I am seeing the magical number seven, plus or minus two, being misapplied to team sizes with increasing regularity. The frequent use of George Miller’s famous paper is often accompanied by a common misunderstanding. Lots of people are saying; “Your team should be between 5 and 9 people”, or “Teams should contain 7 people, plus […]
Category: Psychology
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World No Resources Day
Today (1st May) is World No Resources Day, a day intended to promote humanity in the workplace. On the official World No Resources Day website, the message is simple: “…please be careful not to use the word “resource” at work when referring to people. If you catch someone else doing this, please call them out.” […]
A lot of people have been bragging about their GitHub contributions and sharing their “sea-of-green” activity charts on the line, but what is the ideal activity chart? All green? All dark-green? Here is my humble GitHub activity; a scattering of occasional contributions. Many might be ashamed of such a humble activity report – but not […]
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, along with the famous pyramid diagram that so often accompanies it, is often misunderstood thanks to a superficial understanding of what it really means. The traditional diagram usually takes the form of the sketch above (although it has been embellished in many ways) – a stack of five classes of needs […]
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Deep Thinking And Metacognition
I have read a good few books recently about the mind. From some rather straight-laced but fascinating books from the Psychology section to some rather more casual but equally interesting books such as Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer. I have also been reading about secular mindfulness, partly sceptically but with an open mind where […]
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The Flux Capacitor Of Influence
I wrote a while back about the flux capacitor of control, which essentially is a technique you can use to spend your energy on fruitful pursuits. I realise now that this technique is one small step on a longer journey and I wanted to expand on the original ideas with what I have learned so […]
I finished Bruner’s Toward a Theory of Instruction some time ago now – but it keeps on popping back into my head. This is fast becoming one of the most valuable books I have ever read. I would go as far as saying that I have a different perspective on things now because of that […]
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Mind Your Language
I am currently reading Toward a Theory of Instruction (Bruner, 1966) and it expands on the famous article by George A Miller; The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two (Miller, 1955). Miller’s article explains how a person can store 7±2 chunks of information in short-term memory. The word “chunks” is used quite deliberately as […]
You know that moment when something clicks. You have struggled with it for ages and expended effort on it, but then suddenly it is easy? That click is the moment that your system 1 process has been given enough examples to automatically form a set of information to make the task feel effortless. System 1? […]
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On Observing a Person
I don’t believe it is possible to study psychology without being changed by it. Understanding how your mind works is fascinating but the unending journey is not for the faint-hearted. I have been interested by other people for a long time and used to take dark-enjoyment from “translating” what people said into what they really […]