“Leaders Make Better Liars”
That explains a lot about politics.
Archive of posts filed under the Thought and Learning category.
Topics about how people think and learn (especially children), and various tricks and techniques for teaching — not just school learning, but *life* learning.
“Enhancing the Placebo”
I find the placebo effect to be utterly fascinating. It’s almost certainly responsible for the successes of shamans, faith-based healers, and homeopathy. And, on the other side of the coin, the documented successful witch doctors’ curses. But it’s literally all in your head. Which means that everyone who has ever been affected by any of …
“Study Sheds Light on What Makes People Shy”
Curious. And it sounds awfully familiar too.
“7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You”
Oh great, even more things that science finds are bad for you. 😉 But this list might be useful, since the thoughts and personality traits mentioned in it can be changed. (I know, most of them were my constant companions in my younger years.)
“How to Teach Yourself Programming”
Tongue-in-cheek, but all too true. Sure, you can learn the syntax of a programming language in twenty-one days, but not how to write readable, maintainable code that isn’t riddled with bugs. That takes experience. It took me the better part of fifteen years to get to a decent level, and it was only in the …
“Everything I need to know I learned from tiny pretend people.”
A kid and his mother playing the Sims 3. It wouldn’t seem like a learning experience, but you might be surprised — there are six lessons listed there, and only one of them is something I’d expect. (Which one is left as an exercise for the reader. 😉 ) I think our generation has pretty …
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“Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)”
I’ve been using a number of these ideas for a while now, on Project X, without realizing it. Maybe the ones that are new to me will help too.
Decisions, Decisions…
One of the repeating items on my to-do list is cleaning off my office desk. It’s something I committed to recently, to try to keep my working area tidy; so long as I keep on top of it every few days, it only takes a few minutes each time. But I’d found myself putting it …
“Believing You Can Be Smarter Actually Makes You Smarter”
I’ve long maintained that anyone with a normally-working brain can learn to be smart. This article lends weight to that opinion.
“How to Teach Physics to Your Dog”
At least a dog is likely to listen, or look like he’s listening. Cats, children, and non-scientist adults (unless you’re paying them) aren’t likely to even pretend interest.