Merle, Bill!, and all the Group, I just heard the "RIGHT" radio show at the right time, in the right place.
I was in the shower. ;-) I have a sense of synchronicity, even a little of deja vu. You can listen to it online, or download the file to listen to later. It has several parts. One part concerns "our" ability to delay gratification, and the effects that this seems to have on many features of our lives, including college-entrance exam scores, careers, and police-records. Four-year olds were studied to see how long they could resist eating a marshmallow put on a table before them. They were told they could eat it now, OR if they wait, they would get TWO of them later. Their performance on this "test" correlates with other things in their lives later, as the kids were followed through life. All the kids went through some pain and suffering as they waited, if they waited, but the kids who waited longest had some "strategies" they used to "distract" themselves, like licking the table over and over, or making up a song. A memorable sentence is one by the Columbia psychologist, and goes approximately: "YES, the *Wiring* makes a difference, YES, the *Experience* makes a difference, and the Wiring and the Experience are *interacting*, and *changing* each other". Pardon the weird way the producers of the program "craft" their show, called "Radiolab", by radio station WNYC, in New York City. But it's meant to be effective, I think. Many of us don't need all the bells and whistles, though. But this may be a sign of the times, so listen also as if you're doing a Sociological study, via the medium itself, and through this radio- "document", and note the lengths that the producers go to in order to try to hold our attention (too "cutesy?"). Another segment of the show involves studies of word-usage of authors. Interesting how the Mystery writer Agatha Christie had a consistent pattern of word usage and word frequency statistics for her first 72 (!) books, and this all changed suddenly with her 73rd novel. Listen to the show if you want to find out some reasonable speculations and evidence as to why. All in all, I can recommend this program to shed some light on the very same thread we've been writing about, Merle. Once at the site, just click the "Listen" or "Download" arrow in the box near the top in the "This Week: FATE and FORTUNE" box. That's the show I just heard. The good stuff begins at about 5:00 elapsed time. You can fast-forward to that point, or listen to the intro. There are really some good research results presented in this well-done program! I recommend it confidently to all: http://www.radiolab.org/ --Joe > Merle Lester wrote: > > so why are some folk very very good and others very very bad?... > > don't forget to include those who are brain damaged in your response or their > wiring is not up to scratch... [snip] ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
