Category: Reading

Latest Read: Think Again

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 27, 2021

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant. A wonderfully interesting book that promotes all the benefits of doubt. Yes, call it re-thinking. Actually, call it why we refuse to change and the negative results that arise.

Adam accurately states: The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club. At the same time, in today’s charged political landscape I had a number of good laughs.

Accordingly, Adams message is that easy access to web-based articles or videos written by anyone on any topic, we believe that we can become subject matter experts in two minutes.

This has disastrous consequences. Yet, Adam reveals how we can overcome this flaw by developing habits that force us all to embrace the challenge to our beliefs and change them when necessary.

Chapter 4’s Fight Club addressing Brad Bird’s role at Pixar is a worthy example of how teams can alter accepted skillsets to create award winning animation. You will learn how The Incredibles forced Brad to work with his “Pirate team” and still succeeded wildly. You can learn about changing long held beliefs.

Tags adam grant, Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change, rethinking, Think Again

Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Leading Brain

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 26, 2021

The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier by Neuropsychologist Friederike Fabritius and leadership expert Dr. Hans Hagemann.

They collaborate combining expertise in both neuropsychology and management consulting to present a series of powerful brain strategies for organizations and individuals to gain peak performance.

I was very impressed with this book. There is much to learn about recent neuroscience technology revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. There are certainly a lot of business books addressing peak performance. Most seemingly appear to be based upon well intentioned goal setting and had limited access to scientific data to support their theories how organizations can thrive.

However this book reveals how science and recent technology advances can now enhance the following brain abilities: Sharpening focus, Achieving the highest performance, Learning and retaining information more efficiently, Improving complex decision-making, Cultivating trust and building strong teams.

Light touch of science

Everyone will certainly discover a unique introduction to dopamine, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline. But worry not there is no test, only learning about how technology advancements in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines can now identify specific brain conditions due to understanding of quantum physics that impact performance. Seemingly legacy approaches were simply well intentioned wild guessing.

With this new understanding of how the brain behaves during various workplace scenarios and stress levels we see examples. The first chapter story of how US Astronaut Gordon Cooper handled stress (gentle reminder he fell asleep in the capsule) of the Mercury Atlas 9 during several delays prior to launch.

Tags Friederike Fabritius, Hans Hagemann, neuroscience, Prefrontal cortex, The Leading Brain

Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Elastic

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 24, 2021

Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change by Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard is in fact a theoretical physicist and widely recognized for his discoveries in physics.

Throughout the book he shares stories about both parents (before meeting) having survived the holocaust. His father was part of the resistance in Poland and was sent to Buchenwald. Moreover, he worked and co-authored a book with Stephen Hawking.

Leonard describes elastic thinking as “what endows us with the ability to solve novel problems and to overcome the neural and psychological barriers that can impede us from looking beyond the existing order.”

This book certainly reveals new discoveries in the neuroscience of change. Above all, our brain works in many ways, right side versus left side, injury outcomes, medication, and absolutely amazing technology advancements in brain research. For example, the introduction story of Pokemon Go is a baseline example for Elastic Thinking.

Dr. Mlodinow unquestionably identifies elastic thinking as a series of multiple sets: neophilia (an affinity for novelty), schizotypy (a tendency toward unusual perception), imagination and idea generation, and finally divergent and integrative thinking.

Tags Elastic, Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change, Leonard Mlodinow

Artificial Intelligence Education Google Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 23, 2021

A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going by Michael Wooldridge. Michael is Head of Department of Computer Science and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence Michal Wooldridge

Is artificial intelligence intimidating to you? Above all this is a very easy, enjoyable book. So, Michael states in his introduction “I’m writing a popular science introduction to artificial intelligence.”

Accordingly, Michael has researched artificial intelligence for over 30 years. He is focusing on multi-agent systems drawing upon ideas from game theory, logic, computational complexity, and agent-based modeling.

A short history begins with Alan Turing’s work in 1935 at Cambridge during World War II. This is beyond America’s cultural understanding of Turing’s life from the 2014 movie The Imitation Game. Alan Turing actually defined artificial intelligence.

Machine Learning

Chapter 5: Deep Breakthroughs, addresses why Google acquired DeepMind Technologies, a British-based research laboratory in 2014. Founded in September 2010, DeepMind was introducing a term bounced around a lot: Machine Learning.

There is certainly a great misunderstanding regarding machine learning and deep learning. Additionally, Micheal’s efforts are to be complimented in making this topic understandable.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, deep learning, DeepMind, machine learning, Michael Wooldridge

Education Reading

Latest Read: Stumbling on Happiness

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 22, 2021

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. Dan is Professor of Psychology at Harvard. He illustrates research in psychology and economics proving people misunderstand how they feel (happiness) when they are both successful and unsuccessful achieving tasks.

Daniel begins each chapter with a quote from Shakespeare in context. He is also witty and I enjoyed his humor throughout the book.

Rather interestingly, Dan is allowing the reader to understand the differences between stumbling “on” happiness versus stumbling “upon” happiness. Much of this is how you learned as a child.

Our key trait (imagination) has empowered our world to build amazing structures. At the same time our imagination misfires in our own judgement regarding happiness. Yet imagination cannot be turned off. So it means you may find yourself unhappy forever.

Here is another key discovery from Dan: — your “future self” will think why did you believe you would be happy because your family or friends raved about it?

Slow cooker not working?

Can you recall for example hearing about a (slow cooker) that has great reviews from family or long time friends, only to acquire it and realize how unhappy you are with the functionality of the slow cooker?

Do you catch yourself understanding that judgements from others about that product actually fails to meet your expectations over time? In some instances you may even question your own happiness by admitting that you should be happier since your family or friends convinced you that a slow cooker was a worthy purchase.

Tags Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness