Tag: counterintuitiveness

Counterintuitiveness – Psyched vs Calm


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Counterintuitive Series: Psyched vs Calm

Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets.

From time to time, life demands that we get charged for something. Could be the commencement of a big project, a project with a tight deadline, a school or college assignment due the next morning, a job interview, and so on. And we feel the need to get psyched about it. Get in the zone, get charged up, and whatever other phrases there are for it.

And there seem to ways to do it to. The most common of course, being chugging down an energy drink or copious amounts of coffee.

The only problem with many of these methods, is there is a guaranteed crash after the initial ‘charge’. And sometimes, that can be worse than not having consumed or performed whatever ‘charge-up’ action. Like staying up all night working on the assignment and falling asleep in the morning and ending missing class itself. Or worse.

Calming down seems to have more than the same benefits that ‘charging up’ options offer, but without the subsequent crash.

But that’s the tough bit at least I often grapple with. The calming down. Most people suggest meditation, though that is sometimes easier said than done.

A few things that work for me, include standing against a wall or cupboard for a minute. Or lying down in a reclined position with arms stretched out and closing eyes for a minute or two.

And of course, brain dumps really work. Writing down each and every thought and to-do that comes to mind.

Before complex or creative projects, even a short nap helps clear the head and even make sense of some of the complexity.

Compared to the psych-you-up options, calmer ways to get in the zone often provide similar (or better) results, are more efficient, make you expend less energy, and are effective longer.

Leaving you with my favourite counterintuitive trivia question for some years now:

Q: Fighter jets normally take-off off aircraft carriers at a speed of around 270 km/hr.
What might be the approximate speed at which they approach the aircraft carrier to land?+

A: Most of us would imagine they would approach to land on an aircraft carrier at a much lower speed, given the short runway on the carrier. However, they approach at take-off speeds (~270 km/hr) or higher, because if they miss all of usually four arresting cables on the carrier that help it stop, they would need to take-off before they reach the end.

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And remember, as US Marines probably say..

‘Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.’

+ except aircraft like the Harrier, Osprey, some F-35s and such of course.

Counterintuitiveness – Babies Resisting Sleep

Counterintuitive Series: Babies resisting sleep

Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets.

This particular one is a hypothesis and not an example (yet at least), but let me have your views or experiences on it.

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A lot of parents of young kids nowadays, both friends and family, grumble about the time it takes to put their kid to sleep at a reasonable hour. And this seems to be a common occurrence across the world. One could perhaps attribute it to two factors. First, for many of us, our lifestyle and work-life balance has us sleeping much later than our parents’ generation did. And secondly, each new generation seems smarter and generally more curious than the previous. And the average kid nowadays has so much more information around to soak up.

However, it did get me wondering about the practice of putting kids to sleep. Nowadays, parents are often very gentle when patting the backs or bottoms of their kids to sleep. And kids really fight sleep. Leading to a tug-of-war between the two, often leaving both a bit grumpy.

Back in the day, parents or grandparents seemed to pat kids slightly less gently, something I thought was odd at the time. You’d wonder if they were trying to put the kid to sleep, or wake it up.

But it now makes me wonder if the overly gentle pat causes kids to resist sleep even more.
Stay with me on this thought for a moment.

Kids naturally tend to be a little rebellious when something is in conflict with their natural interest.
The gentle pat comes across as a request to sleep, something they don’t want to do, even if tired. So they resist, sometimes taking a really long time to fall asleep, to the displeasure of the parent.

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The older generation’s firmer pats seemed counterintuitive. While intending to put the kid to sleep, they almost partially woke the drowsy kid. And therefore, seemed to conflict less with, or almost align with, the kid’s intention to stay awake.
Would this let the kid not resist sleep as much, and sleep faster?
Could it be that in our natural tendency to be gentler, we have added to the problem?
I don’t know. But hey, food for thought.

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Counterintuitiveness – Unhurried Conversations

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Counterintuitiveness – Unhurried conversations

Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets.

Some weeks ago, I chanced upon a virtual session titled “Unhurried Conversations about Rule-breaking”, hosted by Johnnie Moore and Tim Pilbrow.
Often, virtual sessions are mostly unidirectional. And interactions either lack many questions, or have a subtle tug-of-war, with participants trying to get their message across. This was far from both.

The session started with an overview by the hosts, followed by participants heading to breakout rooms, equipped with some simple rules:
When someone is speaking, avoid interrupting.
When speaking, you can take your sweet time. And once done, hold up an object to convey the same, so someone else can then speak.

The lack of pressure to squeeze one’s point across, or blurt it out so as not to take up much time, was refreshing.

It felt like there was more than sufficient time for everyone to share multiple views, stories and opinions, which in themselves were extremely insightful. And the best bit, there was the respect, both when everyone spoke, and when everyone listened.
And everyone’s understanding of the topic seemed to evolve nicely in this supportive environment.

In all, very different from both high-pressure group discussion type environments, and the no-questions kind we are used to.

With a fixed timeline, interactions and meetings with these rules could perhaps be far more effective. Thanks to Johnnie and Tim!

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Counterintuitiveness – Pre-rinsing Dishes

Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets.

A recent article, and probably many before that, states how pre-rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher actually reduces the cleansing quality.
How?
Modern dishwashers have sensors that gauge the degree of dirt and adjust the amount of cleaning accordingly.
So the old, habitual pre-rinsing could trick the machine into thinking a mild clean should suffice.

But for those of you who own dishwashers and are used to mildly rinsing your dishes in advance, you surely sense this huge internal conflict each time you are done eating and before you put those plates and cutlery in the machine.

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