We are in October. Which means a lot of things. Like - time is…whatever. And we made it through the worst of the heat (in Texas)! And it’s almost time to put my Christmas tree up!!
Welcome to the Fall. Here’s what I have for you:
🤔 A thought I’m processing [on dendrites & effort]
💕 A thought I’m loving on [the complexity of you :)]
🆓 October’s resource
🔗 Some link love
📆 A full recap & links to this past month’s posts
🤔 A thought I’m processing [on dendrites & effort]
I’m deep into dendrites this month. Dendrites are little branchy, snail-eye-looking things that stem off your neurons and catch any neurotransmitters being sent their way.
When we think hard - trying to remember something we learned, trying to get our heads around a new concept (like dendrites) - our neurons release a chemical signal. And that signal calls the dendrites of the neighboring neuron toward it. They begin to feel towards it - growing new little spines, reaching to form a new synapse, a new pathway in your brain.
That process - of forming new networks and connections - doesn’t happen when we get new information. It is activated by the cognitive effort. It’s that horrible strain of trying to grasp something, thinking and trying to remember; that feeling is the feeling of your brain doing the work to build connections. Almost as if our brain is like - Oh, she wants to be able to remember this. We'd better strengthen this connection.
That happens through cognitive effort.
This is an important thing for us to know about our design in a highly outcome/achievement focused culture. We’re so obsessed with the result that we try to find the most efficent/fastest shortcut to get there, and we fail to realize that the effort wasn’t just a meaningless obstacle; it was as important, if not MORE important than the outcome. By cutting out the struggle of the process, we’ve severely limited our capacity.
When we use AI or when we Google stuff to find the answers instead of working through the problems, when we begin to take shortcuts to everything, we lose the tolerance for effort.
We can’t stand the straining sensation that comes with new learning - and we are so relieved when we can build a system or technology that makes that part unnecessary. We don’t even notice the problem, after all - we still get the outcome, the answer we needed. But we never formed the network connection that would have helped us in a billion different ways that we will never even know.
Effort isn’t just like ‘good discipline.’ It’s a meaningful part of your design.
And, on that note:
💕A thought I’m loving [on the complexity of you]
The human brain is the most complex entity in the universe. It has between fifty and one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons, each branched to form thousands of possible connections with other nerve cells. It has been estimated that laid end to end, the nerve cables of a single human brain would extend into a line several hundred thousand miles long. The total number of connections, or synapses, is in the trillions. The parallel and simultaneous activity of innumerable brain circuits, and networks of circuits, produces millions of firing patterns each and every second of our lives. The brain has well been described as “a supersystem of systems.” - Gabor Maté
And…
On any count the average cell must utilize close to a million unique adaptive structures and processes …. In this the cell seems to represent the ultimate expression in material form of compacted adaptive complexity -- the complexity of a jumbo jet packed into a speck of dust invisible to the naked eye. It is hardly conceivable that anything more complex could be compacted into such a small volume. Moreover, it is a speck-sized jumbo jet which can duplicate itself quite effortlessly. - Michael Denton
🆓 October’s resource
On a related note, if you like the sound of taking some of your dendrites out for a spin, this month’s resource for paid subscribers is a dendrite-forming-activities bingo card.
It’s a chance to actively engage with some things that might end up being surprisingly meaningful (like looking at a leaf for 5 minutes). :)
🔗 Some links for October
Here are some links I’ve been saving and sending this month:
A video of kids demonstrating learning stages
A little animation of what your dendrites (kind of) are doing
📆 What you missed in September
Below are some links to thoughts I’ve shared this past month! (Please note that some of my messier thoughts and musings are behind a paywall. You can read more about why I do that here, and feel free to upgrade your subscription to access them and support my research!)
I was just reading an article about how AI use with children is hindering certain crucial brain development because they’re not having to learn how to problem solve, or try and fail and try again for answers, or think critically but just get fed answers. It’s so crazy!