Today, I added an opening quotation to a chapter in Cognitive Productivity that deals with challenges knowledge workers face in their quest to use knowledge to become profoundly effective. <1> The section in question deals with demands on our time. A distinctive feature of humans is the amount and kinds of mental processing that can take place between stimulus (information) and response. But how can we produce great cognitive products if we don’t sufficiently exploit our own mental abilities? This means we need to disconnect ourselves from the Internet firehose several times a week and create quiet time for ourselves… time to integrate what we have read, select problems of understanding to address, and provide solutions to them in the form of knowledge that will guide subsequent action.
I was asked to assemble a service for Beacon Unitarian. I accepted and decided to meet several constraints, some of which are mentioned below.
As I said in my last post, I am trying to relate (a) acceptance and commitment therapy/training to (b) H-CogAff (a theory of affect). This is to better understand mental phenomena and to develop new solutions that promote well-being and cognitive productivity (including “meta-effectiveness”, the skills and propensity to use knowledge to become more effective.)
So, I decided to create a service entitled Emotion as Perturbance: A Draft of ACT in Three Acts to informally present the perturbance theory of emotion in combination with acceptance and commitment therapy/training and the work of Jacques Brel. That allowed me to pursue several CogZest projects in one Zest of Brel production. Continue reading Emotion as Perturbance, Draft of ACT in Three Acts (Performed)
My friend, Ralph Greer—a beautiful person; a resplendent mind; a scholar, in the archaic sense of the term; and a perfect gentleman—passed away Friday, March 7 2014, half-way through his hundredth year. Ralph was a man I admired, whose company I enjoyed and from whom I sought to learn.
Qu’il y a des carrés d’infini, des cubes d’infini, et des infinis d’infinis, dont le pénultième n’est rien par rapport au dernier? Tout cela, qui paraît d’abord l’excès de la déraison, est en effet, l’effort de la finesse et de l’étendue de l’esprit humain, et la méthode de trouver des vérités qui étaient jusqu’alors inconnues.
What a beautiful thought expressed by a mind in reverence of Newton and his invention of differential calculus!
To translate:
That there should be squares of infinity, cubes of infinity, and infinities of infinities, of which the penultimate is nothing in relation to the last? All of that, which at first seems like an excess of reason gone mad, is in fact, the effort of the perspicuity and extent of the human mind, and the method of finding truths that were until then unknown.
In a television program recorded in the 1960’s, Jacques Brel, describing himself as an ordinary guy, spoke about his method for hatching songs. He revealed that he worked as we know he lived, standing up!* Le Grand Jacques even showed us the desk at which he wrote his songs—giving us a glimpse of his small apartment.
Actually, Brel said most of the work for his songs happens away from his desk. The idea of a song “walks around in one’s head for 4, 5 or 6 months”. That’s “incubation” in cognitive psychology lingo. “When, one day, it is very ripe, like a fruit one picks it. And then one writes it.” All very matter of fact. Continue reading Jacques Brel Wrote as He Lived
I had the tremendous honor and pleasure of interviewing singer/songwriter David Francey. Here you will find a podcast recording of the interview, which took place on 28 July during the 2013 Mission Folk Music Festival.
As of 2026-07-30, David Francey has won four Juno Awards, has been nominated for four others. He has won several other major awards. David Francey’s Skating Rink is the theme song for Hockey Day in Canada. His songs are simple, precise, elegant, powerful and exquisitely well written. They cut to the heart of important matters we can all relate to.
My intention before the interview was merely to publish a transcript of the interview. However, David Francey is such a pleasure to listen to that I published the interview on YouTube:
This interview with David Francey explores the overlap between science and art. For example, the principle of parsimony applies to both. Song writers, like scientists and engineers, use knowledge to create products.
CogZest emphasizes the intersection between cognition and affect. (My Ph.D. and some of my subsequent research were in this area.) It is illuminating to examine this intersection in the production of art. I was struck by David’s plain spoken, deep insights into his creative processes.
The interview explores contributors to creativity, including:
Refining songs
Parsimony
Incubation
Talent
Experience
The environment (and changing environments)
Emotions
Perturbance (tertiary emotions)
Self monitoring; detecting and addressing flaws
Physical exercise
Drive, persistence and effort
David also provides us with insights into the creation of several specific songs including:
Many productive minds have had to overcome adversity. The interview uncovers a surprising antagonist in David’s early life, someone who tried to stunt his creative development. David’s is a story of triumph!
We also learn how other great singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn influenced David Francey. We refer to Jacques Brel, Mozart and other artists in our conversation.
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