I’m annoyed with whoever positioned my air-conditioner thermostat. It is in a warm part of the house, which means the air-con stays on longer that it should.

That got me thinking. We have many gadgets that only work well if they get decent feedback telling their circuitry what to do next. And yet, we humans are rather pathetic when it comes to seeking and using feedback ourselves.

Tell me, what is worse than not asking for feedback? Yes, not heeding feedback is rather bad. But having only one source of feedback is even worse.

We ask people we like for feedback. The problem is that the people we like tend to be like us, resulting in feedback unlikely to be revealing or surprising.

The trick is to have multiple sources of feedback, including from people we don’t particularly like.

Which is why I’ll add a thermostat where it’s unlikeably cold.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.