Top 10 Thinking Traps Exposed Our minds set up many traps for us. Unless we’re aware of them, these traps can seriously hinder our ability to think rationally, leading us to bad reasoning and making stupid decisions. Features of our minds that are meant to help us may, eventually, get us into trouble. Here are the first 5 of the most harmful of these traps and how to avoid each one of them. 1. “Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million? Lesson: Your starting point can heavily bias your thinking: initial impressions, ideas, estimates or data “anchor” subsequent thoughts. This trap is particularly dangerous as it’s deliberately used in many occasions, such as by experienced salesmen, who will show you a higher-priced item first, “anchoring” that price in your mind, for example. What can you do about it? Always view a problem from different perspectives. 2. In one experiment a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts — half received a decorated mug, the other half a large Swiss chocolate bar. 3. 4.
100 Websites You Should Know and Use In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser. To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH.
Meet Comex, The 19-Year-Old iPhone Uber-Hacker Who Keeps Outsmarting Apple Nicholas Allegra lives with his parents in Chappaqua, New York. The tall, shaggy-haired and bespectacled 19-year old has been on leave from Brown University since last winter, looking for an internship. And in the meantime, he's been spending his days on a hobby that periodically sends shockwaves through the computer security world: seeking out cracks in the source code of Apple’s iPhone, a device with more software restrictions than practically any computer on the market, and exploiting them to utterly obliterate its defenses against hackers. "It feels like editing an English paper," Allegra says simply, his voice croaking as if he just woke up, though we're speaking at 9:30 pm. To the public, Allegra has been known only by the hacker handle Comex, and keeps a low profile. The tool isn’t intended for theft or vandalism: It merely lets users install any application they want on their devices. Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment, but it’s not thrilled about Allegra’s work.
Why Atheism Will Replace Religion: New Evidence Atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries, particularly the social democracies of Europe. In underdeveloped countries, there are virtually no atheists. Atheism is a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Why do modern conditions produce atheism? In a new study to be published in August, I provided compelling evidence that atheism increases along with the quality of life (1). First, as to the distribution of atheism in the world, a clear pattern can be discerned. The question of why economically developed countries turn to atheism has been batted around by anthropologists for about eighty years. Atheists are more likely to be college-educated people who live in cities and they are highly concentrated in the social democracies of Europe. It seems that people turn to religion as a salve for the difficulties and uncertainties of their lives. Even the psychological functions of religion face stiff competition today. Sources1. Barber, N. (2012). 2.
What cannabis actually does to your brain - io9 Chances are they would've ended up brainless morons with or without the pot. It's quite frankly not strong enough of a narcotic to destroy one's life such as you describe. It's very dependent on the user's persona. @Tadashii: Are you also for alcohol and tobacco prohibition? Those ruin more lives every year then marijuana has ever. Wow- Tadashii, pot is not meth or cocaine. Yes, its a chemical that can intoxicate and has been embraced by, and been the cause of some lazy folks, underachievers, and Grateful Dead fans not amounting to much. Pot is like anything else- tobacco, alcohol, vicodin, valium, caffeine, etc. Cannabis has great promise for any treatment that requires appetite stimulant (such as cancer, HIV, etc), and has also been found to act as an anti-inflammatory or nausea reliever, Don't just stamp marijuana "evil". Do you enjoy any caffeinated sodas, cigarettes, or the occasional alcoholic beverage? Yes I am against alcohol too and I agree that it's worse than pot.
Hedgehog's dilemma Both Arthur Schopenhauer and Sigmund Freud have used this situation to describe what they feel is the state of individual in relation to others in society. The hedgehog's dilemma suggests that despite goodwill, human intimacy cannot occur without substantial mutual harm, and what results is cautious behavior and weak relationships. With the hedgehog's dilemma, one is recommended to use moderation in affairs with others both because of self-interest, as well as out of consideration for others. Schopenhauer[edit] The concept originates in the following parable from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's Parerga und Paralipomena, Volume II, Chapter XXXI, Section 396:[1] A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. Freud[edit] It entered the realm of psychology after the tale was discovered and adopted by Sigmund Freud. Social psychological research[edit]
67 Cheap Date Ideas for the Recession-Era Romantic by Kyle O'Connor on April 29, 2009 When you’re in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, it’s not always easy to come up with the cash to impress your date. Luckily, there’s still tons of fun and romantic things you can do that take little-to-no money—all that’s required is a little creativity. 1. Dating doesn’t have to be expensive. Tags: dating, love, romance, soul-mates, spiritual-blogs, spiritual-communities, spiritual-networks, spirituality Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital A newborn baby, according to Freud, is bubbling with energy (libido; psychic energy). However, this energy is without focus or direction, which would not allow for survival. How, then, does the child develop the ability to control and direct his/her energy? Psychic energy is an important concept in Freudian psychology. The structure of the mind and development all revolve around how the individual attempts to deal with psychic energy. Raw libinal impulses provide the basic fuel that the mind runs on. In order to understand development (and neuroses), then, we should follow the energy and see where it goes. So, where does the infants, then the childs, the adolescent's, and adult's energy get focused? The focal objects for the developing child's energy serves to define five main stages of psychological development: oral (0-18 months) anal (18 months - 3 1/2 years) phallic (3 1/2 years - 6 years) latency (6 years - puberty) genital (puberty - adulthood) Physical focus: penis.
7 Skills To Become Super Smart People aren’t born smart. They become smart. And to become smart you need a well-defined set of skills. Here are some tips and resources for acquiring those skills. Memory If you can’t remember what you’re trying to learn, you’re not really learning. If you want to amaze your friends with remembering faces, names, and numbers, look to the grand-daddy of memory training, Harry Lorayne. Reading Good scholars need to be good readers. Evelyn Woodski Slow Reading Course Announcer … Dan Aykroyd Man … Garrett Morris Woman … Jane Curtin Surgeon … Bill Murray … Ray Charles Announcer V/O: [The following words rapidly appear on a blue screen as they are read by the fast-talking announcer:] This is the way you were taught to read, averaging hundreds or thousands of words per minute. Psychologists have found that many people who take speed reading courses increase their reading speed for a short time but then fall right back to the plodding pace where they started. Writing Speaking Numeracy Empathy
Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color When Ingrid Carey says she feels colors, she does not mean she sees red, or feels blue, or is green with envy. She really does feel them. She can also taste them, and hear them, and smell them. The 20-year-old junior at the University of Maine has synesthesia, a rare neurological condition in which two or more of the senses entwine. The letter "N" is sienna brown; "J" is light green; the number "8" is orange; and July is bluish-green. The pain from a shin split throbs in hues of orange and yellow, purple and red, Carey told LiveScience. Colors in Carey's world have properties that most of us would never dream of: red is solid, powerful and consistent, while yellow is pliable, brilliant and intense. Scientific acceptance Long dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations or a sign of mental illness, synesthesia has grudgingly come to be accepted by scientists in recent years as an actual phenomenon with a real neurological basis. The cause remains a mystery, however. Technology lags
Does the comfort of conformity ease thoughts of death? - life - 25 February 2011 AS THE light at the end of the tunnel approaches, the need to belong to a group and be near loved ones may be among your final thoughts. So say Markus Quirin and his colleagues at the University of Osnabrück in Germany. The team prompted thoughts of death in 17 young men with an average age of 23 by asking them whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements such as "I am afraid of dying a painful death". At the same time, the men's brain activity was monitored using a functional MRI scanner. To compare the brain activity associated with thoughts of death with that coupled to another unpleasant experience, the team also prompted thoughts of dental pain using statements like "I panic when I am sitting in the dentist's waiting room". Although the threat of dental pain is unpleasant, "it's not a threat of death", Quirin says. Quirin thinks the work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger could explain the unexpected result. New Scientist Not just a website! Sentient robots?
How to make surprise marbled Easter eggs. | NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY Okay, I’ve got a confession to make. I don’t really celebrate Easter. I don’t really know why it’s celebrated either but please feel free to educate me in the comments below. What I know is that it’s associated with rabbits, chocolates and eggs. In conjunction with Easter Friday, I’ve decided to pimp up my eggs. # – Easter eggs, chinese style :D What you need are:Eggs, decide your own amountLiquid food colouringsEnough water to boil the eggsWhite vinegarSandwich bags or freezer bags, one for each colour Instead of using the colour red though, I’ve chosen fuchsia pink, blue and green for this edible project ;) # – First, put the eggs in a pot of water. # – Bring to boil for 7 minutes. # – After eggs have cooled down, lightly tap them against a hard surface till cracks appear all over. # – Cracked eggs. # – Now prepare a freezer bag or sandwich bag for each colour you’re using. # – Now stick your eggs into each bag and start dyeing. # – Use a paper towel to dry the eggs up. # – Tadaa!