A "privileged window” into the subterranean mind

It is always reassuring to read about research that supports your gut feeling, or actually gives reasoning to the gut feeling itself. In the post "Are Emotions Prophetic?" Lehrer explains why it is reasonable to trust feelings. He raises the question whether our "unconscious is better suited for difficult cognitive tasks than the conscious brain". He mentions "The emotional oracle effect" (defined at the lab of Michael Pham at Columbia Business School). What I like the most, is how he describes emotions as a “privileged window” into the subterranean mind.

Image Rene Magritte

Link to the full wired post

Nietzsche's take on who is an artist

Another interesting post by Jonah Lehrer's, as always filled with fascinating references. This time he writes about identifing good ideas. My favorite quote, remindes me of architecture school when I was pondering on how to know whether someone is a real artist.

This is Nietzsche's take on this:

"Artists have a vested interest in our believing in the flash of revelation, the so-called inspiration … shining down from heavens as a ray of grace. In reality, the imagination of the good artist or thinker produces continuously good, mediocre or bad things, but his judgment, trained and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects…. All great artists and thinkers are great workers, indefatigable not only in inventing, but also in rejecting, sifting, transforming, ordering."

The beautiful image is by design context blog

Link to the full post on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/how-do-we-identifiy-good-ideas/

Biz-buzz-words aside

Seize the moment, be agile, be resilient, face the fear, strengthen your strengths, fail fast-and move on....

It is pretty surprising to see all those buzz words from biz-school which I used to make fun of seems IN PLACE when it comes from Shelly Lazarus. Biz-buzz-words aside, there are some pearls in this FORBS post: I love the definition "de-risk your decisions" I have been doing it for all my life, and never had a name for it. She also talks about authentnicity and passion which are two things that I really feel can change the world. it's worth reading:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/01/24/law-of-career-attraction-get-seduced-says-shelly-lazarus/

Appreciation at the workplace (and anywhere else...)

Tony Schwartz writes at the HBR blog about appreciation at the work place and on how hold your value. He proposes practical steps on how to achieve this:
1. Influence others to become better (instead of thinking of how to change others).
2. Practice appreciation on yourself.
3. Make it a priority to notice what others are doing right.
4. Notice what you value, and focus on that.

This is a good reminder to focus on what's positive in ourselves and in others. Link to the HBR blog: http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/01/why-appreciation-matters-so-mu.html

Picture: genekwok.tumblr