Health Tips Article

Imagine you are in your 9th grade. You scored 80%, everyone expected you to. The teacher praises you. Your friend scored 40% and the teacher scolds him. Next exam. You score 76%. Your friend gets 45%. What just happened? It is seemingly logical that praising you got you to slack off and lose your grade while your friend benefited after scolding. The thing is, while it appears that the teacher influenced the grades, such a fluctuation is likely to be a natural fluctuation. Plain and simple changes that depend on so many variables that they appear random to us.  There is a very high chance that the teacher's scolding and praising changed nothing. This is called the regression fallacy . It is based on a couple of things. One is to discount natural variation. These innocuous random and natural fluctuations are often underestimated. Two, erroneous attribution of events to a controllable cause. Natural variations and fluctuations are significant causes that we often underestimate Where w...

These cognitive biases could be spoiling your decisions with incorrect perception. Understanding cognitive biases and overcoming them lie at the heart of negotiations, risk-taking, investments, audience building, developing relationships, choosing a moral side, debating, increasing sales, proving a point, etc. This is an endless list. Basically, anything that needs attention, observation, decision making, and perspective, can be compromised because of cognitive biases. 4 cognitive biases you should overcome to think clearly ... Thinking mistakes that the brain makes unknowingly. Telling you that cognitive biases compromise your decisions is a rather grim story. True, but grim. So I've already written a piece on how to counter cognitive biases . Do read that article once you are done with this post. Let us dive right in. The confirmation bias: Perhaps the most significant and elusive of all biases. Consider the example of person XY being anxious about social situations. Such a perso...

There are a number of ways to look at life lessons. On most occasions, you'll see life lessons coming from someone's experience or some book. This article will surprise you. Experience is not the only way to learn about life. Sometimes, you'll see lessons in the oddest places. Such as the clockwork of your brain. I am going to walk you through certain processes in the brain and then I'll show you what we can learn from them. Not for the technical bit, but for living a good life. It's remarkable that we can learn something from the brain.  Here are 5 life & motivational lessons everyone should take from the human brain! ... And why you should know these features of the brain Lesson 1: Astrocytes Your brain is a dense network of about 80 billion neurons and another 80 billion non-neuronal cells (astrocytes, glial cells). The neurons are what most people refer to as brain cells. They largely accommodate learning, memory, emotion, etc. The glial cells & other a...

Friend's sight -  a mental tool for evaluation & decision making There is a handy mental tool I use when evaluating my work or making decisions. It is a simple question I ask myself. In this very short post, I'll show you how you can use it meaningfully! Sometimes, it is very hard to evaluate your own work because you are restricted by your prior knowledge and ideas. However, my guess is, more often than not, you feel you need a fresh set of eyes to evaluate your work and make progress. Perhaps it is a decision you want to evaluate. What would you do? You are probably aware of your own tendencies and are inclined to opt for a certain path. But, you are unsure whether it is a good idea or not. And because you are uncertain, all options that you have seem to lack a certain conviction. If this happens to you. Ask the following question: What would X do/say?  Replace X with the following: Your best friend Your closest friends Your parents Your grandparents Your professors Your...

Here are some tips and tricks to improve your memory - general ability to remember, and the skill of memorizing specific things. When we speak of improving memory, two things come to mind. These are 2 unique aspects of memory.  Let me distinguish these two aspects of memory first: Studies in Psychology show these as different functions of memory. Committing to memory  - this is the ability to remember details in useful ways.  We commonly refer to this as memory. Learning information  - when our brain receives information from our senses, the brain gets some pre-memory raw information. Depending on the usefulness of the information and attention paid to that information, a memory starts forming. That basically means that this information leaves an imprint at the biological level in the brain. This imprint is a small change in how neurons communicate. Now imagine that there is a large network of neurons. They all communicate with each other through  synapses....

There often comes a time when you can ask the question- 'why am I learning this? It has no use for me'. Even though learning something new has no direct use in your life, it has benefits that are invaluable! (I've also added a small section at the end describing my reasons for when you shouldn't learn a new skill.) 9 Reasons why you should work on new skills: 1. Learning any skill stimulates the brain and adds to what psychologists call a ' cognitive reserve '. It is that residual effect of learning that keeps your neural connections strong and densely connected. You will literally be making new neural connections to acquire that skill thereby strengthening some areas of your brain. It is one of the strongest defenses against diseases like Alzheimer and Dementia. It also helps you counter-act the cognitive decline due to old age. 2. Engaging yourself in any new skill is a period of self-discovery . You may experience a wide variety of mood states ranging fro...