Fascinating article in the NY Times that explores how language shapes the way we think about the world. Different languages, different ways of experiencing it.

When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.

Similar to my observations about how language affects meaning from years ago.

That is, addiction in general and information/Internet addiction in particular.

The world is more addictive than it was 40 years ago. And unless the forms of technological progress that produced these things are subject to different laws than technological progress in general, the world will get more addictive in the next 40 years than it did in the last 40…

My latest trick is taking long hikes. I used to think running was a better form of exercise than hiking because it took less time. Now the slowness of hiking seems an advantage, because the longer I spend on the trail, the longer I have to think without interruption…

We’ll increasingly be defined by what we say no to.

The Acceleration of Addictiveness.

Apparently creative people share a brain structure with schizophrenics:

“We have studied the brain and the dopamine D2 receptors, and have shown that the dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia…Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box.” – Dr. Fredrik Ullén

Well, that would explain Dr. NakaMats:

(This just keeps getting better…)

Seems worth keeping around as reminders. A Visual Study Guide to Cognitive Biases | Scribd.