Kate Murphy, a reporter at the New York Times, wrote an interesting story last month: We’re All Socially Awkward Now. Murphy writes the following: Research on prisoners, hermits, soldiers, astronauts, polar explorers, and others who have spent extended periods in isolation indicates social skills are like muscles that atrophy from lack of use. People separated from society — by … Continue reading We Are All Socially Awkward Now
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) say that both children and adults learn more and remember things more efficiently when writing by hand rather than a keyboard. The study’s author believes all modern children should receive at least some instruction in handwriting. The brain activity of 12 young adults and 12 … Continue reading The Value of Learning to Write by Hand
In a post this past week on Fred Wilson's wonderful site - AVC.com - he wrote about his venture capital firm's latest educational investment, Sora Schools. I spent some time reading about the school, and it sounds marvelous. Here is some information from the school web site: Sora is a live, virtual high school where … Continue reading Is This What High School Should Look Like?
In his latest Pinkcast, Dan Pink sits with Olga Khazan, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World. In the interview, Olga talks about what it means to be weird, what the advantages are to being weird, and how such outsiders can advance … Continue reading How to Sell Your Weird Idea
Earlier today, I was finalizing my notes for my classes for the coming week. One of the topics I will cover this week is advertising, which gives me a chance to show a few of my favorite commercials, many of which I have highlighted in previous posts. As I was double-checking to make sure the … Continue reading This Is Why I Love Commercials…
Start watching horror films. Researchers say fans of horror films and other post-apocalyptic movies are handling the real-life fear brought by the coronavirus pandemic better than others. A team in the United States and Denmark finds horror flick enthusiasts are experiencing less psychological distress due to COVID-19. In addition to horror films, movies that fall into … Continue reading Worried about COVID-19? Here’s a Simple Solution
Never heard of "enclothed cognition"? Neither had I until reading a recent story in the WSJ by reporter Ray Smith. Enclothed cognition is an area of research that examines the signals clothes send to the brain, says Dr. Adam Galinsky, co-author of the research that coined the term. “In some ways, the clothes that you … Continue reading The Science of Enclothed Cognition
Then you've come to the right place. I first wrote about the wonderful non-profit organization, DonorsChoose, over five years ago. In fact, it is one of the posts that were part of my initial foray into blogging through a 30-day challenge. Here is a bit of an excerpt from that post: Imagine making a donation … Continue reading Want to Get the Ultimate Handwritten Set of Thank You Notes?
Not sure who Herb Kelleher is? Kelleher (March 12, 1931 – January 3, 2019) was an American billionaire airline businessman and lawyer. He was the co-founder, later CEO, and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines until his death in 2019. If you have ever flown Southwest or seen its ads, you know it is a different kind of airline. … Continue reading The Wacky Genius of Herb Kelleher
In today's class, I showed the wonderful Dan Pink TED talk on motivation (yes, the same Dan Pink who many of you pointed out the other day needs to work on his hand washing). In part of the video, Dan introduces the candle problem, which is shown in the image above. The problem was developed by … Continue reading Can You Solve the Candle Problem?
Borden's Blather 