Health Tips Article

There are cognitive biases and thinking errors. Our brains have evolved to have tendencies that, sometimes, and unfortunately, lead to errors. Our perception is compromised, our decisions are based on wrong information, our reactions are based on wrong information. So often. These could be errors in how the brain absorbs information- interpreting conversations, reading articles, understanding behaviour, understanding motivations of others, rights & wrongs. The brain has evolved quick tendencies for a reason, but many of them may be out of context today. For example, jumping to conclusions such as - the food is toxic based on a colour may have been useful back in the day, you know a million years ago when we were all babies. These 'heuristics' lead to highlighting day to day information in unproductive ways. Especially when there are inherent tendencies about oneself or the others.  For example, if there is a tendency to be self-critical, you might interpret social cues in ...

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...

We all work for someone or something. That work is probably tangible. That means, it can be observed, evaluated, referenced, used, and improved upon. You submit a thesis draft to your professor, or you submit a report to your employer. You then ask for feedback because good work gets you ahead. More often than not, that feedback is a question mark. It is just hard to understand what the feedback means. It is probably vague, contains a remark, and delayed. Have you always found such feedback useful? Feedback should be F.A.S.T. Quality Feedback has structured components. Sometimes you get feedback which has no tangible value. Let us say you drafted a plan for a promotional event.  Imagine that your employer replies to you after 1 week with the following: "Thanks, I checked your work. Improve it a bit.". And then your thoughts start flooding your brain. Improve what? What did you check? I spent 50 hours on it. I checked everything. Is something wrong? Did I miss something? What...

Mental models or Mental model thinking can help you learn better, get creative, and gain immense insight into the world. A recipe to genius: Mental modelling. The future of structured thinking   For a minute, think that your mind is a blank canvas.  But that can't be true. You are alive and are learning something, absorbing some information, this information.  Let's now put that blank canvas on top of your brain. Think of something crazy. That thing you just thought of, draw it on the canvas. The brain will now try to absorb that content and assimilate it into a bio-psychological framework built out of neural structures and a way to access it in meaningful ways.  Think of a square, a circle, a building. These are objects that the brain has assimilated as concepts.  Let us now expand the idea of this canvas drawing. Imagine for a moment that you can lay down amazingly complex concepts, big ideas, and processes from many topics onto this canvas. And then, you lear...

Learn how to memorize long numbers in 4 easy steps!  You are sitting in your chair and you get a call. You have to take down the number of a reference person, say the electrician or the customer care.,,, you hunt for a place to take down the number. Sometimes, you type it on your phone and then after the call ends, the screen refreshes.  You are now inside your bank. It's crowded and you have to pull out some documents to enter your reference numbers, account numbers, passwords, and perhaps your ID number. That's a lot. You think to yourself, 'this is tedious, only if I knew all these details by heart'. You are looking at your computer/phone screen. Your wallet is not in your pocket. And you need to make a card payment online. That is inputting a lot of numerical details. Sometimes, the card is declined, so you try another one. That is entering another set of numerical details. Wouldn't you wish that you'd know all these details by heart?  I will be demonstratin...