scientific american has interesting things to say about the expert mind. this is my condensed version: Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well. Much of the chess master’s advantage over the novice derives from the first few seconds of thought. This… Continue reading about expert minds
Month: August 2006
more on persuasion and the like
to continue with the theme we’ve been talking about, i just stumbled across a whole big web site devoted to changing people’s minds. it includes a page that analyzes martin luther king’s famous i have a dream speech. isabella mori counselling in vancouver
interdependence and codependence
a few days ago, i asked what it is that i can do to help stop the kind of violence that so harshly burst into my friend’s life the other day. here is a comment i received: i think this goes along with trying to change someone or can you actually “make” someone do something.… Continue reading interdependence and codependence
violence in small and big worlds
in my last blog entry, i spoke about violence in my microcosm, just 10 minutes down the street from where i live. i’m looking forward to replying to the comments i received on that – again, interesting thoughts that deserve more than a short acknowledgment. before i do that, however, let’s look at violence in… Continue reading violence in small and big worlds
praying to stop violence
two nights ago, a friend of ours got savagely beaten. they live right across a school with a big, open playground, which is often used for wild late-night partying. he went out and asked them to keep it down. six people swarmed him and beat him so badly that a piece of metal got lodged… Continue reading praying to stop violence
the mystery of anorexia blogs
today i thought i’d surf around for some blogs on anorexia. i was looking for active, relatively up-to-date blogs that would talk about the experience of living with or recovering from anorexia, or perhaps the experience of living with or caring about someone with anorexia. i thought it would be easy – it’s a well-known… Continue reading the mystery of anorexia blogs
identities vs. labels
(this is another entry that i transferred from one of the lost january artices from my old blog) the following thoughts are inspired by a conversation in daily dose of queer about gender identies: what’s an identity? what do i need it for? why do others need me to have an identity? is an identity… Continue reading identities vs. labels
automatic emotional responses
what a coincidence! medline today reports a study that goes quite well with what we discussed yesterday: Irrational behaviour arises as a consequence of emotional reactions evoked when faced with difficult decisions, according to new research at UCL (University College of London) … The UCL study suggests that rational behaviour may stem from an ability… Continue reading automatic emotional responses
“you made me do it” – part 4: understanding it all
okay, so let’s see what we can make of all the information and opinions we’ve gathered in the last few days about the subject of “making” someone feel something. in the first part, we concluded that it’s not possible to make anyone feel anything, as evidenced by the fact that when a teacher says something… Continue reading “you made me do it” – part 4: understanding it all
“you made me do it” – part 3
i was going to give you my opinion on how to reconcile the two opposing ideas presented in my two previous blog entries – but you’ll have to wait one more day. something just drifted into my mailbox that relates to the topic of “you made me do it”. and it’s funny. ghalil, author of… Continue reading “you made me do it” – part 3