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Episodic Future Thinking

I first heard of Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) in Jane McGonigal's book Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything, and I've incorporated it into the MIndshifting Courses and Problem Solving game. Here is a conversation I had with the AI engine GPT4 about EFT; my questions are in bold.

What should I learn about Episodic Future Thinking?

Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) is a cognitive process in which individuals imagine or simulate experiences they might have in the future. It involves constructing detailed, vivid mental representations of specific events, which can help in decision-making, planning, and self-regulation. Here are some key aspects to learn about EFT:

1. Definition: EFT is the ability to mentally project oneself into the future and imagine personal experiences or events in a specific context. It is closely related to episodic memory, which involves recalling past experiences.

2. Cognitive components: EFT engages various cognitive processes, including memory, imagination, and prospection. These processes help individuals to mentally construct and explore future scenarios, evaluate potential outcomes, and make choices based on these simulations.

3. Importance: EFT plays a crucial role in everyday life. It aids in goal-setting, decision-making, and problem-solving, as well as enhancing motivation and self-regulation. By simulating future events, individuals can better prepare for potential challenges and navigate complex situations.

4. Relationship with episodic memory: EFT shares neural and cognitive mechanisms with episodic memory. Both processes rely on the brain's ability to flexibly recombine elements from past experiences to create new simulations or memories. The hippocampus is a key brain region involved in both episodic memory and EFT.

5. Benefits and applications: Research on EFT has found various benefits, including improved self-control, better decision-making, and enhanced psychological well-being. It has potential applications in clinical settings, such as addressing addiction, obesity, and mental health disorders, as well as in educational and professional contexts to improve planning, goal-setting, and motivation.

6. Limitations: While EFT can have many positive effects, it is not without limitations. Overemphasis on negative future scenarios could contribute to anxiety or excessive worry. Additionally, some individuals may struggle with EFT due to cognitive deficits or neurological conditions that impair their ability to imagine future events.

7. Improving EFT skills: There are strategies to enhance EFT abilities, such as mental time travel exercises, mindfulness meditation, and cognitive training. These practices can help individuals develop a richer and more flexible capacity for imagining future experiences, which can lead to better decision-making and planning.

What are some examples of episodic future thinking?

Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) involves mentally simulating specific future events or experiences. Here are some examples of EFT across various domains of life:

1. Personal life:

   • Planning a vacation: Imagining the sights, sounds, and activities you'll engage in during a trip to a new destination.
   • Envisioning your wedding day: Picturing the venue, your attire, the guests, and the emotions you'll experience during the ceremony and reception.
   • Anticipating a social gathering: Mentally rehearsing conversations, interactions, and potential challenges you might face at a party or event.

2. Education and career:

   • Preparing for an exam: Simulating the testing environment, the types of questions you'll encounter, and the strategies you'll use to answer them.
   • Considering a job change: Imagining the work environment, responsibilities, and potential outcomes of switching careers or accepting a new position.
   • Planning a presentation: Mentally rehearsing your delivery, anticipating audience reactions, and preparing responses to possible questions or objections.

3. Health and well-being:

   • Forming exercise habits: Visualizing the process of going to the gym, engaging in your workout routine, and the feeling of accomplishment after completing a session.
   • Anticipating challenges in weight loss: Imagining situations where you might face temptation (e.g., parties, holidays) and planning strategies to maintain your diet.
   • Coping with stress: Mentally preparing for an upcoming stressful situation, envisioning potential obstacles, and developing coping strategies to manage the stress effectively.

4. Financial planning:

   • Saving for retirement: Imagining your future lifestyle, financial needs, and the steps you'll take to ensure financial security during your retirement years.
   • Preparing for a major purchase: Visualizing the process of researching, comparing, and negotiating for a new car or home, along with the potential benefits and consequences of the purchase.
   • Managing unexpected expenses: Anticipating future financial emergencies and simulating strategies to handle them, such as building an emergency fund or adjusting your budget.

These examples demonstrate how EFT can help individuals mentally prepare for future events, anticipate challenges, and make more informed decisions across a wide range of life situations.

How could a teacher use EFT with her class in elementary school, middle school, or high school?

A teacher can incorporate Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) into their teaching strategies to help students develop goal-setting, planning, and self-regulation skills. Here are some ideas for using EFT with elementary, middle, and high school students:

1. Goal-setting and planning activities:

   • Ask students to envision a specific academic or personal goal they want to achieve by the end of the school year. Have them create a vivid mental image of the moment they achieve the goal and then develop a step-by-step plan to reach it.
   • Have students imagine their future selves and write a letter from their future selves to their current selves, describing what they've achieved and the steps they took to get there.

2. Enhancing learning and memory:

   • Encourage students to imagine how they will use the knowledge they're currently learning in real-life situations, such as applying math concepts to manage a budget or using language skills to communicate during a trip abroad.
   • Before studying for an exam, ask students to envision themselves in the testing environment, recalling the material they've learned and answering questions confidently.

3. Developing problem-solving and decision-making skills:

   • Use hypothetical scenarios or case studies to have students mentally simulate potential solutions and their consequences, enabling them to make informed decisions.
   • Encourage students to imagine themselves in challenging social situations (e.g., dealing with peer pressure or resolving conflicts) and mentally rehearse appropriate responses and coping strategies.

4. Building empathy and perspective-taking:

   • Ask students to imagine themselves in the shoes of a character from a book, historical figure, or someone from a different culture, and consider how that person might think, feel, and act in various situations.

5. Promoting self-regulation and self-motivation:

   • Teach students to use EFT as a tool for managing procrastination. Have them envision the consequences of not completing a task on time and the satisfaction of completing it promptly.
   • Use EFT to help students anticipate and overcome obstacles they may encounter while working on a project, such as time management challenges or resource limitations.

6. Career exploration and planning:

   • Encourage students to envision themselves in different careers, considering the work environment, daily tasks, and long-term goals associated with each profession.
   • Have students research and present on a future job they're interested in, incorporating EFT to imagine the steps they'll need to take to enter and succeed in that profession.

By incorporating EFT into various classroom activities, teachers can help students develop important skills and strategies for academic success, personal growth, and long-term planning.

How could an organization use EFT to come up with potential solutions to complex or complicated problems?

Organizations can use Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) to generate potential solutions for complex or complicated problems by encouraging employees to mentally simulate various future scenarios, evaluate potential outcomes, and devise creative strategies. Here are some ways organizations can incorporate EFT into their problem-solving processes:

1. Scenario planning:

   • Organize brainstorming sessions where employees envision different future scenarios related to the problem, considering various factors such as technological advancements, market shifts, and potential challenges.
   • Encourage employees to develop detailed mental images of these scenarios, emphasizing the potential consequences and opportunities each one presents.

2. Mental simulations and role-playing:

   • Have employees imagine themselves in the shoes of different stakeholders (e.g., customers, suppliers, competitors) and consider how they would perceive and react to potential solutions.
   • Use role-playing exercises to simulate critical situations, allowing employees to practice their problem-solving skills and evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies.

3. Reverse planning:

   • Ask employees to envision the desired outcome or solution to the problem and work backward to identify the steps required to reach that outcome.
   • Encourage them to consider potential obstacles and devise strategies to overcome these challenges.

4. Encouraging creativity and innovation:

   • Foster a supportive environment for creative thinking and risk-taking, encouraging employees to imagine unconventional solutions and explore the potential benefits and drawbacks of these ideas.
   • Use EFT to help employees envision the long-term impact of their innovative ideas, considering both the potential risks and rewards.

5. Collaborative decision-making:

   • Facilitate group discussions and workshops where employees can share their mental simulations, discuss potential solutions, and collectively evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of these ideas.
   • Encourage employees to consider the perspectives of their colleagues and integrate different viewpoints into the decision-making process.

6. Continuous learning and improvement:

   • Encourage employees to use EFT to reflect on past experiences and project lessons learned into future situations, helping them adapt and improve their problem-solving skills over time.
   • Use EFT to anticipate potential future problems and proactively develop strategies to mitigate or prevent these issues from arising.

By incorporating EFT into the organization's problem-solving processes, employees can develop a deeper understanding of complex issues, generate creative solutions, and make more informed decisions that account for potential future challenges and opportunities.

Summarize three case studies of EFT in schools

While specific case studies on EFT in schools might not be readily available, I can provide you with three hypothetical scenarios that demonstrate how EFT can be applied in school settings.

1. Enhancing students' academic performance and motivation:

In a middle school, a teacher noticed that some of her students were struggling to stay motivated and engaged with their coursework. She decided to implement EFT exercises by asking students to envision themselves successfully completing a challenging assignment or acing an upcoming exam. The students were encouraged to create vivid mental images of themselves experiencing the satisfaction and pride that comes with such achievements. Over time, this practice led to increased motivation and self-confidence, resulting in improved academic performance and a greater sense of ownership over their learning process.

2. Promoting empathy and perspective-taking in a diverse classroom:

A high school social studies teacher wanted to promote empathy and understanding among her culturally diverse students. She introduced an EFT activity in which students were asked to imagine themselves in the shoes of individuals from different cultural backgrounds or historical periods. They were encouraged to think about the challenges, emotions, and experiences these individuals might have faced. This exercise not only helped students develop empathy and perspective-taking skills but also led to more respectful and inclusive interactions among classmates, fostering a positive learning environment for all students.

3. Building problem-solving and decision-making skills through project-based learning:

In an elementary school, a teacher implemented a project-based learning curriculum that required students to work in teams to design and execute a community service project. The teacher guided students through EFT exercises to envision the successful completion of their projects, anticipate potential challenges, and devise strategies to overcome these obstacles. Students were encouraged to mentally simulate the entire process, from initial planning to implementation and evaluation. By practicing EFT, students developed critical problem-solving and decision-making skills that not only contributed to the success of their projects but also prepared them for future collaborative endeavors.

These hypothetical scenarios illustrate how EFT can be integrated into various educational contexts to enhance students' motivation, empathy, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, ultimately contributing to a more positive and effective learning experience.

If I wanted to initiate a session to improve problem solving skills with middle school students by using EFT, what steps would I follow?

To initiate a session aimed at improving problem-solving skills with middle school students using EFT, follow these steps:

1. Set clear objectives: Begin by defining the specific problem-solving skills you want the students to develop or enhance, such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, or decision-making.

2. Introduce EFT: Explain the concept of Episodic Future Thinking and its benefits, particularly in relation to problem-solving. Provide examples of how EFT can help them mentally simulate future scenarios and generate potential solutions.

3. Present a problem or scenario: Choose a relevant, age-appropriate problem or scenario that the students can relate to and find engaging. The problem should be complex enough to require creative problem-solving but not so difficult that it becomes discouraging.

4. Guide students through EFT: Instruct students to mentally simulate the problem scenario and imagine themselves successfully solving it. Encourage them to create vivid mental images of each step in the process, including potential obstacles and strategies for overcoming them.

5. Facilitate group discussions: Divide students into small groups and have them share their mental simulations, discussing the different solutions they've envisioned. Encourage them to consider the pros and cons of each approach and collaboratively refine their ideas.

6. Encourage reflection: After the group discussions, ask students to reflect on the experience, considering what they learned about problem-solving, the role of EFT, and how their thought process evolved throughout the activity.

7. Provide feedback and support: Offer constructive feedback on students' problem-solving strategies and their use of EFT, highlighting areas of success and areas for improvement. Encourage them to continue practicing EFT in their everyday lives to enhance problem-solving skills.

8. Assign follow-up activities: To reinforce the concepts and skills learned during the session, assign follow-up activities that require students to apply EFT and problem-solving techniques to real-life situations or academic challenges.

By incorporating EFT into a problem-solving session, you can help middle school students develop the ability to mentally explore various solutions, anticipate potential challenges, and make more informed decisions. This skillset will not only benefit them academically but also in their personal lives and future careers.

And if you've made it this far and you're interested in the courses, the next MIndshifting 1 course will start on May 4: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mindshifting-1-growth-mindset-and-habits-of-mind-tickets-568188887257

Conclusions from How People Learn

The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine have released How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. This is a 350 page report based on decades of research. Below are, word for word, four (out of a total of 17) conclusions in the report, which can be purchased or accessed as PDF here.

If you are interested in education, you have to read this book.

CONCLUSION 2-1: Each learner develops a unique array of knowledge and cognitive resources in the course of life that are molded by the interplay of that learner’s cultural, social, cognitive, and biological contexts. Understanding the developmental, cultural, contextual, and historical diversity of learners is central to understanding how people learn.

CONCLUSION 4-1: Successful learning requires coordination of multiple cognitive processes that involve different networks in the brain. In order to coordinate these processes, an individual needs to be able to monitor and regulate his own learning. The ability to monitor and regulate learning changes over the life span and can be improved through interventions.

CONCLUSION 6-2: Educators may support learners’ motivation by attending to their engagement, persistence, and performance by:

• helping them to set desired learning goals and appropriately challenging goals for performance;
• creating learning experiences that they value;
• supporting their sense of control and autonomy;
• developing their sense of competency by helping them to recognize, monitor, and strategize about their learning progress; and
• creating an emotionally supportive and nonthreatening learning environment where learners feel safe and valued.

CONCLUSION 8-2: Effective use of technologies in formal education and training requires careful planning for implementation that addresses factors known to affect learning. These factors include alignment of the technology with learning goals, provision of professional development and other supports for instructors and learners, and equitable access to the technology. Ongoing assessment of student learning and evaluation of implementation are critical to ensuring that a particular use of technology is optimal and to identifying needed improvements.

The research and conclusions from this book are right in line with our online discussion December 17: A Brief History of the Future of Education, led by FETC speaker Ryan Schaaf. Please register and join us.

 

More Unsafe Thinking

A few weeks ago, I published a post based on Jonah Sachs's book Unsafe Thinking: Can You Know Too Much?

Here are some more tidbits on stress, motivation, and flow.

Stress

Stress, or fear, focuses us. When we experience stress, fear, or anxiety, our levels of the hormone cortisol increase, and this often results in our taking action.

The increased cortisol also tampers down our ability to be creative, to look at situations with detachment, and to consider different possible courses of action, or even to delay action. If we feel fear, we are more likely to only react with the most obvious path, or paths, in front of us. In fact, we all can be manipulated by those who are able to raise our levels of stress and anxiety, because we lose the ability to look for alternatives. Once anxiety triggers cortical arousal, we are at a tremendous disadvantage.

Many of us think that we can solve this by avoiding stress. That's completely wrong.

When we avoid stressful and potentially anxiety-producing situations, we pretty much ensure that those situations and feelings will come back and we subject ourselves to living increasingly narrow lives.

What we can do is to change how we think of anxiety. We can coach ourselves to think positively about the situation and the sensations we feel; to perceive them as chances to grow. We can choose to tackle them while acknowledging that the feeling of anxiety is just part of the process of growth and success. This is tremendously powerful.

Motivation

There is this myth that if we love what we do, it will be easy to be successful. But success is never easy.

And we've all heard about all the studies showing that extrinsic motivations, like rewards or punishments, may, in some cases be short term motivators, but in the long run, they actually reduce our ability to achieve.

Sachs points to research that shows that competence, expertise, and accomplishment are all primarily driven by internal motivation. And also, that external motivation can actually provide a boost to internal motivation.

When rewards (or penalties) make us feel manipulated, coerced, or controlled, they hurt our performance. But when 1) we understand our motivation, 2) when the task is motivating, and 3) when we feel the reward is offered in an upfront way that is not manipulative (possibly when we ourselves have helped design the rewards), rewards can be motivating. We treat them as fun bonuses rather than as tools of control. They are especially helpful during the long "slogs" or boring parts of a project, when motivation tends to get bogged down.

Flow

Most of us have heard of flow, it's those moments of peak performance where we are immersed in what we are doing and we are operating at a high level.

Flow is a balance of difficulty and skill. Too much difficulty for our level of skill and we become anxious or lose the belief we can succeed. Too little difficulty (too easy) and we become bored and lose persistence of effort. This band of optimal performance, and learning, is right in line with Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Video game developers have become experts in constructing their games to keep you in flow:

1. There are tangible goals
2. You get valuable and quick feedback
3. The challenges are just above your current skill levels

In real life, though, we don't have the luxury of game developers setting this up for us; we have to do this for ourselves with our own minds. Once we are familiar with setting goals, figuring out how to get the right feedback, and accepting challenges above our current skill levels, we can apply it to the most mundane or even challenging tasks to drive our own motivation and performance. What Jane McGonigal calls gamifying our lives.

I wonder how we would ever apply these to students and education. Maybe a future Edchat Interactive event could help here.

Why did Donald Trump Stress the Importance of Building a Wall on the Mexican Border?

Why did Donald Trump Stress the Importance of Building a Wall on the Mexican Border?

If you’re on the left, could it be because he is racist or is catering to racists?

If you’re on the right, might it be because he wants to cut down on immigration which will open jobs for US citizens?

Do you have a different reason that you’re sure caused this?

We all have this model about how we make decisions. There are all these things we know. There are our desires and wants. We weigh the two and then decide on and take action on a plan to reach the things we desire.  There must be some view of the world and some set of desires that drives every decision, and once we understand that for any action, we have the explanation and that part of the story is complete.

The drive to ascribe reasons to actions and decisions that people make is part of what has defined being human. Philosophers call it the Theory of Mind. The human mind is either pre-wired or pre-disposed to learn that the way people make decisions and take actions is that they have a collection of beliefs or facts, and another collection of desired states, and that the brain looks at the desired state, analyzes what exists and then decides on and executes actions to move to the desired state.

We all use this theory of mind to explain what we and others have done, and to predict what we and others will do. We are the only species on the planet (that neuroscientists know of) that are capable of this as it requires not just conscious thought, but also expressive language. There is evidence that humans have been able to do this for at least 50,000 years, and that by the time infants are 6 months old, they have already formulated the theory of mind and are acting on it (“Oh, mommy is looking at that object and saying this sound, so she must be using that sound to mean that object.”)

There is just one problem with this understanding of decision making. Our knowledge of the brain has expanded so much in the last 35 years that neuroscientists now know that it’s not actually the way the brain operates.

As neuroscientists have been able to more finely track how neurons work, what the different parts of the brain actually do, and how they all work together, they’ve been able to determine that, while the Theory of Mind is useful in many circumstances, that’s not at all what happens in the brain.

Following is a simplification (probably an oversimplification) of what Alex Rosenberg explains in How History Gets Things Wrong, The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories.

Neuroscientists have been able to trace interactions in the brain and record in what part of the brain they occur and when. There are specific cells in the brain that are triggered by location information. Others that are triggered by speed. Others that are triggered by happiness, and others by anger, hunger, sex, visual stimuli, etc. There is a region in the brain where decisions are made and others where actions are triggered. And still others that are involved in conscious thought.

By watching these different parts, and when they are triggered, scientists have been able to determine that the neurons that make decisions fire up before the ones that are involved in consciousness.

Basically, the brain makes decisions based on the activation of neurons that are located in a completely different part of the brain than the ones involved with conscious thought. Milliseconds after the decisions are made and (usually) after signals are sent to start acting on the decisions, the hippocampus sends signals to the conscious mind, which then essentially justifies the decision and provides what we consider the “reasoning” behind it. But crucially, the decision has already been made.

So all the reasons we give for why we do things and why others do them are basically all wrong. Those are just the stories that our conscious mind has made up for decisions that our unconscious mind already made.

If we are all making decisions based not on logic and careful consideration, what are the implications? To me, a big lesson is to accept that decisions are more likely to be fallible. And if decisions are likely to be wrong, then it becomes even more important to be sensorily acute to feedback, iterating based on highly adaptive feedback loops. In other words, be flexible and don’t dwell as long on making the “correct” decision. There is an old saying that you can’t steer a bicycle if it’s not moving, but even if it’s initially moving in the wrong direction, you can adjust and change course.

Perhaps we can explore these with Matt Joseph in the Edchat Interactive on Active Learning Strategies in the Classroom.

So, why did Donald Trump stress the importance of building a wall on the Mexican border?

That’s a trick question.

For the same reason he and we all decide and do anything. A series of chemical and electronic impulses in his hippocampus that were not logic or content-based started him and kept him going in that direction. All the other reasons are just stories he or we tell. Success will go to those who use feedback best to adjust their strategies and actions.

Leveraged Learning: How the Future of Education Might Play Out

 

How would you prepare if you knew you were going to embark on the most important project or task of your life; but you had no idea what it was, what skills or knowledge you need, the specific fields of operation, the scope, or the tasks involved? Think about it.

Interestingly, you'll likely come up with the same skills that tend to lead to career success, the ones that are most needed by society, and the ones that schools should be tasked with providing.

In his book Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners and Experts with Something to Teach, Danny Iny talks about the societal forces that are changing education, what is likely to come out of it, and what we can be doing today to prepare.

Danny talks about education as moving to a three-phased system: 

1. Foundational: base skills and knowledge
2. Last Mile: skills and knowledge needed for specific life choices
3. Continuing: skills and knowledge needed for whatever happens to be the current or next task

While large organizations like the existing institutions are likely to continue to dominate foundational education, new opportunities exist and are emerging in the areas of last mile and continuing education.

What are these skills that we'd need to prepare for the unpreperable? Iny outlines the following:

1. Salience: The ability to pose central problems and to ask important questions.
2. Novelty: An interest in and ability to find solutions for problems not tackled before. It is intellectual nonconformity, the ability to distance oneself from the established scientific theories and concepts, or artistic forms.
3. Ability to relate old knowledge to new problems: The opposite of novelty, this is the ability to recognize familiar patterns in seemingly new and unique problems.
4. Generativity and mental flexibility: The ability to generate multiple and diverse approaches to a problem is essential to the creative process in science. A scientist would be exceptionally lucky to hit upon the solution of a daunting problem from the first go.
5. Drive and doggedness: In a sense, the opposite of the previous, an ability to deploy sustained effort toward tackling a problem. This is about the relationship between inspiration and perspiration.
6. Mental wandering: The mysterious capacity for the productive and seemingly effortless pursuit of ideas wherever they take you.
7. Mental focus: The opposite of mental wandering, this is an ability to systemically pursue a logical train of thought.
8. Iconoclastic frame of mind: In order to forge ahead of society, a creative individual must be driven by a sense of dissatisfaction with the intellectual, scientific, or artistic status quo.
9. Resonance with central societal and cultural themes: A creative individual, and certainly a genius, is ahead of society, but his/her work must be recognized by society as important and valid in order to survive.
10. Social grace: Certain supremely creative individuals were known to history for their social suaveness and adaptability, and others for a notorious lack thereof.

If you're interested in options for transforming your classroom, school, or district, you might want to join in our Edchat Interactive discussion with FETC speakers Randy Ziegenfuss and Lynn Fuini-Hetton this Thursday night. For more information and to register, click on Leading Transformation, what works and what doesn't.

 

When is the right time?

Daniel Pink's new book, When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, is all about determining the optimum time to act in order to reach goals and achieve results.

 

Why is timing important?

 

Well, in a series of studies, it was shown that when faced with 6 presentations, decision makers selected the final presentation over 50% of the time. So when you present may be much more important than what or how you present.

 

The way most of us make decisions in the morning is very different from the way we make them in the afternoon. Most people are more willing to carefully consider evidence, even if it differs from conventional wisdom, in the morning, while most of us are more likely to select the tried and true and go with the flow in the afternoon. If you want to convince people to try something new, which time would you opt for? Or if you wanted to convince people to do more of what they were already doing, what time of day would you select?

 

Will you accomplish more if you work 3 or 4 hours straight, or if you take breaks? And what types of breaks work best? And is it beneficial to take a nap?

 

It turns out that breaks rejuvenate people and generally allow all of us to accomplish more than if don't take time out (and that goes for children/students, too). What types of breaks are optimal? Being outdoors, spending time with other people (and especially spending time with other people outdoors), exercise, and light snacks are all good breaks. And naps, the absolutely ideal nap is to grab some caffeine (like a cup of coffee), take a 15-20 minute nap, and then go back to work? Naps longer than 30 minutes, while they may help in the long run, actually result in a 10-30 minute trough after the nap. And why caffeine before the nap? It takes 20 minutes for caffeine to take effect, so you get a slingshot effect by drinking coffee and then napping for 20 minutes or less.

 

Mid-project is also an interesting time, in two different ways.

 

When groups of people (including students) work on, say a 1-3 month project, there is a preponderant pattern. In the first half of the project, the group gets together, discusses, establishes ground rules, bonds. But they don't generally accomplish anything. But about at the mid-point, someone notices that half the allowed time has passed and the deadline is approaching, and successful groups then go into overdrive and start progressing rapidly.

 

On many other types of longer term events, there is a flurry of activity in the beginning and a rush at the end, but little actual engagement in the middle. 

 

What are some techniques that can keep motivation throughout a project?

 

• Setting interim goals with due dates
• Go public with the goals and commitments
• Break in the middle. (This reminded me of a good mystery or video series. Each chapter or episode ends in the middle of a problem. Then the first half of the next chapter solves that problem and builds to the next one, ending before that problem is solved. So when you have a project and you are going to move on to something else for a while, don't stop at a good breaking off point, stop in the middle of something interesting and it will pull you back in.)
• Imagine one or more people who are going to benefit from your work, and let that connection motivate you toward completion.

 

And for me, one of the more interesting points in the book is the distribution of happiness during one's life. It turns out that people are generally very happy as they become adults in their early 20's. And then their happiness dips, reaching a low about 50 years old. Then it starts rising again, and people are often happiest in their 70's and 80's. For people in their 40's, 50's, and 60's, that gives us something to look forward to. And for you in your 20's or early 30's who are reading this? Look what you did to your parents!

 

And it's always a good time to check out the discussions that are coming up on Edchat Interactive at http://www.edchatinteractive.org/upcoming-seminars

White Trash, The Color of Law, and Inadequate Equilibria

Here are some cross-pollinated ideas from

• White Trash The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg
• The Color of Law, A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein
• Inadequate Equilibria, Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

White Trash presents 300 pages of examples to refute the idea that the United States is the land of opportunity. The book starts with the colonists, most of whom did not choose to come to the colonies for the opportunity to start over, but who were sent over as punishment. Most whites were never given a chance to own property, earn a living, or become rise to middle class, and a large majority died within their first few years. And it was obviously even worse for people of color.

Rights were reserved for property owners and the already wealthy, which was then baked into and perpetuated in the new republic. Social privilege was often justified by the construction of race. Up until the middle of the 20^th century, race was defined more by class than it was by skin color. If you were wealthy with relatives from Western Europe you belonged to a different “race” from the poor; the Irish were a different race from the English, plantation owners were a different race from white trash in the Carolinas, Jews were a different race from Protestants. Race was a type of caste. Policies, education, culture, and opportunity were used to reinforce caste and class; races and economic strata were pitted against each other, which served as a way of preventing the poor from seeing their common interests. Darwinism was used to support the premise that these racial qualities were passed down generation by generation. Race and class helped promote the idea that those who had more had them because they deserved it, and that you had more than the classes that were below you, and you needed to keep them down or they would take what was rightfully yours.

The result is that the US has actually shown lower economic fluidity than most other developed nations; in the US, the economic status of your parents is by far the largest determinant of your own economic status.

The Color of Law shows how government laws and policies have set obstacles and barriers preventing people of color from reaching the middle or upper classes. The book is a rebuttal to and a rebuke of Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote that, as much as he deplored the fact that there were insurmountable barriers for people of color to gain access to the benefits of property ownership, education, and capitalism, this was just the way things were, and since there had been no direct governmental cause for those obstacles, the government was not obligated nor should it take on the obligation to make amends for them or lend a helping hand. The book shows countless examples of how legislation, executive decisions, and policies have exacerbated inequity and prevented people of color from taking advantage of the economic opportunities afforded Caucasians.

Here is one example.

Suburbanization started just after World War II. Private developers build large tracts of houses, like the Levitts with their Levittowns. They were able to finance construction because the government guaranteed that anyone who bought one of the houses would be able to get a mortgage. But those same government organizations that guaranteed the mortgages restricted that the houses, in fact the entire suburb, would not be allowed to accept anyone of color as either a renter or owner. The houses, cost about $7,500 at the time, which, in current dollars is about $75,000. But the median price of those houses today is about $350,000, a substantial generation of wealth in white families that has not been afforded to those prevented from purchasing. People of color were forced to rent, since they were not afforded guaranteed mortgages, and rent farther from good jobs, community services, and good schools. Citing this and a slew of other examples, Rothstein’s premise is that government policy essentially stole the future from generations of people of color, going all the way back to post-Reconstruction, and reversing that disadvantage requires more than just changing a few laws, it requires active policies and opportunities.

Inadequate Equilibria describes how we get stuck in situations where the system is obviously wrong (and whether or not you accept the premises of the previous two books, you certainly have to agree that there is a lot that’s wrong)?

Yudkowsky points to two causes of sub-optimal decisions and a third which leads to perpetuation of sub-optimal solutions.

When decision-makers are not beneficiaries, outcomes are made for other reasons than best results for the most people.

When decision-makers can’t reliably learn the information they need to make good decisions, especially if someone else has that information, they will seldom make the best decision as they would if they’d been able to credibly gain access to the best information.

These two causes are simple to understand. Understanding why sub-optimal systems perpetuate is more difficult.

Systems often exist as Nash equilibria, where even though the systems are broken in so many areas, single or small groups of actors are actually disadvantaged from trying to make a change, and moving to a new stable state could only be effectuated by some coordinated action of some large critical mass of actors.

A simple example might be a hypothetical competitor to Craig’s List. Let’s say someone came up with a system that provided better results to both sellers and buyers. But everyone already knows that if they place an item on Craig’s list, there is already a ready market of sellers, and that if you want to buy something, you’ll be able to find what you need. So any one seller would lose too much by going to this new system, because there wouldn’t be buyers, and any one buyer wouldn’t be able to find sellers. So everyone continues to use Craig’s list because it is in a Nash equilibrium.

Healthcare is a good societal example. Everyone knows it’s broken. But any patient, doctor, pharmacy, pharmaceutical company, or hospital (or even reasonably large groups) would be disadvantaged by trying to start a new system. It would take a coordinated effort of all parties to create a new system, and even then, the result might be even worse. Which is why we are stuck with what Yudkowsky calls, “the most broken system that still works ever recorded in human history.”

The concept of Nash systems explains how healthcare, education, and airlines perpetuate even with high levels of dissatisfaction, and even knowing that they get a little worse every year.

We live in a society of untold wealth. Large swaths of society have incredible obstacles from benefiting, and I’d even argue that everyone’s well-being, not just large populations, is obstructed. But we are in what is likely a whole cacophony of Nash equilibria, which we can only transform through a coordinated action of a critical mass.

It’s frustrating. What do we do?

Making an impact on kids

What should every principal be doing to make schools more effective at preparing every child for adulthood?

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, part of North Carolina State University, lays out an 8 step plan. The Friday Institute works with teachers and principals around the US on leadership and instruction.

Mary Ann Wof, Elisabeth Bobst, and my friend Nancy Mangum just codified their methods in the seminal book Personalized and Digital Learning, published by Harvard Education Press.

Of course, it begins with vision. If you don’t know where you’re headed, how are you going to get there? But vision isn’t what a principal dreams up and then communicates. And vision is not consensus. You can’t expect every person in an organization to commit to an untested vision. An effective vision emerge from collaboration and conversation with a core representation of stakeholders, it builds momentum, and eventually consensus from success.

Very few successful schools operate top down, with hierarchical and rigid management. Change management principals and distributed management are central to most successful schools. The formal administrators of a school are neither omnipresent, nor omniscient. Really good schools task teachers and instructional coaches with key aspects of change and improvement.

All successful schools empower everyone. The children are empowered, given agency over what and how they learn. Teachers work together to develop and improve professional practices. Parents play a role.

These are just three of the eight steps in the plan, and the book provides practical advice for each, with examples and “try this now” exercises.

And you’ll have the chance to learn about all eight of these principles live and online with the Friday Institute’s series on Edchat Interactive. Register here for the first session, which will be Thursday, January 11.

How To Tell Your Story

If you want to get an idea across, tell it in a story.

Do you want to instruct? Sell? Convince? Entertain? Motivate? Call to action?

We all know, tell it in a story.

But, here’s the hard truth, as inimitably presented by Steven Pressfield, “Nobody wants to read your shit.” Or hear about your shit. Or even cares about your shit.

Not even your mother, if we’re being honest about it.

The writer and the reader have a contract. The reader is willing to read what you write if you make it so compelling that it’s worth the time and effort to read it. Not what is valuable to you, what is valuable based on the needs of the reader.

So how do you tell your story so that people will read it, learn from it, be convinced by it, be entertained by it, be motivated by it, and/or act on it?

Here is how not to do it:

• Introduce the thesis
• Provide examples to support the thesis
• Recap and summarize

B-O-R-I-N-G

A good story has three elements.

1. Hook the reader, grab him or her so that he/she is compelled to go on. Every story has an inciting incident, the point where the story begins.
2. Build, escalate the tension, suspense, stakes, and excitement. What's the problem? What's its significance? This act belongs to the villain.
3. Pay off, bring it all home with a bang. What's going to really inspire the reader, learner, or customer? How do they win?

And when writing, begin the process of writing your story by determining that climax, first figure out where you want to finish, then figure out how you’re going to build tension and suspense and finally how you’re going to hook the reader.

You want to teach something? What’s a payoff in that lesson that your learners will embrace? Who or what is the villain, and how are you going to build tension or increase the stakes? What is going to hook the learners?

You want to describe or sell a product? How is your description or presentation going to climax? What is the ordeal that provides tension and excitement to the reader or listener? What is going to grab them?

Hook. Build. Payoff.

You’re going to find that a lot more effective than introduce, explain, recap.

Marc Prensky's Brain Gain

Marc Prensky is smarter than you. In addition to his many degrees (BA, language, teaching, and business), he speaks three languages fluently, has written 4 books, runs two companies, and is possibly best known for coining the phrases digital natives and digital immigrants. 

Yet, with your smartphone, tablet, or computer and connections to the Internet, you can beat him in virtually any cognitive task. Fact recall, math calculations, problem solving, music creation (despite the fact that he was a professional musician), virtually anything you can name, there's a website or an app for that.

The ability to stretch your mental abilities, to extend your brain, if you will, is what Prensky calls brain gain in his new book, Brain Gain: Technology and The Quest for Digital Wisdom.

For tens of thousands of years (unless it's true that the earth is only 6,000 years old) humans have increased the abilities of their bodies with tools. It's only in the last 60+ years that we've been able to measurability increase the power of our minds using technology. In his book, Prensky details the ways this shift from physical to mental augmentation changes the way we act and think, and our very humanness. Here are a few discussions he raises in the book.

What is the essence of digital wisdom?

It's one thing to be able to retouch a digital photo on your phone and share it with your 1,000 closest friends. It's another thing entirely to know a) whether this is something you should be doing, b) how to do it well, and c) the best tools to use for the results you want.

What changes should we be making to the way we educate ourselves and our kids?

We all need to learn how to learn to do things that today we can't even imagine we'll ever have to do. How would we have trained kids to properly use social networking in 2002? We didn't know something like that could exist, much less that over a billion people would be using it for intantaneous communication. Tweeting would have been associated with bird calls, something probably most used outside in an open field. Yet billions of us use social networking, and not just for fun, for professional development, for collaboration on projects, to keep up-to-date on fast breaking news in our fields. What do we subtract from education to make room for the new capabiliities that are essential for operating in the digital world? Is it still necessary to teach kids how to multiply three digit numbers, when virtually everyone does it on some type of calculator today? Do we emphasize reading and writing, when so much of what we ingest is video, images, and voice? Why do we stop after high school or college? It could be that a lot of what we teach in school is just taught because of inertia, but maybe it's time to take a closer look.

How will thinking machines be even more tightly integrated with our senses?

In addition to wearable computers, we may have some types of computing ability inserted under our skin, or attached directly to neurons. To a certain extent, smart artificial limbs already operate this way, but there could be devices that add to our memory, improve our sight, or give use specialized computational abilities. These devices could initially help people who are debilitated, like sufferers of Alzeimer's disease; but eventually used to enhance human cognitive abilities for some or all of us far beyond what we are capable of now. How would you like to instantly know how your son or daughter did on the last school assignment just by thinking the question?

What happens when machines get smarter than us?

The current pace of technological improvement indicates that computers should first surpass the neurological processing power of the human brain somewhere around the year 2030. By 2050, computer generated intelligence will be about 1 billion times the amount of human intelligence. How will that change our relationship with computers? How will that change us?

Most of us spend our days concerned with what we will be doing today, tomorrow, or next week. But sometimes its very valuable to look at the longer term. How did we get here? Were are we heading? And what should we be doing to ceate the type of future we want? Brain Gain is one of those books that can clarify this process and provide some great points for reflection.