Lifelong Learning

How do I live longer? (get a plant)

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In a study of nursing home patients by researchers Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin, residents on one floor were given a plant for which they themselves were expected to care (the experimental group) while residents on another floor were given a plant for which their nurses would care (the control group). After three weeks, 93 percent of residents in the experimental group showed an overall improvement in socialization, alertness, and general function; in contrast, for 71 percent of residents in the control group functioning actually declined. And in a follow-up study eighteen months later, half as many of the residents who’d received plants for which they were expected to care by themselves had died as the residents who’d been given plants for which their nurses cared.

via How do I live longer? Here are 10 ways backed by evidence.

Great post.  To sum up: exercise, be happy, be optimistic, tell yourself aging is a good thing, and get a plant.

Change This – Art Is Freedom

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Change This – Art Is Freedom.

I believe Art represents the extraordinary form of genetic talent each of us are born with, as well as the ongoing fuel to declare this distinct expression every day. The nature of this primitive desire is so strong that when we use our artistic capacity we feel a strange empowering sense of completeness, of being at home within ourselves. You start to crave more of it, realizing this task is the single thing that makes you feel truly alive.

E-books Now Make Up 1/5 of U.S. Book Sales

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E-books Now Make Up 1/5 of U.S. Book Sales.

A reader questioned why I did not read E-books several years ago.  I grew up in a dead tree book world and preferred paper books.  This despite a growing dependence upon computers and the internet for work where most of my reading was done.

I am now equipped with a smart phone and an E-book reader.  When reading a book I now have my choice of four different devices.  I like this a lot.  So while I continue my love for paper books, E-books have found a place on my digital shelf.

 

The Myth Of Multitasking – NPR

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The research is almost unanimous, which is very rare in social science, and it says that people who chronically multitask show an enormous range of deficits. They’re basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks, including multitasking.

 

So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people that rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted.

 

They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. And even – they’re even terrible at multitasking. When we ask them to multitask, they’re actually worse at it. So they’re pretty much mental wrecks.

via The Myth Of Multitasking : NPR.

For your reading pleasure I’ve offered up just a few quotes from the transcript of a wonderful interview with Clifford Nass, author of “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop,” professor of communications at Stanford University.  Listen to the entire interview.  It is well worth your time.

Grad School May Not Be the Best Way to Spend $100,000 – Dorie Clark – Harvard Business Review

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There are obvious cases where a graduate degree is mandatory; you’re not going to get very far as a doctor or lawyer if you haven’t done the requisite schooling. But what about everyone else? I often get inquiries from executives looking for advice about whether they should go back. Would an MBA, a JD, a doctorate in organizational psychology, or a journalism degree give them that extra edge? Often, the answer is no. There are a lot of things you could do with $100,000, and going to school because you aren’t sure what to do with yourself, or because of received wisdom that an extra degree is always helpful, could be a colossally misguided move.

via Grad School May Not Be the Best Way to Spend $100,000 – Dorie Clark – Harvard Business Review.

 

5 Reasons To Pick Up The Curator Habit

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One way to lighten your content writing load is by becoming a trusted curator. Instead of putting the burden on yourself to write the content, you can take advantage of the content others are creating (and you’re already reading) in your industry by sharing links, pointing your readers to third-party resources, and highlighting the smart things that others are saying.

via 5 Reasons To Pick Up The Curator Habit | Small Business Trends.

I’ve been doing this for years.  Now there is a name for what I’ve been doing – content curator.  Kind of sexy, is it not?