🧠✨The Nexialist #0056
Brainspark Thread | Liveware & Malleability | Tupperware | Jessie Ware | Miro Academy | Question Burst | Learning a Language | Shinigami Eyes
Welcome to another week of not-so-random delicious links of this connected brain we call the Internet
Today I would like to invite you to do an experiment with me, a Brainspark Thread. I will use the Thread format here on Substack, which allows you to comment, interact and add any brain-sparking content that came up to your mind while reading this week’s Nexialist (or any interesting and inspiring content that gave you brain-sparks this week). I’ll explain: I have been getting great content from friends and readers and many times I don’t find the nexus to add them to the next issue and they end up not seeing the light of day. So maybe these Spark Thread can help The Nexialist get more diverse content. Shall we try?
🧠Liveware & Malleability
I’m (still) catching up on Brené Brown’s podcast Unlocking us. I can’t help it if she invites so many relevant people to explain their work and research (I also listened this week to her Dolly Parton interview… wow). But the episode I want to talk about today is the talk with David Eagleman, neuroscientist, and author of Livewired, the Inside Story of the Ever-changing Brain.
As a Nexialist, my brain was having orgasms, especially when learning that our brains keep physically changing in some parts. I took a part of the transcript, showing how we have to break away from the hardware/software analogy we’ve been taught and move into the term liveware. Also, it was interesting to learn how dated the term neuroplasticity is:
So as a society, we have sort of a bad habit of just assuming that we know how computers work, so that must be kind of how the brain works. And so in computers and in Silicon Valley where I live now, everything’s hardware and software and engineers are praised on making trim and efficient hardware and software, but the brain is absolutely nothing like that. Instead, it’s what I call liveware. (…) These connections are plugging in and unplugging and re-plugging and changing their strength and so on and you actually have changes all the way down to the level of the DNA in which genes are getting expressed. So it’s completely different than the way we think about hardware and software layers, instead it is changing its own circuitry all along the way. And the term that we use in the field is plasticity, brain plasticity, but that was coined 100 years ago, because William James, the great psychologist, was impressed by how you could mold plastic into shape and it will hold that shape. And that’s where the term comes from. But I think we need to go beyond being impressed by something holding its shape, because in fact, this thing has a complexity at a level that bankrupts our language, it’s a level that we have to try to invent new strains of mathematics to even try to get a hold of a little piece of this inner cosmos. But the thing is that it is a living dynamic electric fabric that is constantly changing, and that’s why I want to get away from the term plasticity and talk about liveware.
♶Tupperware
Liveware has been in my mind since I heard the podcast. So, I ran into this funny drawing by Christian Tucci while procrastinating to finish this week’s Nexialist, so I’ll sneak it in here.
🎤Jessie Ware
Just to complete the Ware trilogy of today, one of Jessie’s jams that got us through the first wave of the pandemic.
📌Miro Academy
[This is not a paid post, I promise]
Last December I used Miro, a visual collaboration platform, to brainstorm goals and projects for 2022. I just found out this week that Miro has the Miro Academy to teach how to use its features and even provides verified badges and live training for free. Thinking about the malleability of our brains and learning new skills, I am seeing this as a fun opportunity.
I thought I knew how to use it because I have organized some meetings there, but actually, there is a lot of things you can do (presentations, mindmaps and even project management). I’ve also seen the magic happen with Envisioning and with Dancing Fox (the best workshops playshops I’ve ever participated in). I swear there were moments I felt like this is the closest we can get to each other’s brains.
Also, recently my friend Ana Bender, author of The Creative Content Kit and (I’m naming her) Miro Wizard, introduced me to the Miroverse, a place where people in the Miro Community post their templates and people can replicate them. Needless to say, I’m super excited and inspired to add this skill to my life and work. Expect some Nexialist boards there.
❓Question Burst
Recently I found this Brainstorm method and even if I have not used it, I would like to share it with you because it does look like a promising way to reframe problems when you’re stuck. It’s called Question Burst, and Hal Gregersen (author of Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work) writes about it in the Harvard Business Review. The post is from 2018, so I see this working well in virtual brainstorms as well.
Start by selecting a problem that matters. Invite a small group to help you consider it, and in just two minutes describe it at a high level so that you don’t constrain the group’s thinking. Make it clear that people can contribute only questions and that no preambles or justifications are allowed. Then, set the clock for four minutes, and generate as many questions as you can in that time, aiming to produce at least 15. Afterward, study the questions generated, looking for those that challenge your assumptions and provide new angles on your problem. If you commit to actively pursuing at least one of these, chances are, you’ll break open a new pathway to unexpected solutions.
One of Hal’s recommendations is doing a feelings check-in, before and after the exercise. For this, I can see a team using Miroverse’s Emotion Wheel (another one of Ana’s references).
Read: Better Brainstorming by Hal Gregersen - Harvard Business Review
🇳🇱Learning a Language
Something else that has been exciting for my brain lately is that I finally decided to take on Dutch, after living in the Netherlands for more than 3 years. For some reason, I remember someone being judgemental about Duolingo and that was blocking me. But let me tell you, Duolingo’s gamified language learning has been helping me improve my vocabulary and got me excited to join a course later this year. I’ve been better understanding signs around me, e-mails, letters and recognizing words in music and conversations on the street. So I decided to add one of my favorite songs from Eefje de Visser, Oh. Translating music was how I started learning English as a teenager, and I really feel that again these days.
👁Shinigami Eyes
Just to finish this week with a song that has been on repeat around here, the latest release from Grimes, Shinigami Eyes. The reference is from the Japanese manga, Death Note.
Shinigami Eyes (死神の目, shinigami no me), also known as Shinigami Eyeballs or Eyes of the Shinigami, are eyes that can see both the names and lifespans of humans floating above their heads. (Death Note fandom)
❤️If anything made your brain tingle, click like and don't hesitate to share it with the world. It helps The Nexialist to reach more curious minds. See you next week!🦦
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🤙Call me…
If you like what you see here and your project, brand or business needs some ideas or inspiration from outside your bubble, maybe you need a Nexialist to help you out 🙋🏻♂️ I can participate in brainstorms and workshops, guide inspiration sessions, or provide you with creative research. You can always send me an e-mail to figure something out together.