How to Get Your Mind to Read ((article by Daniel T. Willingham (@DTWillingham) is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author, most recently, of “The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads.” Republished from the New York Times
Photo: Credit Lilli Carré))
Americans are not good readers. Many blame the ubiquity of digital media. We’re too busy on Snapchat to read, or perhaps internet skimming has made us incapable of reading serious prose. But Americans’ trouble with reading predates digital technologies. The problem is not bad reading habits engendered by smartphones, but bad education habits engendered by a misunderstanding of how the mind reads.
If I asked you: how many percentage of what I say or write in my articles actually lands, accurately in you?
Experiments and tests show that if you have the right attitude, high level of interest, and you are coherent: you can receive as much as 7% of what is being said. Word based communication.
Re-listening or re-reading the same thing won’t improve the percentage much. Why? Because what you think is there replaces, effectively, what you hear or read the second time.
This is what is normal.
What is also normal is to believe that you got 100%. And for the speaker to think that you can get more than 7%.
This is famed ad writer, Roy William’s article, but I know you should read it… You don’t feel you need it, but if you can turn around and actually need it, and follow what it teaches, it will make you a winner. A rarity.
An it is not only about jobs, it is also about anything that involves other people. Whether you are a college student struggling to write your dissertation in Poland, or a doorman in New York dreaming of stage success. You may be an accountant in Sweden, or a policy writer in Virginia.
Maybe an earth moving company owner in Minnesota? A recent graduate of Chinese descent? Or me.
We all need to learn what he says, or else…
If you can’t recognize yourself, send me an email… I’ll he
I was lead to an old article of mine. Controversial, and I bet not very useful.
I wrote it four and a half years ago. I have grown a lot since then.
In the article I was attempting to guide you to detect truth value, estimate the vibration teachers and products… without muscle testing.
In the article I was making the same mistake I have been making, all my life: supposing that you can see patterns, that you can see behind the curtain, that you can see more than you actually can.
Emotional intelligence ((the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to han
I had the insight, after I published this article, and after I removed some 20 attachments, today, that the people (distance healers?) that put the attachment on you may not have malicious intent. They need to connect to you, and … Continue reading →
How to Get Your Mind to Read ((article by Daniel T. Willingham (@DTWillingham) is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author, most recently, of “The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads.” Republished from the New York Times
