Gael V.

Published in 1979, Advice to a Young Scientist is a practical and philosophical guide to curious people engaged in exploratory activities.

The author, Peter Medawar, was a Nobel Prize-winning biologist, and a lively, witty writer. The book had several key insights for young explorers so that they don’t get lost in their journey.

Have an end goal in mind when you're learning.

• What do you want to do with this information?
• How is it going to improve your life?

Even if you just want to do it for fun, find a project you can't do without learning the skill.

As a mainstream understanding, we know of doodling as "absentminded scribbling". There are many different types of doodling such as:

• Infodoodles - which are used to explore and educate new ideas
• Meditative Doodling - a practice of purposeful pen strokes that lead into quiet and reflective spaces
• Zentangle Method - where beautiful and structured patterns are used.

Multitasking fractures your attention between multiple tasks at the same time; monotasking fully focuses on one task.

• Multitasking is less about being able to work on more tasks at the same time, and more about hoe we switch between different tasks while not giving our full attention to any of them.
• Monotasking (single-tasking) means working on one task at a time and it helps to increase our creativity, energy, and focus.

Perfectionism is a personality trait, which can be an endless pursuit of high standards in every area of our lives, but can also be a 'disorder' like condition or a phobia, akin to 'Fear of Failure'.

Courage isn’t about reckless risk-taking but is often the result of calculated actions that are taken in a measured and appropriate manner.

In business, bold, courageous actions provide the risk-takers with psychological currency, a kind of motivational force that emboldens an otherwise risk-averse individual.

Boldness becomes the fundamental component while pursuing an endeavour which is high in risk and reward.

The spiral of silence is a human communication theory developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in the 1960s.

The theory explains how societies form shared opinions an how we make decisions surrounding difficult topics. According to the theory, we are only willing to express a statement depending on how popular or unpopular we perceive it to be.

Many of us have a desire to read. We buy books, but then the demands of work and family catch up with us, and we never get round to reading the books. The Japanese calls it tsundoku.

A US survey found that more than one-third of adults report a desire to read more books. If you're one of these people, even though you love books, reading them is the least important thing in your life. You may do it at the end of the day, or perhaps when you're on holiday.