"Under-slept employees are not, therefore, going to drive your business forward with productive innovation. Like a group of people riding stationary exercise bikes, everyone looks like they are pedaling, but the scenery never changes." #readingToday
Under-slept employees are not, therefore, going to drive your business forward with productive innovation. Like a group of people riding stationary exercise bikes, everyone looks like they are pedaling, but the scenery never changes. The irony that employees miss is that when you are not getting enough sleep, you work less productively and thus need to work longer to accomplish a goal. This means you often must work longer and later into the evening, arrive home later, go to bed later, and need to wake up earlier, creating a negative feedback loop. Why try to boil a pot of water on medium heat when you could do so in half the time on high? People often tell me that they do not have enough time to sleep because they have so much work to do. Without wanting to be combative in any way whatsoever, I respond by informing them that perhaps the reason they still have so much to do at the end of the day is precisely because they do not get enough sleep at night.
'Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/hnszGVq
November 13, 2017 at 11:55AM
"More than 65 percent of the US adult population fail to obtain the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night during the week. Circumnavigate the globe, and things look no better. In the UK and Japan, for example, 39 and 66 percent, respectively, of all adults report sleeping fewer than seven hours. Deep currents of sleep neglect circulate throughout all developed nations, and it is for these reasons that the World Health Organization now labels the lack of societal sleep as a global health epidemic. Taken as a whole, one out of every two adults across all developed countries (approximately 800 million people) will not get the necessary sleep they need this coming week." #readingtoday
from "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/awgu5ou
from "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/awgu5ou
May 26, 2018 at 11:32AM
"The cells in your brain constitute the Cartesian You." -- @rBeauLotto #Deviate #readingToday
By "Cartesian," I'm referring to the French philosopher René Descartes, who espoused a mechanistic view of human consciousness, out of which came his famous phrase cogito, ergo sum: "I think, therefore I am." Your thinking, and therefore your being, depends on the cells that constitute your brain's railroad system, allowing the electrical patterns—like trains—to follow their reflex arcs.
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/0XYDTQG
May 26, 2018 at 11:16AM
"Genetics and development are inherently ecological [interactive] processes." #readingToday
Genes don't encode specific traits as such; rather, they encode mechanisms, processes, and elements of interactions between cells and their cellular and non-cellular environment. Genetics and development are inherently ecological processes.
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/c8Yifrg
May 25, 2018 at 09:39AM
"Things that are highly kurtotic, or skewed, are hard to shift away from." #readingToday
This is another way of saying that seeing differently isn't just conceptually difficult—it's statistically difficult. We're really talking about math when we say, "The optimist sees the glass as half full and the pessimist as half empty."
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/glp2HnG
May 23, 2018 at 11:51AM
"The stories we imagine change us profoundly. ... We can use our brain to change our brain internally." #readingToday
The key is this: the stories we imagine change us profoundly. Through imaging stories, we can create perceptions, and thus alter our future perceptual-based behaviors. This—arguably—is a point of consciousness, if not the point: to imagine experiences without the risk of enacting them. And not only in the now, but about events in the past. Which means, parallel to our trial-and-error, empirical physical engagement in the real world, we can use our brain to change our brain internally.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/1IGFFD9
May 19, 2018 at 11:51AM
"The trick here is to avoid confusing usefulness with accuracy." -- "Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" #readingToday
The trick here is to avoid confusing usefulness with accuracy. Your brain doesn't record what was "right" for future reference. Forget that notion of rightness, because it's absolutely critical to go beyond the whole idea of accuracy. Why? Because for perception there is no such thing as accuracy.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/dZsQQV3
May 19, 2018 at 11:48AM
"We resemble AI systems that don't have a godly programmer and thus never get information about the world directly." #readingToday
We resemble "connectionist" AI systems that don't have a godly programmer and thus never get information about the world directly. Instead, these systems modify and multiply their networks' structures randomly. Those that change in a "useful" way survive and are therefore more likely to reproduce in the future. (Connectionist artificial intelligence systems also see effects we call illusions, just like humans.)
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/3Zfkka5
May 19, 2018 at 11:47AM
"Actions take on a meaning only by way of the meaning we give them..." #readingToday
"Actions take on a meaning only by way of the meaning we give them… our response (internal or external). So only your response reveals your perceptual assumptions, or your brain's idea of usefulness for this situation."
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/2s2ihWF
May 19, 2018 at 11:46AM
"A map is a useful metaphor when talking about perception..." -- Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" #readingToday
"A map is a useful metaphor when talking about perception because at its most basic level our brain evolved to be our atlas of sorts, a system of routes designed to navigate us toward just one destination: staying alive!"
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/jgDixJb
May 19, 2018 at 11:44AM
"All perception is just your brain's construction of past utility (or "empirical significance of information"). #readingToday
"All perception is just your brain's construction of past utility (or "empirical significance of information"). This is a scientific fact, and admittedly quite a strange one. But how does this happen? Where does the construction take place? The answer becomes clear once you understand how our senses rely very little on the external world, but more on our internal world of interpretation."
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/22M5UA0
May 16, 2018 at 11:32AM
"It is critical to understand that the meaning of the thing is not the same as the thing itself." #readingToday
"In other words, perception is similar to reading poetry: you are interpreting what it means, because it could mean anything."
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/hehL1s9
May 13, 2018 at 09:55AM
"Charles Morris argues that in every language the study of semiotics is discernible in three different fields: Semantics, Pragmatics and Syntax" #readingToday
Semantics is the study of relations between the system of signs and their meanings.
Pragmatics _is the study of the relations of signs to interpreters, and in architecture the relationship between the sign and the behavior it engenders.
Syntax (syntactics) is then defined as the study of the formal relations between signs; this field of analysis makes the study of signs possible, with particular reference to their relations with each other, by excluding from the survey both their meanings and functions.
June 29, 2018 at 09:36PM
"What you perceive right now is a consequence of the history of your perceptions that led to this point." #readingToday
Our perceptions are the feedback onto our perceptions, creating a self-reinforcing narrative, albeit an effective one for survival, and one that makes life livable. What you perceive right now is a consequence of the history of your perceptions that led to this point. And as soon as you perceive it, that perception too becomes part of your future past, thereby contributing to what you will see in the future.
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/cdKtH1Q
June 29, 2018 at 09:34PM
"Everything you see—everything—exists in only one place: in here. Inside your head." #readingToday
Everything you see—everything—exists in only one place: in here. Inside your head. Everything you experience is only taking place inside your brain and body, constructed in "the space between," arising from the ecology of interaction between you and your world of others, and in the space between you and the world of yourself.
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/eWAFHMc
June 29, 2018 at 09:25PM
"Research has found that successful leaders share three behavioral traits: they lead by example, admit their mistakes, and see positive qualities in others." #readingToday
Research has found that successful leaders share three behavioral traits: they lead by example, admit their mistakes, and see positive qualities in others. All three are linked to spaces of play. Leading by example creates a space that is trusted—and without trust, there is no play. Admitting mistakes is to celebrate uncertainty. Seeing qualities in others is to encourage diversity.
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/f10Ysv3
June 26, 2018 at 08:07PM
"You wouldn't want to add updates and upgrades to a fundamentally crappy cell phone; This mirrors how the brain develops." #readingToday
"In other words, you wouldn't want to add updates and upgrades to a fundamentally crappy cell phone; you should only do this for one that is already strong at its core. This mirrors how the brain develops. When it grows, it is adding connections, and therefore complexifying itself: adding dimensions to the space of possibility, and forging new pathways of neuroelectric connectivity. But it's doing so according to feedback on what worked and didn't work in the past. The internal patterns of activity that worked (the useful assumptions) are reinforced, and those that didn't work (the no-longer-useful assumptions) are lost."
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/gMQBUro
June 19, 2018 at 10:43PM
"If you want to get from A to B in your life, accept that everything you do is a reflex grounded in your assumptions." #readingToday
The point about perception here is that if you want to get from A to B in your life, whether you're transitioning personally or professionally, the first challenge is to accept that everything you do is a reflex grounded in your assumptions. So we need humility. Though change never happens without it, by itself that is never enough. Once we come to accept that all we see and do is grounded in our assumptions, we are nonetheless usually blind to the reasons why we do what we do. The next challenge to deviation, then, is to discover what your assumptions are. This usually involves other people who are foreign to you, hence the power of the diversity of groups. The next step is to complexify your assumptions—and thus redefine normality—by actively engaging in the contrasting nature of the world. That's what Destin did, as did the people who wore the feelSpace magnetic belt and acquired heightened powers of navigation.
Another key for seeing differently is not to move through the world comfortably. Whether literally or metaphorically, in one's body or in one's mind, we need to get dirty, to get lost, to get swallowed by the experience. This could sound clichéd, but it's nonetheless true… and necessary to reiterate loudly, given the speed of the sprint in which much of the Western world is running toward health and safety. (We're rushing so fast toward mitigating against short-term risk that to stand still in our society is to become relatively risky!) Don't be a tourist of your own life, taking your assumptions with you wherever you go. Leave them in the lift at JFK or at Terminal 5 at Heathrow. And when you get to wherever you're going, buy groceries, ask for directions in the local language, navigate an unknown transit system, try to remember how to get back to your hotel rather than referring constantly to your Google map. And through it all, listen to your emotions so you know whether you've traveled far enough. Only in this way will you be able to discover the mishaps and misfits that all-inclusive luxury vacations rob you of. Only then will you discover the invisible in yourself by assuming you might be wrong about your "knowledge" of things. Seek new, more generalizable assumptions through real-world engagement in concert with your delusional powers, and in doing so, you will alter the probabilities of your future reflexive responses by increasing the chances of beating the kurtotic biases that past experiences have given you. This is how you institute new and better assumptions and "travel" to new perceptions. In short, don't shift… expand!
But once you have unblinded your assumptions, experimenting with new ones is not an easy process, and our very own evolution often steers us away from it. Our brains want to avoid it, even if the results will be generative for us. This brings us to the second biggest challenge to creativity: we are afraid of the dark.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/h604z8C
June 19, 2018 at 10:11PM
"Studies have shown that other people can be better at predicting our behavior—at usefully predicting us—than we ourselves are." #readingToday
"If you want to understand humans or a situation generated by humans, you need to know their assumptions. But don't ask them! And if you want to understand yourself, sometimes the best answer exists in another person. Studies have shown that other people can be better at predicting our behavior—at usefully predicting us—than we ourselves are."
Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/b6XNdBN
June 19, 2018 at 10:04PM
"One of the most important obstacles to seeing: our assumptions are as blind to us as we are to them." #readingToday
This is one of the most important obstacles to seeing differently and deviating from uninspired, conventional perceptions: our assumptions are as blind to us as we are to them. This bias-blindness is the foundation of what I referred to earlier as the Physics of No. The person saying no doesn't necessarily know why, but only that they always have done so in that circumstance previously and so behave as if their perception is an immutable law of nature. This in turn makes it impossible to question, until we gain sight (awareness of our assumptions).
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/dwiPPRE
June 10, 2018 at 08:43PM
"Those who influence the meaning of the past will shape [how] those who identify with that past behave in the future." #readingToday
This is because governments—especially totalitarian ones—and their spin doctors understand the power of re-meaning history. Those who influence the meaning of the past will shape the foundations by which those who identify with that past behave in the future.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/1t7Lv4z
June 10, 2018 at 08:39PM
"Understanding transcends context, since the different contexts collapse according to their previously unknown similarity, which the principle contains." #readingToday
Understanding transcends context, since the different contexts collapse according to their previously unknown similarity, which the principle contains. That is what understanding does. And you actually feel it in your brain when it happens. Your "cognitive load" decreases, your level of stress and anxiety decrease, and your emotional state improves.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/5CrXlb2
June 10, 2018 at 08:34PM
"It is, therefore, misleading to divide (or self-identify) the world into 'creative' and 'non-creative people." #readingToday
Creativity is in fact a very basic, accessible process. It's all about changing your space of possibility by questioning the assumptions that delineate its dimensions. It is, therefore, misleading to divide (or self-identify) the world into "creative" and "non-creative" people.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/bz7BqEN
June 10, 2018 at 08:28PM
"The interplay of assumptions in your brain and in your creative process is what we call an embedded hierarchy." #readingToday
The interplay of assumptions in your brain and in your creative process is what we call an embedded hierarchy. They are like your body. Your body is made up of organs, your organs are made of cells, your cells are made up of organelles (the organs of your cells), your organelles are made up of molecules, and so on. In essence, a society is nothing other than the changing density of the molecular elements that make us all up. Each is just an attractor state within a larger system, like waves rising on the sea before crashing on the shore, or transient whirlpools on a fast-flowing river. The lower and more foundational the assumption, the more its change can affect the rest of the system, since the hierarchy builds off of it. So, the right question—though small—can cause a person, an invention, an idea, an institution, or even a whole culture to change (hopefully for the better, but not always).
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/77KuS7t
June 03, 2018 at 08:08PM
"We change our future by changing our past." -- @beaulotto in "Deviate" #readingToday
We change our future by changing our past. As strange as it may sound, this is entirely possible. As a matter of fact, it's what we do all the time. Every story, every book, all narratives spoken, read, or enacted are about changing the past, about "re-meaning" past experiences, or more specifically, about changing the future past.
"Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently" by Beau Lotto
Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/9PXajpo