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8 Common Thinking Mistakes Our Brains Make Every Day and How to Prevent Them

8 Common Thinking Mistakes Our Brains Make Every Day and How to Prevent Them
12.3K Flares Filament.io 12.3K Flares × Get ready to have your mind blown. I was seriously shocked at some of these mistakes in thinking that I subconsciously make all the time. Obviously, none of them are huge, life-threatening mistakes, but they are really surprising and avoiding them could help us to make more rational, sensible decisions. Especially as we thrive for continues self-improvement at Buffer, if we look at our values, being aware of the mistakes we naturally have in our thinking can make a big difference in avoiding them. Unfortunately, most of these occur subconsciously, so it will also take time and effort to avoid them—if you even want to. Regardless, I think it’s fascinating to learn more about how we think and make decisions every day, so let’s take a look at some of these thinking habits we didn’t know we had. 1. We tend to like people who think like us. This is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a more active form of the same experience. 2. 3. 4. Well, no. Related:  Brain,Mind,Psychology

5 Strategies For Creating A Genius Mindset In Students How Can We Help Every Student Tap Their Inner Genius? by Zacc Dukowitz, Learnbop.com When we hear the word genius, certain people come immediately to mind—Albert Einstein in mathematics, or Warren Buffett in investing—but what exactly sets these people apart? It’s easy to simply shrug and say to ourselves, “Those people are just different. They have something most people don’t, and it’s as simple as that.” But the steps taken to arrive at a place of genius are actually more concrete, and have less to do with innate talent, than you might think. When it comes to cultivating intelligence, mindset is a huge factor. What is “Mindset”? Mindset refers to the beliefs you have about yourself and your basic qualities. Crucial opportunities for the application of good mindset habits occur in the classroom every day. And students who are—well, they may in fact be better positioned to become the next Einstein. The Characteristics of Genius Shifting Mindset 1) Change your Own Mindset 2) Change the Emphasis

How to Immediately Improve Your Life (Hint: It Starts With Improving the Lives of Others) | Arianna Huffington Last week a few HuffPost editors and I were treated to a visit by Bill Drayton and Mary Gordon. Bill Drayton is the founder of Ashoka and a longtime champion of social entrepreneurship, a term that he coined and that has now spread across the world. Mary Gordon is a former kindergarten teacher who founded Roots of Empathy, an organization dedicated to teaching emotional literacy and promoting empathy in children. She was also one of the first Ashoka fellows. Our visit started with talk of the newborn recently welcomed by one of our editors, Gregory Beyer, whereupon Mary presented him with a onesie with "Empathy Teacher" emblazoned on the front. But as Mary -- a great empathy teacher herself -- told us, it's a two-way street, and empathy is best nurtured by example. And giving not only nurtures empathy; it's an outgrowth of our innate capacity for empathy. Philosophers have known this for centuries. Science has broken down why this is. However, the news is not all bleak.

How Technology Is Changing Our Brains A while back, Bill Keller of The New York Times stirred up a hornet’s nest when he wrote a column worrying that joining Facebook would have a debilitating effect on his 13 year-old daughter’s intellectual faculties. Technology advocates, including me, pounced. Now there are new studies out that seem to support his argument. One shows that using search engines decreases our memory and another suggests that GPS may atrophy our brains. Discovery magazine has collected a half-dozen similar examples on its site. I think the question itself is misplaced. What Makes An Expert? We come into the world not knowing much. We learn virtually everything that way, by combining low order patterns to form higher order ones. Experts define themselves by learning the highest order patterns through what Anders Ericsson, calls deliberate practice. In much the same way, surgeons spend years learning the patterns of the human body and experienced firemen become familiar with the patterns of burning buildings.

9 Ways to Reach Your Fullest Potential Every Day Why does it seem like time goes by so quickly? We start a week and before we know it, it’s already the weekend. How can you make the best out of each and every day? I want you to be able to reach your fullest potential every single day. Even during the days where you relax and recharge, I want you to enjoy every moment. When it comes to reaching your fullest potential every day, it’s all about planning. Let’s look into the ways that you can reach your fullest potential every day. 1. “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Because we live in a society filled with so many distractions, we can easily get caught up with the stress and frustrations of life. Why do you do what you do? 2. “Living your life without a plan is like watching television with someone else holding the remote control.”– Peter Turla Planning how you want to spend each day is key to reaching your fullest potential each day. Plan your week every Sunday evening. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Study explains how the brain remembers pleasure and its implications for addiction | Kaleidoscope - UAB Campus News Key details of the way nerve cells in the brain remember pleasure are revealed in a study by UAB researchers published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Furthermore, the molecular events that form such “reward memories” appear to differ from those created by drug addiction, despite the popular theory that addiction hijacks normal reward pathways. Brain circuits have evolved to encourage behaviors proven to help our species survive by attaching pleasure to them. Eating rich food tastes good because it delivers energy and sex is desirable because it creates offspring. The same systems also connect in our minds environmental cues with actual pleasures to form reward memories. This study in rats supports the idea that the mammalian brain features several memory types, each using different circuits, with memories accessed and integrated as needed. Methylation is the attachment of a methyl group (one carbon and three hydrogens) to a DNA chain at certain spots (cytosine bases).

10 Ways to Gain Fame for Being a Good Person Email “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ―Desmond Tutu What do you want to be known for? Lift others up. This is how you gain admiration and fame for being a good person… 1. People don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care. The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion, compassion, humor, generosity, and kindness, and using these tools to improve the lives of those around you. Smile, and help others smile too. If you can lie down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone’s day just a little better, you’re doing it right. 2. Whenever possible help people by teaching them to help themselves. It’s one thing to take the initiative with people you already know, but what about all the people around you whom you barely know? Be friendly and introduce yourself to someone nearby. 3. Once you are true on the inside, reflect it on the outside. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Decision Making Is A Science 1.5K Flares Filament.io 1.5K Flares × Making decisions is something we do every day, so I wanted to find out more about how this process works and what affects the choices we make. It turns out, there are some really interesting ways our decisions are affected that I never would have guessed. What happens in your brain when you make decisions Obviously lots of things take place inside your brain as you make a decision. Why we accept the default choice Dan Ariely’s excellent TED talk explains this concept really well with the example of organ donor options on driver’s license forms: The overwhelming majority of drivers in the UK and European countries didn’t not check the box on their driver’s license application form. The funny thing is, in some countries, the box was an opt-in option, so people had to check the box to become an organ donor. If you watch the video all the way through, there are lots more examples of how this works in our brains. Why we make worse decisions over time 1. 2.

For the Weary Leader You are tired. You are frustrated. You are weary. Weary of feeling as though your dreams are impossible to reach. Any of this sound familiar? These are the types of thoughts that mark seasons of weariness in our lives. If we are completely honest with ourselves, it’s likely each of us can think of times when the burden of weariness tugs at us. A devastating form of fatigue that threatens to undermine our dreams, kill our creativity, and diminish our impact. Often, we label such seasons of life as storms, trials, challenges, or low points. On the other hand, there are likely remnants of difficult and daunting seasons that continue to weigh on us. The danger of all this is that, instead of recognizing how experimenting, failing, falling, and starting again (only smarter), is what equips us to become better tomorrow than we may have been today, weariness convinces us to resist change. Let me leave you with a short, true story before I close. I think you can guess how well that went. John E.

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