Social media and the art of being interested Are you one of those people who has a hard time remembering names when you meet someone new? I was, too – and then I learned what the problem was: I’m a jerk. It turns out that how well you can remember names has nothing to do with your brain or memory and everything to do with whether or not you’re actually interested in that person. “Some people, perhaps those who are more socially aware, are just more interested in people, more interested in relationships,” says Kansas State University professor of psychology Richard Harris. And most of us, let’s face it, aren’t that interested in the people around us. It’s incredibly rare – and becoming more so – to find someone who’s truly interested in others. Social media has a lot to do with this. When “share” becomes just another way to say “let me tell you more about me,” it’s clear social media has begun to show us something about ourselves: We really want someone to listen to us. This isn’t sales. You can’t automate it.
The Myth Of Serendipity Editor’s note: Henry “Hank” Nothhaft, Jr. is the co-founder and CMO of Trapit, a virtual personal assistant for Web content still in private beta that was incubated out of SRI and the CALO project (as was Siri, the conversational search engine bought by Apple). One of the most interesting concepts to emerge in media and tech lately is that of “serendipity”—showing people what they want even if they didn’t ask for it. Despite its seemingly ubiquitous invocation, however, the concept of serendipity remains ill-defined and put forth as some vague panacea for a slew of emerging innovations hoping to attract new users in droves. What is needed is a closer look at what we actually mean when we talk about serendipity. From Search to Discovery Eric Schmidt’s recent remarks about Google as a “Serendipity Engine” (and Facebook’s quick reply), emphasize an important shift in our daily interaction with the Web and how we use it. Serendipity and personalization are in fact two sides to the same coin.
Evolution of Change: Signs for the Future of Business | Smart Data Collective I like taking the time once in a while to tie different trends together, it just helps me focus on what's really happening now and helps me understand where things might be going. Taken individually there are some very interesting things happening in technology and business but when you link them together a picture starts to emerge that is almost staggering in depth and breadth of change potential. I was reading "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil the other day and a point jumped out at me that I think is extremely important when looking at change, whether you agree with Kurzweil's ideas on singularity or not. So what are the individual changes or shifts that we are seeing? Cloud computing You can't listen to any technology discussion these days where the word cloud doesn't ring out in almost every sentence. Everything as a service The cloud plays a big part in this concept but it's only part of the enabling infrastructure. Networked business (customers, employees, partners)
Social Media Science: How Behavior Impacts Social Media Marketing Want to understand the psychology behind why people interact via social networks? During this fascinating interview I explore these very concepts. To learn about the science and psychology of social media marketing, I interview Ric Dragon for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Ric Dragon, author of Social Marketology and CEO of DragonSearch. Ric shares tips on how businesses can build relationships on social media. You’ll learn how relationships develop and why the concepts of gamification and gifting are important. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! Listen Now Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed Social Media Science
Consumer Info Overload - Meet the US Navy's Relevance Technology! (New SRI Screenshots) Apple acquired the military-technology spin-off, mobile personal assistant app called SIRI this Spring, but SIRI isn't the only consumer startup cut from the cloth of the $200 million DARPA investment in an artificial intelligence project called CALO. The next SRI/CALO app to launch may be TrapIt, a news feed reading and recommendation service designed to act as a "cognitive prosthetic" to "adapt to unexpected events" in situations of "intense information overload". The US Navy has used the core technology TrapIt is based on to parse through huge quantities of information for what's most relevant. Soon you'll be able to use it to find the best news about your obscure interests, in the web's otherwise overwhelming ocean of Justin Bieber references. Click for a larger view. TrapIt has raised two rounds of funding, one lead by Asia's most powerful businessman, Li Ka-shing. See today's guest post: "The Age of Assistants": The View From Inside SRI, by SRI's Norman Winarsky
3 Easy Ways To See The Bright Side Today This guest article from YourTango was written by Amy Spencer. My friend Kate was driving with her dad when he showed her what it really means to look on the bright side. It happened the day they got a flat tire and his face lit up. “Oh good!” he said. “I’ve been meaning to teach you how to change a flat tire and now we have the perfect opportunity!” Yes, that’s one of the most positive reactions to a car breakdown I’ve ever heard. Just start looking at your life from a better, brighter angle. 1. I’ll bet that locals in Giza, Egypt don’t take photos of themselves in front of the pyramids every day. So take the tourist point of view on your own life, and think of the astounding things at your feet: Your married life, to a single person, is comforting and secure; your single life, to a married person, is hopeful and exciting; and your home — to anyone else — might be quaint or cool or huge or homey simply depending on what they don’t have themselves. 2. 3.
Trapit Focus On Your Own Triggers to Better Deal with Difficult People This is usually the steps I take: 0. Avoid that person / situation as much as possible 1. Blame myself. (Hypocrisy check) 2. 3. 4. 4b. a more straightfoward email with a solution if she/he is an acquintance. *Why? *I like to have honest relationship with people around me. I point out a problem with a solution whenever possible. Unfortunately, there are some unreasonable people in this world, whom you cannot negotiate with. 5.
How Useful Is Personalized Search? Like most search engines, Google stores huge quantities of data about logged-in users’ past searches; it uses the data to tweak a set of algorithms that deliver “more relevant” search results. But a recent study questions how useful these personalized results really are. “At the end of the day, the tradeoff is not good,” says Martin Feuz, a researcher at the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of London, who was involved with the work. “We’re giving up too much [personal] information and not getting high-enough-quality results.” Together with Matthew Fuller, another researcher at the Centre for Cultural Studies, and Felix Stalder, a lecturer in digital culture and network theories at the Zurich University of the Arts, Feuz created dummy Google accounts for three famous philosophers—Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault. The researchers used each profile to perform a set of test searches.
Women and ADHD: Hormones, Puberty, Menopause, Menstration, Period | ADDitude - Attention Deficit Information Slide 1 of 5 ADDitude Magazine Do your ADD symptoms worsen at certain times of the month? Is your thinking a little fuzzier the week before your period? Are you organized and efficient at mid-cycle? Doctors who treat women with ADHD have noted correlations between ADHD symptoms and hormonal fluctuations, not only monthly but over the lifetime of a woman. "The average age of diagnosis for women with ADHD, who weren’t diagnosed as children, is 36 to 38 years old,” says Patricia Quinn, M.D., director of the National Center for Girls and Women with AD/HD, and author of Understanding Women with ADHD. When doctors diagnose girls and women with ADD, they rarely consider hormonal fluctuations when developing a treatment plan. Next: ADHD and Adolescence This article comes from the Spring 2009 issue of ADDitude. To read this issue of ADDitude in full, buy the back issue. slide 1 2 3 4 5 next » Share your comments, questions and advice on ADDConnect!
CorePsych Blog | Dr Charles Parker - Brain and Body Neuroscience Measurements Improve Psychiatric Consultation Predictable Solutions For ADHD Medications If you or your loved ones suffer with any misunderstandings about ADHD medication treatment strategies, don't be surprised, you're in the majority, not the minority. ... Read more → ADHD – The Galileo Moment The pervasive, unmentionable problem: too many write for meds without any training on the reality of diagnosis or treatment specifics for ADHD, thinking that labels provided sufficient maps for mind travel. Galileo would not approve.... Subscribe to our Mailing List! Click Below For All Video Recordings Disclaimer This material is provided for general educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute: If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Give Us Your Name and Email Address and We’ll Send You Predictable Solutions Absolutely Free With 2 Audio Programs. There’s no catch, no fine print – just fresh perspectives on the 10 Biggest Problems with ADHD Meds:
6 Steps From Lonely To Lovely The more I’ve learned about happiness, the more I’ve come to believe that loneliness is a common and important obstacle to consider. A while back, after reading John Cacioppo’s fascinating book Loneliness, I posted Some counter-intuitive facts about loneliness, and several people responded by asking, “Okay, but what do I do about it? What steps can I take to feel less lonely?” I recently finished another fascinating book, Lonely—a memoir by Emily White, about her own experiences and research into loneliness. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Most people have suffered from loneliness at some point. Gretchen Rubin is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, The Happiness Project—an account of the year she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier.
Time Magazine: "The Power of (Shyness)" and High Sensitivity To the highly sensitive persons of the world and their friends: A hearty congratulations. In a sense, we made the cover of Time . No, we are not necessarily shy and not always introverted , but the book which prompted the article, Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, is actually more about HSPs than social introverts, so we're getting there. Perhaps in a year or two the highly sensitive person will be Time's person of the year! I am very sorry, however, that the 30% of "HSPs" who are social extraverts were left out of all of this. Please see my earlier post on sensitivity and introversion . Cain's Quiet does usually have the trait right, if not the name, and there is certainly justification for confusion given the overlap, that 70% of HSPs are social introverts. The problem is really not Susan's.