The Long View

Left brain, right brain, and complexity

Image found on mootblog.

At the heart of this post lies a simple idea. 

The idea that the complexity that envelops our lives today is an asset, and not a liability. And that it is up to us to seize the day, as it were, and use the extraordinary resources of the 21st century that go way beyond anything that was dreamed possible even 25 years ago to create a richer and the richer, more diverse, and, quite conceivably, a more just world.

For this to happen, though, a few collective paradigm shifts must take place.

1. Stop viewing complexity as complication. This is a relatively easy one, at least to talk about. Complication has to do with how we experience complexity when we are afraid of it and worried that we can't see the end of the tunnel. Complexity is, like the sun, the sky and the clouds. Complication is the added layer of our emotional experience of complexity and our instinctive recoil from the additional thinking strain complexity puts on us. The thinking strain comes in part from the fact that indeed, we cannot cope with complexity if we don't use the right tool. And so far, since the dawn of the industrial age when we strated making the world more complex, we have mostly handled complexity with the wrong tool, i.e the left brain. But now, the world's complexity has outfoxed our left brains. We need to start thinking different, to quote no one in particular.
2. Accept that we can build on complexity with right brain activities. Left brain activities will try to dissect it and it will exhaust itself at the task and surrender in frustration: complexity becomes complication. While sounds suspiciously like the previous paragraph, there is one big difference: the vantage point and the value judgment that comes with that vantage point. For many people until today, right brain stuff is for arty people, not real men. Our schools teach us mathematics, reasoning, science, chemistry, even history in analytical, linear and sequential terms. However, as the world is increasingly telling us itself, it is non linear, patterned and parallel and requires synthetic, creative and big picture approaches from the next generation.
3. Create an educational system that is up to dealing with the challenges of the 21st century (and the points mentioned above). They are huge, diverse, and complex and therefore require huge, diverse and simple approaches to solve them. The way our Western type educational systems are set up tend to create dysfunctional people unable to master the skills required for the new age. 
4. Understand that we are inextricably a technological society, and that, as such, we must embrace technological evolution and not fight it. There is much to dislike about the technification of the world. But there was much to dislike about the agricultural world order with its short life spans, hard labour and poor living conditions and there was much to dislike about the industrial age with its labour exploitation, ruthless taylorism (Ford example) and smog pollution. So on the whole, I believe, we are much better off this century than at any other time in history.

Therefore, right brain thinking, a new type of education and creative use of available technologies will produce a radically different world that what we have known. 

And here again, the process is not linear. Like in any major societal endeavour there will be (and there are already) many dissenting voices, many (legitimate) concerns and a few luddite resistors. In the societal evolution process of the coming 25 years, many will feel left out, many will be left out for fact and many will fight.

I don't think that it will hugely impact the change process that we are experiencing. Because of its inherent diversity and non linear evolutionary process, the upcoming century will be hugely more resilient than any preceding age. It can include the resistors, the nay-sayers (as well as the overzealous) and will take on a life of its own. 

Once again, the collective will be bigger than the individual. Individualism comes from left brain thinking. The sense of belonging, of being part of a bigger something that underpins and guides our existence is, in my mind, right brain stuff. 

However, I would not like to create the impression of a new dichotomy where left is bad and right is good (although all our Western languages do already convey that impression…). I also do not want to glorify the right brain over the left brain or to castigate the history of the past 250 years since the beginning of the enlightenment (the rise of the left brain).

I see more of the third phase of a dialectic movement whereby the 21st century will use the whole mind - both left and right brain functions equally well and as mutually completing and complementary (if not complimentary) tools. In order to achieve that, we need to resolutely refocus the left-brainers of this world towards the opportunities that the more powerful usage of our intellectual resources can contribute to our understanding of the world (left), the creation of the next generation world (right) and the powerful integration of the new concepts and realities (left and right).    

Now let's think about that creatively, in a more complex way.

What is real?

Screenshot from the Second Life homepage 

"One of the things that our grand-children will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real… in the future that will become literally impossible." (William Gibson, writer)

That is the size of the revolution we are going through. We may not even have begun to grasp the significance of the current transition. 

Yesterday I watched an online talk at the Long Now Foundation by Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, an online digital world that has become a proper place over the past few years. (On Second Life, real life countries have real embassies; real life companies have real presence; real life schools have real courses). He said that in the digital realm, we might find it much easier to fulfil some of our aspirations, fantasies, dreams and relationships. In some ways.

Right or wrong, that's not the question at this point.

What matters, however, is that the digital realm will become part and parcel of our every day lives, way beyond anything we can even begin to imagine today. 

Really, if you can forgive the pun, in a world where we can create movies whose special effects are so special that we cannot distinguish them from a naturally filmed scene, we have potentially just cloned the world. And much more than that- we can extrapolate our existence into the digital dimension way beyond our physical world and, - without harming it.

Just think of this banal greeting exchange of the future: 

"How are you today?"

"Really I am fine, but digitally I just got dumped."

We are mutants. We are merging with our avatars. 

Get ready.

11 brief tips for keeping your brain young

Change and speed are two the hallmarks of our knowledge society. Information abundance and creative decision making are two more.

Many feel overwhelmed - their brains register and react to the sense of helplessness and, bingo, here comes the killer: stress.

The good news though, comes from an ever growing volume of brain research (talk of recursive discourse - the brain researching the brain): we can train our brains to cope with new information and contexts and keep it fresh until old age. We continue to learn until our last day, so to speak.

Here are 11 tips that will help you keep your brain in shape:

1. Learn to love change. We are inherently resistant to change. The law of inertia also applies to our brains. But this creates a stressful paradox: Change is here to stay - and so you might as well make the best of it, in small and big ways. While our beloved little routines keep us going, they also dull our adaptability and resilience. Resilience has been shown to be one of the core success factors for our century. So: deliberately build change into your daily routines: changing your route to work, reading a different paper, storing your cups, plates and clothes in different places all make for eye opening and sometimes amusing surprises.
2. Get some physical exercise. Yes, that old chestnut. Enough said. Just do it.
3. Watch your diet. Rubbish in, rubbish out. What works for databases applies also to our bodies and our brains.
4. Meditate. There are many different forms of meditation, and they all help in different ways to keep the brain alert. Sitting still does wonders for the brain. It is not because you don't do anything that you are not doing anything.
5. Listen to music, and, even better, play it. There has been a lot written on the stimulating effects of Mozart's music on children's brains. It works for adults, as well. And if you don't like Mozart, there are many other composers to chose from.
6. Eat your porridge and your broccoli. I know. But they are good for you. Porridge has the virtue of providing the right nutrients for the brain and releasing them slowly into the system. Broccoli increases the ability to learn and helps protect existing and new nerve cells.
7. Regularly go on training programs. For adults there are essentially two kinds of learning: Perfecting your knowledge in a field or area you already know or entering a completely new field. The second is a lot more difficult for the ego (a beginner again…) but also for the brain: progress will take longer. Yet it will expose you to new perspectives and ways of thinking, including a new vocabulary. This will create new synaptic connections. Connections are good, in fact they are the drivers for keeping the brain young.
8. Adopt a creative pastime or five. Origami, dancing, painting, flower arranging, chess, Go, photography, writing, problem solving exercises… whatever floats your boat. More synaptic connections.
9. Meet new people. Many of us feel a slight sense of unease when meeting new people. That is because the brain has to adjust to the new context and the surprise factors related to the behaviour that unfamiliar people may display. Not to worry though - it's the same for them.
10. Keep a check your level and ability of multitasking. The jury is out on whether it is good or bad for you. On the upside, the brain can learn to handle more things at the same time; on the downside, the more interruptions we get, the less we get one task done. So if you feel that you get too many interruptions, create interruption-free blocks of time. Your brain will breathe. If you feel that chatting, texting, emailing and generally being in touch enhances your creativity - go for it.
11. Kill the sleep killers. Sleep, and the dreams that come with it, carries a vital restorative power for the brain. No sleep, no creativity, no brain training. And I am not talking about the odd work-through-the-night sleep deprivation to finish a project, but of the regular sleep disturbances many of us experience today.

Brain stimulation has to do with creativity, and creativity with brain stimulation. In our world of total interconnectedness, tender love and care for our brains matters. Nurturing, replicating, maintaining and enhancing our beloved synapses is a prerequisite for more open minded, balanced and satisfying life until the end.

And, in the process, for a more interesting world.

Your brain in your pocket: why an Apple Tablet could bring about media convergence

With a rather large library at home and the prospect of moving house has become quite daunting.

As has the chance of finding stuff.

Famous last question: Where did I read that again?, followed by an hour's search across dusty shelves.

This has, of course, its own inimitable charm. Invariably I come across thoughts, ideas, stories that either I had forgotten about or that I had just simply not connected with.

However, as soon as I leave the house (a very regular occurrence), that entire library becomes useless.

So what if?

So what if there were a technological frogleap that would allow me to have that library with me all the time, allowing me to roam through at leisure on the train or the plane?

What if I could access all sources of information and all media, perform instant searches and combine text, music and video into one knowledge mega-library?

A laptop, you say?

Nah, not a laptop. Laptops are still far too appliation-centric (as opposed to content focused) Nah, not a Kindle, either. Too static.

Something that combines the flexibility and the colour of a magazine, the reading comfort of a book (or 1000 books -- without the weight), the charms of a Kindle (or so I am told, not owning one, but I have my doubts) the advantages of a laptop (film, music, searchability) as well as the potential of the new forms of converging media (did you recently visit the New York Times site?).

Well, according to Gizmodo, Apple (yes, I know, them again…) may be about to launch such a device. Much has been written about the Apple Tablet, but what got me animated here, is not so much the prospect of a possible near launch (February 2010), but more the prospect of media convergence in one device with a touch screen.

One thing in particular struck me in the article: the idea of putting school textbooks onto iTunes.

That would be a total game changer - for kids (think about those heavy satchels), for teachers (up-to-date materials), for bookshops (whoops…sorry, no good news here) and also for publishers (a new definition of the marginal cost of text book publishing).

Publishers would also be encouraged to release the long tail, their huge catalogue of books that have been out of print for years.

But most of all, once multimedia content becomes standard fare, tablet content will be to books what television has been for many years to travelogues: wildly more vivid and engaging. Just imagine your standard economics book with interactive, automatically updated graphics.

Whether it is going to be Apple or someone else, is beside the point. We are fast approaching the convergence of media.

If you add the recent evolution of e-paper (flexible screen technology) into the mix… we might just be at the beginning of an(other) information revolution.

Remember the live newspapers in the Harry Potter movies? Well, I have come to think that they are but a frog's leap away.

Fond memories of a stroke: a postcard from Nirvana

Keith forwards me this remarkable video: - at the age of 37, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a severe stroke; ironic in its own right. She recovered and lived to tell the tale - and what a tale it is.

Although may be a bit overdramatic at times, there is no doubting the genuine emotions, and, more importantly the truly staggering experiential insight into the functions of the left and right brains: not through external left brain analysis: she was there.

If you link this story to a previous movie about problem solving and motivation, as well as other ongoing brain research, there is no doubting that we are entering an era where we will be looking at humanity, life, knowledge and education in a very different light.

Bring in the creatives!

We humans have funny thought patterns.

Just when we thought we had it all figured out with our superiour rational brains, just when we thought we had understood the world, evolution, and the galaxies, just when we thought we had reached the end of history (sort of after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the early nineties), it got all muddled up again.

What seemed simple, clear and, possibly somewhat boring, broke apart and fragmented into millions and millions of inscrutable nano-parts, uncountable amounts of gigabytes and seemingly endless strands of sequenced genomes.

We thought that we were on top of the world, and the horizons receded into the farthest distance. We thought we were pulling the strings of history and are now beginning to realise that there are far too many of them.

To make sense of it all, we need to, and have always needed to, tell ourselves stories. In that sense, in spite of the dialectic waltz we have been dancing, nothing has changed since the dawn of time:

1. The ancient peoples told stories of gods and how they created the world, our destinies and the weather.

2. Then, collectively, we decided to take destiny into our own hands and demystify the universe. Renaissance man and his descendants told the story of the superiority of rational man. It created the modern world with its industries, its technologies and its pollution. 

3. More and more signs point into the direction that we have now entered (or are at the brink of) a new era, or should I say of an infinite number of new eras, where the collective story telling takes on a completely different life - one of tis own: it will be non-linear, pattern based, non hierarchical, multi-cultural, and not least, utterly unpredictable.

This will go against the grain of the our recent left-brain mechanistic generations. But after the reductionist (and, lets face it, highly effective in construction and destruction alike) last five centuries, the realities, complexities and challenges of our world(s) demand a thoroughly improved set of tools.

In comes the right brain. In comes the web paradigm. In comes creativity as an asset and not something reserved to a bunch of quirky eccentrics.

Artistry takes on an entirely new meaning: it's the multidimensional expansion of multiple intelligences, spurned on by rapid technological advances and possibilities. 

Welcome to the business man as artist.

The eternal quest for motivation

When I work with my coachees, we often have long conversations around what motivates them at work. When I work with managers, we have the same conversations, in particular around how they can motivate their staff. 

My general view is that one cannot motivate people; you can only bring people to motivate themselves.

Motivation is a strong emotion inside that makes us do stuff because we want to do it: so the only effective way of motivation is self-motivation. Hence the limited effectiveness of rewards in the work environment: they will work well for some tasks and contexts (repetitive, left brain environments, but much less for others (right brain, creative contexts).

Sam Glucksberg did some extensive research around intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The following video with Daniel Pink explains the differences beautifully, and, crucially, with a good sense of humour.

BN Quote of the week

"Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead."

Tom Peters

->: What are you doing to stay ahead?

A million words

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Well that is how many different words there are in the English language.

After all, there are over 1.5 billion people who speak English either as their native tongues, or as a secondary language. Today there 250 million Chinese people learning English.

Don't take my word for it: The Global Language Monitor keeps track. Criteria for a word or a phrase to enter the list is that there are at least 25,000 citations 

"with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution, and depth of citations."

And what is the 1 millionth word? 

Web 2.0.

Here are the ones that almost made it  (taken from the Global Language Monitor website):

999,999: Jai Ho! – The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as “It is accomplished”. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire”.
999,998: N00b — From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term.
999,997: Slumdog – a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India.
999,996: Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage.
999,995: Carbon Neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change.
999,994: Slow Food — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
999,993: Octomom – The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets.
999,992: Greenwashing – Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.
999,991: Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.
999,990: Shovel Ready – Projects are ready to begin immediately upon the release of federal stimulus funds.

And the 1,000,000st? 

Financial Tsunami

Funny that. How to start a million.

Creativity killers

Don sends me the link to this video.

It is a 20 minute exceptional TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson. A refreshing interpretation on how our school systems (worldwide) reflect the needs of 19th century industrial societies for left-hand brain power. 

Time to move on, says Sir Ken. Time to invent new education paradigms more in line with our current and future realities. Time to let flourish the artist in everyone.

The film is short, it is poignant, and it is also very funny.