Tag: TED video

Brainy Insights

July 31, 2011 Blog 1 comment


Courtesy of Inner Altitude

Last night, I decided to catch a much talked about TED talk by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor and boy was I blown away! In the video, the celebrity neuro-anatomist described her experiences when she suffered a stroke on her left brain and painted a beautiful and vivid picture of that somewhat transcendental encounter. From that incident, she was able to isolate the functions of both brains via a first person perspective, showing how the two cerebral hemispheres (connected by a bunch of tissue called the corpus callosum) interact and work with each other.

Here’s the video for your viewing pleasure:


Why You Shouldn’t Eat the Marshmallow…Yet

October 25, 2010 Blog 2 comments


Don’t eat the marshmallow and get two later! (source)

In an age of utmost convenience, instant replies, and quick fixes, one may be lulled into thinking that whatever’s fast to cook is good to eat. The inconvenient truth, however, is that many of the best things in life do not arrive merely at the snap of one’s fingers.

Rome (Disney or Microsoft) wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, major endeavours take months and years of blood, sweat and tears before arriving at the dizzying heights of success.


Do We Really Need So Many Options?

June 18, 2009 Blog no comments

One of the greatest contradictions in life is that “the more the merrier” isn’t necessary true when one is swamped by choices. In fact, having too many options open to you could lead to an analysis paralysis and a freeze in decision making.

So having one hundred different flavours for your ice-cream, a thousand different blog templates, or 10,000 different pantone shades to paint your wall in may actually work against your business rather than for it.

Don’t believe me? Just watch this engaging presentation by Barry Schwartz, a well known psychologist and academic at Swarthmore College who spoke about the paradox of choice. His central thesis is that having a greater variety of options needn’t necessarily improve the quality of life. In fact, the plethora of choices that we have in this Internet-fueled day and age may actually lead to lower satisfaction levels and discontent rather than hyper delighting one’s customers.