Perhaps the reason why creativity is given short shrift in academia is because it has a light, playful energy, rather than the heavy, dense energy of facts, charts, research….and heavy books that have been sitting in dusty corners of the library for a hundred years. I got my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and…
The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” When you know something in your mind to be true, is there open space in your mind for another view? Not likely. When we’re certain that we “know,” we’re at risk of trouble, because we…
During the final hearing for my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Chicago, my advisor, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi pulled me aside and whispered to me: “NEVER use the word heart in a job talk.” My Ph.D. dissertation was on how adults learn in everyday life and I’d mentioned the heart too many times. Mihaly could tell…
After I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, I tried very hard to do what I was ‘supposed’ to do… get a tenure-track position at some respectable university. But I couldn’t do it. Instead, I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana and lived in a teepee for a few years. Here’s what…
In 1973, neurobiologist Roger Sperry made a profound observation: “There appears to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented separately in left and right hemispheres, respectively. Our educational system, and science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the…
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