Clarity's Currents

Trainers vs. Business Side Learning Myths

2009-01-25T15:32:00.005-05:00

This is a great compilation of Business Manager side training myths collected from Trainers.

http://www.willatworklearning.com/2009/01/myths-the-business-side-has-about-learning-result-of-data-gathering.html

Will Thalheimer's summary follows.

Here are the results:

Everybody Hold Myths

First, it became clear that the Business Side isn't the only group that holds myths. Learners and we as Learning Professionals have our own sets of myths. We can't demonize the Business Side. We have to go out of our way to understand and work with the business side to craft workable effective solutions for our organizations and all the people impacted.

Let me say that sometimes I kind of regret that a distinction has to be made between us as learning professionals and them as the business side. There's something wrong with that distinction (we are IN the business aren't we), yet the dichotomy makes some sense since we support others who do the actual work of the business.

The Most Popular Myths
(that the Business Side Has about Learning, according to Learning Professionals)

These are in order from my card-sorting categorization effort. The most-often cited are listed first.

1. Bad Learning Designs are Thought to be Good Learning Designs (big list below).
2. Training Alone Produces Improvements in On-the-job Performance.
3. Information Presentation is Sufficient as a Training Design.
4. Training & Instructional Design Require No Special Skills or Competencies.
5. Learners Know How to Learn.
6. Managers Think Learning & Development is a Low-Priority Part of their Role.

2008-12-11T03:20:00.002-05:00

This is a great pre-election talk given by Robert Reich. What is relevant here is his explanation of the economic policies that brought us where we are today. I highly recommend you follow him on NPR and on his blog.

Murderous Consumerism

2008-11-29T15:09:00.008-05:00

Retail Employee Murdered by Rabid Black Friday Consumers

Heed this lurid exemplification of our cannibalistic American middle class (link to NYT article above).

I'm thinking of a new franchise of Cult-of-Consumerism Deprogramming Centers. We need rehabilitation, not a new deal of stimulus crack.

It's time that deserving entrepreneurs step in and get the benefit of this borrowed money rather than it go to those plundering corporates. Is Dr. Drew available?

The futility of discussing the cause of this debacle is obvious.

Span of a Few Days: Extremes in My Weather

2008-11-22T23:34:00.003-05:00

On my way to Denver Monday November 17 it was Sunny and in the 60s. On my way back Thursday November 20 there was quite a dramatic difference. Check out the antelope.

Preparing Kids for 21st-Century Success

2008-11-03T04:22:00.001-05:00

Author Daniel Pink discusses what it will take for students to succeed in an outsourced and automated world—and how schools should change their approach to education accordingly.

Help Academia Understand How to Prepare Future Workers

2008-11-03T01:57:00.002-05:00

This is a good attempt and start at helping educators understand there must be a seismic shift in what is taught as well as how students are to be prepared for their future work.

Social Networks and Understanding Students

2008-10-30T20:42:00.004-04:00

Eighty percent of the time teens spend online is to socialize. Danah Boyd, social media scientist, explains why students are online and the way they use the online environment in order to learn how to teach them.

Mailed My Absentee Ballot Friday: Waiting Game

2008-10-26T17:17:00.005-04:00

What now? It's just a waiting game.

We've been barraged with election coverage; albeit petty and sensationalist rather than of substance and issues. On Friday, after my absentee ballot was carefully taken by Todd the postal worker, I felt a sense of accomplishment only comparable to checking another item off my list of todo's. OK, so I walked over to the County Courthouse where local early voting was in progress, claimed my "I voted today" sticker, and promptly applied as directed.

Result: temporary sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

It's out of my hands now.

How can I be assured my vote will make it to the great State of Florida?
If it does make it to the Broward County Board of Elections, will it get counted?
If counted, will the election be stolen again?

I've stopped my daily check on the coverage on MSNBC, even skipping my beloved Rachel Maddow. I'll distract myself until the results are in, or any legal processes are complete and a winner is declared.

I've got a great idea for distraction. Looking forward to a local live music event, I visited the site of the group "Blame Sally". They have been recognized for a great music video. Here is the songwriter's recollection of writing the video's featured song:

“If You Tell a Lie”
Produced and Directed by Jonathan Halperin. Photographed and filmed by Tom Erikson, Jonathan Halperin and David Winton. Edited by Stephanie Mechura Challberg

On January 20th, 2001, George W. Bush, appointed President of the United States formally took office. I had been asked to sing a song that night at the Bazaar Café in San Francisco where Les, the proprietor was producing a counter-event called “The Night of the Burning Bush”. That afternoon, depressed and restless, I couldn’t make myself practice the song I intended to sing, Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War”. Instead, I sat down and turned on the TV. I had honestly forgotten that I would be subjected to live coverage of the inaugural parade. It was a bleak day in Washington, and I remember experiencing an overwhelming feeling of sadness and fear as I watched the Presidential limousine drive down Pennsylvania Avenue. I turned off the TV, sat down at the piano and wrote this song in about 25 minutes. I performed it for the first time that night. Last spring, I wrote an additional verse that addresses the war in Iraq and we recorded the new version of the song for this video.
— Monica Pasqual, Blame Sally

Anyone Up To This Challenge?

2008-10-20T21:58:00.002-04:00

Great cause and call to action from John F. Borowski :

Big green groups: Pool together resources to help teachers in their quest to make students' ecologically fluent. Journalists: Expose the agenda of this corrosive curriculum. Enlighten and motivate citizens to action. Parents: Demand that corporate America be tarred and feathered and chased out of the education business, or should I say corporations in the miseducation business. That your children be given exciting, lifelong science learning. Education organizations: Demand that corporate sponsored curriculum be put through a detailed screening process. Expose the sham and shame of education by Weyerhaeuser, ExxonMobil and API. Filmmakers: Make documentaries and "student friendly" visuals that document mountain top removal, extinction of species, peak oil, the insanity of an economic system that is based on devouring our own life support system (we cannot depend on Viacom, General Electric and Disney to provide this on their corporate TV channels). Teachers: know this, our students are hungry for real science that they can feel, see and stirs a gut reaction. They are hungry for becoming "doers", they are hungry for curriculum that stimulates thought and debate, that breeds passion and desire to ensure our planet's resources exist well into the future.
Teachers: Say no Concoco-Philips' self-contrived educational myths of clean coal or American Petroleum Institute's oil-soaked diatribes that "we have enough to power 60 million cars and heat 160 million households for 60 years" or PLT's mantra of we can have it all: by cutting our natural forests and replacing them with sterile monocultures. The "science of death" has no place in our schools, our workplace or in our society. Teach that.

Corporate Security Risks: Twitter?

2008-10-17T00:23:00.005-04:00

I've been keeping up on the soap opera buzz about Twitter via TechCrunch, though I have not dedicated the time to try it. My impression has been that it's another "look at me" worthless app however, before I judge, I will try it.

This article was brought to my attention today:

Is Twitter the newest data security threat?

One of the most dangerous threats to data security is also one of the least talked about: employees. Are Twitter and other microblogging sites yet another avenue through which sensitive data can leak out of the corporate database and into the hands of ... anyone? Perhaps more worrisome, what information are you giving away simply by being a part of the community?

Of course Twitter is a potential threat. Like personal e-mail accounts and instant messaging, Twitter and sites of its ilk are primarily messaging mechanisms, which translates into personal channels for exporting sensitive data outside the enterprise. If you aren't familiar with Twitter, its messaging mechanisms allow several "modes" of communication: a blast to the general twitterverse, a public reply to a specific twitter user, and a direct (private) message to another twitter user. The direct messages aren't displayed in your public timeline, only the intended recipient can see them, so they're perfect for sneaking out tidbits like customer information or competitive information like upcoming product features/launches.

And there is a thorough and long article about IT security from CIO magazine: Why_Technology_Isn't_The_Answer_To_Better_Security
It's long. But important.

Both hearken me to re-read "The Art of Deception" by Mitnick. I read it in 2001-2002 when Mitnik was first released from that hair-brained parole of not touching a computer (I'll spare you the personal rant). Social Engineering is a study of human science that requires serious attention. Yet most folks don't know what it is.

I enjoyed the book and learned more than expected. I've even used social engineering tactics to get needed information, or get out of a tight spot on many occasions. Getting around a gatekeeper and corporate policies that cause red tape is surprisingly easy sometimes. I've kept this to myself until now: Sales Reps can benefit from reading this book or studying social engineering to get to the person, project or information you need to accomplish your job.

It was entertaining to hear how the hackers got to information.
It was scary to realize how easy it is.
I agree that more technology dollars thrown at technology to protect data is NOT the answer.
Education can be a part of a solution.

Employees not only need to be educated and sworn to abide by company policies and procedures regarding confidentiality, use of email, etc.; but they need to be shown how to use common sense with examples of how security is breached by seemingly harmless activities or the desire to be helpful by disclosing small pieces of information that alone would not cause harm, but when carefully sewn together and used by masters of social engineering, make way to huge security breaches mentioned in the CIO magazine article.

Just my opinions, no clear answers. Let me know if you have ideas.

Educational Uses of Second Life

2008-09-16T16:56:00.002-04:00

This is something I am testing. I think it is useful for people who are primarily visual learners or right brain people like dyslexics. I am exloring this with my son. Will post results when I have some.

ADD and Loving It: Thom Hartman

2008-09-11T13:07:00.002-04:00

My favorite Radio Host Thom Hartman interview. This is great. Thom is the most intelligent and articulate host on radio or TV.

Improve Your Presentations Through Practice and Inspiration

2008-09-09T21:23:00.003-04:00

For many years, I've watched the Apple keynote webcasts. Steve Job's presentations are highly anticipated for surprise announcements as much as they are for the quality of the presentation. Watching is one thing; being there is truly a memorable experience. In January 2003 I was at MacWorld in San Francisco and landed a ticket to the keynote speech.

The video below provides some great tips to make your presentations engaging and memorable. The tips are nothing new; they are not groundbreaking. When you are in a room with an audience they will make a positive difference in the impression made upon the audience.

You may not elicit goosebumps, oohs and ahhs like in 2003 when the new 12 inch and 17 inch Powerbooks were unveiled. You may not win the business you were hoping to get. But you will have the satisfaction of NOT providing yet another bullet-filled Powerpoint audience yawner.

Coincidentally, that year I attended Steve Job's keynote speech, Steve also introduced the Safari Browser and Keynote. Keynote is my favorite presentation application (a Powerpoint alternative). All attendees were provided Keynote 1.0 free of charge.

Take Control: Time to Work

2008-09-07T05:18:00.009-04:00

If there is any common thread to most of what I obsess about these days it is how to get anything started; let alone finished. I only get good work done in large blocks of uninterrupted time and experience great difficulty explaining this. I get reactions in the form of facial expressions or sounds from the phone ranging from "hmm I thought you were so smart", "how weird", "where'd this chick come from?" or [silence].

I regularly read and highly recommend the 43 folders blog. Merlin's really got me now. Read on:

For about 6 months, I've been working on this Total Personal and Life Productivity System (to be named sometime before I publish the course). About a week ago, I visited Neal Stephenson's (among the top of my fav authors) personal web page to see what he might be working on next. I came upon a curious note ["Why I am a Bad Correspondent"] that captured my attention and caused me to forget to check for that which I originally went to the site. I read it, contemplated, and then forgot about it until I read Merlin's post from his series entitled "Making Time to Make." He starts out with a commentary on Stephenson's note.

Merlin's third installment of "Making Time to Make" is my focus in this post. Call it my new Mantra (although those who know me, know I have a new Mantra for every time I loose my keys).

Important Excerpts

Merlin's eloquent, humorous and on-spot summary of "Why I am a Bad Correspondent": "The point, from my perspective, is that Stephenson possesses the man-sized pant stones to declare precisely what the people who enjoy his work should expect from him....[He] essentially said, “Listen, gang, here’s what I’m going to make for you: novels.” And then, he went back to typing. To working. On work."

My summary of Merlin's nine recommendations to reclaim your time to work:

Clarify your needs

Think about and then create the environment you need in order to easily access large blocks of uninterrupted work time.

Merlin's "Step Zero" is to clear out insidious, obvious and any other activity causing distraction from your work.
Define “OFF”

Define your availability. When you are "off" make sure you are really separated from the world, without distraction and/or drama, for the duration you require to get your work done.
Draw your line
Communicate, preferably somewhere in your FAQ, email responder, or other automated method, when, where and how you are available. OR NOT available. My favorite: Merlin writes "Google. Tell people about this amazing new thing called “Google.” Apparently, it’s a service that helps people find all kinds of information without sending a single email. Handy." By golly, I could have used that one just yesterday....
Be honest
For every one of us, there are at least dozens of individuals that may have the expectation that our time is their time. When someone is demanding more interaction with you than you can reasonably justify, you need to recognize it quickly, communicate it clearly, and get back to work. There are great examples in Merlin's article, including a Wookie story.
Let bits drop
A follow-on of the previous tenet, with specificity regarding defining requests of your attention that do not require a response. For example an email responses. Do you want to spend your time responding to every email in your inbox, or do you want to get work done? Recommendation here is that rather than respond with a "not interested at this time" or "no" (which can be fodder for salespeople and marketers), just don't. Drop it.
Be courageous

I say "Be Ruthless." Those dozens that don't understand and are not on your VIP list are not worthy of your time; drop them [see "Let bits drop" above].
But! Also remember to be cool
Make exceptions in cases where you can make a really cool connection. If you can respond to some requests, prioritize by choosing young folks. They need our mentor ship and encouragement.
Identify and engage your high-value targets
Your VIP's. Your special circle of colleagues, friends and possibly family. Create special ways for them to communicate with you easily. It could be a Grand Central number or Skype account ( I use these), a VIP only email address (I recommend gmail), and a VIP only instant messenger account.
Respect others
You do want it to be very easy to do business with you, in your automated responses and your communications [see "Draw Your Line" above] be polite and respectful of human feelings. A quote I heard recently: "The foot you step on today may be attached to the ass you kiss someday". (I'll edit with the source as soon as I recall) Additionally, the person on the receiving end of a carelessly worded response may have just received a pink slip, been served, or lost a close pet or human to cancer.
Work. work, work.
Explanation not needed. If you've read this far, you know. Get your work out there and recognized, and make it great.

Thank you, Merlin Mann, author of many fantastic works including Inbox: Zero.

43 Folders® is a registered trademark of Merlin Mann

The Creative Personality- article by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

2008-09-07T02:38:00.007-04:00

One of my favorite experts. I frequently refer to his term "flow". I encourage to you read the article from Psychology today.

I find this 43 folders post commenting on this piece of his work interesting.

The Creative Personality
Ten paradoxical traits of the
creative personality.
By: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living.

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity. What makes us different from apes--our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding, and technology--is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning.

When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. The excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab comes dose to the ideal fulfillment we all hope to get from life, and so rarely do. Perhaps only sex, sports, music, and religious ecstasy--even when these experiences remain fleeting and leave no trace--provide a profound sense of being part of an entity greater than ourselves. But creativity also leaves an outcome that adds to the
richness and complexity of the future.

I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make
do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."

Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialecticaltension." read the rest here

Here is a snippet of commentary on one of the 10 traits from 43 folders:

"So, although I’m trying not to audibly roll my eyes at a pop-psychology Top 10 list about creativity’s “dialectical tension,” I definitely am interested in one of his observations about the “paradox” of creative people."

"Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility" - Csikszentmihalyi

The bottom line of his post is great:

"Sure: you can call this, “dialectical tension” if you like. But, from a tactical standpoint, this stuff comes down to basic attention management — finding a way to shut out everything that’s not the thing that requires your focus to get made."

I love it.

Jobs vs Gates Movie

2008-08-10T01:40:00.001-04:00

Study: Green jobs could spark “explosive growth” | csmonitor.com

2008-08-06T15:41:00.002-04:00

Study: Green jobs could spark “explosive growth” | csmonitor.com

I've been looking at the potential for business expansion in this market. I recommend reading this article for your own purposes.

If you are looking to a future career change or want to know what industries are good targets for your business or product, this is a great topic to keep on top of. The article gives some good links. If you have additional links to recommend, let me know, I'll post them.

Ignorance is Bliss? OR Let's Pretend We Have Solutions!

2008-07-08T10:51:00.011-04:00

Robert Reich, my political and economical voice, has a blog that concisely lays forth an explanation for our economic woes. Does anyone pay attention? His latest post should be submitted to every print and electronic news source as an editorial. Well, with a little fact checking it could actually be journalistic article.

Fair Warning: I am going to state some personal opinions formed by my interpretation of real facts, which I will back up very soon in another post. My intent here is to start a conversation and bring attention to important issues.

The opening of "McCain's Budget Whopper":

"George W. Bush took the largest budget surplus in history and transformed it into a giant deficit. McCain's economic plan, announced today, will to even worse. McCain says he’s going to balance the budget by the end of his first term (actually, he didn’t literally say that – he just “demanded” it – implying that a Democratically-controlled Congress would be ultimately responsible if it didn't happen). And then McCain came up with numbers that will blow the deficit into the stratosphere."

Question is: Will MSM (main stream media) pick up on this and give the topic serious consideration? OR will they believe McCain is going to make the impossible happen?

I am afraid for my son. Unless he marries into big money (like McCain), he will not fair well economically. Lowering taxes for the economically advantaged and promising to reduce this country's insanely high debt is just not possible.

For 5 years, I have known I need to learn Mandarin Chinese. I have taken classes. It seems many are not aware that starting over a year ago, China and Russia have been forging a close relationship. Are some Americans so short sighted that they don't see where this is going?

Here are problems that have become crises because of either lack of understanding, or the short-sightedness of Americans to make decisions based on short term profitability rather than on long term losses to our limited resources.

The US government is financed by China, Japan and United Arab Emirates. (I'll add my sources soon). We are digging ourselves deeper every day. Our military was dictated to win a non-war, (my stance is that we are not at war with Iraq, so how can we win a war that does not exist, and what is the definition of success for that war?) while still fighting a different important war that has taken a back seat, and preparing for another. All while we ignore the real threat to the American way of life.
Young American citizens are not being educated. I have personal experience in seeing that some public schools are just a breeding ground for future prison inmates, not tradespeople, entrepreneurs and future leaders.
We have a huge population of retirement age, with a very small pool of educated and talented new recruits.
The state of Florida had to make huge cuts from an already crumbling school system (ranked 49th in the nation), losing essential staff and hard won teacher raises. This has to be happening in other regions. What is going on with education for the victims of the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina?
Our infrastructure is not going to last. The Building of America was the cornerstone of the building of our economy. That was a very long time ago. There is much work to do. We need to replace existing structures as well as build new systems for mass transportation.
I was at a young and impressionable age when Carter was president and there was the beginning of a "green" movement. I learned about picking up litter, taking care of our environment and using less energy while I was in elementary school. Seeing all the green talk now seems almost ridiculous. What happened?

While I appreciate the true stewards who are genuinely trying to make a difference and bring attention to devastation caused; the only reason this has become a movement at all, is that media and marketers have latched on and wear a green badge of honor, to both present a panacea solution and promote corporate agendas and products.

The panacea solution is willingly accepted by consumers. Talk to a scientist and you'll only hear that we can attempt to mitigate some additional damage, but the dramatic changes caused by our ignorant and gluttonous behaviors of the past have only been set into motion and are gaining momentum. This cannot be undone.

Voicemail Purgatory No More

2008-07-06T00:24:00.010-04:00

I've always had a dislike for voicemail. This post on TechCrunch inspired me to write about it.

A long time ago, in a career far, far away, I was guilty of deliberately letting calls go to voicemail just so I could later go in to get the answer or needed info without having to have a live discussion. (Was I the first to commit Hide Behind the Voicemail before it became acceptable to let it go while you really work?)

Then email appeared (Really, it did- I remember LBE - Life Before Email). It's great. You get detailed information and have complete back and forth conversations and get things done around the clock. You also have archival records, without having had to record a phone conversation, as a bonus.

Then the arrival of mobile phones- and the beginning of Voicemail Purgatory for my callers. Multiple voicemail accounts to manage. (What perplexes me to no end about this arrival is that it has become an unexpected continuous pouring-in of every new relation and descendant of that first phone.)

For many years, I've been a big fan of RingCentral, OneBox etc to manage your multiple numbers and visually manage your voicemail.

However, only recently have I taken charge and no longer subjected my callers to Voicemail Purgatory. It took a very long time to come together:

It was the perfect combination and timing of desperation, frame of mind, research and tools.

Desperation: No time or patience to check my cell phone voicemail, home voicemail, multiple business voicemail accounts. They piled up. I dreaded cleaning out the boxes. I discovered a guilty pleasure when the box was full and no more could be left. Wow, it was like, well, when there was no voicemail!

Frame of Mind: My search for the Total Personal Productivity System- I was open to a new way.

Research: Research for my Total Personal Productivity System Project led me to out of the box concepts and the rejection of common beliefs and practices.

Tools: Newly discovered cool simple tech tools.

I'll expand on this in more detail in a future post. For now, here is a short outline of how my system works:

I disabled voicemail on all phone lines. (Trust me, it feels great)
Google GrandCentral: it's free, I give that local number out as my main number. It rings my various phone lines based on rules I can set by caller, caller group and time of day or day.
GrandCentral can email (with voicemail attached) or SMS me a note with caller's number and time they called. At the website you have visual voicemail. If you have a smart phone like my blackberry, you have access to the visual voicemail. Visual voicemail means you see details of the call and only listen to those you want, as opposed to calling your voicemail and having to listen to all messages in the order they were left.
I use Jott to transcribe and do other cool things like add stuff to my Google Calendar and Remember The Milk lists.
I get more done. More on that later.

I recommend taking a look at the tips in the TechCrunch Blog Post "Think Before You Voicemail."

Out of courtesy to the people I call, I have stopped the practice of calling when a short email will do. I now also request ahead, via email, to set a convenient date and time for a phone conversation. I don't like it when I get a call from someone expecting me to stop what I am doing to have a 15 to 30 minute discussion without having scheduled it ahead of time. How would anyone get anything done?

Track Storms, Animal Migrations with Google Earth

2008-07-05T23:24:00.004-04:00

For some, this may just be the another cool contribution to the Collective thanks to Google and the Google Earth application. (Post on storm tracking. Post on animal migrations.)

Even though I knew it was in development, read many articles on the possible uses of Google Earth, and regularly watch Google TechTalk on their YouTube channel; I experienced something I have difficulty verbalizing. I'll give it shot here by building my perception and thought process here. It is my wish that there are a few of us in agreement. Let me know.

This is free. I mean to anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access.
It is something that scientists only dreamed of or could not even dream of having- even in my lifetime.
It's for everyone. Not just scientists, weather experts, storm chasers, biologists, climate change enthusiasts, students, teachers, politicians, socialites, corporations, reporters, developers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, authors, gurus, consultants, parents, children, land exploiters, land protectors, democrats, republicans, musicians, artists, ANY-ONE.
It's not another social tool to let everyone know what you are doing, it totally has nothing to do with "look at me" tools.
Most people will not even give it a look.
Most won't even consider the additional layers that can and will be added. The potential uses are inumerable, both commercially and for the global good (Collective).

Nothing else in recent years has caught my attention with a strange brew of awe, geeky giddiness, ominous and overwhelming God-like power of viewing the earth down to animal movements and simultaneous big picture-local view of close to real-time movement of the weather elements.

Forget TV, Watch TEDTalks

2008-06-29T18:57:00.007-04:00

Give this a look-see. I have been watching these videos on the TEDTalks YouTube channel and I am hooked.

Announcing the Top 10 TEDTalks

With 50 million views since we started posting video two years ago, TEDTalks have become a powerful cultural force.

To celebrate this milestone, we're releasing a never-before-seen list: the Top 10 TEDTalks of all time, as of June 2008.

With speakers like neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor and global health expert Hans Rosling, the list proves one of the compelling ideas behind TEDTalks: that an unknown speaker with a powerful idea can reach -- and move -- a global audience through the power of quality web video. Links to all 10 talks are found below the video window -- or browse through our Top 10 TEDTalks Theme. Even if you've seen them all, the highlights video below is darn fun.

Download the Top 10 TED Talks highlights video:

Video to iTunes (MP4)
Video to desktop (Zipped MP4)
Hi-def video (480p)

Top 10 TEDTalks of all time

1. Jill Bolte Taylor: "My stroke of insight"

2. Jeff Han: "Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone"

3. David Gallo: "Underwater astonishments"

4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: "Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo"

5. Arthur Benjamin: "Lightning calculation and other 'Mathemagic'"

6. Sir Ken Robinson: "Do schools kill creativity?"

7. Hans Rosling: "The best stats you've ever seen"

8. Tony Robbins: "Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better"

9. Al Gore: "15 ways to avert a climate crisis"

10. Johnny Lee: "Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote"

The World is ADD

2008-06-29T04:06:00.018-04:00

Several unrelated threads occurring in my mind over the past few months have finally formed a theme.

Being present (A New Earth)
Being more productive (Getting Things Done, The Four Hour Workweek)
The topics of simplifying and organizing (Zen to Done)
Taking control of the increase of incoming information and data (Inbox: Zero)
Addressing psychological or disability barriers to organizing and processing. (ADD, Depression, Anxiety Disorder, Dyslexia)

This all started with separate interests in:

My son's high intelligence but inability to perform to his ability due to ever-changing diagnoses and my diagnosis as an adult with ADD, Anxiety Disorder, Dyslexia (all, none or some). This is my personal mission to get to the solution my son needs to perform to his potential while I keep my sanity in dealing daily with schools, doctors, pharmacies and health insurance.
Research on current training and resources available for knowledge workers to work more productively even though they are always "on" with digital connections, and my search for simple tools to help them. I've termed this my Total Personal Productivity System.
Daily struggles to filter the information available to me and coming at me from many sources. How can I organize information that I will need to refer to later? I've termed this my Personal Knowledge Base project, hopefully to be part of the Total Personal Productivity System.

The connection?

The world around me is ADD, chaotic, disorderly and distracting. For my son it is scary, rigid, and disorienting. We all are suffering from information fatigue, media fatigue and anxiety from keeping pace. It's not us, its what is expected of us- the societal and corporate norms that have developed and, with our permission, have been bestowed upon us.

I wonder how many people in the US are diagnosed with Anxiety. How many are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. How many have not or were not recognized as having dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a misunderstood condition whereby a person retains and computes information in their brain visually as opposed to verbally. It's not a disease nor a learning disability, just a way of recognizing ideas and concepts in 3d pictures rather than how most people who can see a letter that represents a sound. Dyslexic people learn to cope by using compulsive and anxiety inducing compensations. They are easily disoriented in time and space and can feel physically lost and ill if they encounter a word or letter that does not have a mental picture associated with it.

The result can be a child with low self esteem, anxiety and depression. The worst result is that they will never learn to really read and understand what they read and will have survived decades of disappointments and even anger from teachers, parents and themselves. How traumatic.

For 2 years I tried to get my son's school to test him to explain poor academic performance without success. I had him independently tested last year; the results showed high intelligence, a child with a mind at the level of grade 10 or 11 (he's in 7), but they could only explain his poor performance in school with emotional,behavioral or psychological problems. I finally pulled him out of school and have him on a virtual homeschool curriculum.

Depression ADD and anxiety: the first diagnosis. For years I could not get him out of bed to go to school, he lacked interest in school, performed poorly, and was vomiting daily if not before school, at school. He would have periods of something like a panic attack.

Stronger Anxiety Disorder with OCD: the next step. This was hard to take. I knew he was not depressed and did not agree with the diagnosis. The panic attacks and physical illness became frequent and would occur when he had to perform tasks at home or school that required organized thought/sequences or reading and homework.

When treatment and removal from school did not stop his symptoms, the doctors diagnosed him with dyslexia and recommended some books for me. What I learned is that all of his symptoms are considered symptoms of or can be caused by the trauma of a person who has developed coping mechanisms for dyslexia.

Now it makes sense as I remember spending hours upon hours late into the evening with my son trying to get him to write the answers to homework correctly only having him break down into tears, well after he has proven to recite the answers to me. He is unable to write down his homework assignments, unable to be organized and unable to remember what he is to do next. He has not been able to learn his multiplication tables but can give an answer to an algebra problem without working it out on paper. When he is forced to write out the steps he can't and therefore teachers would not give him credit for it. He was always in trouble and getting yelled at in class for not remembering his supplies, homework or what is written on the board. Mom is guilty also, he can not remember what I tell him to do unless I tell him step by step while he does it.

So, here I am with a son displaying symptoms that appear for multiple psychiatric and emotional disorders; realizing that perhaps his root problem (gift) is just in the way he processes information (same as Einstein and many famous and bright people).

Could the ADD/Anxiety/Depression/OCD have been avoided by early intervention for dyslexia?
Does he really have those?
Teachers, parents, doctors and seemingly everyone is OK with a quick ADD diagnosis. They want to get it treated asap. How many children and adults are misdiagnosed?

In going through screening for dyslexia with my son and learning of its effects on later life, I remember my experience in school and look at myself today. I don't know how I learned to get by, however I had most of the same symptoms or habits that he has.

I can't remember much without making digital lists and outlines, a calendar entry, or setting a timed reminder.
I can't remember a number a moment after you tell me.
I never learned the multiplication tables but can solve math equations easily. I completed graduate level calculus and statistics.
I have to make diagrams and flow charts for people I work with to explain concepts I have in my mind but can't verbalize.
I get momentarily lost and disoriented. I keep a compass and have GPS with some improvement in getting where I need to be.

I wonder if I can go through the "unlearning" of the compulsive coping habits at my age, and perhaps rid myself of some of my anxiety and ADD diagnosis?

Possible. Depending on:

Completion of the development and implementation of my Total Personal Productivity System; and
Accepting that the world can be as ADD as it gets as long as I choose not.

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