This is an excellent illustration that the applications of basic research cannot always be predicted. In this case it started more basically than research: art!

The video talks about using dead people to do the work for you! It goes into the mathematics of origami, and their modern uses in satellites, surgery and airbags!

Watch this, especially if you are avoiding doing real work by browsing the web.

Another nice TED talk, this time on insights on psychology from brain studies. Here is a summary.

We were not built to be happy, we were built to reproduce. We can be romantically in love with someone, attached to someone else and connect with someone else.

So we must build our own happiness.

Here is an interesting example of male-female differences mentioned.

Women tend to look at each other when intimate because of their relationship with babies.

Men tend to face their enemies, and stand by their friends, because of their hunting-fighting background.

And an older talk, where at min 17 she mentions that lust, romantic love and attachment are controlled by 3 systems in the brain that do not necessarily need to concern the same person. So we are not made to be happy.

This is one of the times something made sense because someone was better at me at expressing something I had independently (perhaps almost) concluded and experienced for myself.

The talk is about achieving or being in flow. I sometimes achieve it when writing, it happened to me during an aikido grading where I was feeling invincible while being thrown around continuously, sometimes even when doing lab work with a protocol I have mastered and trying to beat my previous record.

Now that I know about it, I can consciously strive to achieve being in flow more often.

According to the talk, you achieve flow when you strike a balance between being too aroused, if the task is too challenging, and being in control, if you are more skilled than the task requires.

In more detail, the speaker defines the state of flow through the following simultaneous achievements:

Focus - complete involvement, concentration

Ecstasy - being outside everyday reality (perhaps because you run out of sufficient brainpower to support experiencing the everyday reality!)

Clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well you are doing

Confidence - knowing the task is doable and you are adequate

Serenity - peace with yourself, growing beyond boundaries of ego

Timelessness - hours seem to pass like minutes due to focus on the present

Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces flow becomes its own award

Needless to say I find the video well worth of your time.

Original text on a building.

1) Do one thing at a time

2) Know the problem

3) Learn to listen

4) Learn to ask questions

5) Distinguish sense from nonsense

6) Accept change as inevitable

7) Admit mistakes

8) Say it simple

9) Be calm

10) Smile

From the author of 'Predictably irrational'. Lots of captivating examples, humour and an inspiring message. 20 minutes well spent.