The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

• Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.: The Trouble with Bright Girls

  Important reading for ‘girls,’ irrespective of age (it seems):
  QUOTE
  Girls, who develop self-control earlier and are better able to follow instructions, are often praised for their “goodness.” When we do well in school, we are told that we are “so smart,” “so clever, ” or “such a good student.” This kind of praise implies that traits like smartness, cleverness and goodness are qualities you either have or you don’t.

  Boys, on the other hand, are a handful. Just trying to get boys to sit still and pay attention is a real challenge for any parent or teacher. As a result, boys are given a lot more feedback that emphasizes effort (e.g., “If you would just pay attention you could learn this,” “If you would just try a little harder you could get it right.”) The net result: When learning something new is truly difficult, girls take it as sign that they aren’t “good” and “smart,” and boys take it as a sign to pay attention and try harder.

  We continue to carry these beliefs, often unconsciously, around with us throughout our lives. And because Bright Girls are particularly likely to see their abilities as innate and unchangeable, they grow up to be women who are far too hard on themselves — women who will prematurely conclude that they don’t have what it takes to succeed in a particular arena, and give up way too soon.

  Even if every external disadvantage to a woman’s rising to the top of an organization is removed — every inequality of opportunity, every chauvinistic stereotype, all the challenges we face balancing work and family — we would still have to deal with the fact that through our mistaken beliefs about our abilities, we may be our own worst enemy.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: education gender gifted girls psychology heidi_halvorson huffington_post

• Sleep is More Important than Food – Tony Schwartz – Harvard Business Review

  Love this: Harvard Business Review (management nerd mag) telling people to get enough sleep. Will we finally see the end of “I only sleep [ridiculously few hours] each night” one-upmanship?
  QUOTE
  Say you decide to go on a fast, and so you effectively starve yourself for a week. At the end of seven days, how would you be feeling? You’d probably be hungry, perhaps a little weak, and almost certainly somewhat thinner. But basically you’d be fine.

  Now let’s say you deprive yourself of sleep for a week. Not so good. After several days, you’d be almost completely unable to function. That’s why Amnesty International lists sleep deprivation as a form of torture.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: sleep harvard_business tony_schwartz health

• The Creative Personality

  1996 article by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on creativity.
  QUOTE
  When we’re creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. The excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab comes close to the ideal fulfillment we all hope to get from life, and so rarely do. Perhaps only sex, sports, music, and religious ecstasy—even when these experiences remain fleeting and leave no trace—provide a profound sense of being part of an entity greater than ourselves. But creativity also leaves an outcome that adds to the richness and complexity of the future.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: mihaly_csikszentmihalyi creativity personality psychology psychology_today

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.