Welcome to the August issue of The Exponential Executive.

In this Issue

	A Beer Summit for the Future?
	Train Your Brain to Unlearn
	Want to Understand the Future? Study History.
	Whatever You Do, Don't Tell Your Kid He's Smart!

In Other News

Interested in the future of manufacturing? Perhaps health care or the oil industry ? Or maybe even the publishing industry. Regardless of your interest, just click on the associated link for a peek into the future.

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A Beer Summit for the Future?

Perhaps, it was the much hyped "Beer Summit" President Obama held last week that has beer on my mind. Or maybe it's just that it's summer and I enjoy a tall, cold one as much as the next person which has the topic on my mind. Regardless, if you want to think like an Exponential Executive, I invite you to "Jump the Curve with a Nice, Cold Corona ." You may be surprised at how far we've come in the past few years ... and how far we still have to go.

Train Your Brain to Unlearn

Quick. I want you to say aloud what color you see in every word in the chart to the right. Do not say the word you read. (For example, sometimes the word "white" will appear in the color red so you would say "red.") The quiz, better known as the Stoop task, is a classic psychology experiment and is used in neuropsychological evaluations to measure mental vitality and flexibility. It can also help you unlearn. Click here to find out how.

Want to Understand the Future? Study History.

In his famous speech at Rice University where he declared it was America’s intention to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, President Kennedy said “the greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds,” adding that “the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension .” Kennedy went on to offer a historical perspective for the magnitude of change society had experienced over the course of human history. I invite you to read on if you're interested in understanding how the future is about to change in the "blick of the eye."
 

Whatever You Do, Don't Tell Your Kid He's Smart!

Like many of you, the bookshelf by my bed is stacked with more books than I can possibly read. As a result, after my wife and I put our kids to bed, I often find myself reading two or three books concurrently. One of the beauties of this approach is that you can stumble upon serendipitous insights.

One such insight occurred the other night. I first read some of the "Thinking Course" by Edward de Bono. In the book, de Bono argues that intelligence is different from thinking. In fact, de Bono even argues that "intelligence" can be detrimental to thinking when it is used to defend an erroneous point of view. He calls this the "intelligence trap" and writes "[Intelligent people can so ably defend their point of view that actual exploration of the matter seems a waste of time."

Next, I began reading Jonah Lehrer's new book, "How We Decide." In an early chapter he highlights the extraordinary work of Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford who has spent her career demonstrating that one of the crucial ingredients of a successful education is the ability to learn from mistakes.

Alas, most teachers -- and many parents -- teach the exact opposite of this very important lesson. These well-intentioned individuals instead praise kids for "being smart" when what they should be doing is praising kids for their effort instead.

In one experiment, Dweck gave 400 kids a test. Afterward, she praised half for being intelligent. ("You must be really smart.") The second half were praised for their effort. Next, she offered both groups a choice between two follow-up tests. One test was easy and the second was more difficult. Surprisingly, 90% who were praised for their effort went for the more difficult test while a majority of the "smart" kids went for the easy test. Why? Because the smart kids didn't want to risk losing their "special" status if they failed the test. 

The results don't end there, however. Many of the kids who were praised for effort actually enjoyed the more difficult test and were more interested in learning from their mistakes. While those who were at first praised for their intelligence were more easily discouraged when they didn't do well and were thus confronted with the reality that they were no longer as "smart" or intelligent.

Both lessons highlight the fact that we may want to unlearn how we view intelligence. Intelligence used in defense of a bad idea is not intelligent. Nor is it wise to praise people for their "intelligence" if that praise has the counter-productive affect of encouraging them to become less intelligent.