Tag Archives: psychology

What I learned this week, August 20, 2022

Posted on by Bill Chance
(click to enlarge) Mural, Deep Ellum Dallas, Texas

The Big Bang didn’t happen

What do the James Webb images really show?

Writing in my Moleskine Journal outside the Mojo Lounge, Decatur Street, French Quarter, New Orleans

‘Habit Stacking’ Is the Simple Mind Trick for Making a New Routine or Ritual Stick

Starting a single new ritual or habit, whether it’s washing your face every night or taking a walk every afternoon, can feel daunting for many of us. And just forget starting a whole wellness routine. Mornings complete with journaling, meditating, and yoga before breakfast might as well be aspirational, reserved for only the most methodical among us…right? Well, not if you consider the basic premise of habit stacking, which says that you only need to find one thing you regularly do by default in order to build an entire tower of routine practices.

Psychology: do you have a social vampire in your friendship group? Here’s how to handle them

Psychologists say that if you don’t know who the social vampire is in your friendship group, then there’s a very high chance it’s you…

State Street Gallery, Dallas, Texas

Four ways to stop thinking the worst will happen when you’re stressed

Imagine you have an interview for a new job tomorrow. Some people might think about what kind of questions they will be asked so that they can prepare, or imagine the interview going well. For others, the thought of an interview will cause them to toss and turn all night thinking of every worst case scenario possible – no matter how outlandish these may be. If you’re someone who has a tendency to do the latter, you are prone to catastrophising.

We Stand Together, George Rodrigue, The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden

What Is Minimalist Living? Here’s How to Start Living With Less, According to Experts

This simple, purposeful lifestyle is about more than just decluttering your home.

Dallas Museum of Art Dallas, Texas

Stop drinking, keep reading, look after your hearing: a neurologist’s tips for fighting memory loss and Alzheimer’s

When does forgetfulness become something more serious? And how can we delay or even prevent that change? We talk to brain expert Richard Restak

Why the Afghanistan Withdrawal Was the Perfect Storm of Bureaucratic Incompetence

President Biden wants you to forget about what happened in Afghanistan. He wants you to forget about the bureaucratic incompetence and incompetent decision-making by nearly every senior leader. To this day, no one has been held accountable. Accountability, even verbally, would mean admitting failure and taking ownership, something the Biden administration refuses to accept.

What I learned this week, March 19, 2021

Posted on by Bill Chance
Deep Ellum Dallas, Texas

Why we procrastinate on the tiniest of tasks

When we put off small jobs, they balloon from tiny checklist items into major irritants. Why do we keep doing this?

Mark Rothko, Orange, Red and Red, Dallas Museum of Art

Mark Rothko on How to Be an Artist

Seven years ago I saw the play Red at the Dallas Theater Center. It was a fantastic play about the artist Mark Rothko as he painted the famous group of large murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. Really good – one highlight is that during the play the actor playing Rothko and the one playing his assistant actually paint a giant canvas right there, in front of you. You could smell the linseed oil.

Something In front of Braindead Brewing Deep Ellum Dallas, Texas

How to Quiet Your Mind Chatter

To break the tape loop in your head, talk to yourself as another person.

A reminder of what one of these looked like at the unveiling

Tips from neuroscience to keep you focused on hard tasks

Understanding cognitive control can help your working life.

Mexican Vampire Kiss Mural, Cozumel, Mexico

The Vampire Problem: A Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Paradox of Transformative Experience

“Many of [life’s] big decisions involve choices to have experiences that teach us things we cannot know about from any other source but the experience itself.”

Running up that hill at the end.

What a brief jog can do for your brain

If you have 15 minutes to spare, do not sit and chill. Instead, a new study says, you should go out for a quick, light jog. It will leave you feeling more energetic than resting, which will lift your spirits and in turn make your thinking more effective.

My Aeropress at a campsite, Lake Ray Roberts, Texas

I Tried 5 Methods to Make Italian-Style Coffee at Home. The Winner Was Clear (and Surprising!)

It’s not surprising to me. After a lifetime of trying different ways of making coffee – the Aeropress is the best. I miss going to coffee shops – but I can’t imagine getting a better cup than what I can make with fresh-ground beans and my ‘press.

The Smell That Separates Night From Day

Black As Night Sweet As Sin

Coffee in the… Well, Sorta Wilderness

A Lot More Than Just A Drink

I can’t believe that this is a half-century old. I mean, it does have the 1960’s esthetic, but it is still really, really cool. The movie was a disappointment at the time (I looked it up) but this Bob Fosse dance number is fascinating. I’m a little obsessed.

What I learned this week, March 05, 2021

Posted on by Bill Chance

Coping With Intrusive Thoughts

Haunted by a reoccurring thought that freaks you out? Intrusive thoughts are more common than you think.

Tony Cragg’s “Line of Thought” Dallas, Texas

How a ‘beginners’ mindset’ can help you learn anything

Although our ability to easily pick up a new skill declines with age (no shit, Sherlock), harnessing a specific type of mindset can help you learn effectively as an adult.

Collage by James Michael Starr, Carrollton DART station.

The Marvellous Mod World of Sci-Fi Supermarionettes

This, my friends, is the world of my childhood. BTW – Thunderbird 2 was, by far, the coolest.

Actually, of all the Supermarionette shows from when I was a kid – it was Supercar I remember the most.

Time Travel

How to be mediocre and be happy with yourself

In the novel Catch-22, the author Joseph Heller famously wrote: “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.”

He’d taken a quote by Shakespeare on greatness and turned it on its head.

The implication was clear: mediocrity is a bad thing, to be avoided. Yet most of us go on to live what by most measures are pretty ordinary lives.

So what’s wrong with settling for mediocrity?

Plano, Texas Sometimes you can find interest, maybe beauty, in the simplest and most ordinary of things.

You’re a Bad Listener: Here’s How to Remember What People Say

We come into conversations with our own agendas and low attention spans, but if you want to build better relationships you need to master active listening.

Time Exposure, Night, Downtown Dallas, Ross and Pearl

How to Achieve Your Goals By Creating an Enemy

Art Deco mural from Fair Park in Dallas