Podcasts about style the thinking person

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Dominant Assurance Contract Experiment #2: Berkeley House Dinners, published by Arjun Panickssery on July 5, 2023 on LessWrong. As an afterthought at the end of my previous post on dominant assurance contracts, I decided on a whim as I was typing to append a small dominant assurance contract: In theory, writers could kickstart posts using dominant assurance contracts. An example (this is a real offer): If you send $20 to arjun.panickssery at Gmail via PayPal by noon New York time on January 21st, I'll send you back $25 if fewer than 10 people sent me money. If 10 or more people send me money, I'll post a review of Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by the end of the month. I'm not sure whether I'm just giving away free money right now. I received exactly nine out of the ten funders needed and lost $45. Now a second attempt, this time in the real world: at Andromeda House we plan to host large weekly dinners for the local EA/rationality/etc community at our house in Southside Berkeley. Here's how it works: You can Venmo me (@Arjun-Panickssery if the link doesn't work) or PayPal me any amount of at least $20 with the subject line "dinner" or similar. If I get at least $700 total by noon Pacific time on July 15, I'll host dinners from July 17 till the end of August (seven dinners). If I get less than $700 total, I'll give you a 25% return (e.g., if you sent me $100, I'll send you back $125). Example: If you live in town and this service would be worth more than $20 per dinner to you and you'd expect to come to three before September, you should pay at least $60, since you either get a service worth more than that amount or you make a 25% return. You could try to free-ride but the fact that my previous contract received just one less than the target number suggests that I'm well-calibrated. If you don't live in town—or even if you do—you can also idly speculate if you think that I'm unlikely to hit my target and likely to pay out. You could also just pseudo-donate money without regard to whether you think I'm calibrated just because you think that DACs are cool and should proliferate. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Dominant Assurance Contract Experiment #2: Berkeley House Dinners, published by Arjun Panickssery on July 5, 2023 on LessWrong. As an afterthought at the end of my previous post on dominant assurance contracts, I decided on a whim as I was typing to append a small dominant assurance contract: In theory, writers could kickstart posts using dominant assurance contracts. An example (this is a real offer): If you send $20 to arjun.panickssery at Gmail via PayPal by noon New York time on January 21st, I'll send you back $25 if fewer than 10 people sent me money. If 10 or more people send me money, I'll post a review of Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by the end of the month. I'm not sure whether I'm just giving away free money right now. I received exactly nine out of the ten funders needed and lost $45. Now a second attempt, this time in the real world: at Andromeda House we plan to host large weekly dinners for the local EA/rationality/etc community at our house in Southside Berkeley. Here's how it works: You can Venmo me (@Arjun-Panickssery if the link doesn't work) or PayPal me any amount of at least $20 with the subject line "dinner" or similar. If I get at least $700 total by noon Pacific time on July 15, I'll host dinners from July 17 till the end of August (seven dinners). If I get less than $700 total, I'll give you a 25% return (e.g., if you sent me $100, I'll send you back $125). Example: If you live in town and this service would be worth more than $20 per dinner to you and you'd expect to come to three before September, you should pay at least $60, since you either get a service worth more than that amount or you make a 25% return. You could try to free-ride but the fact that my previous contract received just one less than the target number suggests that I'm well-calibrated. If you don't live in town—or even if you do—you can also idly speculate if you think that I'm unlikely to hit my target and likely to pay out. You could also just pseudo-donate money without regard to whether you think I'm calibrated just because you think that DACs are cool and should proliferate. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

To kick-off the second season of Data Malarkey, Sam Knowles talks to one of the all-time greats of academic psychology – Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. An experimental psychologist interested in all aspects of language, mind, and human nature, Steve is one of the most important public intellectuals – and best-selling authors – of the past 30 years. He came to global attention with his 1994 book, The Language Instinct, and followed that three years later with How The Mind Works.   In the 2000s, Steve's interests – and popular-science best sellers – have flexed and grown to cover nature and nurture, human progress, violence (or otherwise) in society, and most recently, rationality. Many listeners will be familiar with The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of our Nature, Enlightenment Now, and – most recently – Rationality. A less well-known but important work is Steve's 2014 book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, and what it has to say about the Curse of Knowledge.   Garlanded by media, national and international associations, and academic institutions around the world, Steve is generally agreed to be one of the world's leading thinkers and most influential writers. He is that rarest of creatures – a serious, practicing academic who writes with great clarity for both his peers and an intelligent lay audience. Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 18 May 2023.   Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support.   Podcast artwork by Shatter Media.   Voice over by Samantha Boffin.   Steve spends his time reading, teaching, and writing – totally immersing himself when it comes to books. And when he's not doing that, he's walking, hiking, cycling, travelling and talking with his wife, the novelist and philosopher, Rebecca Goldstein. He also has a passion – and a real skill – for photography, a passion developed from his early-career research in visual cognition and his love of visual aesthetics.   This episode covers so much in just 45 minutes, from why the world is rather less violent than the news cycle might suggest to the replicability crisis in psychology; from our faulty belief that a sample will be representative of a population, to underpowered psychological research using too few experimental subjects. More than once, Steve refers to Amos Tversky's 1971 paper in Psychological Bulletin, “Belief in the law of small numbers”. As Steve points out: “He did warn us. We should have listened!” For those unfamiliar with this seminal, overlooked paper – here it is.   And while we're very much in the wheelhouse of an academic psychologist at the height of his profession, at all times Steve avoids the Curse of Knowledge, which he defines as “the difficulty in imagining what it's like for some else not to know something that you know”. As the Curse of Knowledge is a repeated target of Sam's in his data storytelling training, host and guest wig out about the Curse, which Steve also characterises as a lack of Theory of Mind. Other topics covered in this episode include: what insight is and how to move from data to insight; the very real power of analogy (like the solar system for atomic structure) in driving breakthrough innovation and understanding; the dangers (and shortcomings) of AI. While Steve suspects the dangers have been overstated, he's all for minimising deep fakes – on news in particular – and fraud.  EXTERNAL LINKS Steve's home page – https://stevenpinker.com Photos by Steven Pinker – http://stevepinker.com The Harvard Department of Psychology page for Steve – https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/steven-pinker   To find out what kind of data storyteller you are, complete our data storytelling scorecard at https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com. It takes just two minutes to answer 12 questions, and we'll send you your own personalised scorecard which tells you what kind of data storyteller you are.  

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Consider paying for literature or book reviews using bounties and dominant assurance contracts, published by Arjun Panickssery on January 15, 2023 on LessWrong. Cross-posted to the EA Forum here. In September 2021, a LessWrong pilot program paid $500 for high-quality book reviews related to "science, history, and rationality." They got 36 submissions (they don't say how many were rejected for low quality, but at least 9 were accepted) and a bunch of them were popular on the forum. There's a bounty tag on LW (and on the EA Forum) but it isn't used much. A culture of posting bounties—either individually or in groups of people interested in the same information—has benefits for patrons, writers, and the community generally: For patrons—If there's a question you want investigated or a book you want reviewed, you can save your valuable time by tossing the question into the LW void and waiting for a piece that's worth accepting. Others probably want the same thing and can contribute to a pool. Ambitious patrons can also influence the direction of the community by sponsoring posts on topics they think people should think about more. You don't have to worry about filtering for visible credentials and writers don't have to worry about having any. For writers—Bounties motivate people to write both through a direct monetary incentive, but also because a lot of people dissuade themselves from writing on the Internet to avoid looking vain or self-important. Bounties cover for this awkwardness by providing non-status-related reasons to post. For the community—This whole exchange provides a positive externality to the lurkers who can read more posts for free. The simplest way this could work is for people to post individual bounties of e.g. $500 for posts drawing conclusions that would have taken them just too long to justify at the hourly value of their time. These bounties can guide writers who may be looking for things to read and write about anyway. An obstacle to bounty markets is that writers incur the risk of being outshone by a better post written around the same time. They could also be snubbed by picky benefactors. If most bounties are posted by a small group of people who post many individual bounties, then reputation effects can manage this. Group bounties could be difficult to coordinate since people aren't motivated to post "I'd contribute $100 to a post analyzing the top 10 writing advice books for insights" if the bounty is unlikely ever to be fulfilled. And they're not motivated to join existing pools when they could free-ride instead. One solution is to use the opposite direction: Kickstarter-style writing proposals. In monthly threads, users post advertisements for book reviews/literature reviews/investigations that they'd be willing to produce at some price and specifications. This puts the reputational demands on the writers and the risk on the sponsors who might pay for a poor product. In theory, writers could kickstart posts using dominant assurance contracts. An example (this is a real offer): If you send $20 to arjun.panickssery at Gmail via PayPal by noon New York time on January 21st, I'll send you back $25 if fewer than 10 people sent me money. If 10 or more people send me money, I'll post a review of Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by the end of the month. I'm not sure whether I'm just giving away free money right now. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Consider paying for literature or book reviews using bounties and dominant assurance contracts, published by Arjun Panickssery on January 15, 2023 on LessWrong. Cross-posted to the EA Forum here. In September 2021, a LessWrong pilot program paid $500 for high-quality book reviews related to "science, history, and rationality." They got 36 submissions (they don't say how many were rejected for low quality, but at least 9 were accepted) and a bunch of them were popular on the forum. There's a bounty tag on LW (and on the EA Forum) but it isn't used much. A culture of posting bounties—either individually or in groups of people interested in the same information—has benefits for patrons, writers, and the community generally: For patrons—If there's a question you want investigated or a book you want reviewed, you can save your valuable time by tossing the question into the LW void and waiting for a piece that's worth accepting. Others probably want the same thing and can contribute to a pool. Ambitious patrons can also influence the direction of the community by sponsoring posts on topics they think people should think about more. You don't have to worry about filtering for visible credentials and writers don't have to worry about having any. For writers—Bounties motivate people to write both through a direct monetary incentive, but also because a lot of people dissuade themselves from writing on the Internet to avoid looking vain or self-important. Bounties cover for this awkwardness by providing non-status-related reasons to post. For the community—This whole exchange provides a positive externality to the lurkers who can read more posts for free. The simplest way this could work is for people to post individual bounties of e.g. $500 for posts drawing conclusions that would have taken them just too long to justify at the hourly value of their time. These bounties can guide writers who may be looking for things to read and write about anyway. An obstacle to bounty markets is that writers incur the risk of being outshone by a better post written around the same time. They could also be snubbed by picky benefactors. If most bounties are posted by a small group of people who post many individual bounties, then reputation effects can manage this. Group bounties could be difficult to coordinate since people aren't motivated to post "I'd contribute $100 to a post analyzing the top 10 writing advice books for insights" if the bounty is unlikely ever to be fulfilled. And they're not motivated to join existing pools when they could free-ride instead. One solution is to use the opposite direction: Kickstarter-style writing proposals. In monthly threads, users post advertisements for book reviews/literature reviews/investigations that they'd be willing to produce at some price and specifications. This puts the reputational demands on the writers and the risk on the sponsors who might pay for a poor product. In theory, writers could kickstart posts using dominant assurance contracts. An example (this is a real offer): If you send $20 to arjun.panickssery at Gmail via PayPal by noon New York time on January 21st, I'll send you back $25 if fewer than 10 people sent me money. If 10 or more people send me money, I'll post a review of Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by the end of the month. I'm not sure whether I'm just giving away free money right now. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Consider paying for literature or book reviews using bounties and dominant assurance contracts, published by Arjun Panickssery on January 15, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Cross-posted to LessWrong here. In September 2021, a LessWrong pilot program paid $500 for high-quality book reviews related to "science, history, and rationality." They got 36 submissions (they don't say how many were rejected for low quality, but at least 9 were accepted) and a bunch of them were popular on the forum. There's a bounty tag on LW (and on the EA Forum) but it isn't used much. A culture of posting bounties—either individually or in groups of people interested in the same information—has benefits for patrons, writers, and the community generally: For patrons—If there's a question you want investigated or a book you want reviewed, you can save your valuable time by tossing the question into the LW void and waiting for a piece that's worth accepting. Others probably want the same thing and can contribute to a pool. Ambitious patrons can also influence the direction of the community by sponsoring posts on topics they think people should think about more. You don't have to worry about filtering for visible credentials and writers don't have to worry about having any. For writers—Bounties motivate people to write both through a direct monetary incentive, but also because a lot of people dissuade themselves from writing on the Internet to avoid looking vain or self-important. Bounties cover for this awkwardness by providing non-status-related reasons to post. For the community—This whole exchange provides a positive externality to the lurkers who can read more posts for free. The simplest way this could work is for people to post individual bounties of e.g. $500 for posts drawing conclusions that would have taken them just too long to justify at the hourly value of their time. These bounties can guide writers who may be looking for things to read and write about anyway. An obstacle to bounty markets is that writers incur the risk of being outshone by a better post written around the same time. They could also be snubbed by picky benefactors. If most bounties are posted by a small group of people who post many individual bounties, then reputation effects can manage this. Group bounties could be difficult to coordinate since people aren't motivated to post "I'd contribute $100 to a post analyzing the top 10 writing advice books for insights" if the bounty is unlikely ever to be fulfilled. And they're not motivated to join existing pools when they could free-ride instead. One solution is to use the opposite direction: Kickstarter-style writing proposals. In monthly threads, users post advertisements for book reviews/literature reviews/investigations that they'd be willing to produce at some price and specifications. This puts the reputational demands on the writers and the risk on the sponsors who might pay for a poor product. In theory, writers could kickstart posts using dominant assurance contracts. An example (this is a real offer): If you send $20 to arjun.panickssery at Gmail via PayPal by noon New York time on January 21st, I'll send you back $25 if fewer than 10 people sent me money. If 10 or more people send me money, I'll post a review of Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by the end of the month. I'm not sure whether I'm just giving away free money right now. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Today's show is our attempt to answer this question: How do you add more impact to every single sentence? It started last week when I read this article from The Economist. It's a British magazine, and it used to be my favorite. I hardly read it at all anymore. But… I was scrolling through Twitter and the AKA, also called the All-Knowing Algorithm, served up an ad for an article in The Economist with the headline, “What to Read To Become a Better Writer.” So, I clicked. You know, many people say that the AKA knows even more than Google! The article starts with a very strange picture. Three women at an outdoor café. Two are having a drink, laughing, having a great time. The third one is writing on an old-fashioned portable manual typewriter. Scowling and trying desperately to concentrate while her friends are partying. I have always thought the British have a strange way of looking at things. The article recommends five books. I cherry-picked some tips from three of them that would be especially useful for copywriters when you want to add more impact to your writing. The main thing I was looking at when I was cherry-picking these ideas from more than 1,000 pages of books is: What's going to give each sentence in your copy more impact? I know a lot of people recommend power words or startling statements, but a reader can only take so much of those things. Too much electric intensity can wear out a reader. For most of your copy, what's important is clarity and momentum. Clarity often comes from leaving things out or fine-tuning some of the words you use. Momentum comes from moving your reader emotionally, which is what we usually think of as entertainment. In movies, novels and songs, that emotional movement comes from the reader's or listener's reaction to a story about someone or something else. In copy, we focus on something else: The readers themselves. People get moved when they think about something wrong in their lives, and they get just as moved, though in another direction, when they think about getting something they want that they couldn't get before now. The books I went through are not copywriting books, and so they cover things that are different from what we're concerned about when we write copy. But there's one area of nearly 100% overlap: Impact. Writing that keeps the reader reading. And that's what I was looking for when I got these tips for you. I found the best stuff from three books, and we'll put links to them in the show notes. They are: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. I first read this book nearly 50 years ago, when I was a journalist. I've come to appreciate it more over the years, and have assigned it to mentoring clients to polish up their writing skills. Other copywriting teachers also assign this book. It's mostly for journalists and business writers, but many of his ideas work for copy, too. The second book I learned about in the Economist article: Style Lessons in Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup. The two Josephs go into a lot of depth about little things that make a big difference. We'll cover a few of those things today. The third book, I didn't like a whole lot, even though the writer of the Economist article did. I don't think there was too much we could use, but there was one very important thing in there. So I'm not recommending it, but I'll include a link just in case it piques your curiosity. It's called A Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, by Steven Pinker. Book Links: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090RVGW0 Style Lessons in Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. William and Joseph Bizup https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134080416 The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00INIYG74/ Download.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century is a 2014 English style guide written by cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author Steven Pinker. I discuss this in today's podcast.

Christian Nunciato works on a system called Pulumi, which is a system that allows you to build infrastructure with code. This is usually aimed at the cloud and allows us to use tools to manage infrastructure and do setups and updates. Panel Aimee Knight AJ O’Neal Steve Edwards Guest Christian Nunciato Sponsors Dexecure Octopus Deploy Pty. Ltd Picks Aimee- GitHub- networktocode/awesome-network-automation AJ- Bound- Audiobook Player AJ- GitHub- videolan/vlc-ios AJ- gitdeploy | webinstall.dev Christian- TV series: Schitt's Creek Christian- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker Steve- xkcd: Nerd Sniping

Christian Nunciato works on a system called Pulumi, which is a system that allows you to build infrastructure with code. This is usually aimed at the cloud and allows us to use tools to manage infrastructure and do setups and updates. Panel Aimee Knight AJ O’Neal Steve Edwards Guest Christian Nunciato Sponsors Dexecure Octopus Deploy Pty. Ltd Picks Aimee- GitHub- networktocode/awesome-network-automation AJ- Bound- Audiobook Player AJ- GitHub- videolan/vlc-ios AJ- gitdeploy | webinstall.dev Christian- TV series: Schitt's Creek Christian- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker Steve- xkcd: Nerd Sniping

Christian Nunciato works on a system called Pulumi, which is a system that allows you to build infrastructure with code. This is usually aimed at the cloud and allows us to use tools to manage infrastructure and do setups and updates. Panel Aimee Knight AJ O’Neal Steve Edwards Guest Christian Nunciato Sponsors Dexecure Octopus Deploy Pty. Ltd Picks Aimee- GitHub- networktocode/awesome-network-automation AJ- Bound- Audiobook Player AJ- GitHub- videolan/vlc-ios AJ- gitdeploy | webinstall.dev Christian- TV series: Schitt's Creek Christian- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker Steve- xkcd: Nerd Sniping

Carol Dweck's Mindset (2006) and Angela Duckworth's Grit (2016) are two of the most influential social science texts of this century, but difficulty implementing their ideas and a failure to replicate their findings has left them open to criticism. In this special crossover edition of The Good Practice and Emotion at Work podcasts, hosts Nicola Boyle and Phil Willcox are joined by Owen Ferguson, Ross Garner and Gemma Towersey to discuss. We explore: the extent to which we feel we demonstrate grit and growth mindset the problems posed by the popularity of these ideas the impact of grit and mindset on L&D. Show notes Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, by Carol Dweck, is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil-Potential/dp/B07NQLQDWN Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth, is available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth-ebook/dp/B019CGY2ZG A useful review of mindset literature is: Burgoyne, A. P., Hambrick, D. Z., & Macnamara, B. N. (2020). How Firm Are the Foundations of Mind-Set Theory? The Claims Appear Stronger Than the Evidence. Psychological Science, 0956797619897588. Online at: https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/2020-burgoyne.pdf  A study looking at mindset in the workplace is: Campbell, A. (2019). Effects of Growth and Fixed Mindset on Leaders' Behavior during Interpersonal Interactions (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University). Online at: https://search.proquest.com/openview/f227f221ad725ab6802a70bb2d192d83/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Professor Dweck has responded to criticism of her work here: http://theconversation.com/growth-mindset-interventions-yield-impressive-results-97423  Two papers critiquing the 'grit' concept are: Credé, M. (2018). What shall we do about grit? A critical review of what we know and what we don’t know. Educational Researcher, 47(9), 606-611. Online at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=psychology_pubs Lee, C. S. (2018). Authentic leadership and organizational effectiveness: The roles of hope, grit, and growth mindset. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 118(19), 383-401. Online at: https://acadpubl.eu/jsi/2018-118-19/articles/19a/27.pdf The paper that Ross and Owen discussed was: Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., ... & Paunesku, D. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369. Online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y?fbclid=IwAR3eSTiOiVc3v8LARTfGwxTzlSDz4AiAFpLK-jK4VcJr57wI0eO8zyvwkEc  The blog by David D'Souza that Phil mentioned was: https://daviddsouza.com/2020/02/03/the-surprising-truth-about-obvious-truths/  In What I Learned This Week, the gang discussed: Security issues associated with Zoom. Find out more at https://tidbits.com/2020/04/03/every-zoom-security-and-privacy-flaw-so-far-and-what-you-can-do-to-protect-yourself/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/03/thousands-zoom-video-calls-left-exposed-open-web/ Ross' reflections regarding Dr Catherine Calderwood's resignation, covered online at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52181221  The book Ross recommended was Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-ebook/dp/B00L9B7IRC  The paper Phil discussed, on the mindsets intervention, was: Foliano, F., Rolfe, H., Buzzeo, J., Runge, J., & Wilkinson, D. (2019). Changing mindsets: effectiveness trial. National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Online at: https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Changing%20Mindsets_0.pdf The book that Gemma recommended was The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker, available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing/dp/1846145503  If you'd like to Give Blood during the current crisis, you can! See: https://www.blood.co.uk/  For more from Emerald Works, see: https://emeraldworks.com/  For more from Phil, see: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/ 

Carol Dweck's Mindset (2006) and Angela Duckworth's Grit (2016) are two of the most influential social science texts of this century, but difficulty implementing their ideas and a failure to replicate their findings has left them open to criticism. In this special crossover edition of The Good Practice and Emotion at Work podcasts, hosts Nicola Boyle and Phil Willcox are joined by Owen Ferguson, Ross Garner and Gemma Towersey to discuss. We explore: the extent to which we feel we demonstrate grit and growth mindset the problems posed by the popularity of these ideas the impact of grit and mindset on L&D. Show notes Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, by Carol Dweck, is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil-Potential/dp/B07NQLQDWN Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth, is available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth-ebook/dp/B019CGY2ZG A useful review of mindset literature is: Burgoyne, A. P., Hambrick, D. Z., & Macnamara, B. N. (2020). How Firm Are the Foundations of Mind-Set Theory? The Claims Appear Stronger Than the Evidence. Psychological Science, 0956797619897588. Online at: https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/2020-burgoyne.pdf  A study looking at mindset in the workplace is: Campbell, A. (2019). Effects of Growth and Fixed Mindset on Leaders' Behavior during Interpersonal Interactions (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University). Online at: https://search.proquest.com/openview/f227f221ad725ab6802a70bb2d192d83/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Professor Dweck has responded to criticism of her work here: http://theconversation.com/growth-mindset-interventions-yield-impressive-results-97423  Two papers critiquing the 'grit' concept are: Credé, M. (2018). What shall we do about grit? A critical review of what we know and what we don't know. Educational Researcher, 47(9), 606-611. Online at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=psychology_pubs Lee, C. S. (2018). Authentic leadership and organizational effectiveness: The roles of hope, grit, and growth mindset. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 118(19), 383-401. Online at: https://acadpubl.eu/jsi/2018-118-19/articles/19a/27.pdf The paper that Ross and Owen discussed was: Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., ... & Paunesku, D. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369. Online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y?fbclid=IwAR3eSTiOiVc3v8LARTfGwxTzlSDz4AiAFpLK-jK4VcJr57wI0eO8zyvwkEc  The blog by David D'Souza that Phil mentioned was: https://daviddsouza.com/2020/02/03/the-surprising-truth-about-obvious-truths/  In What I Learned This Week, the gang discussed: Security issues associated with Zoom. Find out more at https://tidbits.com/2020/04/03/every-zoom-security-and-privacy-flaw-so-far-and-what-you-can-do-to-protect-yourself/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/03/thousands-zoom-video-calls-left-exposed-open-web/ Ross' reflections regarding Dr Catherine Calderwood's resignation, covered online at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52181221  The book Ross recommended was Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-ebook/dp/B00L9B7IRC  The paper Phil discussed, on the mindsets intervention, was: Foliano, F., Rolfe, H., Buzzeo, J., Runge, J., & Wilkinson, D. (2019). Changing mindsets: effectiveness trial. National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Online at: https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Changing%20Mindsets_0.pdf The book that Gemma recommended was The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker, available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing/dp/1846145503  If you'd like to Give Blood during the current crisis, you can! See: https://www.blood.co.uk/  For more from Emerald Works, see: https://emeraldworks.com/  For more from Phil, see: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/  Subscribe to the Podcast There are so many ways to subscribe to The Good Practice Podcast. Click your preference below and subscribe. Google Play Music iTunes Overcast Pocket Casts Podbean Spotify Stitcher TuneIn You can find Phil's podcast at: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/podcast/ and on iTunes. Connect with our speakers If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: Nicola Boyle @Nicola_BoyleEW Phil Willcox @PhilWillcox Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey You can follow Emerald Works on Twitter @Emerald_Works and LinkedIn. Emotion at Work is @EmotionAt_Work.

We discuss the interchange between writing and thinking, the power of journaling in doctoral work, and developing one's academic voice. The passive voice is also discussed (by vikings). Links Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, by Steven Pinker Oppenheimer, D. M. (2006). Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 139-156. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1178 Making Meaning Clear: The Logic of Revision, by Donald M. Murray Sanchez, B., & Lewis, K. D. (2014). Writing shapes thinking: Investigative study on preservice teachers reading, writing to learn, and critical thinking. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 2(1), 55-68. Contact Us Dr. J. Scott Self - scott.self@acu.edu Dr. Linnea Rademaker - lxr16c@acu.edu Dr. Peter Williams - Peter.Williams@tamuc.edu

Guest: Paul Dudenhefer Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher In this episode, Reinhard talks with Paul Dudenhefer about academic writing, especially about writing English journal articles. The topics we discuss include the framing of an article, writing for an “Anglo-American audience", how to write clearly and entertainingly, how to avoid the curse of knowledge, how to get most out of feedback, and writing for a general audience. Paul is a professional writer and editor. He was copy editor of the journal History of Political Economy (HOPE) for more than 15 years, until 2016. Currently, Paul is the managing editor of the journal Politics & Society. Paul has taught writing to graduate students and given workshops on writing. He has also written a booklet titled Writing the Field Paper and Job Market Paper: A Holistic and Practical Guide for PhD Students in Economics. You can find Paul on his website www.pauldudenhefer.net (where you can also hire him to edit your paper). Books and articles mentioned by Paul in this episode: Paul Dudenhefer: Writing the Field Paper and Job Market Paper: A Holistic and Practical Guide for PhD Students in Economics Joseph M. Williams/Joseph Bizup: Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace George Gopen: Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective John Gardner: The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers Deidre McCloskey: Economical Writing Steven Pinker: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Centuryo Steven Pinker (2014): Why Academics Stink at Writing, The Chronicle of Higher Education (behind a paywall) Samuelson, Paul A. (1965): A Catenary Turnpike Theorem Involving Consumption and the Golden Rule, American Economic Review (behind a paywall)

James GoldgeierThe AmericansDeborah D. Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing SecurityNick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, StrategiesSteve Coll, Directorate S: The CIA, and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and PakistanRoger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving InPaul Holden, Indefensible: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms TradeRobert Jervis, Perception and Misconception in International PoliticsArthur Koestler, Darkness at NoonHans Morgethau, Politics Among NationsOccupiedSteven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st CenturyBen Rhodes, The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White HouseJoe Sacco, PalestineElizabeth Saunders, Leaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military InterventionsBrent Steele, Ontological Security in International Relations: Self‐​Identity and the IR StateAmor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow: A NovelKenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical AnalysisEarl Weaver, Winning!Jack Goldstone, Political Demography: How Population Changes Are Reshaping International Security and National PoliticsJustin Vaïsse, Zbigniew Brzezinski: America’s Grand StrategistKori Schake, Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American HegemonyMargaret MaronCharlene Harris See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Steven Pinker joins Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright in the studio for a wide-ranging talk about his love of, and life working in, language. Steven is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and he's come up with some of the biggest and most exciting ideas about language. His books include The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and most recently, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. Producer Beth O'Dea.

My guest today is Steven Pinker, a Canadian-born American cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. He is Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and is known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. He covers phenomena that have traditionally not been looked at scientifically such as: visual perception, war and peace, and differences in writing styles. He has authored numerous books with his most recent being, “The Sense of Style.” The topics are his books The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century and Blank Slate. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Evolution Natural selection War statistics Cognitive science Evolutionary psychology Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

 Nativity scenes, county grants to churches, praying high-school coaches, and Winter Solstice displays top the news this week. Then we speak with evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker about his newest book, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.

The English language is often treated as delicate and precious, and disagreements about what is “proper English” go back as far as the 18th century. Then as now, style manuals and grammar books placed innumerable restrictions on what is and isn’t “correct,” as "Language Mavens" continue to delight in pointing out the unforgivable errors of others. To bring some fresh perspective to this remarkably heated topic (and to let some of us who are less than perfect, grammatically speaking, off the hook), Point of Inquirywelcomes Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, author the new book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.    Pinker’s previous works include such award-winning books as The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, and The Better Angels of Our Nature. He’s been honored by such institutions as the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and the American Psychological Association, as well as having been named named Humanist of the Year and one of Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”    And most appropriate to this episode, he is currently the chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage dictionary.

Steven Pinker's research at Harvard is into language and cognition. His new book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century explores the links between syntax and ideas. Will Self experiments with language and literary form. Will Self's new book Shark links an incident in World War II with an American resident in a therapeutic community in London overseen by psychiatrist Zack Busner. They join Matthew Sweet for a Free Thinking programme about language.