Always End On A High Note

The Peak-End Rule: The peak and end of an experience is how we judge an experience.
[Image Credit: Michael Johnston]

In numerous studies, it has been shown that we tend to prefer what ends well. Instead of citing a whole bunch of studies (a lot of them by Dr. Khaneman), let's just focus on one.

In this study, a bunch of students were asked to do two parts of a test. In the one part, they had to do 20 very difficult questions. In the other part, they had to do 20 very difficult questions and in addition to that, 15 easier ones subsequent to the 20 difficult ones.

When asked which part they preferred, most students indicated the longer one. The relatively less discomfort of the 15 ending questions made the students prefer the longer section instead of the shorter one, even though total discomfort is objectively higher.

That's why it is important that we do a "wind-down" when we finish a long bout of studying or an arduous task. It's also very beneficial to reward yourself and get that ice cream from McDonald's at four in the morning.

What Learning to Draw Feels Like

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Recently, I took it upon myself to start learning to draw. I should first go ahead and mention that I have always been atrocious with my artistic skills and my drawing skills have remained at the elementary school level up through adult-hood. I am currently working through the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and it's been absolutely fantastic so far. The whole idea is predicated on neuroplasticity and the lateralization of brain function. You have to believe that your brain can change.

Engineers and lawyers tend often to be very L-mode oriented (previously known as left-brain), while drawing requires an R-mode state of mind. I can say that within a couple hours of the first exercise in the book, I have already begun to realize what it was like to draw. By day three, it begins to feel like I have a foggy vision, just almost able to grasp what it really means to know how to perceive things as an artist does. I will continue with this book because it is truly life-enriching.

Here are some before-after examples of what improvements people have made 5 days:

More Examples Here

The Only Productivity Trick You Need

This is all you need for success in anything.

This Lifehack article talks about the only 2 tricks you need for maximum productivity. And what it proposes is something that I believe is akin to all successful endeavours. Essentially what it comes down to is planning and evaluation. Everything we want to achieve requires a plan to get there. And we require constant evaluation to make sure that we iterate our approach in order to reach our goals as efficiently as possible.

After every single time you finish any kind of task, you should be looking back to see what you did well and what didn't go so well. Write this down somewhere and file it. The next time you start any kind of task, go back and look at your library of prior tasks and type out the things you should do and the things you should avoid with this new task. This is necessary and must be detailed because almost everybody will say to themselves: "I'll start and finish earlier this time!" but the thought never lasts and it is also not specific enough.

During the planning phase for each task, prior evaluations and experience must always be consulted. Indeed, this is the only way to improvement.

Thinking About Trends

What are the odds?

Since 2008, a share of RIM (the creators of the BlackBerry phones) dropped from a high of over $140 to what is now less than $20. Every single one of these years, I have heard people say to me that I should buy RIM now because there was no way it was going to get lower. They said it when it was at $100, $80, $50, etc. The question you should ask in these circumstances is:

Is it more likely that:

A) You have guessed exactly when the trend is going to end;

B) Or that the trend should continue like it has in the past?

Similarly, education has been evolving and changing all throughout history. Why would we settle with what we have right now? Why are we satisfied with what we do day by day? I propose that, in all aspects of our lives, we should continue to evolve and learn just as human kind has in the past. Follow the trend of improvement.

As an aside, this article from Quora has some insight on why RIM's stock price collapsed so fast.

Never Read Anything More Than Once

Reading more than once means you are not reading effectively.

Do you often read a paragraph and not know what happened? Subsequently, you had to read it again to understand what you just read. A friend of mine strongly objected to my previous post that compared reading speed with listening speed in terms of efficient learning. According to him, full comprehension often requires him to re-read material more than once. I concede, my previous comparison rests upon the assumption that you will be able to have equivalent comprehension of both methods of learning.

But if you are reading anything more than once, the chances are you are not in the right mindset. When you read, you should be speeding up and slowing down and creating comments in your head as you go; there should be a type of mental clarity and active learning. If you are not feeling this, then stop and take a break (either nap or go eat). If that doesn't work, you can try what I did for the LSAT for every single reading comprehension passage:

1. Close your eyes
2. Inhale slowly for 3 seconds
3. Hold your breath for 1 second
4. Exhale slowly for 3 seconds
5. Hold your breath for 1 second
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5, two more times
7. Open your eyes and immediately start reading (do not do anything else)

This sounds a little far-fetched, but try it out. It works because it primes your brain to focus on the reading, and once you have enough practice with it, you'll never have to read anything more than once ever again.

Why Banks Chain Their Pens

"Why do banks chain their pens to the desk? if I trust you with my money, you should trust me with your pen."

This quote has been floating around the internet for some time now, and I think it's worth using it as an example of how most people neglect to think about things from a more macroscopic perspective. It identifies how we as a society tend to focus on how we as individuals are affected by our surroundings rather than seeking an explanation from a larger framework.

The pen on a chain issue stems from the fact that people inadvertently take pens with them after signing things. It's not that people intend to do it, but often times, you forget to put the pen back down. Each time this happens, the major cost to the bank is not the pen, but the man hours wasted and the unnecessary increase of serving time at the teller. This may not seem like much to the regular customer who frequents the bank occasionally for 10 minutes or so, but if we consider the scale of these operations you'll start to see why it makes sense to retain the pens.

Thinking About Thinking

Most people don't see the point in thinking about thinking.

One of the key themes I try to get across with this blog is the importance of metacognition. Simply defined, metacognition essentially means thinking about thinking or knowing about knowing. Everything that has to do with personal improvement rests on the belief that you can think about the way you think, to be able to learn from that process, and eventually to change it to your advantage.

A lot of people recognize "smart" people as people who are simply innately geared towards easily understanding complex concepts. However, in my experience, this is not the case. The malleability of characteristics which help people learn has long been underestimated. The relatively recent discovery of neuroplasticity tells us that the structure of the brain is, in a lot of ways, extremely malleable even in late-adult life. An interesting tangent to this is this Economist podcast about an author who investigated how to change certain attributes of children.