For years, "positive thinking" and goal-setting were often criticized as "pollyanna" and "the law of attraction" was relegated into the category of "new age" fluff
Scientists have even identified specific parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system (RAS), which works with the visual parts of our brain to call our conscious attention to things that are important to reaching our goals and to filter out those things that are unimportant.
The RAS is activated by "programming" goals into our sub-conscious minds. Our sub concscious mind is the "power center" and THIS is the mechanism that explains why goal setting and positive thinking are now being accepted as scientific methods for change.
We are discovering that our brain is cybernetic in nature, which means that it is literally like a computer, waiting for a program to be installed.
Here's the kicker - the subconcsious is completely neutral and impartial - it will carry out any instructions you give it.
Unfortunately, many of us are still running negative programs we picked up from others as children when our non-conscious minds were totally open and impressionable, or which we developed over the years as a result of repetition of our own negative thinking.
As it turns out, our own thoughts, repeated daily, are one of the primary ways that our "mental computer" is programmed on a sub-conscious level, which is the level of beliefs, habits and automatic behavior.
To change your results, you must overwrite old negative programming and install positive new programming into your subconscious.
This can be achived through such techniques as written goal setting, positive self-talk (affirmations), and mental imagery (visualization).
In the 1970's, the Soviets and East Germans were the first to formally use structured mental rehearsal, and at that time, they dominated in several olympic sports. Today, virtually all elite athletes use visualization extensively, as we now know that the brain cannot differentiate between real practice and practice that is vividly imagined.
If you are getting more of the same negative results in your life - such as the same health problems, or the same body fat continues to return even after you lose it, then you have probably been unconsciously running old negative programs and reinforcing them with negative thought patterns.
You can begin the positive mental reprogramming process by writing down your goals, changing your internal dialogue and taking a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and perform a session of visualization or mental rehearsal every day (seeing yourself in your "mind's eye" not as you currently are, but as you ideally would like to be).
These methods, repeated often enough, will begin to program the non-conscious portion of the mind, which is the same part of the mind that controls your heart beat, digestion and new cell production, all on "automatic pilot."
In the last decade, neuroscientists discovered that you have the capacity to create an almost infinite number of new neural connections in your brain when you run new thought patterns.
The Old neural pathways are like grooves in a record, and if you are struggling with your health related behaviors or behaviors in any other area of your life, you have been playing the "old records" over and over again.
If you were to carve a new groove into that record, it would never play the same way again. the old pattern would weaken and the new one would take over. Brand new, positive thoughts, feelings and images begin to create new neural patterns.
Psychologists estimate that it takes 21 to 30 days to establish a new pattern in your brain. During this time, the focus on sticking with your practice and repeating your new thought patterns is critical.
Is this easy? For most people, no it's not. In fact, controlling your thinking and keeping it constructive may be one of the most difficult challenges you have ever faced. Fortunately, writing goals and reading affirmations can help get you started.
You can take some of the pressure off yourself by simply accepting that negative thoughts and self criticisms will pop up from time to time. Just observe them, without mulling over them or adding to them, and change the polarity of the thought by quickly repeating one of your positive affirmations or by changing your mental pictures.
So is there something to this whole "positive thinking" thing?
The philosophers and theologians have been saying yes for the entire span of recorded history: "As you think, so shall you be." Variations on this proverb can be found in every spiritual and philosophical tradition.
But... if you are the left-brained, "prove-it-to-me" type, you dont have to go on faith anymore. Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are powerful things.
So how soon are you going to begin your mental training right alongside your physical training? When are you going to learn how to harness this power locked up inside your mind?
Guess what? You're already using this force every day because you cannot turn it off. Whatever you are thinking and picturing in your mind repeatedly on a daily basis is on it's way to you already, so it's simply a matter of HOW you are using it, not IF you are using it.
What do you say to yourself every day? Do you say, "I am becoming leaner, healthier and more muscular every day?"... or do you say "I am a fat person - Ive tried everything, nothing ever works?"
The fact is - you can think yourself thin and healthy or you can think yourself obese and ill. Maybe not in the literal sense...but most certainly as the critical part in the chain of causation...
You see, there's a lot of talk these days in the personal improvement world about law of attraction, manifesting, intention, visualization and of course, positive thinking
Without understanding that there is an orderly, scientific basis underneath all of this, many people will simply remain skeptics, while on the opposite extreme, others may get the idea that you can sit around meditating and visualizing, then expect a mystical "law of attraction" to kick in and then "poof!" a great body materializes out of thin air... along with the perfect relationship, a nice bank account and career success.
What really happens is "Positive thinking" and related methods quite literally re-program your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors that move you physically toward whatever you have been thinking about and focusing on.
So success is achieved through positive thinking + positive doing... attraction + action. There are two sides to the coin. Without paying attention to both, you may continue to struggle... often against nothing but yourself.
If you want to transform your body or any other aspect of your life, then you have to change on the inside (the mind) first and then everything else will follow.
Train hard and expect success - a thought for your exam revision
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Thinking course. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Thinking course. Sort by date Show all posts
Pointless!
I must say I am beginning to lose heart over some of the students studying here. Maybe I should spend less time and put less energy into your studies. In some cases it really is proving pointless.
Why do I ask you to do reviews?
a. To improve your English
b. To help you assess a book on Economics/Business.
Now read these two reviews.
The first one is from Kirill: http://berdishev-kirill.blogspot.com/
If you think economics is really the "dismal science," then Diane Coyle, a Harvard-trained economist who lives and works in London, is out to change your mind. And what a job she does in her new book on the basics of general economics. This work is indeed an easy read on a complex subject but Coyle never insults the intelligence of her readers and fully intends to explain in a readable style exactly what the study of economics is all about.
She also chastises her fellow economists for not doing a better job of explaining economics to the general public:
At a minimum, we ought to do better as a profession in explaining to the widest possible audience what it all means in the real world. You can't blame the good economists for all the bad economics that gets done in universities....There are certainly too few good economists engaged in outreach to the general public or business audience, despite the huge relevance of economics to public policy and private decisions.
I am one of those who have deliberately avoided whenever possible the study of what I consider a rather "boring" subject, much preferring the "exciting" disciplines of philosophy, politics, and history. As an undergraduate, I took exactly one course in general economics and then one in business administration: the former course because it was a liberal arts requirement and the latter because my father, a businessman, thought I should know something about modern business. Suffice to say, neither course excited me enough to go further in the study of economics per se.
Right at the beginning, Dr. Coyle tells us precisely what she intends her book to do: "This book aims to demonstrate that economics is essentially a particular way of thinking about the world that can be applied to almost any situation affecting individuals, companies, industries, and governments." Then, to make sure we all understand that the study of economics is not just for the professional or the academic but has a broader horizon, she insists that economics is "the subject for you whatever your interests and concerns" and that her objective is "to provide a new light and refreshing appetizer that might satisfy delicate appetites but also encourage some readers to develop a taste for more." Sex, Drugs & Economics fulfills all the promises made and realizes all the goals the author set out to achieve.
It should be pointed out, I suspect, regarding the title of the book, that there is very little about sex in the book and very little about illegal drugs, and both topics are used merely to explain economic matters. Just in case anyone is concerned, the content of the book will be quite acceptable to intelligent readers from high-school age and beyond. I think, however, that the title is "catchy" and meant to be so and there is no doubt that the book, compared to virtually all of the other economic books I have seen, is truly an "unconventional introduction to economics." If the words "sex" and "illegal drugs" in the title help to sell more copies of the book and bring more ordinary readers to an understanding of economics -- well, so much the better.
One of the things that makes this book so appealing is that Dr. Coyle uses our ordinary life experiences to allow us to grasp many of the major concepts of economics. She does discuss sex and illegal drugs and how economics applies to them, but she also has chapters on sports, music, energy, auctions, war games, movies, the Internet, weather, and other common topics with which we are very familiar, all utilized as a means to introduce, explain and describe various technical terms and concepts at different points in the book.
For instance, the first chapter of the book, titled "Sex: Can you have too much of a good thing?," introduces the concepts of "demand" and "supply," as well "inelastic supply of labor" and "product differentiation." Chapter 2, which is about illegal drugs, introduces the concepts of "market," "externality," "price elasticity of demand," and "cost-benefit analysis." A later chapter on sports explains the concept of "economics of scale," while the chapter on music explains the idea of "marginal cost," and the chapter on immigration explains the concept known as the "lump of labor fallacy." Furthermore, she provides an excellent description of the concept of the "public good" in the chapter on disease, and her discussion of this concept will be of particular interest to libertarians and classical liberals.
There are a few things I found particularly helpful during my reading of this book. The most important to me as a general reader was that the major terms and concepts of economics were set in boldface type as they were introduced in the text. This meant I paid particular attention to them as I was reading and realized they were important to understanding what was being said. Next in importance, at the back of the book is an appendix outlining and explaining the "Ten Rules of Economic Thinking," a section I thought helpfully summed up many of the main points expressed in the text. Finally, a glossary is provided which further explains and expands the major terms and concepts used throughout the book. I wish this sort of format was used more often in books on otherwise difficult subjects. And of course the book includes the usual bibliography (with many Internet websites also provided) and a well-organized comprehensive index.
All in all, I'd say this book accomplishes what was promised and did so in an interesting way. I finished the book with a sense that I finally did understand some of the "arcane" concepts of economics and how these ideas applied to my daily life. I highly recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those still out there who understand little of modern economics but desire or need to do so. Sex, Drugs & Economics is, as they say, a "good read," and Dr. Coyle is to be commended for making an understanding of economics so effortless and, dare I say?, even delightful.
Why do I ask you to do reviews?
a. To improve your English
b. To help you assess a book on Economics/Business.
Now read these two reviews.
The first one is from Kirill: http://berdishev-kirill.blogspot.com/
If you think economics is really the "dismal science," then Diane Coyle, a Harvard-trained economist who lives and works in London, is out to change your mind. And what a job she does in her new book on the basics of general economics. This work is indeed an easy read on a complex subject but Coyle never insults the intelligence of her readers and fully intends to explain in a readable style exactly what the study of economics is all about.
She also chastises her fellow economists for not doing a better job of explaining economics to the general public:
At a minimum, we ought to do better as a profession in explaining to the widest possible audience what it all means in the real world. You can't blame the good economists for all the bad economics that gets done in universities....There are certainly too few good economists engaged in outreach to the general public or business audience, despite the huge relevance of economics to public policy and private decisions.
I am one of those who have deliberately avoided whenever possible the study of what I consider a rather "boring" subject, much preferring the "exciting" disciplines of philosophy, politics, and history. As an undergraduate, I took exactly one course in general economics and then one in business administration: the former course because it was a liberal arts requirement and the latter because my father, a businessman, thought I should know something about modern business. Suffice to say, neither course excited me enough to go further in the study of economics per se.
Right at the beginning, Dr. Coyle tells us precisely what she intends her book to do: "This book aims to demonstrate that economics is essentially a particular way of thinking about the world that can be applied to almost any situation affecting individuals, companies, industries, and governments." Then, to make sure we all understand that the study of economics is not just for the professional or the academic but has a broader horizon, she insists that economics is "the subject for you whatever your interests and concerns" and that her objective is "to provide a new light and refreshing appetizer that might satisfy delicate appetites but also encourage some readers to develop a taste for more." Sex, Drugs & Economics fulfills all the promises made and realizes all the goals the author set out to achieve.
It should be pointed out, I suspect, regarding the title of the book, that there is very little about sex in the book and very little about illegal drugs, and both topics are used merely to explain economic matters. Just in case anyone is concerned, the content of the book will be quite acceptable to intelligent readers from high-school age and beyond. I think, however, that the title is "catchy" and meant to be so and there is no doubt that the book, compared to virtually all of the other economic books I have seen, is truly an "unconventional introduction to economics." If the words "sex" and "illegal drugs" in the title help to sell more copies of the book and bring more ordinary readers to an understanding of economics -- well, so much the better.
One of the things that makes this book so appealing is that Dr. Coyle uses our ordinary life experiences to allow us to grasp many of the major concepts of economics. She does discuss sex and illegal drugs and how economics applies to them, but she also has chapters on sports, music, energy, auctions, war games, movies, the Internet, weather, and other common topics with which we are very familiar, all utilized as a means to introduce, explain and describe various technical terms and concepts at different points in the book.
For instance, the first chapter of the book, titled "Sex: Can you have too much of a good thing?," introduces the concepts of "demand" and "supply," as well "inelastic supply of labor" and "product differentiation." Chapter 2, which is about illegal drugs, introduces the concepts of "market," "externality," "price elasticity of demand," and "cost-benefit analysis." A later chapter on sports explains the concept of "economics of scale," while the chapter on music explains the idea of "marginal cost," and the chapter on immigration explains the concept known as the "lump of labor fallacy." Furthermore, she provides an excellent description of the concept of the "public good" in the chapter on disease, and her discussion of this concept will be of particular interest to libertarians and classical liberals.
There are a few things I found particularly helpful during my reading of this book. The most important to me as a general reader was that the major terms and concepts of economics were set in boldface type as they were introduced in the text. This meant I paid particular attention to them as I was reading and realized they were important to understanding what was being said. Next in importance, at the back of the book is an appendix outlining and explaining the "Ten Rules of Economic Thinking," a section I thought helpfully summed up many of the main points expressed in the text. Finally, a glossary is provided which further explains and expands the major terms and concepts used throughout the book. I wish this sort of format was used more often in books on otherwise difficult subjects. And of course the book includes the usual bibliography (with many Internet websites also provided) and a well-organized comprehensive index.
All in all, I'd say this book accomplishes what was promised and did so in an interesting way. I finished the book with a sense that I finally did understand some of the "arcane" concepts of economics and how these ideas applied to my daily life. I highly recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those still out there who understand little of modern economics but desire or need to do so. Sex, Drugs & Economics is, as they say, a "good read," and Dr. Coyle is to be commended for making an understanding of economics so effortless and, dare I say?, even delightful.
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty
If you think economics is really the "dismal science," then Diane Coyle, a Harvard-trained economist who lives and works in London, is out to change your mind. And what a job she does in her new book on the basics of general economics. This work is indeed an easy read on a complex subject but Coyle never insults the intelligence of her readers and fully intends to explain in a readable style exactly what the study of economics is all about.
She also chastises her fellow economists for not doing a better job of explaining economics to the general public:
- ...[A]t a minimum, we ought to do better as a profession in explaining to the widest possible audience what it all means in the real world. You can't blame the good economists for all the bad economics that gets done in universities....There are certainly too few good economists engaged in outreach to the general public or business audience, despite the huge relevance of economics to public policy and private decisions.
I am one of those who have deliberately avoided whenever possible the study of what I consider a rather "boring" subject, much preferring the "exciting" disciplines of philosophy, politics, and history. As an undergraduate, I took exactly one course in general economics and then one in business administration: the former course because it was a liberal arts requirement and the latter because my father, a businessman, thought I should know something about modern business.Suffice to say, neither course excited me enough to go further in the study of economics per se.
Right at the beginning, Dr. Coyle tells us precisely what she intends her book to do: "This book aims to demonstrate that economics is essentially a particular way of thinking about the world that can be applied to almost any situation affecting individuals, companies, industries, and governments." Then, to make sure we all understand that the study of economics is not just for the professional or the academic but has a broader horizon, she insists that economics is "the subject for you whatever your interests and concerns" and that her objective is "to provide a new light and refreshing appetizer that might satisfy delicate appetites but also encourage some readers to develop a taste for more." Sex, Drugs & Economics fulfills all the promises made and realizes all the goals the author set out to achieve.
It should be pointed out, I suspect, regarding the title of the book, that there is very little about sex in the book and very little about illegal drugs, and both topics are used merely to explain economic matters. Just in case anyone is concerned, the content of the book will be quite acceptable to intelligent readers from high-school age and beyond. I think, however, that the title is "catchy" and meant to be so and there is no doubt that the book, compared to virtually all of the other economic books I have seen, is truly an "unconventional introduction to economics." If the words "sex" and "illegal drugs" in the title help to sell more copies of the book and bring more ordinary readers to an understanding of economics -- well, so much the better.
One of the things that makes this book so appealing is that Dr. Coyle uses our ordinary life experiences to allow us to grasp many of the major concepts of economics. She does discuss sex and illegal drugs and how economics applies to them, but she also has chapters on sports, music, energy, auctions, war games, movies, the Internet, weather, and other common topics with which we are very familiar, all utilized as a means to introduce, explain and describe various technical terms and concepts at different points in the book.
For instance, the first chapter of the book, titled "Sex: Can you have too much of a good thing?," introduces the concepts of "demand" and "supply," as well "inelastic supply of labor" and "product differentiation." Chapter 2, which is about illegal drugs, introduces the concepts of "market," "externality," "price elasticity of demand," and "cost-benefit analysis." A later chapter on sports explains the concept of "economics of scale," while the chapter on music explains the idea of "marginal cost," and the chapter on immigration explains the concept known as the "lump of labor fallacy." Furthermore, she provides an excellent description of the concept of the "public good" in the chapter on disease, and her discussion of this concept will be of particular interest to libertarians and classical liberals.
There are a few things I found particularly helpful during my reading of this book. The most important to me as a general reader was that the major terms and concepts of economics were set in boldface type as they were introduced in the text. This meant I paid particular attention to them as I was reading and realized they were important to understanding what was being said. Next in importance, at the back of the book is an appendix outlining and explaining the "Ten Rules of Economic Thinking," a section I thought helpfully summed up many of the main points expressed in the text. Finally, a glossary is provided which further explains and expands the major terms and concepts used throughout the book. I wish this sort of format was used more often in books on otherwise difficult subjects. And of course the book includes the usual bibliography (with many Internet websites also provided) and a well-organized comprehensive index.
All in all, I'd say this book accomplishes what was promised and did so in an interesting way. I finished the book with a sense that I finally did understand some of the "arcane" concepts of economics and how these ideas applied to my daily life. I highly recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those still out there who understand little of modern economics but desire or need to do so. Sex, Drugs & Economics is, as they say, a "good read," and Dr. Coyle is to be commended for making an understanding of economics so effortless and, dare I say?, even delightful.
Source: http://www.radicalacademy.com/bookreviewcoyle.htmWhat a POINTLESS thing to do!
Oh yes, what DID Kirill write?
This:Sex, drugs and economics ( My english teacher cheak a speling mistakes)
SEVEN WORDS HIS OWN: 2 spelling mistakes.59 second course in THINKING
59 Second Course in Thinking: e + s = t
In any situation, thinking involves two basic processes:
escaping from your current view of the situation, and
searching for a much better view of the situation.
•
ESCAPE + SEARCH = THINK
The Current View of the Situation (cvs)
can never be equal to
the Better View of the Situation (bvs)
(cvs≠bvs)
Escape from your cvs
and search for a bvs!
(cvs2bvs)
You can search for a bvs that is
ten times better than your cvs.
(cvs X10 = bvs)
•
ESCAPE
If we can escape from our current viewpoints, thinking patterns, righteousness and established ways of doing things–our CVS–we can then take a quantum leap ahead of our own experience and jump to ‘a much better way’–a BVS. We can experiment and we can innovate.
SEARCH
Search for alternatives, options and possibilities because there is ALWAYS a BVS!
There are always many, many different ways of looking at any particular situation. Whatever it is that we are currently doing, someone else, somewhere, is already doing it a “much better way”. Once we escape from the CVS–the current way–we can search for the BVS–the much better way.
We can always change our perceptions–the way we look at things.
For more insights on this see also:
and
THINK
Thinking is a skill. To become proficient in escaping from your CVS and searching for a BVS (the much better way) always involves practice and repetition–at least ten times–if we are to build new cognitive patterns and acquire skill and virtuosity.
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Examinations in school
The purpose of examinations in school is to test existing knowledge. Behind this simple objective lie many other objectives. Because exams exist and have to be passed, students are motivated to work harder than if there were no exams. There is an objective end-point. Exams provide a simple assessment of knowledge. They may not really test ability because some able students are just not good at exams.
Suppose there were a simple ‘test’ for organisations that would determine how those organisations rated on the ‘idea scale’. Organisations could apply that test to themselves. Investors could apply that test to the organisation. The stock market evaluation of an organisation could be influenced by the rating on that test.
How would such a test be administered? Would there need to be an investigating team that would go to the organisation and examine it thoroughly, using some framework for evaluation?
More simply, it could be done the other way around. A special body could say to an organisation: ‘Prove to us that you do have powerful new ideas. It is up to you to convince us’. A rating would then be given on this basis.
It may be thought that ideas are risky. It may be thought that investors would avoid companies with too many ideas. Research in the US shows the contrary. Organisations that are known to have ideas get marked up - not down. Of course, there are many difficulties in assessing ideas. There are small incremental ideas where the risk is low, but over time the ideas add up to a big change. There are high risk and high reward ideas.
Do you measure the new ideas that are being used? Do you measure the new ideas that are in development? Do you measure new ideas at the ‘concept’ stage before they have been developed or even evaluated?
What is to be measured? Is it the number of ideas or the value of the ideas? Is it the number of actual ideas or the ability to have ideas? It might even be the willingness to act on new ideas and to invest in them. There are organisations that are good at having ideas, but very reluctant actually to use any of these.
How many organisations believe that they have sufficient ideas? In my experience several organisations believe that they have too many ideas, but this usually means two things. The first is a lot of not very good ideas. The second is a reluctance to develop or use ideas.
How many organisations realise that they need ‘additional ideas’? This does not mean that they are short of ideas. It means that the existing ideas have arisen within the context, idiom and history of that organisation. As a result they are of a certain type. There may be a need for additional ideas from outside. That is why I have set up an ‘Outsourcing Creativity’ system to provide organisations with additional ideas that have not arisen from within their own cultures.
Executives are promoted on the basis of ‘continuity’. This means that they continue to run things as they should run. It means effectiveness and efficiency and an ability to solve problems as they arise.
Executives are blamed for mistakes that they make. Executives are blamed for failures when a new venture does not succeed. Executives are never blamed for the ideas they do not have. They are never blamed for the opportunities they do not see.
Having new ideas is a risk. Not having new ideas is no risk at all. It is not difficult to see which way behaviour will go. All this could be changed if there was an ‘expectation’ that executives should be having new ideas. If there were to be a sort of new idea ‘quota’, then every executive would be expected to show how he or she met that quota.
DEALING WITH NEW IDEAS
There is a long way between having a new idea and putting it into action. The first step is to note that there is a new idea. The new idea is recorded. The person who had this new idea gets some recognition on this account. When General Electric asked its creative people what they most wanted from their creativity, the surprising answer was ‘recognition’. This means that someone has noted that you have contributed a new idea.
The next step is to develop the idea and take it further so that it becomes a fully-fledged idea. Examination and evaluation of benefits and possible benefits then follows. The next step is feasibility. Can it be done? Can it be done within our existing mechanisms, or is there a need for new mechanisms?
Why should benefits come before feasibility? Because if perceived benefits are large, then much more effort will be made to find a feasible way of implementing the idea.
Then there are the negatives. These include costs, barriers, acceptance, etc., etc. The idea can be modified to overcome some of the negative considerations.
Finally the idea finds its place among the strategic priorities. In some cases there may be a need for a pilot study or further research. If this effort shows even stronger values than had been supposed, then the idea becomes more attractive and moves to the forefront of strategic priorities. What is important is that new ideas are not treated as some exceptional aberration. There needs to be a production process in place to produce and deal with new ideas as a routine matter.
THE HIDDEN VALUE OF NEW IDEAS
If a new idea is not chosen for action, we assume that the idea is lost and rejected. This should not be the case. An idea that is not used right now can enter a reserve file. Under different circumstances that idea can be brought forward again and used. In a different competitive climate the idea may have a higher value.
Even if the idea is never used, the thinking that has gone into developing that idea is not wasted. In the thinking involved there may be new concepts and new values which come to exist in their own right. Such new concepts and values can influence all further thinking on that subject, even when the idea itself is not used.
Creative thinking is never a waste of time. The activities of the mind during creative thinking enrich the mind in its experience of that subject. New possibilities are brought forward. New perceptions are visited.
SELF-IMAGE
Most organisations like to think of themselves as creative. Their advertising agencies tell them to advertise the organisation as creative. Creativity is seen as comparative. Are we as creative as this other organisation? On that basis, if no organisation is really creative, then all organisations are free to consider themselves creative.
If there were to be a simple test for the creativity of organisations, this would be of help to both investors and those working within the organisation. I shall see what can be done about developing such a test. (Source: Edward de Bono)
Suppose there were a simple ‘test’ for organisations that would determine how those organisations rated on the ‘idea scale’. Organisations could apply that test to themselves. Investors could apply that test to the organisation. The stock market evaluation of an organisation could be influenced by the rating on that test.
How would such a test be administered? Would there need to be an investigating team that would go to the organisation and examine it thoroughly, using some framework for evaluation?
More simply, it could be done the other way around. A special body could say to an organisation: ‘Prove to us that you do have powerful new ideas. It is up to you to convince us’. A rating would then be given on this basis.
It may be thought that ideas are risky. It may be thought that investors would avoid companies with too many ideas. Research in the US shows the contrary. Organisations that are known to have ideas get marked up - not down. Of course, there are many difficulties in assessing ideas. There are small incremental ideas where the risk is low, but over time the ideas add up to a big change. There are high risk and high reward ideas.
Do you measure the new ideas that are being used? Do you measure the new ideas that are in development? Do you measure new ideas at the ‘concept’ stage before they have been developed or even evaluated?
What is to be measured? Is it the number of ideas or the value of the ideas? Is it the number of actual ideas or the ability to have ideas? It might even be the willingness to act on new ideas and to invest in them. There are organisations that are good at having ideas, but very reluctant actually to use any of these.
How many organisations believe that they have sufficient ideas? In my experience several organisations believe that they have too many ideas, but this usually means two things. The first is a lot of not very good ideas. The second is a reluctance to develop or use ideas.
How many organisations realise that they need ‘additional ideas’? This does not mean that they are short of ideas. It means that the existing ideas have arisen within the context, idiom and history of that organisation. As a result they are of a certain type. There may be a need for additional ideas from outside. That is why I have set up an ‘Outsourcing Creativity’ system to provide organisations with additional ideas that have not arisen from within their own cultures.
Executives are promoted on the basis of ‘continuity’. This means that they continue to run things as they should run. It means effectiveness and efficiency and an ability to solve problems as they arise.
Executives are blamed for mistakes that they make. Executives are blamed for failures when a new venture does not succeed. Executives are never blamed for the ideas they do not have. They are never blamed for the opportunities they do not see.
Having new ideas is a risk. Not having new ideas is no risk at all. It is not difficult to see which way behaviour will go. All this could be changed if there was an ‘expectation’ that executives should be having new ideas. If there were to be a sort of new idea ‘quota’, then every executive would be expected to show how he or she met that quota.
DEALING WITH NEW IDEAS
There is a long way between having a new idea and putting it into action. The first step is to note that there is a new idea. The new idea is recorded. The person who had this new idea gets some recognition on this account. When General Electric asked its creative people what they most wanted from their creativity, the surprising answer was ‘recognition’. This means that someone has noted that you have contributed a new idea.
The next step is to develop the idea and take it further so that it becomes a fully-fledged idea. Examination and evaluation of benefits and possible benefits then follows. The next step is feasibility. Can it be done? Can it be done within our existing mechanisms, or is there a need for new mechanisms?
Why should benefits come before feasibility? Because if perceived benefits are large, then much more effort will be made to find a feasible way of implementing the idea.
Then there are the negatives. These include costs, barriers, acceptance, etc., etc. The idea can be modified to overcome some of the negative considerations.
Finally the idea finds its place among the strategic priorities. In some cases there may be a need for a pilot study or further research. If this effort shows even stronger values than had been supposed, then the idea becomes more attractive and moves to the forefront of strategic priorities. What is important is that new ideas are not treated as some exceptional aberration. There needs to be a production process in place to produce and deal with new ideas as a routine matter.
THE HIDDEN VALUE OF NEW IDEAS
If a new idea is not chosen for action, we assume that the idea is lost and rejected. This should not be the case. An idea that is not used right now can enter a reserve file. Under different circumstances that idea can be brought forward again and used. In a different competitive climate the idea may have a higher value.
Even if the idea is never used, the thinking that has gone into developing that idea is not wasted. In the thinking involved there may be new concepts and new values which come to exist in their own right. Such new concepts and values can influence all further thinking on that subject, even when the idea itself is not used.
Creative thinking is never a waste of time. The activities of the mind during creative thinking enrich the mind in its experience of that subject. New possibilities are brought forward. New perceptions are visited.
SELF-IMAGE
Most organisations like to think of themselves as creative. Their advertising agencies tell them to advertise the organisation as creative. Creativity is seen as comparative. Are we as creative as this other organisation? On that basis, if no organisation is really creative, then all organisations are free to consider themselves creative.
If there were to be a simple test for the creativity of organisations, this would be of help to both investors and those working within the organisation. I shall see what can be done about developing such a test. (Source: Edward de Bono)
Business Studies homework
Here are seven team building activities
You’ve recruited the individual members of your team. You’ve established your goal. You’ve developed a plan and a timeline. Now the trick is to get all those unique individuals working together toward the same goal. Given the varied personalities, communication skills and personal agendas individual members bring with them to the team, getting your team to work cooperatively can be a challenge.
Try these team building exercises to get your team off on the right foot.
- Scrambled Jigsaw. Before the team arrives, place a jigsaw on each table. To manage the time element, use large-piece children’s puzzles of 100 pieces or so. Remove 5 pieces from each puzzle and move them to another table. As the team arrives, divide members among the tables. Instruct teams to fully complete their puzzle, by any means, in the shortest amount of time possible. As puzzles are completed and teams realize pieces are missing, they will be forced to negotiate with other teams to complete their puzzle. This exercise promotes flexibility, communication, negotiation and cooperation.
- Creative Assembly. Purchase 3-D punch-out wood dinosaur puzzle kits. Divide the team into groups of 2 to 4. Without comment or instruction, give each group the unpunched puzzle pieces, one complete puzzle per group. Do not let the group see the boxes, pictures or instructions or in any way identify what you have given them. Instruct each group to assemble its project, telling them they can only use what is in front of them. You’ll get some interesting and creative constructions, a lot of laughter and some good natured frustration, particularly with the winged dinosaur kits. When time is up, ask each group to describe its construct. In this exercise, creative thinking, brainstorming, problem-solving, cooperation and consensus will certainly get a workout.
- Slight of Hand. Divide team into groups of 4 to 6. Hand each group 4 tennis balls. Tell them each person must handle all 4 balls in the shortest time possible. Do this several times, each time asking, “How can you do it faster?” This exercise will progress from the obvious passing of the balls down a line, to around a circle, to some interesting ball drops and hand swiping. Your team will practice cooperation, quick thinking and creative problem solving in this exercise.
- Going Up. Divide team into groups of 2 to 6. Give each person one 8 1/2” x 11” sheet of paper and one 5” strip of masking tape. Instruct each team to build the tallest possible free-standing structure. This exercise promotes cooperation, creative thinking, problem-solving, consensus, leadership and division of labor.
- Gnome Dome. Divide the team into groups of 2. Give each group 20 gumdrops and 12 toothpicks. Instruct each group to build a dome. Problem-solving, creative thinking, cooperation (and possibly snacking) will be practiced during this exercise.
- Poisonous Web. Stretch a piece of rope across a door frame, securing it to the frame or connecting wall with duct tape. You’ll need two pieces of rope, one 3 feet off the ground, the other 4 1/2 feet off the ground. You are creating a “window” 18 inches wide that you describe to the team as a “poisonous spider web.” The team must work together to get all members through the opening without touching the ropes. They must go through, not under or over the ropes. If a team member touches either rope, the entire team must go back to the beginning and try again. This exercise builds cooperation, leadership, creativity and problem-solving. It also forces team members to trust and depend on each other.
- Hang Ups. Hand each person a wire coat hanger. Tell the group they may work individually or create their own groups. Instruct them to make something useful from their coat hanger. Set a time limit of 5 to 15 minutes. Ask each person/group to describe his “tool” and its use. This exercise will indicate which of your team members are natural leaders or born socialites as well as which are more shy and may need to be drawn out when working with the group
For the class to progress, fast, efficiently and for the gifted pupils to learn more then perhaps those slowing down progress - through attitude and ability - should be jettisoned. Maybe streaming.
But that is not a possibility. No-one can be moved from the class. There cannot be a change of venue or teacher or subject. You cannot take A2 when on an AS course.
And yet you recognise that you - a Generation Y person, as a gifted person - will personally lose out if nothing is done.
So something must be done. Some sort of team-building. So those with a poor attitude, a lazy performance, of low ability and/or hampered by poor English will realise that if they slow everyone down then they'll still be bottom, still be last but also they'll end up with no qualifications at all. If they try really hard the worst that can happen is that they don't get the grade A that reveryone else gets - they just get a B. A B is good enough.
So, something must be done. The question is - what?
Answer in your blog.
"But what revision should we be doing?"
Some students are revising and posting daily what they are doing.
Students such as Robin and Mary and Anastasia (although she cannot spell scarcity) I see Lex is posting - but not about work and Bibi posts that she is ill (when there are less than 35 days left unil her important exams and she should be revising.)
So, what SHOULD students be posting about?
At the very least they should be listening to two podcasts a day - for Business and for English.
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/
http://www.myobpod.com/the_podcasts.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/inbusiness.shtml
http://www.ukpodcasts.info/Business
Especially you should be listening to two of these every single day and then attempting the transcript questions.
At the very least they should be doing English tests. Also Mary and others have an IELTS book I emailed.
At the very least they should hve enrolled on the Thinking Course. Try these 7 minute courses
They should be learning about command words and looking at key definitions in the syllabus.
They should be doing Business Studies questions, comparing answers etc.
They should also be looking at and doing past papers in Economics (www.ocr.org.uk) and Business Studies (ww.aqa.org.uk).
That's what they SHOULD be doing.
Then they should be posting about what had been done, uploading video summaries, making podcasts....
That's what SHOULD be done!
Students such as Robin and Mary and Anastasia (although she cannot spell scarcity) I see Lex is posting - but not about work and Bibi posts that she is ill (when there are less than 35 days left unil her important exams and she should be revising.)
So, what SHOULD students be posting about?
At the very least they should be listening to two podcasts a day - for Business and for English.
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/
http://www.myobpod.com/the_podcasts.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/inbusiness.shtml
http://www.ukpodcasts.info/Business
Especially you should be listening to two of these every single day and then attempting the transcript questions.
At the very least they should be doing English tests. Also Mary and others have an IELTS book I emailed.
At the very least they should hve enrolled on the Thinking Course. Try these 7 minute courses
They should be learning about command words and looking at key definitions in the syllabus.
They should be doing Business Studies questions, comparing answers etc.
They should also be looking at and doing past papers in Economics (www.ocr.org.uk) and Business Studies (ww.aqa.org.uk).
That's what they SHOULD be doing.
Then they should be posting about what had been done, uploading video summaries, making podcasts....
That's what SHOULD be done!
I told you to check Universities!!!
This is from Warwick to Sairan:
"Maths and Further Maths are considered as the same subject, and should ideally only be offered as two of four A2’s. Where this is not the case the course selector can choose to make a higher three A offer in order to compensate. Selectors are also concerned where an applicant is offering both Economics and Business Studies as two of three A levels, due to the overlap in course content. We are not normally able to accept A Levels such as Critical Thinking, and again, this may result in a higher offer where no other subject is offered. General Studies is always excluded. All other subjects are considered but this is in light of the subject mix requirements. Specific subjects can be excluded at the Course Selector's discretion."
"Maths and Further Maths are considered as the same subject, and should ideally only be offered as two of four A2’s. Where this is not the case the course selector can choose to make a higher three A offer in order to compensate. Selectors are also concerned where an applicant is offering both Economics and Business Studies as two of three A levels, due to the overlap in course content. We are not normally able to accept A Levels such as Critical Thinking, and again, this may result in a higher offer where no other subject is offered. General Studies is always excluded. All other subjects are considered but this is in light of the subject mix requirements. Specific subjects can be excluded at the Course Selector's discretion."
Meditation
They say you will only start to practice meditation when the time is right for you. And everyone’s moment to begin is of course different. The awareness of the value and the increase in the practice of meditation has grown alongside the pace of change and rising levels of stress over the last two decades. And yet it seems very few will leave the average meditation seminar or course and determinedly build meditation practice into their day-to-day life. Many would like to because they are attracted by the idea and its promise. But they are not prepared to transfer their time and attention away from something that they still perceive as ‘more important’. They are likely to be addicted to action. Others do try and find it hard. It doesn’t yield quick measurable benefits so they give up quite soon. They are still addicted to their impatience and expectations of instant results. They don’t even clear the first hurdle which is the realisation and acceptance that. “I have the habit of impatience and the anxiety is damaging the quality of my life”.
Others do experience some fairly quick results like increased relaxation and a quieter mind. But as they continue they find many thoughts and feelings arising from their subconscious that are not so pleasant and quickly return to the distractions of the ‘world’ in order to avoid those feelings. Then there are those who realise meditation is not just something else to be ‘done’, not something ‘extra’ to be fitted into their daily routine. Although they don’t really understand the mechanics and the mechanisms of meditation they intuitively know it is a beneficial practice and being patient with their own impatience is necessary! They realise meditation is just a word for a process that is better described as ‘consciously cultivating self awareness’, not self consciousness as in self obsession, but self awareness as in seeing and understanding ones true nature and exactly what is blocking it.
With patient and persistent practice they will translate the ideas and theories of meditation practice into personal insight and realisation. And as they do they will likely notice a marked deepening of inner peace, an ability to tolerate situations and people that before seemed intolerable, and an acceptance of the world the way it is instead of trying to ‘fix it’. They will eventually see meditation isn’t about meditation, it’s about being aware of the unseen seer that sees, it’s about knowing that the knower who seems to know, doesn’t! And eventually they realise meditation has only one destination which is not in time or space, not there or then, not even being here and now, but just…being. And when that inner state is recovered all action, all ‘doing’, that flows from that state of being creates harmony in the world.
Along the way the practicing meditator can expect, but should not desire, to also ‘see’ i.e. realise the following.
You are not your mind
While you have a mind you are not your mind. What appears on your mind is a reflection of the world. And just as a reflection on a mirror is not real but just a reflection of the world, so what appears on your mind is not the deepest reality. You are the deepest reality and all that shows up on your mind is just a series of images, ideas, memories and concepts. All come to pass, and pass they do! All are as insubstantial as the clouds in the sky behind which the sun is always shining. Similarly, the reality of the ‘real self’ lies behind the clouds of ideas and thoughts that may appear on the mind. Suffering begins when the sun thinks it is the clouds i.e. when the self believes it is the thoughts and ideas that are on the mind. This is often referred to as attachment.
Your ‘karma’ is simply your attachment to your memories
The word karma is used in many ways so it’s meaning is often lost. Essentially it is the self-attaching to past actions, filtering the world through those memories and allowing decisions and actions in the present to be skewed by those actions of the past. As your self-awareness grows through the practice of meditation you will notice how the past plays a significant role in your day-to-day thinking and decision-making. You will start to see that actions of the past are memories that act as filters and lenses within your consciousness keeping you stuck in habits of perceiving and thinking and therefore doing. Eventually you will notice one of the deepest dimensions of the past is the belief system that you have absorbed, recreated and now subconsciously cling to. It is these beliefs that give rise to any negative thinking and all stress. It is the self’s attachment to these beliefs that cloud its vision of what is true and keep it stuck in illusion. Acting from illusion is out of synch with what is real, resulting in discomfort and the ‘attraction’ of events and circumstances which are not too pleasant. Hence the saying when something seems to happen to someone, “It must be your karma”
The world out there is not as it seems because it’s not ‘out there’
As you learn to look inwards you will gradually or suddenly become aware that the ‘real’ world is not out there, it’s in here and that you create the world that seems to be ‘out there’ in here, according to your state of being. You will notice that when your mood is negative then whatever you bring into your consciousness from the world out there you will create according to that mood. That’s why sometimes you like being with another person even when they are not so pleasant, while at other times you can’t stand being around them. Its not them it’s you. It’s the way you create them in your self that is the cause of their being tolerable one minute and intolerable the next. Obviously when this is fully realised by the self and is no longer just another idea in an article like this, it has huge potential to transform the quality of your life.
The world inside and out is simply a play of light and colour
In meditation you will come to see and know your self as you really are, as consciousness and not form, as ‘self’ and not the body you occupy, you will begin to notice the whole game of life is just a play of light and sound and colour. A marvellous ‘show’ put on by the human race; by human beings who believe they are their form. From identification with the form we occupy comes labels and boundaries, territories and positions, acquisition and attachment, games of control and manipulation, misery and suffering. All of these apparent phenomena within the game of life stem from one single belief, which in meditation is clearly seen to be a mistake i.e. ‘I am the form that I occupy’. This belief generates the idea that love and happiness are material acquisitions and dependent on ones form. Suffering and sadness, anger and fear, separation and division must follow this mistake. We believe life comes with these ‘emotional ingredients’ and we will even justify our experience of them by calling them ‘natural’. Which really means we don’t understand properly why we suffer, get sad, become upset and want to start warring with others. But these painful states all collapse and dissolve when, in the practice of meditation, during the cultivation of self-awareness, there is the realisation “I am not my name or form”. All the other labels upon which we invested our identity fall away, all division ends. Eventually all desire dissolves and sadness becomes impossible because there is in truth ‘nothing’ that you can possess so there is ‘no thing’ you can lose. And so the wars in your mind, where all wars begin, come to an end. And you realise your form, like your home, is but a temporary dwelling, like your car, it is your vehicle, it is not you.
The idea of peace is not peace and peace treaties are irrelevant
As it becomes easier to see life as a play of light and colour, a series of passing scenes and multidimensional dramas played out by those who still believe ‘things’ are important, you will notice your true nature re-emerging into your awareness. And you will see and feel that peace is not something separate from you, it’s no longer a neat idea, it is what you are. Not the peace that can appear at the end of an argument, not a peace that shows up after someone has died, not a peace that defines a treaty between two warring parties. But a real deep, powerful, profound peacefulness, that lives at the very core of your being. A peace that cannot be diminished, only lost to your awareness. A peacefulness that does not need to think about anything but is able to respond appropriately, peacefully but not passively, to all that happens around it, which means around you. And you will notice that only when that peace is present is it possible for true love to emerge like a shy and hesitant child into the light of your awareness.
Nothing real ever changes
In time, with practice, you will see through all that changes and realise it is unreal, and that there is a deeper reality within you that never changes. And that deeper reality is you. You will be able to sit quietly and watch the world around you ‘out there’ change and not be affected by it. You will notice your body changing and not be affected by it. You will notice your mind changing, thoughts changing, feelings changing and not be affected by it. You will see others behaviours changing, often quite violently, and not be affected by it. Nothing will affect you because you realise it is what is meant to be in that moment. In this moment you will know your self as you are, the one who watches, the one who observes everything except your self. And you will notice there is a game called change, otherwise known as life, happening around you. And it’s just a game. And that you are both in the audience and on the stage. And because you realise it’s just a game, a multidimensional drama, a brilliantly scripted play, nothing will surprise you, nothing will be more important than anything else and you will no longer have any preferences.
And in that moment you might ‘feel’ as if you have come home.
Between where you are now and that moment there is likely to be a battle with your addiction to your emotions. You will fight and resist many of these ideas above believing life will be boring, empty and almost flatlining if you are just watching, just being at peace, just observing life come and go. And you will likely interpret the ‘ideas’ within these kinds of insights as a threat to your ‘emotional drugs’, to your dramas, to the ups and downs which seem to be a ‘natural’ part of living. It’s only when you’ve had enough of them, only when you are tired of your own emotional rollercoaster ride through life, that you are likely to sit down and seriously explore something called meditation. Only then will you begin to see and feel the benefit in cultivating self awareness, in sitting in a state of quiet reflection, in being more and doing less, in seeing how you create all your discomforts.
And that’s why the ‘moment’ you sit down, be quiet and surrender to becoming more self aware will be the sane moment that cease to be indifferent to your own suffering.
Next Week: How to meditate and cultivate self-awareness for your SELF of your SELF!
Question: Which of the above realisation/insight do you feel you recognise and understand most clearly and which one is the ‘greyest’.
Reflection: What do you sense stops you building some regular meditation/reflection into your life – what is your inner addiction?
Action: Stop for three minutes three times a day this week and just watch.
How to become a genius
Time to buff up your brain, to send your synapses to the spa. How about a couple of hours of sudoku? No? Well, fire up your Nintendo DS and pump up your neurons with Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training games — “Keep your brain sharp and in shape.” Nicole Kidman says she does it and she’s always right about everything. Or go on the net and test your brain out at brainmetrix.com before going for a real synapse sauna at braingle.com . Stave off senility by signing up at happy-neuron.com , massage the grey matter between your ears by joining lumosity.com (the “fast, fun and effective way to take care of your brain”), or go to sharpbrains.com to get “high-quality, research-based information and guidance to navigate the brain-training and cognitive-fitness market.” Or, better still, read a good book.
“There’s no empirical evidence that these games produce improvements,” says Nancy Andreasen, one of the world’s most distinguished neuroscientists and author of The Creative Brain. “Saying you spend half an hour a day playing sudoku and you won’t get Alzheimer’s, or playing any of these brain games and you’ll lose less grey matter than somebody who doesn’t — well, nobody has ever done that study.”
“These games definitely work because you get better at playing them,” says Earl Miller, professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The big question is: do these skills generalise to normal everyday thoughts? That hasn’t been studied.”
But don’t despair: Susanne Jaeggi, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, may be able to help. She has devised a brain-training game that actually works. It’s a strange, complex game involving sequences of squares on a computer screen, and it definitely improves “fluid intelligence” — the part of your mind that deals directly with the raw newness of experience or, as defined by Jaeggi, “the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge”.
And there is some evidence that the games in MindFit (mindweavers.com ) do work. Baroness (Susan) Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, says it does. Short-term memory and basic reaction time are said to be improved by 20 minutes’ play three times a week.
The brain is not, as the brain trainers like to say, a muscle. It is a 1.3-kilogram crème caramel-like mix of fat, water and proteins driven by electricity and chemicals called neurotransmitters. As far as we know, it is, unless it belongs to Kerry Katona, the most complex thing in the universe. It’s made to last, at best, about 100 years. It shrinks and deteriorates with age. By the time you’re 30 you’re probably past your intellectual peak. This is a problem, as we’re living longer and longer, and the danger is that we’ll just get stupider and stupider.
It’s a particular problem for baby-boomers, the large, rich, spoilt generation born after the second world war. They’ve had everything, they run the world, but now they’re in their fifties and sixties. They love themselves to bits. But the selves they love are just so many crème caramels soon to pass their sell-by date. Already they can see the signs. Why did you leave your phone in the freezer? Why do you lose your glasses six times a day? These are symptoms of age-associated memory impairment (AAMI). It happens to everybody, but the boomers didn’t think it would happen to them. If brain- enhancing tactics are suddenly fashionable, it’s because of boomer self-love.
Perhaps, in desperation, they’ll take supplements said to improve brain function — co-enzyme Q10, ginseng, bacopa. Or perhaps they’ll look on the bright side: the brain, though unquestionably mortal, is surprisingly resilient. We’ve known this since 4.30pm on September 13, 1848. It was at that moment than an iron rod an inch-and-a-quarter thick and 3ft 8in long was blasted through the head of an American railroad worker called Phineas P Gage. Large parts of his brain were destroyed, but his recovery was almost complete. Much about this story is controversial. But what is clear is that it inspired all subsequent investigations of the brain, from surgery to neuroscience. Gage’s survival, more or less intact, also shows the brain’s staggering ability to work around problems.
There’s one more bright spot. If we work the brain, we can grow new brain cells.
“There is a gradual growing awareness that challenging your brain can have positive effects,” says Dr Gene Cohen, director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University. “Every time you challenge your brain, it will actually modify the brain. We can indeed form new brain cells, despite a century of being told it’s impossible.”
So your brain may be rotting, but there should, in theory, be something you can do to keep it reasonably fresh. The important concept here is “brain plasticity”, the ability of the brain to change and adapt.
“We are literally remaking our brains,” writes Andreasen in The Creative Brain, “— who we are and how we think, with all our actions, reactions, perceptions, postures, and positions — every minute of the day and every day of the week and every month and year of our entire lives.”
Yet, even knowing this, there used to be precious little we could do about it, because humans are notoriously averse to having their brains taken out and examined while in use. The electroencephalograph (EEG) — a way of observing brain activity via electrodes on the skull — was of some use. But it was not until the early 1990s, with the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), that we found we could watch the brain actually working. If MRI delivers half of what many people expect it to deliver, these could turn out to be the most revolutionary machines in human history.
These are, be warned, very early days, so any extravagant claims about ways of improving your brain on the basis of evidence from MRI machines are likely to be snake oil.
“There is this over-complicated thing we barely understand,” says Professor Lawrence Parsons at Sheffield University, “because we’re only at the beginning; we’re still looking at the circuit diagrams.”
But — and these may be the most interesting findings of all — there are tentative signs that we are making some headway in discovering something about the most important human qualities of all — insight, inspiration and creativity. These are what make all of us who we are. And, from psychiatry and psychology, we may even have made a start on the understanding of genius. Over the last few years, neuroscientists and psychologists have just begun to focus on all of these most elusive, precious and human characteristics.
At 6pm on August 5, 1949, a fireman named Wag Dodge and his crew found themselves cut off by a wildfire in Mann Gulch River Valley, Montana. A wall of flame was coming towards them at 30mph. Dodge took a match out of his pocket and set fire to the grass immediately in front of him, stepped into the cleared space, covered his face and pressed himself into the ground so that he could breathe the thin layer of air beneath the smoke cloud. The fire rushed over him and he survived. The other 13 members of the crew hadn’t heard his order to do the same. They all died.
Like the story of Phineas Gage, the story of Wag Dodge has become an inspiration to neuroscientists. Why and how did he do what he did under such extreme conditions? “Wag Dodge — he’s a great one,” says Mark Jung Beeman, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois. “It was particularly interesting in such a stressful situation. He was at the point where he basically gave up. He must have had some pretty awesome frontal lobes. Normally, high stress would limit creative, flexible or insight-type thinking, but not in this case.” Beeman’s phrase “at the point where he basically gave up” is crucial. Dodge had been struggling to find a way to escape the flames for some time. When, finally, the situation seemed to be hopeless, it is thought he had a moment of relaxation, of giving up, and that moment became his eureka moment.
Most people would call it inspiration, but neuroscientists prefer the more modest title of “insight”. Beeman is one of a group trying to unravel this extremely elusive phenomenon using MRI and EEG. There are two ways of solving problems: analytic and inspirational. With analytic you just plod your way through the work, reasoning your way to the solution. But often you grind to a halt and give up — exactly what Dodge seemed to do.
Up to this point your brain has been working through a limited number of connections, all directly related to the problem at hand. When you stop, the connections loosen; new connections, new possibilities, can be formed. You may even find that some random object — a bird, a tree — somehow inspires you. Finally you reach the eureka moment, you say “Aha!” and your problem is solved.
“It’s not really inspiration,” says Earl Miller. “There’s really no such thing. It’s more like a reconfiguration of old thoughts. I know from my own experience that most of my insight comes when I’m not thinking about a problem. I work until I’m really caught in a rut, and then I take a walk or play music or drift off to sleep and the solution will occur to me.”
Or, in the more technical language of a paper by Beeman and others on the phenomenon, “Although all problem-solving relies on a largely shared cortical network, the sudden flash of insight occurs when solvers engage distinct neural and cognitive processes that allow them to see connections that previously eluded them.”
In fact, the whole process seems to be centred on one small part of the brain: the anterior superior temporal gyrus. This seems to be the point at which bits of information stored far
apart in the brain are brought together. This may be an important clue as to how the brain organises itself. But it’s only the beginning. At Goldsmiths College in London, Dr Joydeep Bhattacharya says the real issue is not the “Aha!” moment itself, but the way it is produced in the brain and how we recognise it.
“We need to know the brain processes involved, to find how this moment is strong enough to reach consciousness. We know insight does not come from the sky.”
This is the problem with all neuroscience.
We don’t really know what we are seeing
when we watch the brain work. Is it the thing itself — the thought, the flash of insight — or just an aspect of it, the bark rather than the dog? “We’re just not at the point where we can
answer these big interpretive questions,” says Lawrence Parsons at Sheffield.
Parsons himself has conducted some of the most extraordinary experiments in an attempt to track the creative pathways of the mind. He has had tango dancers in his MRI machine. Of course, they couldn’t actually tango, but he did provide a board on which they could do some of the steps. He has also worked on musical improvisation, with Jarvis Cocker, among others, stuck inside his machine. He came up with plenty of information about what parts of the brain lit up. But at this point there’s not much we can do with it. Neuroscience lacks a big theory.
“It may be 300 years before we can do things like enhance our creativity,” says Parsons with a gloomy chuckle. “Some say in 20 years we can make you smarter, but I’m a pessimist.”
There is one important link between musical improvisation and the “Aha!” moment that saved Wag Dodge’s life. Improvisation was found to be accompanied by “a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex”. The prefrontal cortex is to the brain what a conductor is to an orchestra. It pulls the whole show together. In humans it is a third of the whole brain, compared with around 5% in dogs and cats. If you want to find where the thing you call “me” is located, the prefrontal cortex would be a good place to start.
The point about that “dissociated pattern” is that it echoes the loosening of connections that precedes the “Aha!” moment. Insight and creativity, perhaps even genius, do seem to be linked to a brain that can disorganise itself and freewheel, making new and unexpected connections. As Nancy Andreasen puts it, the creative act may “begin with a process during which associative links run wild, creating new connections, many of which might seem strange or implausible. The disorganised mental state may persist for many hours, while words, images and ideas collide. Eventually order emerges, and with it the creative product”.
So, with that in mind, answer this question: how many uses can you think of for a brick? Or this: what would happen if people no longer needed to sleep?
These were questions asked in psychological tests specifically designed to measure creativity. They have been attacked as far too subjective. But they do point to a crucial way of defining creativity. If you are now idly imagining dozens of uses for a brick or the novelties of a sleepless world, then you are probably a divergent thinker. If, instead, the questions make you impatient — a brick is for building walls, dammit — then you are a convergent thinker.
Divergent thinkers habitually wander around their own minds, looking for links, however absurd or surreal. Convergent thinkers look for the one correct answer. The discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 was a clear example of convergent thinking — the one correct answer was a double helix.
Meanwhile, on August 10, 1788, one of the greatest of all examples of divergent thinking came into the world. It was Mozart’s last symphony, the Jupiter, and the final movement is not an answer: it is an explosive assertion of the joy of our apparently limitless creativity. If anybody was a diverger, it was Mozart.
But, of course, creative divergers who can think of 101 uses for a brick are treading a fine line. There has always been a romantic link between madness and genius, and too much divergence can undoubtedly drive you crazy. What science we now have suggests that the link might be true. Oddly, however, high creativity has not so far been found to be linked with schizophrenia, as most people expected, but with mood disorders — notably bipolar disorder or manic depression.
The link has been made by several highly authoritative studies, both by leading American scientists. Kay Jamison, a professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, studied poets, playwrights, novelists, biographers and artists and found 38% had been treated for an affective illness — ie, mood disorder.
Joseph Schildkraut, a Harvard psychiatrist, studied 15 abstract-expressionist painters from the 1950s — 50% had psychiatric issues, mainly mood disorders. And Nancy Andreasen studied students at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the leading school of its kind in the world. Again there was a phenomenally high percentage of mood disorders.
Andreasen admits she was looking for schizophrenia. This did not mean she expected the students to be full-blown schizophrenics — this is an illness that can destroy the sort of high-level functioning required for true creativity. But she did expect to find schizoid relatives and tendencies. But bipolarity seemed to be the primary condition of the smart young writers.
So what, you might wonder, does all this mean for you, a boomer with brain rot who sometimes leaves his phone in the freezer and his glasses God knows where? What must you do?
The short answer — and the one on which all are agreed — is: use it or lose it. The plasticity of the brain means that it is able, in the face of injury or decay, to find ways of adapting itself to preserve strong patterns of activity. So, if you play chess all the time, you probably will be almost as good at 80 as you were at 40. You would probably also be almost as good at Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training games. But so what? Read books, good books — nothing works better.
The longer answer is that there are potentially beneficial techniques suggested by our still- limited knowledge of the workings of the brain. Jaeggi’s fluid-intelligence game works, but it’s lab-based at the moment and has yet to be adapted for general use.
Nancy Andreasen offers four suggestions to which you should allocate 30 minutes a day — choose a new and unfamiliar area of knowledge and explore it in depth, spend some time meditating or just thinking, practise observing and describing things, and practise imagining. This is quite a punishing workout but it makes perfect sense and, unlike the Nintendo DS, it does seem to describe a better way of life.
Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, suggests reading out loud at breakfast, making lists of related objects (say, yellow ones, or those beginning with A), and change hands — brush your teeth with your left hand if you’re right-handed. Again, this makes perfect sense: these tricks make your brain deal with the unfamiliar as opposed to getting locked in old patterns of thought.
But there’s going to be a lot of snake oil on the market in the decades, if not centuries, before we can come up with any more solid prescriptions to save our highest creative selves from brain rot. The brain workout is already as much of a boomer must-do as the body workout. In fact, it’s clearly a lot more important. The best advice I ever heard came from a Spanish neurologist, Damaso Crespo. He said I should do 100 yards a day, not sprinting but walking. But I had to walk with a friend and talk all the time. It’s the walking, the talking and the friendship that feed the brain; the sprint just feeds dumb muscles.
In the end you die, and it seems likely that the miracle of the world inside your particular 1.3 kilograms of crème caramel dies with you. Perhaps you had insight, inspiration, perhaps you created, perhaps you were a genius.
Perhaps, one day, neuroscientists and psychologists will finish their maps and tell us how it’s all done. But will they really?
One last time and date. At 8pm on January 27, 1756, Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. He spent most of the next 35 years giving the best ever account in music of why your life is worth living, even though his own ended in poverty, suffering and disappointment. He never had electrodes stuck to his head, nor was he slid inside an MRI machine. And, even if he had been subjected to our mind probes, what would that have told us? Probably what we knew already: that this happened just once.
So forget the Nintendo, forget everything. Listen to what the human mind can do. Brain workouts are all very well but, stripping away the science and the rhetoric, they all come down to the same simple injunction: pay attention, because you pass this way only once.
Is Resistance Futile?
There is no shortage of ‘movements’ in the world that exist as a form of resistance. They tend to attract those who don’t like something that is happening in life. Political, environmental, economic and social issues all have their ‘resistance movements’. The mission of their members is to agitate for change. But is resisting the most effective way to create a better way forward. Is resistance to the way things are the most effective method to make a creative contribution to progress, whatever your definition of progress may be. As most of us will spend a significant amount of our life ‘in resistance’ to something or someone, without consciously realising it, its effectiveness is worth exploring.
If you look underneath your resistance to anyone or any situation you will notice you are trying to control what you cannot control. Whether it’s another person, your immediate circumstances, a far off situation or some controversial issue, your resistance has its roots in an attempt to control the uncontrollable. You cannot control another person, ever. And most issues and situations include other people. However most of us will grow up with a belief that we can control what we cannot control, that the world should dance to our tune, that people and situations should do what ‘I want’ and go the way ‘I want’ them to go. And if they don’t I will not be happy. And so resistance is a sign that we are killing our own happiness.
Where there is resistance there is the birth of conflict. Two parties in resistance to each other co-creating conflict, which is why, as that old saying goes, resistance leads to persistence. This happens between people, teams, organisations and nations. Eventually resistance escalates into war. But few notice that the war happens both ‘outside’ (between parties), and ‘inside’, within the consciousness of each party. Being at war with others and with ones self is obviously an unenlightened way to live, but even when we realise it’s unenlightened we still resist. Just thinking, “They ‘should’ not be fighting, they ‘shouldn’t’ be resisting each other”, is to resist those that resist!
When you resist the other person or situation it means you are closed to them. You have gathered your self around your opinion, position or perspective and you are not open to the others ideas or way forward. You are saying there is only one way forward and it’s ‘my way’. This generates much inner tension. Not only are you closed but the other is also perceived as a threat. And as you subtly send them that perception it’s only a matter of time before they return it. Unless of course they understand that resistance is not the most effective way forward.
Whenever you resist anything or anyone it means you are in a judgmental state. It means that you disapprove of the other and you are saying they are wrong and you are right. This judgmental stance destroys your peace and easily clouds your ability to discern clearly what is really happening. Which is why judging others is a form of arrogance that breaks our connection.
Resistance simply means you are stressed. And like all forms of stress it is self created and can therefore be easily alleviated. But it’s our belief that others are the cause of our stressfulness that sustains our resistance to them, so we create a self-reinforcing mechanism within our consciousness that sustains our resistant attitude and action. However, stress as resistance is so prevalent we believe it’s OK, even natural, even good!
Take a moment whenever you are in resistant mode to see the ‘emotional’ content underneath and you will always find either anger or fear, and perhaps both. These are the ‘unhappy emotions’, which if sustained, will eventually affect your health and well being, not to mention your relationships.
The place where we often do the most resisting is within ourselves. They are brief moments not of self-denial, but when the self denies the emotions it is feeling. To resist our own emotions is to suppress our emotions, and as we all know the pressure of accumulated suppression will one day find its way out either through an emotional explosion or physical illness.
While we do not control others we do influence each other. In fact it’s your job if you are a parent, manager, older sibling etc to influence others. But influence is not control. As soon as the other senses you are attempting to control them they close up and you lose your influence. Whereas if you simply accept them as they are, they are likely to stay more open and you will therefore have greater influence. Here lies the subtle line between control and influence.
In any conflict situation resolution is impossible until one party gives up their resistance and accepts the other as they are, even if it’s for a few minutes. Only then can the conversation, the communication, begin. Only then can the journey towards resolution commence. Acceptance is not the only step, just the first step, but often the hardest. Its here that acceptance is most often mistakenly seen as agreement or acquiescence.
The shift from resistance to acceptance is also the moment you become open to the other. And when you open to them they are likely to follow and become more open to you… eventually. You only need to be free of ‘wanting’ and ‘expecting’ them to open to you. And as we all know mutual openness is one of the foundations of a relationship that works.
It is only when you accept the other as they are, regardless of what they have done, or indeed what they may do that you can relax into the relationship. They may not reciprocate immediately but that’s OK because you know you are not responsible for their actions or feelings, and you are no longer dependent on what they do for what you feel. Easy isn’t it…! : )
Acceptance returns you back to your true state, your true energies, and the shift from anger and fear to love and peace is complete. In fact acceptance is an expression of love that is not possible until you are at peace with your self and with the world. To be at peace with the world sounds easy but it’s not possible until the habit of trying to fix the world has gone. True and genuine acceptance is love in action. And when it is directed consistently over time towards ‘the other’ they feel it and will likely return appreciation. A common memory from childhood for many of us was to be on the end of our parent’s resistance as they tried to control us, while at the same time being the receiver of our grandparent’s acceptance. Hence the warmer feelings we would very often have towards grandma and grandpa! They had long since retired from the parental ‘control patrol’.
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