From the monthly archives:

November 2009

Optimizing Your Working Memory – Part II

by Stephen Mills November 29, 2009
Working Memory

A lot of new research is showing that cognitive effort depletes your mental resources and you perform significantly worse on subsequent tasks. Make one difficult decision and your ability to make a second difficult decision is reduced. All conscious thinking uses up these resources and the more conscious effort it requires the more the resources are depleted. Will-power and self-control may not seem like the same thing as solving a complex problem, but they too rapidly deplete your brain’s thinking resources.

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Optimizing Your Working Memory – Part I

by Stephen Mills November 28, 2009
Working Memory

A lot of new research is showing that cognitive effort depletes your mental resources and you perform significantly worse on subsequent tasks. Make one difficult decision and your ability to make a second difficult decision is reduced. All conscious thinking uses up these resources and the more conscious effort it requires the more the resources are depleted. Will-power and self-control may not seem like the same thing as solving a complex problem, but they too rapidly deplete your brain’s thinking resources.

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What I’m Thankful For

by Stephen Mills November 27, 2009

Sure I’m thankful for family, friends, health, and everything else obvious everyone else is listing.  But I’m also thankful for some other things. That I’m alive in the 21st century That I do not suffer the debilitating mental disease of victimization that is sweeping the world That I am endlessly fascinated by science and nature [...]

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Are Your Thoughts Helpful?

by Stephen Mills November 24, 2009
negative thoughts

It doesn’t matter so much whether your thoughts are true or not; what matters is are they are helpful?  A negative thought about yourself may actually be true, but if it is not helpful you shouldn’t pay attention to it.  So dealing with your thoughts really comes down to paying attention to helpful thoughts and [...]

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Increasing Your Signal-To-Noise Ratio

by Stephen Mills November 20, 2009
Information Overload

Signal-to-noise ratio is defined by Wikipedia as “ratio of a signal power to the noise power corrupting the signal.” This concept comes from electrical engineering but it can be applied to information overload. I don’t know about you, but I constantly struggle with finding a signal hidden in all the background noise. I also worry that I’m creating more noise than signal. Thus, I’m looking for ways to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in the information I consume as well as the information I create.

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How to Remember What You Learn

by Stephen Mills November 17, 2009
Brain Memory

A significant amount of memory loss occurs within the first few of hours after being exposed to new information. If you want to recall what you learn there are some things you can do to help.

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How To Be Rich and Happy

by Stephen Mills November 14, 2009

I do think the book provides an excellent toolset to give you a lot more of what you want a lot more often than you are getting now. I read the book all the way through in one sitting even doing the exercises.

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The Brain Surgeon, the Janitor, and the Six-Inch Pizza

by Stephen Mills November 10, 2009
Surgeon

We have a hard time cutting out what is not essential because in our minds we create a story that makes everything essential. It’s not. Most of it is trivial and won’t matter in the end.

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Should You Trust Your Intuition? – Part II

by Stephen Mills November 7, 2009
Intuition

Clearly our intuitive or non-conscious mind is a powerful tool as long as we understand when it is likely to be effective and when it is likely to lead us astray. I think science has barely scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the power and the perils of the non-conscious mind. The tools for peering into the human brain while the owner is still alive have only recently become available. The future is bright as far as I’m concerned.

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Should You Trust Your Intuition?

by Stephen Mills November 4, 2009
Coin Flip

I’m a strong believer in the power of human intuition, but at the same time I want to understand it from a scientific point of view. I want to know when and if I can trust my intuitive sense. I don’t want to just intuitively accept intuition as a reliable form of knowledge. In this article and the next, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned about intuition and under what circumstances science has found it to serve us well or not serve us so well. A lot of credit for this material goes to David G. Myers and his excellent book Intuition: Its Powers and Perils.

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