Cosy social networks 'are stifling innovation'
Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:41 pm, by orl
IT'S a dirty job, but someone's got to do it: for innovation to thrive on the internet, we must break up the very social networks that the web has made possible.
Previous research has shown that certain patterns of social interaction make radical innovation more likely. Bold ideas are typically incompletely formed when first conceived and easily shot down by criticism. Hence, they emerge more readily in communities in which individuals work mostly in small and relatively isolated groups, giving their ideas time and space to mature...
Article: Cosy social networks 'are stifling innovation'
Previous research has shown that certain patterns of social interaction make radical innovation more likely. Bold ideas are typically incompletely formed when first conceived and easily shot down by criticism. Hence, they emerge more readily in communities in which individuals work mostly in small and relatively isolated groups, giving their ideas time and space to mature...
Article: Cosy social networks 'are stifling innovation'
Can You Be Too Perfect?
Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:26 pm, by orl
Striving to be faultless can foster failure—or drive success—depending on the type of perfectionist you are. David Liu is a technology entrepreneur in San Francisco. He has helped found several start-ups to market products he has developed, including those stylus pens the UPS driver hands you to sign for your packages. But even as he dreams up new inventions, an ongoing patter in his head objects that they are stupidly obvious. And despite his accomplishments, Liu teeters on a mental precipice: “It feels shameful, like, hey, I’m in my early 30s, I should have had a Yahoo by now—or I should at least have had a company I sold for tons of money.”...
Article: Can You Be Too Perfect?
Article: Can You Be Too Perfect?
The Making of an Expert
Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:24 pm, by orl
"...Having expert coaches makes a difference in a variety of ways. To start with, they can help you accelerate your learning process. The thirteenth-century philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon argued that it would be impossible to master mathematics in less than 30 years. And yet today individuals can master frameworks as complex as calculus in their teens. The difference is that scholars have since organized the material in such a way that it is much more accessible. Students of mathematics no longer have to climb Everest by themselves; they can follow a guide up a well-trodden path..."
The Making of an Expert (.doc-file)
The Making of an Expert (.doc-file)
Mathematical Expertise by Brian Butterworth
Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:37 am, by orl
"...Our starting point was Galton’s tripartite theory of eminence: capacity, zeal, and the ability to do a very great deal of hard work.
Starting with capacity, it is clear that cases of individuals with exceptional mathematical, and especially calculating, ability show enormous variety of cognitive abilities. Some are highly intelligent, others averagely intelligent, yet others are classed by their peers (before standardized IQ testing) as stupid. So the kind of general intellectual capacity supposed by Galton does not seem to apply here. Nor does our survey support Gardner’s (1983) idea of a distinct “logical-mathematical” intelligence, since many prodigies seem no better than average, and indeed many are much worse than average, in reasoning.
Zeal seems to be a characteristic common to all the prodigies described here. They are obsessed with numbers, treat them as familiar friends, and actively seek closer acquaintance with them They also seem to spend a great deal of time thinking and learning about numbers, presumably for many hours a day: all seem to have the capacity for very hard work.
Read On:
Brian Butterworth Chapter on Mathematical expertise. In K. A. Ericsson's (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. (pp. 553-568) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (.pdf-file)
Starting with capacity, it is clear that cases of individuals with exceptional mathematical, and especially calculating, ability show enormous variety of cognitive abilities. Some are highly intelligent, others averagely intelligent, yet others are classed by their peers (before standardized IQ testing) as stupid. So the kind of general intellectual capacity supposed by Galton does not seem to apply here. Nor does our survey support Gardner’s (1983) idea of a distinct “logical-mathematical” intelligence, since many prodigies seem no better than average, and indeed many are much worse than average, in reasoning.
Zeal seems to be a characteristic common to all the prodigies described here. They are obsessed with numbers, treat them as familiar friends, and actively seek closer acquaintance with them They also seem to spend a great deal of time thinking and learning about numbers, presumably for many hours a day: all seem to have the capacity for very hard work.
Read On:
Extensive practice has an effect on memory, as would be expected, and it is quite specific. Exceptional calculators have acquired enormous repertories of arithmetical facts
and procedures, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by virtue of working with numbers so much. In some cases, excellent arithmetical memory goes hand in hand with very
poor memory for other materials. Working memory is frequently cited as a serious limitation on complex mental calculation, and eminent calculators learn or devise tricks to reduce working-memory load.
Is their exceptional ability confined to mathematics? Whereas some seem to excel only in calculation, others have shown eminence in fields other than mathematics. Although there appears to be specialized brain systems for numerical processing in the parietal lobes, which have an innate basis, this may have little or nothing to do with exceptional ability. This is confirmed by neuroimaging studies: exceptional calculators such as Gamm seem not to be activating the usual brain regions differently, but rather recruiting new regions outside the parietal lobes to support the current task.
There is now ample evidence for activity dependent plasticity: that is, that the functioning, and even the structure, of brain systems is shaped by practice and experience have stressed the role of systematic teaching for promoting the deliberate practice needed for the highest levels of expertise. This, at least in part, is because deliberate practice is not in itself rewarding. There are, in the biographies of mathematical prodigies, many counterexamples to this claim, where precocity in mathematics could be nurtured in a systematic way, whereas others appear to have acquired exceptional mathematical skills despite very unhelpful early conditions.
It may be that finding solutions to mathematical problems is, for the zealous, intrinsically rewarding. It may also be that the domain of mathematics is so ordered that it is propitious for unsupervised learning since it is easy to check an answer by using a different method. Many prodigies report external rewards also – amazing their friends and family. This may be especially relevant in the savant, or near-savant cases, where there may be few ways to gain th admiration of other people. Perhaps this is why parallels between music and mathematics are noticed. Both have intrinsic rewards that are propitious for unsupervised learning.
In music, one can hear whether something sounds right or not – there is harmony or there is discord. And there are external rewards that do not require a teacher, namely, that other people readily appreciate good playing or singing.
Finally, are exceptional calculators born or made? There is ample evidence for zeal and hard work, and it may be that we are born with dispositions toward them. Charles Darwin, in a letter to Galton, wrote “I have always maintained that excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; I still think this an eminently
important difference” (quoted by Ericsson & Charness, 1994). It may also be the case that some of us are born with a disposition to enjoy or even be obsessed with an orderly domain like mathematics. However, there is no evidence at the moment for differences in innate specific capacities for mathematics."
and procedures, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by virtue of working with numbers so much. In some cases, excellent arithmetical memory goes hand in hand with very
poor memory for other materials. Working memory is frequently cited as a serious limitation on complex mental calculation, and eminent calculators learn or devise tricks to reduce working-memory load.
Is their exceptional ability confined to mathematics? Whereas some seem to excel only in calculation, others have shown eminence in fields other than mathematics. Although there appears to be specialized brain systems for numerical processing in the parietal lobes, which have an innate basis, this may have little or nothing to do with exceptional ability. This is confirmed by neuroimaging studies: exceptional calculators such as Gamm seem not to be activating the usual brain regions differently, but rather recruiting new regions outside the parietal lobes to support the current task.
There is now ample evidence for activity dependent plasticity: that is, that the functioning, and even the structure, of brain systems is shaped by practice and experience have stressed the role of systematic teaching for promoting the deliberate practice needed for the highest levels of expertise. This, at least in part, is because deliberate practice is not in itself rewarding. There are, in the biographies of mathematical prodigies, many counterexamples to this claim, where precocity in mathematics could be nurtured in a systematic way, whereas others appear to have acquired exceptional mathematical skills despite very unhelpful early conditions.
It may be that finding solutions to mathematical problems is, for the zealous, intrinsically rewarding. It may also be that the domain of mathematics is so ordered that it is propitious for unsupervised learning since it is easy to check an answer by using a different method. Many prodigies report external rewards also – amazing their friends and family. This may be especially relevant in the savant, or near-savant cases, where there may be few ways to gain th admiration of other people. Perhaps this is why parallels between music and mathematics are noticed. Both have intrinsic rewards that are propitious for unsupervised learning.
In music, one can hear whether something sounds right or not – there is harmony or there is discord. And there are external rewards that do not require a teacher, namely, that other people readily appreciate good playing or singing.
Finally, are exceptional calculators born or made? There is ample evidence for zeal and hard work, and it may be that we are born with dispositions toward them. Charles Darwin, in a letter to Galton, wrote “I have always maintained that excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; I still think this an eminently
important difference” (quoted by Ericsson & Charness, 1994). It may also be the case that some of us are born with a disposition to enjoy or even be obsessed with an orderly domain like mathematics. However, there is no evidence at the moment for differences in innate specific capacities for mathematics."
Brian Butterworth Chapter on Mathematical expertise. In K. A. Ericsson's (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. (pp. 553-568) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (.pdf-file)
Shoutbox
Contact owner
Send email
Send Private Message
orl@gmx.de
Yahoo Messenger
About owner
- Joined: 23 Dec 2003
- Location: London
- Occupation: Student
- Interests: Data Analysis (Statistics, Machine Learning, Probability, Numerics), Economics (e.g. behavioral economics), Philosophy (e.g. epistemology), Psychology (e.g. evolutionary psychology), other stuff (e.g. biographies, gym, table tennis, basketball)
Blog details
- Blog started: 09 Feb 2005
- Total entries: 10
- Total visits: 16437
RSS Feed
