Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

[Updated] Mind Hacks

Ever wonder...

  • why does your mind play tricks on you?
  • why can you read the same sentence with the missing word about 5 times but not see it?
  • why do visualization and "mind games" work?
  • do we really use only 10% of our brains?
  • why hearing someone talking on a cell phone is more annoying than hearing two people talking near you in exactly the same environment?

Well, you can stop wondering. I've just finished "Mind Hacks" by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb, and the answers to these and about a Brazillian other things are addressed within. This is a really fun book, and I bought it on impulse while I was on Amazon the other day subscribing to Make, and read it on a long flight today.

There are 100 "Hacks" in the book, each of which explains a different aspect of the things your brain does to make the world seem smooth and familiar to you. For example, Hack #62 explains the Broken Escalator Phenomon:

"One such phenomenon can be felt when you walk onto a broken escalator. You know it's broken, but your brain's autopilot takes over regardless, inappropriately adjusting your posture and gait as if the escalator were moving. This has been dubbed the broken escalator phenomenon."

I liked this one because I had a similar "my body is not my own" experience when I was walking on a broken "moving sidewalk" in the Las Vegas airport last week. I knew the thing was broken, but I still felt my body trying to adjust for a non-existent change in speed as I stepped on and off of the moving sidewalk.

For each Hack, the book goes on to explain how the Hack works, why it works and, in many cases, provides a fun "Hack the Hack" exercise you can try to test it out. There are a lot of references to cool things on the web like one on how to build your own "Motor/Sensory Homounculus." Yeah...that one is explained in the book, too.

Cool stuff, and lots of fun. Get it for yourself or as a gift for that special someone.

Update: Here's another sample (no pun intended) to whet your appetite.  Here's Hack #48:

"A sample of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" has been hidden in the sound file on our book web site [link].  The sound file is 30 seconds long and is mostly noise, so you will have to listen carefully to detect when the song starts.  The song will start either in the first, second, or third 10 seconds and will be very faint, so pay close attention."

To find out about the results, pick up the book and read Hack #48: Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty

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[Updated] Projects: Getting everyone on the same page at a lower cost

In my line of work, we often deal with project plans, and we use Microsoft Project to create them.  Project plans are a great way to keep everyone on the same page.  However, it can be challenging to share project plans because Microsoft Project costs several hundred dollars per license, and that's expensive just to let someone view a project plan from time to time.  Project offers the ability to export projects to HTML, but the view is very limited and kind of a pain to deal with.

I recently discovered an excellent - and much more cost effective - solution.  It's the Steelray Project Viewer.  The viewer provides a very robust means to view and print project plans by reading and displaying native Microsoft Project files.  It also provides far more capability than the HTML exports provided by Microsoft Project, in that it allows you to browse resource sheets and usage information, a task calendar, and other useful views of the project.

For a unit of 1, the cost is about $35 US and it goes down in quantities. There's a free trial available, as well. 

If you work with Microsoft Project plans and want to share information more effectively without the cost of a full license of Project, why not give it a whirl?

Update: I've been using this a bit longer and have found another very useful feature: Steelray makes it very easy to search within projects. If you're looking for a particular task, resource, etc. this tool makes it a snap to find it without having to navigate through the various views.

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Interesting colloquial expression

"That's one to tell the Captain."My wife recently hung out with someone who, when you said something noteworthy, said "That's one to tell the Captain." 

We'd never heard the expression, and there's nothing on Google about it.  Any ideas where this one came from?  Maybe this lady started it.  We're starting to use it, so expect to hear it at some point.

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Tired of talking to yourself? Come talk to us.

In case you haven't found it yet, why not drop by and check out the Never Work Alone blog?  As I mentioned before, this is a joint project started by me, Bren, and Skip.  However, we're just renting the hall - it you that makes it a party worth coming to.

The short story is that we've got a discussion group on Google where you can post about management and work-related issues that are bugging you.  Periodically, we summarize the group's discussions on the Never Work Alone blog.  The latest summary just hit the blog, dealing with  how IT people and non-IT people can get along better.

You'll then find that there is a very smart, caring group of people ready and willing to help out and, of course, we'd love to have you hang around and help other people with their issues. 

Grab a name tag, hang your coat over there in the hall, and come on in!

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