You Are What You Read (And Watch And Play And Listen To)

The last book I bought was David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King. I’m only about 80 pages in, but so far it’s a terrific read. For me, it seems to be just a book, but recent research suggests it may be much, much more.

In a recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, psychologists Geoff Kaufman and Lisa Libby claim that the books we read can transform our personalities and redefine our perspectives. Their research centers on the process of “experience-taking,” or the idea that when people read they “[assume] the identity of a character in a written narrative and [simulate] that character’s subjective experience while immersed in the world of the story.” So what’s the big deal? Immersion in literature is as old as literature itself. How does this change anything?

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Kickstart It: Touch the Temp with the Cryoscope Thermal Display

Robb Godshaw believes conventional temperature measurements like Celsius and Fahrenheit are arbitrary and difficult to translate. Using the assistance of crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, Godshaw hopes to upend convention with his touch based weather forecaster, the Cryoscope. Using a thermoelectric Peltier heating and cooling element, the Cryoscope can recreate any current or future temperature conditions from around the globe. Instead of mentally calculating what 67 degree weather might feel like, the Cryoscope allows you to feel it with the palm of your hand.

I recently had the chance to talk with Robb Godshaw about his Kickstarter project, the Cryoscope, and his goal to raise $80,000.

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Change Your Mindset, Achieve the Impossible?

“Becoming is better than being.” Dr. Carol Dweck predicates this poignant statement in her exceptional book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, in reference to her theories of the power that our perception of personal development holds over our performance in any given aspect of life. In Mindset, Dweck coins the terms “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset:” two cognitive models of ability that can describe an individual’s attitude toward the development of their capabilities. These two “mindsets” have been proven to affect the productivity and contentment a person ultimately experiences in life.