Samstag, 30. November 2019

Monogamy and Reproductive Opportunity Leveling:

Sicherheit oder Freiheit?

Setzt Freiheitsstreben eine gewisses Maß an Risikobereitschaft und Risikotoleranz voraus?

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Gefährliche Sicherheit:

Das gesicherte Terrain nie zu verlassen, auf das Erkunden von Neuem hochgradig zu verzichten, ist keine eigentlich sichere Strategie. Die Gefahren und Risiken sind bloß andere als bei erkundungsfreudigeren Strategien.

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Salopp gesagt: Der Mensch braucht ein gesichertes Terrain um effektiv erkunden zu können, um den für das Erkunden nötigen Mut aufzubringen. Fällt die Sicherheit weg, schwindet wohl auch, zumindest vorübergehend, die Erkundungsfreude.

Werterleben:

Z.B.:

Die Freude am "Schönen", am "Wahren", am "Wertvollen";

Freitag, 29. November 2019

Intelligenz:

Die Leistungsstärke eines Denkorgans lässt sich ...

... über den Komplexitäts- und Schwierigkeitsgrad von Aufgaben bestimmen, die dieses Denkorgan bewältigen kann;

... über die Geschwindigkeit bestimmen, mit der es Aufgaben bewältigt.

Die eigene Intelligenz kennen lernen:

Es geht darum, ein Gefühl dafür zu entwickeln, welche Aufgaben man kognitiv bewältigen kann, und welche Aufgaben man nicht bewältigen kann.

Grenzen der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit:

Welche Aufgaben gerade noch kognitiv bewältigbar sind;

Das gewisse Etwas:

https://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/das-gewisse-etwas.html

Mentales Rauschen:

Salopp:

Bei Gesprächen mit manchen Personen wird man mit Fehlurteilen über die Welt (oder über einzelne Aspekte dieser Welt) geradezu bombardiert.

Expertise:

Z.B.:

Wenn eine Person bestimmte Aufgaben rasch und mit großer oder hinreichender Genauigkeit bzw. Güte lösen kann.

Aussagen:

(A) neue Aussagen über die Welt generieren

(B) Aussagen prüfen

general intelligence:

David C. Geary:

"It has been well over a century since Spearman discovered that individuals who perform well in one cognitive or academic domain generally perform well in all other domains, leading him to conclude 'that all branches of intellectual activity have in common one fundamental function (or group of functions)', which he termed general intelligence, or g."

Wesentliche Stunden:

http://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/wesentliche-stunden.html

Warmth and Competence:

http://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/warmth-and-competence.html

Donnerstag, 28. November 2019

Intrinsisch motiviertes, tagtägliches Lernen:

Eine Person, die tagtäglich dazulernen will, einfach nur deshalb, da es belohnend ist, dazuzulernen.

Racehorses:

Randolph M. Nesse:

"Racehorses are prone to breaking the cannon bone in their legs. Why didn't natural selection make it thicker? It did; wild horses are unlikely to break their legs. However, breeding only the fastest horses made their leg bones longer and longer, thinner and thinner, and lighter and lighter. Successive generations of racehorses have become faster and faster but also more and more vulnerable to breaking a leg, something that now happens about once every thousand times a racehorse starts a race."

Mittwoch, 27. November 2019

Der Wechsel hyperthymer und hypothymer Stimmungen:

http://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/der-wechsel-hyperthymer-und-hypothymer.html

Aufmerksamkeit:

Was bewertet ein bestimmtes Gehirn als bemerkenswert?

Techniker:

Ein "guter Techniker" ist eine Person, die beruflich relevante Probleme, insbesondere neue Probleme, rasch und hinreichend genau lösen kann.
Stunden, die ohne klares Ziel oder eindeutige Aufgabenstellung verbracht werden;

Lebendige Unterhaltungen:

Zeitspannen, in denen wir uns ganz in einem Gespräch verlieren;

Eric Weinstein on Excellence:

Intelligenz:

Salopp:

Eine intelligente Person ist gut darin, gedanklich Aufgaben zu bewältigen, die neu und schwierig sind.

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Wenn Gerhard Roth erwähnt, dass Sprache ein außerordentlicher Intelligenzverstärker sei, so meint er hiermit wohl auch, dass sprachliches Denken uns ermöglicht, Aufgaben gedanklich zu bewältigen, die den Horizont vorsprachlicher Denkbemühungen übersteigen.

Montag, 25. November 2019

Zufall:

Salopp gesagt:

Zufall ist dasjenige, was die Welt schwer verständlich oder rätselhaft erscheinen lassen kann. Dass etwas nicht bloß so, sondern auch so oder so oder so oder so ausgehen kann.
"I suspect — and I know others do too — that much of the theorizing that happens in psychological science is interpreting noise."

Wissenschaft:

Heiner Rindermann:

"Zunächst einmal ist es die Aufgabe der Wissenschaft, wahre Aussagen zu formulieren, wahre und neue, also Erkenntnis zu schaffen und diese weiterzugeben."

Narzissmus:

Eine extreme Befangenheit in sich selbst, in der manche Menschen leben.

[Siehe auch: Narzissmus]

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Selbstbefangenheit:
~ Wenn die Zuwendung zum "Schönen", zum "Wahren", zum "Du" nicht gelingt.
Linda R. Hirsch, Luci Paul:

"True mutual assessment requires openness and honesty[.]"

Samstag, 23. November 2019

William Hart, Kyle Richardson:

"research suggests people higher in dark-personality constructs may perceive others’ dark characteristics as less undesirable ('darkness tolerance'). "

Conscious-Psychological-Systems:

http://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/conscious-psychological-systems.html

Ja und Nein:

Man muss zu vielem "Nein" sagen, um zu manchem entschieden "Ja" sagen zu können.

On teaching intelligence:

Arthur R. Jensen:

"To teach intelligence might mean to point out more or less all the conceivable connections, generalizations, and possible transfer of every item of acquired information, and to elicit and reinforce the appropriate responses to these situations. This could involve teaching more than anyone could ever learn. Probably no one would live long enough ever to acquire even a mental age of six."
Robert Plomin:

"The nature of nurture suggests a ... model of experience in which we actively perceive, interpret, select, modify and create experiences correlated with our genetic propensities."

Schizophrenia Spectrum, Autism Spectrum:

Robert Plomin:

"Although some problems such as schizophrenia and autism have symptoms so severe as to seem outside the normal distribution, if we accept that we all have thought disorders to some extent sometimes, we can assess these symptoms quantitatively, if we stop being obsessed with diagnosing whether people 'have' the disorder or not. In the same way, we can assess autistic symptoms such as problems with social relationships and communication quantitatively."

Freitag, 22. November 2019

Prestige:

Robin Hanson, Kevin Simler:

>although there are many different ways to look at prestige, we can treat it as synonymous with "one's value as an ally."<

People are more eager to talk than listen:

Robin Hanson, Kevin Simler:

"our species seems, somehow, to derive more benefit from speaking than from listening."

Major findings on g’s impact on job performance:

Linda S. Gottfredson, Major findings on g's impact on job performance:

Social competition:

~ the competition for mates and allies;

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"Show me your allies / your mate and I will tell you who you are."

Animated Representation of Multi-Planet Systems Discovered by Kepler Space Telescope:


[via Massimo: "This is an animated representation of all the multi-planet systems discovered in the Milky Way galaxy by NASA Kepler Space Telescope as of October 30, 2018. The systems are shown together at the same scale as our Solar System (dashed lines)."]
Justin Kruger and David Dunning:

"We argue that when people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead ... they are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine."

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"as Charles Darwin (1871) sagely noted over a century ago, 'ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge'. "

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"In essence, we argue that the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain-one's own or anyone else's. Because of this, incompetent individuals lack what cognitive psychologists variously term metacognition (Everson & Tobias, 1998), metamemory (Klin, Guizman, & Levine, 1997), metacomprehension (Maki, Jonas, & Kallod, 1994), or self-monitoring skills (Chi, Glaser, & Rees, 1982). These terms refer to the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error. For example, consider the ability to write grammatical English. The skills that enable one to construct a grammatical sentence are the same skills necessary to recognize a grammatical sentence, and thus are the same skills necessary to determine if a grammatical mistake has been made. In short, the same knowledge that underlies the ability to produce correct judgment is also the knowledge that underlies the ability to recognize correct judgment." 

Dienstag, 19. November 2019

Randolph M. Nesse:

"A vast swath of life is taken up by judging, being judged, and getting prepared for being judged in the mating competition."

Couch Lock:

Scott Adams:

"Lazy people and stoners have a term that describes how it feels when they can't motivate themselves to get off the couch. It's called couch lock."

Das Fokussieren:

Es geht darum,

(A) einen starken Fokus zu kultivieren;

(B) den Fokus Wichtigem / ausgewählten Dingen zuzuwenden.

Signals:

Geoffrey Miller:

"The key thing in the biology of signals is, the signal has to be credible, and reliable, and hard to fake, in order for the other animal or the other human, to pay any attention to it. So if you go around sending signals that are easy to fake ..., then the other animal has no incentive to pay any attention to that."

Dominance in mating contexts:

Geoffrey Miller:

"Dominance is great for intimidating other men, so you scare them away. But when you show dominance upfront to a woman, and you don't really know how to use it in an attractive way, it codes as "danger" in a woman's brain. ... the woman thinks: 'Why is this guy acting belligerent, and assertive, and even hostile to me?' ... if you don't know what you are doing with dominance it can drive a lot of women away."

Female macaques compete for ‘power’ and ‘commitment’ in their male partners

Christine B. HaunhorstInes FürtbauerOliver SchülkeJulia Ostner
(Evolution and Human Behavior)


Abstract

The formation of male-female social bonds and the resulting competition among females for male partners is a core element of human societies. While female competition for a male partner outside the mating context is well studied in humans, evidence from non-human primates is scarce, and its evolutionary roots remain to be explored. We studied two multi male – multi female groups of wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), a species where females gain benefits from selectively affiliating with particular males. Using a behavioral data set collected over several years, we tested whether females competed over access to male social partners, whether success in competition was driven by female dominance rank, and which male traits were most attractive for females. We found assortative bonding by dominance rank between females and males, which together with females initiating and maintaining contact suggests direct female competition over males. Two male traits independently predicted male attractiveness to females: (1) current dominance rank, a measure of “power” or a male's ability to provide access to resources, and (2) prior male affiliation with immatures, a measure of a male's potential paternal proclivity or “commitment” to infant care. Both traits have been consistently identified as drivers of female partner choice in humans. Our study adds to the evidence that female competition for valuable male partners is not unique to humans, suggesting deep evolutionary origins of women's mate choice tendencies for ‘power’ and ‘commitment’.
Heiner Rindermann, Interview - 17. November 2019:

"Auch das, was wir als Umwelt wahrnehmen, etwa elterlicher Wohlstand und Bildung oder Unterricht in der Schule, ist großenteils ein genetischer Effekt, weil Gene erst diese Umwelt hervorrufen oder auswählen und je nach Veranlagung die gleiche Umwelt verschieden wirkt."

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"Wir haben ein kognitives Elitenproblem in der Wissenschaft. Die meisten verstehen gar nicht die Grundlagen der eigenen Arbeit. Ein Beispiel: Die Mehrheit der Sozialwissenschaftler, um die 90 Prozent, versteht nicht Signifikanztests, obwohl sie diese ständig durchführen."

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"In den USA sind um die 90 Prozent aller Sozialwissenschaftler dem linken Spektrum zuzuordnen, in Deutschland dürften es ähnlich viele sein. Hinzu kommt, dass die Wissenschaft unter einer Deintellektualisierung leidet. Wissenschaftler lesen kaum mehr Bücher, [konzentrieren sich] stattdessen [auf] Projekte und Geldeinwerbung, [auf] Kommunikation, Emails und WhatsApp-Nachrichten. Der geistige Horizont wird eng und enger, Informationen außerhalb des eigenen fachlichen und politischen Spektrums werden nicht wahrgenommen."

Montag, 18. November 2019

Tiefes Lesen:

Z.B.: Eine Stunde lang die Gedanken nicht abschweifen lassen und voll und ganz dem Inhalt eines Buches / eines Artikels zuwenden.

Samstag, 16. November 2019

Divorce:

A Treatise on the Family
Gary S. Becker (1981)

"If participants in marriage markets have complete information about all prospects, divorce would be a fully anticipated response to a demand for variety in mates or to life-cycle changes in traits. Most divorces would then occur after many years of marriage, because traits change gradually. The facts, however, suggest the opposite: about 40 percent of all divorces (and annulments) occur prior to the fifth year of marriage, and separation usually precedes divorce by a year or more (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1979).

If, however, participants had highly imperfect information, most divorces would occur early in marriage by virtue of the fact that information about traits increases rapidly after marriage. Several years of marriage is usually a far more effective source of information on love and many other traits than all the proxies available prior to marriage. I suggest that marriages fail early primarily because of imperfect information in marriage markets and the accumulation of better information during marriage."

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"The more rapid accumulation of information during the first few years of marriage implies that divorce is more likely early in marriage than later. Divorce rates are highest during the first few years of marriage and decline steeply after four or five years, although the explanation is partly that those most prone to divorce tend to drop out early from the cohort of married persons (see Heckman, 1981, on the effects of heterogeneity).

Divorce is less likely later in the marriage for the additional reason that capital accumulates and becomes more valuable if a marriage stays intact ("marital-specific" capital). Children are the prime example, especially young children, although learning about the idiosyncrasies of one's spouse is also important (Heimer and Stinchcombe, 1979). Divorce is much less likely when there are children, especially young children-not only in the United States and other rich countries (Goode, 1963, pp. 85, 364; BLM, 1977), but also in primitive societies (Saunders and Thomson, 1979).

The accumulation of marital-specific capital is, in turn, discouraged by the prospect of divorce because, by definition, such capital is less valuable after a divorce. Presumably, trial or consensual marriages produce fewer children than legal marriages at least partly because the former are less durable (see the evidence in Kogut, 1972, on consensual and legal marriages in Brazil). Persons who marry outside their race or religion are far more likely to divorce than are others with similar measurable characteristics. Therefore, we can readily understand why marriages between persons of different races or religions have significantly fewer children even when intact marriages are compared (see the evidence for the United States in BLM, 1977), and why marriages between Indians of different castes have fewer children than marriages within a caste (Das, 1978).

Expectations about divorce are partly self-fulfilling because a higher expected probability of divorce reduces investments in specific capital and thereby raises the actual probability. For example, consensual and trial marriages are less stable than legal marriages, and marriages between persons of different religions or races are less stable than those within a religion or race, partly because mixed marriages have fewer children. At the same time, as indicated, mixed marriages have fewer children partly because they are expected to be less stable."
John M. Mcnamara et al., 2009:

"In many animal species, females will benefit if they can secure their mate's help in raising their young. It has been suggested that they can achieve this by being coy (i.e. reluctant to mate) when courted, because this gives them time to assess a prospective mate's helpfulness and hence allows them to reject non-helpful males."

Haste and Coyness:

Lloyd (1979):

"Selection for haste in males, and coyness in females, results in what amounts to competition between the sexes. Males may be selected to bypass any choice that the females attempt to exercise, and then females selected to maintain their options, to not be misled or to have their choices subverted."

The role of humor in mate choice:

David M. Buss:

"But humor is important. Humor actually does convey a wealth of information about someones verbal skills, their level of intelligence, their social skills, and even perspective taking. It requires a certain level of mind reading to get people to laugh."

Freitag, 15. November 2019


"that's why there is so much written stuff, because written stuff isn't just about sex, it's about mate choice, and long term mate choice."

Planen:

Das eigene Handeln für bestimmte Zeitspannen im Vorhinein festlegen.

Donnerstag, 14. November 2019

"Willensschwäche":

Die Intention im Handeln geht mehr und mehr verloren. Der Mensch wird mehr und mehr von zufälligen Einflüssen bestimmt.

Kaffee:

Tendiert man dazu, impulsiv und zu viel Kaffee zu trinken, macht es Sinn, Kaffeepausen zu planen.

Bottom-up attention and top-down attention:

Winifred Gallagher:

>If bottom-up attention asks, "What's the obvious thing to home in on here?" top-down attention asks, "What do you want to concentrate on?"<

Produktive Meditation bei Spaziergängen:

Nach Cal Newport:

Man wendet, für die Dauer eines Spaziergangs, die Gedanken voll und ganz einem Problem / einer Aufgabe zu.

Tiefe Konzentration:

Z.B.: Eine Stunde lang mit den Gedanken voll und ganz bei einer Sache sein;

Mittwoch, 13. November 2019

What characterizes highly g-loaded tests?

>Spearman characterized the most g-loaded tests essentially as those requiring the subject to grasp relationships - “the eduction of relations and correlates.” That is all perfectly correct. But now we can go further. The g factor is manifested in tests to the degree that they involve mental manipulation of the input elements (“fundaments” in Spearman's terminology), choice, decision, invention in contrast to reproduction, reproduction in contrast to selection, meaningful memory in contrast to rote memory, long-term memory in contrast to short-term memory, and distinguishing relevant information from irrelevant information in solving complex problems.<

Arthur Jensen (1980)
Randolph M. Nesse:

"As we plan, fantasize, dream, imagine, emotions nudge us toward some paths and away from others."

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"The big news in emotions research is that emotions arise from the "appraisals" people make about the personal significance of information."

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"People prone to intense emotions experience enthusiasms that shift their efforts from one unfinished project to another ..."

"People who hardly experience emotion neither take full advantage of opportunities nor fully protect themselves from threats."
Randolph M. Nesse:

"In the face of threats and losses, anxiety and sadness are useful, but happy relaxation is worse than useless. When opportunities emerge, desire and enthusiasm are useful, but worry and sadness are harmful. The advantage goes not to individuals who are constantly anxious, sad, or joyful, but to those who experience anxiety when loss is threatened, sadness after a loss, and enthusiasm and joy in the face of opportunity and success."
Randolph M. Nesse:

"When people are making progress toward their main life goals, they feel fine. Obstacles provoke frustration, often observed as anger and aggression. Inability to make progress toward a goal causes demoralization and temporary withdrawal. Prolonged failure of a strategy leads to more severe demoralization and attempts to find alternatives. When extended efforts fail to find a new route to the goal, intense low mood disengages motivation from the goal. When the unreachable goal is truly given up, low mood is replaced by temporary sadness aroused by the loss, and the person moves on to pursue other more reachable goals."

Dienstag, 12. November 2019

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings:

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
Randolph M. Nesse

Der Denkschritt:

Intuitiv:

Denkinhalte werden auf Zusammenhang hin geprüft; der Zusammenhang von Denkinhalten wird gesucht; Denkinhalte werden in Zusammenhang gesetzt;

Low mood:

"People who don't feel bad when pursuing unreachable goals spend their lives in contented useless efforts."

Randolph M. Nesse

Sex differences in humor production ability: A meta-analysis

Gil Greengross, Paul J.Silvia, Emily C.Nusbaum


Highlights

(o) On average, men have higher humor production ability than women.

(o) Effect is small to moderate.

(o) Humor was rated by independent judges assessing the humor produced by both sexes.

(o) Difference may reflect both evolutionary and environmental influences.



Abstract

We offer the first systematic quantitative meta-analysis on sex differences in humor production ability. We included studies where participants created humor output that was assessed for funniness by independent raters. Our meta-analysis includes 36 effect sizes from 28 studies published between 1976 and 2018 (N = 5057, 67% women). Twenty of the 36 effect sizes, accounting for 61% of the participants, were not previously published. Results based on random-effects model revealed that men's humor output was rated as funnier than women's, with a combined effect size d = 0.321. Results were robust across various moderators and study characteristics, and multiple tests indicated that publication bias is unlikely. Both evolutionary and cultural explanations were considered and discussed.

"Kampf ums Dasein":

~ Der Wettlauf um beschränkte Ressourcen;

Siehe: Motivation to control

Montag, 11. November 2019

"Sitzfleisch":

~ Hartnäckigkeit beim Lösen von Problemen;
Wenn man in vermeintlich chaotischen Ereignissen plötzlich Ordnung zu sehen anfängt...

Two styles of theorizing:

From Eros to Gaia, Freeman Dyson, 1992:

>There is one fairly obvious way of getting a new theory. Keep close to the experimental results, hear about all the latest information that the experimenters obtain, and then proceed to set up a theory to account for them. That is a more or less straightforward procedure and there are many physicists working on such lines, competing with one another, and it might develop somewhat into a rat-race. Of course it needs rather intelligent rats to take part in it. But I don’t want to speak about this method of procedure.

There is another way in which a theoretical physicist may work which is slower and more sedate and may lead to more profound results. It does not depend very closely on experimental work. This consists in having some basic beliefs and trying to incorporate them into one theory. Now why should one have basic beliefs? I don’t know that I can explain that. It’s just that one feels that nature is constructed in a certain way and one hangs onto the idea rather like one might hang onto a religious belief. One feels that things simply have to be on these lines and one must devise a mathematical theory for incorporating the basic belief.

These two styles of theorizing are well known in the history of science. Historians call the first style Baconian and the second Cartesian. Our young colleagues today, with less awareness of their place in history, are accustomed to call the two styles “bottom-up” and “top-down.”<

Sonntag, 10. November 2019

Manie:

~ Ein Kraft- und Stärkegefühl, das den Kontakt zur Wirklichkeit verliert;

Centrality and redundancy of the Dark Tetrad traits

Author links open overlay panel
Bojana M.Dinić, Anja Wertag, Aleksandar Tomašević, Valentina Sokolovska


Highlights

(o) Psychopathy is the central dark trait, especially features of primary psychopathy.

(o) Secondary psychopathy and lack of cognitive responsiveness are redundant.

(o) Redundancy of narcissism depends of the hierarchical level of the analyzed traits.


Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine centrality and redundancy of the Dark Tetrad traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism) using network analysis. The first sample (N = 546) was assessed using a short instrument, the second (N = 404) and the third (N = 410) samples were assessed with full instruments for the first three dark traits, while for sadism the same instrument was used in all three studies. The results showed that psychopathy is the central feature across all networks, especially its facets which correspond to primary psychopathy or interpersonal manipulation and callousness. Narcissism seemed redundant when total scores of the dark traits were analyzed, but these results should be interpreted with caution given the small number of variables in the network. However, on the facet level, some facets of psychopathy were redundant (secondary psychopathy or lack of cognitive responsiveness). These results reiterate the importance of psychopathy in the core of the dark traits and provide a deeper insight into the relations between the Dark Tetrad traits.

Motivation to control:


"The basic thesis is that the brain and mind has evolved to attend to and process the forms of information that covaried with survival and reproductive prospects during the species’ evolutionary history. These systems bias implicit decision making processes and behavioral responses in ways that allow the organism to attempt to achieve access to and control of these resources (see Gigerenzer, Todd, & and ABC Research Group, 1999). Although not typically presented in an evolutionary context, the proposal fits well with the consensus among psychologists that humans have a basic motivation to achieve some level of control over relationships, events, and resources that of significance in their life (Fiske, 1993; Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Shapiro, Schwartz, & Astin, 1996; Taylor & Brown, 1988; Thompson, Armstrong, & Thomas, 1998). The proposal here and elsewhere is that the human motivation to control is an evolved disposition and is implicitly focused on attempts to control social relationships and the behavior of other people, and to control the biological and physical resources that covary with survival and reproductive prospects in the local ecology (Geary, 1998, 2005)."

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"In most contexts and for most people, the motivation to control is constrained by formal laws, informal cultural customs, and by psychological mechanisms (e.g., guilt) that promote social compromise and reciprocal social relationships (Barkow, 1992; Baron, 1997; Trivers, 1971)"

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"Nevertheless, consideration of history’s despots allows for a clear assessment of the benefits of resource control. These individuals have considerable social power and their behavior is not typically constrained by psychological (e.g., guilt) or social consequences. "

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"gaining some level of control over the activities of daily life, important social relationships, and material resources affords many of the same benefits, but on a smaller scale, as those enjoyed by despots."

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"The level of actual resources is important but, in addition, one’s position in the social hierarchy influences and is influenced by physical health, lifespan, and psychological functioning (e.g., self esteem)."

Trait Plasticity:

David C. Geary:

"Trait plasticity can evolve if some features of the ecology or social environment that drove the evolution of the trait fluctuate during lifetimes. If the ability to adapt to these fluctuations influences survival or reproductive prospects, then conditions are set for the evolution of trait plasticity. The conditions that create such fluctuations can be climatic or result from biological arms races. The latter are common among organisms with competing interests, as in predator-prey and host-parasite relationships (Darwin, 1859; Dawkins & Krebs, 1979). They are also common in species that live in complex social groups, which results in ever changing patterns of cooperation and competition for control of resources associated with survival or reproductive prospects."

Tending:

D. C. Geary, M. V. Flinn:

"Tending is a form of parental investment. The nature and extent of this investment by one or both sexes strongly influences the dynamics of intersexual and intrasexual relationships, termed sexual selection (Andersson, 1994; Darwin, 1871; Trivers, 1972; Williams, 1966). Species in which females provide the majority of parental effort, such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and lions (Panthera leo), are characterized by intense male–male competition for access to females or for control of the resources (e.g., breeding territory) females need to raise their offspring. In these species, female tending and male fighting are salient features of reproductive dynamics. The reverse situation occurs in species in which males provide the majority of parental effort, such as red-necked phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus), where sexual selection involves female–female competition over resources provided by males."

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"Men’s tending creates a more uniquely human form of female–female competition; that is, competition for high-quality men who are able and are willing to invest their resources in the woman and her children (Buss, 1994; Gaulin & Boster, 1990)."

Samstag, 9. November 2019

Signalling Commitment:

Bria Lane Dunham:

"Costly signals, handicaps or otherwise, can also convey information about an individual’s commitment to a certain individual, group, or institution. Commitment may be important to potential sexual and social partners, as it sets a foundation for mutual or collective investment and the anticipation of future behavior."

Fluency:

The Prediction of Achievement and Creativity, Raymond B. Cattell & H. J. Butcher, 1968:

"we must recognize that the popular mind is apt to see high fluency as creativity; but to the psychologist, high fluency is perceived to arise either from vitality of the unconscious or, by contrast, from defective powers of inhibition in the ego, and creativity so defined is therefore a mixed blessing."

Stereotypies:

C.J. Mason:

"[The] development of stereotypies indicates that well-being has probably been poor, with the animal motivated to show a behaviour pattern that it could not perform normally or to completion."

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"[S]tereotypies should warn us that the animal has probably been in an unchanging and frustrating environment, and that its welfare has probably been unsatisfactory."

Das Abbilden (II):

"Die Vorgehensweise [der Wissenschaft ist] die einer Abbildung: ... die Erscheinungen der wirklichen Welt [werden durch Worte repräsentiert]. In stärker formalisierten Theorien oder Darstellungsweisen können das auch Buchstaben oder andere Symbole sein. Ein mehr oder weniger komplexes System solcher Repräsentationen beobachtbarer Erscheinungen und Sachverhalte können wir eine Theorie oder ein Modell der Wirklichkeit nennen. Mit dieser Abbildung oder Repräsentation von Erscheinungen durch Worte oder Symbole gehen Klassifikations- und Abstraktionsprozesse einher: Es wird nicht die Gesamtheit der Erscheinung abgebildet, sondern nur jeweils für relevant erachtete Aspekte[.] Es ist für eine Wissenschaft eine sehr wichtige Frage, welche Aspekte oder Merkmale der Wirklichkeit bei ihrer Abbildung oder Repräsentation durch eine Theorie sprachlich berücksichtigt und abgebildet werden[.]"

P. R. Hofstätter & D. Wendt

The utility of bad feelings (II):

"People of all statuses may get lethargic and glum when social, sexual, or professional prospects look dim, and then grow optimistic and energetic when opportunities arise. It's as if they have been resting up for a big match. And if no opportunities arise, and lethargy passes into mild depression, this mood may goad them into a fruitful shift of course - changing careers, jettisoning ungrateful friends, abandoning the pursuit of an elusive mate."

Robert Wright, The moral animal
"[A]s many studies have shown, creativity (as achievement) must be based on a vast amount of knowledge and practice in order to produce original works of art and science; failing to give children the chance to acquire this basic knowledge condemns them to a life of complete failure as far as genuine, socially valued and creative activity is concerned."

Hans J. Eysenck, Genius, 1995

Suckers for Irrelevancy (II):

Suckers for Irrelevancy: The Surprising Hazards of Multitasking

“… the people we talk with continually said, look, when I really have to concentrate, I turn off everything and I am laser-focused. And unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task.”

Der innere Kompass:

Linda Gottfredson:

"Our inner genetic compass is the core of our individuality ... it quietly but incessantly inclines us to take some paths rather than others, be attracted to or repelled by certain activities, seize different opportunities, respond differently to the same environments, and create different social niches for ourselves when given a choice."

Freitag, 8. November 2019

Das Gehirn als "Entscheidungsmaschine":

Das Gehirn als eine Art "Entscheidungsmaschine", der es darum geht, Unsicherheit darüber abzubauen, was getan werden sollte.

Auswendiglernen:

Ein guter Auswendiglerner ist eine Person, die sich rasch eine große Menge an Details einprägen kann. Das garantiert aber nicht, dass die Person auch gut darin ist, eingeprägte Details auf Regelmäßigkeit hin abzusuchen.

Intelligenz:

(1) Wie effektiv jemand Regelmäßigkeiten aufspürt;

(2) Wie effektiv jemand von bekannten Regelmäßigkeiten auf Unbekanntes schließt;

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Wie gut ist eine Person darin, Regelmäßigkeiten und Redundanzen zu detektieren?

Das Auffinden von Redundanz:

Salopp: Dass sich etwas predicten lässt;

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Übertragen auf Entscheidungen: Im welchem Ausmaß besteht Klarheit / lässt es sich predicten, welche Entscheidung besser / angebracht ist?

Leben mit Unklarheit: In unserem Leben entscheiden wir uns häufig, ohne volle Klarheit darüber zu haben, welche Option tatsächlich die bessere ist.

To read through a lot of material just in order to write a single sentence:

"A lot of times I'll have to read through a lot of material just in order to write one sentence ... because my sentence will then have ... I'll choose words that make it more convincing ... if I really don't have the knowledge it'll somehow come out implicitly in my writing."

Aufdeckung von Unbekanntem:

Z.B.:

In welchem Ausmaß kann ich aus dem, was ich über eine Person weiß, auf das schließen, was ich über eine Person nicht weiß, was ich aber wissen möchte?

Welche Informationen sind es, die allgemein am meisten Aufschlüsse gewähren?

Ordnungsgrad:

Wie viel Regelmäßigkeit liegt vor, in welchem Ausmaß ist Ungewissheitsverringerung möglich, in dieser Welt? In welchem Ausmaß lassen sich Einzelereignisse predicten?

Donnerstag, 7. November 2019

Lernstoff:

Neuen Lernstoff durchzugehen, zahlt sich letztlich primär dann aus, wenn man sich anschließend Zeit nimmt, das Gelernte zu rekapitulieren.

Wahrnehmung des Rauschens:

Die Berücksichtigung unwesentlicher Signale kostet;

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Unwesentlichen Informationen Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen kostet;

Tiefes Arbeiten:

Wann an einem Tag ereignet sich jeweils das "Heavy Lifting"?

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Was sind die schwierigen Aufgaben des Tages? Welche Zeitfenster stehen mir zur Verfügung, mich diesen Aufgaben zu widmen? Welches Pensum an schwerer / herausfordernder Arbeit kann täglich erbracht werden?

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Auch rückblickend, am Ende des Tages: Wann wurden tatsächlich "schwere Gewichte" gestemmt?

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Deliberate Practice: Es geht darum, sich tagtäglich darin zu üben, Aufgaben zu bewältigen, die nicht leicht zu bewältigen sind.

Nachdenken:

Nachdenken als ein Kombinieren von Denkinhalten;

Hochstimmung und Kreativität (II):

Das schöpferische Gehirn - Konrad Lehmann:

"Die verschiedenen Formen der Hochstimmung - intrinsische Motivation, gute Laune, Hypomanie, Flow - sind neuronal alle miteinander verwandt: Sie beruhen auf einer höheren Dopaminübertragung in verschiedenen Anteilen der Basalganglien, nämlich dem Nucleus accumbens und dem dorsalem Stratium; ...
Unter all diesen Formen der Hochstimmung, in all diesen Spielarten dopaminerger Aktivierung, produzieren Menschen mehr. ... Sie machen also insofern kreativ, als "kreativ" bedeutet, dass man viel hervorbringt. ...
Wenn "kreativ" bedeutet, etwas Neuartiges, Brilliantes hervorzubringen, dann nützt mehr Dopamin dabei nichts. ...
Robert Schuman als Musterbeispiel des manisch-depressiven Künstlers komponierte zwar in seinen manischen Phasen mehr als sonst. Zählt man aber, um ein möglichst objektives Maß der Qualität zu erhalten, nach, wie oft seine verschiedenen Werke eingespielt werden, dann schneiden die Kompositionen aus seinen manischen Phasen keineswegs besser ab als die aus seinen ausgeglichenen oder depressiven Phasen.
Flow (oder Hypomanie) ist also ein Zustand, in dem wir Ideen am besten umsetzten. Es ist nicht der Zustand, in dem wir Ideen bekommen.
Die Alltagserfahrung bestätigt das: Es gibt erfolgreiche Wissenschaftskollegen, die hochmotiviert, ehrgeizig, fleißig und sicherlich nicht dumm sind (für einen IQ über 115 wird es jedenfalls reichen), die aber in ihrem ganzen Leben noch keine einzige Idee gehabt haben. Darum kommt auch Arne Dietrich zu dem Schluss, dass Flow und Kreativität zwei verschiedene Zustände des Gehirns sind bzw. dass sie unterschiedliche Schaltkreise im Gehirn rekrutieren. Man sollte sie nicht gleichsetzen. Im Gegenteil: Man sollte sie fein säuberlich voneinander trennen."

Mittwoch, 6. November 2019

Shakespeare (III):

Human Accomplishment, Charles Murray:

>Some readers have memories similar to mine: Forced to read Shakespeare as a class assignment in secondary school, I was determined not to be impressed. Then, ineluctably, I could not help seeing the stuff in those words - the puns and allusions, the layers of meaning, the way that a few of his lines transformed a stage character into a complex human personality. Sooner or later, the question forces itself upon anyone who reads Shakespeare and pays attention: "How can a human being have written this?"<

Gehirn:

~ Das verhaltenserzeugende Organ;

Erzeugungsmuster:

In welchem Ausmaß lässt sich der künftige Inhalt von Nachrichten, die ich von einer Informationsquelle erhalten werde, aus dem bisherigen Inhalt der Nachrichten, die ich von dieser Informationsquelle erhalten habe, predicten? Volle Regelmäßigkeit liegt vor, wenn sich der Inhalt der künftigen Nachrichten aus dem Inhalt der bereits empfangenen Nachrichten mit Sicherheit predicten lässt.

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Das Wettergeschehen lässt sich in gewissem Ausmaß predicten. Frage ist: Wie weit sind Wettervorhersagen von sicheren Vorhersagen entfernt?

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Volle Regelmäßigkeit:
Z.B.: Wenn das, was bereits geschehen ist, sichere Schlüsse auf das, was noch geschehen wird, erlaubt.

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Wie viel Offenheit / wie viel Unsicherheit liegt vor, innerhalb eines Systems? Informationsentropie quantifiziert Offenheit bzw. Unsicherheit.

Wikipedia: "In information theoretic terms, the information entropy of a system is the amount of 'missing' information needed to determine a microstate, given the macrostate."

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Z.B.: Es liegen Informationen über einen Bewerber vor. Wie viel zusätzliche Information bräuchte ich, um mit Sicherheit die Eignung des Bewerbers bestimmen zu können? Wie viel weitere Information ist nötig, um alle Unklarheit bezüglich der Eignung oder der mangelnden Eignung des Bewerbers zu beseitigen? Drei Möglichkeiten: (1.) klare Eignung, (2.) klare Ungeeignetheit, (3.) unterschiedliche Grade an Ungewissheit;

Dienstag, 5. November 2019

The Relation of Cognitive Abilities to Creativity:

The Prediction of Achievement and Creativity, R. B. Cattell & H. J. Butcher:

"Because the level of complexity at which a person can successfully educe relations and fundaments is probably the best definition of the general ability factor, g, it is not surprising that intelligence test scores always correlate substantially with ratings of creativity by skilled judges. Creativity is more than intelligence, as we have taken pains to show; but whatever other cognitive and temperamental qualities may operate, they cannot operate successfully if the individual does not have the intellectual capacity to evaluate correctly the new cognitive material that arises."

Gedanken in der Wissenschaft:

Ein schöner Gedanke, allein für sich genommen, bringt in der Wissenschaft nicht viel. Es geht darum, Daten zu sammeln, Erfahrung zu sammeln, und also nachzusehen, was die Wirklichkeit zur Plausibilität des Gedankens zu sagen hat.

Beziehungen:

Im Sinne eines Kontaktwunsches:

Z.B.: Mit welcher Person des anderen Geschlechts möchte man viel und einen intensiven Kontakt.

Beweis:

Eine Folge zielführender Schritte;

(Ziel ist das Absichern einer Aussage.)

[Siehe auch: Erkunden und Sichern]

Das "vernünftige" Lebewesen:

Unter anderem:

(1.) das Hinzutreten des sprachlichen Denkens

(2.) die Fähigkeit, sich vom Hier und Jetzt zu entkoppeln: das Vorausschauen und Zurückdenken;

Spiel und Verspieltheit:

Mit Patrick Bateson:

(o) dem Spiel haftet oft Wettkampfcharakter an;

(o) in Verspieltheit klingt Wärme und Freundlichkeit an;

Chinese Sex-Ratio Imbalance:

http://meinnaturwissenschaftsblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/chinese-sex-ratio.html

Erkennen:

Z.B.:
Eine Matrix bestehend aus 9 Feldern. 1 Feld nicht ausgefüllt. 8 Felder ausgefüllt. Die Matrix ist so beschaffen, dass die Inhalte der 8 ausgefüllten Felder einen sicheren Schluss auf den Inhalt des 9ten Feldes ermöglichen. Menschen unterscheiden sich darin, wie rasch sie Regelmäßigkeit in den ausgefüllten Feldern erkennen und hiermit auf den Inhalt des nichtausgefüllten Feldes schließen können. Wenn nun mehrere Matrizenaufgaben gelöst werden, machen sich interindividuelle Unterschiede in der Bearbeitung dieser Aufgaben deutlicher bemerkbar, als durch das Lösen einer einzelnen Aufgabe.

Sonntag, 3. November 2019

Empathie:

Z.B.:

Ohne kognitive Empathie: "Ich kann nicht erkennen, was du willst, was du dir wünscht."

Mit kognitiver, aber ohne affektive Empathie: "Ich kann erkennen, was du willst, was du dir wünscht. Es ist mir bloß hochgradig gleichgültig. Ich werde dein Wollen nur dann berücksichtigen, wenn mir die Berücksichtigung einen deutlich erkennbaren Vorteil bringt."

Mit affektiver Empathie: "Ich kann erkennen, was du willst, was du dir wünscht. Und ich werde es, wenn möglich, berücksichtigen."

Verträglichkeit:

Was bringen Wärme und Freundlichkeit hervor? Was die Härte?

Consciousness, Self-Awareness, Foresight, and Conscience (II):

Richard D. Alexander, Evolution and Humor, 1986:

"I see consciousness, self-awareness, foresight, and conscience as 'overrides' of more ancient and more immediate indicators of costs and benefits (such as pain and pleasure). Humans use consciousness, self-awareness, foresight, and conscience to estimate long-term costs and benefits and to make decisions about rejecting short-term pleasures or accepting short-term pains. The special condition favoring such attributes, I hypothesize, is the ability of competing and cooperating humans to adjust continually the relationships between short and long-term costs and benefits so that intelligence, foresight, and deliberate planning have been the best available tools for realizing one's own interests."

Samstag, 2. November 2019

Zukunft und Vergangenheit:

Die Zukunft ist (teilweise) offen.

Die Vergangenheit ist festgelegt.

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Die Zukunft ist begrenzt beeinflussbar.

Nichts kann Vergangenes ungeschehen machen.

Woher kommen Ideen?

Verarbeitungsprozesse auf tieferen Ebenen, die Ideen generieren;

Kausalitätsgedanke:

Das, was sich in der eigenen Umgebung ereignet, ist verursacht. D.h. es existieren Bedingungen, die diese Ereignisse hervorrufen.

Bauchgefühle und Intuitionen:

Gerhard Roth, Wie das Gehirn die Seele macht:

"Wir sollten ... unter >Bauchgefühlen< ... starke Affekte und Motive verstehen, die uns auf der unteren und mittleren limbischen Ebene massiv drängen, irgendetwas zu tun, etwa zu fliehen, zuzuschlagen, sich zur Wehr zu setzen, alle Brücken hinter sich abzubrechen, und solche Zustände treten meist in stark emotionalisierenden und von hohem Stress begleiteten Situationen auf. Das ist bei Intuitionen nicht der Fall - sie drängen nicht, sondern legen nahe, flüstern uns sozusagen etwas ein.

Geläufig sind uns solche Intuitionen auch, wenn wir mit komplexen Problemen zu tun haben, etwa bei Entscheidungen, beim sich Orientieren in unübersichtlichen Situationen, beim Problemlösen, beim Bemühen, etwas Kompliziertes zu verstehen, bei künstlerischer oder erfinderischer Tätigkeit. Typisch ist dabei, dass Willensanstrengung und Konzentration meist keine Wirkung zeigen und sich die >Lösung< in der Regel erst nach einer längeren Pause ergibt, in der wir nicht mehr intensiv danach gesucht oder darüber gegrübelt haben. Wir wachen nachts auf und haben plötzlich die zündende Idee, oder sie erscheint am frühen Morgen unter der Dusche, beim Spaziergang oder in einer Situation, die scheinbar oder tatsächlich mit dem Problem gar nichts zu tun hat."
Simon Baron-Cohen:

"If you focus only on others, there is a risk that you neglect your own needs. Too much of a focus on your own needs could result in self-centeredness, which itself carries dangers of becoming isolated from social support."

"Being too other-centered means one would never pursue one’s own ambitions, or act competitively, for fear of upsetting or diminishing others. Being too self-centered has the advantage of pursuing one’s own ambitions to the exclusion of all else[.]"

Freitag, 1. November 2019

Das Betrachten:

Ein Moment, eine Zeitspanne, eine Stunde, in der sich das Auge einem Phänomen voll und ganz öffnet.

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Analog hierzu - das Sich-Besinnen:

Momente, Zeitspannen, Stunden, in denen sich uns Gedanken voll und ganz erschließen.

Genocide:

Lewis Hyde, The Gift:

"We tend to think of genocide as the physical destruction of a race or group, but the term may be aptly expanded to include the obliteration of the genius of a group, the killing of its creative spirit through the destruction, debasement, or silencing of its art[.]"
Brainpickings:

"A powerful and personally developed structuring of information — an active and selective memory — is as necessary for scientists as it is for poets."

Vera John-Steiner

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"It seems to me that good memory — at least for mathematicians and physicists — forms a large part of their talent. And what we call talent or perhaps genius itself depends to a large extent on the ability to use one’s memory properly to find analogies, past, present and future, which [are] essential to the development of new ideas."

Stan Ulam

Work vs. Labor:

Lewis Hyde:

"Work is what we do by the hour. It begins and, if possible, we do it for money. Welding car bodies on an assembly line is work; washing dishes, computing taxes, walking the rounds in a psychiatric ward, picking asparagus–these are work. Labor, on the other hand, sets its own pace. We may get paid for it, but it’s harder to quantify… Writing a poem, raising a child, developing a new calculus, resolving a neurosis, invention in all forms — these are labors.

Work is an intended activity that is accomplished through the will. A labor can be intended but only to the extent of doing the groundwork, or of not doing things that would clearly prevent the labor. Beyond that, labor has its own schedule. Things get done, but we often have the odd sense that we didn't do them. Paul Goodman wrote in a journal once, 'I have recently written a few good poems. But I have no feeling that I wrote them.' That is the declaration of a laborer. ... And labor, because it sets its own pace, is usually accomplished by idleness, leisure, even sleep."
Oliver Sacks:

"On the whole, I disliked school, sitting in class, receiving instruction; information seemed to go in one ear and out the other. I could not be passive — I had to be active, learn for myself, learn what I wanted, and in the way that suited me best. I was not a good pupil, but I was a good learner, and in the Willesden library — and all the libraries that came later — I roamed the shelves and stacks, had the freedom to select whatever I wanted, to follow paths that fascinated me, to become myself. At the library I felt free — free to look at the thousands, tens of thousands, of books; free to roam and to enjoy the special atmosphere and the quiet companionship of other readers, all, like myself, on quests of their own."

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"Using whatever paper and writing instrument he had on hand, Dr. Sacks jotted down ideas as they occurred to him — unedited, un-self-censored flights of fancy, captured before they flew away and later domesticated into the thoughtful, exquisitely structured, immensely insightful formal writings for which he is so beloved."

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"I started keeping journals when I was fourteen and at last count had nearly a thousand. They come in all shapes and sizes, from little pocket ones which I carry around with me to enormous tomes. I always keep a notebook by my bedside, for dreams as well as nighttime thoughts, and I try to have one by the swimming pool or the lakeside or the seashore; swimming too is very productive of thoughts which I must write, especially if they present themselves, as they sometimes do, in the form of whole sentences or paragraphs."

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"The need to think on paper is not confined to notebooks. It spreads onto the backs of envelopes, menus, whatever scraps of paper are at hand. And I often transcribe quotations I like, writing or typing them on pieces of brightly colored paper and pinning them to a bulletin board."

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"I was dissatisfied with my 1967 manuscript and decided to rewrite the book. It was the first of September, and I said to myself, “If I do not have the finished manuscript in Faber’s hands by September 10, I shall have to kill myself.” And under this threat, I started writing. Within a day or so, the feeling of threat had disappeared, and the joy of writing took over. I was no longer using drugs, but it was a time of extraordinary elation and energy. It seemed to me almost as though the book were being dictated, everything organizing itself swiftly and automatically. I would sleep for just a couple of hours a night. And a day ahead of schedule, on September 9, I took the book to Faber & Faber."

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Thom Gunn:

"during the next few years, various separate bursts of activity, ending with a sense of the new book as a whole, in which I make discoveries about my subject(s) that I have never anticipated. "

brainpickings:

https://www.brainpickings.org/