Wisdom from a MacArthur Genius: Psychologist Angela Duckworth on Why Grit, Not IQ, Predicts Success. By Maria Popova “Character is at least as important as intellect.” Creative history brims with embodied examples of why the secret of genius is doggedness rather than “god”-given talent, from the case of young Mozart’s upbringing to E. B. White’s wisdom on writing to Chuck Close’s assertion about art to Tchaikovsky’s conviction about composition to Neil Gaiman’s advice to aspiring writers. But it takes a brilliant scholar of the psychology of achievement to empirically prove these creative intuitions: Math-teacher-turned-psychologist Angela Duckworth, who began her graduate studies under positive psychology godfather Martin Seligman at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, has done more than anyone for advancing our understanding of how self-control and grit — the relentless work ethic of sustaining your commitments toward a long-term goal — impact success.
In this short video from the MacArthur Foundation, Duckworth traces her journey and explores the essence of her work: How to Cultivate Practical Wisdom in Our Everyday Lives and Why It Matters in Our Individual and Collective Happiness. By Maria Popova The psychology of how we use frames, categories, and storytelling to make sense of the world. “It’s insulting to imply that only a system of rewards and punishments can keep you a decent human being,” Isaac Asimov told Bill Moyers in their magnificent 1988 conversation on science and religion. And yet ours is a culture that frequently turns to rigid external rules — be they of religion or of legislature or of social conduct — as a substitute for the inner moral compass that a truly “decent human being” uses to steer behavior.
So what can we do, as a society and as individual humans aspiring to be good, to cultivate that deeper sense of right and wrong, with all its contextual fuzziness and situational fluidity? Schwartz and Sharpe write: External rules, while helpful in other regards, can’t instill in us true telos. Echoing Asimov’s concern, Schwartz and Sharpe consider how this concept helps define a good person and what it necessitates: The world is gray. Thanks, Tina. Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Crucial Difference Between Success and Mastery. By Maria Popova The lost art of learning to stand “where we would rather not and expand in ways we never knew we could.”
“You gotta be willing to fail… if you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far,” Steve Jobs cautioned. “There is no such thing as failure — failure is just life trying to move us in another direction,” Oprah counseled new Harvard graduates. In his wonderfully heartening letter of fatherly advice, F. Female archers, lantern slide, c. 1920. Lewis begins with a visit with the women of Columbia University’s varsity archery team, who spend countless hours practicing a sport that requires equal parts impeccable precision of one’s aim and a level of comfort with the uncontrollable — all the environmental interferences, everything that could happen between the time the arrow leaves the bow and the time it lands on the target, having followed its inevitably curved line.
Mastery requires endurance. Thomas Edison The word failure is imperfect. Zero is the oddest number. Enlightenment’s Evil Twin. Exploring the Shadow Side of Meditation In 1974 Hans Burgschmidt was sixteen years old, living in the Canadian Prairies, working in a photography studio darkroom, elbow-deep in chemicals all day long.
“Is this what life is about?” He asked a high school friend. “You need to meditate,” was the reply. “An infinite ocean of peace and love and happiness awaits you,” said the radiant Maharishi, with his flowing hair and his garland of flowers. Soon after he began his meditation practice, exactly as advertised, he found himself transported from his parent’s basement into a shimmering inner space of light and colour and bliss. Hans was hooked. But somewhere along the line Hans became disenchanted. Thus began Hans’ long career as an itinerant spiritual seeker. “I found it invigorating,” says Hans.
Everything was fine, until three weeks after his first retreat, when, in Hans’ words, “something changed.” Hans was at home making his bed, when the room suddenly appeared “very far away.” If That's What It Takes To Have A 'Successful' Marriage, I'm Not All That Interested. The Psychology of Getting Unstuck: How to Overcome the “OK Plateau” of Performance & Personal Growth. By Maria Popova “When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.” “Any sequence of mental action which has been frequently repeated tends to perpetuate itself,” William James wrote in his influential meditation on habit, ”so that we find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been before accustomed to think, feel, or do, under like circumstances.”
As we’ve seen, one of the most insidious forms of such habitual autopilot — which evolved to help lighten our cognitive load yet is a double-edged sword that can also hurt us — is our mercilessly selective everyday attention, but the phenomenon is particularly perilous when it comes to learning new skills. In the 1960s, psychologists identified three stages that we pass through in the acquisition of new skills. Color restoration of archival Einstein photograph by Mads Madsen The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl.
Watch Kimbo Slice Gets Punching Lesson Video. Coffee vs. beer: which drink makes you more creative? — What I Learned Today. I didn’t know what I was going to write about today. When this happens, normally I grab a coffee to help get the ideas flowing, but for the last few days in Montreal, no one’s been allowed to drink the water due to a bacteria leakage, which also means, no coffee. So instead, I grabbed the next best thing to help me get going - a beer. This got me wondering about coffee and beer and which one would actually help me be more creative and get work done. Hopefully, this will help you decide when it’s best to have that triple shot espresso or ice cold brew. What is creativity really? From a scientific perspective, creativity is your ability to think of something original from connections made between pre-existing ideas in your brain.
These connections are controlled by neurotransmitters like adenosine, which alerts your brain when you’re running out of energy and reacts by slowing down the connections made between neurons by binding to adenosine receptors. Your brain on coffee The result? ShaoLan: Learn to read Chinese ... with ease! Stephen Covey: Indian Talking Stick. TEDxBloomington - Shawn Achor - "The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance" Heroic Imagination Project. Mouth Trumpet - Tutorial. Procrastination: Ten Things To Know. There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination .
Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Why would people do that? Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. Tags: anxiety , associate professor , carleton university , christmas eve , christmas shopping , chronic depression , chronic procrastinators , delay , gift certificates , grandmother , income tax returns , milieu , ottawa canada , pay bills , personality , procrastinator , t pay , time , timothy pychyl , university in ottawa , weekly planner , work. Beginning to see. By sujata pen-art by julio lynch this book is dedicated to the 9 to 5ers and everybody else a collection of epigrams about the problem of living and the freedom to be gained through meditation much sufferingcomes into thelife of one whotries to be anywherebut herein this presentmoment are you content with where you are right now? Because "right nows" are all you have there is nothingin this life that we canhave for very long things and peoplecome ... then leave us ... an immense amount of fear is created if we spend our lives dodging pain an immense amount of fear is created if we spend our lives dodging pain an immense amount of fear is created if we spend our lives dodging pain the world continually demands that we direct our attention outside ourselves meditation teaches us to revolt and turn that awareness toward our insides ... painful feelings * in the mind indicate wrong attitudes about lifemeditation can show us what we're doing wrong we live our lives fearfully yaw cificeps ego.
Critical thinking web. Ways to Improve Human Intelligence. This briefing is intended to pull into one convenient, single frame of reference a body of key information which currently is scattered across a great many different contexts. Until recently, even the possibility of any such information existing was, for essentially political reasons and funding reasons, denied by most of our institutions, together with most of our educators and psychologists, so that such findings as were made in various contexts and circumstances never got discussed across a broader context.
Now that it is evident that the brain, and one's intelligence, are highly changeable and that a wide variety of conditions, arrangements and techniques may be employed to improve both brain functioning and intelligence to even a profound degree, we need to make a start on getting a lot of this key information organized to where you and other inquirers can more readily get at it, understand it, and use it. Menu of Methods Quick Interjection 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Dr Richard Milne - Critical Thinking on Climate Change: separating skepticism from denial. Free online speed reading software | Spreeder.com. Correcting Creativity: The Struggle for Eminence | Guest Blog. By the time he put the finishing touches on the Rite of Spring in November of 1912 in the Châtelard Hotel in Clarens, Switzerland, Stravinsky had spent three years studying Russian pagan rituals, Lithuanian folk songs and crafting the dissonant sacre chord, in which an F-flat major combines with an E-flat major with added minor seventh.
The rehearsal process wasn’t easy either. Stravinsky fired the German pianist and the orchestra and performers only had a few opportunities to practice at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the Rite debuted in May 1913. But the Russian born composer pulled it off, and his composition now stands as a 20th century masterpiece. Stravinsky is one of seven eminent creators of the 20st century profiled by Harvard professor Howard Gardner in his 1993 book Creating Minds. The psychology of creativity–both empirical research and popular literature for the lay audience–misses this. This is the story of Gardner’s subjects. So my concern is twofold. 30 Challenges for 30 Days. Did you know that it takes 30 days to form a new habit?
The first few days are similar as to how you would imagine the birth of a new river. Full of enthusiasm it gushes forth, only to be met by strong obstacles. The path is not clear yet, and your surroundings don’t agree. Old habits urge you to stay the same. But you need to stay determined. This starting phase is the hardest. So, take a moment to reflect on the question ‘Who do I want to be in 5 years?’ Check out this short TED talk first to get inspired: Now pick one or more challenges and stick with them! However, be cautioned, picking too many challenges at the same time can easily result in a failure of all of them. #1 Write a I-Like-This-About-You note/text/email each day for someone (Easy) This is the perfect way to let someone else know you care. . #2 Talk to one stranger each day (Hard) This is a great one to cure approaching anxiety.
. #3 Take one picture each day (Hard) #4 Re-evaluate one long-held belief each day (Intermediate) Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills. The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look. Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills , but I figured I’d save you some time. Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new. Hack a Day - Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks (short tutorials) every day from around the web and one in-depth ‘How-To hack’ guide each week.eHow - eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects.Wired How-To Wiki - Collaborate with Wired editors and help them build their extensive library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips.
Browse through hundreds how-to articles and then add to them, or start a new one.MAKE Magazine - Brings the do-it-yourself (DIY) mindset to all of the technology in your life. Deskercise! 33 Ways to Exercise at Work. Remember the days when “work” meant manual labor with a side of blood, sweat, and tears? Neither do we. These days it seems we’re more likely to log hour after idle hour with our bums glued to our seats. And while you may be an Excel champ by day and gym rat by night, recent research suggests that the recommended 30 minutes of cardio five times per week may not undo the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle.
So what’s a worker chained to his or her desk to do? Luckily short bouts of aerobics, strength exercises, and stretching in between conference calls and Gchats can help improve fitness levels and heart health. While these deskercises, or desk exercises for the cubicle-bound, won’t promise Olympic mile times or six-pack abs, they might just improve strength and burn a few extra calories to boot. So whether it’s Powerpoint, Photoshop, or emails on that to-do list, we’ve got 33 sneaky exercises for a healthier (and happier!) 1. 2. 3. 4. Win over a new client? 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Debate-flow-chart.jpg (JPEG Image, 630 × 902 pixels) - Scaled (98%) Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do. Exercises for Better Focus and Concentration | Personal development for a perfect life. The recipe for success: get happy and you will get ahead in life | Science.
Happiness, rather than working hard, is the key to success, according to research published today. Cheerful people are more likely to try new things and challenge themselves, which reinforces positive emotion and leads to success in work, good relationships and strong health, say psychologists. The findings suggest that happiness is not a "feelgood" luxury, but is essential to people's wellbeing.
What is more, happiness can also extend across an entire nation, with people in "happy" nations being more likely to have pro-democratic attitudes and a keenness to help others. The link between happiness and success was investigated by a team from the University of California Riverside, led by Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky. First, they analysed questionnaires that ask people about multiple aspects of their lives. Other studies revealed that having a sunny outlook on life appeared to precede good fortune. Success was not just about earning lots of money.
Nor is happiness just an individual pursuit. Boost Your Brain’s Power With a 9-Volt Battery and Some Wet Sponges. It seems, with the help of a 9-volt battery, wire, crocodile clips, and wet sponges, you can increase your brain’s performance and, more importantly, return your brain to its younger, more malleable and learning-receptive state. The technique, which is lumbered with the fantastic and slightly terrifying name of transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), is similar to deep brain stimulation (DBS), but it doesn’t involve complex neurosurgery.
TCDS runs a very small current — just 2 milliamps — into brain tissue just beneath your scalp; it’s non-invasive, and seemingly quite safe. By pumping electrons into the brain, neurons move a few millivolts towards ‘depolarization’, which makes them more sensitive, and thus reducing the time it takes signals to travel across your nervous system. More importantly, though, this technique increases the plasticity of brain tissue, leaving it in a kind of ‘wet clay’ state after the electrical current has been removed. Read more at Nature. GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit. Creative Thinking Is a Specific Process That Can Be Replicated. Ever seen a real kung fu workout routine? [VIDEO] Heartburn alliance Resources and Information. This website is for sale! Solve for X: Nicholas Negroponte on learning by themselves. Swole.me - The automatic diet planner.
Psychedelic Research Around the World. MusicalMind.org Ear Training Online. How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness. Philosophy for Beginners - Download free content from Oxford University. Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY. Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School. Fluent in 3 months. Free Online Course Materials | Physics. Chemical & Engineering News: What's That Stuff? R&D-I-Y | Research and Develop It Yourself.
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