I have the bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book to see how it ends while I'm still in the middle of it. This habit1people around me. Often my2wouldn't be confined(局限)just to the books I read but also to what others were3as well. Finally, one day my daughter told me with a little4. "Dad, please just read a book one page at a time like everyone else!"
At times I didn't5this bad habit to just reading books either. I also tried to skip ahead in my life and6what to do months and even years from now instead of7each day as it is intended. I knew that the book of my life wasn't done yet and that I had many8left to go.9, that didn't stop me from trying to write the10half-way through. Time and again, I would11jump ahead and try to solve every potential problem before it12so I could reach that storybook happily ever after ending. Life, however, doesn't13like that. It loves to14us, and you never know what new problem or opportunity each new day will bring.
Life has often had to 15me to slow down. Recently, when I found myself16to that bad habit of rushing ahead and living in the17again, I felt a special voice gently telling me," Live one day at a time." Then I smiled, and turned the book of my life back to the18page. Each of us has to live the book of life one page and one day at a time. Each of us has to write it 19 and moment by moment. We have to trust that it will bring our 20 to its perfect end.
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Technology makes listening to holiday music easier than ever. There are endless sources to help you find your favorite Christmas tunes and many other songs. People have explored how to listen to holiday music with high-tech devices.
Apple Music
This is the first year you can use Apple Music to listen to holiday songs. Apple Music has more than 30 million songs and is available in over 100 countries.
Tell voice assistant Siri to "play holiday music" to open the music program on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. Apple Music app is available in the Google Play store, but not with a voice assistant.
For the first three months, you can use it for free. After that, users have to pay a subscription fee.
Google Play Music
Google Play Music is also in the holiday spirit. Go to the Google Play Music Holiday page and search for "holiday music."
Google Play Music is available for free if you don't mind the advertisements. If you do, buy a paid subscription to avoid them. Google Play Music offers more than 30 million songs from 58 countries.
Tune In Radio
Listen to radio stations with Tune In Radio. This is an online service and offers stations from all seven continents in the world, including Antarctica. Tune In Radio is available on your computer and is free to online users. In the United States, Britain and Canada, a paid subscription gives you more stations without advertisements.
As PhD research goes, Brian Wisenden was enviable, watching baby fish swimming swiftly through the clear waters in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest. By recording their growth and numbers, he hoped to look at their risks of being eaten. Instead, he witnessed something odd. Many groups were increasing in numbers. In these groups, some were smaller than others, suggesting they weren't siblings(兄弟姐妹). Wisenden had accidentally discovered that the fish, called convict cichlids, adopt each other's babies. Why would they do that, he wondered?
In the human world, we think of adoption as a selfless act. But in nature, its presence is puzzling. Taking on the burden of bringing up babies with no genetic link would seem to reduce an animal's chances of survival or at least provide no gain. Yet, adoption is surprisingly common in the world.
Take the eastern grey kangaroo. Between 2008 and 2013, Wisenden followed the fates of 326 baby kangaroos in the National Park in Victoria and recorded 11 cases of pouch swapping. The circumstances behind some of these adoptions aren't known, but four were straight swaps and another four occurred after a mother had lost her own baby.
How come? Before independence, baby kangaroos go through a period inside and outside their mother's pouch. Following out-of-pouch forays, mothers normally sniff their young before allowing them back in, but Wisenden's team suspect that during an emergency they may skip the sniff test, allowing a vulnerable baby to quickly climb in before fleeing from danger. Once inside the wrong pouch, the young may fake the mother's odor, making them smell confusingly like her own progeny. So, poor baby recognition is the prime cause of "accidental" adoption.
Some of nature's adoptions are, actually, driven by young looking for better prospects. In burrower bugs, for example, females lay a nest of eggs close to those of unrelated bugs. Mother bugs tend their developing eggs before they hatch, then feed their babies nuts from weedy mint plants. Finding nuts is a competitive business, so not every mother bug gets her fair share. And if the delivery rate isn't up to scratch, clever young may abandon their mothers to join a better-fed group. That's similar to behavior in several species of gull whose babies, if poorly fed, may leave home in search of better parents.
The consequences of adoption following mistaken identity can be dire. The true babies of adopting mothers were abandoned. But it can have remarkable benefits, not just for adoptees but also for adoptive parents.
The outstanding biography—from the same author who brought us Steve Jobs and Einstein—portrays the life of the complicated Renaissance(文艺复兴时期的)artist with details. We come to see da Vinci as not only an inventor of musical instruments and early flying machines, but also a notebook keeper and vegetarian(素食者), who had trouble finishing many of the projects and paintings he started.
Yet what is most thrilling is getting to know da Vinci the scientist. Isaacson explains how loving science and applying the scientific method to observing the world was really what made da Vinci a great artist and, Isaacson argues, a genius.
Da Vinci was fascinated with observing and understanding phenomena in nature, from the proportions of the human body to how the muscles of the lips moved. He wanted to know about everything around him, in minute detail, Isaacson writes. He wondered about questions "most people over the age of ten no longer puzzle about"—for instance, how the tongue of a woodpecker works.
To learn about the world, da Vinci combined his own observations with experimentation. Never formally schooled, "he preferred to induce from experiments rather than deduce from theoretical principles," Isaacson explains. He recorded his observations, looked for patterns among them, and then tested those patterns through additional observation and experimentation.
When he became fascinated with the idea that he could invent flying machines, three and a half centuries before the Wright brothers flew the first airplane, he observed various birds and filled notebooks with the function and speed at which their wings flapped. That's why Isaacson calls da Vinci an exemplar of this scientific method." He goes on: "Galileo, born 112 years after Leonardo, is usually credited with being the first to develop this kind of approach and is often regarded as the father of modern science," the historian Frit of Capra wrote. "There can be no doubt that this honor would have been bestowed(赐予)on Leonardo da Vinci had he published his scientific writings during his lifetime, or had his notebooks been widely studied soon after his death."
Da Vinci's emphasis on empirical observation also helped him improve his art. First, he was able to use what he learned from looking at nature to paint and draw. His studies of the body, animals, motion, shadow and light, perspective and proportion helped him better understand what he was seeing in front of him, and render it in art more accurately and finely than anyone else of his time. He also used his observations of nature to make connections among phenomena. A recorder(竖笛)was like a larynx(喉管)in the throat. Here's Isaacson again: What Leonardo probably began as four distinct elements ended up woven together in a way that illustrates a fundamental theme in his art and science: the interconnectedness of nature, the unity of its patterns, and the similarity between the workings of the human body and those of the earth.
Most importantly, his curiosity-driven explorations, and ability to connect art and science, helped him innovate in his work. They helped him think differently, Isaacson argues. Da Vinci made surprisingly diverse series of discoveries, including conceptualizing the helicopter and solar power and advancing knowledge about everything from the reproductive organs to botany. This genius is also what drew Isaacson to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs as subjects: They're all innovators who were inspired by and drew connections between art and science.
"Leonardo da Vinci is the ultimate example of the main theme of my previous biographies: how the ability to make connections across disciplines — arts and sciences, humanities and technology — is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius," Isaacson writes. And this wonderful book is a reminder, in a time of increasingly narrow specialization and focus, that the methods of Renaissance men like da Vinci are as relevant as ever.
Expertise is what separates the amateur from the true master in almost any field, from medicine to science, sports or artistic performance. What exactly is expertise? Is it about how much you know? Is it about being able to perform an action well? "Expertise is generally defined as peak, or exceptionally high levels of performance on a particular task or within a given field," explained researcher Lyle E. Bourne, Jr. of the University of Colorado Boulder and his colleagues. "One who achieves this status is called an expert, or some related terms, such as master, or genius. These terms are meant to label someone whose performance is at the top of the game?'
Some of the critical components of expertise are knowledge, skill, and achievement. People who become experts tend to acquire a body of knowledge that makes them one of the most informed individuals in their field. They also possess the skills that they need to determine when and how to use their knowledge. Such skills are often learned, but they can also be influenced by natural talent and ability. Finally, people who possess expertise also tend to excel in their field and achieve far above and beyond what the average person does.
Can anyone become an expert? Anders Ericsson of the University of Florida, a world-famous expert on peak performance, believes that what separates the amateur from the expert is what is referred to as deliberate practice. Ordinary practice can help people become skilled at a task, but gaining true expertise involves practicing in a way that pushes the boundaries of current skill levels and knowledge. Such practice is highly concentrated and involves working on things that are outside of your current skill level, setting goals, and receiving training and instruction from a qualified teacher.
So what does it really take to gain true expertise? Firstly, it takes work. People who become experts in any field spend a tremendous amount of time, energy, and hard work on learning. Secondly, it takes deliberate practice. The more you practice, the better you will perform in your area of interest. Finally, it takes continuous challenges. Practice is essential for developing a skill, but becoming an expert requires constantly challenging yourself to do better, learn more, and acquire new knowledge and skills. Simply practising the same skills over and over again will make you better in those areas, but it won't lead to true expertise. Even if you become very good at a skill within a particular field, this doesn't mean that even greater expertise is out of reach. More learning, more knowledge, and better performance arc still possible with further challenges and practice.
Researchers continue to debate exactly what it takes to become an expert, There is no doubt, however, that it requires time, practice, and commitment.
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How Hard Is It to Become an Expert at Something |
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The of expertise and an expert |
Expertise refers to outstanding skills or knowledge in a particular field. An expert is one with expertise. |
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Critical components of expertise |
●The of a body of special knowledge enables experts to be among the most informed in their field. ●The possession of the skills acquired by nurture and influenced by helps experts determine when and how to apply their knowledge. ●Their much greater achievement in their fields is attributed to expertise. |
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A professional on gaining true expertise |
According to Anders Ericsson, the to becoming an expert is deliberate and highly concentrated practice, featuring self-challenges. goals, training and instruction. Thus, you are able to extend your current skills and knowledge beyond your . |
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Tips on acquiring true expertise |
●Becoming an expert involves masses of time T energy and effort in learning. ●Deliberate practice counts. ● practice at the same skills isn't enough to make a true expert. Instead, you have) to yourself to learn smiting new and practise more. ●Even if you excel in your field, you still have the for improvement. |
