Rudeness is everywhere-maybe a stranger cut you off in traffic, a coworker shut the door in your face, or a loved one snapped at you for "not cleaning up after yourself" when you had left the knife on the edge of the sink on purpose in case you wanted to make another sandwich later

Rude People

Researchers have found that just like the common cold, common negative behaviours can spread easily and have significant consequences.
It can be helpful to remember that when someone is being rude to you, it says more about them than you.

Rude Is Contagious! Here Is What Makes People Rude

<ul><li>When rudeness in the workplace goes unaddressed, research finds that employees feel less motivated and less productive.</li><li>Not only can rudeness impact a person's excitement about work and ability to do well at work, but it can negatively affect one's creativity as well.</li><li>Rude people are less likely to progress professionally.</li></ul>

Rudeness At The Workplace

If someone is rude to you, immediately pause. Don’t be offensive or rude back. Use ASSA-Alert, State, Sell, and Agree.Ask if they realize how hurtful or offensive their behaviour is, and help them understand why it was inappropriate. This helps people see that you are being reasonable while also clearly showing them the consequences of their rude behaviour will be.

Pause and Ask

<ul><li>The quickest way to thaw out a "cold shoulder" is with warmth.</li><li>When people are physically warm, they are more likely to show friendly character traits.</li><li>Action Step: When you're in the midst of a situation dealing with someone who is being rude, try using warm non-verbal cues to show warmth.</li></ul>

Lean Towards Warmness

If you feel like someone is underestimating you, be kind and direct.Address the person and ask for the opportunity to show your capability.Example: "I'm so excited to be entrusted with this responsibility and put my expertise into spearheading this project."Cite studies, research, or industry thought leaders to show you are doing your homework.

Display Your Competence

If the person being rude to you is a loved one or a colleague, you may want to wait to address their behaviour in private.When you talk with them, instead of telling them that they were being rude, try to help them understand how their actions made you feel.

Have a One-On-One

The person acting rudely may not understand the culture or "The way we do things around here" and not realize they are being rude.Give people the benefit of the doubt. Instead of getting upset with someone for cutting you off in line or communicating poorly at work, try saying:“Excuse me, you may not have realized, but I’m already in line here.”“I would be happy to help show you the ropes on this project. It seems like it’s making you a bit stressed out.”

Give people the benefit of the doubt

<ul><li>Negative comments impact us much more than positive ones-at a 5-to-1 ratio.</li><li>If someone says something rude to you, take a second to affirm yourself with five positive things.</li><li>Remember, their harsh comments and negativity don't define you.</li></ul>

Someone Else's Negativity Does Not Define You

<ul><li>At a big family function, wait until the person who is being rude to you has a chance to sit down before you find your seat. This way, you can choose a seat in a different part of the room. </li><li>If you work with a rude coworker, adjust your lunch break to take it at a different time than they are. This way, you won’t need to get mean jabs from them while taking a break. </li></ul>

Ways to Avoid Someone without Being Too Obvious About It

Rudeness is something you encounter often, and if you’re not careful, you’ll “catch” the rudeness and start being rude to others around you. Dealing with rude people can be stressful, but it’s important for maintaining your well-being. Everyone has an off day from time to time. Be quick to apologize for your rudeness when you realize that you’ve snapped at your partner, made a joke that didn’t land well in a work meeting, or stood up a friend for a coffee date.

The Bottom Line

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Communication

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Love & Relationships

How to Expertly Deal with Rude People

Vera Rubin is responsible for discovering dark matter, which makes up 84% of the material that exists in the universe. Her approach to problem-solving and innovation holds many lessons for us today.Visual thinking: Use various strategies to represent complicated problems or projects visually.

Visual Thinking

Vera Rubin's thinking strategies include:<ul><li>Practising visual thinking.</li><li>Trusting the evidence.</li><li>Seeing the bigger picture.</li><li>Focus on creating the most useful visuals.</li><li>Follow the evidence.</li><li>Look for factual information.</li><li>Analyze data from different perspectives.</li><li>Step up for others.</li></ul>

How to Think Like Vera Rubin

Vera Rubin was a powerhouse in astrophysics, though she rarely gets the credit she deserves. Rubin is responsible for discovering dark matter, which makes up 84% of the material that exists in the universe.

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Philosophy

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Motivation & Inspiration

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Problem Solving

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Creativity

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Science & Nature

Vera Rubin: The power of evidence-based visual thinking

When confronted with information that challenges our worldview, we tend to close up. However, we can learn with the right tools and techniques, not looking for victory but moving the dialogue forward.

Constructive conversations move forward

At least one party in the conversation should be open to the idea that the discussion is a climbing wall, not a clash. The point of a curiosity conversation is to understand the other person's perspective. Next time someone says something you immediately disagree with, say, "I never thought of it that way before. What can you share that would help me see what you see?" When you do this, people tend to become curious about you.

Choose curiosity over clash

A constructive conversation is a series of presenting an idea, getting your idea attacked, you adapt and re-explain. The expectation is that your idea gets better when it is challenged and criticised. Successful negotiators from high-stakes international negotiations go into conversations expecting to learn from the challenges they'll receive and use objections to refine their proposals.

Develop ideas through discussion

In some situations, it can feel like the discussion is not worth it. That is often because the purpose of the discussion isn't clear. In that case, it helps to start with the big picture before moving to the details. Consider asking your counterpart to describe what kind of neighbourhood, country, world, community they want a year or a decade from now. This opens up the opportunity for a conversation with a purpose.

Find a common purpose

"We need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress," says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in curiosity and purpose. The end result? Constructive conversations that sharpen your argument and strengthen your relationships.

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Personal Development

How to have constructive conversations

We have always been taught that mental and physical health are two separate entities existing in different planes.
Our mind and body, surprisingly to many, are not two different things.
If someone leaves their job due to a physical injury, it is considered normal, but if the same person is leaving the job due to a mental health issue, then their decision is criticised and they may even have to deal with long-lasting consequences.

Mental And Physical Health

Many people do not speak about their mental health until the absolute breaking point due to the stigma that society attaches to psychological problems.
<ul>
<li>The truth is that self-care and mental health is something that needs to be given proper attention.</li>
<li>Only taking care of the physical body is simply not enough.</li>
<li>There shouldn’t be a demarcation between mental of physical, as both are health issues related to the individual.</li>
<li>It is not selfish to value yourself and prioritize your health.</li>
</ul>

The Stigma Of Mental Health

It's time to end this pervasive school of thought in sports and applaud athletes for prioritizing both.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Money & Investments

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Health

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Mental Health

The Myth That Mental And Physical Health Aren't Equal

A hypothesis is an initial statement regarding the cause and effect in a specific situation. It can be tested by experimentation and observation or by statistical analysis of probabilities from data. A useful hypothesis allows predictions by using deductive reasoning. Sometimes a hypothesis is developed before new knowledge or technology can test it. The ancient Greeks proposed the concept of atoms, but it could only be tested centuries later.

Hypothesis 

A model is used when the hypothesis has a known limitation on its validity. For example, the Bohr model of the atom shows electrons circling the atomic nucleus in a similar way as planets in the solar system. The model is useful for establishing the energies of the quantum states of the electron in the hydrogen atom, but it does not represent the real nature of the atom.

Model

A scientific theory or law represents a hypothesis that has been validated through repeated testing over many years. <ul><li>A theory is an explanation for a set of related phenomena, like the theory of evolution.</li><li>The word "law" is often used to point to a specific mathematical equation that refers to the different elements within a theory. For example, Pascal's Law refers to the equation that describes the difference in pressure based on height.</li></ul>

Scientific theory and law

Once a scientific theory is established, it is difficult to get the scientific community to abandon it. Science philosopher Thomas Kuhn used the term scientific paradigm to explain a working set of concepts under which science operates. When one paradigm is overturned in favour of a new set of theories, the very nature of science changes.

Scientific paradigms

Occam's Razor is a principle of the scientific method. It states that "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity." It means that where two hypotheses are presented and have equal predictive power, the most simple explanation that fits the available data is the preferred hypothesis. The appeal to simplicity has been adopted by most of science, as Albert Einstein expressed, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Occam's Razor

Here are the definitions of scientific hypothesis, model, theory, and law, as well as the differences between these commonly confused terms.

The Difference Between a Hypothesis, Theory, and Law

Flashcards can be a powerful learning tool, but they can also be a waste of time.
<ul>
<li>They are powerful because retrieval and spacing are key to memory. If you have a lot of information to memorise, flashcards will help you the best. </li>
<li>But flashcards can also waste your time. You may memorise something you don't need, or fail to memorise the important things. But most of all, flashcards can be a way to avoid doing the real thing.</li>
</ul>

Learning with flashcards

Flashcards are about retrieval practice. You put a question on one side and the answer on the back. By trying to say the answer before you look, you strengthen the memory link. 
Spaced repetition systems (SRS) enhance this technique by automatically scheduling reviews.

In favour of flashcards

<ul>
<li>Each question should only have one answer.</li>
<li>Questions should not contain redundancy.</li>
<li>Questions should be simple. A more complex problem should be broken into smaller parts.</li>
<li>Questions should be something you need.</li>
</ul>

Designing good flashcards

Traps you can fall into with flashcards.
<ul>
<li>Using off-the-shelf flashcard decks: You may think that pre-made flashcards save time, but many of the pre-made decks need editing to fit your purpose.</li>
<li>Bad card design: Simply copy and paste stuff from classes can be fast but make memorising a mess.</li>
<li>Memorisation instead of understanding. Memorisation should follow understanding, not replace it.</li>
<li>Flashcards are a fake substitute for doing real learning. Doing lots of flashcards may leave the impression that you have learned a lot, but it is not true for complex subjects.</li>
</ul>

Flashcard failures

Flashcards are vastly superior to passive review techniques. They work well when used appropriately.
If you have used flashcards before, but they were not effective, chances are you either designed the cards badly or other forms of practice may work better for you. If you love flashcards, go forward with caution. Ask if flashcards are really enhancing your learning.

Flashcards work well when used appropriately

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Productivity

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Strategy

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Learning & Education

Should You Use Flashcards to Learn? | Scott H Young

A mental map is a first-person perspective of an area that an individual possesses. This is a type of subconscious map that shows the individual what places look like and how to interact with them. 
Every individual has their own mental map, a large and a small one, wherein the former is used to recall towns, states, and countries; while the latter is to navigate smaller areas like your home, or the way to your favorite cafe. We subconsciously use our mental maps to plan all of our activities.

Mental Maps

There is a division in psychology that looks at human and animal behavior, that division is called behaviorism. This theory assumes that every single behavior done is a response to environmental stimuli.
With this understanding, behavioral geography is seeking to understand how people build, how they change, and how the landscapes, in particular, affect and influence the behavior of both humans and animals.

Behavioral Geography

<ol>
<li>The possibility of every individual having different mind maps is likely. This is due to the fact that mental maps aren't just the perceptions of your own spaces, but they are also the perceptions of places you've never been to before.</li>
<li>Mental maps are based on assumptions and conjecture which can affect human interaction significantly.</li>
<li>Borders of neighboring countries may see boundaries differently.</li>
</ol>

Conflicts Caused by Mental Maps

Since mental maps can be created for places you've never been to for social media, news outlets, and even movies are able to depict faraway places for people to vividly create their own mental maps of them. 
However, most media representations of these places are not entirely accurate and will only cause the formation of distorted or error-filled mental maps. Such in the case of the map we've all grown to see, the Mercator's map, wherein for centuries it has depicted the size of Africa wrongly.

Media and Mental Mapping

As humans, we often subconsciously attach emotion to the mental maps we've created along with the infromation that we've come to know, whether it may be accurate or not, this significantly alter's one's perception. 
We must keep in mind that we shouldn't fully trust the infromation that is delivered to us. This is a deplorable issue that is never to be taken lightly like biased crime statistics, because regardless of where it may be from, it has enough power to influence over someone's choices.

The Media's Effect on Mental Map Creation

Mental maps are subconscious representations of the world that help a person navigate their surroundings. These are studied by behavioral geographers.

Mental Maps: You Don't Need a GPS to Get Where You Want to Go

<ul><li>Jootsing or “Jumping Out Of The System” is a technique to encourage creativity in science, philosophy, and the arts.</li><li> All systems have rules. With jootsing, a system’s rules can be used as a starting point to work against.</li><li>The term was coined by Douglas Hofstadter, an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature.</li></ul>

Jumping Out Of The System

“It helps to know the tradition if you want to subvert it. That’s why so few dabblers or novices succeed in coming up with anything truly creative.”

<ul><li>Jootsing means studying the rules of the system before you can break them.</li><li>Jootsing is a much more extreme version of thinking outside the box. Jootsing forces us to completely break away from the box, to create within a space that breaks the fundamental characteristics of the box.</li><li>But jootsing is not about breaking the rules for the sake of breaking the rules.</li></ul>

Jumping Out Of A System Requires Understanding The System

<ul><li>“You need water to use shampoo” → Dry shampoo</li><li>“You need a license to drive a taxi” → Uber</li><li>“You need alcohol to make cocktails” → Mocktails.</li></ul>

Some Examples Of Jootsing

<ul><li>Study the system. Read all the fundamental books, articles, and research papers that explore your system of interest. Contact experts, ask questions, become familiar with relevant policies. </li><li>Understand the rules. While you study the system, make sure to take notes as to what rules are commonly considered as unbreakable. </li><li>Jump out of the system. Take the rules one by one, and think of ways to break each of them.</li></ul>

Jootsing Consists Of Three Steps

All systems have rules. A system’s rules can be used as a starting point to work against. Jootsing stands for “Jumping Out Of The System”.

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Reading & Writing

Jootsing: the art of jumping out of the system

Our predictions usually seem to fall towards extremes, either too optimistic or too pessimistic. We underestimate how bad things can be in the short term, and how much better they can eventually turn out to be in the longer run. This leads to bad decisions, laughably wrong forecasts and predictions and a lot of confusion.
A reasonably optimistic person is a little cautious, a little cynical, and expects surprises, setbacks, bewilderment and disappointment.

Cautiously Optimistic

Too much optimism prevents us from accurately predicting and understanding the pain and struggle that is inevitable in the future. 
What it does is it reduces our stress and anxiety and provides a ‘playground’ where we can imagine alternative realities which we need to believe in.

Optimism Bias

A realistically optimistic person knows that though things will happen, things that will be surprising, disappointing or completely out of control.

Realistic Optimism

The war-torn countries of the 1940s, Germany and Japan, quickly recovered and exceeded the expectations of the world, ranking much higher in development than many countries who had not experienced war. Progress happens at an exponential rate when people learn new things, and when there is collective pain, suffering and misery, people learn a lot.

Acceleration Due To Breakdown

The Reasonable Optimist · Collaborative Fund

<ol>
<li>Creativity is only needed at the top. The truth is that creativity applies to everything. The executives are not only the ones who experience conflict, everyone does.</li>
<li>People are creative (or not) based on what they do. But creativity does not only appear for artistic people. It manifests in every field.</li>
<li>Creativity can’t be developed. But creativity is not born, it is developed by continuous practice and focus.</li>
<li>"Creativity isn’t my job". In reality, creativity must be applied at all levels. Everyone could benefit from being creative.</li>
<li>_"My technical skills and experience are enough." _The truth is those skills and experiences could be enhanced with creativity. Don't just rely on what you know, be creative in applying it.</li>
</ol>

5 Common Myths About Creativity

Mention the word creativity, and people begin to squirm in their chairs. The very thought can prompt anxiety, fear, and doubt - even in the most accomplished professionals. Let's explore some common myths, and uncover the truth behind this "fuzzy" topic: MYTH 1: Creativity is only needed at the top TRUTH : [...]

How to Expertly Deal with Rude People

Vera Rubin: The power of evidence-based visual thinking

How to have constructive conversations

The Myth That Mental And Physical Health Aren't Equal

The Difference Between a Hypothesis, Theory, and Law

David R.