Kathy Sierra in her blog Creating Passionate Users,  has written a long but very insightful post on the workings of the brain and how individuals are affected by people who are very angry or happy. It’s a facinating read on neuroscience research and its helping me see why its important to be careful who I spend time with. Below is the introduction to the post. A quick trip to the Creating Passionate Users blog is well worth your time.

Everyone’s favorite A-list target, Robert Scoble, announced the unthinkable a few days ago: he will be moderating his comments. But what some people found far more disturbing was Robert’s wish to make a change in his life that includes steering clear of “people who were deeply unhappy” and hanging around people who are happy. The harsh reaction he’s gotten could be a lesson in scientific ingorance, because the neuroscience is behind him on this one.

Whether it’s a good move is up to each person to decide, but I’ve done my best here to offer some facts. [Disclaimer: I'm not an authority on the brain! I have, however, spent the last 15 years doing research and applying it, both in my work and also because I have a serious brain disorder, and my brain knowledge could be a matter of life and death. Another disclaimer: I haven't spoken with Robert about this; I'm simply offering some science that supports the decision he may have made for entirely different reasons.]

A few things I’ll try to explain in this post:

1) One of the most important recent neuroscience discoveries–“mirror neurons”, and the role they play in a decision like Robert’s

2) The heavily-researched social science phenomenon known as “emotional contagion”

3) Ignorance and misperceptions around the idea of “happy people”

Brent pre-smtwl

I like this new tool called Scribd. It gives you the means to quickly upload any docs and file types quickly to the web and then embed the doc in your web or blog. Very cool.

The 8 Blogging Habits of Highly Effective People

I see a number of connections between the benefits of blogging catalogued by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel in Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, and the 8 habits of effectiveness and greatness outlined by Stephen Covey in his two most famous books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons for Personal Change, and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. I already blogged about how blogging is a natural channel through which to practice the 8th habit, find your voice and inspire others to find theirs: every blogger has a voice, and reading other blogs often helps inspire me to take more risks in my own blogging. Having recently finished Naked Conversations — and having continued to blog for two years since my initial observation — I see even greater relevance between blogging and [other] habits of effectiveness and greatness.

For more, click here to go to the Gumption Blog.

Brent pre-smtwl