That was the result of a study by the University of Texas, cited in the book “The Anxious Generation.”
In the study, they divided an undergraduate classroom into thirds.
One third left their phones in another room. Another third kept them in their pockets or bags. And the last third kept them facing down on their desks.
Guess who performed best at the end of some cognitive tests?
Of course, the third that kept their phones outside did best. And the other two thirds did poorly, with some differences depending on the tests. But they claimed that their phone’s presence didn’t affect their performance.
The mere presence of their phones reduced their cognitive abilities, even when they were silent or off.
If you have read Deep Work, you already know about monk mode. But to focus, you don’t have to go into strict mode and retreat to a cabin without reception in the middle of nowhere. Just ask your phone to give you some space. Leave your phone in another room, out of sight.
Now, while I’m typing this, my phone is in airplane mode, in another room.
So if you want to do focused work, leave your phone out of sight.
Is there anything you’ve bought in the past few years (since 2020) that really changed something in your life?
They didn’t change my life, but they’ve made it somewhat better:
A pair of 5-kg dumbbells: Cheaper than a yearly gym subscription. With a couple of YouTube videos, they’re enough to keep moving my body every day.
Money and personal development books: I bought print copies of these titles:
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
The Richest Man in Babylon
The Psychology of Money
Think and Grow Rich
Unwinding Anxiety
Purify Your Brain
Workstation setup: Since I spend most of my working time in front of a computer, I bought an air conditioner, a standing desk, and an external display.
Writing course: I’ve been writing since 2018 when I wrote my first blog post. But most of what I had learned was through trial and error. This year, I paid for a writing course and went all in with my writing.
Eating out with friends: Some friends are worth every cup of coffee or dinner out.
I didn’t pay for the most expensive hamburgers I’ve eaten.
An ex-employer did.
When I say “most expensive,” I mean the same greasy $5 or $10-dollar hamburger from a food truck or a corner in a busy street. But they felt expensive because I ate them while working overnight.
In a past job, when my team was lagging behind the self-imposed deadlines of sprints, higher-ups told us: “This sprint is behind schedule. What are you going to do? You’re a self-managed team, so decide that by yourselves. But if I were you, I’d choose to work overtime to keep up.”
“You’re a self-managed team” was their subtle way of telling us to work extra hours, without accepting any responsibility.
We didn’t have any say in what tasks to do and how. We were only a self-managed team when it came to choosing to work overtime.
They didn’t pay us for that extra time. They only bought us hamburgers. And, when someone raised their concerns about the quality of those hamburgers, they told us we should be grateful because other companies buy their employees nothing to eat.
Since I don’t want this to be only a rant…If you’re told you’re part of a self-managed team, read the fine print. Look for signs of real self-managed teams: look at job descriptions and ask follow up questions during interviews. Otherwise, they might expect you to work overtime without compensation.
Jim Kwik is “the world’s #1 brain performance coach.” But he wasn’t always someone we would consider smart.
In school, he was called “broken” because of his learning issues. He wasn’t as fast as his classmates and couldn’t read. An accident caused him brain injuries that put him behind his class.
Believe it or not, he now teaches the very same subjects he struggled with: learning, reading, and memory. He’s the author of Limitless and the host of the Kwik Brain podcast.
Here are 6 lessons I learned from Jim Kwik’s videos and podcast episodes:
1. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot”
That shows the compounding power of consistency.
Want to change your life? Learn a new skill and practice it daily for a year. Read a book, learn a new language, or write online. Start with small, simple steps.
2. “First you build your habits, then your habits build you”
Wake up at 5:00 AM, take cold showers, drink water, go to the gym, meditate, journal…and on and on. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.
You can choose a simple routine: create something in the mornings, consume in the afternoons, and disconnect in the evenings.
3. “Reading is downloading decades of information to your brain in a few hours”
Books condense decades of an author’s experiences into thousands of pages.
Reading is the closest we can get to plugging ourselves into a computer and downloading new programs to our brains in seconds, like in the Matrix. “I know Kung Fu. Show me.”
Reading is the best exercise for your brain.
The problem is most of us haven’t taken a reading class since school.
If you haven’t, start by using your finger to guide your eyes as you read. It will increase your reading speed and comprehension.
If knowledge is power, then reading is your superpower.
4. “Yet opens up new possibilities”
We are our first haters with our negative self-talk:
“I can’t”
“I don’t know”
“I don’t have”
Reframe those ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) with a simple word: “yet.”
“Yet” brings new possibilities and room for growth:
“I can’t yet”
“I don’t know yet”
“I don’t have yet”
A simple word can change it all.
5. “You don’t get burned out by doing too much, but by doing too little of the things you care about”
Been there, done that. I got burned out when I tried to convince myself to do something I didn’t like that much just for money.
It took me months to get back my physical and mental health. Doing something just for money was a painful decision.
6. “Use AI to extend your HI, not to replace it”
AI is a powerful tool, but don’t use it to replace your HI (Human Intelligence). Don’t outsource your learning and thinking to AI.
Use AI as your copilot, not as the pilot.
Jim Kwik’s story is a story of change, possibility, and determination. From the kid with the “broken” brain to a world-renowned brain and learning expert.
It’s what you have between your ears that separates you from what you want.
09 Dec 2024 #miscScorpion's team. Via: themoviedb.org
Imagine The Big Bang Theory marrying MacGyver. That’s Scorpion.
Scorpion, aired between 2014 and 2018, follows a team of four geniuses (and two or more “normal” people depending on the episode) solving impossible cases for the Department of Homeland Security. Walter O’Brien, the guy with one of the highest IQ in history, 197, leads the team—allegedly, based on a real character.
In every episode, they solve all sorts of crazy and impossible cases to save the day, the U.S., or the world:
Saving a small county in the middle of nowhere from a fire approaching a nuclear waste facility.
Dismantling an old nuclear warhead in a secret military base.
Saving a kid trapped in a cave from drowning by raising tides.
And those are only the cases I remember off the top of my head.
After binge-watching all four seasons of Scorpion, these are 8 lessons I learned:
1. Soft skills take you further
A team of four geniuses can get around any situation. But the team is in trouble when Paige isn’t around.
Interestingly, Paige isn’t a genius by conventional standards. She isn’t a mathematician or mechanic. She has excellent social skills and is brilliantly at connecting with people.
In one episode, while Paige wasn’t around, Toby, the doctor, and Happy, the mechanic, made things worse.
They needed to collaborate with the local police to save Walter but their poor social skills and egos got them arrested. They ended up insulting the police chief instead of coordinating efforts. They had to call Paige to fix the misunderstanding.
Hard skills open doors, but soft skills take you further.
2. Find something that gives you meaning
Before joining the team, everyone was a mess:
Toby, the doctor, was a gambling addict.
Paige was an underpaid waitress with no purpose.
Paige’s son, Ralph, was misunderstood as a weirdo. He was another genius, living in his own world.
Happy, the mechanic, had no friends or family.
Sylvester, the Math genius, was bullied or something. I don’t remember exactly.
Walter, the leader, had 0 social skills.
Agent Gallo, the government handler, was a widower and workaholic.
Solving those near-impossible cases gave them meaning. Being part of something and working together was what they needed to bring meaning to their lives.
3. A simple framework tells many stories
Almost all Scorpion episodes are the same.
The team is hanging out in the garage. Then, Agent Gallo or an external client comes with a case. They quickly come up with a plan. But, mid-case something unexpected happens that complicates the case. They have no clue how to solve it, but a non-genius (Paige, Gallo, or somebody else) says something unrelated. An “aha” moment leads to a new solution. And, finally, they’re back at the garage to end the episode.
A simple storytelling framework gets you hooked on every episode from start to end.
4. Find who’s best at every job
No matter who is leading a case, the team shines when everyone is working on what they’re good at:
Sylvester, mental math.
Toby, medicine and psychiatry.
Happy, mechanics.
Paige, connecting with people.
Walter, leading and connecting the dots.
Gallo, speaking the government lingo.
As a leader, your job is to find out who’s best at each task, split the goal into smaller tasks, and assign each task to the right person.
5. But, be willing to take the back seat
From time to time, someone has to stay at the garage and oversee the entire case: monitoring and reporting, passing context, and coordinating efforts with local authorities.
As a leader, you’re not there to shine, but to make others shine and get the work done.
6. Be ready to have uncomfortable situations
As the series progresses, the team has to face their own challenges.
Gallo has childhood trauma. Walter has unresolved issues with his father. Happy can’t express her feelings. Sylvester is afraid of pretty much everything.
They all overcame their issues when they opened up and talked to someone they trust.
7. Learn to let go of what you can’t control
Spoiler alert…
Happy and Toby missed their wedding ceremony while solving a case. They lost the flight back home because the case took longer. They couldn’t control that and couldn’t do anything about it.
But they controlled what they did after that. Again, Paige saved the day by improvising a wedding ceremony for them. She’s the real genius in the team.
Life keeps changing its rules. You can’t control it. Learn to adapt to the new rules and keep playing.
8. Your favorite show could end anytime
The show was canceled and the last episode ended with a cliffhanger. Damn! Where’s season 5? Arrggg!
I guess the lesson here is to always end our stories or writings with a cliffhanger.
I didn’t believe a TV show could teach that much about leadership, storytelling, and psychology…Well, I don’t feel that guilty about watching four seasons with 93 episodes. At least, I took some lessons away and wrote about it.
