Prepared Minds

Sobering and balanced write-up on the recent crisis surrounding priming in social psychology, with causes for alarm and signs of hope.

via @FastCoDesign

via @FastCoExist

"’Tis easy to frame a good bold resolution;
But hard is the Task that concerns execution."

Take some comfort in the fact that Ben Franklin, the genius who did everything, still found the doing part a little tough!

(via idonethis)

Greenway: Halve driving commute time and CO2 pollution from idling with this centralized traffic-optimized navigation system!

There are some potential “big-brother” concerns with implementation, as well as person-level resistance to taking different routes all the time (and I’m not sure if it will require critical mass of adopters to work at all), but it’s a very interesting idea, and an impressive prototype implementation!

"Great ideas tend to find you. That’s one of the frustrating things about them. It really is almost accidental when they happen and some people are good at it, some people are open to it, and I think that’s sort of the key, to be ready, to have interesting things pop into your head and be willing to try to do something with them. My other key thing is to write ideas down when you have them, because it’s really easy to think, that’s a great idea, I definitely won’t forget that, but then you do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night with an idea for a talk or for something I want to write and if I don’t get up and actually write it down then it’s going to disappear and I lose it forever."

Peter Rojas, Co-Founder Of Engadget, Gizmodo And Gdgt, in this video.

"I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with every new thing. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready and then it is inevitable. To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense."

Henry Ford

idonethis:

Nobody does their best thinking sitting at their desk. Your desk is for executing; do your thinking elsewhere.

July 26, 2012

Justin Jackson reminds us that desks are workstations. Take your thinking, procrastinating, eating, and even sitting elsewhere.

…

Check out my answer to this on Quora!

Very interesting take on the importance of being able to switch thinking “modes” between broad associative search and focused tuning for doing creative work.

via @FastCompany