**Summary of Extracts (approx.

2500 characters):**

- **Mathematics as Interpretation:** Math is highlighted as a tool for both understanding and interpreting the world, including human behavior, especially effective when applied at a large scale (e.g., social trends or societal changes).

Predictions themselves can influence outcomes, as illustrated by historical analogies like the fall of Rome.

- **Predictive Models & Strategy:** Simple, transparent models (like a simple moving average in machine learning) are valuable for establishing a baseline, managing uncertainty, and providing clear, defendable decisions.

Sometimes, neither complex nor simple approaches are strictly “better,” signaling the need to consider situational strategy when tackling problems.

- **Social Influence & Persuasion (Cialdini):** Businesses, particularly those in sales/MLMs, use proven psychological tactics to gain compliance and build social proof.

However, social proof isn’t universally effective—if a product is very well known, people may not need extra reassurance from others.

- **Change, Belonging, and Support:** Navigating significant change often challenges personal identity and assumptions—pushing individuals out of their comfort zones.

While much of this process can feel isolating, supportive communities and targeted learning (skills for change) can ease transitions.

Courses and group affiliations help build resilience and adaptation skills.

- **Notions of Merit:** Ideas about meritocracy can create entitlement among the "deserving," but these notions rest on numerous assumptions that merit further scrutiny.

There’s an economic argument to reconsidering educational focus on the liberal arts amidst prevailing STEM emphasis, noting current decline in humanities and social sciences.

- **Communication Challenges:** Repetitive discussions can strain relationships and therapy; matching client and therapist is important.

Shifts in life patterns (like dropping out of college), or goals like quitting marijuana, reveal motivational roadblocks and the need for supportive networks.

- **Behavioral Defaults & Procrastination:** People often rely on default behaviors (e.g., default browser, drink) and can harness natural tendencies (like laziness) to prompt change.

Key moments such as beginnings (new year, seasons) can serve as powerful motivators for starting new habits or overcoming procrastination.

- **Collaboration, Focus, and Work:** Distractions in the workplace (meetings, emails, red tape) erode focus and productivity.

Teams that maintain focus outperform others, but most knowledge workers face substantial time lost to communication overhead.

**Key Themes for Your Research:**
- The power of social influence in shaping group behavior (critical for understanding MLM recruitment/retention)
- The difficulty of change without community or support (mirrors how MLMs provide “community” to recruits)
- People’s reliance on defaults/laziness—which MLMs exploit with easy “default” scripts and routines
- Notions of “merit” and “deservingness” as they relate to sales/recruitment hierarchies

These insights may help inform the psychological mechanisms underpinning attraction and retention in MLMs and other “commercial cult” structures.

Here are the summarized nuggets of information from the provided text as they relate to your overall research question about MLM trends (though much of the text appears only loosely related to the direct MLM topic you outlined):

- NSU scientists have created a mathematical predictive model for socio-economic forecasting, incorporating factors previously unaddressed by Russian research, specifically using machine learning.

- Societal issues often stem from a lack of inner work and disconnection with self, others, and the environment; personal growth practices such as mindfulness and compassion are increasingly studied and utilized for healing.

- Training programs (possibly relevant to direct sales and MLMs) emphasize practical, task-focused group activities aimed at developing applicable skills; basic levels aim to impart field knowledge.

- Decision-making without principles requires constant effort; following a framework may facilitate more consistent actions, which can relate to MLM training/retention methods.

- There is a general uniformity in risk perception among different genders and age groups.

- Effective coaching (possibly analogous to MLM mentorship) is based on personal experience and integrity; poor coaching is prevalent in some fields, possibly including MLMs.

- Psychoanalytic coaching is forecast as a significant trend for professionals in helping fields over the coming years.

- Only a small percentage of life outcomes are based on circumstances; most are determined by individual reactions—a belief often leveraged by MLM messaging to encourage positive thinking and resilience amidst adversity.

- Investment in relationships (or organizations) that are genuinely useful to others creates lasting bonds, whereas transactional or exploitative behavior may have the opposite effect.

This dynamic is similar to how MLMs often frame participation as investment in a supportive, opportunity-driven community, though there may be exploitative elements—a key topic in MLM criticism.

- The text discusses reciprocity and transactional relationships; in settings where gifts or incentives are given, future obligations are often implied.

MLMs have been criticized for masking recruitment as gifts or community events, creating subtle obligations.

- It is noted that misunderstandings about value exchange can lead to problematic “investments,” a dynamic sometimes manipulated in MLM recruitment tactics.

- Overall, practical skills, psychological growth, risk assessment, and transactional relationships are recognized as important themes—many of which are relevant to the appeal, retention, and structure of MLMs.

**Note:** While the provided text contains broad insights into education, motivation, psychology, and transactional relationships—all of which can be thematically linked to MLMs—the extract contains little direct reference to recent trends, company performance, or hard data on MLMs.

For your report, you will likely need to supplement this with more MLM-specific data (e.g., on Amway, Herbalife, Mary Kay, LuLaRoe, etc.

), especially regarding their changing popularity and market performance in the past few years, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and industry exits or model shifts.

**Summary of Key Nuggets:**

1.

**Emotions in Organizations:**
   - Organizational research often neglects the importance of emotional experiences in the workplace.

- Activists and civil society workers particularly accumulate intense emotional experiences, driving their commitment to change.

- The article stresses the need for institutions and individuals to recognize the political and emotional rights intersecting within organizational structures and broader social struggles.

- Attention to emotions is necessary for institutional development and for understanding the impact of oppressive contexts.

**Maslow’s Hierarchy & Sociopolitical Dynamics:**
   - Maslow’s hierarchy is used as a lens for understanding how governments and societies prioritize needs, including factors like dignity, safety, and belonging.

- There is a tendency to empathize with and support the "underdog" (e.g., Morocco in international sports), which reflects psychological and possibly socioeconomic alignments and aspirations.

**Crisis Management in Groups:**
   - The internal dynamics of coping with crises, such as a student sit-in, present opportunities for growth and change—unique connections and forms of resistance arise during these events.

- Empowering, trusting, and effective leadership within groups is essential for navigating challenges at a radical or transformative level.

**Decision Fatigue and Willpower:**
   - Everyday life involves a constant stream of decisions, which can be exhausting, a situation exacerbated by societal abundance of choices.

- Research on willpower indicates that belief in unlimited versus limited self-control strongly affects one’s endurance and decision-making resilience.

- Studies suggest that interventions (like glucose/sugar) only enhance self-control in those who believe willpower is limited.

**Dual-Process Models of Behavior:**
   - Human behavior is explained by models distinguishing deliberate, slow thinking versus impulsive, in-the-moment action.

- Success and goal attainment can be hindered not just by personal qualities but also by the nature and frequency of temptations and obstacles encountered.

**Executive Function and Group Examples:**
   - Executive function (planning, self-control, goal management) is crucial, yet can be contextually depleted or influenced by beliefs and environmental factors.

- Group behavior studies, especially in social psychology, examine how negative emotions can lead to collective violence or dissent.

**Application of Psychology in Organizations:**
   - Personality tests are vital for selecting suitable personnel, including in sales roles, where the seller’s psychology impacts the buyer’s behavior.

- Psychology informs training and development, such as for soldiers and mental health diagnosis.

**Intuition and Experience:**
   - Experience and intuition are essential to effective decision-making; mere longevity in a role does not necessarily equate to increased expertise or depth.

**General Insights:**
- Emotional, psychological, and organizational dynamics are deeply intertwined, impacting not only individual well-being but also group and institutional effectiveness.

- Effective management, leadership, and social changes must account for the emotional landscape and psychological needs of their members.

- Decision-making is both a rational and emotional process, heavily influenced by beliefs about self-control and by environmental cues and pressures.

It is mostly philosophical and contextual.

**Summary of Extracts (approx.

Title:

Content: The news is by your side.

Virtue of taking risks and delaying gratifications

Recently, we carried out an intriguing but tempting social experiment in which the participants were asked to choose between two options: toss a coin to win $1 billion if a head shows up or pick a $10-million cheque without any toss.

The comical aspect of it is how an overwhelming majority opted to take home the comparatively meager but incontestable share of $10-million—only 31% of the respondents took the courage to test the depth of the river.

The motivation behind the exercise was not to gauge the participants’ pecuniary obsession but to subtly assess their risk appetite. It is a choice between instant and delayed gratifications. The latter has often been adjudged as a predictor of future success, as depicted in the famous “Stanford Marshmallow” experiment which was carried out in the 1960s by psychology professor, Walter Mischel of Stanford University.

In the studies, children were asked to select between two options: one small instant reward (a sweet or a marshmallow, hence the name “marshmallow experiment”) or two small rewards after waiting for a short time (around 15 minutes). The tester left the room to allow the children to make their uninfluenced choice.

The trajectory of the children was followed for two decades. The research revealed that those children who waited longer for the desirable reward tended to fare better in terms of their academics, body mass index, and even psychological health.

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The inability to delay gratification in adults is associated with “impulse control disorders”, a pathological term used to describe one’s failure to resist the urge, impulse, or temptation that may harm oneself or others. Such temptations are a consequence of the dysfunction of Striatum, a critical component of the forebrain in charge of the reward system. Thus, drug addicts can be considered typical prisoners of instant gratifications.

Another study conducted by Keith Simonton, a psychology professor at the University of California Davis shows that renowned scientific figures such as Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, etc. are prolific risk-takers, chasing ideas that seem counter to prevailing thoughts.

Even in political space, risk appetite influences a candidate’s prosperity. For example, in 1999, Atiku Abubakar, despite winning his gubernatorial elections gambled for the uncertain vice-presidential seat. He took calculated risks to win his desire, and only God knows what the future holds for him.

The propensity of individuals to take risks in unforeseen circumstances without fear of failure is, without doubt, the propeller that drives them towards fulfilling their ambitions. Willingness to take risks forms a substantial part of the stories of many accomplished entrepreneurs globally. Let us scan through a few of them and extract some takeaways.

The success story of the celebrated 650,000 barrels per day Dangote integrated oil refinery and petrochemical complex is a testimony to the worth of taking calculated risks. In one of his interviews, Aliko Dangote, narrated what he thought could have been “the end of the road for Dangote group.” The challenges encountered at different stages of the project, which nearly led to its collapse, after investing the over $12bn loan was, according to Dangote, “the most terrifying experience of his life.” The rest is now history.

Dangote’s resolve to accomplish his desire of establishing Africa’s biggest refinery and world’s largest single-train facility could not have been realized if not for his resilience and steadfastness to the original cause. Essentially, his ability to manage risks and see opportunities and tap them in a timely fashion from the Nigerian market remains his idiosyncratic strength.

The journey of the Facebook—now called Metaverse—co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg has yet another compulsive representation of risk-taking adventure.

In his sophomore year, Zuckerberg decided to quit the prestigious Harvard University to nurture his social application company—Facebook—which started from just a group of friends. Until June 2004, Facebook was run by Mark and his friends from out of a dorm room of the Ivy League institution. By the end of the year 2004, Facebook has reached more than one million users.

The Business Insider report of April 16, 2017, has it that a string of suitors including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Friendster, The Washington Post, Viacom, NBC, and Myspace were speculated to initiate acquisition overtures to Facebook. Yet, their offers got declined. Yahoo’s initial offer of $1bn was however the most pronounced. As of then, the young CEO and his team were widely criticized and publicly derided.

Today, the Bloomberg Billionaires index placed Zuckerberg’s net worth at $121.6bn making him the sixth richest man on earth. His social application company—Facebook—remains the most widely used social networking site connecting over 2.8 billion subscribers globally. Facebook has extended its frontiers to acquire Instagram and the WhatsApp companies making it the global tech giant.

The takeaway from Zuckerberg’s struggles is his risk-taking proclivity which lies in his ability to sacrifice immediate luxuries for more rewarding future gains; from the audacious decision to quit Harvard, his refusal to forfeit his company—despite being offered a seductive amount, and turning down lucrative employment offers from prominent firms.

Next is the story of the South African-born American business mogul, Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, a company that manufactures electric cars, solar roofs, and batteries. Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, the first private company to launch spacecraft to the international space station.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk was accepted for a Ph.D. degree in energy physics at the prestigious Stanford University.  However, this development coincided with the time of the internet boom, and his dream of acquiring a Doctor of Philosophy Degree never saw the light of the day. Musk bravely took the risk and dropped his Ph.D. plan to establish his first company, Zip2 in 1995.

Musk is, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, the richest man on earth today, with a net worth of $302bn. If successful, he will be the first man to colonize the planet Mars, going by his plan to launch the first cargo mission to the Red Planet in 2022.

Generally, groundbreaking innovations are often realized by challenging the status core and going out of the comfort zone. People’s ability to depart from their comfort zone is tied with their risk-taking strength, which our experiment revealed its paucity. It is like the case of one who wants fruit but does not want to risk moving to the branch of the tree. “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary,” said the American Author, Jim Rohn.

If any, the experiment further divulges our perhaps, spiritually-driven attitude of contentment which, in my opinion, should be open to refinement. It is never—and will never be—a misdemeanor to aspire for prestige.

Thus, having established that ability to take risks is the oxygen that drives success in every field of endeavor: from academia to business environment and from politics to industry, it becomes essential to take as many calculated risks in life as possible, if one succeeds, they can lead. If they fail, they can guide.

  • Dr. Wudil writes from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

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2500 characters):**

- **Mathematics as Interpretation:** Math is highlighted as a tool for both understanding and interpreting the world, including human behavior, especially effective when applied at a large scale (e.g., social trends or societal changes).

Title:

Content: Reel science

The biggest sci-fi show of 2021 reveals the real science of predicting the future

“Maths is the best way we have of understanding the world around us.”

Psychohistory is “the destiny of the human race expressed in numbers.”

In Foundation, an Apple TV+ series loosely based on the books by Isaac Asimov, psychohistory is the use of mathematical models to predict what will happen in the future. Developed by mathematical genius Hari Seldon and imparted to his young apprentice Gaal Dornick, these complex calculations point to a dangerous new world: one where an empire falls leading to 30-thousand years of dark ages.

What might save them is acting now on these predictions.

At its core, sci-fi fascinates audiences by using complex scientific ideas to help us make sense of complex worlds — both fictional and real. Accordingly, the idea that we can use math to make predictions on a large scale has its roots in real-life mathematics.

Maths is the best way we have of understanding the world around us,” Kit Yates, a mathematical biologist at the University of Bath and author of The Math of Life and Death, tells Inverse. Yates is currently working on a book about using math to predict the future — but don’t call her work psychohistory.

Warning: Light spoilers for Foundation below.

Reel Science is an Inverse series that reveals the real (and fake) science behind your favorite movies and TV.

Is psychohistory real?

Psychohistory isn’t technically a real area of study — but it does resemble real-life applications of real-life mathematics and psychology.

“Building mathematical models is the best way we have to make predictions about what will happen in the future,” Yates says.

Math is also used to interpret, rather than predict, human behavior.

“I do create mathematical models of human psychology, but my goal is not to predict future behavior, but to simplify — reveal the essence of — human psychology,’ George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, tells Inverse.

Mathematical models “don’t seek to capture human behavior in all its enormous complexity,” Loewenstein adds. He stresses “very few models could be used even to predict” the behavior of groups of people in particular situations, let alone the behavior of individuals.

Yates agrees — mathematical modeling works best on a larger scale. Even in Foundation, Hari’s mathematical models operate on the scale of empires, not human lives.

“Just as in Foundation, mathematical prediction works better when we try to predict what is going to happen at the population-level,” Yates says.

“Mathematical modeling is by no means a perfect framework. A model is only as good as the assumptions on which it rests.”

Using math to predict the future

While predicting the collapse of society might feel estranged from everyday life, you’ve likely already benefited from mathematical predictions.

For example, every time we look at the weather forecast on a smartphone, we’re relying on the power of mathematical models to predict the future.

“At a personal level, we need to know what the weather will be like this afternoon so we can decide whether or not to hang out the washing,” Yates says.

It’s also common to hear people trying to game the stock market or win the lottery using mathematical formulas and probabilities. In the stock market, people called “quants” spend their days generating algorithms to predict certain financial behavior and identify potential trading opportunities.

“Some people have successfully used mathematical models to predict not the stock market, but specific trends in specific sectors — which is all it takes to make money,” Loewenstein says.

Meanwhile, every time you purchase an item on Amazon, the site’s predictive modeling captures that data, using it to offer suggestions — predictions – about what you might like to purchase next.

Actuaries also use statistics to predict the likelihood of risks, while some police departments attempt to use predictive modeling to forecast crime (this type of modeling, however, is widely criticized).

“One of the biggest problems with making predictions is that they can change the future.”

Many of these mathematical models work only because they rely on certain assumptions about human behavior.

“One of the biggest problems with making predictions is that they can change the future – they can become self-defeating prophecies,” Yates says.

This concept is similar to one raised in Foundation. Hari argues exact predictions cannot be revealed to society at large, because if the world knew what was predicted, humans would alter their behavior (there’s more to this but that would be a major spoiler).

“For example, mathematical modeling at the start of the pandemic received criticism because it predicted hundreds of thousands of deaths – many of which didn’t come to pass,” Yates says.

“What people tend to forget in hindsight was that these were projections for what would happen if nothing was done to mitigate the spread of the disease,” he says. “In fact the predictions themselves acted as a wakeup call startling politicians into action, taking measures to save lives and turn the modeled predictions into self-defeating prophecies."

Loewenstein says only artificial intelligence (AI) could come close to predicting complex human behavior on that scale but “how the AI makes such predictions successfully won’t be comprehensible to humans.”

Can math predict the fall of nations?

In Foundation, we’re led to believe that Hari poses a threat to the empire because his predictions could lead to a loss of faith in the status quo. Hari’s apprentice, Gaal, meanwhile, is somewhat skeptical of Hari’s grand predictions.

Like Gaal, many real-life mathematicians are skeptical of using math to predict the course of nations.

“I do think social and behavioral scientists have some profound insights into when and why civilizations rise and fall, and these insights could be used to predict the future success of economies and even of the global economy,” Loewenstein says.

But he also adds, “few of these insightful and profound analyses make much, if any, use of math.”

Yates agrees, saying that “there are so many variables that feed into a process like the rise or fall of an empire, that predicting anything with any certainty is difficult.

Societal collapse hinges on several factors rooted in complex human behavior. Take the fall of Rome, for example. Historians are still debating what, exactly, caused the collapse of this powerful empire.

“That’s not to say that making predictions about large systems with many variables is impossible,” Yates argues.

It’s perhaps less controversial to use math to predict the fall of a nation than to ensure its survival. Today, mathematicians today are using algorithms to prevent gerrymandering — a process where politicians redraw congressional maps to favor certain voters at the expense of others.

Making math cool again

Recent shows like Foundation and movies like The Man Who Knew Infinity have featured younger and prominent characters of color in leading roles, countering the historical past of mathematics as a bastion of older white men. These kinds of media could make mathematics more accessible to a wider audience.

“I think there is a trope that portrays mathematicians on TV as quirky, eccentric, or unhinged,” Yates says.

Foundation both reinforces and challenges these tropes. Hari’s mathematical skills make him an outcast in the eyes of the empire — a threat to be eliminated.

But when Gaal counts numerical patterns under her breath to calm herself down, her companion largely accepts her explanation, rather than mocking her — a positive step forward in representation for math geeks everywhere. Similarly, the characters toss around phrases like “radical integers” and “proofs” in routine conversations.

These small details can help reinforce the idea that math is an everyday part of our world and that mathematicians are relatable people.

“I’m always at pains to point out that mathematicians are just normal people,” Yates says. “You don’t have to be different or an outcast to be a mathematician.”

Foundation is streaming now on Apple TV+.

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Predictions themselves can influence outcomes, as illustrated by historical analogies like the fall of Rome.

- **Predictive Models & Strategy:** Simple, transparent models (like a simple moving average in machine learning) are valuable for establishing a baseline, managing uncertainty, and providing clear, defendable decisions.

Title:

Content: Starting Simple: The Strategic Advantage of Baseline Models in Machine Learningby@kustarev
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Starting Simple: The Strategic Advantage of Baseline Models in Machine Learning

by Andrey KustarevMay 1st, 2024

Too Long; Didn't Read

Starting your machine learning projects by introducing a simple baseline model is not just a preliminary step. It is a strategy. A strategy that aligns with Agile methodologies promoting efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability. It helps to establish benchmarks, maximize value while minimizing waste, provides a simple explanation of the logic behind the model, and allows incremental testing and validation.

Starting a new machine learning project brings a rush of enthusiasm, and it might be quite tempting to jump straight into the deep end. There are plenty of the latest cutting-edge models or complex algorithms that you might have read about. They promise groundbreaking results, and avoiding the temptation to experiment with them right off the bat is a tough task.

Any modern entrepreneur is eager to test state-of-the-art techniques and showcase sophisticated (and successful) projects to the community. Yet, this enthusiasm, while good, can sometimes take up significant time as you fine-tune hyperparameters and encounter the difficulty of implementing complex models.

In this process, there is one main question that needs to be asked: How do we actually measure the effectiveness of our model?

Finding out whether the complexity of our model is justified or if the performance is genuinely superior can be challenging. This happens when there is no simpler point of reference. Here, having a baseline model becomes very important. A baseline gives that essential reference point — it is straightforward, quick to build, and inherently explainable. Surprisingly, often a baseline model, which may only take 10% of the total development effort, can achieve up to 90% of the desired performance, producing a highly efficient path to reasonable results.

The idea of starting simple is not just an easy approach for beginners — it is a fundamental practice that stays relevant at all stages of a data science career. It is a grounding mechanism and a great reminder to balance our ambition for complexity with the practicalities of clear, easy-to-understand, and manageable solutions.

Understanding Baseline Models

A baseline model is the most basic version used to tackle a problem. Typically, these models include linear regression for continuous outcomes or logistic regression for categorical outcomes. For example, a linear regression can predict stock returns based on historical price data, while logistic regression can classify credit applicants as high or low risk.

This approach differs from more complex models like neural networks or ensemble methods, which, while powerful, can make grasping the problem more difficult and increase the time needed for development due to their complexity and significant computational resources.

Benefits of Starting with a Baseline Model

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a highly important initial step in the development of any ML model. When you set up a baseline model, you establish a fundamental performance metric that all the models that come after (which are usually more complex) have to surpass to justify their complexity and resource consumption. This process is not only a great sanity check but also grounds your expectations and gives you a clear measure of progress.

For example, imagine developing a model to forecast financial market trends using a simple moving average (SMA) as the baseline. This SMA might use short-term historical data to predict future stock prices, achieving an initial accuracy of 60% in forecasting market movements correctly. This model then sets the benchmark for any advanced models that follow. If a sophisticated model, such as a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, is later developed and achieves an accuracy of 65%, the performance increment can be precisely measured against the initial 60% baseline.

This comparison is crucial for determining whether the 5% improvement in accuracy justifies the additional complexity and computational demands of the LSTM. Without a baseline like this, making informed decisions about the scalability and practical application of more complex models becomes challenging.

This approach to benchmarking makes sure that improvements to model complexity are justified and will result in real improvements, all while making the development process aligned with effective outcomes.

Cost-Effectiveness

Following a cost-effective approach in ML is key. Especially when you set out on a goal to align your processes with principles that put maximizing value while minimizing waste as a priority. When you start off with a baseline model, you reduce the resources and time needed for initial model development and testing. This means quick prototyping – and that is essential for instant feedback and iterative improvements.

With this baseline, any complexity that you add can now be carefully evaluated.

For example, if you want to make the transition to a more complex algorithm like a vector autoregression (VAR) and find that it only marginally increases forecasting accuracy, you need to rethink whether this slight improvement actually justifies the additional computational demands and complexity. The answer might be no. Then the simpler model remains the more cost-effective option.

By focusing on cost-effectiveness, you ensure that resources are used efficiently and achieve more than just technical enhancements. Also, it delivers practical, value-added solutions that are justified in terms of performance improvement and resource allocation. This way, each investment in model complexity is warranted, which contributes to the overall project goals without expenses that are out of proportion.

Transparency and Interpretability

In sectors like finance where decisions must adhere to strict regulatory standards, the transparency of models is not just a business advantage. It is a strategic approach that significantly helps in the process of meeting regulations and facilitates easier communication with stakeholders who may not have a (profound) technical background.

Let’s take our SMA model. It is easily interpretable because its outputs are directly related to the input data. This makes it easy to explain how each input influences the predicted outcome. When decisions based on the model's forecasts need to be justified to external regulators or internally to non-technical team members, this simplicity is key to your processes.

If a decision based on the SMA model's forecasts is questioned, the transparency of the model allows for a quick and simple explanation of the logic behind its work. This can help with regulatory reviews and audits and improve trust and adoption among users and decision-makers. Moreover, as model complexity increases, for instance moving to more complex algorithms like ARIMA or VAR models for more nuanced predictions, the interpretability of the initial SMA baseline becomes a benchmark for what level of explanation you need to present.

By using regressors like feature significance scores or SHAP values combined with more complex models, the progress of any further model performance stays transparent. This helps the purpose of the safety procedure to not be discarded for more advanced models. The point of the simple baseline model is to always implement the condition that the overall structure and significance will be kept even as the level of complexity increases. This ensures provisions of compliance and communications that will be effective.

Risk Management

Risk management is another important aspect of developing machine learning models, especially in sectors like finance where accurate and reliable forecasts have an impact on decision-making. Having a simple baseline model is a great strategy for managing these risks.

A straightforward baseline provides an understandable starting point, which allows you to gradually (and safely) add enhancements to model complexity.

For example, the SMA model (while basic) makes a solid foundation for finding underlying patterns and potential anomalies in stock price movements. Using it helps identify early signs of volatility or abnormal market behavior. Doing that is crucial, avoiding significant financial risks before deploying more complex predictive algorithms.

Moreover, using a baseline model minimizes the risk of overfitting. It’s a common pitfall in financial modeling. Overfitting happens when a model is too finely tuned to historical data and captures noise rather than the underlying pattern. Because of this, you can get misleading predictions and get unreliable trading strategies as a result. A simpler model with fewer parameters is less prone to this issue, ensuring that the predictions it offers are generally applicable to unseen data.

Increasing complexity as SMA advances on the small moving average model like ARIMA and VAR become more complex, SMA's simple structure can help us systematically consider the effectiveness of each added complexity. This stepwise improvement in complexity helps maintain control over the model’s performance, making sure that each additional complexity layer provides a clear benefit and does not bring in unwarranted risk.

This systematic approach to escalating model complexity helps in understanding how changes to the model affect its behavior and reliability. It also ensures that the risks are always well-managed. When you start with a simple baseline and carefully control each stage of development, you ensure that the forecasting models remain both powerful and safe, supporting financial decision-making.

Key Considerations When Implementing Baseline Models

To select the most suitable baseline model, you need to understand the business problem and data characteristics. For example, time-series predictions for financial markets might start with an ARIMA model as a baseline to capture temporal dynamics in a simple way. Data quality and preprocessing also play key roles; even the simplest model can perform poorly if fed inadequate or poorly preprocessed data.

And lastly, knowing when to transition from a baseline to a more complex model is essential. This decision should be guided by incremental testing and validation, in line with Agile's iterative approach.

To Sum Up

Starting your machine learning projects by introducing a simple baseline model is not just a preliminary step. It is a strategy. A strategy that aligns with Agile methodologies promoting efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability. Approaching your project in this way can significantly enhance project outcomes by ensuring that every increase in complexity is justified and adds tangible value. Embracing simplicity is a powerful thing. It is an especially great strategy in fields like finance where decisions must be swift.

Sometimes, neither complex nor simple approaches are strictly “better,” signaling the need to consider situational strategy when tackling problems.

- **Social Influence & Persuasion (Cialdini):** Businesses, particularly those in sales/MLMs, use proven psychological tactics to gain compliance and build social proof.

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Robert Cialdini’s Principles Of Influence Have Held Up For 40 Years, Here’s Why

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In recent years, behavioral science has been going through a replication crisis. Research results, some widely cited and some even applied to real-world problems, couldn’t be replicated when other researchers tried the same experiments. Sometimes, the failure to replicate is caused by differences in the experimental process or subject pool. In a smaller number of cases, findings have been discredited due to manipulated statistics or fabricated data. Ironically, a prominent dishonesty researcher has been accused of fraud.

Despite growing doubt in whether we should be using behavioral science findings in business and government, there is one body of work has endured for four decades and seems more applicable today than ever. Robert Cialdini’s seminal book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion was published 40 years ago and remains a bestseller today.

Except for Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People, no business book has endured as well as Influence. The book has sold seven million copies and has been translated into 44 languages. The latest edition weight in at a whopping 592 pages and 2.31 pounds. Even today, the book consistently ranks in the top 1,000 at Amazon, not in specific category but among all books sold there.

Cialdini’s principles have become common parlance in business. Many marketers who use the term “social proof” don’t realize it was coined by Cialdini in 1984. Influence has been endorsed by luminaries ranging from Warren Buffet and the late Charlie Munger to Gwyneth Paltrow and Guy Kawasaki.

What Are Cialdini’s Principles of Influence?

Cialdini’s Principles of Influence, sometimes called Principles of Persuasion, are, very briefly:

  1. Reciprocity: People tend to give back to others when they have received something first.
  2. Scarcity: People want things more when those things are scarce or limited.
  3. Authority: People pay attention to those who know more about a topic, like experts and celebrities, when making decisions.
  4. Consistency: People try to be consistent with past decisions and statements.
  5. Liking: People are more influenced by those they like, including those with whom they have something in common.
  6. Social Proof: People look to others for cues as to what they should do.
  7. Unity: A stronger form of Liking that goes beyond shared attributes and is based on shared identity - family members, teammates, and members of any group that the individual identifies strongly with.

In this short video, Cialdini himself describes each principle briefly:

Why Have Cialdini’s Principles Endured?

A big reason many behavioral science findings either don’t replicate or turn into useful real-world tools is that they tend to be lab studies, often conducted with students as subjects. If your results are based on 47 MIT sophomore psychology students, they may not tell you much about the behavioral tendencies of a broad swath of humanity. They may not even replicate at UCLA or Oxford.

Cialdini’s ideas are robust because he began not in a lab but in the real world. He spent three years going “undercover” and training at organizations he knew were effective persuaders: used car dealers, telemarketing firms, and fundraisers. These businesses had mastered the art of getting people to say “yes,” and the only way to learn their methods was to join them and go through their training.

It’s worth noting the level of sacrifice involved in taking years away from conventional research and publishing papers for an up-and-coming professor. But, sometimes great sacrifice yields great rewards.

By observing the techniques proven to work not in a lab but with real people spending real money, Cialdini was able to distill his six principles of influence, later expanded to seven. Further experimentation, often outside the lab and in environments like shopping malls and hotels, added more data to support Cialdini’s theories.

Countless Commercial Replications

Academic replication is fine, but the real test for a behavioral science finding is whether it can be applied across a range of real-world situations. In the forty years since Influence released, these principles have been used time and time again in every commercial context. When the travel site tells you there are “only two rooms left” and “23 people booked this hotel in the last 48 hours,” they are using scarcity and social proof. When the salesperson mentions that you are both fans of the same team or both dog owners, that’s liking. When you buy Lebron James basketball shoes or a book endorsed by an author you respect, that’s authority.

Businesses use the principles because they work, as shown by both experience and extensive testing.

Do Cialdini’s Principles Always Work?

These principles are so basic and ubiquitous one might expect that they will always increase compliance, i.e., boost the chance that the person will take the action you want. These mental shortcuts are reliably effective, but don’t work every time in every situation.

For example, digital marketing experts say that adding social proof to a landing page that previously lacked it will boost the page’s conversion rate nine times out of ten. But sometimes, it will have no effect or even reduce conversion.

What’s going on? There are lots of reasons why social proof might not work. Perhaps the product is so well known that there’s no need for social proof. Would hearing that a hundred million Americans drink Coca Cola make you more likely to buy some? Probably not.

Other types of products, like luxury or artisanal items, might actually be hurt by social proof. If you are buying an Italian supercar or a costly handbag that was hand-crafted by skilled artisans, the last thing you want to see is “thousands sold.” You prefer to imagine that yours is unique, and you’ll never see anyone with the same thing.

How to Apply Cialdini’s Principles

Sometimes, you don’t have to think too hard or worry about testing the effects of using a principle like authority. If a famous expert has declared your product to be amazing, put that endorsement where everyone will see it. There’s almost zero chance it won’t help sales.

Normally, though, the best way to use these powerful principles is to formulate a hypothesis you can test. If possible, use an A/B or multivariate test to see if, for example, “Over a million sold,” increases sales. There are, of course, endless variations you can try. For example, instead of touting the number of units sold, telling people the product is preferred by more than 50,000 businesses might be more persuasive. If you have many testimonials, test various combinations to see which work best.

The point in the customer journey makes a difference, too. If customers are unfamiliar with the product or the company, using authority will likely increase the number who move forward. If someone is ready to buy, on the other hand, scarcity may be the nudge they need to act.

Beyond Cialdini’s Principles

Beyond Cialdini's principles, other strategies based on behavioral science can change customer behavior. Dozens of cognitive biases can be applied in specific situations. Even factors like colors and type fonts can affect customer behavior. (Hint: small and difficult to read fonts usually reduce compliance.) Neuromarketing uses techniques like eye-tracking and brain imaging to uncover subconscious reactions that traditional methods miss.

Despite the myriad ways marketers can use behavioral science and neuroscience to improve results, even after four decades Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Influence are the best place to start. They are timeless and have been proven to be effective.

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However, social proof isn’t universally effective—if a product is very well known, people may not need extra reassurance from others.

- **Change, Belonging, and Support:** Navigating significant change often challenges personal identity and assumptions—pushing individuals out of their comfort zones.

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We’ve all heard the saying, “The only constant is change.” Yet few experiences embody this truth as intensely as graduate school.

Graduate students navigate a distinct period of intense transformation and uncertainty. They face rigorous academic demands, often juggling research, teaching and coursework. On top of that, they must adapt to evolving social dynamics, strive to establish a sense of belonging within their community and confront the formidable question of what lies beyond graduation. Every aspect of this journey represents a profound change, making it an exceptionally complex period in their lives.

Transitions, however, don’t have to be a constant source of anxiety and frustration. With the right tools and mindset, such shifts can become a catalyst for personal and professional growth. Change management, a strategic approach often used by organizations during major transitions, can empower individuals to embrace change with confidence. The same principles that enable organizations to navigate large-scale shifts can be equally transformative for graduate students facing personal and academic transitions.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for managing change, the Prosci ADKAR model, a proven framework that organizational leaders use, can provide valuable guidance for graduate students. ADKAR stands for: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.

  1. Awareness. Recognizing the need for change is the crucial first step. That could mean acknowledging the need to better manage your time to balance research, teaching and coursework, or realizing you need to develop specific skills such as data analysis or programming to excel in your field.
  2. Desire. Once you’ve identified a need for change, cultivate a genuine desire to embrace it. That could involve finding the motivation to network with professionals, step outside your comfort zone or tackle a challenging research topic that aligns with your career aspirations. It’s a crucial step, and without it, change would be impossible.
  1. Knowledge. Armed with awareness and desire, it’s time to gain the knowledge and skills required for change. That might involve taking courses, attending workshops, seeking mentorship or immersing yourself in relevant literature and online learning communities.
  2. Ability. The ability stage is where you put your knowledge into action. For instance, if you’ve completed coursework on project management, you might lead a team initiative, utilizing those principles to guide the project to success. Experiential learning gained through the application of knowledge will help you feel more confident in your ability to navigate through the change.
  3. Reinforcement. Finally, focus on making the change sustainable. Seek feedback from advisers and colleagues, participate in professional development, and celebrate your successes—all of which can help you stay motivated and continue to grow.

Embracing Growth Through Change

All this said, while the ADKAR model offers a structured approach to managing change and can be very helpful, it doesn’t encompass the full spectrum of challenges and emotional nuances encountered in graduate school.

For example, one of us, Roshni, vividly remembers the profound adjustment when she moved to a new country for her graduate studies. She found it to be a complete upheaval. The biggest challenge wasn’t just adapting to a new city but adjusting to a completely different academic culture. Back home, she was accustomed to rote memorization, but here in the United States, graduate school demanded critical thinking and independent research.

Her early lab experiences further highlighted this disconnect. In the beginning, she felt like a fish out of water. While her peers seemed to handle lab equipment with ease, she struggled with the basics. Such moments made her question her place in graduate school.

Yet, those challenges significantly spurred Roshni’s growth. In fact, when we start to see change as a key part of our growth, we really tap into something transformative. Yes, it’s uncomfortable. Yes, it forces us to rethink who we are and what we believe and challenges us to push the boundaries of our comfort zones. But it also lets us find new strengths, build new relationships and become more adaptable. Embracing these challenges is how we truly advance and grow as a person and in our careers.

Managing Change Through Community

This isn’t something you have to do on your own. Building a strong community can be a game-changer when it comes to finding your footing during times of change and will help you weather the ebbs and flows of the process.

In graduate school, where everything is in flux, being part of student organizations or affinity groups can make a big difference. They’re not just about having a network or networking, though that’s a definite perk. They’re about finding your people, those who truly understand the distinct challenges and shared experiences. Affinity groups, in particular, offer a safe haven to connect with others who “get it.” This sense of belonging can be a game-changer, especially when everything else feels up in the air. Knowing you are not alone and leaning in to support one another can have profound impact on your wellbeing.

But don’t stop there. Step outside the academic bubble and into your community. Volunteer, attend local events, apply what you’re learning in the real world. It’s a chance to broaden your horizons, give back, and maybe even discover a new passion.

Finding the right community might take a few detours, but the connections you make will be worth it. They’ll challenge you, support you and, ultimately, help you thrive in the exciting chaos of graduate school.

Asking for Help

In the midst of change, it’s easy to feel tempted to go it alone, even when surrounded by a supportive community. However, it’s worth repeating that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a testament to your wisdom and resilience. Everyone, from new employees to professionals on the job for several years, encounters challenges that require guidance. Everyone experiences an adjustment period. Whether you’re learning a new technique, navigating complicated tax laws or adapting to a different cultural environment, you can find resources and people available and eager to help you. Reaching out not only opens doors to solutions you might not discover on your own, but also strengthens your connection to the community around you. However, connecting with others is just one part of successfully managing change.

Cultivating Self-Compassion

Equally important is cultivating self-compassion. It’s important to give yourself permission to be imperfect—allowing room for messiness and mistakes, and treating any failures or discomfort with the same kindness you’d show a good friend. Recognizing the courage that it takes to step outside your comfort zone will enable you to meet the inevitable ups and downs of life with grit and grace. This self-awareness is helpful not only for navigating graduate school but is also highly valued in the workplace. Employers recognize that people who can gracefully handle complex changes and learn from them are invaluable assets, contributing significantly to the long-term success and leadership of the organization. Make sure to intentionally incorporate rest and rejuvenation time.

Creating Supportive Institutional Environments

Graduate school presents undeniable challenges, requiring resilience and adaptability from students. However, it’s equally important for leaders of higher education institutions to play their part, as well: to cultivate supportive environments that normalize struggles and encourage help-seeking. Think about it: a strong community where students lift each other up. Classes that not only teach subject matter but also the skills to navigate change and uncertainty. A culture of open conversations where challenges are shared and solutions found together. That’s the kind of environment that nurtures not just scholars, but well-rounded leaders.

Preparing future leaders isn’t about throwing them into the deep end and hoping they swim. It’s about teamwork, about providing them with the tools and support they need to confidently tackle whatever comes their way. When we do that, they won’t just survive graduate school transitions; they’ll thrive. They’ll leave their mark on the world, not out of sheer grit, but because they were empowered to reach their full potential.

Dinuka Gunaratne (he/him) is the director of career development and experiential learning at Northeastern University-Vancouver and a member of the board of Centre for Educational Research in Counselling (CERIC).

Roshni Rao is assistant vice provost of doctoral and postdoctoral life design at Johns Hopkins University.

They are both members of the Graduate Career Consortium, an international organization comprised of higher education professionals leading career and professional development for graduate students and postdocs since 1987.

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While much of this process can feel isolating, supportive communities and targeted learning (skills for change) can ease transitions.

Courses and group affiliations help build resilience and adaptation skills.

- **Notions of Merit:** Ideas about meritocracy can create entitlement among the "deserving," but these notions rest on numerous assumptions that merit further scrutiny.

Title:

Content: Take merit in its stride

Selection through merit begets a sense of entitlement, while rejection may lead to self-doubt and resentment

July 01, 2023 01:43 pm | Updated 01:43 pm IST

That merit is often tied to power and privilege is not readily acknowledged.  | Photo Credit: Freepik

He got the seat on “pure merit”. Behind this statement lurks a number of societal assumptions of what merit entails. That a person who gets into a college through merit is truly deserving of the seat. Further, merit as a construct is pure and unadulterated, making it sublime, even. A promotion that is merit-based is earned, unlike a placement through a diversity quota, for example. In a meritocracy, genuine talent and skills flourish as competition, though fierce, is fair.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not opposed to merit. I too believe that talent and competence should play significant roles in determining who gets placed where. That said, we need to be aware of the many assumptions tethered to the notion of merit. In his book, The Tyranny of Merit, philosopher Michael Sandel unpacks suppositions of meritocratic systems.

Reality check

First, merit begets a sense of entitlement or deservingness among those who “make it” in a meritocracy. That merit is often tied to power and privilege is not readily acknowledged. So, when students crack a competitive exam like the JEE, they exult. But cracking the JEE not only involves intelligence, motivation and years of toil, but also the support of coaches, mentors and parents who can fund extra classes. Impoverished students are often at a serious disadvantage. In the meanwhile, the coaching industry flourishes as more aspirants vie for a seat based on “pure merit”.

Further, the stakes of getting into premium institutes like the IITs, NITs and IIMs get higher. These hallowed portals of learning are not shy in advertising the stratospheric starting salaries offered to students during on-campus recruitments. As a result, these privileged students grow richer, while the gap with their loss-fortunate peers grows wider.

While students have every right to feel proud of their achievements, especially when they have invested considerable effort, there is often a fine line between pride and hubris. Winners, writes Sandel, may “inhale too deeply of their success” and exude a smug entitlement without necessarily acknowledging the myriad external forces that aided them. Furthermore, those who don’t make the cut are deemed unworthy and may suffer from humiliation because they too buy into the meritocratic ethos that we each deserve our lot. Those rejected by this sorting system are plagued by a toxic mix of self-doubt and resentment.

But the winners aren’t spared either, argues Sandel. When students’ self-worth rides entirely on achievement, the drive to remain at the top of the pyramid can exact a psychological toll on individuals, not to mention the social and moral costs. The rise in mental health issues in young people may partly be due to students subjecting themselves to chronic stress.

Sandel explains that the sociologist Michael Young, who first coined the term ‘meritocracy’ in 1958, predicted that it would create a stratified society plagued by self-conceit and self-doubt, neither of which is conducive to creating a harmonious society that caters to the well-being of every citizen.

Staying grounded

In The Harvard Gazette, Liz Mineo profiles Rehan Staton, a sanitation worker in Maryland who made it to the uber-competitive Harvard Law School and is now all set to graduate. Given that his inspiring story went viral when he was admitted, it is indeed admirable that Staton has remained level-headed about his stellar achievement. While he admits that he worked hard, he also acknowledges the contribution of his family, boss, co-workers, professors and Tyler Perry, the media mogul who offered to pay his fees after the hearing of Staton’s story.

Before graduating, Staton organised an event to express gratitude to the “custodians and service workers” at the law school, raising money to give each one a $100 gift certificate. He has also pledged to continue to “honour service workers” in the future. With due humility, he says, “I got lucky, but I made the most of my luck.” If more winners follow Staton’s example, we may create a more just and compassionate society.

The writer is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know. She blogs at www.arunasankaranarayanan.com

Top News Today

There’s an economic argument to reconsidering educational focus on the liberal arts amidst prevailing STEM emphasis, noting current decline in humanities and social sciences.

Title:

Content: There is an economic case for redefining liberal arts education

Summary

  • Critical thinking and the pursuit of liberal inquiry, as fostered by the humanities and social sciences among students, are important for the economy to prosper. Amid the STEM rush, we tend to forget this.

The humanities and social sciences are failing. Their popularity in the US has been waning in recent years, as many students enter science, technology, engineering and math fields to seek skills directly applicable to their careers, but the last few months have exposed a deeper weakness: The humanities and social sciences are no longer training students to be critical thinkers.

This failure creates serious challenges for our culture and democracy, leaving students less capable of managing a changing economy.

In the last decade, humanities enrolment has fallen 17%, as surveys show that more Americans now question the value of a college education. In 2015, 57% had a lot of confidence in the US higher education system, and now only 36% do. There is less desire among taxpayers to finance the humanities. West Virginia University is making drastic cuts to some of its humanities departments. North Carolina will no longer fund distinguished professorships at public universities in non-STEM fields.

It is not surprising that many students are flocking to STEM classes. The primary reason, if you ask students, is that they want to major in subjects that can get them good jobs. Reading great books, learning history and debating philosophy do not appear relevant to this goal. Perhaps students feel this way because the arts are not doing what traditionally made them valuable: teaching people how to think critically.

Critical thinking has never been more important. A changing economy offers no guarantees. Just a few years ago, learning to code seemed to offer stability. Now AI can write code. But the ability to think analytically, reason well and communicate clearly with a wide range of people will remain invaluable.

This is not the first time the economy has been rapidly transformed. Modern liberalism can be credited for the rise in wealth and living standards that came from the last major transition, from agriculture to industry. It is no coincidence, economic historian Deirdre McCloskey argues, that 18th century Europe was the centre of liberal thought and the birthplace of industrialization. What made this place and time exceptional, she argues, was a pervasive belief in the individual and the ability of anyone to become their best self.

These ideas may have come from academia, but they radiated through society. They helped bring about universal education and an atmosphere where ideas could be freely debated. This culture has economic value, too. It enables discovery of new things and building on the last thing.

Europe’s liberal outlook and the intellectual openness promoted by its universities helped create the conditions for exponential growth in wealth and living standards. Dogma drags down curiosity, innovation and growth.

Lately, as Clive Crook noted, many in the humanities have rejected notions of openness and free inquiry crucial to the university. Instead of teaching liberal principles, they emphasize a hierarchy of oppression and define people based on immutable characteristics. Such a reductive and ahistorical view of the world increases scepticism of the humanities.

The events of 7 October and its aftermath further exposed the intellectual inadequacy of the oppressor/victim approach. Reasonable people can disagree on many aspects of this long and complex conflict. Yet, in the humanities, too many professors have enabled a cartoonish version of history. Some of the most egregious ‘open letters’ about the Israel-Hamas war, for example, have come from professors in humanities and social sciences. The more balanced letters tend to be signed by professors in STEM, business and economics.

US universities have always been different than their overseas counterparts: Rather than study just one subject, such as law or philosophy, many US students receive a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education, including philosophy, history and literature, in addition to sciences. Still, it is not too much of a stretch to say that, in the 20th century, America’s universities played a similar role to Europe’s in the 18th century.

But here in the 21st—as the economy undergoes a transformation as radical as that of 200 years ago—US universities seem to have lost their way.

Educating people in the spirit of liberal principles is more important than ever. If you have a simplistic or reductive view of the world, AI will outthink you. But if you can reason, manage ambiguity and adapt to novel situations and new information, you can use AI to help you navigate a changing economy. That’s not the only reason US universities should re-establish the spirit of openness and free inquiry. But it’s a compelling one. ©bloomberg

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- **Communication Challenges:** Repetitive discussions can strain relationships and therapy; matching client and therapist is important.

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Content: Ronsisvalle: Change can be hard, messy and uncomfortable, but it's not impossible

Dr. Mike Ronsisvalle
Special to FLORIDA TODAY
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The psychotherapy session I was conducting seemed like Groundhog Day.

I was sitting with my engineer client, let's call him John, again talking about how he struggled to communicate well with his wife.

He told me again about his tendency to linger on facts and data points when discussing issues in the marriage.

While his wife wanted John to focus on her emotion and on empathy, John was getting stuck on providing “suggestions” about how she should respond to her stress regarding work and her relationship with her family.

He told me about how the conversation really took a turn for the worse when he asked his wife if she had been going to her yoga class and exercising.

After all, he was positive the research showed those activities would help her feel better.

John’s heart was in the right place, but he was again replicating all the maladaptive communication patterns that we had talked about for the past year in therapy.

As we discussed his therapy homework, John apologized for rehashing all the same problematic behaviors.

“I’m sorry we’re talking about the same thing over and over again," he said. "I want to do better, I’m just having a hard time executing in the moment.”

Therapeutic success:Ronsisvalle: Not making progress in therapy? Make sure you and therapist are good fit

Depression on the rise:Ronsisvalle: Depression rising at alarming rate among all demographics

Marijuana risks:Ronsisvalle: The dangers of marijuana are greater than you're being led to believe

The next client on my books couldn’t have been more different than John, but the session still felt like Groundhog Day to me.

Julia was a 22-year-old marijuana user who dropped out of college two years ago. She didn’t have any advanced degrees like John, she hadn’t been in a long-term romantic relationship in months and she was almost entirely disinterested in data of any kind.

Julia was a free spirit for sure, yet she was stuck in what seemed like an endless cycle of emotional addiction to marijuana. She talked with passion about her desire to stop smoking every week in session and was convinced marijuana had robbed her of motivation and investment in her future, but she just could not stop using.

Here you have two completely different individuals who are struggling with a very similar process: how does a human being create lasting behavior change?

It doesn’t matter whether you are an engineer trying to learn how to communicate better with your spouse or a marijuana user trying to stop smoking, the reality of our human condition is that it is difficult to make changes that last over time.

Change is hard and can be messy at first. Many of us feel like we are living Groundhog Day over and over again and are stuck in patterns of behavior that are incredibly difficult to break.

For many, our failure to change behavior only leads to complacency and frustration over time. In order to disconnect from these negative cycles and to create lasting changes in behavior we must first understand the barriers that keep us from maintaining positive changes over time.

Fully understanding and anticipating your barriers and blocks to behavior change is the first step to creating the healthy life you want to live. While everyone has unique barriers to their own change, there are some common strategies we can implement that will ensure we proactively and intentionally break through barriers that are holding us back.

Address procrastination

Many times the biggest blocks to our change is procrastination. It’s not that we don’t have very real intentions to change or that we don’t even know the steps that would be involved in making the change, it’s simply that we avoid starting.

Think about this process in your own life. How many of us believe we should start exercising immediately? I think it’s safe to say that most people would agree that exercise clearly benefits physical and mental health and that it’s important that we all do it consistently.

Many of us even have a workout routine we would complete on our first trip to the gym, yet we never quite take the step to start.

This procrastination can be devastating to lasting behavior change, and it’s important that you figure out how to break through this barrier now.

One trick that helps many people stop procrastinating is to focus on the timing of when we decide to start.

Change always feels more natural and manageable when it is congruent with the narrative we are building about our life.

For instance, change seems more manageable and exciting around New Year’s Day doesn’t it?

That’s because the new year feels like a new chapter, and that is how we organize our life.

We tell ourselves a story about who we are and we see our life in stages and seasons.

When I was in high school, I saw myself differently than I did when I was a college student.

After college and in graduate school I began to think of myself as a professional and then a business owner.

These different stages of my life encouraged me to make changes that were consistent with my new identity.

As we organize these different chapters of our life, the reset associated with a new beginning often motivates us to change.

When you begin to plan out the changes you want to make, look for the built-in resets that you can easily identify as a result of the start of a different stage or chapter.

Start working out on a Monday because it’s the beginning of the week, rather than on a Thursday or a Friday.

Look for holidays that you can use as a reset that might indicate the beginning of a new season.

For instance, Memorial Day is near the beginning of summer; it might be a great time to start eating healthier or reworking your résumé. Labor Day is the beginning of fall for many people, and it might be a great reset that would allow you to set new goals for your business.

Don’t worry if you can’t find an impending holiday to plan your life around, it’s more about the meaning we attach to any given day we are going to use as a reset to jumpstart our change process.

We can actually just label days and create meaning around days that will allow us more motivation for change.

Try to use the first or last day of the month as motivation to start something new.

Is Sept. 22 just a Wednesday, or was it the first day of fall?

That’s an example of just how easy it is to use certain days as a reset for change.

The meaning you assign to any start date is either going to encourage or discourage you to actually follow through with the change.

Harness the power of your own laziness

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed the clever idea of harnessing the power of laziness to help people begin and follow through with a change process.

This strategy follows a fairly simple logic: as humans we want to be comfortable and avoid negative emotions like boredom, stress and pain.

In fact, most people avoid spending any extra effort and will instead prefer what the researchers called “default options.”

Default options are what we end up with if we do absolutely nothing.

The default option on my iPhone is the Safari web browser.

My tendency, and the tendency of most people that use iPhones, is to use Safari as their web browser.

Now let’s be clear, I do not use Safari because it’s the best option. No, no, no, that would mean I was actually being intentional.

I use Safari because it’s easy, it happens automatically and I don’t have to expend any extra effort.

Basically, I’m avoiding the added stress and drama of taking five minutes to pick the web browser that best fits my needs.

I know, it's strange, but I challenge you to think about your life and how often you use the default option to make decisions about your behavior.

How amazing would it be if Chick-fil-A decided to set the default option of a Chick-fil-A sandwich to include the fruit cup rather than the waffle fries.

Is it fair to say, as a group, we’re just too lazy to look beyond the default options and be intentional about the choices we make every day?

If we’re going to be proactive and intentional about making changes in our life, we can start by setting healthy defaults.

What website does your browser open up to automatically, a social media site or a news organization?

If one of your behavior-change goals includes being more informed about current events, make sure your default setting is consistent with your goals.

What is your default drink at dinner, a glass of wine or water?

If you want to make sure you drink less alcohol, make sure that your default beverage at dinner is water.

In short, we can leverage our own laziness to set ourselves up for success with behavior change.

Change within the context of relationships

It should come as no surprise that we all need healthy relationships in order to maintain our change over time.

Relationships are vitally important for a couple different reasons.

For starters, other people can provide much-needed accountability for us as we attempt to make and sustain changes.

The most basic behavioral principles demonstrate that the more a behavior costs us relationally, financially or physically, the less likely the behavior is to happen.

That’s why people stuck in addiction often wait until the cost of the addiction has become so severe that they can no longer persist in it.

We call that rock-bottom in the addictions treatment industry.

Rock-bottom often happens for most of us when the cost of the behavior has interpersonal consequences that outweigh the benefits of the behavior.

We need people in our life that are going to be willing to tell us the truth and who will express concern when we do not follow through with our stated goals for behavior change.

If you want to make positive changes that stick, find truth tellers that won’t hesitate to tell you the things you don’t want to hear.

Another reason relationships are so essential for getting unstuck is based on the principle of modeling.

Many times we only know what we’re capable of when we look around and see other people who are living the kind of life we want to live.

At the end of the day the most life-giving relationships that we can be a part of are the ones that inspire us to actually live in our calling.

That’s why people who are serious about change find groups of people that are living the change that they would like to see.

Think in terms of the alcoholic who is inspired by his AA sponsor who has spent 20 years sober or the business owner who connects with a mentor who inspires him to grow his business.

If you’re ready to get unstuck in your life, surround yourself with people who inspire you. Spend time around them and model their behavior.

Now that we've gathered some workable actions to create and maintain change in our own lives, let's help our friends above, John and Julia, by applying the strategies we just learned.

John may not show signs of procrastination or laziness, but he is absolutely leaning into his default options in his relationship with his wife and unable to take the step into healthy communication with her.

Since he is having difficulty "in the moment," perhaps he can utilize his wife's strengths in their relationship to hold him accountable when these issues arise.

For his homework, we decided that he needs to have an open and honest conversation with his wife about how his default options are to go to the research and data points, and he needs her support by holding him accountable if he back steps into his suggestion offering as a strategy to resolve an issue in their lives.

This opens up a line of communication surrounding his barriers and reminding his wife that while his heart is in the right place, his mind goes into default mode, and the hope is that they are going to help each other make changes within the context of their relationship.

For our friend Julia, who is a habitual marijuana smoker, we need to address all three strategies as well.

Julia has made the commitment to stop smoking, but she can't seem to find the desire to begin the process, is stuck in an emotional wheel navigated by laziness, and doesn't have a huge support system in her life rooting for her to take a step toward her goal to leave the marijuana behind.

We decided for Julia to pick any day of the week and attach meaning to it allowing her to begin her journey of not smoking.

Julia picked the following Monday and stated it was the beginning of her journey to Oz.

Next, she has this habit known to most as "wake and bake" as a default, so she decided she was going to alter it some by waking up and actually baking cookies, muffins or cupcakes instead.

The last item we checked off of her list in our session was finding a support group to attend, so she would be surrounded by other supportive people and find at least one person who she admired and could model her behavior after.

Change is hard and it can be messy and uncomfortable, but with the right tools and support it is not impossible.

Dr. Mike Ronsisvalle is a Licensed Psychologist and the President of LiveWell Behavioral Health, a psychological services agency that provides counseling to clients of all ages and addictions treatment to adolescents and adults. You can find him on the web at www.LiveWellbehavioralhealth.com and www.LiveWell-Coaching.com, or call 321-259-1662.

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Shifts in life patterns (like dropping out of college), or goals like quitting marijuana, reveal motivational roadblocks and the need for supportive networks.

- **Behavioral Defaults & Procrastination:** People often rely on default behaviors (e.g., default browser, drink) and can harness natural tendencies (like laziness) to prompt change.

Key moments such as beginnings (new year, seasons) can serve as powerful motivators for starting new habits or overcoming procrastination.

- **Collaboration, Focus, and Work:** Distractions in the workplace (meetings, emails, red tape) erode focus and productivity.

Title:

Content:   1. SEJ
  2.  ⋅
  3. SEO

Gravity: How To Cultivate Focus And Execute Better

Feeling overwhelmed and unproductive? You're not alone. Read on and learn how to fight "workplace gravity" and boost team focus.

Focus is mission-critical, but most companies don’t lower the gravitational forces pulling on attention.

As a result, large companies with too much mass have a hard time navigating and adapting to the quickly changing organic growth landscape:

  • Google’s algorithm updates have struck hard and left casualties.
  • Even small rank changes in top positions have an outsized impact.
  • Consumer behavior on the internet is messy and hard to track
  • Teams are shrinking: 80,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2024 so far.1
  • Marketing budgets were slashed on average by 10 to 20% over the last two years and only slowly started to recover.2
  • Tech workers spend two out of five days per week on meetings and email.3 Only 43% of the time is spent on actual tasks.

No platform has as many changes of requirements. Over the last 3 years, Google launched 8 Core, 19 major and 75-150 minor updates. The company mentions thousands of improvements every year.

As individuals, we live in a distracted world, where one of the most important skills is managing attention. How did we think teams are any different?

Image Credit: Lyna ™

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No Win Without Focus

Sir Isaac Newton realized that the sun’s gravity causes planets to orbit it in an elliptical path. Gravity in the workplace is a distraction from the focus of individuals and teams:

  • Meetings.
  • Fire drills.
  • Red tape.
  • Strategy pivots.
  • Too many goals.
  • Alignment overhead.
  • Too many cooks in the kitchen.
  • Procurement and legal rabbit holes.
  • Non-critical emails and Slack messages.

The larger a company gets, the stronger its gravity.

Taken to an extreme, it takes companies forever to launch even a single feature, and they fall behind the competition.

For individuals, gravity is even more consequential: Scattered attention means getting nothing done, having no impact, and likely being fired. Worse, people get exhausted and burned out in the process.

“Tranquility comes from doing less,” (Ryan Holiday), but a lot of teams execute scatter-brained like a teenager multitasking between Netflix, TikTok, and texting.

Individual and team focus are connected at the hip. When a team is distracted, it transfers to individuals. Two-thirds of people struggle to find the energy to do their job.4

Whenever I get overwhelmed, my brain tells me to open my email inbox and look for a quick dopamine hit. But finding quick tasks and busy work is no achievement.

Real impact comes from working through tedious, complex problems.

We cannot erase gravity, but we can do five things better:

  1. Communication.
  2. Prioritization.
  3. Strategy.
  4. Red Tape.
  5. Meetings.

Better Communication

Unclear communication is one of the biggest attention drainers. We waste a lot of time deciphering what other people mean.

At Shopify, we had a very high bar for what internal communications went out to the Growth org and how they would be framed.

It’s easy to @ your whole team on Slack, but what people really need is key information:

  • What’s going on?
  • How is it relevant to me?
  • What do I need to know/do?

Lazy communication has massive speed cost. In the book “Smart Brevity,” the authors provide a simple framework for writing clear statements:

  1. Start with a muscular tease that grabs attention with six or fewer strong words.
  2. Explain what recipients need to know in the first sentence.
  3. Explain why it matters.
  4. Offer a choice to go deeper by providing more optional context.

Most important: Think about one thing you want people to remember – not more. Nobody has time to read a Slack novel.

Better Prioritization

At PayPal, Peter Thiel established a culture of hardcore focus. He would only discuss their No. 1 priority with managers and hold them accountable for just their one main contribution to the company.

Focus is a forcing function to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what to spend time on.

No one could be a better example of hardcore prioritization than engineers. If you want to get something on the ENG roadmap, something else has to give.

An effective roadmap operating system has only a few lines of code:

  • What’s the goal?
  • What are the top 3 things that get us there?
  • For those three things, what do we need in terms of people, assets, time, support from other teams, and tools?
  • For those three things, who does what, by when?
  • Defend yourself and your team as much as possible from anything else.

You never look back at your time at a company and say, “Man, my fourth, fifth, and sixth priority back then really hit home,” but you might remember the impact of priorities one, two, and three.

Cal Newport’s new book, “Slow Productivity,” mentions doing less as one of the top ways to do better work.

But the advice I like the most is doubling the time you think a project takes.

Doubling automatically trims your roadmap by probably 50% but makes it more likely that you deliver on time and deliver well.

A big part of moving ourselves into an overcommitment corner is underestimating how long projects take (I think I wrote the last sentence at least as much for myself as for you).

Better Strategies

Poor strategies are hard to follow and confuse the team.

In my experience, managers want to get fancy, but they miss the most important point: A good strategy means doing something different from the competition.

Instead of outworking contenders, you want to do something that’s unique and leans to your competitive advantage.

Pairing differentiation with prioritization, your three most important projects should underline how you achieve the same goal in a different way as your competitors.

For example, instead of writing 100 blog articles, can you build a programmatic play or a list of tools? Or can you leverage contributors who write the content instead of a large in-house team?

I also found that most strategies simply aren’t clear. A simple test for clarity is to up or downsize the surface you have to explain it: Can you express your strategy in one paragraph (TL;DR), one page (high-level), and one doc (in-depth)?

Less Red Tape

Red tape in the form of excessive bureaucracy kills execution. I’ve seen many companies that take many weeks and endless alignment meetings before being able to sign up for a simple SaaS tool.

Procurement and legal teams can slow companies down and frustrate teams beyond means.

The key to having speed and a good evaluation process is clear guidelines when legal or procurement steps in.

With one of my former clients, the fastest-growing fintech startup in history, we sat down with the legal team and got a full download on guardrails. What can we say and what not? When do we have to get legal approval, and when can we move forward without it?

This is a task for the team manager or org leader. While tedious, the good news is that once the borders have been established, teams can move forward faster and focus on execution.

Fewer Meetings

Tobi Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify, called meetings a “bug.” The leadership team regularly deployed the “Chaos Monkey,” a script that deletes all recurring meetings with more than two participants. Other companies set guardrails around time. Calendly restricts meetings to noon until 5 p.m.

Most meetings are poorly run, unnecessary, or simply a way for people to socialize.

Besides an agenda, every meeting should have a clear purpose. There really are only three types of meetings: socializing, information sharing, and decision-making.

Building relationships in the workplace is important, and there is nothing wrong with socializing. It’s important to be explicit and avoid meeting to “talk about Project X” while really wanting to socialize.

Information-sharing meetings are best done async. Instead of getting a large group of people together, record your message in a video or write a memo.

Decision-making meetings should be led by the decision maker and come with a pre-read.

The problem with many large organizations is that decisions are poorly framed; it’s unclear who makes the decision, and the decision-maker doesn’t have explicit criteria for how to make the decision.

Outlook: Can AI Help Us Regain Focus?

Show me how focused your team is, and I’ll show you a team that will win.

High gravity in large organizations, on the other hand, is an ask to be disrupted by a smaller, more agile player. The good news is that technology is working against gravity – at least in the workplace.

AI has the potential to help us find fragmented information, force clarity, and take over bland admin tasks that drain time so we can focus on things that matter.

Microsoft’s Future of Work report concludes:

“Organizational knowledge is fragmented across documents, conversations, apps and devices, but LLMs hold the potential to gather and synthesize this information in ways that were previously impossible”.5

In the future, we’ll be able to ask LLMs questions about any internal process, like “What are our top goals?” or “Does this need legal review?” The freed-up time allows us to refine our strategies and get work done.

That future still seems a few years away. Until then, we can do a lot to improve our attention.

1 Layoffs.fyi

2 Marketing spending shows signs of growth, but AI adoption is slow: report; Beyond belt-tightening: How marketing can drive resiliency during uncertain times

3 Will AI Fix Work?

4 Workers Now Spend Two Full Days a Week on Email and in Meetings

5 Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2023

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Teams that maintain focus outperform others, but most knowledge workers face substantial time lost to communication overhead.

**Key Themes for Your Research:**
- The power of social influence in shaping group behavior (critical for understanding MLM recruitment/retention)
- The difficulty of change without community or support (mirrors how MLMs provide “community” to recruits)
- People’s reliance on defaults/laziness—which MLMs exploit with easy “default” scripts and routines
- Notions of “merit” and “deservingness” as they relate to sales/recruitment hierarchies

These insights may help inform the psychological mechanisms underpinning attraction and retention in MLMs and other “commercial cult” structures.

Here are the summarized nuggets of information from the provided text as they relate to your overall research question about MLM trends (though much of the text appears only loosely related to the direct MLM topic you outlined):

- NSU scientists have created a mathematical predictive model for socio-economic forecasting, incorporating factors previously unaddressed by Russian research, specifically using machine learning.

Title:

Content: NSU scientists have developed a mathematical model for predicting the control figures of admission
Source: MIL-OSI English Language News
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
NSU has completed a project to develop a mathematical model for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which allows both to predict admission control figures (TCP) for the nearest period of 1-2 years, and to determine trends of changes in the medium term up to 20 years.
For the first time, NSU scientists have used modern machine learning approaches for such global predictive socio-economic models.
At this stage, the model makes it possible to predict SCCP for higher and secondary vocational education.
In the future, NSU plans to extend this experience to the business sphere when it is necessary to build development forecasts for specific enterprises.
The project started at NSU in 2021, the team was attended by 5 people - employees of the Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok and students of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at NSU.
Then the Center was approached by a company that develops services for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in particular for the State Information System of Industry.
At that time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade had already deployed a system for predicting the number of graduates in different regions in different specialties, but it required serious modernization - many parameters were considered manually, the possibilities of scenario modeling were limited, state support programs were not taken into account, etc.
Our task was to completely redesign the system.
We chose the following approach: we combined classical mathematical methods of dynamic modeling with machine learning methods that allow us to take into account many parameters in the system, while maintaining the necessary accuracy in the calculation of each of them.
As usual for machine learning models, we divided the entire amount of historical data into independent test and training parts, then trained the model, and then checked the results in the second part.
The model passed all possible tests from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and everywhere demonstrated the necessary accuracy.
Of course, significant accuracy of the forecast can be guaranteed only for the next year, then with each step the accuracy decreases, but even the answer to the question “what will happen if the economy develops evenly in the region, and investments go into the industry ” allows you to determine important trends, says Sergey Ospichev, project manager, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, deputy director of the Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok, associate professor of the Faculty of Mechanics.
According to our data, machine learning methods have not previously been used in Russia for such global predictive socio-economic models.
This is primarily due to the conservatism of this area of research.
Of course, the “black box ” problem in machine learning models occurs, but only for some approaches.
In our work, we use the “Random Forest ” model, which allows, if necessary, to analyze each solution to the screw and explain how and why such results were obtained.
In addition, as in all machine learning approaches, our model allows us to identify trends that cannot be described by a traditional formula, ” explains Sergey Ospichev.
When making forecasts, a number of factors are taken into account: the migration situation in the region, economic and demographic indicators, gross product, ongoing investment projects and much more.
Based on the analysis of all these parameters, the model predicts the number of vacant jobs that will appear at enterprises in different specialties.
On the other hand, we look at universities: how many graduates and in what specialties enter the labor market, how many of them will move to another region or go to work not in their specialty.
The forecasting model we developed also takes this factor into account, and we took the study of the Higher School of Economics as a basis, ” explains Sergey Ospichev.
In the future, the classical law of supply and demand comes into play: the model compares two indicators - how many graduates will enter the markets, how many vacancies will appear at the enterprises of the region.
This is how the model understands what change to recommend to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to achieve equilibrium.
Further, the Ministry of Industry and Trade transfers them to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The latter, on the basis of the received data, forms and distributes control figures of admission, which are issued to the regions for budgetary places.
This model allows to take into account such a factor as large investment projects implemented in the region.
For example, enterprises are being built, new equipment is being purchased, workshops are being opened.
At the time of commissioning of the production in 5 years, specialists will be needed.
By that time, universities in the region should offer the labor market a sufficient number of graduates in the necessary specialties in order to prevent their shortage, ” says Sergey Ospichev.
At the first stage, the mathematical center in Akademgorodok started with the prediction of admission control figures for higher education - bachelor's and master's degrees.
This year, we moved to the second stage – we added secondary vocational education, which is now receiving increased attention, as the demand for highly qualified workers is growing.
In the future, the university plans to use a similar mathematical model in the construction of development forecasts for specific enterprises.
Already now, we are taking the macroeconomic forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development as a basis.
Then, according to these forecasts, we are preparing three scenarios for the socio-economic development of the country - conservative, optimistic and pessimistic.
We also take into account the performance of the company itself.
Based on these data, we can already build models for the development of the company, which will allow owners and shareholders to assess risks and make more informed decisions about long-term investments, ” explains Sergey Ospichev.
Note; This information is raw content directly from the information source.
This is exactly what the source claims and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source.
It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MIL OSI

- Societal issues often stem from a lack of inner work and disconnection with self, others, and the environment; personal growth practices such as mindfulness and compassion are increasingly studied and utilized for healing.

Title:

Content: Hike from inside to outside
Mindful Compassion as a Cure for Environmental Crisis
Modern culture at the mass level does not know how to work with the inner dimension, where it is only possible to close the gap in contact with oneself, other people and the planet.
Such gaps are the root problems of our time.
They form both the causes of the current environmental crisis and the most important levers for change.
Superficial solutions to deep-seated problems stem from a lack of contact with depth: its insensitivity and neglect due to the fact that the culture of modern societies has been shaped around collective trauma.
According to the researcher of collective trauma Thomas Huble, modern mainstream culture tends to overlook an inner dimension that hides a lot of pain and from which it is suggested to be distracted, clogging its attention with addictions, workaholism or consumption.
Distractions, information noise and propaganda constantly undermine our direct sensory perception of the world around us.
The digital economy only reinforces problematic trends — during an existential crisis, we are deeply alienated from reality.
Studying the process of innovation in Silicon Valley and creating a methodology for collective change 30 years ago, researcher Otto Scharmer was one of the first to draw the attention of the scientific community to the importance of working on these gaps and contacting the dimension from which human decisions and behavior are born: our states, ways of thinking, emotions and direction of attention.
Now such opinions are beginning to be considered if not mainstream, then they sound louder, forming an “inside-out ” approach to issues of organizational and social change.
So, in 2021, the Interstate Panel on Climate Change, the initiative to develop awareness at the British Parliament and a number of leading experts on sustainable development in Britain called on politicians and the public to stop denying the internal causes of the environmental crisis.
It is possible not to be unfounded and to prove a direct connection between the internal dimension and its influence on the external environment – ecology.
Science gives a positive answer and understanding of how the psyche works, how mental states are related to behavior, leads to the rapid psychologization of politics, education, management.
One example of a direct relationship between internal and external may be the findings of a study on the effects of psychological trauma and other mental disorders on addiction and behavior, funded by the National Board of Health and Medical Research.
In history, 95% of people with addictions have mental trauma.
For example, dependence on acquisitions — the never satisfied thirst for consumption in any form — from shopping for things to traveling — directly harms the environment.
From a moral perspective, a person can understand that it is time to change habits, but cannot do so because of a gaping psychological hole inside, which constantly requires some external filling.
Another example is a study by the University of Wollongong, Dubai, in which depression is cited as one of the main causes of compulsive shopping.
Inflated narcissism, which is characteristic of modern culture, according to research by scientists at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Cuza in Romania, is associated with low participation in the environmental agenda and lack of pro-environmental behavior.
The issues of psychological trauma, stress and the need to work on mental resilience were among the key issues in last year ’ s UN Human Development Report (see “B-Regeneration ” dated December 21, 2022).
We are witnessing perhaps the most significant change in the social paradigm since the Enlightenment, which launched an extremely rational view of things with its reductionist disregard for what cannot be seen and measured.
Until recently, such phenomena included human emotions, the ability to realize oneself, thinking.
With the advent of MRI and neuroscience, all this has changed, and scientific clarity about the inner world of a person leads us to the fact that we can no longer ignore the material consequences of intangible internal dimensions – how the environment affects human psychology, and the psychology and state of a person – on the environment.
To bring the situation from the inside out, it is necessary to heal our traumas, which cause feelings of dissatisfaction, insecurity, inferiority and lead to destructive behavior: accumulation, excessive consumption, unfeeling the problems of other people and collective systems like the Earth.
In science, the development of adults today is understood as the growth of the complexity of human consciousness.
This happens when in the consciousness of a person at the same time increases the understanding of complex interrelations and interdependencies, causes and consequences of ongoing phenomena, as well as expands the circle of personal sense of responsibility and care: from egocentric to ethnocentric and world-centric.
Such models of the development of consciousness were proved by the research of Harvard professor Robert Keegan, developed in Boston by Bill Torbert, and in Europe by Suzanne Cook-Groiter and other scientists.
The tools of healing and growth today are a large number of methods of psychotherapy or the development of meta-skills and qualities, such as the practices of mindfulness and compassion, that have been studied in laboratory studies.
Mindfulness is a model of the development of awareness or the skill to notice, to know one ’ s state: sensations, thoughts, emotions and reactions.
Compassion practices support critical systems of psychological motivation, cultivated human capacity for healthy contact with oneself, others, and nature.
Developing mindfulness can help us sharpen our focus on what is happening around us, and it will increase our perception of variability in understanding situations and our participation in them.
Without awareness and self-regulation, which is directly related to it, the information received from the outside can trigger an intense bodily stress response and turn off our natural ability to be open and present in our own experience, contact with others and the world around us.
It is this loss of contact that leads us to fragmentation, social fragmentation and fundamentalism that is the cause of all wars and violence, including aggressive behavior towards nature.
Self-awareness and mindfulness and compassion training help to notice, understand and regulate these automatic patterns, overcome social separateness, and form a collective effort to meet common challenges.
Healing trauma, developing awareness and compassion are scientifically proven keys to regenerating society by restoring contact with the body, emotions and identity.
In an era of polarization, polarizing politics, and constantly overloaded attention due to technological dependence and distractions, they are vital antidotes to the hate narrative.
A sense of connectedness with oneself, others, and nature is undervalued in the hyper-rational culture of modernity.
Our ability to feel, connect, and collaborate is key to the current environmental crisis.
Max Rodin, Deep Mind
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- Training programs (possibly relevant to direct sales and MLMs) emphasize practical, task-focused group activities aimed at developing applicable skills; basic levels aim to impart field knowledge.

Title:

Content: Columns
5 techniques for training IT personnel of any level and how to apply them
Columns
Mikhail Gribov
Managing Partner of IT Expert Group
Alina Aleshchenko
The lack of personnel in IT is increasingly forcing companies to move from the traditional search for specialists to their independent development within the organization.
Mikhail Gribov, Managing Partner of the IT Expert Group, spoke about the approaches to employee training used in their training center to help client companies cope with the shortage of personnel.
5 techniques for training IT personnel of any level and how to apply them
The shortage of IT specialists in Russia by 2027 may reach 2 million people.
And about the actual shortage of a million personnel said in an interview with Deputy Prime Minister for the development of information technology Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Almost all technology companies face the problem.
For example, as reported by the Director of Human Resources “Rostec ” Yulia Tsvetkova, the state Corporation is experiencing a shortage of employees in 40 different areas of IT.
At the same time, Rostec believes that the main reason for the shortage of personnel lies in the insufficient amount of training of specialists in the education system.
This problem did not appear yesterday – it stretches back to the times of the USSR, when the higher education system produced conditional “specialists ” whose competencies consisted of hopelessly outdated and maximally generalized knowledge that did not take into account the real needs of the industry.
Read more: Why IT specialists should teach: 6 benefits for improving skills
Things are changing for the better now.
There is an understanding that each employer needs applicants with a unique skill profile.
Companies deal with this issue differently.
Someone has come to terms with the fact that yesterday ’ s graduates need to be taught almost from scratch already inside the corporate circuit, and someone resorts to the help of external educational centers.
Bloom's Taxonomy
One of the most effective educational models recognized worldwide is undoubtedly Bloom ’ s Taxonomy.
Developed back in the 60s of the last century and underwent a serious revision in 2001, it still allows you to create flexible educational products for specialists of different fields and skill levels.
It is based on a pyramid of six levels (from the bottom up):
• Remembering,
• Understanding,
• Application,
• Analysis,
• Evaluation,
• Creation.
Within the framework of this classification of levels of the learning process, a variety of techniques can be developed depending on the purpose of the particular course.
Basic levels are aimed at obtaining a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of the field of their application.
At higher levels, a complex set of skills and the ability to analyze are already required.
Specific teaching methods
If Bloom ’ s Taxonomy allows you to choose the initial and final level of students within a specific application task, then within this contour different mechanics can be used that contribute to the effective accumulation of competencies and the transition from level to level.
Read also:
The model of the relationship between business and IT developers: old mistakes and new recipes
Red flag: when an IT project can turn into a failure
In our activities, we widely use the pyramid described above, complementing it with author ’ s methods, including classes of five main types.
• Group training.
One of the most important training tools, involving the active participation of several students.
It is in this format that the best way to replenish the baggage of knowledge is due not only to the educational material, but also to the wide use of communications, elements of teamwork.
Since the interaction between students in the format of face-to-face training allows you to fully unlock the potential of students and correct certain shortcomings, we prefer this method in our programs.
• Thematic discussions.
Defending a position and searching for arguments to defend it effectively stimulate the process of cognition, motivating the listener to independently expand his horizons, search for connections between phenomena, and so on.
Discussion methods can be used in several formats, starting with the actual group discussion and ending with the analysis of practical cases.
On the course “Practical approaches to IT risk management ” of our training center, a discussion on the topic of risk assessment techniques has a wide response.
Such methods should always accompany the receipt of theoretical material for its consolidation and a better understanding of the applied aspects of knowledge.
• Method of brainstorming.
No less effective than discussion, collaborative teamwork, when listeners combine their creative potential to find a common solution.
Group classes of this type are always built around the practical task set by the teacher.
Along the way, students gain the skill of participating in brainstorming and experience in its application as a method of solving practical problems.
• Simulation exercises.
Such a reception implies the maximum activity of the participants.
In this case, students must find individual solutions to the task.
The peculiarity lies in the fact that the correct or best possible answer is known to the teacher, but not to the students.
At the end of the lesson, the obtained solutions are compared with the reference, the fidelity of the approaches used and typical errors are analyzed.
• Situational cases.
One of the most difficult teaching methods.
For the tasks performed here, a specific framework and context are always set.
In some courses, all group exercises aimed at developing interaction in a team are performed in this format.
This allows participants to try on certain roles, correctly distribute tasks and consistently move towards their solution, based on previously acquired knowledge.
Is the Russian IT market ready to provide a competitive replacement - we deal with MegaFon and the experts on the link
For example, in the course "Fundamentals of Business Analysis" of our training center throughout the course, practical tasks are performed as part of a single introductory, and the results of the tasks are used in subsequent practical exercises.
Situational cases, close to real conditions, help to develop analytical skills, work with information and, most importantly, understand the practical value of the studied theoretical material.
It remains to be noted that any specific curriculum, drawn up on the basis of the real needs of the company in the development of IT personnel, should always take into account the starting level of knowledge of applicants.
Equally important are the competency targets that need to be achieved.
The combination of the above methods should be selected for each IT-direction individually, taking into account its features.
Photo credit: Shutterstock / GaudiLab
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- Decision-making without principles requires constant effort; following a framework may facilitate more consistent actions, which can relate to MLM training/retention methods.

Title:

Content: Business Book of the Month.
Ray Dalio.
"Principles"
Dmitry Bulgakov, Director of the Department of Infrastructure Projects of the Investment Development Agency of the Novosibirsk Region, shared his opinion on Ray Dalio ’ s book “Principles ” in the traditional rubric“ The Business Book of the Month ”.
— How many books on the psychology of personal development and motivation, achieving success have been written by various well-known billionaires, entrepreneurs, managers, psychologists and politicians?
Enough, and for sure each of them has its own distinctive look, but few of them contain really valuable and universal solutions.
Raymond Dalio ’ s book Principles is exactly that.
This is a rare exception to the rule where the author tried to cover a lot of issues, and he managed to do so.
Ray Dalio is an American financier, billionaire, founder of the investment company Bridgewater Associates, a philanthropist.
He is on the 88th line in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine.
The extraordinary personality of the author, which has been read many times in various articles, his rich experience and success story in a typical “self-made ” format, by stuffing numerous cones, enthusiastic reviews of G. Gref and B. Gates - all this promised that the book will be fascinating and useful.
According to Ray Dalio, each person in his life path, having gone through various trials and difficulties, will not remain the same and will receive a “gift ” (experience, knowledge, money – anything) as a reward, and this will serve as a further catalyst for change and new challenges.
Not only the manager, absolutely any person regularly faces various life and work situations to which it is necessary to respond.
In the absence of principles, we are forced to think about our actions every time, as if we were in such a situation for the first time.
In addition to the fact that it takes a lot of time each time, we ourselves often doubt the correctness of the decision made.
The goals and desires of each person may differ from each other, but having developed their individual principles, subordinating the decision-making process to certain algorithms, you can achieve the maximum level of personal organization and efficiency.
The author has done a really great job on self-knowledge, development, psychology, and it is important that the book contains numerous references to the methods used and the research conducted: something is described thesis, something is given for independent study.
The information is presented in a structured way and the book is easy to read – it contains a lot of working methods and valuable tips on personnel management, problem solving, achieving goals and is suitable for both managers or business owners, and for people who want to raise their own productivity and achieve professional success.
Having correctly formulated your own system of criteria, decision-making in any situation will be as rational and balanced as possible, as they say, “on a cold head ” – this is the secret formula for success, using which you can each time set new goals and achieve higher results.
The author pays special attention to numerous principles of corporate culture – meritocracy of ideas, extreme openness, honesty and transparency, automation of making almost any decisions that allow the manager to exclude himself from the chain at any time so that nothing collapses.
It is worth noting that the described principles Ray formulated for 68 years, and they have repeatedly undergone changes, improved taking into account the knowledge and experience gained.
The book itself, consisting of more than 600 pages, is formed in such a way that it is not necessary to get acquainted with it consistently - you can selectively analyze those issues that are most interesting, or you can learn how the path of becoming one of the most interesting people of our time took place.
There is also a wonderful illustrated version, which is perfect for children and adolescents to get acquainted with the key ideas and principles of the book in a concise and simple way.
If you want to take part in the rubric and share your feedback on a particular business book, write to ks @ ksonline.ru with the subject of the letter "Business Book of the Month".
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- There is a general uniformity in risk perception among different genders and age groups.

Title:

Content: Today at 17: 40
1 min.
How society assesses different risks
What is the risk associated with you?
Many of our daily activities involve a certain degree of risk – be it work, finances or health.
Researchers at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel decided to find out how risk is perceived in society and what individuals think about risk.
To explore this question, the researchers developed a new method based on word associations and an algorithmic process that maps out risk perceptions for different groups and individuals.
Using this method, the researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,205 people with equal representation of men and women and different age groups.
An algorithm was used to create a semantic risk network of 36,100 associations.
He identified the following components: threat, luck, investment, activity, and analysis.
The semantic cluster "threat" (danger, accident, loss, etc.) was the component most commonly associated with risk, followed by "luck" (profit, play, adventure).
Psychologists investigated the differences between men and women, as well as between different age groups.
In general, it turned out that women and men, as well as people of different ages, have similar ideas about risk.
However, a larger proportion of older people and a larger proportion of women were more likely to associate risk with threat and less with luck.
Partners news
Partners news

- Effective coaching (possibly analogous to MLM mentorship) is based on personal experience and integrity; poor coaching is prevalent in some fields, possibly including MLMs.

Title:

Content: « Psychoanalytic coaches in the coming years will become top specialists of any helping professions »
Source: MIL-OSI English Language News
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
HSE ’ s online campus launches the Master ’ s programme “Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Business Consulting ” in digital format.
The only specialized program in Russia prepares a new generation of executive coaches who are able to respond to business needs and help employees grow.
For more than 10 years, this master ’ s program has been a leader among Russian educational programs in the field of Practical Psychology and occupies the top lines of the ranking of HSE master ’ s programs.
Graduates of the program find themselves in individual psychoanalytic, business and executive coaching, group and team business coaching, organizational counseling and change management.
The competencies obtained in the program help employees at any level to build a career, and business owners to implement ambitious strategies.
The author of the program is a leading executive coach of international business schools INSEAD, CEDEP, head of the Department of Psychoanalysis and Business Consulting at the Higher School of Economics Andrei Rossokhin.
- Andrei Vladimirovich, when can not do without a coach?
I often hear questions about whether a person can help himself on his own, whether it is worth reading books to become a leader, accept career challenges, overcome procrastination.
The answer is simple: read necessarily, reading broadens the horizons and gives rational knowledge.
Books cannot help in practice.
Real change is achieved only through learning through new experiences.
We need an assistant for that.
He will point out what we do not see, work with us psychological limitations, find hidden resources in us and launch qualitative changes in our daily work.
The task of the coach is to create conditions for the inner strength of the client to grow.
Business began to understand the importance of such work, so the market for professional coaching services is growing rapidly.
But this market is discredited by non-professionals.
How to find real experts?
– It is important to realize that coaching is a profession and, therefore, requires an appropriate higher education.
Short-term courses are not necessary here.
The easiest way to find a professional is to knock on our master ’ s project “Affordable Coaching ”.
Here you can get three free sessions with a coach - a master of psychology and an expert in psychoanalytic business counseling.
He studies on the program and works under the supervision of our teachers.
Supervision is a special session with an experienced colleague, which understands each interaction with the client.
Thanks to this, the coach is constantly developing, his ability to help customers in solving business requests is growing.
The question of whether a coach has supervisors will help when choosing a specialist.
Ask him how often he passes them.
If you get the answer “it was a couple of times ” or“ I do this every six months ” – stay away from such an “expert ”.
A real professional coach goes through supervision constantly.
— Can the coach help already in the first session?
It is common for people to expect miracles.
It seems that it is enough to voice a request, come to the first session - and you come out happy, life has changed!
And if not, then I got a bad coach.
On the expectation of such a miracle, the info-gypsy coaches parasitize.
In fact, it's exactly the opposite.
After the first session, you should not only have a feeling of something new, although not fully understood, but also slightly increase anxiety.
The beginning of any real change is always associated with an increase in resistance.
Getting out of the usual comfort zone provokes difficult feelings: how it was here, I know well, but how it will be there - I have no idea.
Solving any serious request requires not one or even three to five sessions, but thorough detailed work.
Limitations need to be identified, new resources need to be found, and then all this new must find flesh and blood in the business reality, germinate there and become stable.
Change must be sustainable and lasting, not momentary, under the influence of cheap suggestion or pumping “energy ” and“ inspiration. ”
How is the success of a business coach measured?
— The effectiveness of the coach ’ s work, it would seem logical to describe it this way: a person came with burnout – left with a second breath and restored.
The real picture is not so simple.
The specific request the client came with may be a curtain behind which the true request is hidden.
For example, the problem of his burnout was not fatigue or overstrain, but demotivation, loss of meaning and involvement in work.
For the client, this was the result of years of passive waiting for an increase.
He tried his best to earn this promotion, hoping that his efforts would be noticed by the leadership.
But he made no attempt to express his wish.
Behind such ineffective behavior were certain internal conflicts, which he was able to understand and work out only on psychoanalytic coaching.
Having overcome childhood fears to go on stage and declare his desires, he was able to take a more active position, gained motivation, meaning and involvement.
All these changes, painstakingly nurtured in the course of the work on the action plan, eventually brought it the desired result.
But not after five sessions, but after a few months of weekly coaching.
Is the age of the coach important?
- Not that much.
Among the graduates there are both current top managers and business owners who successfully combine work in business with coaching and business consulting, as well as young specialists who lead successful practice.
How does your program learn to respond to customer requests?
It combines the approaches of organizational psychology and applied psychoanalysis.
We learn to identify unconscious mental processes.
They affect behavior, career dynamics, and a person ’ s work style.
Students of the program begin to understand what is the basis of behavior and what is the deep motivation of the client, as well as to perceive the business from the position of inter- and intra-personal interactions of employees.
The program provides a lot of supervision, master classes and workshops of Russian and foreign business consultants based on real client cases.
Every week, as part of the author ’ s course, I demonstrate video cases of my own coaching sessions with business owners and top managers with detailed analysis and analysis.
Students will get acquainted with various methods of working with groups and organizations, analyze and master the methods and tools of the psychodynamic approach in mentoring and facilitation, work with an organizational drawing, a dream matrix, participation in Balint groups and much more.
Separately, we observe the dynamics of a large group - the prototype of any team and team.
During the two-year study period, we give students access to private and corporate clients for individual sessions and group coaching work.
We have successfully run the project “Corporate coaching for business ”, its participants held 5000 group and individual sessions with employees of more than 90 Russian and foreign companies.
Information about the project is here.
Who teaches on the program?
— Masters and gurus of coaching and business consulting from all over the world: from Russia, Europe, Canada, USA, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, etc.
If we talk about personalities, the development of business coaching in Russia was facilitated by our twenty-year cooperation with one of the most famous business consultants in the world, Professor INSEAD Manfred Kets de Vries.
The international team of experts of the program confirms its absolute uniqueness.
It is applied not in words, but in deeds.
We train professional practitioners.
The training itself is a two-year coaching process.
It allows students to achieve completely amazing changes not only in their professional but also in their personal lives.
Sigmund Freud once said that psychoanalysis helps people learn to love and work with pleasure.
I am confident that our program of applied psychoanalysis in business fully meets these criteria.
Is there a danger that neural networks will replace coaches in the future?
Trusting smart machines can be easier than opening up to a live interlocutor.
Our approach is unique and irreplaceable in working with people.
No matter how advanced artificial intelligence may be, it will never be able to penetrate the depths of our unconscious.
It will not be able to identify the root cause of conflicts that block professional development, work out restrictions and find hidden resources and opportunities for growth.
Psychoanalytic coaches in the coming years will become top specialists of any helping professions.
In the past few years, interest in not only physical but also mental health has been increasing, and the demand for psychologically-oriented coaches and business consultants has been steadily growing.
When external supports are unstable, it is very important to look for support within yourself, to strive to be in contact with your mental and life force and use it for professional development.
Then we will work with meaning and with pleasure.
Note; This information is raw content directly from the information source.
This is exactly what the source claims and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source.
It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MIL OSI

- Psychoanalytic coaching is forecast as a significant trend for professionals in helping fields over the coming years.

- Only a small percentage of life outcomes are based on circumstances; most are determined by individual reactions—a belief often leveraged by MLM messaging to encourage positive thinking and resilience amidst adversity.

Title:

Content: The 90 / 10 Rule: Change Begins Within You
In psychology, there is the concept of the 90 / 10 rule, according to which our reactions to events are much more important than the events themselves.
In fact, only 10% of a person ’ s life is determined by what happens to him.
The other 90% is directly related to how we respond to those 10%.
Different people react differently to the same situation.
Depending on the first reaction to what happened, their day can end both favorably and unfavorably.
Our reaction to the difficulties that arise can determine how good or bad our day, week or year will pass.
It all depends on us.
It is very important to remember this rule, because it constantly reminds us that we control most of our life, namely 90% of it.
And it frees us from useless emotions, showing that 10% of this life is beyond our control.
Let ’ s look at a concrete example of how this rule can be used in practice.
Imagine that you are working on a project for your boss in the morning.
The timing is pretty tight, but you're almost done.
And so you are preparing to save the file, but suddenly the light goes out and the computer turns off.
Turns out your wife just turned on the stove and it knocked out the fuse.
You are angry, worried and think that this is the end.
You blame your wife for everything, which eventually ends in a serious quarrel.
You worry, go to the kitchen and accidentally touch your favorite cup, from which you drink coffee every morning.
It's crashing.
You are even more angry and blame your son for the fact that he drank from it and did not put it in its place.
By replacing the fuse, you do your best to recover the file on your computer, but nothing works out.
You are furious, you throw curses and go outside to get some air, slamming the door.
Bottom line: you're mad at your wife and son, your favorite cup is broken, and the work is not done.
You're having a bad day.
What happened?
As you can see, there was a trigger that determined 10% of the current situation.
The stove was turned on, which knocked out the fuse.
Nothing could be done about this event.
It is the cause of the actions of a man who does not plan anything wrong.
A simple mistake.
Everything that could have been up to us happened afterwards.
Here they are - the same 90% who turned a normal day into a terrible one.
The protagonist of our story made several problems out of one.
Instead of focusing his energy on redesigning the project, asking his wife for help, or telling his boss what had happened and asking for more time, he resorted to an unproductive reaction.
As a result, the whole family was in a quarrel due to an accidental and uncontrolled event.
Was it worth it?
When to use the 90 / 10 rule
The cause of destructive reactions can be many different situations.
So, there are situations when you need to remember this rule and start using your willpower to prevent emotions from taking over the mind.
The point is to accept these frustrations as part of the game of life.
If someone is judging you
You cannot control the judgments and criticisms of other people, because they have the right to think what they want.
You can control only the importance and value attached to these judgments.
If I can ’ t control other people ’ s opinions about me, then why waste my energy on it?
If you have made a mistake
Errors cannot be predicted.
Yes, you can learn from them, but even this will not prevent them from repeating themselves.
This is the nature of man.
You can only control your reactions to these mistakes.
You decide for yourself whether to admit these mistakes, how severely you should punish yourself and whether you are ready to accept your mistakes.
If others don ’ t want to do what you expect them to do.
It is impossible to influence the reaction of another person.
Requiring someone to change for you is unrealistic and will lead to disappointment.
It will also jeopardize your relationship with this person.
If you are facing difficulties
In life, everything is not smooth.
Studies show that in their life path, each person faces an average of 20 thousand problems and failures.
They can be as small (step on dog excrement), and weighty (loss of someone close).
It affects our plans and is beyond our control.
We are responsible for how such events affect our lives.
So if you run into something you can ’ t influence again, apply the 90 / 10 rule.
You already know that 90% is up to you.
Without letting the remaining 10% control you, you will have the opportunity to avoid the proliferation of the problem.
Photo: unsplash.com
Source

- Investment in relationships (or organizations) that are genuinely useful to others creates lasting bonds, whereas transactional or exploitative behavior may have the opposite effect.

Title:

Content: Opinion: The price of investments
16.04.2022, 21: 40, Miscellaneous
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In the previous post, we tried to understand the relationship between investment and significance.
As usual, everything moved towards laziness and greed.
Many people are glad that they can not invest.
Here is one commenter (former) wrote:
“The wife wants romance in marriage and begins to invest more in life and care for the family.
Her husband ’ s NW will grow, but more in terms of the resources of the Family and the Economy, and there may be internal forceps for romance. ”
She took an example from the post and reworked it.
The example from the post sounded like this.
“The same goes for women ’ s domestic services.
If a woman likes and a man has thoughts about living together with her, her spontaneous help in cleaning and cooking food will be a valuable investment.
If there are no thoughts about any life with her, her active household services can become forceps.
This does not mean that the accuracy of a woman and the ability to cook will not arouse sympathy.
This means that household investments on the part of a woman can have the opposite effect on the romantic sphere with low significance. ”
Some commentators are worse than bots.
They change the examples from the post and believe that it will be a good comment.
But their changes always concern the most fundamental part.
In my example, a man does not have any thoughts about life with a woman, he avoids joint life, so her attempts to squeeze into his life with her services turn out to be tongs.
In the example of a commentator, a woman is engaged in her own life in her own marriage, and no investments and especially not forceps.
Students, as always, do not see the difference between wives and casual acquaintances.
They do this for several reasons.
Firstly, they are lazy and greedy, so they would like to behave in marriage as on a romantic date.
Second, they like to devalue marriage, both when there is a marriage and when there is no one.
When there is, they want to feel free from marriage, and when not, they want to feel successful, not alone.
Anyone who thought that household investments when living together are harmful, be sure of their greed and laziness.
Investing on its own is never harmful.
Harmful are forceps, which greedy people always appear immediately after the investment, and often before.
Such people, having done something for another or just thinking about it, are now waiting for a response investment or demanding it.
Responsive investments can not be required and even wait for reciprocal investments.
Response investments depend on how much your investments have been useful and it is the right of a person to assess whether your investments are useful.
You can only manage your own investments (to do or not to do or to do otherwise), and not the investments of a person.
The return investment when raising your value is guaranteed.
And the importance grows under two conditions.
Your investments should: 1) be useful to the person, 2) not impose obligations.
If you do something useful for a person and at the same time do not burden him with obligations, your importance for him grows.
Most people do the exact opposite.
They do not do anything useful to others, and if they do, they impose maximum obligations.
And very often the obligations that they impose do not relate to the area of their investments, but to a completely different one, in which they do not want to interact with them at all.
Why does the value increase from useful investments?
If your investment is useful, the person wants more and he tries instead of a temporary connection to create a permanent one.
You liked a lecture or a book, you are looking for what else you can listen to and read from this author.
You liked the master in the beauty salon, you sign up for this master yet, and if he has a queue, then you sign up for several procedures at once, and not for one procedure, but for others too.
Moreover, you in this beauty salon begin to try other profiles of procedures with other masters, assuming that if the master is so good, then the salon can be good, including other masters.
You liked the publication on the TG channel or a post in LiveJournal, you begin to read this channel, this blog, as well as other publications on this site.
And if you met someone nice through Tinder, now Tinder is your favorite place to meet, as long as it several times in a row does not disappoint you.
If you were pleased at the meeting, you would like to meet again.
There is nothing easier than this model.
A positive experience causes a desire to repeat it, it is a simple function of the neural network - to lay and fix a permanent route, if the experience was successful.
The field can be represented as a projection of neural networks – neurotopography.
Although in fact these neural networks are a projection of the field, they originated in evolution initially as a way of orientation in space, as an opportunity to lay paths, tracks and rails.
Why is there so much confusion with a simple model?
Because of the desire to use other people as things.
Do not exchange with them, doing something useful for them and forming connections, but trying to just take, at best, take away by force or deception.
Crowns allow you to see your rights and your opportunities more than they are.
Therefore, people either simply pull their hand or give something and demand to give them back.
It seems to them that to give their own and demand someone else ’ s – this is normal interaction.
But normal interaction looks very different.
You give something and if it is useful, the person turns towards you, wanting to get more.
From the inside, he wants to interact with you.
And reflecting on this desire, he is looking for a way to interest you.
His proposals are then followed.
As in a sandbox, at three years old, if you want to play with someone, you show them your toys.
Seeing someone else's toy, the child can try to take it, if he is not yet so smart and brought up to understand that any thing has a master and it is necessary to negotiate with him.
But seeing someone alive, with whom you want to play, even a child understands that you can not just take him, and you can not order him to play either.
We can only engage.
And in order for the conditions to be beneficial for you, the initiative to rapprochement should be mutual.
You should not ask to play with you, the desire should arise in both.
Infantile adults ignore this point.
The navigator is distinguished by the fact that he constantly shortens the path, eliminating the cells of the field, where the move of the other should be and the choice of moves by others.
He chooses someone else ’ s move and commands the other how to walk, and sometimes makes himself for another move.
If the Navigator is going to give something, he will announce in advance what he needs in return.
And if he gave, then it means that he is owed for it.
Often it turns out to be a trick with a framing, as if you were given something, and then demanded to pay for it.
The navigator does not see the difference between this and a normal exchange.
A normal exchange is when you offer something and if it seems useful to the person, he himself makes a counter offer to you.
The navigators believe that this is all too vague and we need to clarify everything.
Therefore, they, having not yet given or offered anything useful, already want to receive guarantees that they will be given what they want in return.
These are the ones that make it less important.
The man has not yet received anything, and he is already forced to appreciate this empty place and pay for it.
When buying things in the store, everything is different.
There, a person chooses the thing that he needs, sees the price tag and compares his need and price.
In a relationship, a person also compares his need, the person ’ s offer and the price that will have to pay for it.
And we are trying to learn how to see the processes in the field: to reflect your needs, to understand the needs of a person and to form counter proposals so that the needs of a person unfold in your favor.
Unlike a store where simple, non-exclusive items are sold and their price is stable enough as long as the economy is stable, in a relationship the price of investments can fall or rise depending on the NW.
I used to draw your attention to this phenomenon, talking about predators that can raise the price of their investments to infinity.
Fishermen do not, because they avoid the difference between SZ and OZ, and predators do.
But many rapans decided that if the price of investments of a predator can grow to infinity, then they are no worse, they will assign their investments a sky-high price and hang a price tag on their forehead.
That is, there is no idea how the price of investments increases.
Does anyone have an idea?
Will someone tell you?
Try it, and I'll tell you later.
At first glance, the topic is not military, but on the other hand, it is the most military one.
Source: Evolution
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This dynamic is similar to how MLMs often frame participation as investment in a supportive, opportunity-driven community, though there may be exploitative elements—a key topic in MLM criticism.

- The text discusses reciprocity and transactional relationships; in settings where gifts or incentives are given, future obligations are often implied.

MLMs have been criticized for masking recruitment as gifts or community events, creating subtle obligations.

- It is noted that misunderstandings about value exchange can lead to problematic “investments,” a dynamic sometimes manipulated in MLM recruitment tactics.

- Overall, practical skills, psychological growth, risk assessment, and transactional relationships are recognized as important themes—many of which are relevant to the appeal, retention, and structure of MLMs.

**Note:** While the provided text contains broad insights into education, motivation, psychology, and transactional relationships—all of which can be thematically linked to MLMs—the extract contains little direct reference to recent trends, company performance, or hard data on MLMs.

For your report, you will likely need to supplement this with more MLM-specific data (e.g., on Amway, Herbalife, Mary Kay, LuLaRoe, etc.

), especially regarding their changing popularity and market performance in the past few years, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and industry exits or model shifts.

**Summary of Key Nuggets:**

1.

Title:

Content: Feelings and personal experiences...
Towards a New Organizational Debate
Like any human or organizational body in our country, Palestinian NGOs and NGOs operate under the weight of a colonized reality, in which they suffer from impoverishment policies, funding and professional, and because of this, the organizational processes become more complex and more challenging than if we addressed them in their abstract form in other contexts.
While the Facebook page, monthly bulletin, and photos carry a lot of resistance and achievements according to each institution ’ s understanding of its role, we who are interested in organizational studies wonder about the safety of assets inside the buildings of civil institutions; what does their daily organizational life look like?
What happens in her staff meetings, between writing emails and reports, on her lunch break (if any), and in personal and professional conversations?
These are organizational aspects that have been neglected by the research of organizational studies since the beginning, and they are also experiences that we activists / civil society employees have accumulated; we are the people who push for just change...
These are organizational aspects that have been neglected by the research of organizational studies from the beginning, and they are also experiences that we activists / civil society employees have accumulated; we are the people who push for just change.
I'm talking about passion and feelings at work.
I have accumulated experiences volunteering in civil society organizations since 2013, and for four years I was part of a staff at a social change organization, and part of a student movement until 2020, and personal experiences and the experiences of my colleagues led me to question management and the place of feelings in it.
Here, too, I do not hide my bias toward a certain way of managing feminism, and toward certain values.
In the face of this personal awareness, I was accompanied by caution and caution in dealing with any impact on the process of analysis and writing, in which I tried hard to interpret the results in a sympathetic and ethical manner, and as any research and human process, my research experience is prone to errors and bias.
A Western Legacy and a Feminist Challenge
Emotions are a key resource in sociological theories and psycho-organizational analysis of the survival and development of institutions, and their essential role in organizational and human processes and processes such as learning, understanding, mass mobilization, and the realization of self-agency.
The literature tells us that, despite the belated organisational awakening to emotions, emphasizing their importance and addressing them in organisational processes, oppressive structural dualities are still rooted in the way we deal with feelings and emotion; these dualities are reinforced in Western contexts, and between American and European societies that have relied on logic and emotion as opposites. Logic is superior to emotion, and emotion is defined as an absence, even a threat to logic.
We find this in the bureaucratic, engineering and colonial legacy of institutionalization, where administrative law and organizational studies arose in the first colonies in their experiments on oppressed peoples.
The theory of Orientalism also spoke of the West ’ s refinement of the image of “the Orient ” or“ the Other, ” which was portrayed as an emotional, childish, and backward person.
In this legacy, an inferior position of emotion is built, from which internal and external practices and management are created that aim to control emotions and implement non-emotional management.
Practices that sought to control or tame emotions for exploitative profit purposes varied and were shaped by the terms “emotional effort, ”“ emotional activation, ” and other different management styles.
Feminists of different persuasions struggled to challenge these oppressive binaries and policies, and linked personal experiences to politics with the phrase “the personal is the political ”, a sign of the inseparability of different lives; their organizations were formed around the practices of rebuilding power relations between workers, focusing on developing the personal skills and abilities of members of organizations, and challenging any separation of the living self. Personal and public Zen.
For example, Mambi and Butman ’ s (1992) model is one of the feminist organizational models of emotion management, taking into account organizational and personal challenges, and is bound up with feminist values and practices, including the importance of supportive communities, caring for one another, interconnectedness with individual responsibility, and bearing the ambiguity and ambiguity of the organizational and structural process.
These models aim to balance different value requirements, make the group a comfortable place for all, challenge traditional work systems that make experiences alienated from their production, and eliminate emotional effort and any laws on emotion, gender or otherwise.
This article starts from the importance of attention and legitimacy to emotional experiences, and the expression of feelings within the organizational life of organizations and groups.
This thesis starts from a preliminary point in which it asks about the place of emotions within organizational cultures in non-profit organizations in general.
The experiences of black feminists and Southern feminists added other aspects of analysis that intersect with race, class, and their relationship to the management of feelings: they challenged the concept of “feminist fraternity ” and dealt with other layers of injustice and racism.
In light of these changes, Palestinian feminists fought their war on “feminist fraternity ” in their relationship with Israeli feminists, revealing power and supremacist relations, and began to separate from them in the 1990s and form independent institutions.
This separation was accompanied by regional changes from the Oslo Accords and the (second) Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Intifada, which alerted Palestinians to the need for an independent national project.
This article starts from the importance of attention and legitimacy to emotional experiences, and the expression of feelings within the organizational life of organizations and groups.
This thesis starts from a preliminary point in which it asks about the place of feelings within organizational cultures in non-profit organizations in general, and feminism in particular, because they are research-exciting and have a central role in the field of emotion.
I have tried to identify this status through the attitudes, values, and assumptions that managers / leaders hold about emotions, as well as the experiences of female employees, as an additional indication of its position within emotional organizational cultures.
The research was based on an analysis of 17 interviews from six Palestinian women ’ s organizations, which varied in their definition, scope, and staff size.
As part of the answer to the research question, we can say that the status of feelings in civil society institutions varied and related to several themes, which are not necessarily the cause and cause of this status, but they were linked to the emotional culture within the institutions; the integration and separation between the personal and professional seemed to approach a particular work culture, a theme that coincided with the existence of a hierarchy or equality between the values        carried by cities. This has been closely linked to the legitimacy and illegitimacy of the expression of feelings in the daily life of institutions.
An official place of feeling.
Some institutions (the first group) have shown a personalized space that contains, supports, and legitimizes feelings.
This status has been linked to feminist values and the essence of feminist work, and one of the managers asserts: “I mean the first thing to be feminist and my practices to be feminist, and my discourse to be feminist, whatever I can be in a position that judges me and gives me. ”
The women managers in this group challenged the gender and traditional constructs of the assertive, emotionless “traditional manager ” role, and defined the topic of assertiveness as the ability of the manager and manager to express emotions and say beautiful and difficult things in a way that is aware of the power relationships and needs of the organization and individuals.
“I ’ m not one of the people who gets upset, but it ’ s important for me to ask, and I appreciate, even if I have a criticism, I say it in a way that doesn ’ t hurt the person in front of me, I try as much as I can ”; this position allowed great legitimacy for the expression of feelings, in a way that allows everyone to be part of the conversation, whatever its nature.
The Heterarchy of Values was also central to the first group organizations, and they expressed a balanced management that constantly tries to balance the needs of the organization and the needs of its employees. This balance required the cooperation of all parties in the organization and fair practices. We also see in her statement the value of self-agency, freedom of action, trust and encouragement.
A little space for emotion.
In the second group of organizations, there was an environment that conflicted with emotions; although the managers stated the importance of feelings and emotions and their role in the work, they also stated a very narrow space for them within the daily life of the organizations, and attributed this neglect because of the conditions they suffer from in the context of their daily work.
From the analysis of the interviews, we see that the feelings and expressions were associated with the aftermath of a problem within the crew, the resignation of individuals, or sudden emotional outbursts.
This association between feelings and problems, by mobilizing the emotional aspects, is considered to have negative connotations such as burden and danger.
The values of labor, sacrifice, achievement, professional, strategic, and the image of “strong ” feminism emerged as higher and better values than others, and manifested themselves as values that are devoid of feelings, or have an advantage over emotional aspects.
There have also been situations in managers and some employees characterized by logics of Dualities and Hierarchies between work / career and personal / emotional, as well as an emotional / logical duality with a hierarchical relationship, one manager says: “I prefer things, how you make sense, how you direct yourself.
I feel that it is logic and reason to pull forward and feelings in the way we deal with them are sometimes something that gives us legitimacy to pull us back.
Or leave us standing in our place. ”
At other times, the relationship seemed to be the opposite of work and productivity; another manager said, “We want to work, we want to save it, in this thing, which is linked to everything that has been achieved and not achieved, I mean on the one hand we want women ’ s associations to be a supportive and inclusive framework, containing, embracing and developing, On the other hand, if we don ’ t work, it means that the association is a nursery. ”
In addition to “subverting ” feelings and emotions to the atmosphere of work and responsibility, reference was made to the relationship of these attitudes to the culture or the local community, and a manager and employee from various institutions spoke, with a careful justification, that the Arab society has a very emotional culture, in which the working person“ drowns ” or “slides ” his feelings, and loses his ability to produce or take responsibility.
This view of emotions, according to the literature, alludes to a colonialist picture of Arab society and culture.
Far from blaming and blaming women workers, this picture expresses the horror of oppression around us and ourselves, in considering emotion as a charge of delegitimization.
These structural dualities have been connected to a hierarchy of values, and an emptying of feelings from them; despite the existence of different and diverse values within these conflicting cultures, the values of work, sacrifice, achievement, career, and strategy, and the image of “strong ” feminism have emerged as higher and better values than other values, and have manifested themselves as empty values of feelings. Or an advantage over the emotional aspects you carry.
This management philosophy has been associated with the daily practices of staff relations among each other; bilateral thinking has led to management practices that put aside and temporarily the natural feelings and needs of individuals, and these practices have not found much welcome, but have been associated with a slow emotional and human drain of assets and those in the organization.
An emotional struggle.
In the final piece of research, female employees ’ experiences pointed to the centrality of emotion in their giving and organizational experiences; both male and female employees agreed on the importance and need for emotional recognition in different work situations. ing) within the work, and expressed it through a greater awareness of the personal and professional dimensions, and the influence of legitimacy in the humanization of the work space: "In short, I feel that it is someone I see you, I mean I see you as a human being, as feelings...".
It was also interesting that the effect of legitimate empathic management attitudes was significant in reducing emotional effort and unavoidable organizational pain at various stages of work.
In the context of shrinking emotional space, the vast majority of female and male employees expressed blatant anger in interviews, and rejection of emotionless theoretical terms such as “professional, ”“ strategic, ” and images of “strong feminists. ” - Two feet?
It's a professional heck?
It's just that we're dealing with a bad job?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
This rejection was accompanied by a kind of closeness and communication towards the image of management and desired relationships, in which there is a place to express the need for appreciation, for emotional legitimacy, and to link it to the just message carried by feminists.
The article aims to raise our awareness, institutions, entities, individuals and officials, about politics and emotional rights and their intersection with all the issues we are fighting for, and its thesis attempts to recognize the challenges, structures, oppressive political contexts and their effects within the institution.
In the end, this article does not aim to create a superficial duality for addressing feelings and emotion; the formal status of feelings in the first group does not mean that it is easy for managers to touch or express emotionally on all topics, nor does the lack of space mean that it is structural in all projects of organizations in the second group, but rather takes us to more complex and profound questions about the organizational status quo.
Nor does the article aim to pursue an organizational “ideal ” feminist model.
The article aims to raise our awareness, institutions, bodies, responsible individuals and officials, about the politics and emotional rights and their intersection with all the issues we are fighting for, and its thesis attempts to recognize the challenges, structures, oppressive political contexts and their effects within the institution.
In the end, this thesis attempts to encourage the creation and maintenance of an emotional culture, based on empathy, and legitimacy of emotional expression, and sees emotions as one of the main resources; then institutions can raise their capacity and the capacities of workers and workers in a constructive and coherent manner, in which we can achieve personal and institutional good and benefit, helping us to complete this struggle and change oppressive buildings.
I don't know...
REFERENCES
- Antonacopoulou, E. P. & Gabriel, Y. (2001) Emotion, learning and organizational change: Towards an integration of psychoanalytic and other perspectives, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 14 (5), 435-451, https: / / doi.org / 1108 / EUM0000000005874
- Armstrong, D. (2004).
Emotions in organizations: disturbance or intelligence?
In C. Huffington, D. Armstrong, W. Halton, L. Hoyle, & J. Pooley (Eds).
Working Below the Surface: The emotional life of contemporary organizations (1st ed. pp. 11-27).
Routledge.
https: / / doi.org / 10.4324 / 9780429485237.
- Brescoll, V. L., & Uhlmann, E. L. (2008).
Can an angry woman get ahead?
Status conferral, gender, and expression of emotion in the workplace.
Psychological Science, 19 (3), 268 – 75.
- Bunjun, B. (2001).
Feminist Organizations and Intersectionality: Contesting Hegemonic Feminism.
Atlantis, 34 (2), 115-126.
- Cheney, G. and Lee Ashcraft, K. (2007), Considering “the professional ” in communication studies: Implications for theory and research within and beyond the boundaries of organizational communication.
Communication Theory, 17, 146-175.
https: / / doi.org / 10.1111 / j.1468-2885.2007.00290.x
- Hochschild, A. (1979).
Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.
American Journal of Sociology, 85 (3), 551-575.
http: / / www.jstor.org / stable / 2778583
- Hochschild, A. R. (1983).
The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Lee Ashcraft, K. (2000).
Empowering “professional ” relationships: Organizational communication meets feminist practice.
Management Communication Quarterly, 13 (3), 347 – 392.
https: / / doi.org / 10.1177 / 0893318900133001
- Mumby, D. K. & Putnam, L. L. (1992) The politics of emotion: A feminist reading of bounded rationality.
AMR, 17, 465 – 486.
https: / / doi.org / 10.5465 / amr.1992.4281983
- Spade, D. (2013).
Being together, after nonprofitization.
Women's Studies Quarterly, 41 (3 / 4), 247-252.
http: / / www.jstor.org / stable / 23611520
- Williams, T. K. (2012).
Understanding internalized oppression: a theoretical conceptualization of internalized subordination [Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts].
Open Access Dissertations.627.
https: / / scholarworks.
umass.edu / open _ access _ dissertations / 627
- Zoabi, H. (2014).
Feminist and Women Organization inside Palestine.
Israeli Issues Journal, 55 (2), 73-83.
Activist from Shafa 'amro.
She holds a Master ’ s degree in Sociology and Anthropology in Organizational Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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**Emotions in Organizations:**
   - Organizational research often neglects the importance of emotional experiences in the workplace.

- Activists and civil society workers particularly accumulate intense emotional experiences, driving their commitment to change.

- The article stresses the need for institutions and individuals to recognize the political and emotional rights intersecting within organizational structures and broader social struggles.

- Attention to emotions is necessary for institutional development and for understanding the impact of oppressive contexts.

**Maslow’s Hierarchy & Sociopolitical Dynamics:**
   - Maslow’s hierarchy is used as a lens for understanding how governments and societies prioritize needs, including factors like dignity, safety, and belonging.

Title:

Content: Blessing the Sword
Social transformations are driven by various factors, political and economic.
Some factors trigger the course of change, and some determine its direction or affect its speed.
State policies are often said to be a powerful driver of change, and economic and market shifts accelerate mobility among social classes and contribute to changing the prevailing culture.
Policy shifts on a global scale are also influential, especially those occurring in the most connected or influential societies.
We know, for example, that the transformations of American society are rapidly moving into the international arena and becoming a global phenomenon.
But the impact is not limited to this country, but we set an example for the extent of its impact on a global scale.
This is not the kind of public discourse that is said in the context of “sideburns ”, it is the result of in-depth and field scientific studies on transformations that have taken place repeatedly in more than one country.
The point is that change is a fact of life that cannot be prevented, and that it occurs through the influence of many factors, and therefore it is not wise to confront, resist or imagine the possibility of stopping social transformation.
What happens when society starts to change?
Let ’ s give an example of a young man from a poor rural family, who went to school and then university and graduated with a high degree, and got a prestigious job: what is his social classification now (in what class), how will people treat him, how will he look at himself and how people treat him.
Some readers may recall Maslow ’ s Pyramid, which states that in a state of absolute poverty, a person will be too busy to continue living.
If he has enough of this, he will be preoccupied with safety as a psychological need directly related to life and dignity.
With his success at this stage, he will turn to what Abraham Maslow called social needs, most notably the need to identify with others; that is, the recognition by those around him that he is equal to them, not inferior to them, and that he deserves the same status that the existing social system offers to all its members.
Then comes the search for appreciation, and then self-realization.
This is an example of an individual, which I think many of us have noticed one day, but there are periods of time in which large-scale transformations, in the whole of society, are reflected in the behavior of all or most individuals.
I suspect that many Saudis, between the ages of 40 and 60, went through this transformation, or witnessed it in the people of their neighbors or acquaintances, in the 1970s, when Saudi society underwent profound transformations, influenced by the first and second economic development plans (1971-1980).
The same happened after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in late 1990.
When you look at a broad spectrum of society, you will see that today many of the most senior figures come from economically or socially modest families, but their status has increased as a result of their education, higher incomes, social roles, or job positions.
Here we are not talking about a number of individuals, but about a general phenomenon that we can, without reservation, consider as a model of social transformation.
A post-change society, in all or most of its members, carries different emotions than in the past, and this generates reactions that may not always be favorable.
The desire of individuals, especially of the new generation, to be equal with others may be seen by the older generation as a rebellion against the prevailing value system.
Some of them may be inclined to be strict in dealing with young people ’ s expressions of themselves and their desires.
On the other hand, young people may face this situation with angry reactions.
This and that attitude are the most prominent manifestations of the so-called generational conflict, which is essentially a cultural conflict and an expression of cultural transformation.

- There is a tendency to empathize with and support the "underdog" (e.g., Morocco in international sports), which reflects psychological and possibly socioeconomic alignments and aspirations.

Title:

Content: It ’ s not just Africa or the Arabs.
Why did the world love the rise of Morocco and wish for its victory?
The vast majority of the readers of these letters live in the Arab world, many of them in Africa by extension, so for us the breakthrough made by Morocco in the World Cup was exceptional by all standards, as we have never seen an Arab or African team in the quarter-finals, competing to reach the final, and then after a defeat is not easy from the defending French team competing for third place, it is something that has never happened before in our history.
But did you know that the love and encouragement of the Moroccan team was not only an Arab or African phenomenon?
In fact, the Moroccan team has managed to draw global attention to it since the group stage and its ascension to the next round leading their group at the expense of Croatia and Belgium, and the runner-up and third runner-up of the last edition of the tournament respectively, and with the successive victories the team was so welcomed that Elon Musk, the famous American billionaire who recently bought Twitter, tweeted to congratulate Morocco after their victory over Portugal on December 10. He rarely speaks in football.
A simple look at the global news pages, and people ’ s comments on social media, can see the same phenomenon, everyone loved those coming from behind, interacted with those who no one expected to catch the eye, and then crossed from countries nominated for the championship such as Spain and Portugal, before them Croatia and Belgium.
Well, it ’ s worth a bit of introspection: What did Moroccans offer a man in the United States, a South Korean teenager, or a football-loving woman watching the World Cup from her home in London?
Influence of the Underdog
In an experiment conducted at the University of South Florida in the United States, participants were presented with a fictitious scenario of two teams playing basketball for seven consecutive games, with one team identified as the weakest in the competition while the other had a history indicating that it was always number one, with higher odds of winning, of course.
Afterwards, participants were asked to encourage one of the two teams.
The results were quite strange.
Participants did not choose to encourage the stronger team, did not randomly split between the two teams as would be the case in similar cases, and 88.1% chose to encourage the less fortunate team.
In another study, a select group of American students watched a football match between European teams and were told, without knowing it was standard practice, that one of the teams had won their last 15 matches.
Again, the larger percentage of students encouraged the less fortunate team.
For almost two decades, a lot of research and scientific experiments have shown a strange attraction to the underdog, characters or teams that are not likely to win, and from that point came the definition of the “underdog effect ”, which means people tend to be highly motivated to encourage those who have few chances to compete.
Basically, it seems that people ’ s encouragement of a person or a team they don ’ t know just because they are in the position of underdog is subject to two main factors, namely resources and luck. [3] In the case of Morocco, for example, these two factors are clearly visible: first, they are a team from an African country that does not have resources like those spent on developing and equipping a European team like France, Portugal or Belgium. He reached the last 16 only once at the 1986 World Cup.
Oddly enough, however, the underdogs influence almost any kind of competition, from politics to business.
In David and Goliath: Underdogs, misfits, and the art of fighting giants, world-renowned author Malcolm Gladwell enriches readers with a number of unusual challenges and triumphs: those who suffer from dyslexia and then become highly successful entrepreneurs. In extreme poverty during the Depression and then rising to become a legendary oncologist, a small girls' basketball team succeeds by exploiting opponents' loopholes, etc.
In cinema, you ’ ll see it clearly; Pressut of Hippies, Rocky, Karate Kid, Real Steel, etc. Brands have become adept at telling stories and using “We ’ re Against the World ” in their marketing and audience building, whether it ’ s integrated into the product, brand, or founder ’ s own story; KFC founder ’ s story, for example, or publishing houses ’ s rejection of J.K. ’ s novels.
The first Rowling, before winning the publication of the first Harry Potter novels and going global, was Dwayne Johnson, an actor who started in a popular area and then went out into the light, etc.
The story of Cinderella, who begins as a servant and becomes a princess while competing with three girls from a rich family, is not only a story of Cinderella, but also the central place that the story of Prophet Joseph holds among the followers of the three monotheistic religions.
Why does he encourage the less fortunate?
There are obvious reasons for the kind of acceptance that stories of the rise of the underdog get, first of all as much inspiration as we get from those who come from behind, they give people a sense of possibility after they are convinced that everything is already over, we believe that this world is based on a set of decisive rules, the strong will remain strong, the weak will remain the same, and worse the nature of things is that the strong, the politically fiercer or the resourceful. The greater economic or military, will grow stronger, while the weaker will grow weaker.
So the results are already settled, and the world will remain the same, and here our own problems arise, and we think that by extension this means that we will not be able to face whatever our biggest self-challenges are, because everything is settled.
It is in this context that the Moroccan team at the World Cup comes to caress our hopes and destroy these preconceptions, it is noted here that this narrative requires a lot of effort, this underdog does not win in a day and night, but is forced to fight against seemingly impossible difficulties, sailing in a space inhabited by so much "uncertainty", and eventually reach something that no one imagined.
The theory of desirable difficulties, founded by the American psychologist at the University of California, Robert Björk in the 1980s, posits that those who are vulnerable need these “flaws, ”“ problems, ” or “seemingly impossible challenges, ” because fighting against them is important for growth over time.
From this point of view the importance of the vulnerable to the public, because they represent success in its basic sense; challenges with poor chances and resources, and then overcome all that, here success is not limited to crossing successive obstacles (Belgium, Portugal, Croatia or Spain), but it also involves gaining the right amount of wisdom.
Many will not treat Morocco ’ s success story as an occasional “story, ” but instead place it at the center of their thoughts, ignoring even the statistics that say the victory of the underdog is a rare event, caused by the optimistic bias hypothesis, a cognitive bias that makes one think they are less likely than others to face a negative event in order to reassure themselves.
Fair game.
Besides, people usually encourage the underdog for another completely different purpose that economists never imagined could happen.
At that point, let ’ s go back to Richard Thaler, an American who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017 for his achievements in behavioral economics, which included proving that we tend to pay close attention to fairness, even in our financial decisions.
Let ’ s assume that there is a man who sells umbrellas for only $20 a parachute, but raises the price when the rain intensifies to $35, the rain will simply force people to turn to umbrellas, and as demand rises and goods are limited, prices rise.
According to classical economics, people would have to buy expensive umbrellas, but Thaler ’ s experiments revealed that many preferred to stay in the rain without an umbrella just because they thought the seller was taking advantage of their need.
In football, the public sees that the game requires a lot of money (and other resources) to make the big teams succeed, and therefore it is completely unfair, and the main determinant of excellence is money, not talent.
The majority of the readers of this report were not born with a golden (or even silver) spoon in their mouths, and therefore always face problems related to the triumph of the weak-talented resource person, and here in particular the support of the fair game is a personal reflection of ourselves and our experiences.
Naguib Mahfouz himself, in his Nobel Prize speech, alluded to this point when he said, "You may ask, this man from the Third World, how did he find out of the blue what allowed him to write stories?
It is a valid question, I come from a world that is under the weight of debt even to threaten to repay it with famine or something close to it.
Fortunately, art and perhaps creativity of all kinds are generous and compassionate, and just as he lives with the happy, he does not give up on the unhappy, and gives each team an appropriate way to express what is going on in his chest. ”
This is precisely why the football public is often fascinated and supported by people from fragile environments, economically or politically, and here the African teams stand as an ideal model, but this support will stop once the fans realize that those who support them are no longer vulnerable.
In one experiment (7) conducted within the scope of the psychology of the vulnerable, the researchers tried to identify the deep reasons for the audience's support for the vulnerable, as in the habit of this type of experiment there was a hypothetical match between two teams: one had a good chance to win, the other had a small chance, but in some cases the researchers told the subjects that the team with a small chance spent a lot of money.
Here people stopped seeing them as vulnerable, and consequently stopped encouraging them.
This brings us back to the theory of desirable difficulties, because if you have money you can facilitate the difficulties you face, and therefore your victory, even if you are unlucky, is expected, and if you do not succeed, you have sinned and it is all your responsibility, the real success here is overcoming severe difficulties and then winning in the end, because from the beginning you deserve to win (because of your talent) but there are circumstances that prevented you.
Once again, a journey of great challenges, even epic ones, and seemingly impossible difficulties, ends with the passage to salvation.
You're just someone from Africa.
But in addition to all of the above, people also like the success of the underprivileged for the more profound reason that they go beyond what we call the "stereotype threat", which is the tendency of a particular group of people to assert the idea of   society about her, for example, the fact that society views a girl as not qualified to study mathematics or science leads her to stress and fear while trying to study these subjects. They did indeed confirm the image of society about her, but that had nothing to do with her abilities.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famous American astronomer, once talked about this idea, saying that this huge sense of vulnerability because people see you as black and by extension you have no luck in the white-haunted world of physics was too cruel to wish even on his worst enemy.
Similarly, the football community tends to think that the African teams have a certain level that they will never cross, a barrier that some think is only about ability, we will never be able to move forward, this stereotype runs terribly in football circles, and when you are an African team you face a challenge stronger than all of them, the stereotype that you are weak and do not have the ability to fight against these giants.
Threatening the stereotype of power so that it controls entire communities, social groups of millions, women, blacks, Muslim communities, refugees or minorities in general.
In fact, this was the Moroccans ’ first enemy, something that really makes you wonder: How did they survive under the threat of such a deep stereotype?
It ’ s not really about skill, it ’ s about faith, believing that it ’ s possible to beat them.
In the match against France, the first goal came in the fourth to fifth minute, it was enough to destroy Morocco completely psychologically based on the threat of stereotype, but they did not, they fought until the last moment valiantly.
This is precisely why the Moroccans (fans and players) cried after the defeat from France, although they achieved a great victory only to reach that point, but the Moroccans had already overcome the threat of the stereotype, the fact that it was only about your beliefs about yourself, in which case the Moroccans believed in one phrase: “It is possible. ”
The story of the rise of Morocco in the World Cup Qatar 2022 will remain a story for those coming from behind, who have overcome great difficulties, and then jumped to a point higher than everyone ’ s expectations, as if the challenges they faced were thorns on the ground, which the more they stepped on their pain, causing them to jump higher!
It ’ s a truly inspiring story, coming from the world of football but it can express everything in our lives, loved by audiences around the world because it ’ s simple and honest, shatters our preconceptions about the nature of this world, and makes us feel that we too can overcome our very own challenges, after a long despair!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Sources:
1. The appeal of the underdog: Definition of the construct and implications for the self
The science of why we love to root for underdogs
The underdog effect Ciaran O ’ Keeffe on the appeal, and how things change.
Bjork's Desirable Difficulties
5. Optimism bias
6. Easy money or a golden pension?
Integrating economics and psychology
7. The Appeal of the Underdog
8. Stereotype Threat
Source: The Island

Title:

Content: Psychology and its branches: a tool for understanding, interpreting, controlling and predicting human behavior
Psychology is a science that studies human behavior, and seeks to achieve three main objectives: understanding and interpreting behavior: understanding the causes of behavior and explaining it in light of the factors affecting it, predicting behavior: the ability to predict behavior under certain circumstances, and behavior control: the ability to control and direct behavior towards certain goals.
Source: pexels.com
Understanding and Interpreting Behavior:
For example, a child's aggressive behavior can be explained by genetic factors such as a history of violence in the family, environmental factors such as the child's exposure to violence or abuse, or psychological factors such as the presence of emotional or social problems.
Predicting behavior:
Psychology seeks to predict behavior by understanding and interpreting the factors that affect it; for example, it can be predicted that a hardworking student will score high on the exam, or that a person suffering from depression will suffer from sleep problems.
We have been able to predict the fate of the child who lives in the midst of these circumstances and we must prepare for the upbringing of our children and help them face and overcome those circumstances and create a good and suitable environment for their upbringing.
Control and Control of Behavior:
Psychology seeks to control behavior by controlling the factors that affect it; for example, a child's aggressive behavior can be controlled by modifying the environment around him or offering him psychological treatment.
Examples of application:
Understanding and Interpreting: Adolescent behavior that tends to be socially isolated can be understood and interpreted as a result of genetic factors such as having a history of isolation in the family, environmental factors such as being bullied, or psychological factors such as having emotional or social problems.
Prediction: It can be predicted that a person with social anxiety disorder will have difficulty speaking in public.
Adjustment: The behavior of a person suffering from drug addiction can be adjusted through psychotherapy or rehabilitation programs.
Branches of Psychology:
Psychology has many branches and fields, including theoretical branches and applied branches, and each of these branches will be addressed.
First: Theoretical branches:
These branches are concerned with general theoretical issues in science, i.e. aimed at achieving theoretical purposes, and these branches are concerned with revealing the principles and laws that govern behavior and explain it.
1.
General Psychology
It is the science that aims to reveal the laws and principles to explain the normal human behavior and this section is the basis of all other branches of psychology, which provides general information about the life of the individual, and the general foundations of human behavior and its topics motivation, perception, remembering, learning, personality and intelligence...
and so on.
Examples of application:
• Motivation study: General psychology can be applied to the study of students ’ motivation to learn, by conducting empirical studies to determine factors that affect motivation to learn, such as rewards and punishments, desired goals, and social factors.
• Cognition study: General psychology can be applied to the study of customers' perception of commercials, through empirical studies to determine the factors that affect the recall of advertisements and their impact on the purchase decision.
1.
Social Psychology:
It is concerned with the study of the behavior of individuals and groups in different social situations as well as the various forms of social interaction that occur during these situations, as well as the study of the cultural and social effects that occur on behavior, language, communication, attitudes, opinions, personal relations, the psychology of advertising, public opinion and social normalization and its impact on individual attitudes and leadership styles.
Examples of application:
Social impact study: Social psychology can be applied to the study of the impact of commercials on buying behavior, by conducting empirical studies to determine how advertising persuades consumers to buy products.
The study of group behavior: Social psychology can be applied to the study of the causes of the outbreak of social disorders, through empirical studies to identify the factors that trigger negative emotions in individuals and drive them to participate in acts of violence.
1.
Gay psychology:
It is a science that is concerned with the study of abnormal behavior, mental and psychological diseases, weakness of the mind and the behavior of unusual individuals and recognizes the causes of these behaviors while trying to develop and provide principles and foundations for treatment and prevention.
Examples of application:
Diagnosis of mental disorders: Gay psychology can be applied to the diagnosis of mental disorders through clinical interviews and psychological tests.
Treatment of mental disorders: Gay psychology can be applied to the treatment of mental disorders, through the use of various psychological treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis.
1.
Psychology of Difference:
It is concerned with the study of differences between individuals and groups in intelligence, personality, aptitudes and special talents, and shows the extent to which they differ among themselves, as well as the changes that occur in the individual in different circumstances.
Examples of application:
Career Guidance: The psychology of difference in career guidance can be applied by conducting psychological tests to determine the abilities and skills of the individual, and directing him to the profession that suits him.
• Special Education: Differential psychology can be applied in special education, through the development of educational and pedagogical programs suitable for children with special needs.
1.
Developmental Psychology (Ascension)
It is the science that is concerned with the study of the growth and development of human through the stages of his life, that is, from the beginning of fertilization inside the mother 's womb and the growth and completion of the fetus, then birth, then the infant, then childhood, then adolescence, then adulthood, and then old age. To guide and adjust the behavior of the individual to achieve the best possible growth under the conditions and possibilities available.
Examples of application:
Child care: Developmental psychology can be applied to child care by providing appropriate health, educational and psychological care for children at different stages of development.
• School education: Developmental psychology can be applied in school education, through the development of educational curricula and teaching methods appropriate to the abilities and needs of students at different ages.
1.
Comparative Psychology:
It is the science that compares the behavior of the child to the behavior of the adolescent and the behavior of the normal behavior to the behavior of the homosexual behavior, the behavior of the primitive man to the behavior of the civilized man and the behavior of the human behavior to the behavior of the animal in order to reveal the similarities and differences between the psychological functions and colors of behavior in all these types.
Examples of application:
• Understanding human behavior: Comparative psychology can be applied to understanding human behavior by studying animal behavior and comparing human behavior to animal behavior.
Drug and Therapeutic Development: Comparative psychology can be applied to the development of drugs and psychotherapies, by studying animal behavior and identifying factors that affect mental health.
1.
Physiological Psychology:
It is concerned with the study of the physiological bases of behavior such as the study of the nervous system and its functions, the glandular system and its role in the behavior of individuals.
Examples of application:
Understanding psychological disorders: Physiological psychology can be applied to understanding psychological disorders by studying the physiological factors that contribute to the occurrence of these disorders.
Psychophysiology can be applied in the development of psychological therapies, through the use of medications or other physiological interventions to treat mental disorders.
Branches of Applied Psychology:
It is concerned with the method of applying the findings of the research in the theoretical branches to one of the fields of human activity, that is, it aims to achieve practical experimental purposes, that is, it aims to achieve practical purposes and solve practical problems, and it benefits from the results of research and psychological theories for various practical purposes.
The most important of these branches are:
1.
Educational Psychology (Educational):
It is one of the branches of psychology that is concerned with the study of problems that arise in the field of education, which concern students, teachers, subjects, methods of learning, theories and the most important conditions of good learning.
It is concerned with the application of research results and theories of psychology in the field of education, and it is concerned with the discovery of students' talents, readiness, tendencies and abilities and guide them to the best to ensure balanced growth in order to raise good citizens.
Examples of application:
• Use IQ tests to identify students who need special help.
• Developing educational programs that suit the different abilities and needs of students.
• Qualifying the teacher to deal with people with special needs.
1.
Industrial Psychology:
Industrial psychology aims to raise the productive efficiency of workers by focusing on achieving healthy human relations between workers and each other and between workers and management with attention to creating appropriate physical conditions for them, and working to solve various problems in the field of industry and production in a scientific and human way....
Examples of application:
• Use personality tests to select the right employees for different jobs.
• Develop training programs to improve the skills of employees.
• Create positive and healthy work environments.
1.
Commercial Psychology:
It is concerned with studying the motivations and needs of consumers and estimating their psychological tendencies towards the products in the market. It is also concerned with the selection of sales workers and examines how the seller affects the buyer. It also studies the best means of advertising and information about goods and the best ways of supply to attract consumers and complete the sale process.
And so on.
Examples of application:
• Use market studies to understand consumer needs.
• Developing effective marketing strategies.
• Improve customer experience.
1.
Criminal Psychology:
This branch is the applied aspect of homosexual psychology, which is useful in the investigation procedures and to ensure the correctness of the statements of criminals in the ways of measuring emotions, associative experiences, lie tests, psychoanalysis and others.
Examples of application:
• The use of psychological interviews to evaluate the accused.
• Development of rehabilitation programs for offenders.
• Assistance in crime prevention.
1.
Military Psychology:
It is concerned with the study of the abilities, capabilities, readiness and personality traits of soldiers, emotional and mood to put the right soldier in the right place, i.e. distributing soldiers on types of weapons and works that suit their abilities, capabilities, characteristics and readiness, as well as excluding individuals who are not suitable for serving the army or distributing them to work appropriate to their circumstances. Research and study the qualities required in the commander at various levels, by holding psychological tests to select the most suitable individuals for leadership positions in order to ensure the implementation of military plans in full confidentiality and without hesitation.
Examples of application:
• Choose the right soldiers for different jobs.
• Develop training programs to improve the skills of soldiers.
• Improve the morale of soldiers.
1.
Counseling Psychology:
It is the science that is concerned with helping individuals to solve their problems on their own in all areas of their working, educational, family and other lives depending on their abilities and capabilities. This is by providing them with guidance, providing them with information, encouraging them to express their feelings in an appropriate manner and conducting tests that help them guide them educationally, professionally and psychologically.
Examples of application:
• Helps male and female students to choose the best university specialization.
• Helping individuals solve personal and emotional problems.
• Develop stress management skills.
1.
Clinical Psychology:
It is the science that uses psychological principles and psychological information in the diagnosis and treatment of individual mismatches, children ’ s problems, psychosomatic diseases, psychological and mental diseases, adolescent problems, behavior disorders, psychological guidance and counseling, language and speech disorders...
and so on.
Examples of application:
• Diagnosis of mental disorders.
• Treatment of mental disorders.
• Helping individuals recover from psychological trauma.
Conclusion:
Psychology is characterized by its multiplicity and diversity, reflecting the breadth of this science and the diversity of its interests, and through these branches, psychology seeks to understand man and his behavior in various aspects of life, from general behavior to abnormal behavior, and from individual behavior to social behavior.

**Crisis Management in Groups:**
   - The internal dynamics of coping with crises, such as a student sit-in, present opportunities for growth and change—unique connections and forms of resistance arise during these events.

Title:

Content: The sit-in at Bir Zeit: Crisis or Experience?
Closing the student blocks of the gate « Bir Zeit University » | Archival photo
This article attempts to read about the nature of the sit-in of Bir Zeit University students away from the media, rhetorical and rhetorical debate that reduces this sit-in to the issue that sparked the dispute between the student movement and its students, and between the university administration and its council with its policies and orientations, and the resulting issue of the actions of the two sides and their reactions and views. They are directly related to the subject of the dispute.
This is because the contents of this argument constitute only a shallow area of analysis, which we may have already broken down at this stage, for all that will be said about it has been said, and the action of this kind of understanding remains only to take sides, and at best to try to reconcile them through the art of managing concessions.
Given the perspective that deals with the status quo as a crisis (first reduction), crisis management (second reduction) by itself cannot go far enough in the dimensions of the psychological, emotional, social and political crisis, some of which may lie in the present moment, but most of which are rooted in the past as well as in the future, which we often experience in the form of wishes and desires. In the form of plans and strategies.
Crisis management does not enable us to turn it into a creative horizon that contributes to changing some aspects of reality, but it is an effort that only restores balance and maintains stability.
So we also have to look at the way in which the crisis manages itself internally, and at the horizons it creates through the individual form it takes, which may distinguish it from other crises of the same kind.
Other dimensions of the sit-in
The timing of the sit-in, which resulted in the dispute as the final form of the protest, which took various preliminary forms, along with the emotional, social, intellectual and value content of the sit-in, in addition to the way it is organized, obliges us to study another set of important dimensions through which the sit-in extends, which may touch issues further and deeper than those at hand. The dialog interface (which is only effective at the virtual level).
All these particularities and extensions push us to go beyond in our analysis the issues of national constants (which constitute the driving force of the student movement) and the progress of the educational process (on which the university council ’ s speech is based in its demands to end the sit-in), despite their fundamental and foundational presence in relation to the existing problems.
The sit-in, not by its abstraction, but by its peculiarity and its present forms, says a lot about the extent to which the desire to replace the adopted methods of education with alternative methods of learning determined by the learner himself has accumulated.
But the sit-in, not by abstraction (i.e., as a student sit-in), but by its specificity and current configurations, says a lot about, first, the extent to which the desire to replace the adopted methods of education with alternative methods of learning determined by the learner himself, secondly, the possibility of the emergence of the immediate ability to organize socially in less hierarchical ways, and thirdly, the need of the target groups. Fourth, experimentation and adventure outweigh prior planning and stability in order to renew or improve the status quo or determine its best scenarios.
Although they are all absent at the level of discourse (linguistic representation) that mediates our understanding of the phenomenon or event, they are present at various other levels, giving them an invisible existence without necessarily removing their material character.
Revolutionary Opportunity and the Organizational Dimension: Formation, Interaction, and Dynamics
During the days that the students gathered in the university courtyards in compliance with their decision to sit-in, they began organizing sports and intellectual competitions and challenges, games and lectures, music and singing episodes, group discussions on political and cultural topics and initiatives to provide the basic needs of food and drink, heating, lighting and others, contributed by parties within the university community, such as student committees, college clubs and others. From student organizations, and involved parties from outside the university community, from municipalities and other university federations, shops, institutions and political bodies, which created new ways of interaction between the university community and its environment, based on solidarity, volunteerism, support and solidarity.
These are wonderful anarchist values that, despite their good presence in Palestinian society, do not usually find in the academic institution the best context for their manifestation, which is different this time, which teaches us that the qualities that are enshrined in a body to the extent that they seem inevitable structural qualities within the body, can be transformed or changed with the emergence of new circumstances or events, and that change no matter how impossible it may seem. No, it's always around the corner.
This reminds us that the occurrence of revolutionary action is not a condition for the presence of revolutionary opportunity, but, on the contrary, revolutionary opportunity exists at every moment and in everything without conditions, and that revolutionary action is merely the ‘ activation ’ of this opportunity.
In addition, these connections between the inside and the outside also point to an important issue discussed by technology (or organizational science), initiated by Alexander Bogdanov, which is the question of the ‘ interaction ’ between the revolutionary body and its environment, which together with the questions of ‘ formation ’ and ‘ dynamism ’ form the angles of the triangle of internal or intrinsic determinants of revolutionary qualities. A natural or political movement or form of organization.
In examining any movement, we must weigh the potential of this ‘ interaction ’ to forge new links between the elements and entities that already exist in the prevailing order.
These connections are in themselves a form of change that needs to be measured.
In one of his papers based on the applications of technology, Denis Yao points out that the issue that the organization or movement primarily arises to oppose is only the external or incidental determinants that contribute to the definition of the emerging regulatory body.
Learning Process: Disruption or Change?
The term “educational march ”, which is at the forefront of the analysis of the sit-in, relates to these incidental determinants mentioned above, there is no doubt that this sit-in disrupted the educational march, but standing at this phrase means only apparent things, and means inflexibility – or unwillingness – in reading the process of the situation.
A broken learning path is just one of many learning paths.
What makes us think that this path is the most important of all educational methods is not its perfection, but its symbiotic relationship and its close interaction with a certain environment that depends on it and depends on it, the environment of the prevailing system, which consists of social value, accredited qualifications, economic status, professions and all the products associated with this educational path.
The disruption of this particular process means the disruption of this entire system, but does it necessarily mean its collapse?
The educational process under threat is precisely the one-way institutional process, which designates the service provider institution as the owner of the educational decision and gives it authority over education.
Deleuze offers another way to read this entanglement between the components of the system through the radical model, in which disconnection between any two entities only means the emergence of another relationship between each of these entities with other entities in the system.
The current educational process under threat is precisely the one-way institutional process, which, even if it is excellent in terms of quality, or in terms of its smooth integration with the rest of the existing system and its contribution to its stability, designates the service provider as the owner of the educational decision and gives it authority over education, and appoints students as recipients. You evaluate their success and failure based on their ability to be moulded within the system of selected criteria despite their intellectual, psychological, environmental, etc., and so we see these unifying criteria fail to apply to these different groups before students fail to live up to them.
This brings to mind Paulo Freire ’ s discussion in Educating the Oppressed about the concept of “banking education ” as opposed to“ dialogical education. ”
Education with the first type becomes a form of deposit in which students turn into banks in which professors act as depositors, the success of this process is measured by the efficiency of the teacher in filling and the efficiency of the students in filling.
The concept of “banking education ” does not in any way refer to the qualities of the teacher or the qualities of the learner, but it can occur in any educational context based on a form of authority around which the learner and the teacher (whatever their individual qualities and effort) are situated as opposing parties.
Paulo Freire distinguishes between formal education, which can only be changed by political force (curriculum change), and the educational activities of the oppressed during the stage of self-organization.
It is now, in one of its different possibilities, in the form of a student sit-in.
This is why we use Freire ’ s writings to understand this context.
Moving from a demolition letter to a construction letter
If we apply a first step in radical reading to what is happening in the Bir Zeit student sit-in, we find that the disruption of this educational process (formal education) is matched by the adoption of another (educational activities carried out by the oppressed [1]), which means that in this case we should use the term “replacement ” instead of the term“ disruption. ”
What makes this renaming so important?
It is not the name itself that will make a difference, but the awareness of its content that may push this sit-in to achieve effective educational outcomes.
Perhaps the awareness of this new perspective (the perspective of replacement) motivates the protesting students to focus on what they are building, and puts them in front of the responsibility of refining it, success, organization and diligence in its performance, while the “speech of disruption ” prompts students to think about what they have demolished or stopped, which is an unproductive trend at best, and implicated. In blame, reproach, reprimand and punishment at its worst, aren ’ t these also counterproductive tendencies in another way?
Focusing on demolition is another demolition.
While the first demolition falls on the thing, the second demolition falls on the actor of the thing, which is more dangerous because it affects the actors.
What does this ‘ substitution ’ mean for the learning process in terms of content, decision, time and event context?
In terms of content and decision
Although students have stopped learning subjects related to their university disciplines, they are now learning other subjects that are not completely separate from their university subjects, and are not at all separate from their human and national needs and desires.
I believe that the main difference between the content of what they are learning now during the sit-in and what they were learning during the semester is not in the subjects themselves, but rather in projecting the alienation, cruelty, and psychological pressure inherent in traditional university learning.
During the sit-in, students discussed a series of political books under the guidance of the Book Club at Bir Zeit University; can this not be considered an activity that can add to learners within the discipline of political science?
Maybe in the “Arabic language ” category too?
On the other hand, it was made available to students in its new form on the basis of desire and interest rather than on the basis of specialization.
The same goes for sports, chess competitions, and other intellectual challenges that will somehow find their way into the range of disciplines offered by the university.
If we look this time at the additions these activities have made, rather than focusing on what they have lost, we find that they have employed humor, pleasure, desire and comfort essentially within the learning activity itself.
We read this in the students ’ behavior, enthusiasm, and voluntary attendance at these activities, which also takes spontaneous extensions through the pages of memes, in which we found humor to be a companion of educational value rather than a substitute, a stark indicator of the nature of the change taking place.
We find that the disruption of the educational process (formal education) is matched by the adoption of another process (the educational activities of the oppressed), which means that in this case we should use the term "replacement" instead of the term "disruption"...
This week, the students ’ share of the decision-making process differed, from the report on their university specialization (which is not without its implications for the average orientation, parents ’ aspirations, rational market calculations, etc.), this time they decided on the educational content itself, the time they are learning, the way they are learning, and the direction they are learning. They trust her to guide this process of education.
There are many positives to this change, the least of which is that students have increased their responsibility towards themselves and their confidence has increased.
I am certain that many of them found in the activities organized by students during the sit-in an opportunity to participate in their opinions and decisions, and some of them may have discovered for the first time that they can successfully contribute to the idea of   a collective activity and see this idea implemented before their eyes and celebrated.
In terms of temporal and temporal context.
We must first bear in mind that the sit-in up to this moment is a temporary event, not a consecrated phenomenon, and its end depends not only on the decision of the students themselves, but also on the initiative of the university and its ability to innovate and move flexibly, not only with the demands of the student movements in their rigid form, but also with their hidden aspirations, and with their desire to achieve themselves, a task that should not be assigned at all. To the representatives of the university on a functional basis, but it must be supplemented by the consultation of psychological and social experts to take into account its severe complexity.
That is, if we want to work at a radical level.
What this section seeks to mention is to reduce the danger and the catastrophic indicator that the university should adopt in its view of the sit-in, because even if the sit-in does not achieve impressive educational and social results, this will not be a disaster, as things will return after a while to their modified or previous course, that is, in the worst case we are not talking about deep and final losses.
The least that the sit-in has achieved will be to break the monotony of the educational process.
The repetition of subjects, courses, knowledge resources and teachers, chapter after chapter, on a group of students after group, tells us of an abstract dealing with time, devoid of its events and contexts, devoid of the differences that occur in the intellectual structure of each generation of students.
Perhaps the students felt consciously or unconsciously the need to spend a period of learning time and remove it from its content isolated from the context in order to supplement it with other content that responds with humility and spontaneity that is not devoid of organization and planning of the immediate student reality, their desire to play, their desire to learn without the authority of the teacher, their desire to share ideas socially, not through questions and answers. But through long or short discussions that are not limited by a classroom and not limited by the time of the lecture, discussions devoid of the weight of the mark of participation, and from the intellectual assessments of the professor's concepts of intelligence and understanding.
This article addresses Birzeit students and urges them to be aware of their great abilities and organize them in such a way that they are not the losers if they want to take on the responsibility of steering the situation.
He addresses the university in the hope that the end of this sit-in will not be a complete break with the experimentation phase in education, and he hopes that the progressive ways in which some of the social, political and cultural aspects of the sit-in will visit the official education system adopted by the university.
Perhaps we should stop reading the sit-in as a crisis and look at it a little bit as a social, political and educational experience, in which the roles are reversed so that students become teachers and education policy makers, and we become learners, learning from them their aspirations, desires, methods and educational interests instead of assuming or imposing them or studying them from books and research.
Referrals
[1] According to Paulo Freire, any situation in which one man disrupts another man ’ s ability to realize himself is a form of violent oppression, because such behavior prevents the exercise of man ’ s subjective being.
Palestinian writer, translator and editor.
She is a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University and holds a Master ’ s degree in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Sussex.

- Empowering, trusting, and effective leadership within groups is essential for navigating challenges at a radical or transformative level.

**Decision Fatigue and Willpower:**
   - Everyday life involves a constant stream of decisions, which can be exhausting, a situation exacerbated by societal abundance of choices.

Title:

Content: Collapse of will.
Why do we give in to the lure of candy at the pay line?
You know these days, when you walk around the giant grocery store you ’ ve chosen for shopping because it offers products at a lower price than other stores, you hold onto the list of purchases you ’ ve made before so you don ’ t forget anything, you walk between endless aisles, looking for tissue paper offers, the best price for a sugar bag, comparing two types of laundry powder, and so on.
The cart is full, and you feel exhausted after all this walking and all these decisions that you have made, now it is time to calculate, you approach the payment platform, you stand in line, and while you wait in fiddle, your eyes turn to the candy and gum placed on the sides of the queue, you think a little, this was not on your shopping list, but you are exhausted and deserve some reward for your effort. From gum?
A Will Under Bombardment
Could you be suffering from what ’ s called “decision fatigue ”?
It is the mental and emotional stress of making multiple decisions, you face many decisions daily: what to wear?
What are you having for breakfast?
Which way are you going to work?
Hundreds of small decisions scattered here and there, not to mention the fateful decisions you may have to make, which may leave you completely exhausted by the end of the day, and civilization seems to play a fair role in that, giving you endless choices in all aspects of life with every moment.
The term decision stress falls under a larger idea, "Ego depletion."
The term was coined by Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in the late 1990s, after conducting an exciting experiment with a group of researchers at the same university, better known as the "chocolate biscuit and radish experiment."
During the experiment, a group of people were placed in a room containing a plate of freshly baked, smelly chocolate biscuits and another plate of red and white radishes that were not at all tempting, and the test sample was divided into two groups: one group should eat only chocolate biscuits, while the second group should eat only radishes (1).
After this, the original participants, as well as a third group that did not address anything, were asked to solve an impossible puzzle to measure how long it would take the participants before they declared their surrender and failed to solve it.
The results, which revolutionized the time, suggested that the participants, who made an effort at self-control to eat radish while the smell of fresh biscuits smelled the place, were faster to give up than the other two groups, and built the theory that willpower had a specific reservoir within the brain and if consumed in one task, you could not use it in another task that required self-control.
The study was cited in 3,000 subsequent papers, and over the next 20 years there was an entire field of social psychology based on this idea.
Lemonade without sugar
Although the theory of “draining the will ” seems self-evident and logical, it has faced a lot of criticism and skepticism in recent years.
It all started when Evan Carter, a graduate student at the University of Miami, decided to repeat the famous lemonade experiment, which assumes that sugar-added lemonade can reverse the effect of draining the will and give you vitality again.
Carter conducted the experiment on a large sample of participants and concluded that it was a hoax, that there is no evidence that the body can absorb sugar so quickly to feed the brain, and that the brain does not consume any extra sugar when performing complex mental processes as is common.
In 2010, he reviewed dozens of studies that supported the theory and concluded that it did not prove conclusively true.
Let ’ s take a closer look at the tests that tried to study will-drain.
The study, published in 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, included three experiments that sought to prove or disprove the lemonade experience, and the results shed light on the role that an individual ’ s beliefs play in self-control, rather than the existence of a specific reservoir of will.
The three experiments followed almost the same scenario: first, participants who believed that the will was limited and those who believed that the will was unlimited were identified.
Second, some groups were given sugar-sweetened lemons, others a calorie-free artificial sweetener lemonade, and within 10 minutes, the duration of which the lemonade experiment claims that the effect of sugar on the brain occurs, everyone underwent some self-control tasks, such as writing a story without using certain letters.
In the next phase, participants were subjected to a final task to prove whether or not they had run out of will, and then compared the time taken by both teams and measured the effect of lemonade on performance.
The results suggest that will is more dependent on an individual ’ s personal belief in the infinity or immortality of the will, rather than the existence of a finite, exhaustible stock.
While the groups with sugar-sweetened lemonade had similar high scores, those with limited willpower performed worse on all tests than those with unlimited lemonade.
This study proves that the effect of sugar on the ability to self-control works only in individuals who believe in limited will.
So, you may have given in to gum just because you think your will is exhaustible.
Obstacles to your goals
We can also explain your behavior from a different perspective, you are now on your way to buying the needs of the house, and you have a choice of two, either make a list in advance of what the house really needs or go without a plan and rely on the momentary decisions in the purchase.
This is called a dual system models of behavior and assumes that human behavior is based on either slow thinking or momentary impulse.
Thinking about decisions requires mental effort and conscious self-control, while impulsive decisions are semi-automatic and occur instantaneously without thought or resistance once stimulated, and the type of decision you make directly affects the achievement of your goals.
Sticking to the shopping list and keeping your attention from being distracted by the hundreds of products around you requires a mental effort to resist these temptations, while if you rely on your impulsive reactions, just seeing the bags of French fries stacked in front of you will make you reach out and fill the shopping cart with them without thinking.
The end result you will reach at the checkout queue is that in the first case you will achieve the goal you came for, and in the second case you will not achieve the goal in full simply; because even if you succeed in buying all the supplies you really need in addition to your random purchases, most likely you did not adhere to the budget set (4).
But what if it's about the temptations themselves and not you?
To study this possibility, researchers Marina Milyavskaya and Michael Inslecht, in a 2017 study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, brought in 159 first-year students at McGill University who had smartphones, and were given initial personality tests and a personality control measure. Each of them was then asked to set four goals to work on during the first semester.
Within seven days, questionnaires were sent out at random times to measure the temptations that students experienced throughout the day and how they responded to them.
The researchers wanted to study self-control and will-draining in a real environment outside the lab, and then, as the final step, the students were subjected to a final questionnaire about the goals they achieved during the semester.
The researchers concluded that temptations had a direct role in what is called will-draining, meaning they were associated with lower performance rates in achieving individual goals.
Interestingly, the lure in this case was the only factor affecting the lack of achievement of goals, the shelves filled with bags of French fries and chocolate bars next to the payment platform pushed you to exceed the set budget, while exerting effort in self-control would not help you achieve your goal.
Achieving goals, then, seems to be negatively affected by exposure to temptations, not by resisting or controlling them.
Another unexpected finding of the study was that students reported feeling overwhelmed when faced with many temptations, whether they tried to control them or not, suggesting that the mere presence of temptations contrary to your goals is enough to make you exhausted, whether you give in or resist them.
The temptation to watch another episode of your Netflix series before you finish studying, to eat another piece of biscuits while on a diet, to play a game on your phone while your work is waiting for you, this temptation is what makes you feel exhausted or drained of the will, what if we remove these temptations from the basis?!
In the famous marshmallow experiment of 1970, the results of which are largely consistent with the previous study, Walter Mischel, an Austrian-American psychologist, proved that avoiding temptations rather than resisting them or actively trying to control oneself helped children succeed in the experiment and not eat marshmallows.
The successful children in the experiment distracted themselves and looked away from the dish or sang and repeated the numbers, instead of staring at a marshmallow and trying to prevent themselves from eating it.
The researchers continued to follow the children who participated in the experiment for 40 years and found that those who passed the test were the most able to reach their goals later, as they were the best at skipping college and earning a high income and were less likely to gain weight (5).
You are the master of your destiny.
You can always put the phone out of the study room or put an electronic lock on the most used applications, or cancel your subscription to video streaming services, and remove all unhealthy foods from the house, but you will not always be able to control the environment around you, how to ignore the temptations in the store while shopping?
How do you cope with a table full of delicious food when you're invited to dinner on a diet?
There's one last theory that might help you.
Self-determination theory states that the self feeds on the basic needs of independence and competence, and the fulfillment of these needs guarantees the self vitality.
Vitality here is the opposite of the depletion of the will, that is, the individual has a surplus of energy that gives him the ability to achieve his goals.
Therefore, it can be said that an individual can reach his goal if he moves inwardly towards goals that matter to him, unlike people who do boring tasks by force.
Here it seems that the internal motivations that give the individual vitality also help him not to be influenced by temptations.
If you are on a diet of your own and you believe in its importance for your health, and if you are convinced that the chocolate bar contains many harmful ingredients other than sugar, then you will have no problem ignoring the candy while you wait your turn in the payment queue (6).
Willpower, then, is not about making a supernatural mental effort to control yourself, or to prevent yourself from behavior that you know could harm you, but rather about effective self-control tactics, about the ability to wait for “delayed gratification, ” in our case saving and keeping your money, rather than seeking the“ instant reward ” that a chocolate bar gives you.
Quitting addiction, for example, requires a recovering person to change places, people, and things that are associated with substance abuse, rather than relying on willpower alone to control themselves while surrounded by addicted friends.
The next time you go shopping, remember that you are the master of your will, and that you have come for a clear purpose from which you will not deviate.
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SOURCES
1.
Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource?
2.
(PDF) Is ego depletion too incredible?
Evidence for the overestimation of the depletion effect
3.
Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control
4.
What ’ s So Great About Self-Control?
Examining the Importance of Effort Self-Control and Temptation in Predicting Real-Life.
5.
Acing the marshmallow test
6.
Self-Regulation and Ego Control | ScienceDirect
Source: The Island
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Following these products in the markets and gyms tells us how we are living today in what could be considered the “protein-obsessed era. ”
Is protein really the new elixir of life?
Or is it an exaggeration?
Published On 4 / 10 / 2021
The past few years have seen the emergence of a number of movies and series that pointed to the state of addiction to the use of social media, and the enormous impact it is having on its users.
We review the most important in this report.
Published On 19 / 10 / 2021
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- Research on willpower indicates that belief in unlimited versus limited self-control strongly affects one’s endurance and decision-making resilience.

- Studies suggest that interventions (like glucose/sugar) only enhance self-control in those who believe willpower is limited.

**Dual-Process Models of Behavior:**
   - Human behavior is explained by models distinguishing deliberate, slow thinking versus impulsive, in-the-moment action.

- Success and goal attainment can be hindered not just by personal qualities but also by the nature and frequency of temptations and obstacles encountered.

**Executive Function and Group Examples:**
   - Executive function (planning, self-control, goal management) is crucial, yet can be contextually depleted or influenced by beliefs and environmental factors.

Title:

Content: A groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications offers new insights into executive function maturity in adolescents.
Executive function refers to a set of cognitive skills that enable individuals to plan, switch between tasks, focus, and resist distractions.
According to the study, executive function typically reaches maturity at the age of 18.
The research involved analyzing data from more than 10,000 participants across four different data sets, and providing a comprehensive chart of cognitive development in adolescents.
The findings have significant implications for parents, teachers, psychiatrists, and possibly the judicial system in determining the boundaries of adolescence.
Beatrice Luna, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said: "When I talk to parents, many of them say: 'It is impossible for my 18-year-old son to be a full-grown adult!'. Medication.
"The ability to use executive function reliably improves with age and, at least in the laboratory, matures by the age of 18."
Prior to this study, the timeline of adolescence was less clear compared to the well-documented childhood stages.
The complexity of developmental processes associated with puberty and the lack of tools to analyze complex datasets have hampered previous attempts to map adolescent brain development.
Lead author Brendan Turvo Clemens explained: “In our study, we wanted to present a consensus, not just a hunch. ”
“This is the developmental science that meets big data.
We are using tools that were not available to researchers until recently.
By providing replicable growth charts of executive function across various tasks and data sets, this research opens the door to studying the effects of therapeutic and pharmacological interventions on growth parameters.
Moreover, understanding the typical timeline of executive function maturity can promote early diagnosis of mental illness such as schizophrenia, which often appears during adolescence.
Questions and Answers
What is executive function?
Executive function refers to a set of cognitive skills that enable an individual to plan, switch between tasks, focus, resist distractions, and regulate emotions.
How do I do the study?
The study analyzed data from more than 10,000 participants across four different data sets.
The researchers collected 23 distinct measures of executive function and used mathematical modeling to track changes over time.
When does the executive function usually mature?
According to the study, executive function typically reaches maturity at the age of 18.
What are the implications of this research?
The findings of this study have implications for parents, teachers, psychiatrists, and possibly the judicial system.
Understanding the typical timeline of executive function maturity can help identify aberrations and facilitate early diagnosis of mental illness.
How can this research affect therapeutic and pharmacological interventions?
By providing growth charts for executive function development, this research allows researchers to track how therapeutic and pharmacological interventions affect developmental milestones in adolescents.

- Group behavior studies, especially in social psychology, examine how negative emotions can lead to collective violence or dissent.

**Application of Psychology in Organizations:**
   - Personality tests are vital for selecting suitable personnel, including in sales roles, where the seller’s psychology impacts the buyer’s behavior.

- Psychology informs training and development, such as for soldiers and mental health diagnosis.

**Intuition and Experience:**
   - Experience and intuition are essential to effective decision-making; mere longevity in a role does not necessarily equate to increased expertise or depth.

Title:

Content: Intuition is the missing link in our decisions.
T + T - normal size
There is a neglected part of our circle of decisions that is often underestimated by some: “intuition. ”
In management science, when we delve deeper into training leaders and managers on the mechanism of decision making and its details, we stop at a very important section, which is the “intuition ” of the decision maker.
It is part of the science of decision-making and has its origins, justifications and methods.
Before that, let us remember that the stages of decision-making are based on basic elements: observation, problem identification, search for solutions and alternatives, evaluate them, and then try to experiment with solutions on a smaller scale before proceeding to implement some decisions.
These are the decision-making steps.
Then comes the question of intuition.
According to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, “Most decisions have to be made after 70% of the information, so if you wait for 90% of the information, you ’ ll often be slow to make a decision.
In both cases, you should be adept at detecting and correcting wrong decisions.
If you are skilled at correcting the course, making the wrong decision will be less costly than you expect, while making decisions slowly will be more costly, ” HBR reported.
So intuition, is something that comes after collecting information, and doing our best to understand the dimensions of the decision and all the available options, here the intuition intervenes to give the decision a final push, the owner hopes to be in the right direction.
Researcher Laura Huang followed the situation of about 90 companies selected by investors on the basis of their ability to succeed, based on their instinctive intuition, and derived a set of characteristics of investors who can distinguish successful companies from others, "recognizing that intuition is not separate from objective information, and that intuition should not be impulsive, fast or driven by pure emotion but based on accuracy and experience.
This is according to an article published by Harvard Business Review researcher Laura Huang.
And people have a lot of guts.
There are those who base their intuition on superficial information, or after marginalizing the opinions of those around them, no matter how valid, based on years of experience!
There are those who have spent 20 years but in the balance of experience have wasted their time in a routine work that has not deepened their abilities and skills.
He was deceived by the “resonant ” positions he held either by seniority (the disease of modern management) or by the parachute jump in the house of competencies, who exposed the fragility of this new arrival at the first problem he faced.
There are those who take a lot of time before putting their “spices ” or“ table salt ” (intuition) on the final decision.
There are also those who forget that delegating decisions does not absolve them of responsibility.
It is my right as an administrator to challenge my subordinate ’ s intuition if he does not base his decision on good things.
Sometimes he had to accept those decisions, in order to give them the chance to prove their experience or the depth of their intuition that supposedly came after the decision-making stages.
In an interview, Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate in economic psychology, was asked: If you have one message you want to convey to people from your research and decision-making books, what is that message?
He said without hesitation: I will ask them not to rush into their intuition before collecting all the available facts.
One of the most important challenges facing people at work is the official who is very reluctant to make decisions, and is afraid of diligence or showing his intuition, which is a natural issue in the disparity of people ’ s abilities, but at the same time must surround himself with competent people to support him when making fateful decisions.
As long as the “shadow of fear ” hangs over the decision-maker, he is unlikely to make any significant changes to his work.
Fear is the biggest obstacle to making a decision, let alone trying to “do ” intuition in whatever form it may be!
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**General Insights:**
- Emotional, psychological, and organizational dynamics are deeply intertwined, impacting not only individual well-being but also group and institutional effectiveness.

- Effective management, leadership, and social changes must account for the emotional landscape and psychological needs of their members.

- Decision-making is both a rational and emotional process, heavily influenced by beliefs about self-control and by environmental cues and pressures.

It is mostly philosophical and contextual.

Title:

Content: Smart Thinking: Western Logical Thinking vs.
Eastern dialectical thinking, which is easy to be "verified bias" led by the nose?
Photo Credit: iStock
What we want you to know is
Every concept in the book is closely related to life and work.
As long as you make more use of the mental tools in the book, your thinking will be clear and your answers will be smooth, and your behavior will become more intelligent and have more insight than others.
You will become a daily life scientist.
by Richard E. Nisbett
Dialectical thinking
The clearest difference between the traditions of the two civilizations on Earth is logic.
In the West, logic has always been important, and its legacy has not been interrupted.
The philosopher Graham.
It is precisely because the Chinese mind is rational that they do not want to become rational … They do not look only at the form and ignore the content.
The Philosopher Liu Shuxian
Arguments about logical consistency are not only objectionable, they are also considered immature.
— — Anthropologist Shima Nobuhiro
If you grew up in a Western culture, you might be surprised that China ’ s great civilization did not develop formal logic.
From the time of Plato, until the modern Chinese came into contact with Western thought, the Orient had scarcely been concerned with logic.
When Aristotle was developing formal logic, the Chinese philosopher Mozi and his followers did talk about issues that touched on logic, but Mozi himself and others who followed traditional Chinese culture did not develop a formal system.
People once became interested in Mozi thought, but it was only a fleeting phenomenon, and it wasn ’ t long before this set of thinking models of logic was snubbed in the East. (Coincidentally, Mozi did systematic cost-benefit analysis research, many centuries before the West seriously studied this field.)
How, then, could the Chinese, lacking a logical tradition, have made great achievements in mathematics and invented hundreds of important things before the West?
Therefore, we must acknowledge that even a civilization that does not attach much importance to formal logic can become very progressive.
This is not only seen in China, but also in all East Asian cultures, including Japan and Korea, that are rooted in Confucian traditions.
India doesn ’ t count, because as early as the 5th or 4th century BC, India had a focus on logic.
Interestingly, at that time, the Chinese also paid attention to the logic research of India and translated some texts that talked about logic, but the translation was full of errors, so these texts did not have much impact on China.
In contrast to the logical thinking system, the Chinese have developed dialectical reasoning. In fact, dialectical thinking is very different from formal logic in many aspects.
Western logic and Eastern dialectical thinking.
Aristotle used the following three propositions as the basis for logical thinking.
1.
identity: A = A: Everything is itself. A is A, not the other.
2.
Noncontradiction: A and non-A cannot be true at the same time.
Nothing can be at the same time and not at the same time.
Proposition A and Proposition A cannot be true at the same time.
3.
Excluded middle: Everything must either be or not. A or non-A can be true, but there can be no truth between A and non-A.
Modern Westerners will accept these propositions, but those who have been nurtured by the Chinese tradition of thinking will not believe them – at least they will not feel that all problems fit them. Dialectical thinking is the foundation of Eastern thought.
Psychologist Peng Kaiping once said that Eastern dialectical thinking has three principles.
Note that it is the three principles, not the three "propositions", because Peng Kaiping believes that the term "propositions" is too formal, and behind the dialectical thinking is a general view of the whole world, not an ironclad rule.
1.
Change principles: Facts are a process of constant change.
It is true now, and it will soon become false.
2.
Contradictions: Contradictions drive change.
Because change happens all the time, contradictions happen all the time.
3.
Relational principle (integrality principle): the sum of the whole, greater than the individual parts.
Individual parts are meaningful only when they relate to the whole.
These principles are closely related to each other.
Change leads to contradiction, and contradiction leads to change.
The constant occurrence of change, coupled with the constant occurrence of contradiction, means that it is meaningless to talk only about individual parts, not to look at the relationship between individual parts and other parts, and not to look at the relationship between individual parts and the previous state of the world.
Another implication of these principles is the very important tenet of Eastern thought, which is to insist on finding the “middle way ” from the propositions of extreme opposition. Contradictions are only appearances.“ A is right, but not A is not necessarily wrong. ”
To many Westerners, these ideas may sound plausible, or even familiar, in a Socratic dialogue (often referred to as dialectical dialogue), in which both sides share different points of view with the goal of getting closer to the truth.
The Jews borrowed this dialectical thinking from the Greeks, and the Talmud experts continued to study and develop it for the next two thousand years.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Western philosophers such as Hegel and Marx also contributed to dialectical thinking.
By the end of the 20th century, dialectical thinking began to become an important area of research for cognitive psychologists in the East and West.
The dialectical thinking of the East reflects how the Tao has deeply influenced Eastern thought.
For the Orientals, the word "Tao" has multiple meanings, but the basic implicit concept is change. Yin (female, dark, passive) and yang (male, bright, active) repeatedly change, and depend on each other to exist.
When the world is in a dark state, there are sure to be signs that the world is about to become a state of the sun.
The Tai Chi Yin and Yang diagram uses a touch of white and black to indicate the way that people and nature coexist.
There are white dots in black and black dots in white, which explain the concept of change, and the true yang is the yang in the yin. The Yin-yang principle embodies the opposite and interdependent force relations, complementing each other, showing the meaning of each other, or making each other into each other.
The Book of Morality says, “The evil depends on the evil, the evil, the evil, the evil. ”
And the good will return to the evil. "
Once you understand the dialectical thinking of the East, it is easier to understand the assumptions behind the changes in Eastern and Western thought.
Research by scholar Li-Jun Ji has pointed out that no matter what the trend — the proportion of people worldwide suffering from tuberculosis, the growth rate of gross domestic product in developing countries, or the proportion of children diagnosed with autism in the United States — Westerners tend to assume that the future trend will continue in the current trend, but Easterners are more likely to assume that the trend will be flat or even go in the opposite direction.
Business school students who are influenced by the tradition of Western thinking are more likely to buy stocks because they see the stock price rising, and they will get out of stocks when they see the stock price falling.
On the contrary, students who are influenced by the tradition of Oriental thinking will buy stocks at a low price and sell them at a high price.
(A review of the second part of this book shows that this is evidence of a false preference.)
The dialectical thinking tradition can explain why East Asians are more attentive to context.
Because if things are changing at any time, then we better pay more attention to the situation around things, because these conditions will affect things, make things change and create contradictions.
People who uphold the tradition of logical thinking and those who uphold the tradition of dialectical thinking have very different views on the contradiction between propositions and arguments.
If we put two propositions to others, and the two propositions have exactly the opposite meaning – close to complete contradiction, the reaction of Westerners and Easterners will be very different.
Researchers have shown students at the University of Michigan and Peking University two reports purporting to be scientific studies.
For example, what some students will see: 1 A large amount of fuel consumption in developing countries means that environmental problems will worsen dramatically, including global warming; 2 A meteorologist who studies the temperature of 24 regions around the world has found that the temperature has actually decreased slightly each year over the past five years.
The rest of the students will only see one of the above two propositions.
Finally, ask all students how true these propositions are.
The results showed that students at the University of Michigan were more likely to believe a proposition that was more likely to be true, such as 1, and at the same time less likely to see a proposition that was more likely to be true, such as 2.
Logically, however, this pattern of behavior doesn ’ t make sense, because one proposition doesn ’ t become “more credible than when a contradiction doesn ’ t arise ” because of the emergence of another contradiction.
The reason why this error occurs is probably because Western thinking is eager to pick out the right propositions to resolve contradictions and conflicts.
And in the process of selection, we gather together to think about why we should choose that more like the true proposition.
He was led by the “confirmation bias. ”
As a result, this is more like a true proposition, and when compared to another “seemingly contradictory and less like a true proposition, ” the former becomes more powerful.
The response of Chinese students is very different.
When Chinese students see two propositions at the same time that are “more likely to be true ” and“ less likely to be true ”, they are more likely to believe that they are less likely to be true than they are to “only see less likely to be true ”.
Of course, this is not logical, but it shows that these students think that these two contradictory propositions, each has a certain degree of truth.
Originally less like the real propositions, in the presence of a control option, will make people think whether it is possible to be true, so the status will be more strengthened than the lack of control options, but also become more like the real.
We can even say that sometimes people in the East show “anti-verification bias ”!
In this way, when Western thought encounters a contradiction, it may be that it is in a hurry to resolve the contradiction, and it may not be that the two propositions have some degree of truth.
Eastern thought will mistake the more untenable proposition as true because it sees contradictory propositions, because it is necessary to strengthen the more untenable proposition in order to compromise with the opposite and stronger argument.
Logical thinking and dialectical thinking should complement each other, because sometimes one side of the same thing has the right answer, and the other side has the wrong answer.
Logic vs Road
Even the best Asian university students can see the characteristics of East Asians' poor logical thinking.
Take a look at the following three arguments, which one do you think is logical?
Argument 1
Premise 1: The dog ’ s age is small.
Premise 2: Some well-trained dogs are very old.
Conclusion: Some well-trained dogs are police dogs.
Argument 2
Premise 1: Everything made from plants is good for your health.
Premise 2: Cigarettes are made from plants.
Conclusion: Cigarettes are good for your health.
Argument 3
Premise 1: A is not B.
Premise 2: Some C is B.
Conclusion: Some C is not A.
The first argument has practical meaning, and the conclusion is full of truth; the second argument has practical meaning, but the conclusion is not very real; the third argument is completely abstract and does not refer to things in reality.
Although the conclusion of Theorem 1 appears to be true, the evidence of fact is invalid.
Argument 2 The conclusion seems to be false, and the argument is actually valid.
3, the argument is also valid. (Try to draw a Wen diagram for these arguments, you will realize that the Wen diagram is very helpful in judging whether the argument is valid or not.)
Ara Norenzayan, Beom Jun Kim and others have studied whether Asians and Westerners differ in thinking about these kinds of questions.
They asked Korean and American university students to look at a series of valid and invalid arguments, and the conclusions of the arguments may be either true or false.
The students were then asked to assess whether the conclusions of each argument were consistent with the logical inferences from the premises.
Students see a total of four different three-paragraph theory, there are very simple structure, but also very complex structure.
The results showed that, regardless of whether the argument was valid, Korean and American students tended to view the three-paragraph argument that “the conclusion seems to be true ” as valid.
But Korean students are more likely than American students to be influenced by whether the conclusions are true or not.
The reason is not that Korean students have less logical thinking skills than American students. After all, the students of the two countries have answered the same number of questions in the completely abstract three-paragraph argument, but that American students are more accustomed to using the laws of logic in their daily lives than Korean students, so they are more able to ignore whether the conclusions are true or not.
University students in East Asia will also make mistakes in the three-paragraph argument because of "the typical degree of members in a certain category."
For example, the researchers told the students that all birds had some (concocted) trait, and then asked the students whether they believed the eagle had it, or whether they believed the penguin had it.
Of course, both conclusions are valid.
The results showed that American students were less likely to be affected by “animal atypical or not ” than Korean students.
For example, American students are more likely to believe that penguins must have this feature because birds have it.
Korean students are not so sure.
Finally, East Asian students are more likely to encounter problems with propositional logic than American students, and are more likely to err on emotional grounds.
East Asian students who want a conclusion to be true are more likely to misjudge “the logical inference that the conclusion comes from the premise. ”
Such a mistake cannot be avoided.
This also shows that the use of logic that fades from reality and becomes abstract allows Westerners to avoid unnecessary interference when making judgments.
Book Introduction
This excerpt is from “Thinking Smart: Masters Teach You More Than 100 Smart Inference Mental Tools for Life, Wealth, Workplace, and Life to Make Right Choices ”, published by Far Stream.
Author: Richard E. Nisbett
Translated by: Chen Yingting, Xie Mengda
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This book gives you a complete set of cognitive tools.
Contains more than 100 kinds of information from economics, statistics, psychology, sociology,
Thinking tools in the fields of logic, dialectics, etc.
Even if we face a thousand problems in the future,
You can all come up with good thinking to solve it.
• The company has two candidates with the same seniority. Candidate A is active in the interview and shows a high degree of ambition.
Candidate B is more experienced and has recommended strong endorsement. Who should you recruit?
• You need a sum of money and have to sell shares.
A poor performance, sold will achieve a loss.
A good performance, always make you money.
Which one should you sell?
• One person in the neighborhood suffered significant health damage as a result of vaccination.
How do you view this experience from a statistical point of view?
• Dog owners are less depressed.
If you give a puppy to a depressed person, will it make him happier?
• You are responsible for a jam marketing project with the goal of increasing sales.
Should you choose 24 different sauces from the inventory, or 6 jams? Should you send out a physical coupon of $200, or send an email with a coupon of $200?
• Supervisors always emphasize that his decisions are “logical arguments that lead to appropriate action. ”
What psychological and economic tools are available to view his actions?
• The higher the average IQ, the higher the GDO per capita.
So the smarter the people, the richer the country will be?
These questions can not be found on the IQ test, but there are smarter ways to deal with them.
This book will provide you with a comprehensive set of cognitive tools, concepts, principles, and inference rules developed by scientists in various fields to help you solve these kinds of problems in new ways.
The book introduces these tools in easy to understand languages and examples, and how to use them scientifically so that readers can easily adopt them.
The author has been teaching students this knowledge in class for many years, but perceives that people rarely use it in their daily lives, so they often fall into a blind spot of thinking, making wrong decisions, and affecting quality of life.
For example, if we overestimate first-hand information and underestimate other more complete information, we may not be able to hire the best people; if we do not understand statistical concepts such as standard deviation and mean regression, we may lose money; if we do not understand psychological concepts such as the endowment effect, we may blindly cling to certain things; if we do not know economic concepts such as sunk cost, we may continue to throw money in the wrong places. How to judge the so-called scientific claims that we may ingest drugs or foods that are bad for our health.
Every concept in the book is closely related to life and work.
As long as you make more use of the mental tools in the book, your thinking will be clear and your answers will be smooth, and your behavior will become more intelligent and have more insight than others.
You will become a daily life scientist.
The thinking tools in this book are:
• Concepts of vital importance to life and science not only allow you to implement them in your daily life, but also help you to pursue science and professionalism.
• Concepts that form the core of the system of thought, such as important concepts of statistics, are included because they are important and can be widely used in everyday reasoning.
It allows you to understand the same problem from different angles.
The concepts of each field in the book can be applied to the immediate problems, complementing and reinforcing each other.
The book is a groundbreaking, practical guide from a reputable scholar who introduces powerful scientific knowledge to help solve the problems we encounter in our daily lives.
Editor-in-Chief: Weng Shihang
Editor-in-chief: Wang Zupeng
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