out for conflicting messages

2. Know who your ultimate boss is – Be aware of the chain of command and follow it carefully

3. Get your bosses to communicate – Don’t be afraid to bring people together

4. Don’t take it personally – Try not to get caught up in over analyzing situations, focus instead on the problem at hand and how it can be resolved