One of the feelings of the age is a kind of anxiety or unease about things.One reason is that we’re on our phones all the time, we’re consuming more information than ever. Technology has enabled us to do everything on demand. We never get downtime between moments.We're exhausted because of social media and keeping up with the Joneses. In short, we have sort of merged with our phones.

Hooked on technology

A transformation has taken place that is not well documented. We can’t figure out why we can’t read a book. We can’t consume long-form complex ideas. During the Lincoln Douglas debates, Lincoln talked for three hours, Douglas for three hours, then after a break, everyone returned for another three hours. Now democratic debates are one hour and 20 minutes in total, and there are eight candidates. Yet, when we consume long-form stuff such as hours of television, we consume entertainment that doesn’t require us to engage deeply and robustly with it.

Technology is diminishing our capabilities

Previously, media houses were the only trusted sources. Now, almost anyone can create podcasts, books or YouTube videos.  Traditional media institutions are becoming empty shells. Their only value is in their brand's reputation, but their content is decreasing. They seem to only talk to each other and themselves. Focusing on themselves could lead to being irrelevant and wrong or misleading. Yet they still have a measure of coherence that the wild west lacks. On the one side, we have the interesting stuff that is incoherent; on the other, we have stuff that is coherent but meaningless.

The media landscape is shifting

We may watch stuff that doesn’t make sense and leave us fixed in a sort of hypnagogic state. We pay attention to the traditional media houses, but we completely miss important things because they are filtered out by whatever the dominant media narrative is.  We pay attention to the media narrative because our mind is looking for symbols to inform us what is the important narrative. Or that has been vetted. We’re unreachable by real art. The art created now that matters, that is appropriate to this time, and would genuinely pierce the cultural consciousness is mostly unseen.

Why we're fixated on the unimportant and miss the crucial things

People these days try to find meaning in things like polyamorous relationships, travelling, or being an influencer. We emptied our life of real meaning, then tried to replace it with nothing. We tear down marriage and replace it with nothing. We tear down the office, community, the small town square, and replace them with nothing.  If you want to have a meaningful life, get married, have kids, live within your means, find work that you find purposeful and fulfilling, participate in your community.

If you want a meaningful life, start a family

The baby boomers caught a wave that made it easy to prosper. But in their selfishness, they are more concerned about themselves than their children.  They hoard stuff they are not willing to give up. They think everybody will find their bliss and make their own way, just like they did, but they don’t know how expensive college had become relative to themselves or home prices than when they were young. Millennials experienced 9/11, the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, huge student debt, and more. “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”

The disconnect between the Boomers and the Millennials

Informed in an interesting fashion by his relationship to stoicism, Ryan shares that he cares deeply about the future, but always in a thoughtful and measured way. In this podcast, he shares what is really driving our current moment across many areas.

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas.   Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.    This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen.      Thank You to Our Sponsors:  Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portal  Personna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25   Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portal  Theragun: theragun.com/portal  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

podcasts

Podcasts

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas. Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.  This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen. Thank You to Our Sponsors:Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portalPersonna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25 Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portalTheragun: theragun.com/portalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Portal is an exploration into discovery, including conversations with thought leaders. Host Eric Weinstein, Managing Director of Thiel Capital, brings his unique expertise and diverse roster of guests for a wide range of discussions, including science, culture, business, and capitalism. The show will feature people whose lives demonstrate that portals into what we would normally consider impossible, are indeed possible.  Guests include presidential candidate Andrew Yang, NY Times bestselling author Sam Harris, and retired Navy Seal and creator of the hit business podcast Jocko Willink.

The Portal

31: Ryan Holiday - Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes

Habits are essential because they decide our character and it becomes very essential to build a strong character for a successful life. In order to be the best version of yourself, one needs to give his 100% in his work but it's not easy as we think giving out your best in the extreme is tough but with these habits you can make it more easier.

Top 3 Habits To Increase Your Standards Of Thinking 

Attitude matters a lot, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you stand matters a lot, most importantly the way you think matters a lot.  Attitude is something that can make you a successful person and a champion with no competitors, so it becomes important to have an attitude like a winner.

Strong Attitude Makes You Successful 

This is an important thing that you must know, success requires high efforts and these efforts can't be achieved while working from a 9-5 job that requires high and intense hard work. One must be capable of working hard and intensely even one should resist himself towards problems. He must be capable of doing hard work and to fight with those struggles. If you anyhow build that habit of being resist towards your goals until you get success then nobody can even defeat you.

Resistivity for your goals

Success is the result of sacrifices and the late night struggle that we all have and to be honest you have to acquire that rule. Acquire it for a successful lifestyle for a better life. Work like you will die up tomorrow, work so intensely that success automatically chooses you. Believe in yourself, work like hell get disappear from this society and come up with a revolution. That can change this whole world.  Be the man of fire, be the man of change, be the revolutionary person.

Work like you will die up tomorrow

Top 3 habits to increase your standards of thinking, these habits will make you close to your success and can help you in achieving your goals with 10x speed.

Being inspired is a very tough task . But not the impossible one , introducing you the best and evergreen blog that will make you inspired everyday .we will provide you the quality of content just for free

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

Top 3 habits to increase your standards 

After two years of remote work, it can feel challenging to go back in-person to a world that more closely resembles life pre-Covid. This may bring feelings of relief, excitement, and hope for some people, but public re-engagement may cause anxiety and dread for many introverts. While introverts do enjoy being around people, they generate energy from time alone, as they find themselves drained by being around many people, meetings, and noisy gatherings.

Introverts may dread returning to the office

<ul><li>Practice self-care. Introverts need to spend time on activities they find regenerating.</li><li>Ask for what you need. Introverts need to let their managers and coworkers know what they need to function well in an office setting, whether a hybrid work schedule or a quieter workspace.</li><li>Reach out to others for support. Research found that 50.7% of employees are introverted, and 49.3% are extroverted. This means that half the people you work with understands what you are going through.</li><li>Gradually expose yourself to new situations, such as going in one or two days per week.</li></ul>

How to prepare

After two years of working remotely, going back to in-person work can be rough. Here’s how to ease the transition.


career

Career

How introverts can prepare emotionally for offices reopening

Projection bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate the degree to which their future attributes (e.g., tastes and beliefs) will resemble their current ones. Essentially, this bias leads people to engage in flawed self-forecasting, by projecting their current attributes onto their future selves, and thus underestimating how much their attributes will likely change over time.Projection bias can strongly influence people’s thoughts, statements, and actions in various domains, so it’s important to understand it.

Projection Bias

An example of the projection bias is that a person who is grocery shopping while hungry will likely buy more food than they really need, because they assume that they will keep being as hungry in the future, even after they’ve eaten.

The Hungry Shopper

<ul><li>It can cause people who are making summer vacation plans during the winter to pick overly warm destinations, because they overestimate how much they will want to be somewhere warm during the summer, due to the current winter conditions.</li><li>It can cause diners to order too much food at the beginning of their meal, because they overestimate how hungry they will be as the meal progresses, due to their current hunger.</li><li>It can cause people to start engaging in an addictive habit, such as smoking cigarettes, because they underestimate how addictive it will be, due to their current lack of addiction.</li></ul>

How Projection Bias Influences Our Behaviour

Some entities may also take advantage of people’s projection bias intentionally, as in the case of companies that do so to influence people’s shopping patterns.Example: Companies may encourage overconsumption by encouraging people to purchase large quantities of a certain product in advance (like the food at an all-you-can-eat buffet) before those people realize that they don’t need so much of the product or don’t value the product as much as they initially thought.

How Entities Can Take Undue Advantage Of Projection Bias In People

The projection bias means that even though people generally understand the direction in which their attributes will change over time, they systematically underestimate the magnitude of this change, so their prediction lies between their current attributes and their actual future attributes.
This happens because people give too much weight to the anchor of their current attributes, and fail to properly take into account factors that could cause their attributes to change, such as maturation, social influence, change in circumstances, adaptation to changes, and general mood fluctuations.

The Psychology and Causes of Projection Bias

Factors that change people’s attributes over time can be categorized based on whether they are:<ul><li>Personal (or dispositional), as in the case of maturation or general mood fluctuation.</li><li>Environmental (or situational), as in the case of influence from peers or influence from a certain physical location.</li></ul>These factors can also be categorized based on whether they are short-term or long-term, based on the period of time over which they influence a person.For example, social influence from a salesperson is likely to be short-term, whereas social influence from a parent is likely to be long-term.

Factors That Influence Attributes

People often fail to learn from past mispredictions of their future attributions, and therefore continue to repeatedly display the same type of projection bias over time. This can happen due to various reasons, such as:
<ul>
<li>A person’s desire to feel that they understand themself well can lead them to engage in self-enhancement, by forgetting or misremembering their past mispredictions.</li>
<li>A person’s focus on confirming their current predictions, rather than on assessing them properly, which can lead them to ignore evidence that contradicts those predictions.</li>
</ul>

Failure to Learn from Mispredictions

<ul><li>Understand what this bias is and what causes it.</li><li>Understand when and how this bias can affect people in general.</li><li>Be aware of common projection traps, such as underestimating the influence of visceral factors, overestimating the likelihood of following up on future plans, and oversensitivity to your current state when making long-term decisions.</li><li>Identify specific situations where this bias can play a key role, and plan how you will deal with it.</li><li>Use general debiasing techniques, such as slowing down your reasoning process and making it explicit.</li></ul>

How to Deal With Projection Bias

The projection bias is attributed to a 2003 paper titled “Projection bias in predicting future utility”, by researchers George Loewenstein, Ted O’Donoghue, and Matthew Rabin (published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 118, Issue 4, pages 1209–1248).
The associated study was also published as a working paper in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.239901">2000</a>, and mentioned in <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20210303030428/https:/www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/risky-behavior-among-youths-economic-analysis/risky-behavior-among-youths-some-issues-behavioral-economics">other publications</a> around that time period. Furthermore, evidence of this phenomenon has also been presented in other papers published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.1.66">around that time</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.1.66">earlier</a>.

The Origin And History Of Projection Bias

Projection Bias is sometimes used to refer to people's tendency to project their beliefs, values, characteristics, and behaviours unto others, and to consequently overestimate the degree to which these things are shared with others, a phenomenon that’s sometimes referred to as social projection or the false-consensus effect.The type of projection bias that is outlined in this article can be considered a specific case of this, where people project current attributes onto their future selves.

Other Types Of Projection Bias

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

People Underestimate How Much They Will Change – Effectiviology

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.

To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be

People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

You are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker.

An edition expanded with more than 100 pages of new content offers a blueprint for a better life, whether one's dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management or just living more and working less.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: “I race motorcycles in Europe.” “I ski in the Andes.” “I scuba dive in Panama.” “I dance tango in Buenos Aires.” He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now. Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you: • How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want • How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs • How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist • How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent "mini-retirements" • What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income • How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair • What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks • How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet • What the management secrets of Remote Control CEOs are • How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50–80% off • How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office You can have it all—really. From the Hardcover edition.

Tim Ferriss is author of three #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef. He is also a start-up advisor specializing in positioning, PR, and marketing (Uber, Evernote, etc.). When not damaging his body with abusive sports, he enjoys chocolate, bear claws, and Japanese animation.

Timothy Ferriss

The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-hour Workweek

Most of us go through things in life that we almost always rarely share with our workmates and often just opt to fake a smile and say "I'm fine" in order to avoid talking about the subject.However, the first step to increasing job satisfaction and supporting our mental health we have to open up. Vulnerability is scary, but being able to talk about something that matters to you will most certainly lift a burden off of our shoulders.

Approaching Emotional Conversations in the Workplace

When we check up on our colleague and ask how we're doing, how sincere are we when asking? It's likely that we do care with a certain percentage but not 100%. It's important that we learn proper supportive language because it is how we respond to what they tell us is that makes the largest impact on the conversation.

How Leaders Should Approach Emotional Conversations

<ul><li>“What do you have to be sad about?” or “You shouldn’t be sad, you have an excellent job/family/etc.” — This is dismissive phrasing</li><li>“Everyone feels like that sometimes” to “There’s nothing to worry about.” — This is minimization</li><li>“Hey, it could be worse!” or “That’s just a ‘first-world problem.’” — This is what negation sounds like</li><li>“You shouldn’t worry” or “You just need to get more sleep.” — Prescribing solutions aren't the way to go; and</li><li>“Just look at the bright side!” or “Everything happens for a reason!” — Positivity can become unproductive when it's the only option offered</li></ul>

Emotionally dismissive language sounds like...

<ul><li>"I can see why this is exhausting" or "I believe you" — words of validation during a difficult time can bring comfort</li><li>"Tell me more about that" — shows that we seek to understand, we care, and that we want to learn more so we can try to do more for them</li><li>"How can I best support you right now?" "Would X be helpful?" — When asking them or suggesting a way to support them can make the process of handling easier</li><li>"Thank you for telling me this and I appreciate that you allowed yourself to be vulnerable to me" — This enforces a sense of security they could be needing</li></ul>

Emotionally supportive language sounds like...

As we continue into the new chapters of navigating constant uncertainty, do you want to be the leader who adds to the weight or the one who makes it a little lighter?

As I go through a period of uncertainty in my life, I want to share how I have emotional conversations in the workplace. 

Even well-meaning bosses can inadvertently dismiss their employees’ feelings.

communication

Communication

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

How Supportive Leaders Approach Emotional Conversations

You don’t marry someone you can live with — you marry someone you cannot live without.

It’s always better when we’re together.

If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love.

In real love you want the other person’s good. In romantic love you want the other person.

When I look into your eyes, I know I have found the mirror of my soul.

Love Quotes 💙

<ol><li>The more models you have—the bigger your toolbox—the more likely you are to have the right models to see reality. It turns out that when it comes to improving your ability to make decisions variety matters.</li><li>By default, a typical Engineer will think in systems. A psychologist will think in terms of incentives. A biologist will think in terms of evolution. If we’re only looking at the problem one way, we’ve got a blind spot. And blind spots can kill you.</li><li>Charlie Munger summed up mental models “Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts.”</li></ol>

Learning To Think Better

<ol><li>The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent. If a map were to represent the territory with perfect fidelity, it would no longer be a reduction and thus would no longer be useful to us. A map can also be a snapshot of a point in time, representing something that no longer exists.</li><li>When ego and not competence drives what we undertake, we have blind spots. If you know what you understand, you know where you have an edge over others. </li><li>First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer difficult times</li></ol>

Core Mental Models 

<ol><li>Thought experiments are powerful because they help us learn from our mistakes and avoid future ones. They let us take on the impossible, evaluate the potential consequences of our actions, and re-examine history to make better decisions. </li><li>Second-order thinking is thinking farther ahead and thinking holistically. It requires us to not only consider our actions and their immediate consequences, but the subsequent effects of those actions as well. </li><li>Probabilistic thinking is essentially trying to estimate, using some tools of math and logic, the likelihood of any specific outcome. </li></ol>

Core Mental Models- Continued

<ol><li>Occam’s Razor, a classic principle of logic and problem-solving. Instead of wasting your time trying to disprove complex scenarios, you can make decisions more confidently by basing them on the explanation that has the fewest moving parts.</li><li>Hanlon’s Razor states that we should not attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity. In a complex world, using this model helps us avoid paranoia and ideology.</li></ol>

More Core Mental Models

The smartest people in the world use mental models to make intelligent decisions, avoid stupidity, and increase productivity. Let's take a look at how ...

problemsolving

Problem Solving

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained) - Farnam Street

There are six sociosexual hierarchy ranks ranging from alpha to omega. One of them is Sigma. You may not hear as much about a sigma male as you do about alpha and beta males. But what is it about them that is underappreciated while also being extremely attractive?

11 Personality Traits Of A Sigma Male That Sets Them Apart

A Sigma male is someone who isn't interested in either being a leader or a follower. He is not the loud or aggressive person who tries to get everyone's attention in the room, nor is he the shy and introverted person who pretends not to exist in the room.

So, who exactly is a Sigma male?

<ol><li>He likes to fly solo and is very independent.</li><li>He has a mysterious personality.</li><li>He likes silence.</li><li>He lives life on the edge.</li><li>He is extremely smart.</li><li>He has a rebellious spirit.</li><li>He is never short of attention.</li><li>He has an abstract way of thinking.</li><li>He has his distinctive style.</li><li>He is a deep thinker.</li><li>He can adapt to anything.</li></ol>

Here Are 11 Characteristics of a Sigma Male That Sets Them Apart

Being with a Sigma male can be an extremely rewarding and enriching experience because it will completely broaden your horizons and cause you to see the world in a new light. To be honest, Sigma males are extremely rare and can be difficult to understand, but if you come across one, make a mental note of it.

A sigma male is a free spirit who dances to the drum of his own beat and is extremely self-aware and comfortable in his own skin.

The virtual world can seem more immediate and significant than the smelly, tasty, touchy 3D Real World. Its a place of anxiety and triumphant exhilaration which sweeps us into the social networking swirl of collective consciousness.It is a parallel world where you can be on the move in the Real World, yet always hooked into an alternative time and place.Many parents complain that they are unable to take their child away from screen time and back into the 3D world.

A Global Phenomenon

Sharing personal information about oneself, as promoted on social networking sites, activates the reward systems in the brain the same way as food and sex do.

Upon waking, you will be checking your phone within 15 minutes of consciousness.You will need stimulation, excitement and escapism. So you use technology to socialise, for online shopping, playing games etc.The Real physical world is becoming less relevant as traditional constraints of time and space fade.The time that could have been spent walking in fresh air or having a face to face conversation has been forfeited in favour of cyberactivity, which is a completely new type of environment where taste, smell and touch are not stimulated, being completely sedentary for long periods of time.

Unprecedented Times

We have always invented new things, we have always worried about new things and we have always moaned about the younger generations.

In 2000, brain scans showed that London cab drivers had developed physical changes in their brains as a result of their daily activity of constantly using their working memory. Their hippocampus was actually bigger compared to non taxi drivers of the same age. This is an example of the 'use it or lose it' principle.Plasticity is the term for this process, the brains ability to shape and mould itself in response to stimuli.Environmental enrichment has been demonstrated in studies showing physical changes in neural circuits through experience.

How The Brain Changes

The brain undergoes continuous physical change... the brain remakes itself throughout life, in response to outside stimuli to its environment and to experience.

The word 'ecstasy' in Greek means 'to stand outside' of oneself. It is this emotional, unreflective state that we seek out through a diverse range of pursuits - an absence of self consciousness, of being 'abandoned'.MINDLESS - sensation, strong feelings dominate, here and now, driven by external environment, little meaning, not self conscious, high dopamine, meaningless world.MINDFUL - cognition, thinking dominates, past-present-future, driven by internal perceptions, personalised meaning, robust sense of self, less dopamine, meaningful world.

Out Of Your Mind

Thinking is movement confined to the brain.

When you share personal information on a social networking site, you share it with a large immediate audience.Research shows that the lack of face to face communication leads to a corresponding rise in self disclosure. The absence of visual cues or body language to discourage us or make us second guess what we may disclose, has lead to a rise in self disclosure.Body language is an ancient evolutionary mechanism for not letting our defences down prematurely.

Social Networking

We decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Sometimes the real world is not the best place to be. Video games can provide a calming routine for people who are unable to cope with the uncertainties of the real world.Unlike traditional real world games, video games offer an escape from the dull, difficult world to one that is more exciting, appealing to the senses and where there are reassuringly definite and predictable outcomes in which the player can participate as a better self.Research shows unhappy people create avatars that are very different to themselves whereas happy people create avatars just like themselves.

Video Games

Without Google and Wikipedia, I am stupid, not just ignorant.

Research analysing reading behaviour in the digital environment has revealed that decreases in sustained attention are increasingly characterising peoples literacy skills. People inclined to browse, scan and read more selectively, will spend less time on in depth and concentrated reading.Paper books are of a fixed time and place, have permanence and therefore a reassuring security which an ebook will never deliver.Search engines offer an easy fast option as opposed to taking your brain for a work out, you will now run the risk of becoming mentally flabby. The display will be driving you.

The Display Is Driving You

Books stand for knowledge, new ideas and the inventiveness of the human spirit and imagination.

Social networking sites could worsen communication skills and reduce interpersonal empathy.Personal identities might be constructed externally and refined to perfection with the praise of an audience as a priority, an approach more suggestive of performance art than of personal growth.Obsessive gaming could lead to greater recklessness, a shorter attention span and an increasingly aggressive disposition.Heavy reliance on search engines and a preference for surfing, rather than researching, could result in quick mental processing at the expense of deep knowledge and understanding.

Summary

Firstly, the human brain adapts to the environment; secondly, the environment is changing in an unprecedented way; so thirdly, the brain may also be changing in an unprecedented way.

How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains.

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price? Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ. Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity. But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change. In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

parenting

Parenting

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price?   Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ.   Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity.   But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change.   In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change   “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post   “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune   “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist   “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews   “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday   “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times   “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

Susan Greenfield

Mind Change

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