Letters to my Daughter: Learning How to Pass a Test

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So here we are, my dear, facing the test. I showed you all the learning techniques, and you know which methods are efficient, and which aren’t. You know how to take good notes in class, you read your assignments, you do your homework. And most importantly, you know that the most efficient method of studying is self-testing. Minute per minute, you will retain more if you spend one hour taking a test on a topic than studying an hour on the same material.  Long before the …

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Mastering a Crucial Skill for Adaptation: Learning How to Learn

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Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson. Frank Herbert, Dune  An article published by the World Economic Forum says that we are “in the middle of a global reskilling emergency” as AI will automatize some of our …

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What is Creativity?

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One way to define creativity is to look at the same things as anyone else but see them differently. Or, as Stephen King remarked in his book On Writing:  Two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.  Similarly, Adam Grant wrote in his Originals book: I once heard creativity described as being the ability to grasp the essence of one thing and the essence of some very …

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AI’s Impact on the Future of Jobs

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May you live in interesting times.   An English expression that is claimed to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse The First Industrial Revolution brought us the steam engine, while the Second Industrial Revolution focused on steel production, chemicals, electricity. The Third Industrial Revolution, called the Digital Revolution, was characterized by the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web. How will the Fourth Industrial Revolution look? Profoundly exciting and highly problematic. New vistas will open where incredible breakthroughs can happen because AI holds enormous potential. This …

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When the World Needs Dreamers: Marie Curie

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Marie Curie, born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, was a self-sacrificing genius with an incredible work ethic and a complete disdain for money. She was also radioactive. To this day, Curie’s papers (including her cookbooks) are considered too dangerous to handle due to their levels of radioactive contamination. Her notebooks are sealed in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to check them must wear protective clothing.  Marie Curie was a person of firsts. She was the first woman in France to earn a PhD (in Physics, 1903). The …

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Proven Strategies against Procrastination

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Etymologically, procrastination comes from the Latin word procrastinare, meaning “deferred till the morning” or “belonging to tomorrow “. Naturally, there is a better side of postponing work where we can use purposeful delaying of our work as a creative way to let ideas and concepts grow arms and legs. The difference between meaningful task delaying and procrastination is when a tomorrow to accomplish that specific work never quite arrives.  A common opinion is that procrastination is about poor time management skills or that procrastination is related …

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How Parents Can Instil Good Homework Habits in Children

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It’s not some kids are good, and some kids are bad. Some kids have good habits, and some kids have bad habits.   Angela Duckworth  In another article, I wrote about how we can create or break habits by taking advantage of a habit structure: the cue, the craving, the response and the reward. To recap that article, James Clear presents in his influential book Atomic Habits the following laws for habit-building processes:  How to adapt this framework to teach good homework habits to our children? The …

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A Practical Framework to Create and Break Habits

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Habits are behaviours we repeat regularly or automatically. The good side of habits is that they can act as energy savers. We don’t focus on them while performing them. Take, for example, brushing teeth: we have to remind ourselves to be mindful of this action. Change your hand, and suddenly, brushing teeth becomes something novel and no longer a habitual activity. Imagine the mental load of getting ready in the morning if we hadn’t encoded each step of the morning schedule as a habit. …

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