Learning – Page 20 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

The arrogance of “rebels”

2014-04-21

Some comments on leftist's arrogant and stupid criticism on mindless consumerism.
[show the article]

Expert Feedback on a PhD Thesis

2014-04-20

If you do not have a knowledgeable supervisor involved in your PhD thesis, you are pretty much screwed. Here's why (hint: project planning). (image on left from a workshop on scientific writing)
[show the article]

Laypeople’s access to scientific research when participating in research

2014-04-16

Times have changed in research, esp. in psychological research. Participants can now not only find out what you want to research, but also how you will analyze the data. At least, if you do online surveys.
[show the article]

Hierarchy of Agreement

2014-04-07

I've adapted Graham's "Hierarchy of Disagreement" to evaluate different forms of agreement. After all, not all agreement is equal(ly good).
[show the article]

Online Discussions

2014-04-06

There are some very good rules for online discussions -- esp. whether it really makes sense to discuss with this nut-job. Includes Rational Debating by JT (image to the left) and the Hierarchy of Disagreement by Paul Graham. Really good stuff to know.
[show the article]

Why correcting student papers is a bad idea

2014-03-19

Yes, you should give feedback, but not how you usually correct a paper for publication. There are different -- better ways to give feedback.
[show the article]

Both Purging and Keeping Your Study or Thesis Paper Notes

2014-03-17

An easy and lightweight way to deal with the amount of paper that accumulates during your studies. You can carry it in your pocket when you are finished. Seriously. Even handwritten notes.
[show the article]

Discussing University Teaching With Colleagues: Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting or Quality Circle?

2014-03-14

Short comment whether courses for academics to improve teaching are AA meetings or quality circles.
[show the article]

Using and abusing academic workshops

2014-03-03

Workshops and loyalty, esp. to supervisors if they are the problem you need help with. Also, sickness and ideology, but I repeat myself.
[show the article]

“Teaching” at the university, or: I am neither a, nor your, private teacher

2014-02-28

Clearing up a misconception in university teaching. At least in Germany, the ones in front of the class are not teachers, nor are they rewarded for teaching. Making this and a few other issues clear is really helpful. I think it led to students still knowing they could ask me, but stop wasting time on irrelevancies.
[show the article]

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.