The Art of Insight and Action 10 More Common Faults in Human Thought Humans This list is a follow up to Top 10 Common Faults in Human Thought. Thanks for everyone’s comments and feedback; you have inspired this second list! It is amazing that with all these biases, people are able to actually have a rational thought every now and then. There is no end to the mistakes we make when we process information, so here are 10 more common errors to be aware of. The confirmation bias is the tendency to look for or interpret information in a way that confirms beliefs. The Availability heuristic is gauging what is more likely based on vivid memories. Illusion of Control is the tendency for individuals to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes that they clearly have no influence on. Interesting Fact: when playing craps in a casino, people will throw the dice hard when they need a high number and soft when they need a low number. The Planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks. Bonus Attribute Substitution
Search: Seven Tribes (now Eight Tribes) This concept first developed as an “information continuum” from described in 1992 as being from schoolhouse to White House, and then in 1993 covering nine elements as shown below. 1992-1993 Nine Sectors From there, for General Peter Schoomaker at USSOCOM, it was described as eight segments, treating the Internet as a separate entity. 1997 Eight Segments It matured when Alvin Toffler and Robert Steele visited DIA for lunch and came away understanding that DIA (at the time) wanted absolutely nothing to do with anything other than military intelligence. Eight Intelligence "Blocks" From there the concept evolved to seven tribes, with media and non-governmental organizations as one “ground truth” tribe. Seven Tribes 2003 Information Peacekeeping & The Future of Intelligence: The United Nations, Smart Mobs, and the Seven Tribes See especially the figures and Note 4. Outreach Concept 1998 Operationalizing IO in Bosnia-Herzegovina by LtCol Garry Beavers and Stephen W. Inter-Agency Information-Sharing
The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight The Misconception: You celebrate diversity and respect others’ points of view. The Truth: You are driven to create and form groups and then believe others are wrong just because they are others. Source: “Lord of the Flies,” 1963, Two Arts Ltd. In 1954, in eastern Oklahoma, two tribes of children nearly killed each other. The neighboring tribes were unaware of each other’s existence. Separately, they lived among nature, played games, constructed shelters, prepared food – they knew peace. Scientists stood by, watchful, scribbling notes and whispering. These two tribes consisted of 22 boys, ages 11 and 12, whom psychologist Muzafer Sherif brought together at Oklahoma’s Robber’s Cave State Park. He was right, but as those cultures formed and met something sinister presented itself. Sherif and his colleagues pretended to be staff members at the camp so they could record, without interfering, the natural human drive to form tribes. Soon, the two groups began to suspect they weren’t alone.
10 Eating Rules French Children Know (But Most Americans Don't) How the French eat, age, dress, raise their children and live in general is a real talking point these days. So, as an American mother of three half-French kids, I figured I'd add my two cents to the conversation. I lived in France before becoming a parent, but eventually it was my kids who taught me everything I need to know about eating like a French person: Eating, and staying slim and healthy, isn't just about what you eat, but also how, when and why. 1. Three meals a day, plus the children’s traditional after-school “gouter,” or snack, which might be a pain au chocolat, fruit or applesauce. When mealtimes roll around, you eat with real pleasure because you’re hungry. 2. Consuming three meals a day without grazing in between means you can eat well when you sit down at the table — and that includes a starter, main course, cheese and dessert. Starter course: Lentil salad Main course: Roasted chicken, green beans Cheese course: Vanilla yogurt 3. 4. 5. Lunchtime is the main event. 6. 7. 8.
Top 10 Thinking Traps Exposed Our minds set up many traps for us. Unless we’re aware of them, these traps can seriously hinder our ability to think rationally, leading us to bad reasoning and making stupid decisions. Features of our minds that are meant to help us may, eventually, get us into trouble. Here are the first 5 of the most harmful of these traps and how to avoid each one of them. 1. “Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million? Lesson: Your starting point can heavily bias your thinking: initial impressions, ideas, estimates or data “anchor” subsequent thoughts. This trap is particularly dangerous as it’s deliberately used in many occasions, such as by experienced salesmen, who will show you a higher-priced item first, “anchoring” that price in your mind, for example. What can you do about it? Always view a problem from different perspectives. 2. In one experiment a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts — half received a decorated mug, the other half a large Swiss chocolate bar. 3. 4.
Einstein's Puzzle # Copyright (C) 2004 Lauri Karttunen # # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify # it under the terms of GNU General Public License as published by # the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or # (at your option) any later version. # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the # GNU General Public License for more details. Einstein's Puzzle Variations of this riddle appear on the net from time to time. Let us assume that there are five houses of different colors next to each other on the same road. The Englishman lives in the red house. The question to be answered is: Who keeps fish? This is a simple constraint satisfaction problem. The next concept to define is that of a House. The result is a network with five paths. With C16 added, only one solution remains. We can now see the solution.
Meditation Health Benefits: What The Practice Does To Your Body We hear it all the time: Meditation can improve our creative thinking, our energy, stress levels and even our success. Prominent artists, businessmen and politicians cop to the practice. Would it work for you? "It did to my mind what going to the gym did to my body -- it made it both stronger and more flexible," said Dr. Hedy Kober, a neuroscientist who who studies the effects of mindfulness meditation, which she has practiced for 10 years, at her lab at Yale University. She admitted during a TED Talk that she started meditating to deal with a break up, but found that it helped her handle stress and unpleasant feelings in all areas of her life. Studies show that meditation is associated with improvement in a variety of psychological areas, including stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, eating disorders and cognitive function, among others. For one thing, it changes our brain. "Think of the end of a neuron as a hand, with thousands of 'fingers,'" said Dr. Want to learn more?
Perché non abolire la carne di cavallo dai menù Per aver detto di amare la carne equina, Maria Elena Boschi è stata aspramente criticata da chi vorrebbe eleggere il cavallo ad animale d’affezione. Pubblicato La ministra delle Riforme Maria Elena Boschi è stata bersaglio di polemiche per aver mangiato e gradito una pietanza a base di carne di cavallo, il Tordo matto, offertale alla Festa dell’Unità di Zagarolo, Roma, lo scorso venerdì. Apprezzato l’assaggio, la Boschi si è lasciata scappare la frase: “A Roma si fa fatica a trovare carne di cavallo”. Ho già avuto modo di spiegare il mio punto di vista sulla questione degli animali migliori di altri, ad esempio sulle critiche mosse al Giappone perché si nutre di delfini, considerati belli e intelligenti, e quindi più simili a noi. Tralasciando la posizione di Brambilla, e dopo aver specificato che non è vero che la carne di cavallo è proibita negli Usa (come invece si vocifera sulla questione), vorrei commentare la reazione dell’Enpa.
The 'thinking cap' that could unlock your inner genius and boost creativity By Fiona Macrae Updated: 07:39 GMT, 30 September 2008 There is a theory that the spark of genius lurks hidden within all of us. Now scientists are developing a 'thinking cap' that could turn that theory into practice and unlock the amazing potential of the human brain. The device uses tiny magnetic pulses to change the way the brain works and has produced remarkable results in tests. Wearing the hairnet-like cap for a few minutes improved artistic ability and proof-reading skills. If the technique is perfected, the device could be marketed as a cap slipped on to boost creativity when inspiration is low. The Australian experiments are inspired by savants, people who, like Dustin Hoffman's character in the film Rain Man, have amazing skills or talents despite a severe mental disability. Some have mind-boggling calculating skills or 'internal calendar' that can almost instantly work out the day that any given date fell on. Around 10 per cent of people with autism are savants.
101 Ways to Be Healthy Do the healthy thing, even when it's challenging, inconvenient or considered weird. Take pride in that. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's smart or good for you. Enlist fellow trend buckers and create a trend of your own. Don't be boring. The Neuroscience of Imagination Albert Einstein said of the theory of relativity, "I thought of it while riding my bicycle." Anyone who exercises regularly knows that your thinking process changes when you are walking, jogging, biking, swimming, riding the elliptical trainer, etc. New ideas tend to bubble up and crystallize when you are inside the aerobic zone. Aerobic exercise clears the cobwebs from your mind and gives you access to insights that are out of reach when you are sedentary. What is happening to the electrical, chemical and architectural environment of our brains when we exercise that stimulates our imagination and makes us more creative? Many scientists believe that the creative process springs as much from the subconscious as it does from a conscious thought process. In an essay from 1911 called William James said, "when you are making your general [creative] resolutions and deciding on your plans of campaign, keep them out of the details. The creative process moves through five stages.
Help Remedies: simple healthcare products for headaches, bodyaches, allergies, sleep issues, cuts and blisters Developing Creativity and Innovation: Think More Abstractly Creative problem solving is enhanced by thinking more abstractly or at an intellectual distance, rather than more concretely, according to research studies. In my post Using Research to Enhance Creative Thinking – Part 2, I quoted from the article “15 Scientific Facts About Creativity” which notes that “psychological distance” facilitates creativity, and “when hitting a creative snag, the best thing thinkers can do for themselves is step away and try to look at everything from a completely different point of view.” Evan Polman of New York University and Kyle Emich of Cornell University devised four studies on this creative strategy, with results published in their paper: “Decisions for others are more creative than decisions for the self” [Abstract]. One of the interesting comments on this post: “I suspect this demonstrates the advantage of being in careers which empower us to solve the problems of people who desire creative solutions. Books by Daniel Pink: