Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
Useful Ideas for 2025
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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 the other ants will follow their loop, circularly following each other until they die of exhaustion. Virtually all bureaucracies are sphexish. Our limbic systems are spexish. Luckily we have a prefrontal cortex, and if we could only learn how to use it properly we’d be better thinkers, innovators, collaborators, and even happier. Here are three other useful ideas that are specifically related to mindsets and MindShifting (they are all useful and interesting, though). Region-Beta Paradox:Often we fail to improve our lives simply because things don't get bad enough. If your new job is hell, you’ll leave it, but if it’s just unsatisfying, you’ll likely grind it out. Thus, small problems often threaten our quality of life more than big ones. Event BiasOne reason negativity dominates the news is that bad news tends to happen suddenly while good news tends to happen gradually so is rarely newsworthy on any particular day. But even though it may not get as much attention, good news is always happening. Explanatory InversionQuestions rest on unexamined assumptions, so always try flipping them. For instance, don’t just ask why there is poverty, ask why there is prosperity. This is a great brainstorming technique and dramatically changes your perspective. How will you use these ideas in 2025 to live a happier more fulfilling life? |
Mindshifting Educators
Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
I was brought up short this week by a post condemning values. Or rather, values statements by organizations. Paul Sweeney, on his Disruption Space blog, used an excerpt from his book Magnetic Nonsense: A Short History of Bullshit at Work and How to Make it Go Away, and gave some thought provoking examples of worthless values statements. Here are three. People who Act with integrity This was Ernst & Young’s number one value at the time the company knew some its auditors were cheating on exams...
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...
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...