Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

YouTube ignominy

A while back, a video of Lauren Caitlin Upton’s (Miss South Carolina Teen USA) poor response to a geography question went viral (19 million views as of today; the 30th most popular YouTube video of all time). Now there’s a YouTube video showing Kellie Pickler’s geographic ignorance (‘Is France a country?‘) on Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?.

You just know that Lexington (SC) High School (where Upton had a 3.5 GPA) and North Stanly (NC) High School (Pickler) must be chagrined to have one of their graduates be the object of public ridicule due to their academic ignorance. Can you imagine the conversations that their former teachers are having right now?

Cross your fingers that one of your graduates isn’t next (like we do whenever there’s a national news story about some school administrator doing something dumb). Oh, and how many of you could have said that Budapest was the capital of Hungary?

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Neuropsych

25 years since Columbine: We’re closer to decoding mass-shooter psychology

Public mass shooters almost always have worldviews shaped by the "3 Rs": rage, resentment, and revenge.

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Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: “Is there anything wrong with trauma dumping?”

When does "oversharing" become an issue?

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Leadership

Adam Grant on how to identify and develop high-potential leaders

The ability to toggle between abstract and concrete thinking is a key differentiator of high-potential leaders.

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Business

Want true success? Be more philosophical about “good” and “bad” failure.

Bob Dylan gave us the paradoxical gem "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." He had a point.

Starts With A Bang

The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong

Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?

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