One of the easiest ways to be a moron is to think you know something that you actually don’t. And right out of the gate, let me just admit that I’m adept at this kind of idiocy. But it’s not just me. In 1999, social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger formalized something that we’ve […]
You and the Puppet: Greg Ashman’s Mind Trick for Helping with Emotional Constancy
Long ago, I wrote that one of the “Jedi mind tricks” for avoiding burnout is this: you are not your job. Or rather, the mind trick lies in training yourself to habitually remember that your job performance is not indicative of your value as an individual. It helps to think here of two circles: one […]
You’ll Need Rules
In the first days of June 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower faced befuddling complexity as the final decision for the coming D-Day invasion loomed before him. The question was easy to ask — On what date shall the invasion begin? — but soul-crushingly difficult to answer. He needed a full moon in order for his nighttime […]
The Power of the Humdrum: Why Your First Day of School Isn’t Going to Make or Break Your School Year
Great teachers did more than obsess on the efficiency of their classroom — their questions were artful; their assignments, demanding — but there was a clear tendency among positive outliers to see the power of the humdrum, the everyday. Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better, by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, and […]
“Stand and Practice? What Kind of PD is That?”
The workshop was being led by Dr. Chris Hulleman, the much-admired researcher behind the “Build Connections” intervention that I share in the second chapter of These 6 Things. He was leading a session at Character Lab’s annual Educator Summit in Philadelphia, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually in the same room as this […]