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Exercise your brain in the Cognitive Age: The New York Times published two thought-provoking articles on brain and cognitive fitness, one of them featuring SharpBrains.

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Stephanie West Allen, our lawyer-blogger friend and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, a research psychiatrist at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and a neuroplasticity expert, have written a thought-provoking article for The Complete Lawyer.

See Article: Exercise Mind Hygiene On A Daily Basis. Excerpt:

- “Here’s an example of a Golden Moment of Choice: You have decided that you are going to keep your promise and get home each evening in time to put the kids to bed. When 7 p.m. rolls around, you recognize that you can move in one of two directions: you can keep working or get going. Because of your habit of working very late, the synapses in your brain have been forged to support your habit, and you feel the urge to stay. This physiological component of your habitual behavior is making your decision difficult. Nevertheless, you decide to leave. Now, each time you make this new choice, it will be easier: You will be laying down “going-home-to-the-kids” synapses to support the new behavior (and you will be using self-directed neuroplasticity).

- Our ability to step back and see that we have the choice is key. Often we do not even get that far: 7 p.m. comes and goes without our realizing that it’s a GMC. In order to improve your ability to observe yourself and your choices, you need to develop your self-awareness”.

Article: Exercise Mind Hygiene On A Daily Basis

Reading this, and with a wife  and 6-week-old baby starting to fall asleep, reminds me of something…

how to say, “Good night, dear Blog!”

A few years ago I had the chance to meet, and see in action, Hans Rosling (follow the link and play the fascinating clip if you have 6 minutes), at a summit by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He is a Professor of International Health who developed Trendalyzer software, a tool that brings statistics to live with great visual and animation techniques. Google bought the software last March. You can find it here now.

The Financial Times today has an article titled The hidden beauty of numbers (subscription required), with some great quotes such as “Prof. Rosling works on the premise that the world can never be understood without numbers-or with only numbers” and “He draws an analogy with music: most people would find the written notes dull but love them when they are played. He says he wants to play the statistics and is adamant that he has the eye of the user in mind all the time”.

Here is a full presentation at TED Talks. Enjoy a much more insighful and fun way to see the world!

Two related posts:

• Microfinance, and a very sharp brain
• “Everyone a Changemaker”, Ashoka and Google