Monkey View!

My homunculus is obsessed with monkeys.
OK, this is a totally frivolous post, but I think the die-hard Happy Homunculus fans will get a kick out of a new way of viewing all the posts on the site: Monkey View!

On the sidebar at the right of the website, you'll see a link to Monkey View.  If you have a modern browser (and not a mobile browser, unfortunately), you can see a new, dynamic, image-based outline of all the post on Happy Homunculus.  It's pretty fun to see all the our monkey friends that have shown us how to think better.

Enjoy!

Brain In A Jar

Don't forget: you have a body.
"Embodiment" is a concept in cognitive science that doesn't get enough attention.  In very simple terms, embodiment means you have a body.

Uh, ok.  Yes, most of us can agree that we have a body but the true insight of embodiment is that how we think, actually the very fact that we think at all, cannot be separated from the fact that we have a body.  For a primer, check out this "brief guide to embodied cognition" from Sam McNerney.

Here's the way I think about it: if we had some sort of technology that would allow me to take out my brain and put it in a jar, you know what would happen? Nothing.  I might think about stuff, but eventually I would stop thinking about anything new and I would probably go crazy from sensory deprivation. In addition, without a body all my thoughts would be meaningless: if a brain thinks in a jar and no one is there to listen to it... You get the idea.

The Happy Homunculus attempts to be a practical blog, dedicated to applying psychology to performance.  Luckily, all this talk about embodiment has practical implications.  Basically: you have a body and, if you want to perform at your best, you better not forget it.

I can think of two major extensions of embodiment that relate to performance:

First, all our thinking matters for shit if we don't get out in the real world and do something. We can feel like garbage or feel great.  Be happy, or be sad.  But, what really matters, in the real world, is what we do with our body (hands to do, mouth to speak, eyes to look, ears to hear) to make something happen.

Second, everything that happens to your body, happens to your brain.  Let me put it this way: your brain is an organ connected with all the other organ systems of your body.  If you treat your body like it is an expendable brain-carrying-case, your brain will suffer.  Your thinking will suffer.  And, your performance will suffer.  I'm sure many of the academics that I interact with would love to avoid this fact, but if your body is unhealthy, your brain is unhealthy. Period.

In summary, we have bodies.  Our brains can not be separated from our bodies.  Our thinking can not be separated from our bodies.  Let's get our bodies out into the real world and make shit happen.  And, let's take care of our bodies so we can keep making shit happen.

Readin', Writin', and... Self Control?

A wrathful Khan, yes.
But, not the Khan I'm writing about. 
One of the most exciting things that has happened to education in recent memory is the founding of the Khan Academy.

If you don't know the story, Sal Khan is a highly educated, non-educator who was once a hedge fund analyst.  However, his life took an unexpected turn when the video-based math tutorials he made for his nieces became increasingly popular on YouTube.  This unexpected response inspired him to create an online "academy" where anyone can learn any topic for free.

The idea (and execution) of the Khan Academy is awesome.  Check out this TED talk to get a sense of the applications and implications of this type of learning system.  Watching this gave me goose-bumps of the "I've glimpsed the future" variety.  But, I also had one criticism; not of Khan Academy per se, but that most educational strategies fail to acknowledge the essential cognitive skills that kids need to succeed both in the Khan Academy and in the regular academies around the world.

At Khan Academy, kids can progressively watch videos on topics of increasing complexity and can also take quizzes to measure understanding.  However, even with an incredible resource like Khan Academy, kids must possess a few cognitive skills to fully benefit.  For example, without focus or diligence, kids will not return to the site again and again to reap the full benefit. Without resilience, kids may quit after a period of failure before the inevitable breakthrough can be made.

While merging education with technology is a fantastic thing, and is sure to improve education for millions, we must not ignore the fact that essential, metacognitive skills must be in place for our children, and us, to reach full potential.  How technology can be brought to bear on this challenge remains a major hurdle.  Until then, teachers in the trenches and parents at home are the only people who can ensure our kids develop these essential characteristics.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals Are Dumb

Dream small.
If you've ever been exposed to any goal-setting advice of any kind, you've probably heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals, an acronym which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  I'd like to add one more adjective: overwhelming.

Who has the time and energy to craft a series of SMART goals and then track progress in great detail? I'm a nerd, but there are only so many excel spreadsheets I can create before I feel ashamed.

Also, what happens if you think you've created a SMART goal, but realize it's not "attainable" or too "timely"?  I know what happens to me: I feel like monkey poo.

SMART goals are also dumb because when they are too "big picture", they cause anxiety.  For example, when I think about some Big Goal, even when it may fit into the SMART paradigm, I get overwhelmed. I get discouraged. I get pessimistic.

What's the solution?  Actually, I think it's a combination of Big, but Vague, goals and small SMART micro-goals that are designed to bring us one step closer to that Big Vague Goal.  This concept of micro-goals is shown to be effective in everything from making tough changes, to procrastination, to extreme physical challenges like training for the Navy Seals.

Why does this work?  Because you can design the micro-goals to be so stupid easy, you are guaranteed to succeed. So, we shouldn't make some huge-ass SMART goal that seems impossible (even if it's not). Instead, we do something so tiny that it seems ridiculously easy (run for 5 minutes).  Then, we do it and feel awesome.  This creates a positive-feedback loop: set more tiny goals, kick ass, repeat.  As long as these tiny, micro-goals are pointed in the general direction of the Big Vague Goal, we're basically guaranteed to come close to our Big Vague Goal over time.

To be fair SMART isn't all bad, setting specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals is essentially what I suggest we do: easy goals are all of those things.  But I would add one more essential criteria: small. The smallness takes the overwhelming scale out of the equation. So, SMARTS goal-setting is the way to go for me, but that's an awkward acronym and it's easier to just say SMART goals are dumb.