Neuroeducation

The negative effects of the curse of knowledge can be avoided by:

1. Questioning your assumptions and biases, and seeking alternatives to your beliefs for a broader perspective.
2. Knowing your audience or prospect, accessing their level of knowledge.
3. Asking honest feedback for your creations.
4. Including infographics and visuals and minimizing jargon.

The Feynman Technique is a way to understand or reinforce your level of knowledge by pretending to explain the same to a child.

Explaining without the use of complicated words is a way to learn and retain knowledge that lasts.

• In any research, the validity of any concept is the first thing to check.
• One has to stress-test the rationality and see if the right thing is measured, for the right outcome to be divulged.
• Validity helps us evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of the mental model in a particular situation.

The most important part is to check the consistency of any mental model when the same circumstances are applied repeatedly. Ideally one has to get the same result. This is usually done by:

1. Test-Retest Method: A set of diverse and repeated tests can check the reliability of a mental model.
2. The Inter-Observer Method: This method takes into account data from different observers or administrators to cross-check the validity and reliability of a mental model.

In Greek mythology, there were the muses, who provided inspiration for creative ideas.

Now, even if we stopped believing in muses, we still think about the process of producing ideas as something magical, that we can cannot explain or control.

"Idea generation could be thought of as a search for novelty, while its process partner, idea evaluation, might be thought of as an effort to make novel thinking practical, useful or relevant."

Numerous studies show that external life circumstances have a small impact on our long-term happiness.

Other research shows that happiness is very high immediately after a major positive event, but will return to the level it was in a month or two. This stable level of happiness is called your happiness set point.

Your happiness set point is not fixed. It's more a soft baseline that your happiness will hover around for the majority of your life.

Resilience research proposes that your resilience is mostly your ability to keep your happiness at the set point while going through difficult experiences.

Research found that divergent thinking is linked to playfulness and creativity.

Children who play more tend to display curiosity, persistence, nonconformity, and a willingness to take risks. These are important characteristics for innovative solutions.

• Mind mapping helps your brain work by association. Start in the centre and add notes, connecting branches together.
• Brainstorming. Generate as many ideas as possible.
• Free writing. Focus on the question and write without stopping for a specified time.
• Journaling. It helps to clarify your thinking while producing new ideas.
• Art. Doodling, painting, creating graphs and illustrations will help you think outside the box.
• Role playing. Putting yourself in the shoes of a different character is a good way to practice divergent thinking.

• Metacognitive knowledge: What you know about yourself and others in terms of thinking and learning processes.
• Metacognitive regulation: The methods you use to control your learning.
• Metacognitive experiences: The thoughts and feelings you have during your learning process.

• Declarative knowledge: the knowledge you have about your learning style and about what the factors that influence you.
• Procedural knowledge: what you know about learning in general - strategies you found or that you have already applied.
• Conditional knowledge: it refers to knowing when and why you should use declarative and procedural knowledge.

Emotions are not a disposable or unnecessary response, but are signals, giving us vital clues about the state of our mind and body, akin to pain. It is a neglected part of our survival mechanism.

Our natural reaction is to suppress our emotions, but it is increasingly apparent that repression of our emotions, especially the stronger kind, is psychologically and physically harmful to us.

Showing emotion using empathetic and active listening is part of emotional intelligence and is greatly valued as a managerial skill set.

Studies show that empathic leaders enjoy more success and goodwill. Interpersonal communication is greatly enhanced when one is able to read someone's emotions and control one’s emotional reactions.

• Optimism Bias is when we are sure about the success of a certain project or venture and do not take into account the scenarios of failure.
• Temporal Discounting is a cognitive error where we make decisions taking into account the present condition, and not bothering about any future consequences.

Just one ‘Pre-Mortem’ meeting at the beginning of the project can uncover many blind spots, recalibrating the mindset of all the team members.

Anticipating the future also fosters honest and open communication, and quells any fear.

Boreout results from the sameness, and the monotonous routine of the job, making the worker feel empty, mentally exhausted, sad and demotivated.

Though it is okay to be bored once in a while, the continuous feeling or irritation, cynicism and worthlessness can lead to depression.

Burnout happens when you are overstimulated, and boreout when you are understimulated.

In both cases, the way we are stimulated is wrong and doesn’t result in a sense of purpose.