Valentina D.

• Starting a conversation with someone whom we don’t know can be intimidating. 
• Small talk can establish a common bond between two strangers and is the first step to build a meaningful, lasting connection with the other person.
• Feeling confident around people helps in starting conversations, and confidence is an ever-present mindset. 

Affirmations can help us build that mindset.

Sci-fi is a genre of fiction literature that is based on scientific facts, theories, and principles. While the storylines and some parts are imaginary, they are plausible according to science.

Science fiction became popular for both writers and audiences with technological developments over the past 150 years, such as electricity, space exploration, medical advances, etc.

Many of us allow our identity to be tied to our work. We let our jobs define our self-worth. If we receive critical feedback for our work, we feel like our life is failing too.

When performance reviews are around the corner, it is worth knowing how to take critical feedback without letting it affect our emotional wellbeing.

1. Do you see any major changes in the position or workplace in the coming year?
2. What can I do to really "win" at this job?
3. If you were to leave this company, what would be the reason?
4. What growth opportunities does the organization offer?
5. Is there anything else I can share to put me at the top of your list?

Hiring managers appreciate it when you ask questions that makes them think and be able to deliver insightful answers. It shows your drive, ambitions, and willingness to invest in the company.

Research shows that it's important to "exercise" your brain. Learning a language is one of the most effective ways to do this.
Benefits of speaking or learning a second language:

• It improves overall cognitive abilities.
• It decreases cognitive decline in older age. People learning a second language has lowered risks of Alzheimer's.
• Multilingual people are skilful at switching between different systems of speech, writing, and structure, making them better multi-taskers.
• Exercising your brain with learning a language improves your overall memory.
• While learning a second language, you focus more on grammar, conjugations, and sentence structure, making you a more effective communicator.
• Speaking another language means you have access to new words and cultures.

Language is a literal and linguistic tool that many believe is a fundamental basis of the way we think. Some have hypothesized (like the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) that many languages do not have room for certain thought patterns, and are able to alter our thoughts.

The underlying logic is just because there is no word in a certain language to express something, people who speak the language will not be able to think it, and if they learn a different language, new words and phrases are learned, leading to new ways of thinking.

1. Approaching for the first time someone you don’t know: focus on them, ask about them and approach humbly.
2. Deciding when to end a conversation: you can end the conversation by excusing yourself and saying you have something that needs to be attended to.
3. Awkward silences: knowing when to shift to another topic, introducing a new person to the conversation or even having a few conversation-continuers at the ready can help.
4. Accidentally saying something inappropriate: apologize quickly, admit the embarrassment, and, if you mean it, apologize without excuses. Trying to smooth it over will dig the hole deeper.
5. When someone else says something inappropriate: by diffusing the situation, and redirecting the conversation. Practicing active listening reveals when to intervene.

Stories are the primary way through which we make sense of our world. We explain ideas by telling stories.

Even science uses storytelling when they use data of the physical world to explain phenomena that cannot be reduced to physical facts, or when they extend incomplete data to draw general conclusions.

For example, knowing the atomic weight of carbon and oxygen cannot explain to us what life is. 

While discussing, debating or arguing, follow these guidelines:

1. Use respectful language, even when talking of someone not present at that time.
2. Opinions are not facts.
3. Use words and also use silence.
4. Be willing to learn something new, humbled by being proved wrong.
5. Thank others for making you learn new things.

While the premises may be true in an argument, the conclusion may or may not be correct, making the argument invalid. Example of an incorrect argument: Some New Yorkers are rude, some of them are artists, therefore some artists are rude.

A counterexample method is a powerful way to prove an argument’s conclusion to be invalid. You can use this method by: isolating the argument form and then constructing an argument with the same form that is obviously invalid.