The Weekly Circle #2
Welcome to the second episode of The Weekly Circle. A free Circles in Time newsletter released every Sunday.
Hey everybody,
It was a busy week for me. I spent the majority of it teaching applied behavioural science at a local grad school here in Cape Town.
My module covered many topics Circles in Time members would be familiar with, but applied to business and social challenges, instead of personal ones. The three core behavioural challenges the grad students explored this year were domestic gender-based violence reporting; group participation on a physical health community platform; and improving funeral planning decision making. Each one important and fascinating in its own right.
As with previous years, I came away energised and excited about the future of the field. I also have a whole new level of respect for all those doing some form of teaching amidst the current state of the world. Having to teach a physical class and an online one at the same time, running socially-distanced collaboration breakaways; and dealing with all the entry and exit covid-protocols. It was tough and exhausting. And I just did it for a week!
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully, I’ve inspired one or two of these students to begin exploring the world of behavioural science on their own. Let’s see.
Public launch of the August 24 Circles in Time Programme
As of next week, I will be kicking off a set of public campaigns to launch the next edition of the Circles in Time programme on self-applied behavioural science.
As I mentioned last week, I only have 60 seats for this edition, so if you are on the mailing list, and haven’t completed the programme yet, please make sure you sign up in the next few days. I cannot guarantee you a seat otherwise.
For those who have completed the programme, and know of people that may be interested, please share the above link with them.
WORLD VIEWS
Here are the ideas I’ve been circling around this week.
THE WORLD AROUND US
Updating the Habit Loop
James Clear’s excellent book, Atomic Habits, made it to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list this week. A big milestone for him and self-applied behavioural science more broadly. In celebration, I have been reflecting on a few of the original ideas he introduced in Atomic Habits.
One the lesser-known yet hugely important contributions that Clear introduced was a reimagination of the famous habit loop, popularised by the author Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit.
The habit loop (as seen below), posits that there are necessary components, required for the formation of any habit. A cue, a routine and a reward.
The power of the habit loop framework is in its simplicity. Yet, as James Clear, elegantly argued in Atomic Habits, it missed out on a crucial step. Namely: craving.
Adding the craving step exposes an important insight about habit formation. In short, external cues aren’t as stable as we like to think. The slab of Lindt chocolate packaging may be an influential cue after a savoury dinner or a long run. Yet that very same cue has hardly any influence at 6 am in the morning, or after overindulging in a sugary dessert. This variability means the level of craving associated with the cue is important.
THE WORLD BETWEEN US
Understanding Empathy
Empathy is one of the most complex and perhaps controversial (see Paul Bloom’s book on the topic) social activities we all engage in. Jamil Zaki is one of my favorite thinkers on the subject, and someone I often return to when I want to understand empathy more deeply.
Zaki makes sense of empathy, not as a specific concept, but rather an umbrella term that captures at least three distinct but related processes through which one person responds to another person’s emotional state.
The three forms of empathy according to Zaki are the following:
Experience sharing - Catching another person’s emotions or in other words vicariously taking on the same emotional state as the perceived state of another.
Mentalising - Considering how another person feels, and why they feel that way.
Compassion - Developing concern for another person’s emotional state, and feeling motivated to help that person feel better.
Zaki recently published a fascinating book called ‘The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World’ that explores empathy in the modern world. It is part-popular science book, part-battle cry for us all to be a bit more empathetic.
THE WORLD WITHIN US
Mapping the Human Genome
The interview below is a fascinating conversation between Lex Friedman and Manolis Kellis, who heads up the Computational Biology Group at MIT. Manolis speaks clearly and simply about complex topics including human genomics, virus intelligence, immune systems, cell mutation and the links between human cognition and artificial computation. An inspirational reminder of how far humans have come, and all the exciting discoveries that lay in store.
WISE WORDS
The quotes I’ve been circling around this week.
“People don't have short attention spans. They have short interest spans. If they're interested, they'll give you their full attention.” ~ Jason Fried
“Most people think they lack motivation when they really lack clarity.” ~ James Clear
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~ Viktor Frankl
"Man has gone out to explore other worlds without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed." ~ Stanislaw Lem
"A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have." ~ Tim Ferriss
“The gold standard for identifying a habit is insensitivity to outcomes. Habitual actions continue even when the outcome changes.” ~ Wendy Wood
"If you eat, invest, and think according to what the ‘news’ advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially and morally bankrupt." ~ Naval Ravikant
“In life, and especially in love, I always have asked myself, ‘what would an interesting protagonist do in this situation?’ and then acted accordingly.” ~ Maya Sterin
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." ~ Marcus Aurelius
"Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish." ~ Hermann Hesse
COMMUNITY
To all those who have joined the Circles in Time community so far, welcome onboard!
I’ve got lots of exciting announcements to share during the coming week. These include the dates for the first community system setting workshop, the public programme impact evaluation report, an update on The Panacea Project, and a podcast launch. Stay tuned for more.
If you have completed the Circles in Time programme and haven’t yet joined the community space you can do so here:
SOME PARTING INSPIRATION
Take care,
David