Quantcast
Channel: Neuroplasticity – Malcolm Ocean
Browsing all 21 articles
Browse latest View live

Frontal lobe or midbrain? How to take control.

One of the popular pseudo-scientific questions people like to ask is “Are you left-brained or right-brained?” or if they have a slightly better understanding of nuance, then maybe “Do you favour the...

View Article



Winning at Arguments by Enlarging your PNS

Here’s a video of me. It might be helpful to read the text below before watching the video. Actually, on second thought, this post was adapted from an email to a friend who said “I am grinning ear to...

View Article

My Songwriting is On Fire

The song isn’t actually about hot air balloons… right? A month ago, a friend and I decided that we’d write a song each month with a preset title. This is kind of like Songfight, but I find that a month...

View Article

Flow vs Deliberate Practice

Flow and Deliberate Practice are rather popular concepts these days. This shouldn’t be surprising, as everyone wants to be fulfilled in their work and play, and many people want to become an expert in...

View Article

The scientifically-validated way to align urges and goals: Implementation...

“Implementation Intentions” is a tool from psychology literature that has been conclusively shown to increase the tendency of people to actually carry out actions towards their goals. Feel free to read...

View Article


Mindfulness Field Training

I’m excited. I’m excited, because it’s working. I’ve been trying for years to develop my sense of mindfulness and mental control, and I’m starting now to get a very direct taste of what that feels...

View Article

Trust-powered feedback loops

This is a followup to my two previous posts on what I’ve been calling mindfulness field training. Essentially, the underlying idea is to practice noticing your thoughts and not getting caught up in...

View Article

How to eliminate words from your idiolect

Motivation Why I’m writing this I’m writing this a post because a friend and I were talking about how I’ve removed several words from my idiolect (the particular set of words used by an individual—kind...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Cozy (and CoZE) Cuddle Parties: a Q&A

On a facebook comment thread about cuddle parties, I gave a few tips on hosting one, and said “if you have any other questions, feel free to message me.” Well, one of my friends took me up on that...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

What I Learned From 20 Weeks of Habit Hacking

Finding myself one-third of the way through my 2014 Habit-a-week challenge, I decided to look back and critically assess the success of my various habits. You might want to keep that link open in a new...

View Article

Habit Models: Routines vs Defaults

I feel like it’s valuable to distinguish between two types of behavior change: routines & defaults. Both of these are based on creating a new pattern of action given a certain trigger. The...

View Article

Not with a bang, but with a yawn.

This post is a lightly-edited transcript of part of the recording of the Monday evening gathering of culture-nudgers. I’m sharing it because a lot of people are curious about the workings of the...

View Article

Two Ways to Make Your Language More Conducive to Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is a thing. You can read lots more about it elsewhere, including Mindset by Carol Dweck, which a 4.5 star rating with >500 reviews. I’m not here to explain in-depth what it is or why...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Growing a Garden with a Broken Bodum

It didn’t occur to me to take the picture until after I cleaned up the broken glass. This post isn’t about gardens or bodums. It’s about thinking and mindset. Last July (~15 months ago) I had an...

View Article

Cycles of Breath and Feedback

Disclaimer: this was a very stream-of-consciousness post, tapping into something I had just learned when I wrote it, yesterday. I don’t necessarily think that what I suggest here makes sense for...

View Article


Abstracting from Experience

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend, Ruby, over skype. Our conversation drifted to letters one might send to one’s past self, from say 1-2 years ago. Aside from the obvious tip-off’s about...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

“What’s it like to be you?”

At burning man this year, I spent a day exploring that question, from the inside and from the outside. “What’s it like to be you?” I asked someone sitting at the Tea House at my camp. They said...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

A ritual to upgrade my Face

One of the easiest times to change your personality (to become less shy, for instance) is when you move somewhere new. Personalities are interfaces, so those who are familiar with you will have...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Introducing the Cast (of Malcolm Ocean)

Hi! I’m Interface. You may remember me from A ritual to upgrade my Face. I’m the part of Malcolm that navigates most social situations, and represents the bulk of his personality. I also like...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Lots of more abstract writing in the works, but in the meantime, an update on my personal learning process: I’m currently working on shifting out of a meta-oscillation between being intensely...

View Article
Browsing all 21 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images