The Ig Nobel prize is a parody prize, but a subtle one, honoring “
achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” It’s not exactly a prize for bad science: it’s more about science that’s funny, unusual or trivial in some entertaining way. Like magnetically levitating frogs or quantifying exactly how much really having to pee affects concentration. (Last year, the physicist Andre Geim, who won an Ig Nobel prize for levitating frogs, won a real Nobel prize for his research on graphene.) This year’s winner in the “literature” category is the philosopher John Perry, for this essay on getting things done as a procrastinator. His solution? Always be doing important things in order to avoid doing even more important things.
Guilty! (And getting more done than ever.)
