Iowa State researchers conducted a study where they took three groups of students and gave them a list of words to remember. Afterward, a group either recited the words immediate, after 15 seconds of rehearsal, or after 15 seconds of doing math problems. Unsurprisingly, the average scores followed this same order when ranked highest to […]
“Is This Going To Be On Test?”
You’re asking if you have to do more. It means you’re here just to tell everyone you were here. If you ask “How can I learn/do/give more,” you’re here for a lot more than a certificate of attendance. I think it’s a lot more productive to show up to things that spark the second question […]
Intuition from The Worlds of Our Creation
Imagine I provided the following description of an individual named Linda: “Linda is thirty-one years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in antinuclear demonstrations.” Now I want to ask you which of the following […]
The Information Dilemma
I remember taking a test to fill out all the capitals of the U.S. You probably had to do that a while ago too. But to be quite honest, I must have done something wrong, because I forgot. And now when I’m in a situation where I need to know the capital of a state, […]
Practice Does Not Make Perfect
Have you ever walked into a test feeling confident about the material? Or a meeting thinking your presentation is pitch-perfect? You’ve put so much time and effort to hone your skills by practicing. Each time you feel ever more familiar for the upcoming task. And suddenly you find yourself prepared to take it on completely. […]
Procrastinating, Strategically
Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most well-known speeches in American history during the 1963 March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom. He also prepared the speech the night before, finishing at about 3 A.M. And it wasn’t because he was too busy to start early. Martin Luther King had spent weeks getting […]
Let Go Of Your Experience
There were two groups of scientists working on the same task in two separate labs. One set of scientists had vague credentials. A couple physicists, chemists, and biologists grouped up together. The other set were scientists that were experts in their field in E. Coli. And both were experimenting with proteins from E. Coli. Psychologist […]
Learning To Not Be Educated
“When it’s work, [people] try to figure out how to do less. When it’s art, they try to figure out how to do more” Seth Godin An interesting study was taken whereby a large group of community college students were taken to be testing on their math skills. The question? Which of the following is […]
How to Consistently Work at Your Peak… By Not Working
When Josh Watizkin competed in national chess tournaments at a young age, he would go into bouts of intense performance. This meant days of uninterrupted focus in training and strategizing his matches. But while it seemed best to keep him undistracted, he did suffer. He felt his first few matches or days were amazing, yet […]