I remember reading an article a few years ago about Warren Buffett purchasing local newspapers. Buffett said that whereas large newspapers are under pressure, there will long be a viable need for community newspapers. I concur. Moreover, many communities, like mine, are fortunate to have excellent journalists working hard to cover stories that matter, or ought to matter, to them.
Continue reading A Student of Mind in a Community of Excellence
Seven years after Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows rang alarm bells that the Internet is ‘rewiring’ our brains, sources of distraction continue to proliferate. Yet there is still no consensus on how to respond. Continue reading Two Responses to the Shallows: Deep Work and Cognitive Productivity
I’ve published several web pages on mySelfQuantifier, which is a self-quantification project I alluded to in part 3 of Cognitive Productivity. While time-tracking is its typical application, it is a general, yet simple, contribution to the Quantified Self movement.
Author Jurgen Appelo lambasted agile developers and IT workers in a blog post a while back, criticizing the Leanpub platform for writers, authors and publishers. Continue reading IT Workers Are Not as Inept as Jurgen Appelo Makes Them Out to Be: Response to His Criticism of Leanpub
I’ve updated Cognitive Productivity with a new Postscript section. It includes a link to the equally new online version of the postscript, which I encourage you to read. That web page contains:
Continue reading Postscript to Cognitive Productivity, and Relation to Cal Newport’s Deep Work Book
Tools for discovering high quality scholarly documents have improved. Academic search tools like Google Scholar build on pre-Internet library search techniques. ResearchGate and Academia.edu have facilitated content discovery. However, these services have not adequately kept pace with the proliferation of journals and articles.
Continue reading RSS Feeds for Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Academia.edu: Missing Features
Meta-effectiveness, or developing oneself with practical and factual knowledge resources, is challenging enough. (Witness Cognitive Productivity.) But (how) can we, and should we develop ourselves with the art of others? Continue reading Re-Enter Billy Elliot Stage Left, Exit Britain Stage Right
Many British voters in the Brexit referendum seem to have failed to acquire, understand and/or assess information pertinent to their complex voting decision. Continue reading Brexit, Cognitive Productivity and the Diffuse Death of Expertise
Most of us crave new information. There are evolutionary reasons for this. However, in the modern world, “news” in its various insidious forms, is a dangerous source of distraction, even for people who strive to be proactive. So, here’s a particular source of distraction, and how to protect yourself from it.
Continue reading Swipe Without Exposing Yourself to Seductive Distractors on iOS
To execute on CogZest’s mission to help knowledge workers use cognitive science and technology to “Thrive in the Sea of Knowledge”, I’ve written an article for SharpBrains that explains the basics and benefits of productive practice.
5 ideas to help knowledge workers increase lifelong learning and productivity Continue reading SharpBrains Article: 5 Ideas to Help Knowledge Workers Increase Lifelong Learning and Productivity