School of Thinking

Archive for December, 2007

2008 (MMVIII)

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Michael

2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year. Click through here for predicted and scheduled events. 2008 has also been designated as:

• International Year of Planet Earth
• European Year of Intercultural Dialogue
• Australian Year of the Scout
• International Year of the Potato.

What will 2008 be designated for you?

King of Cricket Thinking

Posted on December 28th, 2007 by Michael

kerrypacker2_narrowweb__300x426,0.jpg The cricket thinker, par excellance, was Kerry Packer.

Kerry Packer was the inventor of World Series Cricket which introduced innovations across the board in the equipment, the dress code and the Rules of the Game.

According to World Series Cricket legend, Max Walker, “Kerry was the King of Cricket Thinking!

The Packer-led escape from tradition became so successful, the whole world of cricket adopted it.

Queen of Australia on YouTube …

Posted on December 26th, 2007 by Michael

The Queen of Australia has given her Christmas Day Message on YouTube.

MTnew_commonwealth_austraila_intro.jpg Her Christmas Day message is posted on the popular video-sharing website for the first time as the 81-year-old British Sovereign, who is also Queen of Australia, historically (and stoically) continues to embrace advances in modern communications technology.

The message begins with footage from 1957 showing the Queen broadcasting on TV for the first time 50 years ago.

Now, the new royal link – www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel – went live just after midnight and features both archive and recent footage of the Queen with plans to add new clips regularly.

The Queen begins by noting from her long experience that, “One of the features of growing old is a heightened awareness of change. To remember what happened 50 years ago means that it is possible to appreciate what has changed in the meantime. It also makes you aware of what has remained constant”.

On this theme see also: The Grey Hat for Wisdom.

Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

Posted on December 24th, 2007 by Michael

Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

The problem with this question is in the construction of the question. The question is set-up as two-box thinking rather than three-box, six-box or even ten-box thinking.

Right or wrong? Black or white? Yes or no? All examples of black hat, judgmental two-box thinking.

If you accepted the way the question has been put to you (and you don’t ever have to) and if you answered ‘half-empty’ you would be RIGHT but maybe not as effective as you could be.

Using cvs2bvs you can escape from two-box thinking—change your perception from cvs to bvs—and always choose a better outcome.

••• Click through here to see also The Necker Cube illusion •••

Yes, of course you’ve heard this before many times but it still applies to every single situation–many hundreds of them–that come your way every day of your conscious life.

Knowing this is not as important as actually doing it.

So, the important questions are:
How often each day can YOU use cvs2bvs?
How many times will you escape from YOUR
cvs today?
How can YOU use this today?

The Necker Cube and Human Perception

Posted on December 24th, 2007 by Michael

The Necker Cube is an ambiguous line drawing. It can be interpreted two different ways. When a person stares at the picture, it will often seem to flip back and forth between the two valid interpretations. The Necker Cube is an optical illusion first published in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker.

Like the paradox of the “half-empty/half-full glass of water” the Necker Cube shows how human perception is multi-stable. It can change and be changed–it can flip/flop.

This also shows why the cvs2bvs brain software is so powerful in the human perception system because it can change, or flip, perception from one stable state to another stable state–on command!

Click through here to an interesting animated Necker Cube.

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test (?)

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by Michael

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

Click through here to see test …

(The interest in posting this is because it was listed on The TODAY Show as “one of the most popular internet links of the year”.)

How to be better at anything …

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by Michael

FROM CPU:
glibbrain.jpg Earlier we talked about why the fast-talking guy sounds smarter than the guy who understands more than he can say. We talked about how wrong that is, and how if the glib always win, we all lose. But the more important battle is not between articulate vs. less-articulate people… it’s between the articulate vs. non-articulate parts of your own head.

Your brain has both a quick-talker and a quick-thinker, but the good-talker “know-it-all” gets the glory.

In other words, there’s a smart part and a dumb part of your brain, and the problem is…the dumb part talks (while the smart part thinks).

Study: Fast Thinking Makes Us Happy …

Posted on December 18th, 2007 by Michael

title_mntlogo.jpg When people are made to think quickly, they report feeling happier as a result. They also say they are more energetic, more creative, more powerful, and more self-assured. In short, they reported a whole set of experiences associated with being “manic.”

Fast thinking, or “racing thoughts,” is most commonly known as a symptom of the clinical psychiatric disorder of mania (and of the manic part of bipolar disorder or “manic-depression”).

But, according to Princeton University psychologist Emily Pronin, most healthy people also have experienced racing thoughts at some point in time–perhaps when they are excited about a new idea they have just learned, or when they are brainstorming with a group of people, or even when they lie in bed unable to fall asleep.

Pronin and her Harvard colleague Daniel Wegner decided to explore whether inducing people to think fast might lead them to feel some of the other experiences also associated with the manic experience.

Before ‘The God Delusion’ …

Posted on December 15th, 2007 by Michael

softwareforyourbrain.gifLong before The God Delusion and even before The Da Vinci Code there was Software For Your Brain!

Give the gift that gives back ten times more: give Software For Your Brain to all your family, friends and enemies.

Just give them this link to click through here …

Read. Enjoy. Escape.

Gallup Examines Global Well-being …

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Michael

bgLogo_GALLUP.gif  Princeton NJ:

Economists throughout the world are beginning to use happiness as an economic indicator. Gallup helps refine this approach.

Click through to learn more …