Posts Tagged ‘learning’

How to Be Offended

I teach things that many find offensive. Whether it's articles containing racist language in my "Gender, Race, and Class" course or descriptions of oral insemination as part of the Sembia male's coming-of-age rituals in my anthropology course, I know that some students are going to be offended, sometimes deeply.

Over the years, I've come to view offense as a particularly useful state of being – but only when the offense one… Continue reading

May 11 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: conflict, learning, offense, personal growth | 24 comments»

The Value of Writing Well

It’s that time of year again. No, not “the holiday season”. I mean, it is holiday time, but for professors it doesn’t start feeling like holiday time until final grades are in and the books are closed on another semester. No, for me, it’s paper-grading time, the time of year when I’m reminded over and over of the importance of good writing skills – and of their rarity. The ability to… Continue reading

December 8 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: learning, student, style, talent, thinking, writing | 25 comments»

Finding Diamonds in Your Past

"Been there, done that" has become synonymous with boredom or lack of challenge for some people. For others it is a mini retirement statement. We think it can represent a great place to look for new opportunities. Maybe you or someone you know has made money in one area then gone on to try something a new area and ended up with lousy results. A bit like Michael Jordan once… Continue reading

October 7 2008 | By Tatsuya | Tagged: learning, past, Productivity, reflection, repretition, success | 2 comments»

With a Little Help from Your Friends: How to Tap into the Hidden Potential of the People Who Surround You Every Day

Do you have a dream? Is there a business that you’re dying to launch, a story in your head demanding to be told, or an idea you’re frantic to see made a reality? If you’re like most people, the answer is “yes.” Or, more likely, “yes, but…” Just about everyone has a crazy dream they’d love to pursue – but they just don’t know how. What you need is a little expert… Continue reading

September 29 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: dream, expert, expertise, friendship, goal, learning, skill | 7 comments»

Climbing the Learning Curve: What to Do When You’re a n00b

Chances are, within the next few months, you’ll be asked at least once to acquire a new skill or body of knowledge. If you’re in high-tech, you can count on your entire skill-set becoming obsolete every few years, but even people in less accelerated fields have to keep learning just to stay even these days. For example, whether you’re in marketing and PR, corporate communications, human resources, or political campaigning, you’ve… Continue reading

September 26 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: learning, skill, study | 16 comments»

10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything

What does it take to succeed? A positive attitude? Well, sure, but that’s hardly enough. The Law of Attraction? The Secret? These ideas might act as spurs to action, but without the action itself, they don’t do much. Success, however it’s defined, takes action, and taking good and appropriate action takes skills. Some of these skills (not enough, though) are taught in school (not well enough, either), others are taught on… Continue reading

July 30 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: learning, networking, skill, speaking, success, thinking, writing | 214 comments»

How to Admit Your Mistakes

OK, you screwed up. Something's gone horribly, horribly wrong, and it's all your fault. And now, it's time to pay the piper.

Maybe you lost your company's big client. Maybe you forgot to do a critical part of that big project. Maybe you weren't there for someone when they needed you, even when you said you would be. Whatever the situation, someone trusted you to do a job and you… Continue reading

June 2 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: apologizing, failure, learning, mistake, responsibility, self-development | 11 comments»

Are You a Productive Reader?

I know you can read. You're reading this, aren't you? (If you're not reading this, never mind.)

But are you productively literate? That is, when you read, do you learn anything that you can apply immediately to your life, or do the words and ideas just bounce around your brain's pleasure areas for a while before disappearing like so many wisps of morning fog?

Not that there's anything wrong with… Continue reading

May 23 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: book, growth, learning, personal-development, reading | 14 comments»

Seven Useful Lessons You Can Learn from a Bad Boss

Why you can trust poor leaders to be sound teachers

Macho, insensitive bosses share certain characteristics. Their behavior is arrogant, quick-tempered and controlling. Their motives are typically selfish and manipulative. They show little concern for others and few signs of understanding why others don't trust them. Most of all, they are quite unaware of their failings and the impact they have on their subordinates. No only do they see no… Continue reading

May 23 2008 | By Adrian | Tagged: leadership, learning, Management, personal-development | 6 comments»

The Lifehack Productivity Bookshelf

I just received my copy of Lifehack contributor Pamela Skilling's new book Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams. Pamela's book is a guide for people fed up with the corporate lifestyle -- the lack of creative expression, the lack of spiritual reward, and ultimately the lack of control over the conditions of your own employment -- who are looking… Continue reading

May 19 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: book, leadership, learning, Management, organization, Productivity, reading, thinking | 2 comments»

Your Individual Development Plan

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

This question is one of the lynchpins of the personal development field. It's usually followed by instructions to visualize yourself having achieved those goals, and maybe an admonishment to ask yourself if what you're doing now will get you there.

None of this is hard. What is hard, though, is making a plan that will get you there… Continue reading

April 16 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: education, growth, improvement, learning, personal_development | 18 comments»

How to Be an Expert (and Find One if You’re Not)

I've been thinking lately, what makes someone an "expert" in his or her field? Apparently Lorelle VanFossen has been thinking the same thing, because she recently wrote a post called What Gives You the Right to Tell Me? at The Blog Herald that explores the issue of expertise in some depth.

For me, the question started to percolate through my mind when I was invited to… Continue reading

April 4 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: experience, expert, knowledge, learning, presentation | 25 comments»

DIY Education: Teach Yourself

Education is touted as the greatest way to get ahead in this world. And, in general, it’s a great strategy. Maybe you have the perfect idea for an invention and you need a little engineering know-how, or maybe you just need to get ahead of the guy in the next cubicle over. No matter what plan you have for getting ahead, odds are a little learning will help. The… Continue reading

March 27 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: autodidact, learning, self-education | 36 comments»

Beyond Test Taking: Learning to Handle Information

I read lots of books. I follow several blogs. I take classes. I've learned enough new information I want to incorporate into my work that I know I haven’t got a chance of remembering it all. There have been times that all that information consumption has felt like a waste, because the human brain just isn’t built to remember so many details and act on them. Not just a… Continue reading

March 18 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: information, learning, memory | 7 comments»

10 Steps to a More Global You

There’s no escaping the fact that the world is getting smaller: your company’s vendors might be in India, with customers in Britain, while you are somewhere in the U.S. That’s why employers, from international non-profits to the mom-and-pop stores down the road, want employees able to think globally. Even college admissions look positively on time spent abroad these days. But picking up for a jaunt to another continent isn’t practical… Continue reading

February 7 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: culture, global, learning, travel, worldview | 12 comments»

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