HOW TO CHEAT AT EVERYTHING
Over lunch with Simon Lovell, a fascinating former card shark, Allison Schrager learns all sorts of things about how swindlers operate ... Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE "I can spot someone's weakness a mile away.
120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power
Here are 120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential. Solve puzzles and brainteasers.Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.Embrace ambiguity.
Excerpts from three articles on education: Dorothy Sayers, Richard P. Feynman, John Taylor Gatto
To say that our education system is broken and in need of a gargantuan overhaul is an understatement, but it will happen since it is an inevitable side effect of the liberation of data that comes with an open internet. What form these new systems of education will take are yet to be determined: only time will tell if they will be optimized replicas of the present models, or if they will be based on a new way of teaching and thought. Either way, the overhaul is long overdue and I for one am excited to see the transformation.
Fallacies
A fallacy is a kind of error in reasoning. The list of fallacies contains 209 names of the most common fallacies, and it provides brief explanations and examples of each of them. Fallacies should not be persuasive, but they often are. Fallacies may be created unintentionally, or they may be created intentionally in order to deceive other people.
How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done - 5 Expert Tips
Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my first book become a Wall Street Journal bestseller. To check it out, click here. Some days the to-do list seems bottomless. Just looking at it is exhausting. We all want to know how to stop being lazy and get more done.
Perfect Persuasive Messages
Craft messages that change minds using these 20 principles of persuasion, all based on established psychological research. Perfection is hard to achieve in any walk of life and persuasion is no different. It relies on many things going just right at the crucial moment; the perfect synchronisation of source, message and audience. But even if perfection is unlikely, we all need to know what to aim for. To bring you the current series on the psychology of persuasion I’ve been reading lots of research, much more than is covered in recent posts. As I read, I noticed the same themes cropping up over and over again.
#53 – How to detect bullshit
By Scott Berkun, August 9, 2006 Everyone lies: it’s just a question of how, when and why. From the relationship saving “yes, you do look thin in those pants” to the improbable “your table will be ready in 5 minutes”, manipulating the truth is part of the human condition. Accept it now. I’m positive that given our irrational nature and difficultly accepting tough truths, we’re collectively better off with some of our deceptions. They buffer us from each other (and from ourselves), avoid unnecessary conflicts, and keep the wonderful confusion of our psychologies tucked away from those who don’t care.
Number Facts: number 0 up to number 500 and more
is the only prime 1 less than a perfect square. - Robin Regan is the number of spatial dimensions needed to mathematically describe a solid. are the primary colors. are the geometric constructions you cannot build using just a ruler and compasses: 1. You cannot trisect - divide into three equal parts - a given angle; 2. Double a cube; and 3. Square a circle. A number is divisible by 3 when the sum of its digits can be divided by 3.
More logic: talks and handouts
This page lists various notes, handouts, papers, and so on from the last few years. Many of these pieces are also linked to from other pages here or from old blog postings. They are of very varying levels of sophistication, difficulty and interest: but I haven’t tried to impose any more order on the list other than a rough (reverse) chronological order.
15 Secret Hiding Places That Will Fool Even the Smartest Burglar
Keeping your stuff safe from potential burglars is important. Whether you have a security system installed in your home or not, there is nothing wrong with a bit of extra protection. Instead of heading out and buying the most expensive safe on the market, you can actually hide your things strategically around the house and burglars will never find them.