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Left-Brain, Right-Brain, Whole Brain Think

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Analysis and Synthesis

It’s no secret that our brains have two hemispheres or that the two work differently. Despite how we talk, people aren’t really right-brain thinkers or left-brain thinkers. Everyone uses both sides of their brain in everything that they do. Each hemisphere takes charge of certain specialized thinking.

What is managed by the left hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the right side of the body
  • sequential and linear thinking — a, b, c, . . . 1,2,3
  • reading left to right
  • interpreting the meaning of text without context
  • analyzing details — drilling down into spreadsheets
  • knowing logic

What is managed by the right hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the left side of the body
  • simultaneous thinking — That’s a math book. That’s newspaper.
  • reading right to left
  • interpreting the meaning of context
  • synthesis — the global view
  • knowing the world

People do have attributes that lean toward left-brain directed thinking or right-brain directed thinking. Here’s what Daniel Pink says about that in his book A Whole New Mind.

Call the first approach L-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain — sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. Ascendant in the Information Age, exemplified by computer programmers, prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools, this approach is directed by left-brain attributes, toward left-brain results. Call the other approach R-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain — simultaneous, metaphorical, aethetic, contextual, and synthetic. Underemphasized in the Information Age, exemplified by creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, this approach is directed by right-brain attributes toward right-brain results.

Of course, we need both approaches in order to craft fulfilling lives and build productive, just societies. But the mere fact that I feel obliged to underscore that obvious point is perhaps further indication of how much we’ve been in the thrall of reductionist, binary thinking. Despite those who have deified the right brain beyond all scientific evidence, there remains a strong tilt toward the left. Our broader culture tends to prize L-Directed Thinking more highly than its counterpart, taking this approach more seriously and viewing the alternatve as useful, but secondary.

But this is changing . . .

What changes do you see? Are you using your right-brain talents more? Are you feeling less appreciated for your left-brain abilities?

–ME Liz” Strauss
Behind every successful business is an outstanding manager –The Perfect Virtual Manager.

Related
A Silly Left Right Brain Test
Thinking about How We Think
5 +1 Whole Brain Steps to Believable Strategic Goals OR Find Your Bliss Without Wasting Time
10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy

A Story: New Media and the Writer/Blogger Girl

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Improbulus, I Don’t Know

The question was set. What is your diet of new media? What do you consume? Make a list if you would. Put the most consumed at the top of the list. . . .

Shortly before SOBCon, my friend Improbulus asked that question. I wanted to answer, but truthfully, I didn’t know what to say. Sad to say, my mind might be clever and occasionally a risk taker, but my reality is flat out boring.

I’m a dreamer. Like Christopher Columbus, I’ll go sailing off to the edge of the planet in the most rickety ships. (Okay, so maybe his ships were state of the art, but mine wouldn’t be — unless Terry Starbucker and Chris Cree made sure things were in order.) I’m a pizza and beer kind of girl. I still like my music on CDs, preferrably timeless, musical, and with great lyrics.

I’m not sure I know what new media is.

New Media and the Writer/Blogger Girl

This is the story of new media and the writer girl who became blogger girl. . . . It begins with knowing that, as writer girl, all I need s is a great keyboard, a fabulous display, and my BOSE headset that sends back sounds bouncing off walls — so that I don’t have to, bounce off walls, that is.

A telephone is useful, but optional. Well, this writer girl talks a lot, so maybe it should be on the list.

Life was simple in Web 1.0.

The world changed when I started blogging. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 01-30-07

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Is Net Neutrality A Myth? [via Light Within]

The advocates of net neutrality have, at first blush, one overwhelming argument in their favor. The Internet was designed to be a dumb network, with all the brains and innovation residing at the ends of the system. As such, all bits of data traveling over the Internet would be treated equally. This “end-to-end” design principle is the essence of network neutrality and, the proponents of mandated net neutrality argue, must be maintained to secure the Internet as we know it.

This essential characteristic, it is argued, precludes the owners of the Internet’s “pipes” from engineering any intelligence into the network’s architecture–and thus any differential pricing–since all the intelligence must reside at the edges. Proponents of mandated net neutrality managed to force the adoption of some net neutrality provisions into the recent merger agreement between AT&T (nyse: T – news – people ) and Bell South.

But in ” The Myth of Network Neutrality and What We Should Do About It,” Robert Hahn and Robert Litan of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies argue that, contrary to the claims of regulated neutrality proponents, “all bits of information are not treated equally from an economic standpoint.” They argue that “the Internet is not end-to-end now and was never designed to be strictly neutral.”

How can this be? The engineering architects of the Internet drafted the technical rules in informal papers called Requests for Comment. The early drafters of the Net’s architecture, according to Hahn and Litan, “recognized the need to offer priority to some packets over others.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

A Question about Blogging in January

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Strange Behavior

It’s not you, It’s not the quality of your posts. Its the U.S. winter. It happened last year. From what I read it happened the year before too.

Still it seems strange behavior.

Why do you suppose that in January and February stats act silly and bloggers, as a group, seem unpredictable?

Blogging seems like it should be a perfect winter sport.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Net Neutrality 01-02-07

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

AT&T Concession Thoroughly Debunks Key Anti-Net Neutrality Myth [via Anything They Say]

NEWS RELEASE

AT&T’s agreement to Net Neutrality as a condition of their merger with Bell South was a huge victory for Internet freedom. It also debunks a top myth told to the public by Internet freedom opponents like AT&T: that Net Neutrality can’t be defined. It can be – AT&T just did it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Read on to see how AT&T found a way to do it when it served their financial interests.

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

The Cool Kid’s Guide to Blogging in 2007

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The Baton and Disclaimer

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

A friend and reader, and very intelligent person, Amrit Hallan, who writes the Content and Copywriting Blog made 6 Predictions for 2007. At the end of his post he passed the baton for predicting the future to four others. I was one of the four that he chose.

The Disclaimer: Anyone who wore brown knee socks in high school — as I did — cannot claim the title of “Cool Kid.” However, it is just that fact that makes me “acool” — as in apolitical or asymptomatic — the right person to write this guide. You see, the inherently acool become great observers. We watch the cool kids to see what makes them tick and how their rules of survival work. That said, I move on to the guide.

The Cool Kid’s Guide to Blogging in 2007

Who exactly are the cool kids of blogging? Who will be the cool kids in 2007? What do cool bloggers do? What won’t they have time for? I talk to several bloggers every day on my cell phone. I read their blogs and have conversations in comment boxes. What pattens come through from all of that fodder?

Here’s what I’m finding from this informal data. Things this year are different from last year. Things next year will be a new again. Cool kids don’t let things stay the same for long.

  • Having Fun and Learning: Cool kids are no longer enthusiatic beginners. They are serious bloggers having fun at it. They are no longer tweaking templates for discovery. They know exactly what they want to do. XTML, HTML, CSS, PHP, aren’t new toys to learn, they’re a means to an end. If they can’t do it, they’ll find, hire, or barter with someone who can.
  • Focus: Cool kids know whether they’re information or relationship bloggers. Either way they are narrowing their focus. They are dropping feeds that don’t provide what they’re seeking. Cool kids talk about blogs they have outgrown and things they now know that they never used to. They no longer spend hours looking for new blogs. They find themselves in new places by going where their friends already are. Cool kids are starting to read books again — some never stopped.
  • Branding: Cool kids are going narrower and deeper. They’ve got a blogging identity. They’ve found a unique and authentic voice. Cool kids know their brand, their readers, and their blogging style.
  • Communities: Cool kids don’t worry about Social Networking. That’s so five minutes ago. It will have to evolve to exist next year. Cool kids only go to MyBlogLog regularly and peek in on the others when they have a special need to. No Cool Kid that I know has figured out a genuine use for LinkedIn or its clones.
  • Writing: Cool kids are becoming writers and they’re doing what they can to be even better at words in print. Content and communication is the beginning, middle, and end for every cool kid online.
  • SEO: Google loves cool kids because cool kids don’t game the system. They blog for readers and know the spiders will do the rest. They link and stay connected, because they value the thoughts of others.
  • Thought Leadership: Cool kids have stopped being snarky, started thinking deeper, and learned that self-promotion doesn’t win a prize. They’re not buzzword crazy. Cool kids talk with words that humans use.
  • Productivity and Listening: Cool kids have nearly reached the end of their need for productivity tools. They’re becoming less enamored with multitasking — except talking with friends while consuming food and drink. Cool kids know that listening is a value we shouldn’t lose.
  • Beta toys: Cool kids don’t need to download more stuff. Invitations to betas are a dead idea. Don’t talk to them about being a user. They know what they need and what they know. You won’t get their attention with anything less than spectacular, and then it better fit their niche.
  • Blogging and the World: Cool kids have quit trying to prove something. They no longer worry about whether grandma, the media, or anyone else doesn’t understand what a blog is.

Cool kids have a beginner’s mind and an independent, helpful spirit. They love, listen, and learn all at the same time.

If you want to be a cool kid in blogging in 2007, it isn’t hard to do — just keep a couple of things in mind. No one makes the blogosphere run and no one needs to make that sure it does. Being helpful, not hypeful still wins respect, and respect is still how relationships thrive.

It’s awfully nice to be in a place where everyone can be cool, by showing respect. I guess that’s why it’s called the IN-ternet.

To the IN-credible, IN-telligent, IN-sightful readers of Successful-Blog, may your 2007 be ever so very cool.

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