Habits,
Self-Improvement
“Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, explains the three
key stages of habit-formation:
The cue: This is the trigger
that initiates the behavior, which becomes the habit. It could be a time
of day when you drive past the donut shop or a social-media notification
that leads you to procrastination. It is the spark that leads to the routine.
The routine: The routine is the
actual behavior. Duhigg gives a personal example -- at 3:30 pm each day,
he'd look at the clock and get a craving for a cookie. He'd then go to the
cafeteria, buy a cookie, and eat it while chatting with co-workers. That was
his habitual routine.
The reward: The reward is the
release of brain chemicals following your
specific routine. This is what reinforces your "bad" behavior. Your
brain is experiencing "happy chemicals" even though you're doing
something you want to stop doing.”
Now that we have deconstructed the
habit, here are two steps to break them (Click on the title above to learn how):
Free
Speech, Religion
“The winning idea
in Jakarta was an original YouTube series moderated by a Christian Indonesian
comedian that seeks to debunk false news and online myths. Over in Manila, the
winning team came up with a brilliant Facebook app that audits your posts and
checks whether or not any words or phrases can be seen as bullying or
inflammatory. In Bangladesh, the winning team was a group of young artists and
writers who created their own digital comic book series. They love American pop
culture and comics but realize they need authentic Bangladeshi heroes who are
the protagonists of their own narratives. The second place team, which also
received funding, is creating an online community and app to discuss mental
health issues, an often taboo subject in that country.
Over
in the Bay Area, the winning team came up with a platform called ACTIVATE YOUR
SQUAD, which allows you to call on your social media community to drown out
trolls, haters and bullies.
Another recent
initiative is Minbar, a digital platform we created in house that allows
up-and-coming entrepreneurs from marginalized communities to pitch their ideas
and receive feedback and funding from an online community. Our first run was in
Tunisia where we offered a $25,000 prize to the best idea. We used social media
marketing to reach young entrepreneurs who are talented but often never given a
chance or an outlet. These individuals are not the top 5 percent, don’t go to
English-only schools and are often, sadly, neglected but have immense talent.
We also put on a entrepreneurial boot camp, choosing 40 applicants, for a
hands-on, 3-day workshop on best strategies and practices.
It
was a huge hit.”
Elections,
Voting
What binds us together
more than our history of striving for freedom, our bond of exercising our free
will for a better life, or our rights guaranteed by our constitution?
What tool do we have
to protect and maintain our freedom to live as we choose? Our vote!
Medicaid,
Healthcare
Listen:
“Half of all births. The vast majority of nursing home care.
Even some school health centers. All of these services have one thing in
common: Medicaid provides for them. WNYC wanted to figure out how people in New
York and New Jersey might be impacted by Medicaid cuts being proposed in
Washington. So we dug into the data to produce this shareable, tweetable,
embeddable graphic. We think it will surprise you.” (Click on the title to
see the graphics and the data.)
Profile,
Role Model
“I read Mike Massimino’s book, ‘Spaceman,’ and he
talks about looking back on Earth, and you see it without any boundaries.
That’s really cool,” she told me. “When you are in the States, and you maybe
didn’t grow up with that perspective, and maybe your family has gone back
several generations here, you maybe lost sight of what it was that made America America in
the first place. Maybe I have a fresher perspective on it because my family did
come over here.” Since we spoke last week, however, Moghbeli’s Facebook comment
appears to have been removed.
Moghbeli wore her nasa uniform for the first time
on June 7th, for the announcement of nasa’s
new class. As the July 4th weekend approached, she was reflective about her
adopted country. “I have family across the world,” she told me. “That just
helps me remember how grateful we should be to live in this country. Yeah, it’s
got flaws, just like any other country. And there are things we can improve on,
that we should absolutely work on improving. But, at the end of the day, we
have amazing opportunities here. And the fact that I can be a female, Iranian,
in the Marine Corps, and now becoming an astronaut—it’s incredible.”
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