The human toll from the 2025 California fires is heartbreaking. In my mind it rivals the damage from Katrina. So many people’s lives have been torn apart. I hope everyone does something, contributes something, to help out those who have been hurt. You can reach out personally. You can support the Red Cross. You can find GoFundMe pages like this one which is a recovery fund for Black residents of Altadena and Pasadena. Every one of us can find a way make a difference for someone. California...
4 days ago • 4 min read
Gurwinder Bhogal published an intriguing list of 25 Useful Ideas for 2025. A list of 25 is too many. Maybe my little brain can remember three. On the other hand, these are all thought-provoking. The 25th is on Sphexishness. Sphexishness is when you blindly follow a rule without checking if the rule works in the present situation. Gurwinder Bhogal has a great example. Ants follow each others’ pheromes which lead them to food and back home. But some ants may start moving in a circle, and all...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Paella, yum On New Year's Eve, I had a 2-hour dinner with family in a restaurant. Luckily, I was sitting next to a two-year-old who kept me entertained so I didn’t create any disturbances. We all sat down, and I noticed each napkin was wrapped in a red ribbon. I took the ribbon and wound it around my index finger, and Annie reached for it and pulled it off with a whole-body smile. She gave the ribbon back to me, and I wound it again, and she pulled it off again with the same show of joy. We...
13 days ago • 1 min read
Happy New Year. The MindShifting Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success book is now (it originally said not) available at Ingram Spark. Here is the purchase link: Mindshifting Weisburgh, Mitch Buy Now
15 days ago • 1 min read
I had a great example of using limbic brain vs prefrontal cortex this week. I was playing with a four-year-old. I had two allegator figurines, and I played the role of two allegators. Allegator 1: I am really hungry, I could really eat a four-year-old. Allegator 2: Me, too. I wonder where we can find a four-year-old. Kid: I'm four. I'm right here. Allegator 1: Oh boy. I'll start eating the left leg, you can start on the right one. Kid: No, you don't want to eat me. I know someone who would be...
28 days ago • 1 min read
We went to Neung Sarat’s, our (former) exchange student, wedding this weekend. Neung lived with us for the second semester of the 2010-11 school year when he was in high school. The wedding was in Thailand. We flew out Thursday morning. There was a 17 hour flight to Singapore, a 90 minute layover, then a 2 hour flight to Bangkok, and we arrived at 8:00PM on Friday. The wedding was Sunday, from 1:30 PM until about 11:30 PM, and it was entirely in Thai, which we do not speak. Then we flew back...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Tom Atlee wrote a thought-provoking post on the distinction between clarity and certainty. Clarity is that Aha! Moment, when the pieces just fall into place. He writes, “Certainty, on the other hand, solidifies my clarity into the emotional and mental inflexibility of Truth.” MindShifters would say that Certainty is when our limbic brains lock in, when our cognitive biases are in full force, and when we go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Atlee points out that we can have clarity and also...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Imagine a 16 year old girl who found out she was going to live in a homeless center for the next two years. Now imagine the typical day one 16-year-old girl set for herself after hearing this news: Wake up at 6 Pack her food for the day Go to school Participate in after school clubs Work part time as a cashier Work on homework and scholarship applications until after midnight Now imagine that she then received a full scholarship to the University of Florida, now has a PhD, is a keynote...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
In her Rethink newsletter, Rachel Botsman wrote about What we can learn from being wrong. Botsman showed how Danny Kahneman, Vincent van Gogh, Kathryn Shulz, Thomas Gilovich, Carol Tavis, Elliot Aronson, Adam Grant, Alistair Campbell, and Ann Frieman all demonstrate that learning is a product of being wrong, and that not being willing to be wrong leads to stagnation and mediocrity. Sweet things are made of this, who am I to disagree? I’m me, and I always find a way to disagree. It's through...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
