Bounce. The myth of talent

Bounce

The myth of Talent.

“Mere experience, if it is not matched by deep concentration does not translate into excellence” (Loc 991)

Effort

“We should praise effort not talent.  That we should emphasis how abilities can be transformed through application, that we should teach others and ourselves to see challenges as learning opportunities rather than threats. (Loc 1702)

“Lowering standards just leads to poorly educated students who feel entitled to easy work and lavish praise.” (Loc 1712)

“The paradox of excellence is that it is built on the foundations of necessary failure.” (Loc 1662)

Practice

“Expert practice is different.  It entails considerable, specific and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well.” (p. 1012)

“Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and harms their performance.” (Loc 1689)

“Purposeful practice is about striving for what is just out of reach and not quiet making it.  It’s about grappling with tasks beyond current limitations.” (Loc 1088)

Feedback

Feedback is, in effect, the rocket fuel that propels the acquisition of knowledge and without it no amount of practice is going to get you there. (Loc 1325)

Blooms Taxonomy of learning

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Characteristics

When I had this explained to me for the first time in my 40’s it made total sense of why I hated school so much and yet why I was able to learn faster on my own.

Creating.

Generating new ideas, or ways of viewing things, inventing.

Evaluating

Justifying a decision or course of action, hypothesizing.

Analysing

  Breaking information into parts, exploring understanding, deconstructing

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Applying

Using information in other familiar situations, implementing, carrying out, using.

Understanding

Explaining ideas and concepts, summarizing, clarifying, explaining.

Remembering

Recall information, recognizing, listening, describing, retrieving naming finding.

Behavioural Activation

Behavioural Activation

Notes from Don’t shoot the dog by Karen Piper

This book is a fascinating one, Karen Piper is basically an animal trainer who stated to try her dolphin training tips on people.  It worked.  This book is great if you want to modify someone’s behavior  without them knowing you are doing it.

There is a wonderful  episode of the Big Bang theory where Sheldon uses Behaviour modification with Penny by giving her a sweet every time she does something right.

Positive reinforcement

·         Positive reinforcement is better than reward, so encourage when a behavior is attempted or achieved.

Negative reinforcement

·         Reinforcers that are stopped as soon as behavior changes

·         Not punishment as it is the loss of something desirable.  Punishment does not result in predictable change!

Timing

·         Reinforcer must be in conjunction with the act it is meant to modify.

Jackpots

·         Every now and then a treat 10 times the normal reinforce.

Conditional reinforcer

·         Initially pair something else with the reinforcer a sound or a movement.  For example a clicker when the dogs food is being given him.

“One can and should lavish children and spouces with love and attention, unrelated to any particular behavior, but one should reserve praise, specifically, as a conditional reinforce related to something real.” (p. 15)

“Deprevation of reinforcement is one factor, I think, in states of anxiety and depression.” (P.34)

Shaping

·         Using intentional goals to get to the desired behavior

·         Shaping depends on persistence

Shaping methods and principles

·         Method to teach skills, breaking them down into their separate elements.

Principles

1.       Raise criteria in increments small enough that the subject always has a realistic chance for reinforcement.

2.       Train one aspect of any behavior at a time, don’t try to shape for two criteria simultaneously.

3.       During shaping, put the current level of response onto a variable schedule of reinforcement before adding or raising the criteria.

4.       When introducing a new behavioural skill temporarily relax the old ones.  Focus on the new shaping behavior.

5.       Stay ahead of your subject: plan your shaping program completely so that if your subject makes sudden progress you are aware of what to reinforce next.

6.       Don’t change trainers in midstream; you can have several trainers per trainee, but stick to one shaper per behavior.

7.       If one shaping procedure is not eliciting progress, find another; there are as many ways to change behavior as there are trainers to think them up.

8.       Don’t interrupt the training session gratuitously, that may be seen as punishment.

9.       If behavior deteriorates go back to the beginning and quickly review the whole shaping process with a series of early earned reinforcers .

10.   End each session on a high note, if possible, but in anycase quit while you are ahead.

“Removal of attention is a powerful tool, so don’t use it carelessly or unfairly” (p.149)

Shaping without words

“The  reinforce can be verbal, tactile, or whatever you think the room mate would be likely to respond to or accept. People are not dumb; they modify their behavior on just a handful of reinforcers. (p.65)

When the signal is ignored

Stand ground and repeat.  Don’t agree, don’t explain, don’t deliberate.

Reinforcement

Method 1:  Shoot the dog

Method 2:  Punishment

·         “Evasiveness increases rapidly under a punishment regime – a sad situation in the family setting and not so great in society at large either.” (p.106)

·         “Punishing is also reinforcing for the punisher because it demonstrates and helps to maintain dominance” (p.108)

Method 3: Negative reinforcement

·         “Guilt and shame are forms of self-inflicted punishment” (p.108)

·         “Naggers for example, may eventually get results, and this reinforcement to the nagger” (p.110)

Method 4: Extinction

·         “Extinction in human interactions best applies, it seems to me, to verbal behavior – whining, bullying, quarreling, teasing etc. (p.177)

Method 6: Put the behavior on cue

·         “identify the cues and this will enable change to start.”

Method 7: Shape the absence

Method 8: Change the motivation

To change behavior 7 of the methods are good to use.  As many as possible will facilitate change quicker.

Big Five personality Test

Big Five Personality Model

The Big Five Personality Traits model is based on findings from several independent researchers dating back to the late 1950s. But the model as it is now didn't begin to take shape until the 1990s. Lewis Goldberg, a researcher at the Oregon Research Institute, is credited with naming the model "The Big Five", and it is now a broadly respected personality scale, which is routinely used in business and in psychological research.

The Big Five Personality Traits Model measures five key dimensions of people's personalities:
Openness (sometimes called intellect or imagination) – This measures your level of creativity, and your desire for knowledge and new experiences.

Conscientiousness – This looks at the level of care you take in your life and work. If you score high in conscientiousness, you're organised and thorough, and you know how to make plans and follow them through. If you score low, you're likely to be lax and disorganised.

Extraversion/Introversion – This dimension measures your level of sociability. Are you outgoing or quiet? Do you draw energy from a crowd, or do you find it difficult to work and be around others?
Agreeableness – This dimension looks at your level of friendliness and kindness to others. Do you have empathy? Can you sympathise with others?

Natural Reactions (sometimes called emotional stability or neuroticism) – This measures your level of emotions. Do you react negatively to bad news and yell at your colleagues, or do you react calmly? Do you worry obsessively about small details, or are you relaxed in stressful situations?

From Goldberg, L.R., "The Development of Markers for the Big-Five Factor Structure," Psychological Assessment, Vol. 4, No. 1, 26-42, 1992, published by American Psychological Association, Inc.

Taking the Test
Many websites allow you to take a Big Five Personality Traits test for free.

Try this one: TEST

Alaska Quilts

Alaska Quilts

Alaska Quilt Projects

We visited Skagway in Alsaka where I found nice laser cut material patterns of native art. They can also be found on HERE The laser cut also includes a pattern for a wall hanging.  I took the picture to my local fabric shop and matched the fabric, unorginal I know but I liked the way the materials in the picture worked.

Stiched together the pieces and added batten and backing.

The middle piece was a laser cut piece, entitled Salmon Boy. 

I was quite pleased with the finished wall hanging.

Robert Frost. Acquainted with the Night

Acquainted with the Night

By Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night. 

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. 

I have outwalked the furthest city light. 

I have looked down the saddest city lane. 

I have passed by the watchman on his beat 

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. 

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet 

When far away an interrupted cry 

Came over houses from another street, 

But not to call me back or say good-bye; 

And further still at an unearthly height, 

One luminary clock against the sky 

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 

I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost, "Acquainted with the Night" from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright © 1964, 1970 by Leslie Frost Ballantine. Copyright 1936, 1942 © 1956 by Robert Frost. Copyright 1923, 1928, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Co. Reprinted with the permission of Henry Holt & Company, LLC.

Source: Twentieth-Century American Poetry (2004)

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Onion Relish

Onion Relish

Ingredients:

• 8 Onions
• 2 Bay leaves
• 25ml Olive oil
• 200g Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 150ml Balsamic vinegar
• 150ml Red wine vinegar

Method.

Fry up the onions, bay leaves, in the oil till the onions are just starting to go brown.  Throw the rest of the ingredients in and simmer till they have reached a syrupy stage then put in a clean jar and leave for a couple of months.  Its as easy as that.

Building a strong immune system

Building a strong immune system

In ancient China the village paid the doctor while they were well, and it was considered their job to keep everyone in the village well.  If they got sick they stopped paying because the doctor had failed.  The old saying goes that prevention is better than cure so below is a list of 14 things that experts say build immunity.  Most of them are common sense.

• 1.       Exercise 30 minutes each day
• 2.       Get into the sunshine (Your body manufactures vitamin D from sunlight)
• 3.       Sleep 7-8 hours per night.
• 4.       Avoid smoke
• 5.       Cutback on Alcohol and Coffee
• 6.       Avoid stress
• 7.       Laugh more
• 8.       Socialise with nurturing people
• 9.       Keep a pet
• 10.   Drink Water
• 11.   Avoid simple sugars as they over tax our system
• 12.   Eat loads of fruit and veg
• 13.   Increase garlic consumption
• 14.   Eat protein

Creative People are this

Creative People Are

What makes some people dull as ditch water and others creative and interesting?  The following are traits which encourage creativity:

1.  Curious

If you can still find wonder in the world, things to do or  make or see or experience then you tend to be healthier and more involved with living instead of just exeisting.

2.  Open minded.

This does not mean gullible rather it is a perspective which tryies to look and everything from an even point.  As we get older it seems as if we have already made up our minds about so many things that we stop wondering .  Sometimes we do not want to change our minds since we have spent so long defending a particular position that we are frightened of losing face if we are seen to change our minds.  So we end up living a lie.

3.  Fit.

Not the ablity to do an iron man compitition without breaking sweat, but the ability to do those things we wants without collapsing into a snotty heap when ever we have to walk or climb.

4.  Self Awareness.

We tend to blame others and play the victim when we don't believe that we can solve a problem by our selves.  This is a negative trait which on times wrecks our good intentions and vision.

Bank account theory of marriage

Marriage in the bank

There are endless books about how to improve your marriage or stabilise your marriage, or save your marriage etc.  Most of them involve learning new communication skills and learning the ability to have disagreements with out animosity.  Who could argue that this is not a good thing? But it does tend to focus on the negative.



Dr John Gottman  (www.gottman.com)  has a very interesting idea that marriage should be treated like a bank account.  You need to pay in to be in credit, things get rocky when you are in deficit.  This appeals to me because the concept is simple, and easy to put into practise, in fact healthy marriages do this automatically.

Ways to pay in.

1. Create a culture as a couple.  We all know those couples who stay married but live totally separate lives.  This may suit a few, but couple that want to sty together need to do and like things together.
2. Have a mission.  Why are you a couple?  Sit down and have a think about what you as a couple are for.  This can be quite challenging, at the very least it asks the right questions of a relationship.  What are you trying to achieve as a couple?
3. Establish traditions that you as a couple celebrate.
4. Be nostalgic.  The 'do you remember' moments are the ones that make us bond together.  I have even heard it used in marriage counselling when the counsellor wanted the couple to remember when they were in love and act in the same way now.  A bit of Behavioural Therapy.
5. Celebrate the story of your love.  How you came together, the ups and downs.
6. Stay connected.  In our technological time its easier than ever to stay in touch.  However technology is a double edged sword and it easily distracts us as well.
7. Express appreciation often.  We all know we should, but have to confess that it is easy to take those closest to you for granted.

When the account is in credit Dr Gottman points out that a marriage will survive crisis better and even thrive.  For me its a reminder to put in the work as prevention is better than cure.