psychometrics

Measurement

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When it’s hot out, how do you confirm your sweatiness? When you rent a car, how do you prove to the dealer your old enough? When your bartender announces the last call, how do you call bull? All of these encompass various ways we measure things in order to do other things. This process of measurement is so commonplace that we tend to overlook how much of our day is affected by measurement. But what is measurement? In as little terminology as possible, measurement is the process of assigning numbers […]

Habits

Breaking barriers

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I like creating. More specifically, I like writing. When I first started blogging, I remember how exciting it was to tackle a topic and at the end of it all feel like I really might have taught someone something, but somewhere along the way, I lost that. Writing became tied to what I thought others thought of me. What I said needed to be eloquent, logically consistent, and all the other gold stars people were dishing out. I build up these psychological barriers to something I thoroughly enjoyed because I […]

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: The Embodied Mind, by Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch

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The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, by Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch Print The Essence What happens when a perception scientist, and psychologist, and a philosopher ask themselves what lies between the gaps of what can be understood scientifically and phenomenologically about the mind? Physical reductionist would argue that the mind is merely a representation of something within the brain. However, as the work argues, the mind is more of a relational process, one that cannot exist outside of its capacity to enact meaning for […]

Fitness

Master Cleanse: Reflecting On 10 Days Without Food

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Master Cleanse: Reflecting On 10 Days Without Food | Forces of Habit “Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant goods, the teacher instructions, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish. The merchant asks of Siddhartha: Very well and what can you give? What have you learned that you can give? I can think, I can wait, I can fast. Is that all? I think that is all. And of what use are they? For example, fasting, what good is that? It is of great value, sir. If […]

Habits

Being Bald: Voluntary Discomfort In Action

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Being Bald: Voluntary Discomfort In Action | Forces of Habit I recently razor shaved my head bald. Now as this was another means to an intentional living end, I think it is important to de-brief my line of thought on the matter, as well as what I hope to gain from the experience. Like many choices in our lives, I think that this decision to shave my head is a reflection of my choice to overcome some of the developmental mechanism built without my conscious consent during my early life […]

Fitness

My First Marathon: What I Learned

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My First Marathon: What I Learned I recently completed my first Marathon this past weekend. This being a sizeable accomplishment for me, I wanted to share how I prepared, my thoughts on the experience and what I would do differently next time. You’ll find that intentional living is sprinkled all throughout my marathon experience. Whether it be the lack thereof that lead to a few missteps or the embodiment that facilitated the accomplishment, intentional living surely impacted the overall results. Preparation Preparation begins internally, and I had a lot of […]

Habits

Minimalism: Everything I Own in One Bag and Here’s Why

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Minimalism: Everything I Own in One Bag and Why The Seeds Disposal Around the back end of 2016, I began my journey as a Minimalist. My initial reason was merely based on space. I dreaded packing up all of my college belongings after a semester, just to carry it all home for a few months. In fact, I recall struggling to load up my friend’s car with all my stuff to the degree that we considered strapping things to the roof! I had enough. That up and coming fall I […]

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are by Joseph Ledoux

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Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are by Joseph LeDoux Print The Essence Brain development is an integrative process, where the neural circuits that preserve our capabilities to think, emote, motivate, influence, and interact with each other originate from neurotransmitter, made up of proteins, that are transcribed from genes; all which being modulated by environmental exposure. LeDoux explains how through these systems, learning and memory are modified to create all that we conceive to be our selves. The brain makes the self. The brain, Ledoux argues, is the […]

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life by Joseph Ledoux

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The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life by Joseph Ledoux Print The Essence The emotional brain argues that the feelings that we subjective identify as emotions are merely markers for underlying somatic and neuro mechanisms. In other words, what we feel is the byproduct of evolutionary selection for things our sensory systems are exposed to and unconsciously harness. The Amygdala (Fear system) is given special attention as it is the lens that LeDoux uses to study emotions mechanisms. LeDoux reports how our brains memory system can imprint synaptic […]

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Book Summary: Human: The Science Behind What Makes Your Brain Unique by Michael Gazzaniga

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Human: The Science Behind What Makes Your Brain Unique by Michael Gazzaniga Print The Essence Humans are animals. But we are particular interesting due to our niche on the evolutionary tree. While our biological systems function just as many living organism do, we have set of mental faculties that make us unique. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga’s book Human is a tour de force, exploring how certain mental tools available to only humans help explain why our thinking, emotions, perceptions, and memory are different from our predecessors. For instance, consider how we […]