How to Become a Star Grad Student: James McLurkin and the Power of Stretch Churn March 15th, 2010 · 61 comments The Famous Dr. McLurkin In 2008, when James McLurkin graduated with a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, he was unquestionably a star. Four years earlier, Time Magazine profiled James and his research on swarm robotics as part of their Innovators series. Perhaps most telling, even my brother, who finished his systems engineering degree in 2002, knew of James. In other words, James is famous in his field. With these accomplishments in mind, this post asks two simple questions: How did James become such a star? The answers, as you’ll soon encounter, are not what you might first expect… A Star is Born The direct source of James’ stardom is obvious. microrobots he called Ants. To call this swarm a breakthrough risks understatement. “Our group at MIT was way out in front,” James recalls. When James published the paper documenting the project, it sparked a sensation that spread beyond the robotics community. James became a star in the field. And so on. Conclusion
Tutkimus: Lapsen älykkyys näkyy aivojen rakenteessa vanhanakin - Lapset - Tiede Ihmisen älykkyysosamäärä yksitoistavuotiaana ennustaa aivojen harmaan aineen määrää yli 70-vuotiaana, osoittaa tuore tutkimus. Aivojen ikääntymistä koskevissa tutkimuksissa on aiemmin havaittu, että mitä paksumpi heidän aivokuorensa on, sitä virkeämpänä vanhusten toimintakyky säilyy. Miksi aivokuori ikääntyy eri ihmisillä eri tahdissa, on yksi suurista aivojen ikääntymiseen liittyvistä kysymyksistä. Onko joidenkin ihmisten aivokuori jo lähtökohtaisesti niin paksu, että he voivat menettää siitä osan ilman, että se vaikuttaa heidän toimintakykyynsä? Vai oheneeko toisten ihmisten aivokuori nopeammin kuin toisilla? Tuore kanadalais-skottilainen tutkimus ei pysty vastaamaan tyhjentävästi tähän kysymykseen, mutta sen tulokset viittaavat geneettisiin tekijöihin. Tutkijat jäljittivät elossa olevat vapaaehtoiset ja tiedustelivat heidän halukkuuttaan osallistua aivokuvaukseen. Aivokuoren koon suhde älykkyyteen tarjoaa kuitenkin mahdollisuuden vaikuttaa ikääntymiseen.
The Four Habits that Form Habits By Leo Babauta My daughter wants to work out more, but she has a hard time forming the habit (many of you might be familiar with this problem). From having to get dressed to go to the gym, to actually going to the gym, to the thought of a hard workout … our minds tend to put off the habit. The solution is exceedingly simple: just do 3 pushups. Or tell yourself you have to walk/jog for just one minute. Make it so easy you can’t say no. Of course, most people will think that’s too easy, and tell themselves they have to do more than that. Learn the fundamentals of habits before you try to do the advanced skills. Today we’re going to go over the fundamentals of habit — four key habits to form habits. Habit 1: Start Exceedingly Small Another common habit that too few people actually do is flossing daily. Of course, that seems so ridiculous most people laugh. That’s the point. If you can do two weeks of 1-2 minutes of exercise, you have a strong foundation for a habit. One glass of water a day.
“Tip-of-the-Tongue Syndrome,” Transactive Memory, and How the Internet Is Making Us Smarter by Maria Popova “A public library keeps no intentional secrets about its mechanisms; a search engine keeps many.” “The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision,” Anaïs Nin wrote in her diary in 1946, decades before the internet as we know it even existed. Her fear has since been echoed again and again with every incremental advance in technology, often with simplistic arguments about the attrition of attention in the age of digital distraction. But in Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better (public library), Clive Thompson — one of the finest technology writers I know, with regular bylines for Wired and The New York Times — makes a powerful and rigorously thought out counterpoint. He writes in the introduction: Page from 'Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life' Donating = Loving
How to Write Six Important Papers a Year without Breaking a Sweat: The Deep Immersion Approach to Deep Work March 24th, 2013 · 50 comments The Productive Professor I’m fascinated by people who produce a large volume of valuable output. Motivated by this interest, I recently setup a conversation with a hot shot young professor who rose quickly in his field. I asked him about his work habits. Though his answer was detailed — he had obviously put great thought into these issues — there was one strategy that caught my attention: he confines his deep work to long, uninterrupted bursts. On small time scales, this means each day is either completely dedicated to a single deep work task, or is left open to deal with all the e-mail and meetings and revisions that also define academic life. If he’s going to write a paper, for example, he puts aside two days, and does nothing else, emerging from his immersion with a completed first draft. If he’s going to instead deal with requests and logistics, he’ll spend the whole day doing so. On longer time scales, his schedule echoes this immersion strategy.
Elizabeth Loftus interview: False-memory research on eyewitnesses, child abuse recovered memories Hoang Xuan Pham From repressed memories to faulty eyewitness testimony, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California–Irvine, has made her name working on false memory. She tells Alison George how recollections can be conjured up, and how this process could even be used in therapy. Alison George: You study the fallibility of memories. Are we all prone to making things up? AG: I hear you collect accounts of false memories.EL: Yes, mostly embarrassing mistakes that politicians have made. AG: How does this happen? AG: How did you end up studying false memories? AG: You're known for debunking the idea of repressed memories. AG: How did you study the process of creating false memories? AG: How susceptible are people to having these types of memories implanted? AG: Do you think it's not possible to repress memories of traumatic events? AG: Is it the power of suggestion from a therapist that creates these "memories," then? AG: What is the current focus of your research?
Best, Worst Learning Tips: Flash Cards Are Good, Highlighting Is Bad In a world as fast-changing and full of information as our own, every one of us — from schoolchildren to college students to working adults — needs to know how to learn well. Yet evidence suggests that most of us don’t use the learning techniques that science has proved most effective. Worse, research finds that learning strategies we do commonly employ, like rereading and highlighting, are among the least effective. (MORE: How to Use Technology to Make You Smarter) The scientific literature evaluating these techniques stretches back decades and across thousands of articles. The WorstHighlighting and underlining led the authors’ list of ineffective learning strategies. The BestIn contrast to familiar practices like highlighting and rereading, the learning strategies with the most evidence to support them aren’t well known outside the psych lab. (MORE: ‘Implicit Learning’: How to Remember More Without Trying)
Muisti meni, poliisi toi kotiin - Helsinki - Kaupunki Helsingin poliisi saa nyt liki kymmenen kertaa enemmän katoamisilmoituksia muistamattomista vanhuksista tai vammaisista kuin vuonna 2006. Vain pieni osa tapauksista ilmoitetaan poliisille. Kello oli viisi aamulla, kun ohikulkija löysi pakilalaisen 83-vuotiaan Eino Förbomin harhailemassa Pakilan ostoskeskuksella. Oli heinäkuun alku. Ohikulkija oli soittanut paikalle poliisit, jotka veivät kivenheiton päässä yksin asuvan Förbomin kotiinsa. "Ei minulla mitään ongelmaa ollut. Huumori on tallella, mutta muistin kanssa Förbomilla on ollut ongelmia jo kymmenisen vuotta. Ikäihmisten katoamisista aiheutuneet poliisitehtävät ovat viime vuosina lisääntyneet räjähdysmäisesti Helsingissä. Vuonna 2006 muistamattomista tai vammaisista tehtiin ilmoitus poliisille 63 kertaa, viime vuonna 541 kertaa. "Tapaukset ovat tuntumallakin arvioituna lisääntyneet ja poliisille hankalia. Tilastoja kasvattaa väestön ikääntyminen. Tosiasiassa kadonneiden vanhusten määrä on vielä kirjattuja lukuja paljon suurempi.
How to Level Up in the Game of Life Ding! This may be the sweetest sound you can possibly hear when playing a role-playing game (henceforth referred to as an RPG). “DING!” Congratulations, or “grats!” It’s this particular reason that games like World of Warcraft, Rift, Oblivion, Everquest 2, and any other RPG are so damn addictive: there’s always another level to reach, another dragon to kill, and better armor to acquire. Today, we’re going to turn life into a giant role playing game. Since day one, the tagline for Nerd Fitness has been “Level up your life.” Today, you’re going to learn how. Don’t complain about your starting zone Let’s assume that you hit the random button when creating your character in World of Warcraft - you were hoping for a good looking elf and ended up with a goofy-looking ogre. In the game of life: we’re all dealt a “random character.” That’s life. It might not be fair, but it is what it is. Rule #1 of the Rebellion - “We don’t care where you came from, only where you’re going.” Life as a newbie Nope.
Studia Generalia » 14.2.2013: Äly hoi, älä jätä! Aivot – ratkaisematon mysteeri Ihmisaivoissa on yli 100 miljardia hermosolua. Niiden lukemattomat yhteydet toinen toisiinsa muodostavat jokaiselle yksilölle ainutlaatuisen hermoverkkonsa. Tämä äärimmäisen monimutkainen kokonaisuus säätelee kaikkea toimintaamme aistimisesta muistamiseen, aineenvaihduntaan, liikkumiseen – ja oppimiseen. Aivot ja aivotutkimus esittävätkin itseoikeutettua pääosaa, kun Helsingin yliopiston Studia Generalia -luentosarja Ihminen oppii jatkuu torstaina 14.2. Molemmat luennoitsijat ammentavat työhönsä innoitusta tutkimuskohteensa haasteellisuudesta. Luennot pidetään yliopistolla (Porthania, Yliopistonkatu 3), mutta niitä voi seurata myös verkossa reaaliajassa ja jälkikäteen.
5 Ways to Instantly Become More Productive Believe it or not, productivity can be learned, grasshopper. Yeah, I didn’t believe it either..until I transformed myself into a productivity ninja. Today, I’m going to teach you to maximize your time at your computer, dominate your email in-box, and spend less time on unimportant tasks to focus on what really matters. Once you have freed up your time, you’ll be surprised how you’re able to hang out with friends and family, pick up new skills, spend more time exercising, or cook healthy meals. Like Neo learning Kung Fu, today I shall teach you the skill of productivity. My story I am the world’s best procrastinator. For the past three years: I used to think I was justified in my horribly unproductive, time-consuming behavior because I was running a business. I finally came to the harsh realization that I was lying to myself. So I dumped ALL of my effort into building the habit of productivity. Just two months later, my life is drastically different: I actually feel in control of my life now.
Take the Test: How Well Do You See Color? It is generally believed that around 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men may have some degree of color blindness. When you consider the importance color plays in the products we buy, our aesthetic tastes, and the design decisions we make when we decorate, it's quite intriguing to consider that many of us may not perceive colors in the same way. X-Rite, a company that specializes in the technology and science of color (and who also owns the popular color system Pantone) offers a really interesting tool to test your "color IQ" online. A series of subtly varied color swatches ranging between two hues is presented out of order, and it's up to you to rearrange the swatches so that the gradient between the two colors is correct. Upon completion of the test you're presented with a score on a comparative scale based on your age and gender. It's quite an interesting test, especially considering some people have passed the test with a perfect score. More Info: X-Rite