Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Psychology Today Interviews Walker Lamond

Maybe you remember him – he’s the guy that penned the great blog/book, 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son. Melissa Blake interviews Walker for Psychology Today magazine, and I always love hearing his thoughts: it’s this perhaps unknowing social-psychological commentary that he offers, this analysis of the implicit assumptions and expectations we make of children and childhood in society – externalised as rules – that really gives me lots to chew on.

Of course, I also liked his answer to this question:

How do you think sons of today differ from the sons of your generation?

I actually don’t think boys change all that much. The idea that “kids today” don’t measure up to their dads and grandfathers is the lament of every generation. Really, it’s the environment we live in that has changed. It’s not kids’ fault that they didn’t grow up on a farm or can’t play after dark in their neighborhood. So parents just have to work harder to create those opportunities. In the old days, you couldn’t go outside until you did your homework. Maybe now you can’t do your homework until after you’ve gone outside.

Feb 24, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

How Distance Can Make Us More Creative

The Scientific American considers how normal, seemingly “non-creative” individuals can increase their creativity:

Over the past several years, however, social psychologists have discovered that creativity is not only a characteristic of the individual, but may also change depending on the situation and context. The question, of course, is what those situations are: what makes us more creative at times and less creative at others?

One answer is psychological distance.

According to the research, there are several surprisingly simple, concrete ways to thinking more creatively: “Traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality.”

It’s interesting to consider this in terms of situational attention and daydreaming; when we zone out and focus on things outside of our immediate realm, are we apt to be more creative? Science indeed appears to be saying so.

Jul 29, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Cultural Anthropology 101

Basically the whole of the academic discipline of Cultural Anthropology can be summed up in this video:

I have one point of order regarding Banana Dude’s remarkable discovery, though: it’s not just monkeys who peel their bananas this way. It’s basically everybody else on the planet that does so too – minus us Americans, of course.

Just proof that there’s more than one way to do things.

(And yeah, Banana Dude is a bit more right in his claim that this newfound way is the “right” way to peel a banana – at least if you were to look at the “top” of the banana in relation to how they grow. Most Americans have been opening them upside down this whole time.)

(Discovered via Swiss Miss.)

Jul 17, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #