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Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in class
The Washington Post: Clay Shirky is, as he explains below, a “pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor.” Shirky is a professor of media studies at New York University, holding a joint appointment as an arts professor at NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts, and as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the journalism institute. He is a leading voice on the effect technology has had on society — and vice versa — and has been writing extensively about the Internet for nearly a decade. For years Shirky has allowed his students to bring laptops, tablets and phones into class and use them at will. But he just told students to put them away.
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High School Athletes Gain Lifetime Benefits
The New York Times: Ask a group of healthy college students in their 20s if they know what they had for lunch three days ago and you’re not likely to see many hands go up. But ask them for memories of competitive sports they played when they were younger and suddenly you’ll hear stories about when they pitched for their school baseball or softball team. Sports offer formative and life-long lessons that stick with people who play.
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Study: If Your Team Has Too Many Superstars, Performance Will Suffer
Entrepreneur: When hiring employees, conventional wisdom dictates that one should always try and select the superstars, those men and women who excel at their job so thoroughly they put the average human to shame. After all, the assumption that a corporate team packed with ten peak performers will outperform a unit that consists of five excellent achievers and five merely good ones seems like a safe bet. But while top-tier talent is clearly a must-have for any business, a recent study published in Psychological Science adds a shade of nuance to the talent equation by suggesting that when it comes to team performance, there may be a talent-saturation point. Read the whole story: Entrepreneur
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Meglio investire in esperienze che in beni di consumo (Better to invest in experiences than consumer goods)
La Stampa: E’ molto più conveniente spendere i nostri soldi in qualcosa bello da ricordare, piuttosto che in acquisti di beni concreti; questo ci farà di sicuro più felici. Da una decina d’anni una corrente di psicologi sta cercando di dimostrare che vivere un’esperienza provoca maggiore benessere alla nostra mente del possesso di oggetti. Sembrerebbe quasi una corrente mistica della psicologia quella che vorrebbe convincerci ad abbracciare pratiche di vita che sembrano affini a esercizi spirituali, il concetto è che investire in bei ricordi ci appaghi assai più di una lussuriosa orgia di shopping compulsivo.
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Study Suggests ‘Extraordinary Experiences’ Might Make You Feel Bad
The Huffington Post: Many people seek out extraordinary experiences throughout their lifetimes. If they didn't, recreational activities like skydiving, bungee jumping, zorbing and mountain climbing wouldn't exist. However, a new study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that people who experience extraordinary events are likely to feel less happy than people who experience normal, everyday occurrences. The reasoning is that people who experience extraordinary things have less in common with their peers than people who experience the norm.
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Memory Research Offers Clues to Preventing Human Error
An experiment shows that a specific type of memory aid can lower error rates in air traffic control.
