Monday, February 07, 2005

Thinking can be complex

I hate it when people make lame excuses for not getting tasks accomplished. So I will not regale you with all the reasons I have not blogged recently (writing for the Globe, getting things done for Imum Pancy, things for the Legend are beginning to bounce, I am still married with three children...sorry).

I have been reading fascinating stuff recently. Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink has really cool insights into how people think and why they think the things they do. Did you know that a disproportionate number of top CEOs are not only white and male (no surprise) but they are also tall. The things you think without realizing it push you in all sorts of directions that may or may not be good for you. Did you know that just making angry faces without having things that have truly pissed you off can make you feel angry? If you hold a pen in your teeth, thus making it easier for your face to smile, while watching cartoons makes them more enjoyable. If you hold a pen between your lips, thus making it hard to impossible to smile, while watching cartoons makes them less enjoyable. If you put a person in a certain frame of mind they will act in that frame of mind even in situations that would normally cause different reactions.

The human mind is an amazing thing...to bad too few of us use it on a regular basis. Others overuse it and need to let it do more of its stuff on its own. The well-trained gut reaction is often more valuable than the highly dissected, re-thought, re-hashed, and highly researched decision.

1 comment:

The Seth said...

Your diction in reference to activity with the Legend: "bounce" is, at the very least, brilliant.