Sand bucket on the beach of Punta del Este, Uruguay. David http://www.flickr.com/people/99255685@N00 (CC BY 2.0)

Top Two Features of Real Genius (it’s not giant popcorn bombs…)

Forrest ChristianKnowledge, Learning, Underachievers 1 Comment

What makes up a Genius? Most of us in North America imagine the “geniuses” who come up with great new ideas as people who seem to have everything lined up, who don’t need anyone else because it’s their singular genius that makes the day. True brilliance shows in people who get everything done the right way, quickly and efficiently. They …

Pressure cooker with a simple regulator and an oval lid". (c) 2009 Hustvedt (CC BY SA 2.0) Via Wikimedia Commons.

“Smarter” May Mean “Lower Performance” in Pressured Environments

Forrest ChristianLearning, Underachievers Leave a Comment

There’s an interesting bit of research that New Scientist reported. It may be that people with verbal smarts are less likely to perform well in pressure cooker environments. The gene has also been linked to mental illness, anxiety and emotional vulnerability, which seems to reduce your ability to perform under pressure. There are serious implications for business, not the least of which is that if you are in an industry where high verbal skills count, eschewing the normal MBA-oriented pressure cooker environment will allow you to have better performance than you hyper-competitive competitors.

If Training is Lipstick on a Pig, At Least Make Sure They Aren't Hogs

Forrest ChristianLearning Leave a Comment

Michelle Malay Carter over at Mission Minded Management recently wrote a post asking “Is Training Anything More Than Putting Lipstick on a Pig?” She raises some good points there’s more to the problem than she admits. Although the solution may be similar. Training class content matters. As does the student body. You gotta make sure you don’t mix your hogs …

RO Related Feeds

Forrest ChristianLearning 3 Comments

Besides this blog, the GO Society also has an RSS feed that you may want to catch. I’ve somehow not found the twenty seconds it took to put it into my Google Reader aggregator. Gillian Stamp also has some good stuff at her relatively new site. Another worthwhile feed. Anyone know of any others?

Sand bucket on the beach of Punta del Este, Uruguay. David http://www.flickr.com/people/99255685@N00 (CC BY 2.0)

Genius: Capacity and Hard Work

Forrest ChristianLearning, Theory Leave a Comment

For all his success, Rutherford was not an especially brilliant man and was actually pretty terrible at mathematics. Often during lectures he would get so lost in his own equations that he would give up halfway through and tell the students to work it out for themselves. According to his longtime colleague James Chadwick, discoverer of the neutron, he wasn’t …

(c) 2010 Ardfern (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Why Your PhD Advisor Hates You: Stratum in Teaching Environments

Forrest ChristianCareers, Learning 2 Comments

Susan commented on my earlier post about why business schools stink. The post focused on MBAs but Susan linked to her earlier post on Customer Experience Crossroads (“What’s Wrong With Business Schools: Warren Bennis was Right“) that talks about entry into business PhD programs. I wanted to chime in with a couple of points. Following my wife around her PhD …