By: Chad Warren on April 3, 2024
“Real men don’t eat quiche” is a phrase from the 1982 book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche by Bruce Feirstein.[1] The book is a satire of masculine stereotypes. In a clever tongue-in-cheek approach, Feirstein explained what was acceptably “masculine” and “feminine” behavior according to the era’s societal standards. For real men, quiche was, apparently, a…
By: Jennifer Eckert on April 3, 2024
“My mother was an actress and when I was a kid, I wanted to act, too. But she didn’t want that for me. She said the lifestyle is so hard, it’s either feast or famine. Today, I am a businessman who acts,” Jess Akerman (not his real name). When my former boss posted this quote…
By: Noel Liemam on April 2, 2024
For the past few weeks, there were few unexpected happenings and people just dropped into my schedule and derailing it into various directions. Some family members living nearby that never visited decided to visit; others flew into town, and I have to make time to see them, while others were work-related stuff that decided to…
By: Shela Sullivan on April 2, 2024
In the beginning, I thought David Rock’s book, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long[1] is yet another book that I have to read one sentence three times so that my brain can capture the outcomes. I felt this way because the title of the book…
By: Glyn Barrett on April 2, 2024
“Your Brain at Work” [1] by David Rock is a fascinating and thought-provoking book. The author’s exploration of neuroscience and its implications for improving workplace performance and personal effectiveness reminds me of another brilliant book called “The One Thing” [2] by Keller and Papasan, in which there are many similarities. I recommend that the duo are an incredible…
By: Adam Cheney on April 1, 2024
Looking at this book on my shelf did not excite me as I thought about reading it. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I found the information useful and relevant. I certainly did struggle to get through it though as I kept finding myself distracted repeatedly. We have a couple of house guests staying with…
By: Jeff Styer on April 1, 2024
“The kingdom of heaven is like . . .,” so begins Jesus in telling his parables in Matthew 13; using visuals to help his audience understand his teachings, threshold concepts.[1] David Rock in his book Your Brain At Work says that if you can, use visuals in an effort to “reduce the energy required for…
By: Noel Liemam on March 23, 2024
When I was growing up on a tiny Island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, I read and worked on my school assignments during the night in the light of a kerosene lamp; regardless of the low light it provides, I was able to see clearly and worked gratefully. After thirty-one years of…
By: Elysse Burns on March 22, 2024
Reading Bobby Duffy’s Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything felt like having a challenging conversation with a responsible and competent friend who encouraged me to “check myself.” It is never easy to hear, “You are delusional.” Duffy states, “The reason we get so many things wrong is a combination of effects of how we think…
By: Kari on March 22, 2024
As I write this, the last call to prayer of the day is sounding all around me. It is the eleventh day of Ramadan. The majority around me are fasting. They are not drinking, eating, swallowing their sputum, or smoking during sunlight hours (approximately 5:30 am until 7:30 pm). Thankfully, today was not very hot…
By: Akwese on March 22, 2024
I once heard it said that the greatest lie of all time is that we think we’re thinking, but in reality, most of the time, we’re simply operating off social conditioning and habit. Upon initially hearing this statement, I couldn’t help but pause and see its truth. I then began wondering how much of what…
By: Julie O'Hara on March 21, 2024
From Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz and What’s Your Problem by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg to Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, I have been fully convinced that I, and everyone else is wrong. Already believing I was wrong made it seem pointless to read another book about being wrong. Wrong, again. According to Bobby Duffy, understanding ‘why’…
By: Diane Tuttle on March 21, 2024
I bristled when I started reading Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything by Bobby Duffy this week. After reading the first several chapters, my reaction was that it was just another book confirming what we already read, things aren’t always what they seem. I thought his reference to Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow was…
By: Chris Blackman on March 21, 2024
This text message was from two weeks ago. Doug was my old cellmate (hence his calling me “bunk,” (short for “bunkie”). He just entered rehab (an expensive one at that – $1000.00 a day!!) for the fourth or fifth time. Doug and I shared life together for about two years as bunkmates, or “cellies,” which…
By: Joel Zantingh on March 21, 2024
I recently had an amazing holiday! Or was it simply ‘average’? Or was that other holiday better? Bobby Duffy of King’s College London, in a talk about his book, “Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything”, quoted a 1994 study by Professors Terrence Mitchell and Leigh Thompson to unpack what they dubbed “rosy retrospective”. [1] In…
By: Shela Sullivan on March 20, 2024
Bobby Duffy is the author of the book, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding. Duffy draws on numerous public-opinion studies conducted by himself and colleagues across various countries, focusing on social and political questions. In his book, Duffy offers several valuable lessons about human cognition, biases and understanding such as:…
By: Graham English on March 20, 2024
In 2018 a Canadian woman rented a black Nissan Sentra sedan. She drove to a nearby Walmart. When she came out of the store she hopped in her car and drove home. However, she jumped in the wrong car, a black Infiniti hatchback, and drove off. It turns out that the owner had gone into…
By: Christy on March 20, 2024
I hate that we have implicit biases and I find it so uncomfortable when they are exposed (although I’m also grateful). Growing up in a conservative state and family, I had biases towards LGBTQ+ population. In recent years some of these were exposed, and thankfully changed. Someone very dear in my life identified as transgender…
By: Chad Warren on March 20, 2024
Name a food with a hole in it… Did you say donuts, cheese, onion rings, bagels? Do you think your answer would match with everyone else’s? If so, you are in the herd; if not, you are the odd one out. Welcome to the game Herd Mentality. It’s a group game my family has enjoyed…
By: Erica Briggs on March 20, 2024
One of my favorite movies is “Waking Life,” first watched almost 25 years ago while teaching in the Black Studies Department at Califoria State University, Long Beach (CSULB). I shared clips from the film with my students and we used them as prompts to critically think and write about our understanding of life. Why We’re…
