Cognitive Daily has a fascinating post on how trained artists vs. trained psychologists look at the same image. Below are two examples, the lines represent eye movement. Which one is that of the artist?
(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)
Monthly Archives: March 2007
Overload, Shmoverload: Adapting to the Always-On World
Steve Boyd did a great presentation recently titled “Overload, Shmoverload” where he shares some thoughts about the new “Continuous Partial Attention” world we live in. I’m fascinated by time management, energy management, the attention economy, the costs and benefits of being always-on, and all the rest of it.
Quotes from Steve:
- We are transitioning to a new ethos, in which remaining connected to those most important to us is more imporant (and more valuable, in the final analysis) than personal productivity. This seems counterintuitive, since people talk about time stress the way that people in the agricultural era talked about backache. But the productivity of the network — those that matter to you — is more important than the piecework in your lap.
- We have to spand more time scanning the horizon — keeping up with all your friends’ status updates on Twitter, reviewing the newest posts on techmeme, etc. — than people used to, because the rate of change has increased. The hypothetical value of focusing on one thing and getting it done as quickly as possible has decreased.
- In an era of flow you can ignore things that don’t look threatening or critical. Important stuff will be signalled in a bunch of ways: critical breaking news stories will show in Twitter tweets, RSS, emails, IM. But you can just ignore transient stuff. That’s why etiquette around IM has to be based on ‘it’s ok to ignore IMs’ because otherwise it becomes a chore demanding foreground attention.
- Flow Strategies:
1. Time is a shared space — your time is truly not your own
2. Productivity is second to Connection: network productivity trumps personal productivity
3. Everything important will find it’s way to you many, many times: don’t worry if you miss it
4. Remain in the flow: be wrapped up in the thing that has captured your attention - How do jugglers juggle? They don’t focus on the balls, the movements, or timing. They unfocus: it is a field of all three dimensions and their attention is distributed. Good jugglers can also sing or tell jokes while juggling. Unfocus.
- The New Balancing Act: “For the average person, linked in a dense, cascading social network of collaborators who depend on your timely response to critical events, it will prove increasingly difficult — if not impossible — to veer away from continuous partial attention. We will have to learn a new balancing act, and it will be strongly canted toward spending more cycles scanning the horizon and fewer looking down at the piecework in our laps”
April USA Road Trip
During April I will be in the following cities (and surrounding areas). Send me an email if you want to meet up, have city advice, or if you have an extra bed and can host me. 🙂
Tucson, AZ
El Paso, TX
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Raleigh, N.C.
Philadelphia, PA
Boston, MA
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Milwaukee, WI
Yellowstone, MO
How to Write an Op/Ed (or Argue)
Here’s an NYT piece on Catherine Orenstein’s "how to write an op/ed" class. Nut graf:
During the seminar Ms. Orenstein laid out a basic formula for writing a 750-word op-ed piece (with the caution that “common sense trumps everything I say”): a lead connected to a news hook, a thesis, three points of evidence, conclusion. And don’t forget the “to be sure” paragraph in order to pre-empt your opponents’ comeback, she instructed. (emphasis mine)
Solid advice for any persuasive-writers-to-be. For in-person interactions, however, argumentative strategies must change slightly. For example, at the conclusion of an argument you win, always give your opponent an "out" by offering something you both can agree on. After a bitter back and forth on whether capital punishment is an effective deterrent against crime, you might conclude, "Well, at least we agree that crime is a reality of big-city living and we should do whatever we can to curb it."
There’s a related technique salespeople learn quickly on the job which is not to make the prospect feel wrong (or worse, stupid). Perhaps the prospect blurts out a simply wrong observation about your product. Instead of saying, "No, not at all" the better response is, "That’s the right direction, but we really need to be precise: ….". Correct their error or mis-assumption by turning it into an insight. Make your champion look good in front of her staff.
Quote of the Day and Assorted Links
I will do a longer post and review on this topic, so I won’t reveal the source book now, but let this serve as an enticement:
The first thing you say to a woman matters very little. Some guys tell me they can’t think of anything or they need a really good line. I tell them they are thinking too much…
"How are you?" I asked.
That is one of my usual openers. Just something you hear every day from the grocery store clerk. 95% respond with a one-word, noncommittal answer: "fine" or "okay". Three percent with enthusiasm: "great" or "super". Those are the ones you learn to stay away from — they’re nuts. And two percent respond with an honest, "Terrible. My husband just left me for his yoga teacher’s receptionist. How fucking Zen." Those are the ones you love.
And here are some assorted links that passed through my brain today:
- What happens when a college commits an act of heroism and doesn’t give in to U.S. News and World Report‘s college ranking game? Easy: U.S. News simply makes up data.
- Schooled by American Idol: "American Idol reflects a tension between a self-esteem-obsessed culture devoted to the validation of individual achievement and a hunger for genuine standards. The judges, like teachers throughout the education system, learn to walk that line."
- Is The Economist a "pseudo-intellectual con job, based on Anglophilic snobbery and Oxbridge-style swagger"?
- Does the kind of music you listen to reveal something about your personality?
- The Art of Non-Pitching a VC – You don’t, really, need their money. Or at least that’s what you need to say. (A helpful psych technique in other situations, too.)