Paul Whitmore Sas

My resume. A brief description of my career as a psychologist committed to deploying empirical research techniques to improve people's lives.

How to contact me. This info is kept up-to-date.

This began as a bareboned web-site. I was scared by the example of Stanford grad students who dropped out to build Google, Yahoo, and other distractor sites instead of finishing their degrees.
I focused my efforts on vanquishing the Delmore Effect. This simply means: I successfully focused on my top priority (research) before directing my attention to my next-most important goal, which involves bringing research into the real world.

Applying Psychology of Human Computer Interaction

My ambition, since at least 1992, has been to use psychological insights and methods to make people's work environments more humane and engaging.

Recent Talks

  • Players are At the Center of Design-Centered Disciplines
  • Relevance of Market Research to User Centered Design (panel)
  • Strange Tales from the Lab: the Relevance of Recent Studies in Psychology  (powerpoint slides)
  • CHI April 2003 Tutorial on Heuristics and Biases for Interaction Design
  • How to design for people's real goals (slides in html)
    Seminar on People, Computers, and Design at Stanford 11.08.02. ( video stream)
  • The Psychology of Ecommerce: Choice Overload and other Paradoxes
    Presented at Stanford, Xerox PARC's UIR group, and Cooper Design.( video stream)
  • "What's the Net Pleasure? The Hedonics of Web Interactivity" 01.30.01
    A talk to the Symbolic Systems Program in January (notes as a PDF).

    • Culture, Books and Ideas

  • Blog about Yair and Beckett, born on Jan 23
  • Books I've experienced lately
  • Old bookcases (These photos are distinctly pre-Flickr )

    BAYCHI Events

    I am currently the co-chair of the monthly program development at BayCHI, the ACM organization that's so old, the acronym places the computer before the human. I have shared this position with Rashmi Sinha since November of 2003, and we take turns scheduling the main presentation at PARC, which is held the 2nd Tues of each month.

    The BayCHI Apprenticeship Program consisted of workshops held in multiple expertise areas, to help students bootstrap the work-experience needed to get jobs in this field.

    Academic Research