Use the Graveyard

Everyone should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
Henry Ward Beecher

Sweet Daydream

Want to increase your brain power? Spend more time daydreaming. That's the implication of a new brain scan study by New York University neuroscientists. They found if people were allowed to rest their minds after looking at pictures, they were better able to recall what they saw later. In other words, daydreaming improved recall. The researchers conclude that if you don’t give yourself a break, then you may be “hindering your brain’s ability to consolidate memories and experiences.” Their suggestion: Less multitasking and more opportunities for your brain to breath.

Stephen Goforth

Authentic Moves

Everyone needs a time to question, ponder and launch out without walls in order to make authentic moves.

The Game of Death

Reality TV has taken dark turns but none more sobering than the Game of Death. Documentary film makers in France tricked 80 people into believing they were contestants on a game show in which they administered electric shocks to contestants. Echoing the famed experiments of psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, were told to "electrocute" a fellow contestant - actually an actor - if he got answers wrong while the audience chanted “punishment.” All but 16 of the volunteers punished the contestant until he appeared to die.

Is this a demonstration of the power of television? An indication that most people will submit to the commands of an authority figure no matter how evil (as with the Nazi death camps) in a fit of blind obedience? Or an example that contestants on what appears to be a reality TV show are savvy enough to assume the producers won’t really let someone die. So, they “play along” in a make-believe world of performance for the camera?

Here's a video about the experiment.

Ignorance

Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.

Everyone

Everyone dies, but not everyone lives.
A. Sachs

Empowerment

Empower people by telling them their world is larger than they think.

Life Philosophies

The Socratic says.. be wise, know yourself.

Rome said.. be strong, discipline yourself.

Religion says.. be holy, conform yourself.

Epicureanism says.. be sensuous, enjoy yourself.

Education says.. be resourceful, expand yourself.

Materialism says.. be satisfied, please yourself.

Psychology says.. be confident, fulfill yourself.

Pride says.. be superior, promote yourself.

Asceticism says.. be inferior, suppress yourself.

Humanism says.. be capable, believe in yourself.

Legalism says.. be pious, limit yourself.

Jesus says.. be a servant, think of others.

Start Running

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a gazelle, or a lion.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Kikuyu proverb

Are Birds Smarter Than Mathematicians?”

Birds perform better on the Monty Hall dilemmal than humans, according to researchers at Whitman College. Their study is summarized in the Journal of Comparative Psychology in an article titled Are Birds Smarter Than Mathematicians?”

People do badly on the problem around the world. When it appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column published in Parade magazine, 92% of the 10,000 letters in response disagreed with her solution.

But in the experiments, pigeons quickly reached the best strategy for the Monty Hall problem.

The researchers speculate that birds are more likely use empirical probability to solve the Monty Hall problem. In empirical probability, one makes predictions after tracking outcomes over time. Humans, on the other hand, tend to go with classical probability in which one tries to figure out every possible outcome and make predictions without collecting data. Our way of tackling probability-based problems generally work pretty well for us but the Monty Hall dilemma being one notable exception. Our dependence on visual information to quickly make sense of the world can make us more vulnerable to visual illusions.

Stephen Goforth

Education Defined

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant

Life is What You Make It

Warren Buffet's son, Peter, was only given a single piece of property as his inheritance even though his dad is worth billions! But Buffet is self-made and went by the slogan that your kids should get “enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.” The property was worth $90k and the younger Buffet sold it. If he had used the money to purchase his dad's stock, it would now be worth a whopping $72 million. Yet Peter Buffet says he doesn't regret for a moment his decision to use the money to follow his dream in music. He's now an Emmy Award-winning musician, composer and producer and has written a new book titled Life is What You Make It.

Stephen Goforth

Life's Tapestry

Don't get lost in the fabric of your personal drama.

Being and Doing

Don’t be something, do something.

William Bridges

Coming Alive

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Inner Education

Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work but it's worth the effort.

Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

It's Worth it!

Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work but it's worth the effort.

Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

Stones Usage

The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.

The book of Excellence

Determination is often the first chapter in the book of excellence.

A Day Lost

A day in which you don’t create something that wasn’t there in the morning, is a day lost.

Buddy Ebson