Amazing set of New Year’s resolutions, as made by Woody Guthrie, 1942.
On current evidence exercise is clearly the best method for increasing useful everyday cognitive functioning.
This is the conclusion of a piece over on PsyBlog, Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation or Exercise?
Ultimately, there is little conclusive scientific evidence to support the oft-claimed beneficial effects of brain training, drugs, vitamins or meditation on cognition.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re not worth doing.
What I take out of this is that exercise needs to be part of your daily routine.
The history of cultural progress is, almost without exception, a story of one door leading to another door, exploring the palace one room at a time.
This quote comes from Stephen Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, in the Guardian article Eureka moments are very, very rare.
It reminds me of Thomas S Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Coming off the back of my post the other day about a-ha moments that occur in the shower, this article supports the idea that good ideas are less often a stroke of genius, and more often the logical next step in a cumulative history of progress.
I’m continually fascinated by this idea of where ideas come from, and how we can make ourselves more likely to come across ideas.
The First Place is your home, and the Second Place is your office. You have assigned roles and tasks at each place, and you know nearly all the people in each. The Third Place is where you meet with people you don’t know that well, or maybe at all, and you exchange ideas, learn about other people, and enrich society and yourself.
A great article from Kevin Purdy on Fast Company (Why In-Person Socializing Is A Mandatory To-Do Item) that delves into the very sound reasons that you need to get out more and meet people face-to-face.
In 2012 I am formalising this time on a weekly basis a little more. I already have a couple of Third Spaces (Awesome Foundation Sydney, Vibewire fastBreak) but I will also be looking to make a small portion of this blog dedicated to in-person catch-ups.
Do you have a Third Space? Where is it and how do you use it?
