Welcome to CrustyBytes, where as the tagline suggests, we focus on the connectedness of technology, business and brains.
Despite the fact that technology and business have been around for a very long time, their interplays are relatively immature – leaving lots of opportunity for CrustyBytes to add novel ideas and commentary. Of course, there are segments of publishing and media industries trying to do the same, making for a ‘big pond.’
Since we all have one, and it is the oldest of the three domains, ‘brains’ seem to be obvious, ubiquitous and potentially uninteresting. Not any longer. Striking is the difference between the resource we put into building computer apps that run behind the screen, versus the effectiveness of the same apps as they play behind the users’ retinas.
Something profound has been happening over the last few years. Information and insights into how we make decisions, behave, react, move and even think have emerged. It is as if the brain owner’s manual not provided at birth is getting filled in and slowly revealed to us. Now some may say: “It was there all along, and you just weren’t looking;” or “It was always available, you just didn’t find it;” or perhaps, “You didn’t understand the [scientific or medical] language in which it was written.” I don’t think so!
What we are seeing is neuroscience going open source. Engineers, writers, academics, doctors outside the neuro-specialties and other amateurs are now participating. This should be no surprise and appropriate, as we are all owners after all. Brain science for the crowd is a rich and the expanding body of information. My intention here is to apply these concepts to problems, situations and opportunities from business and tech, and explore the implications. That’s novel. I find it fascinating. Hope you agree. – db
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This is fascinating, Don,especially since I started a simple “explore” of my own last Christmas with a book by Jill Bolte Taylor, titled, “My Stroke of Insight.” Jill is a brain scientist with quite the catalog of credentials, who at 37 years old suffered a massive stroke. She describes in detail the events during and after the incident, peaking my interest in how these old brains actually do work (she speaks of almost mystical experiences while her brain healed – and it did). I then went on to read “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink. BINGO. This is the material I was dreaming about – how to utilize the right hemisphere in a satisfying and practical (read profitable) fashion, and in daily life (I’m an artist at heart). This is one I’d wager you will like. Now I’m inching my way through “How the Brain Changes Itself,” by Norman Doidge, also an MD (Pink is not) – personal stories bearing out the brain’s plasticity. So much to learn. Forward, March! Let’s chat about this. R.
May 14, 2009 @ 4:59 pm