The Hyperthinker by Philip Weiss

New thinking for the Internet age

  • Dance your Paradigm

    Dec 23rd 2011     By: Philip Weiss
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    At last month’s TEDxBrussels, John Bohannon shared a brilliant thought with the audience.  Why use PowerPoint to make presentations when we can instead use dance to convey difficult scientific concepts, or any other story for that matter?  This refreshing and inspiring idea shows the value of crossing disciplines and generating new ways to understand complex questions. Steve Jobs was famous for his unique understanding of design and technology.  According to his biographer, Walter Isaascson, Jobs saw himself at the crossroads of the scientific and liberal arts world.  This ability to constantly shift from one mindset to another enabled him to imagine and produce revolutionary devices such as the ipod, iphone and the ipad.

    If we want to see the world differently we need to be able to switch paradigms rather than be stuck with one mindset.  By crossing disciplines and frameworks we can revisit existing information with a fresh perspective.  This is what hyperthinking is about.  The ability to shift our vision of a problem in a very deliberate way and explore it from varied perspectives can create the ‘eureka’ moment needed to understand how a falling apple is key to planetary orbit or understand why the finger is the ultimate tool to experience a tablet.

    Dance your PhD is a concept formed from the merger of two worlds, dance and science – two worlds rarely seen together.  It may simply be helping us (I mean the non-scientists) understand complex phenomena because we are entertained and open to the experience.  As opposed to jargon infested PowerPoint slides.  In addition, by creating the choreography for the presentation, scientists can explore their subject, develop new insights and express them.  Dance could lead to a monumental scientific breakthrough and curiously win someone a Nobel Prize with a choreography award.

    After the success of his presentation at TEDxBrussels, John Bohannon was approached by people from different sectors to help them create a Dance Your PhD concept for entirely new subjects.  Maybe Europe’s leaders needs a “Dance your EURO” spectacle to get their heads around what is going.  Whatever it is, I am sure we’ll make a song and dance about it.

    You can watch John Bohannon’s presentation below:

    Hyperthoughts

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  • Soft paradigms and bright kids

    Dec 14th 2011     By: Philip Weiss
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    Ivan and Natasha playing chess

    It's tough being smart ;)

    Last week I was reading an article from the Harvard Business Review by Heidi Grant Halvorson curiously entitled: The Trouble with Bright kids.

    I enjoyed the ‘takeaway’ from the article, which I quickly shared with my own children Ivan (11) and Natasha (8).  The short of it is that kids who believe that their success is due to them being smart, tend to perform worse, when facing challenging problems, then kids who believe that they succeed because they work hard.  This was demonstrated through experiments with children in a classroom environment.

    I can see the importance of this as I have often come across very intelligent people who are limited in their abilities because they fear being ‘caught out’.   They are either afraid of appearing less smart then they think they are or of damaging their public reputation.

    Soft and hard paradigms

    In the hyperthinking system, I further develop this notion as part of the problem adults encounter as they grow older.  Their preconceptions, prejudice and preconceived ideas become more entrenched.  I call this a ‘hard paradigm’, when the paradigm we use to understand the world becomes increasingly rigid and changing it can be a genuine problem.  Children, on the other hand, start off with ‘soft paradigms’, that only become harder as time passes and their confidence in their own abilities is strengthened.  This is particularly visible with languages and technology when comparing how adults face learning in contrast to children.

    These fields are often perceived as incredibly challenging, and some adults form the conclusion that they are simply ‘not equipped or gifted’ to acquire these skills.  Children, on the other hand, have no such reservation and will always pick up new languages if sufficiently immersed in the environment it is spoken – the younger the easier it seems.  With technology (computers), children again have no fear or resistance when learning how to engage with these devices that sometimes have a deeply off putting quality for adults.  They play, they try, and the ‘thing’ responds.  This provides them with an endless source of entertainment and by playing, they learn.

    The difference, in my mind, is that adults have ingrained preconceptions of what they ‘should’ know and what their abilities are.  Once they feel they are struggling with a new mental skill, there is a natural inclination to give up early.  Especially when the learning might reveal how little they know about their field of endeavour.  We don’t believe it is about hard work – or ‘hard play’ as some children see it.  When faced with a new language, children learn best when they simply try through repetition or trial and error.  Adults on the other hand tend to over analyze the language, try to fit it in an existing paradigm and struggle to make this work.  This is (in part) why learning things that seem to come effortlessly to kids are a massive struggle for us, grown-ups.

    The lessons from the HBR article (and other articles by the same author) is that almost any mental skill can be learned.  Provided we allocate time, effort and practice to develop that skill.  Second, our own perceptions about our abilities can be a hindrance to our learning, thinking of ourselves as smart can limit our capacity to learn and embrace challenges.  Instead of thinking of ourselves as smart (even if we are), we need to believe in our ability to ‘work the problem’.  We should relish spending time and energy trying to solve problems and make it one of our core skills.

    Hyperthoughts

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  • It’s a beta thing

    Dec 2nd 2011     By: Philip Weiss
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    As I am getting started on this new blog, I thought it might be good to share a few thoughts about the approach we are taking.  We already have a ZN blog on which I post from time to time, so this blog is there for me to focus on the topics I am more directly involved with and a place for me to experiment with new tools.If you have been following ZN and hyperthinking for some time you will know that we have always been trying new tools and new approaches to see what works and what doesn’t.  In addition, I am working on a new book on hyperthinking that will be published some time next year by Gower Publishing.  This means I am writing the different chapters of the book and rethinking some aspects of the concept.  I have also been updating some of the examples I have been using in my previous ebook and in my presentation.Therefore, this blog will be used to share some of the insights I encounter through this journey and share my thoughts on experiments with new tools.

    When discussing how best to share these thoughts and experiences with Jeremy from our team, I was trying to figure out which tools to use and how to best use them.  As you can see, a variety of media assets will be linked to this blog.  I use twitter though not regularly, am experimenting with podcasts with audioboo, putting together mobile videos and started a google+ page on hyperthinking in addition to my own.  At the moment, it isn’t getting much traction however I would like to use google+ as a discussion tool instead of twitter (I shared my frustration with twitter on last week’s podcast).

    In todays world of never ending development cycles we have become used to the idea that a product, website or technology tool is in a state of ‘permanent beta’.  Meaning it is always work in progress and a new and better version will come along to improve on the previous version.  In this spirit, I see this conversation as a permanent learning process where I share some ‘draft’ thoughts with you, first to have an outlet for them and second to get some input from you to help me take them further.

    So stay tuned and watch this space for more ‘beta thoughts’…

    Hyperthoughts

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  • Shifting the vaccine policy discussion

    Nov 25th 2011     By: Philip Weiss
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    The H1N1 crisis has dramatically changed discussions around vaccines.  A range of experts from different fields come together at the Merieux Foundation earlier this week.  The conversation ranged from what questions were influencing public perception of vaccines to how to better understand the issues that the health community is facing today.  It was fascinating to hear studies showing the impact certain rumours had on individual uptake of different kind of vaccines.

    The most moving presentation came from a parent who had lost his child to the whooping cough (pertussis), reminding us why vaccines matter so profoundly to the health of our society and our children.  The challenge we face however is an increasing level of scepticism from the public and intensification of rumours and scare stories spread through the web.  Brian Deer, a journalist writing for the Sunday Times and the BMJ, shared his experience in investigating the case of Andrew Wakefield. Brian spoke about how he had done a long and deep investigation into the science and methodology that had gone into Andrew Wakefield’s claims and was able to dismantle his case by carefully reading a large collection of documents.  He showed us that rigorous work and challenge can help to expose fraudulent claims. Read More

    Events

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  • Crisis in a social media world

    Nov 17th 2011     By: Philip Weiss
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    At the end of October we met at the IBM Forum to revisit our understanding of crisis management. In an age where crises are more frequent and virulent than ever before communicators need a better understanding of how they can adapt to these changes. Recent examples include VW falling victim to a virulent online attack by Greenpeace, Egyptian activists using the web to mobilize support against Moubarak and IBM anticipating a social media crisis. No company, individual or government is immune to this new challenge.

    Whilst at the event, I asked fellow speakers what they thought was the best way to tackle a social media crisis. Caroline Sapriel said ‘to put out a social media fire, you need social media water’. In other words, you cannot hope to handle, let alone manage a crisis in social media if you have no understanding, presence or engagement in social media. Aurelie (of ash cloud fame) talked about her personal experience at Eurocontrol and her recent experience with the European Council – where crisis management is a daily occurrence without using the word crisis. She believes the ability to adapt during a crisis is the key to success. Philippe Borremans shared some tools to cope with an online crisis and said he believes every communication team needs to be prepared and ready to act. Incidentally, one of his favorites tools is the use of wikis to collaborate and share information as well as blikis, a blog that is also a wiki. I confess I had not heard about blikis before.

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    Events

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