Over the last year, I've become more interested in neuroscience -- especially as it relates to health. Here's an interesting article from Business Insider that draws research from Psychology Today. ********* 4 Problems With Our Brains That Cause Us To Make Dumb Decisions We humans do many stupid things. But sometimes it's not our fault, it's just how our brains naturally function. Psychology Today and PsyBlog write about four things humans are inclined to do that cause us to make poor decisions. 1. We treat inferences as facts Inferences are conclusions we draw from observations. The problem is that observations aren't always spot on. Have you ever met someone, internally decided you weren't a fan, then realized you actually could benefit from them? Maybe they were someone high up in your industry you didn't recognize, or someone who works for a company you just applied to. Either way, you just…
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William Dixon was a widower who lived in Brackenthwaite, England. In addition to losing his wife, he had also lost his only son. One day the house of his neighbor caught on fire. His neighbor, an elderly grandmother who was caring for her orphaned grandson, was able to get out. Her grandson, however, was trapped inside the house. Dixon climbed an iron pipe on the side of the house and lowered the boy to safety. Unfortunately, the hand that held on to the pipe was badly burned. Shortly after the fire, the grandmother died and town council gathered to decide who would care for her grandson. Two volunteers appeared before the council. One was a father who had lost his own son and volunteered to adopt the orphan as his own. The other volunteer was William Dixon. When it was his turn to speak, instead of saying anything he merely…
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Finished week two of my E4U class "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters" last night ... and even more guys showed up! I'm a bit slow at times but I'm beginning to think we've tapped a nerve. Not only do we have almost 40 guys in the class, but they're tuned in as well. Now I'm starting to think we need something after this, a next step of sorts. It's not easy being a dad - whether you have a son or daughter or both. And our culture is making it increasingly difficult as well. It encourages immodesty where we prefer modesty ... and on and on the battle goes. One thing this class has reminded me of is this: most men want to be good dads. The motivation is there but the know-how might be lacking. God can work with the person who lacks the skills but has the heart. Unfortunately,…
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One of the challenges of the creative process -- be it writing, designing, or speaking -- is making complex things simple. Clarity comes with simplicity. And with clarity comes a better chance at persuasion. The authors of Creative Boldness write: "A big part of getting to what matters in an idea is simplicity. But it's important that our planners understand the difference between simple and simple enough. In the words of someone handsome and famous, 'Not as few words as possible. As few words as necessary.'" When crafting a speech, is it simple enough to communicate your message clearly and in a compelling fashion? In designing a print piece, is it simple enough to get your message across?
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The "official" (not that there is an unofficial) website of Church Planters of the Rockies is up and live. I was commissioned to design the site and did a soft launch back in January. In putting it together, I had the following goals: Presenting CPR in a modern and professional way Serving as a conduit of information between partner churches and church planters Recruiting potential church planters Raising awareness of church planting in general Providing resources to new and existing churches For the nerds out there, the site was designed using Joomla 1.5, my bread-and-butter content management system for the last ten years or so (back when it was first Mambo). I had narrowed it down to Joomla or WordPress, but in the end felt that WordPress was a little limited. As a CMS, WordPress has come a long way but still has a few liabilities in terms of being…
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