- Mar 2023
-
nesslabs.com nesslabs.com
-
For instance, we used to think that the main cause of obesity was a poor diet at an individual level, leading to treatments focused on the individual. However, taking a networked thinking approach in a 32-year-long study with over 12,000 people led researchers to discover that the participants’ personal network had a great impact on their likelihood to be obese. “Discernible clusters of obese persons were present in the network at all time points,” write the researchers.
Another social factor influencing human behaviour. Beware of such factors when it comes to self-improvement and learning.
-
- Oct 2022
-
davidbclear.medium.com davidbclear.medium.com
-
This is a pretty good example of a strawman argument. The author uses the correct exponential growth formula to describe a precise 1% improvement rate. But that's not what the 1% improvement idea is about. For instance, consider https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/get-1-better-every-day/19161/ or https://betterhumans.pub/continuous-improvement-how-to-get-1-better-every-day-from-today-a8128c942c61 The argument isn't based on a strict interpretation of 1%.
-
- Jun 2022
-
thelearnersway.net thelearnersway.net
-
We are used to instant gratification. Multiple opportunities for engagement and distraction surround us. If the result we are after does not come immediately, it is easy to seek an alternate path. An economy built on fast food, same-day home delivery, open all hours service model feeds our desire for instant results. Buy now, pay later, why wait when you can have it now.?
We need to slow down - in every aspect of our lives - so we can attend to the present more thoughtfully, seriously, and appreciatively. Now will never happen again.
-
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge
This is clearly a political statement intended to get more people to contribute to the country's economy. It is, however, woefully wrong in the broader sense.
Persistence does matter, but it isn't "omnipotent". Persistence, like education, can and should be acquired. But without talent and intelligence (and curiosity, and honour, and truthfulness, and...), persistence alone will not suffice.
-
- May 2022
-
Local file Local file
-
You may find this book in the “self-improvement” category, but in adeeper sense it is the opposite of self-improvement. It is aboutoptimizing a system outside yourself, a system not subject to you
imitations and constraints, leaving you happily unoptimized and free to roam, to wonder, to wander toward whatever makes you feel alive here and now in each moment.
Some may categorize handbooks on note taking within the productivity space as "self-help" or "self-improvement", but still view it as something that happens outside of ones' self. Doesn't improving one's environment as a means of improving things for oneself count as self-improvement?
Marie Kondo's minimalism techniques are all external to the body, but are wholly geared towards creating internal happiness.
Because your external circumstances are important to your internal mental state, external environment and decoration can be considered self-improvement.
Could note taking be considered exbodied cognition? Vannevar Bush framed the Memex as a means of showing associative trails. (Let's be honest, As We May Think used the word trail far too much.)
How does this relate to orality vs. literacy?
Orality requires the immediate mental work for storage while literacy removes some of the work by making the effort external and potentially giving it additional longevity.
-
- Oct 2020
-
betterhumans.pub betterhumans.pub
-
Second, I have a not-very-well supported theory that’s paired with the book Thinking, Fast and Slow. The behavior design implication of that book is that you need to speak to two systems of the brain. Speaking to the rational, Slow System is easy. Just lay out the facts.Speaking to the emotional Fast System is much harder, namely because it’s so hard to see or introspect on what’s going on in there. But if you accept that difficulty (and this is the part of my theory that feels like pop brain science), then you realize that you need to start looking for ways to rewire your emotional core.Then, having accepted that rewiring your emotions is part of most behavior design, I’ve started to notice things — like that most self-improvement advice is not very rational. That’s by design. A self-improvement book is mostly emotional rewiring. That is exactly why you need to read the entire book rather than cheating with a summarized version.
This is an interesting sounding take. Worth thinking about further.
-
- Oct 2016
-
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
-
References in this video
- 33:44 Rashi
- 34:43 Chofetz Chaim
- 34:52 Mishnah Berurah
- 39:57 Albert Camus . (The quote is from Notebooks.)
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
- Nov 2015
-
waitbutwhy.com waitbutwhy.com
-
If someone gave you a perfect simulation of today’s world to play in and told you that it’s all fake with no actual consequences—with the only rules being that you can’t break the law or harm anyone, and you still have to make sure to support your and your family’s basic needs—what would you do? My guess is that most people would do all kinds of things they’d love to do in their real life but wouldn’t dare to try, and that by behaving that way, they’d end up quickly getting a life going in the simulation that’s both far more successful and much truer to themselves than the real life they’re currently living.
This seems a whole lot like what happens in MUSHs, especially ones with easily replaceable identities.
-