Posts in Psychology
True Grit

Someone I know has been sober for nearly fifteen years.  When he realized scotch had become a destination, the reason to get through the day, the carrot on the stick, he found his self-respect and gave it up.  He swears that once he hits his eighties, he’ll start to booze again.  After all, why would it matter then?  That’s what he thinks today, in middle age.

My mother just turned eighty. She admits to being confused by the mandate to live each day of her life as if it were her last. If today were the last, she told me, I would eat a giant piece of chocolate cake. And another. And if I did that every day, I’d blow up like a house. And my last day would be soon! Now why would I want to do that?

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The New Naked

Your eyes will never be normal. Dr Mark Terry, Surgeon, Devers Eye Institute, (explaining why post-surgery I still can’t see well enough to read or drive or cross the road safely without corrective lenses).

I never thought to call it naked before. It was just how I saw. Or, to be more precise, how I didn’t see, until I put my contacts in. I didn’t spend a lot of time there.

Recently, two high power intraocular lenses have been surgically implanted through small corneal incisions.  (And from the twilight zone of anesthesia, I could see the scalpel).  Although these lenses correct a good portion of my myopia, they aren’t quite bionic enough to take me all the way to what’s considered normal sight. The technology isn’t there yet. The new lenses bring my naked vision to about 20-200—the official number for legal blindness. 

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Innovation: Medieval Style

Change management: passé. Conflict resolution: no longer sexy at all. Innovation: it’s the thing—the elixir for today.

There are countless ways to think about innovation. Wait… Isn’t every new thought about innovation an innovation? Well, no. Not unless that creative thought results in the implementation of something new. Innovation involves putting ones creative ideas to work.

Why the rage? Why are so many smart people—artists, designers, educators, engineers and CEOs—all so concerned about whether or not they are doing it?

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On Being Ready

Anything worthwhile, any project worth doing has an outcome that can’t be predicted.

My brain doesn’t like that.  And if you’re human, neither does yours. We humans are pre-wired to feel vulnerable around risk and change.  When we move towards something new or unpredictable, a little voice in our head warns us off. 

Be safe. Stay with what’s known.

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