Dr. Adrian Preda, our newest Expert Contributor, writes today the first in a series of thought-provoking articles, challenging us to think about physical exercise as the best and most unappreciated form of “brain exercise”. A superb article.

And one thing is clear, he points out: “the brain really likes it when it’s asked to be “active”. Passive audiences, which are spoon fed information, score less well when tested on retention and understanding of the presented material than audiences that were kept engaged through the process.”

So, will you write a comment below and contribute to an engaging conversation? Thoughts? reactions? questions?
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Don’t ignore plain old common sense.

Brain Lessons Part 1

– By Adrian Preda, M.D.

Let me start with a list of common biases: expensive is better than cheap, free is of dubious value (why would then be free?), rare is likely to be valuable, and while new is better than old, ancient is always best. Which explains a common scenario that is reenacted about twice a week in my office. It starts like this: a patient shows me a fancy looking bottle of the brain supplement of the week: ancient roots with obscure names mixed together in another novel combination which you can exclusively find in that one and only store (rarity oblige!). And not to forget: it ain’t cheap either! Of course, there it is, the perfect the recipe for success: ancient yet new, rare and expensive. It got to be good! But is it, really?

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We are pleased to announce that we’ll have 2 additional excellent contributions during February:

- Adrian Preda, M.D., will write about a brain plasticity topic.

Adrian Preda, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. His expertise in human behavior, psychology and spirituality is based on years of experience working as a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, teacher and researcher in a variety of academic clinical and non-clinical settings, including Yale Psychiatric Institute, Yale New Haven Hospital, Yale Health Plan, UT Southwestern and UC Irvine Neuro-Psychiatric Research.

- Joanne Jacobs, education expert and great blogger, will participate in our Author Speaks Series. 

Once a Knight Ridder columnist, Joanne is now a freelance writer and author of a book about a charter school that prepares Hispanic students for college. Her most recent book is Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.  

Motto Magazine brings a great interview between Anita Sharpe and Michael Ray, on How To Reach Your Highest Goal. Very fun weekend reading material, including plenty of quotes and reflections on how creativity can be trained/ enhanced by one of my favorite Stanford MBA professors. Some quotes:

• “But as the 1980s began, Ray and Myers kicked off more than two decades teaching one of the most influential and talked about courses at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business — a class on creativity and innovation. They taught MBA students who would go on to become some of the greatest creators in the world of business, including eBay’s first president, Jeffrey Skoll, and Good to Great author Jim Collins.”
• “When (Apple co-founder) Steve Jobs came to our class, everybody was saying we have to get into the computer business. He said, you don’t necessarily have to do that. He said, go into San Francisco and get a job as a waiter and find out what comes out of that.”
• MOTTO: You have had a number of renowned and successful students. How would you summarize the characteristics that they share that contribute to their inner and outer success?
• RAY: A sense of openness of consciousness. Those people who are Read the rest of this entry »