Posts Tagged: "TED Talk"

Maybe We Should Talk To Strangers

I’m a typical Seattleite—polite, but in a distancy-kind-of-way. Definitely not chatty. Socially cocooned.

Whenever I read about the Seattle Freeze, I get it… I mean I really get it. But maybe we should talk to strangers.

That’s the conclusion I’m arriving at after watching Kio Stark’s TED Talk.

Here are my favorite lines from Why You Should Talk to Strangers:

“There are… huge benefits to using our senses instead of our fears. The first one is that it liberates us. When you think about it, using perception instead of categories is much easier said than done. Categories are something our brains use.”

When it comes to people, it’s sort of a shortcut for learning about them.

“We see male, female, young, old, black, brown, white, stranger, friend, and we use the information in that box. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s a road to bias. And it means we’re not thinking about people as individuals.”

Also—that description she used, “civil inattention,” um, wow. And ouch.

Her line about how “a dog or baby is social conduit” is funny and true.

I especially loved the part about how “we tend to meet disclosure with disclosure, even with strangers.”

Basically, I’m thinking the Seattle Freeze could use some… Read More

The Power of Powerless Communication

- - Uncategorized, Video

From best selling author Susan Cain

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant, the youngest tenured professor at Wharton and author of The New York Times bestseller Give and Take, has been researching the difference between communication patterns – those who use dominance, and others who use questions and admit uncertainty. And he has presented a groundbreaking concept: the power of powerless communication.

Grant says that people who pose questions instead of answers, admit their shortcomings, and use tentative instead of assertive speech are some of the world’s most powerful communicators.

People who use “powerless” communication styles fall into two categories—some are… Read More

Stone Catchers

Bryan Stevenson is a human rights lawyer and author – his book Just Mercy is a NY Times Bestseller. The following is from a 2012 interview with Chris Hedges for Smithsonian Magazine:

bryan stevenson post

Stevenson turns frequently to the Bible. He quotes to me from the Gospel of John, where Jesus says of the woman who committed adultery: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

He tells me an elderly black woman once called him a “stone catcher.”

“There is no such thing as being a Christian and… Read More