Mindframe

General Patraeus, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Jonah Lehrer, Tanya Harding: an incomplete list of those who, at the peak of their careers, and the peak of their honors and accolades, fell from grace. The names and details may change, but scandals are forever. No matter what, you can rest assured that someone somewhere is about to take a tumble in the eyes of their local community—or the public at large. Yet each time it happens, many of us are stunned. Those we saw as the embodiment of a myriad of virtues—courage, self-restraint, fair-mindedness, perseverance, and humility—fail to live up to the ideal.  It can feel almost like a betrayal: just who are these individuals, and how did they manage to dupe us?   A more realistic question might be, “Why do we believe virtuous traits are immutable? Why are we convinced that, once demonstrated in one arena, a quality will apply across the board to a variety of very different circumstances?” Tiger Woods shows amazi...

If you've been hired for a job in the last thirty years, chances are you've heard of Myers-Briggs. It's a personality diagnostic tool used by everyone from self-searching college kids to Fortune 500 companies. It's understandable why employers embrace the Myers-Briggs Inventory. If there is a way to figure out ahead of time whether or not you're going to 'fit in,' it could save the company money in the long run, and you might avoid working for a company you don't like. If the test can prove you've got the right stuff, maybe you'll even skip a couple of rungs on your way up the management ladder. Perhaps someday you'll be the one ordering the personality testing of the young upstarts seeking to unseat you from your hard-fought throne. Obviously, when it comes to business, this is all a pretty big deal. If you're like me, you probably believed the Myers-Briggs was supported by some serious clinical evidence. After all, this is a ...

Throughout the ages, the enlightened among us have passed along many ideas that shape our lives. It is estimated that nearly 40% of all modern technology owes its success in some small part to Einstein’s notion that electromagnetic waves are the embodiment of moving photons. Quantum theory, as it’s called, is at the heart of everything from moon landings to iPhones. In 1983, while working as a teacher, I came across another profound theory. One of my fellow staff members was a janitor named Dennis. He was a short, bushy-browed bulldog of a man who found most of his janitorial duties to be repugnant. On the less than rare occasion that a student might barf (euphemistically known as tossing one’s cookies), Dennis always made it a point to be conspicuously absent. When there was manual labor to be performed, like moving a new boiler into the school, not only was Dennis available, but he made sure that every able-bodied male teacher was present as well. It was during such times that...

What do the lightbulb in your garage and your brain have in common? They both operate on about 60 watts of power. This is a problem for two reasons: first, your garage tends to be under-lit, and second, your brain doesn't have enough processing power to deal with today's environment. The human brain blueprint was built 40,000 years ago and hasn't had any serious upgrades since. (Steve Jobs would be rolling over in his grave, if he hadn't been cremated.) Rene Descartes, 17th century mathematician and father of western philosophy (apparently nobody remembers the mother; let's just call her Jane Doe), focused on a different problem: the mind-body one. In his discourse Passions of the Soul and The Description of the Human Body , he suggests that the body is like a machine, built of material properties, and the mind consists of non-corporeal properties. So how then do these two entities interact, you ask? Descartes asked that, too. His solution was the brain's pine...