How do social norms come to be? (marketing trends, social campaigns)

I cannot help but mention the wet monkey theory aka (theory of five monkeys).

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the other monkeys with cold water. After a while another monkey makes the attempt with same result, all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not?

Because as far as they know that is the way it has always been done around here.

Could this be the reason behind a lot of our dogmas, taboos and cultures
I really don’t have the answer to that but I do know one thing I do test all my actions and beliefs just to make sure that I am not following the monkey's path

Twitter: @fouad_khafaga
Google Plus : +fouadkhafaga

What are some of the best books regarding logic development and reasoning?

Understanding Arguments

This book was a part of a coursea online MOOC as well

Titled: think again how to reaon and aruge.
provided by duke univertsy

Page on coursera.org

      Intended for the first  course in logic, this is an established text with proven strengths in  its incorporation of the philosophy of language, analysis of arguments  as they occur in ordinary language and of inductive arguments.   


the book should serve as an introduction to the basics of reasoning and logic as well as argument and argument fallacies like for example:

-Ad hominem effect.

-Appeals to authority.

-the issue of relevance.


The book walks through argument construction, argument evaluation and the language of arguments.

 I think the book is a must read for anyone who ever engaged in any kind of conversation with another human being.

Twitter: @Fouad_khafaga
Google +: khafagafouad@gmail.com

How accurate are brain scans in predicting behavior?

This is a deep question, and it all turns on what you mean by “predict”. Current machine learning technologies coupled with high-resolution MRI are able to successfully classify scans with near-100% accuracy in simple settings. But that’s for fairly contrived scenarios such as classifying the orientation of a line that the subject is viewing, or the direction of a moving stimulus. Other work has shown that it’s possible to decode natural images, movies and even dreams from the pattern of activations in the visual cortex with fairly high accuracy.

None of this should surprise us - the activity in visual cortex is topographically organized, with different regions dedicated to different regions of space, and tightly coupled to the subject’s perception of the world. With the right technology and decoding algorithms it’s possible to pull out this signal. What’s much less understood is the neural “code” in higher brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex, that subserve abstract thought. But even here it’s possible to classify abstract operations such as addition or subtraction from activity patterns, albeit with lower accuracies around 65%.

However the way most of these decoding algorithms work is that they are first “trained” on a dataset where the experimenter knows the ground truth (such as whether the subject was adding or subtracting) and then applied to a test set to predict mental states or behaviour. Without the training set decoding is often impossible - e.g. it’s not currently possible for us to scan your brain and decode your thoughts unless a suitable training set is available for each possible thought. This is unlikely to change as technology advances - while ultimately every behaviour and mental state is a product of patterns of brain activity, the distributed nature of neural coding and the uniqueness of individual brains means that our thoughts will remain safely locked up for some time to come.

Find the answer here: http://bit.ly/1OSGcH3

This answer was provided by : Steve Flemin,

Cognitive neuroscientist, University of Oxford

More about me here:

Twitter:@fouad_khafaga
Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
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Is it true that everything that people do has a selfish origin?

"Every response, whether it be an act directed towards the outside world or an act internalized as a thought take the form of adaptation or better off re-adaptation. the individual acts only if he experience a need" that's a quote from the book the psychology of intelligence by Jean Piaget.

the key word here really is "experience a need"what is that need and does it always has to be selfish?.

Richard Bandler would argue that every action has a positive intention and by using various techniques that is based on modeling human excellence we can change the external behavior based on that need mentioned earlier.

Yet I think the question has a very interesting example please check what i think you might be familiar with the maslow hierarchy of needs

Just to finish in a full circle here if what Jean Piaget suggest is true then yes there is that selfish need to feed the top of the pyramid.


Twitter:@fouad_khafaga
Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
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the 5 list of 5 ( Part 2 Genius)

Strategies of genius

This is a very controversial series of book and other reason for the controversy is this question. Can we model genius? 

The idea is we can model any human behavior by mastering the beliefs, the physiology and the specific thought processes (that is the strategies) that underlie the skill or behavior.

 It is about achieving an outcome by studying how someone else goes about it. In this series of books Robert Dilts tries to unlock the secrets of genius by modeling some of the great minds known in human history like Tesla, Aristotle, Walt Disney, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and many others

.

It’s a wonderful read and I always get back to it for re-reading.

The Einstein Factor:

I simply cannot have a list about genius and not mention Einstein that would be unreasonable. 

Einstein is quoted by mathematician, astronomers, philosophers and even theologians. And the reason being that is Einstein words and methodology was creative and adaptable to all different walks of life.

And this is what the book is all about its about hacking into his techniques and adapting them to every day routines. The book explores the genius techniques in metal abilities like problem solving – memory improvement and visualization. The book is a guide line through intelligence and genius and a wonderful read.

 

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Life hackers, patterns finders and behavioral detectives will rule the world, this book does exactly that the books hacks into the lives of the intellectually rich and theory famous people.

 The writer goes through the minds of 161 beautiful minds and reveals their daily ritual and routines how did they go by their daily lives, from smoking habits to sleeping patterns. 

Read this book only if you want to answer this question what does Karl Marx, Woody Allen, Agatha Christie and George Balanchine have in common?

 

Mastermind: How to Think like Sherlock Holmes: 

There has been no fictional character taken seriously as much as Detective Mr. Holmes. Novelist, artists and writers have been mesmerized by the charisma and the elegance of the character.

In this book we have a Harvard graduate Dr. Maria Konnikova who received her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. 

Exploring different aspects of the characters brain Dr. Maria uses some very interesting metaphors and scientific evidence in the journey of understanding another genius mind.  

  The Talent Code:

The writer mentioned that this book was written in search of an answer to one question “what does it take to be really good at something?”.

 In other words what does it take to become a genius? The writer travels around the world to 9 places that are considered by many as a genius factory. 

The main finding is that there are some common factors that generate such geniuses. The book clarifies those common factors and provides a true insight into the genius factory.

Twitter:@fouad_khafaga
Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
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How to REALLY Blog More in 2015 – 10 Ways to Generate Ideas

It’s the same procedure every year: Bloggers decide next year they will write more. But is writing really what is causing the trouble?

It’s 2014 (almost 2015) and running a blog just when you feel like it will not get you far. At least not when you want to reach an audience. Less than an article a week and you can stop right away – actually you should plan releasing at least 3 per week. Can you come up with enough content?

If you are like me writing is easy. Once I have an idea about what I want to write about, most of the time it’s just about having enough time to write the actual article. And modern day technology allows me to do this almost anywhere I am: In a subway or train or even in the park. Not having enough time is almost the worst possible excuse for not writing on your blog.

So, How Do You Get The Ideas?

Having the time is only one part of the job for me though. What I really need is ideas: What will I write about today? What are my readers interested in? What am I currently interested in? Do I know enough about the topic to write a complete article?
When you are starting out writing your own blog, this is really tough. For me, the easiest part of writing is actually writing itself. The hardest part? Finding stuff to write about. This is what I really had to learn and to this day I still discover new ways of tackling this problem.
But one thing I learned is that ideas are everywhere. The problem is not generating them, it is uncovering them. So, let me give you an incomplete list of ways to uncover ideas for your next blogpost:

1. Tracing Your Thoughts Backwards

No idea what to write about today? That is because you are trying to think about what to write about – so think about how your thoughts wandered around today. You are having millions of different lines of thoughts every day, there’s almost definitely a good topic among the thoughts you had in the past couple of hours. The key is not to think about your next blogpost, but your last interesting thoughts.

2. Keep a List of Blogs That You Enjoy Reading and Follow Them

Blogs that you enjoy reading (when they cover the same line of topics of course) are really a great way of uncovering ideas. Don’t fear that you are copying them as that is not what this is about. All you need is simply one single aspect that you can add to their articles and you already have something to write about. Or maybe you even disagree completely? Great! Write an answer to their post. Maybe you can combine the ideas of two different posts into a new one? The possibilities are endless.

3. What Happened to You Lately

Your life can’t be as boring as you sometimes think it is. Something always happens. And you can and should write about it. And this works even if your topic is something else. A few days ago I wrote an article where I derived a sales lesson from when my mobile was stolen.

4. Write From the Perspective of Someone Else

Susanna once wrote an article with marketing lessons from our dog. Giving a topic a new and unconventional perspective is almost a sure fire way to create something interesting and fun to read. Think about the people you know – how would they view a certain topic? If you don’t know – why don’t you ask them?

5. Do Something Else – Then Write About It

When you’re starting out your job is probably not writing on your blog. You almost definitely have other things in your life – so whenever you feel that writer’s block is knocking on your door, do something else first. As a blogger that is a major advantage you have over (other) professional writers: You don’t have to come up with something for a living, on the contrary – what you do in your life can enrich what you write.

6. Write Follow Up Posts to Old Posts

Just because you wrote about a topic once doesn’t mean that you can’t write about it again. You learn new things, you get new ideas and you can write a follow-up to the original post. This also drives new traffic to your original post – so this is beneficial in more than one way.

7. Watch What’s Trending in Social Media

What is trending in your niche, what’s discussed a lot and what do people think about your topics of interest. You do have an opinion of your own and sometimes it is worth writing an article about it.

8. Don’t Plan Ahead – Let Ideas Lead to Ideas

Often I believe that I will write an article from an idea that has a certain direction – only to find out that while writing new ideas come to me. Most of the time it is far more rewarding to follow the flow of ideas than to stick to the original plan. It creates original articles that are truly worth reading – and writing them is a lot more fun.

9. Write About Something Else

Writing just about one topic can lead to writing fatigue. But you are not writing a book – you are writing a blog. If you bring in other topics you are interested in from time to time you are not breaking any rules. On the contrary: You give your blog more personality, you keep your writing fresh and you keep your ideas coming. So allow yourself to venture to other areas. At least sometimes.

10. Just Go with the Flow

This is somewhat undefined but maybe the most important tip I can give you: Just take the ideas as they come. Take this post for example – I had no idea what to write so I wrote a post about how to get ideas. Ideas are everywhere so just start writing.

Final Words

Many bloggers plan to write more in the coming years – and it’s the same new years resolution every year. I don’t believe that writing more is the actual problem they have. The real problem is having a topic to write about at the moment when you are ready to write. If the above list can help you even a little then this post has achieved what I wanted it to achieve.
But this post is not complete in any way: there are many more ways to get ideas to write about. Every blogger needs to find his own way. How do you find your ideas?

Written by :Jonathan Gebauer 

December 28, 2014

Read more at http://blog.thesocialms.com/really-blog-2015-10-ways-generate-ideas/#TOQ4XDD5uVA5PGvb.99

Do neurons in the brain change size?

If so, why does this occur? What would be the behavioural impact of such a change?

Manuel Vietze, Student of Psychology, Paramedic

They normally don't. Neuronsize depends on the type of neuron, i.e. where in the brain it is positioned or what it's purpose is. But for a given population of neurons, their size shouldn't differ much. What might change enormously is their count of dendrites coming in from other neurons. But this is rather a matter of neuroplasticity. The actual cell size remains constant. The only reason this actual cell size could vary a very little might be dehydration. Like every other cell in the body, if the concentration of electrolytes outside of the cell increases (or the alcohol level), because the body is lacking water (or you're getting drunk), water will be drawn out of a neuron as well, making it shrink a little. But this cannot cause a big difference. If that exceeds a certain volume percentage, you will just die from dehydration. If you survive, neuron size will return to normal shortly after refilling the body's water capacity.



referring to the dehydration point is that why people hallucinate in the desert ?

Leo Mauro Answered to this follow up question

Partially -- lack of water induces electrolyte imbalance, and neuron operation depends heavily on ionic currents (mainly sodium and potassium ions) that they control.  Lack of water affects the ionic pressure outside and inside neurons, so it causes them to "misfire".

Also, and quite importantly, increase of temperature in the CNS triggers neuronal system malfunction due to biochemical pathways and ionic channels going haywire. Note that fever also can trigger hallucinations and other similar "malfunctions"

Written by :Fouad  Ahmed

Twitter:@fouad_khafaga

Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk

source: http://bit.ly/1Oyp113

Can you teach yourself to have a curious mind if you never had one?

Written by :Fouad Ahmed
E-mail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: @fouad_khafaga

Carol Dweck mentioned in one of her lectures that students who work on hard problems and invest more time and effort than usual, the brains of those students tend to form new connections between neurons ending up by making them smarter.

in other words the brain needs to make those new connections between neurons. 

you can either start by something that you already like or interested in. and try to discover new areas that you didn't  know about.

for example lets say your interested in music by any chance you can

1- learn the origin of the music that you like (blues - jazz- rock ).

2- you can learn the origin of the instrument that you like.

3- you can learn about the usage of that instrument in different eras

4- you can learn about the evolution of the instrument that you like.was that

btw there has been a study called the Mozart effect in which the main founding of that study  is that listening to Mozart music boosts you IQ

below is the link for the book

Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit: Don Campbell: 9780060937201: Amazon.com: Books

Another way that you can increase your curiosity  is to start learning something that you don't know before to explore an area that will make your neurons form those new connections here are some examples

1- Learn about the universe ( watch cosmos )

2- Learn about ancient cultures (Egyptians - Greeks -Tiwanaku )

3- watch documentaries  I recommend ( A life in a day )

4-Read about quantum physics

5- study a culture different than yours ( in details )

6- sign up for moooc courses

7- travel 

8- take a daily routine that you do and do it differently

9-start your own blog

10- I will leave this one empty for you to fill

and my final thought is

READ.

I hope you find this answer beneficial.

What does it mean when someone says empathy is "self-reflexive"?

In his book "turtles all the way down" John Grinder did talk about the definition of self and how does it differ from one individual to another.

one of the interesting ways to define your self is by defining the "self" by others.

for example some people might think they are lingual  smart people who are able to have a sense of humor in every situation.

so most probably those people define themselves as (smart - funny - social). however in truth some of their comments could be viewed as (aggressive - defensive - ego centered   or hurtful ).

so in the previous case for example the way that one define himself is totally different or in opposite  of how his close circle define him.

in the case of empathy and compassion the perception of self and the way the self is perceived  by others should be in alignment if not identical.

I highly recommend reading the below book as a deeper look into compassion and empathy

Amazon.com: How to Be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World (9781451623918): His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ph.D. Jeffrey Hopkins Ph.D.: Books

Written by :Fouad Ahmed
E-mail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: @fouad_khafaga

Why do some people keep talking but don't listen to others while talking?

Jean Piaget wrote that we go through cognitive development stages

sensorimotor,
preoperational,
concrete operational,
formal operational.


in the second stage and this starts with children around the age of 2. the main feature of that development stage is it is ego-centered that everything revolves around the child.

if you take a 2 years old to the airport for example one of his thoughts might be those people are running around just to please him or her or he might think that all those people went through the same exact experience that made him or her travel. That could show in a form of question for example

"Are all those people traveling with us too?"

yes those people don't think like a 2 years old

yes they could be accomplished in their professions

yet they do hang to that second stage of development especially if you are talking to them about a new or unknown subject to them and again you can test this pattern in lingual ques statements like

"I am a Doctor by the way " , "Based on MY personal experience" or " that is so true it happens with ME all the time".

such statements could occur in an unrelated topic of discussion.

Written by :Fouad Ahmed
E-mail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: @fouad_khafaga

I feel my brain is very bad at multi tasking. How do I improve it?

you cannot multitask , yet don't worry cause no one can Forbes released an article about how damaging it is to multitask

Multitasking Damages Your Brain And Career, New Studies Suggest


on the postive side of things your brain is an amazing learning machine , what your brain can do however is to switch between tasks and link between tasks.

for example to ease the process of learning we can do chunking of information which leads to more effective and efficient way of processing data and information.

so the question is not multi tasking the question would be what are the skills that you need based on the tasks that you have as priorities  let that be either personal or professional