We Need More Stern Robots In Our Lives

There was a recent article on an experiment in The New Scientist which explored human/robot interaction.

They took three rooms of people and put a friendly robot in one room that hung out with them and was very funny and friendly and really helpful to the people in the room. They took another room and they put in a stern robot, a not so friendly robot, a serious robot. Then in the third room, they put no robot at all. They acted friendly or stern prior to the test, once the test started they just sat in the corner and didn’t say anything. read more

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The Most Interesting Thing in The World

 It’s In Your Pocket

I was a fan of Last Man Standing before it was canceled and during a recent binge watch there was an interesting scene of a neighbor couple bickering over a smartphone – they were sitting at the kitchen table and the husband was looking at a cell phone and the wife was talking, or at least trying to talk to him. She saw him looking at his phone and said: “Are you finding that phone more interesting than me?” He started to explain that the smartphone was the window to all of the world’s information, entertainment and people, saw the look on her face, then put the phone down. read more

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Help! I’m Just a Puny Human

Have We Created Too Much To Handle?

Pity the poor human – we start off with an amazing memory, a sponge-like ability to observe and learn, with sharp senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, then over time, they develop into a height, then slowly taper off as we age. read more

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Take The Afternoon Off For Innovation

Problem-solving in the morning, creativity in the afternoon.

In Dan Pink’s latest book, When, he goes into great detail on “when to” do things, as opposed to “how to” do things, and after identifying individuals into various categories (most people are either morning people or midday people) he’s identified the absolute best time of day for most people to be creative and inventive is the afternoon. read more

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Chaos and Order: You Need Both To Be Productive and Creative

Is there a role for both Order and Chaos in your organization?

I’ve been reading a lot lately about creativity, innovation, and productivity and the effectiveness of teams, and their environments, and I think I’ve come to some interesting conclusions.

Depending on the outcome that you are looking for, you need to revise and adjust not just your thinking, but also your surroundings and even the composition of your team. read more

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