The tools we use change the way our brains work

Four days later, Venkatesh Rao followed up with another article that went deeper into the topic. In this article, he used one of his usual 2x2 matrixes to coin a new term: The cozy web. The cozy web is the antithesis of the dark forest. It's a place where people can share their thoughts and ideas without fear of being attacked. It is by nature... See more

“Fika” is a Swedish tradition where you take time out of your day to socialize with friends, family, or colleagues over a cup of coffee or tea. It's a time to relax and enjoy the company of others.

effortful learning changes the brain, building new connections and capability.

Henry L. Roediger III • Make It Stick

Tools extend our reach, give us new abilities, and help us shape societies in profound ways. When we design a tool, it takes on a life of its own and exerts its will upon us. Example: a car was a way to get from point A to point B, but when we realized we needed roads and parking lots which changed our cities. We shape the car, and then the car

Colin Dunn • - YouTube

We now know that the brain’s capacity to learn, to adapt, to change in response to experience is so fundamental that it strikes the wrong note to say that an activity (like meditation) ‘changes the brain’ as if such change is special or unusual. In fact, everything we do changes the brain on some level. Or rather, the brain is constantly changing,... See more

Transforming Minds

we can use design principles and discipline to shape our minds. This is different from acquiring knowledge. It’s about designing how each of us thinks, remembers, and communicates—appropriately and effectively for the digital age.

David Brooks • This Will Make You Smarter

[Patricia Greenfield] concluded that “every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.” Our growing use of the Net and other screen-based technologies has led to the “widespread and sophisticated development of visual-spatial skills.” We can, for example, rotate objects in our minds better than we used to be able to. But our... See more

Nicholas Carr • The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Simple tools make it possible to create complex ones; this is just as true for cognitive tools as it is for physical ones. Humanity has developed thousands of such tools throughout history, ranging from double-entry bookkeeping to the Cartesian coördinate system. So, even though we aren’t more intelligent than we used to be, we have at our disposal... See more

newyorker.com • Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter

In a 2004 study, Angelo Maravita and Atsushi Iriki discovered that when monkeys and humans consistently use a tool to extend their reach, such as using a rake to reach an object, certain neural networks in the brain change their “map” of the body to include the new tool. This fascinating finding reinforces the idea that external tools can and