GREAT ADAPTATIONS

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Friends,
Walking to Peet’s this morning I was especially aware of spring: Trees stretching their branches as if they are standing on tiptoe, reaching for the sky, with the tender green leaves at the very ends of the new growth.

I admit that almost everything I see in the world around me reminds me of the brain, but today I could feel the mirror of spring growth in my own skull. I keep stretching myself in new ways, pulling challenges toward me that bring me joy and sometimes an astonishing amount of work.

But it’s such good work. I call it “single tasking with multi outcomes,” because thinking that way helps me remember how much good I am really doing for my own future health as I find more and better ways to teach people online communication. It’s all about relationships – languages, cultures, and innovation. Great brain stuff.

Today I am posting an email I wrote to a new reader who asked how to hold off Alzheimer’s in a poignant letter, having watched his father succumb to the disease. I’ve written all of this before, but it bears repeating. When I talk about constant learning below, for me it is this work I do. I want you to know more about why I teach online communication. I think this email says it.

Hello John,
Thank you for letting me know that you found my blog. Regarding Alzheimer’s, my mother died at 72 and had onset in her 50s. Same course as her father. So I have a lot of motivation to do all the things that are indicated to make a real difference in my own outcome. As we’ve both experienced, it is devastating to watch it happening.

All of my current work is connected in some way to brain development that can – might – prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. As you may know, many people who actually have the brain changes of Alzheimer’s do not necessarily ever show the symptoms themselves. This possibility was came to light in the “Nun Study.”
(See http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999867,00.html)

That’s what I’m after. Regardless of any disease-related change my brain might suffer, I want to have tremendous brain development that gives me the best possible chance to override any effects of disease.

There are three things that contribute the most to this outcome.

One is physical exercise. Daily walks or other mild exercise plus more vigorous rounds a few times a week are essential. (I know sometimes it is not easy. I have the same challenge every day, and I consider it really nuts to go a day without a walk.)

Two is constant learning. Using the brain in a way that it is really reaching and growing will make a huge difference in later years. All the difference. This does not guarantee the disease won’t take hold. But there is plenty of evidence to show that it is working for many, many people. This learning should involve personal interaction – the most powerful brain stimulant. Mentally reaching to understand others, learning other languages (including the language of the Internet), learning other cultures, and doing outreach that helps other people, are all things that grow brain cells like wildfire. Helping others has been shown scientifically to flood the brain with healthy brain-chemicals including endorphins. Interesting, huh?

The third is to manage stress. Cortisol is the stress hormone which destroys the brain. So many people are now under unremitting stress, it is scary to think what is going to happen later on. Even though we live in great uncertainty and in very uncomfortable change all around us, we must adapt to this environment and come to see it as opportunity, so that our brains reach in a positive way rather than retreat in fear. A good way to think about it is if you feel stressed and afraid on a daily basis, your brain is pulling back like the little antennae on a snail. This is exactly what you don’t want.

They are all related, obviously. If you can find a way to help others that makes you feel good, you are reaching out, reducing stress, and learning. This is the perfect environment for brain growth. You must be smart about your “helping” choices, and choose an activity that does not make you feel more stressed out. For example, I offer a community-based class to teach people online communication. I love sharing my knowledge about blogging and social media. That is one way I help people while promoting learning and challenging myself all at the same time.

Meditation can help with stress and is also tremendous for keeping the brain healthy. Quiet time, down time, daydreaming and napping are all very good brain boosters.

I hope this gives you something to work with.

Best regards,
Suzanna Stinnett
More about “brain-friendly” learning

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On this buttery-warm March morning, I took a few minutes to throw some new soil on my teensy garden. The poor fuschia, which has never recovered from my absence last fall, had managed to sprout a few off-color leaves. As I gave it a drink I noticed, stuck point-into the dirt there, a shiny little acorn.

I thought of the tiny squirrel paws that stashed the acorn in this unlikely spot, and smiled. The fuschia, if it keeps trying to grow, will go back to its hanging place under the eave where a squirrel couldn’t quite reach. Instead of being food later on, it’s possible I could end up with a little oak tree in my hanging fuschia. Now there’s an interesting juxtaposition.

This is the kind of uncertainty we engage in the multiple universes of new media. Social networking and its exponential potential can take a seed, whether it’s a thought, an invite, an introduction, or some other creation, off into places we aren’t even aware of.

Doesn’t sound like much of a plan, does it? But it is. It is, because, like the squirrel with all those arbitrarily placed seeds, those multiple universes are intersecting. Our digital imprints circulate through this astonishingly interconnected multi-verse, and return to us with who-knows-who now attached. We talk to one person, they talk to several thousand. Ten or twenty or hundreds become aware of us. Because of that one person.

I don’t know if your brain is following this analogy. It makes a lot more sense if you’re out there experiencing it and it’s more fun that you might realize. In Novato Monday night, I spoke about blogging and social media to a careers transition group of 25 people. Everyone in the room was at a different level. I had a blast.

It is a real pleasure for me to share blogging’s burgeoning potential for connection, community, expression and income with a room full of people who have so far only experienced glimmers (alongside considerable confusion).

We social media users are a bit like mad squirrels, placing our bounty of words in strange places and letting them run their course. Like the squirrel, we don’t know when we’ll see that nut again, or if it will sprout into something big. But we’re in it now, and once you’ve experienced the expansiveness of connecting to great minds in such a deeply human way, there’s no reason to go back.

Happy seeding,
Suzanna

Interested in brain-friendly blogging? Click on the “Brain-Friendly” tab above.

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This is an addendum posted on March 26th, 2009, and related to the resignation letter by Jake DeSantis to the CEO of AIG. I think it is very important to read his letter. If I understand this correctly, at least in his case, he was not receiving a bonus at all. It was deferred payment for many months of long hours he had faithfully put in. Rather than remove my post below, I leave it as an early response to this debacle. If you want to feel more informed, do follow the link and read Mr. DeSantis’ letter.

Jake DeSantis Resignation Letter

Haven’t we had just about enough?

I’m just going to toss this idea out. If you like it, spread it – in that special Internet exponential way. Tell Jon Stewart. He could really do something with it.

So we’re looking at the Sunday Chronicle, and people at the table at the coffeehouse are all up in arms about how “AIG is paying” these huge bonuses to their executives. Everyone feels both enraged and helpless, and that’s a terrible combo of brain chemicals.

I haven’t felt helpless in a long time, at least not where anything media-related is concerned. The more I engage new media, the more empowered I feel. We really can organize now to raise a great big voice (and a stink where stink is warranted) on absolutely any issue before us.

So here’s my idea.

How about we do some research and make a list, go one by one through the recipients of these bonuses. Name them. Talk about them. Interview them. Let us all see, through this big shiny transparent lens called the Web, who the actual people are who would accept these bonuses.

Someone take it a step further. We don’t even need Jon Stewart. You video pros out there. Make a quick, simple video and stick it on YouTube. Take this issue and dramatize it. One idea is to have a young boy or girl asking their dad (their dramatized AIG-bonus-accepting-dad), “Why do we need all that money, Daddy? Why are all those people so mad at us, Daddy?” And, yes, roll those names.

Maybe this is a terrible idea. Maybe it seems like a witch hunt. Your comments are invited – as a matter of fact, if you’re reading this, do me the favor of letting me know by responding in the comments. Tell us what you think about it.

Transparency in new media is powerful. We might even find some CEOs who are NOT accepting these sickeningly huge, irrational, untimely piles of moolah. That would be really great. Shine the big light and see if something good pops out. We could all use that.

Get a little bit more active on social media. It doesn’t have to be a big time sink. Write a simple blog, learn a bit about Twitter and see what’s really happening in that conversation. More voices is a good thing.

To our empowerment as caring citizens,

Suzanna Stinnett

Use the exponential Internet to further this conversation by putting a hash tag in your posts: #AIGangst

p.s. If you find my posts interesting, informative and/or helpful, I’d like you to subscribe in that upper right column so you can become part of my web community. I send my subscribers brain-health tips and other fun items for learning about online communication. Come join in.

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Getting noticed

For those of us who have been exploring and utilizing online communication for a while, it might go something like this:

We’ve prepared our trail of crumbs, hyper-linking our new friends back to us. There’s our home page, it’s the front porch. The porch swing has its comfy pillows. Before we go out, we dress up with just the right shades of red and blue, choose a few associates willing to stand with us, and then board the boat, bound for the bright lights of Social Media City.

A little momentum

We fuel the launch with our special notion of “value” in strings of words, showy links, and gestures of good faith thrown into the void of social media networking. Soon we arrive in cyber-public, navigating the steps in our strange new shoes.

Teetering out in public

Now we know how rising supermodels feel. Right? Walking out on that runway, all those eyes on you, critically observing your drape, your gait, your essence.

Or not. Maybe your onlookers are enraptured still with their own thoughts, pinging around in their brains, and your special moment of self expression is just the revolving screen saver, background eye candy for a disengaged audience. In new media, it’s called lurking. Onlurkers?

Still, the potential to be noticed, observed, and even replicated, imitated or plagiarized can be a body rush. The potential, at least when it’s well articulated, can really get your attention. It’s called “the world.”

Brain behind the curtain

You could ask yourself the same questions that a slender new clothes-colt might ask of her onlookers: Who is really watching? Who really cares? Who might be an ally here, who will rise to defeat me? Can any of these people launch me to fame, wealth, notoriety, or even a good time at the bar?

We’re humans, you know, and even as we extend our neural reach into exponential other-lands, we don’t quite get the power of what we’re doing. Boy, does it feel strange to know that your words could enter the viral spread and become part of the collective mind.

How many lurkers does it take…

So back to that potential. I’m thinking that lurkers make up such a large percentage of the observing online population, they must actually be considered part of that potential itself. After all, lots of people lurk before they participate, so they are actually changed by the experience of lurking.

How many lurkers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Are lurkers actually providing a kind of cushion, like mulch in a garden, protecting the emerging energies while they gather light? Do we love our lurkers as the future sparks they are?

Suzanna

Other interesting conversations: John Battelle

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Here’s the deal today, people. As an advocate (evangelist, even) for the power of online communication (or social media, or new media) to do great things rapidly in our society, I am using every tool I have at my disposal to help the family of Hollis Hawthorne as they raise the necessary funds to move her from a hospital in India to the room waiting for her at Stanford Medical Center.

What we all need to do here is give a couple of dollars (you know exactly how much you can  contribute to this, so do what is right for you) to the fund for Hollis. You can read the details of what happened on the blog set up for her, here.

Friends of Hollis blog

Briefly, Hollis is one of our cherished community members who suffered serious injuries in a freak accident while touring India with her boyfriend. She is in a coma. The hospital in India cannot provide the care she needs, and her family is raising the money to medi-vac her to Stanford. It costs a great deal of money to do this. They have already raised $50,000 through online communities, check that out! The awesome news today is that she is off the respirator and already on a miraculous track. We want to keep it that way and get her home to the best care in the world, which we happen to have right here in the Bay area.

Here’s what I am asking you to do. Go to the blog through the link above, and donate any small amount you can to this fund. That’s not all. I want you to keep telling people about this, because we need to act quickly. The Internet has its exponential capacity in place, let’s use it for the best possible cause. Saving someone’s life.

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Stories about social media and the way it is affecting our lives are circulating around and around the web right now.

Yesterday, my friend Julie told me that she literally feels her brain reaching to understand how it all works. She also said something very intriguing. Julie notices that the more she learns about using technology to communicate, the better her brain capacities are in other, unrelated areas. I’ve had the same experience. Confronted with some little mechanical problem which would have frustrated me in the past, I find I have a little more capacity, a little more patience, and a little more curiosity to see if I can fix it myself. This makes for a sparkly little moment.

The key is to give yourself very manageable goals that you can approach without overwhelm. Then, the brain will engage this playfully—and that is the onramp to successful participation in social media. Here I offer little goals that can be broken down into even smaller parts. Relax when you read, nice deep breath, let go of tension. Okay. Here we go.

Three little social media goals

1. Become visible in social media.
2. Include yourself in the conversation.
3. Give your brain a chance to expand its innovative capacity by using these tools.

Become visible

Simple. You have to participate to be seen.

Include yourself

Once you start sharing on Facebook, for example, the door is open to the kinds of conversations that you want to develop for your goals. Don’t be deceived by the openness of these platforms. It may seem awfully loose and unformed, but you can place parameters of your own so that your activities are focused and productive. People are doing it right now, very effectively.

Give your brain a chance

In order to grow a thriving business in the 21st century, you must develop your capacity to innovate. Without these skills, your ability to steer your own life is greatly impaired.

Getting involved in social media is the best way I know of to get your own brain into the game of innovating appropriately for your business. Facebook is probably the fastest-moving, highest-visibility, easiest-learning curve platform. It is designed to give you options to fit your own goals and your mindset.

Initiate contact. Play with it for a while, keep an open mind, search for like-mindeds. Be patient and give it a little time. Soon you’ll understand how people are using it. There’s a bonus, too. Your brain is forming new areas of understanding that, as I mentioned above, can extend beyond technology.

A few puzzle pieces to consider:

Inventiveness is a 21st century mandate for a prosperous life.

Don’t let your brain convince you that old habits are good habits. Thriving in these times demands that you rise above the status quo.

Social media is just a normal, human conversation

You already know that the best marketing for any business is word of mouth. Referrals. What has always been in place is the exchange of experiences. We talk. We share.

Check that: Just a normal, human conversation. On warp speed.

It’s not just that technology puts the conversation into the exponential realm, it’s the speed involved.

Exponential potential: From 1 person to 1000 in eight steps.  Now add the speed of an instant message. What’s that speed? It’s very close to “now.” Still with me? One person to a thousand people, off goes the message you’ve delivered, now. You probably understand the “viral” nature of online interactions, but I want to highlight that as a real challenge to our brains.

You just have to start somewhere: 3 more tips to get you going

Find a buddy to play with, and see how far you can get just using the simple tutorials offered on Facebook and Twitter, for starters.

Learn from people more advanced who are teaching social media to their communities.

If you enjoy writing, start a simple blog and experience the little thrill of online publishing.

Most of all, smile, and keep breathing. Your brain loves that.

Suzanna

Learn to write practical online content