CYBERDÉPENDANCE

Are You Sleepwalking Your Life Away? by Celes on Jan 2, 2009 | ShareThis Email This Post “The first step toward change is awareness.” – Nathaniel Branden (Originally written and published on Jan 2 ’09) Do you have a clear direction for your life? Sleepwalkers – These are people who live through their lives in an unconscious state. Sleepwalkers look like any one of us, but are really just physical shells living through their lives as drones. These people are the sleepwalkers. How do you know if you are a sleepwalker? 1. What is life to you? 2. Do you know what your purpose in life is? 3. Are you caught in the loop of ‘going through the motions’ or ‘running the rat race’? Occasionally events happen which derails the motion, such as the transition to a different life phase, changing careers, loss of a job, etc. 4. When sleepwalkers are not busy getting caught in the motions, they fill the gaps in their lives with random activities. 5. This is the common motif of “Living on a day to day basis” and “Live and let live”. 6. 7. 8.

Unintentionally Eating the Other Last Thursday, Crystal Renn, the model who recently appeared in a Vogue Japan spread with her eyes taped in ways that were suggestive of an old theater makeup trick meant to make white actors look “Asian,” offered an explanation and defense of the cosmetic practice. Tape, it should be noted, is only one of many tools in the arsenal of this particular form of racial drag, also known as yellowfacing – a practice that is literally older than America. Contrary to popular headlines suggesting that “yellowface is the new blackface,” there is nothing new or novel about yellowfacing. One of the earliest incidences of yellowfacing in the U.S. occurred in 1767 when Arthur Murphy presented his play The Orphan of China in Philadelphia. What interests me about this moment of racial drag or “transformation,” as Renn’s called it, are the reactions to it and her own explanation of the decision to tape her eyes. Here’s how Renn explains the eye-taping: “Eating the Other” Like this: Like Loading...

Mental Heuristics Page A heuristic is a "rule-of-thumb", advice that helps an AI program or human think and act more efficiently by directing thinking in an useful direction. Some of these heuristics are age-old wisdom, bordering on cliche, but most are actually helpful. If you want something done, do it yourself Comment: Obviously true, and doing it is usually very good for your self esteem. A surprising amount of work can be done this way, and experts are not always necessary. Never procrastinate anything you can do right now Comment: Very powerful. When you have several things you could be doing and don't know which to do: Just do any one of them! Comments: If you cannot decide between two or more possibilities, then there is a good chance that the differences don't matter. Always assume that you will succeed If you can't find a solution, change the rules. Comment: Remember that there are no no-win scenarios. If you cannot do anything about something, there is no point in worrying about it. Anders Main Page

Decision Making and Cognitive Bias | Today's Big Idea Over the past 40 years, cognitive science has discovered a series of common blind spots in human decision-making. Our reasoning and intuitions are extremely powerful and useful. But now it is known that numerous cognitive biases are built right into the structure of human minds. Cognitive biases can prevent you from achieving the goals you care about. Thanks to a wave of popular books like Thinking Fast and Slow, Predictably Irrational, andNudge, awareness of our systematic thinking errors has grown dramatically. Perspectives Sir Ken Robinson Opening Keynote #ASTD2013 @sirkenrobinson These are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference & Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice. We all have deep talents, but it’s often the case that we don’t discover them. Human talent are like the world’s natural resources – they are often buried beneath the surface. And if you don’t go looking for them you’ll never find them. You need circumstances for talent to demonstrate themselves… Whether you actually discover your talents is another matter. Why don’t we discover what we’re good at? What really makes you a success is PASSION. When it’s just a job, you’re disengaged. People who love what they do…”this isn’t what I do, it’s who I am.” Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (Sir Ken book, published ten years ago.) When a really original idea turns up, it excites everyone’s imagination. Today we have a crisis in human resources.

Has our relationship with nature changed? 21 January 2011Last updated at 17:48 Fear of ecological destruction causes us to pity and protect nature rather than oppose it, says Alain de Botton The environmental dangers that now face mankind put non-scientific philosophical types like me in an awkward situation. We have to acknowledge that we can have precisely nothing interesting to say on the two most important questions in the air right now, namely: "What is going to happen to the human race?" and "What should we do about it?" It is not from a philosopher that you stand to be enlightened. Nevertheless, maybe there is still a point in trying to reflect on, rather than simply solve our ecological dilemmas. We can begin by observing that there is nothing new for mankind about confronting the possibility of its own destruction. Power However, we have grown used to conceiving of our present environmental situation as unparalleled. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote End Quote Mystery How mindsets have changed. Empathetic powers

Does more information mean we know less? 14 January 2011Last updated at 17:55 We pay a price for all the information we consume these days - and it's knowing less, says Alain de Botton. One of the more embarrassing difficulties of our age is that most of us have quite lost the ability to concentrate, to sit still and do nothing other than focus on certain basic truths of the human condition. The fault lies in part with our new gadgets. Thanks to our machines, of which we are generally so proud, the past decade has seen an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. But we can't just blame the machines. The obsession with current events is relentless. Novelty The news occupies in the secular sphere much the same position of authority that the liturgical calendar has in the religious one. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Though technology has rendered it more or less absurd to feel gratitude over owning a book, there remain psychological advantages in rarity” End Quote Fasting Wisdom Elevate

"Life-Changing Books" We asked our readers what books made the biggest difference in their lives, and here’s what they had to say. The list below tells you what books shaped their lives and why. 1984 – George Orwell 1984 “was the first book I actually enjoyed reading. It completely blew my mind at the time (I was 16) and it opened my eyes to the power of ideas and to the joy of reading a good book.” — Tim A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson “Wow this book is incredible. Ariel – Sylvia Plath “After reading through these suggestions, I realized there’s a big hole: Poetry! Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut “This book reignited the pilot light of my imagination like no other book had done in quite awhile. Crooked Cucumber – The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki “Although I am not practicing Zen (yet), this book is like my Bible in that I plan to always read over it and reflect upon the messages therein. Disturbing the Peace – Vaclav Havel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day Throws Good Money After Bad The competitive instinct is not just a phrase football commentators invented to give words to the tingly feeling they get watching Brett Favre play football. Our brain's natural tendency towards competition is arguably the reason your family survived the hunter gatherer knife fight of 2000 BC. And as countless uninspired armies and poorly coached teams have demonstrated throughout the years, your ability to compete tends to be directly proportional to your ability to convince yourself that you're doing the right thing. This leaves us with a brain that loves to compete, and is awesome at convincing itself that it's right. In the financial realms, when these two instincts collide, your brain will play a retarded game of chicken with reality that economists have termed "irrational escalation of commitment". This applies to more than finances Throw in a little competitive instinct and pride, and it's not hard to see how this can go horribly, horribly wrong.