What did I learn today

• As a predictor of early death loneliness surpasses even obesity. The following paper, a meta-analysis, concludes that social isolation and loneliness increases risk of mortality of ~30%. 
• A universal income could make life alot happier and creative, Alan Watts argues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhvoInEsCI0 (may even be a solution for an increasing global unemployment issue). 
• How to manage mild hypertension.
• The is no proven benefit of peer review and tonnes of evidence of the downsides of it. Fraud, repeatablity, slow, biased, luck can be involved, wasteful of scientific time, irrelevant, no quality assurance, inefficient and easily. The perils of Peer Review. 
• Free lessons on behavioural medicine
• The so called 'overjustification effect', that a reward can reinforce the belief that a task isnt worth doing. So rewarding children for doing chores or helping out is potentially a bad thing and rewarding yourself for goals an potentially be detrimental.
• How to teach medical students
• that OK GO are back with a new video: https://www.facebook.com/okgo/videos/10153836041340683/

Creativity, it's more than practise

Summary and interpretation of this interesting article by Scientific American on creativity.

Creativity doesn't fit the old adage of 'practise makes perfect' or deliberate practise. It needs to be original, meaningful and surprising (as defined by the US patent office). Here are some tips and realities about creativity:

• Creativity is blind: often luck plays a role
• Creative people often have messy processes: your most creative work may come before your worst piece of work, it can be random.
• Creators rarely receive helpful feedback: standards are constantly changing, so you cant rely on feedback.
• The 'ten year rule' doesn't apply to creativity: you don't need ten years to become an expert as in many trainable skills, but time does help.
• Talent isn't relevant: talent is simply 'the rate that someone gains expertise', since expertise isn't always required it isn't necessary. talent will help a creator learn what already exists. 
• Personality is relevant: creators tend to have a more independent, unconformity, risk taking and unconventionality based personality. They also tend to be more open to new experiences.
• Genes are relevant: genes determine personality and behaviour 
• Environment also plays a role: perhaps the biggest conrtibutor to creativity, look for a new environment and a great mentor. 
• Creative people have broader interests and more versatility: cross hobbies, dont focus on one occupation/topic/pasttime. 
• Too much expertise can be detrimental to creativity: for example learning everything there is to know about creative writing will limit your creative writing ability in terms of creativity (counter-intiutive I know)
• Outsiders often have the creative advantage

"I hope I have convinced you that creators are not mere experts. Creativity does draw on a deep knowledge base, and delibrate practice can certainly contribute to many aspects of creativity, but ultimately creativity involves much more than just deliberate practice. Creators are not necessarily the most efficient, but their messy minds and messy processes often allow them to see things others have never seen, and to create new paths that future generations will deliberately practice."

-Scott Barry Kaufman

The not so funny truth about creativity 

Random lifehacks episode 1

When I was much younger I used to love reading Men's health magazine, it was full of random workout routines and lifehacks, great for killing time on the bus to university. I used to write down some of the little facts and lifehacks that I learnt, here are a few:

• Blue light is linked to arousal and as effective as drinking a coffee for an energy boost (Try and install a blue light filter for any screen-work on your computer/tablet/pc before bed, it will help you sleep better)

• Avoid drinking lots of fluids with mealtimes, it can dilute the effect of your gastric juices affecting digestion. It's the small things that make a difference to how you look and feel. (Drinking a glass of water just after you wake up will help you wake up and feel better)

• 7AM is the best time to do aerobic exercise for reducing nocturnal systolic blood pressure – and increasing duration of deep sleep. 7PM is the best time to do aerobic exercise for reducing nocturnal diastolic blood pressure

• The BMI on average is lower in gardeners, Gardeners also self report higher rates of self esteem and positive mood. (Plant a snake plant for 100% oxygen production, it's the plant NASA want to take to Mars, it's produces oxygen day and night).