December 2022 - Jeff Cassman

Episode 1974 Scott Adams: Let’s Say Goodbye To A Crappy Year And Talk About All The Fake News

Content:

Mental illness and social media
President Trump’s tax returns
Andrew Tate detained for 30 days?
Ray Epps J6 testimony transcripts
Debating Elon Musk on Twitter
The WEF and Klaus Schwab
If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

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Episode 1950 Scott Adams: It Seems Only Yesterday Joe Manchin & Jim Baker Controlled The Country

Content:

Why AI isn’t connected to the internet
AI potential and unethical advice
Jim Baker vetted the Twitter files?
Dividing journalists into 2 categories
Ben Collins debunking efforts
Ye…the new Don Rickles
If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

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Episode 1951 Scott Adams PART1: What Do You Think Of Anonymity On Twitter? And Lots More About The News

Content

Firing decisions based on demographic equality?
Senator Tom Cotton vs. Kroger CEO
Jordan Peterson vs. anonymous Twitter users
Key info was hidden from Jack Dorsey?
The mental health of teens
Shane Cashman article on Ye

If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

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Nothing But Nuggets from the Top Posts of 2022

Nothing but nuggets from the top posts of 2022:

3 Powerful steps toward confidence

“Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller

#1. Act with imperfect certainty.

While making decisions examine options. Seek input. Go with your highest point of confidence.

Act with certainty once you make a decision.

#2. Maintain openness.

A closed mind is increases stress because you have to defend it.

#3. Commit to apologize.

How you respond to wrong decisions is more important than always making right decisions.

Read more here: 3 POWERFUL STEPS TOWARD CONFIDENCE

3 Ways to lean on people without being needy

The person who goes the farthest gets the most help.

#1. Know what you don’t do well.

Talent is a beginning. Compensating for the talents you don’t have creates explosive opportunities.

#2. Be confident with humility.

Let others be smart.

When someone makes a suggestion, explore how to implement it. Don’t reject it quickly.

#3. Invite others to lean on you.

If I could go back and change one thing about my journey, I would learn to lean on people.

12 questions guaranteed to energize people

Who are the bright spots on your team? How are you pouring gas on their fire?
If you think about your activities last week, what are you proud you did?
What are you glad you’re doing these days?
What would you like to do more of?
What are you doing that isn’t working? How might you stop doing what isn’t working?
What did they see in you when they hired you? You are bringing so much more than that.

See more at: 12 Questions Guaranteed…

Mind Wandering: Examples, Types, Benefits And Treatment

Examples and types of mind wandering, the symptoms, benefits and potential treatments.

Up to half of our daily thoughts involve mind wandering.

Unfortunately, when left to its own devices the mind almost always wanders to negative thoughts and brings us down.

Mind wandering in general is often associated with increased stress and a lack of academic success.

But daydreaming can be seen as a sign of being more creative and having higher intelligence, research finds.

Those who report more daydreaming have higher intellectual abilities and their brains work more efficiently.

Here are more examples of mind wandering from the research, including symptoms, benefits and potential treatments.

1. Memory benefits

Part of the function of mind wandering is to allow the brain to work on our memories, research suggests.

Mind wandering — which may make up 50 percent of our daily thinking time — is experienced as a kind of zoning out from what is going on around us.

During this time, researchers have found, many areas of the brain quiet themselves to focus on output from the hippocampus.

The output from the hippocampus is very weak, which the researchers charmingly describe as whispering.

So, the rest of the brain has to be particularly quiet to listen and further encode these memories for long-term storage.

2. Types of mind wandering

There are two types of mind wandering — each with a different experience.

Mind wandering tends to be seen in a negative way, but zoning out on purpose can help creative thinking and problems solving.

Research has identified a vital difference between intentional and unintentional mind wandering.

It reveals how intentional mind wandering feels different from accidental mind wandering.

The study’s authors explain:

“We suspect that when people are completing an easy task, they may be inclined to deliberately disengage from the task and engage in mind wandering.

This might be the case because easy tasks tend to be rather boring, or because people realize that they can get away with mind wandering without sacrificing performance.

Conversely, when completing a difficult task, people really need to focus on the task in order to perform well, so if they do mind-wander, their mind wandering should be more likely to occur unintentionally.”

3. Intentional mind wandering example

Some types of mind wandering may be highly beneficial to our brains, and our futures.

Intentional daydreaming is linked to a thicker cortex (a good thing) in certain key areas of the brain, research finds.

Directing the mind to wander is a cognitive skill that can be beneficial in some contexts.

For example, it can allow us to mentally rehearse upcoming events, or solve problems we might encounter.

In other words, it allows the brain to work out possible futures for us.

So, mind wandering is not always a failure of self-control that is inevitably linked to mistakes.

The key is whether it is intentional or not.

4. Creative mind wandering example

The incubation effect: this is simply that taking a break from a problem often brings an insight later on.

We know it from experience and psychological research has proven it.

About 50 different studies have been carried out on the incubation…

Keep reading here

5 Questions for Considering the Alternative

Summers passed slow when I was riding my bike with friends. Those days feel like yesterday. One season blurs into the next. Time gains momentum.

I choose to enjoy time passing considering the alternative. The only alternative to time passing is undesirable. The more pressing issue is the way I live while time picks up speed.

Choices matter in a world where time slips away.

We get to choose how we use each day. E.B. White said it’s a hard choice, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

Considering the alternative:

Inevitabilities don’t erase alternatives.

You will feel neglected, misjudged, and underappreciated at times. No one appreciates you like you do. Considering the alternative to forgiveness, letting go of offenses makes sense. But ego encourages us to hang on to offenses.

Humility is a good choice considering the alternative.

I wake up in the morning torn between a desire to serve the world and a desire to serve myself. (To paraphrase White.) But there’s a third option. As time picks up steam scenery blurs. Serving the world is also serving myself. The more time passes the stronger the connection becomes.

Today, I want to serve myself. Tomorrow I’ll be glad I served the world.

Pressing issues seduce you into short-sighted decisions. Considering the alternative, it’s better to keep tomorrow in mind, even while today slips away.

5 questions for considering the alternative:

Will this matter tomorrow?
What’s the bravest thing you can do?
Who should give input?
How does this decision reflect priorities? (Assuming you have priorities.)
What are different perspectives on this situation? (Upper management, frontline, customer, family, long-term, short-term)

What suggestions do you have for considering the alternative?

Still curious:

The Best Decision-Making Quote You Never Heard

7 Questions that Change the Way People Think

Choose Best Alternative in Decision Making

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Episode 1951 Scott Adams PART2: What Do You Think Of Anonymity On Twitter? And Lots More About The News

Content

Firing decisions based on demographic equality?
Senator Tom Cotton vs. Kroger CEO
Jordan Peterson vs. anonymous Twitter users
Key info was hidden from Jack Dorsey?
The mental health of teens
Shane Cashman article on Ye

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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The Habit of Finishing Stuff

The most popular Leadership Freak post of 2022 addressed the challenge of dangling rabbits. When you chase every rabbit that crosses the path, you struggle to finish stuff.

One difference between frustration and fulfillment is the ability to finish stuff.

How to Develop the Habit of Finishing stuff

#1. Finish one small thing before you begin the next thing.

Take something off your plate before you put something on it.

#2. Begin-AND-finish small tasks.

Don’t create dangling rabbits by half-doing a task you can finish quickly.

#3. When you leave your desk, put one thing in its place.

“The shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.” Mozart

#4. Only start what you intend to finish.

Before you start something, ask yourself, “Do I intend to finish this?”

Tip: Great finishers are skeptical about starting something new. They won’t begin until they have reasonable confidence they can finish.

What’s your strategy for finishing stuff?

Still curious:

Read the original post here.

This post takes the opposite position: The Plate Drop Challenge.

Why You can Never Finish Anything

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The Incredible Ways Time Will Change Your Personality

Many of us will change much more than we imagine over the coming decades.

As they get older, many people become more emotionally stable, more agreeable and more conscientious, research finds.

Emotional stability is linked to fewer mental health problems, agreeableness is linked to being considerate and kind while conscientious people are more reliable.

The stereotype of the grumpy senior is totally misplaced, where personality is concerned.

The conclusions come from a study of how personality changes over 50 years.

The results showed that while personality is reasonably stable over a lifetime, it can also change.

Dr Rodica Damian, the study’s first author, said:

“The rankings (of personality traits) remain fairly consistent. People who are more conscientious than others their age at 16 are likely to be more conscientious than others at 66.

But, on average, everyone becomes more conscientious, more emotionally stable, and more agreeable.”

The study included data from 1,795 people who were followed for 50 years from the age of 16 to 66.

Somewhere approaching half of the participants saw changes in their personality over the five decades.

Some people changed more than others, while a few saw negative shifts in their personality.

The researchers conclude:

“Our findings suggest that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age.”

Not all psychologists are convinced, though, that personality is even as stable as that.

One study of personality and aging tracked people over 63 years to see if their personality had changed.

I write:

“The surprise result — well, it’s a surprise to me at any rate — is that there was no relationship whatsoever between people’s personality at age 14 and at age 77.

It was as if the second set of tests — administered 63 years later — had been given to a totally different person.”

Perhaps, then, many of us will change much more than we imagine over the coming decades.

→ Read on: How to change your personality

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Damian et al., 2018).

Keep reading here

A Delightful Accident – Leadership Freak

A Delightful Accident

I like soft fudge. A little softer than Play-Doh is perfect.

The original maker of Play-Doh was a soap company, Kutol Products. It was used for 20 years to clean wallpaper. It’s use by children was a delightful accident.

Kay Zufall was an elementary school teacher. Her students loved Kutol’s wallpaper cleaner, but not because it cleaned wallpaper. They used it as molding clay. It was a delightful accident that Kay Zufall was the sister-in-law of Joseph McVicker.

In 1948 Joseph took over Kutol Products after his dad died. Demand for wallpaper cleaner went to the basement. The company was going under.

In 1955 Kay Zufall convinced her brother-in-law that wallpaper cleaner was a children’s toy. That’s when Kutol Products began selling Play-Doh to Elementary Schools as molding clay. Everything changed for Kutol when Play-Doh was used on the most popular children’s TV show in the US.

Captain Kangaroo began using Play-Doh at least once a week on his children’s show. Sales blew out the walls. It’s estimated more than 2 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold. (History of Play-Doh)

A delightful accident:

My disposition toward soft fudge began with my mom. Every Christmas we ate mom’s fudge with a spoon, right out of the pan. It was so good because she cooked it wrong. The Internet says she didn’t cook it long enough.

You might think mom’s fudge was a mistake. I think it was perfect. Hardheads think accidents are failures. Instead of adapting we cling to established expectations and methods. Thankfully, most of us soften up eventually.

When things don’t turn out as expected, create new expectations. Wallpaper cleaner might be a children’s toy and fudge with a spoon might be the best. A closed mind is a dead end.

Closed minds congeal. Openness is the path to unexpected delight.

Try stuff. Ask questions. Explore possibilities.

Enjoy delightful accidents.

How can you get the most from accidents?

Why I Admire Frosty and You Should Too

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