UBC Wiki - User contributions [en]

User:DavidKohler/full engagement training system

2016-03-15T16:47:47Z

DavidKohler:

= Summary of the full engagement training system =
There are 25 items in this summary.

=== Objective ===
Perform in the storm.
* Build the necessary capacity to sustain high performance in the face of increasing demand.

=== Central conclusion ===
Energy is the fundamental currency of high performance.
* Capacity is a function of one's ability to expand and recover energy.
* Every thought, feeling and action has an energy consequence.
* Energy is the most important individual and organizational resource.

=== Full engagement ===
Optimal energy in the context of high performance.
* Physically energized
* Emotionally connected
* Mentally focused
* Spiritually aligned

=== Full engagement is a consequence of the skillful management of energy in all dimensions ===

=== Full engagement principles ===
* Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance.
* Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
* Because energy capacity diminishes with both overuse and underuse, we must learn to balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.
* To build capacity, me must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.
* Positive energy rituals -highly specific routines for managing energy- are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

=== Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy ===
* Physical capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the physical level.
* Emotional capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the emotional level.
* Mental capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the mental level.
* Spiritual capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the spiritual level.
* The most fundamental source of energy is physical. The most significant source of energy is spiritual.

=== Four sources of energy ===
* Physical capacity is defined by ''quantity'' of energy.
* Emotional capacity is defined by ''quality'' of energy.
* Mental capacity is defined by ''focus'' of energy.
* Spiritual capacity is defined by ''force'' of energy.

=== Measuring energy ===
* The ''quantity'' of available energy is measured in terms of volume (low to high).
* The ''quality'' of available energy is measured in terms of unpleasant (negative) to pleasant (positive).
* The ''focus'' of available energy is measured in terms of broad to narrow and external to internal.
* The ''force'' of available energy is measured in terms of self to others, external to internal and negative to positive.

=== Optimal performance requires ===
* Greatest quantity of energy.
* Highest quality of energy.
* Clearest focus of energy.
* Maximum force of energy.

=== Barriers to full engagement ===
Negative habits that block, distort, waste, diminish, deplete and contaminate stored energy.

=== The full engagement training system ===
Removes barriers by establishing strategic positive energy rituals that insure sufficient capacity in all dimensions.

=== Positive energy rituals support effective energy management ===
* Skillful energy management requires summoning the appropriate quantity, quality, focus and force of energy.

=== Lifelong energy objective ===
To burn as brightly as possible, for as long as possible in the service of what really matters.
* Strongest possible physical pulse.
* Strongest possible emotional pulse.
* Strongest possible mental pulse.
* Strongest possible spiritual pulse.

=== Chronological age is fixed. Biological age can be modified with training ===
* Biological age (reflected in performance capacity) is determined by one's ability to effectively expand and recover energy.

=== Full engagement requires periodic strategic recovery ===
* The energy that serves full engagement is renewed and stored during periods of strategic recovery (disengagement).

=== The rhythmic movement between energy expenditure and energy recovery is called oscillation ===
* Oscillation refers to the optimal cycle of work/rest intervals.
* Chronic stress without recovery and chronic recovery without stress both serve to reduce capacity.
* In sport, these conditions are referred to as overtraining and undertraining.

=== The opposite of oscillation is linearity ===
* Linearity is excessive stress with insufficient recovery or excessive recovery with insufficient stress.
* High-pressure situations generate powerful forces of linearity.

=== Sustained high performance is best served by assuming the mentality of a sprinter, not a marathoner ===
* Over the span of a thirty- to forty-year career, performance is optimized by schedule work into 90- to 120- minute periods of intensive effort followed by shorter periods of recovery and renewal.

=== Most of us are undertrained physically and spiritually (not enough stress) and overtrained mentally and emotionally (not enough recovery) ===

=== Interval (cyclical) exercise is far superior to steady-state (non-cyclical) exercise in terms of enhancing energy-management skills ===

=== Energy in the human system is multidimensional ===
* A dynamic relationship exists between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.
* Changes in any one dimension of energy affect all dimensions.

=== Energy capacity follows development lines ===
* First level of development is physical.
* Second level of development is emotional/social.
* Third level of development is cognitive/mental.
* Fourth level of development is moral/spiritual.

=== Each of the four dimensions follows its own developmental stage ===

=== The full engagement training system begins spiritually with a connection to purpose ===
(Diagram of the four dimensions of energy as a pyramid with base physical and top spiritual. An arrow titled ''change'' goes from the top (spiritual) to the bottom (physical).)

=== High positive energy is the fuel for high performance ===
* High positive energy flows from the perception of opportunity, adventure and challenge (approach). Negative energy is precipitated by the perception of threat, danger and fears about survival (avoidance).

= Muscles analogies =

=== Primary capacities/skills (big muscles) ===
* Physical
** Heart and lungs
** Abdominals
** Shoulders and back
** Legs
** Arms
* Emotional
** Self-confidence
** Self-regulation
** Interpersonal effectiveness
** Empathy/caring
* Mental
** Focus
** Realistic optimism
** Time management
** Creativity
* Spiritual
** Character
** Passion/commitment
** Integrity
** Service to others

=== Supportive habits/skills (small muscles) ===
* Physical
** Sleep
** Exercise
** Diet
** Hydration
* Emotional
** Patience
** Openness
** Trust
** Enjoyment
* Mental
** Visualization
** Positive self-talk
** Positive attitude
** Mental preparation
* Spiritual
** Honesty
** Integrity
** Courage
** Persistance

= Organizational energy dynamics =
* A corporation or organization is simply a reservoir of potential energy that can be recruited in the service of an intended mission.
* Every individual in the corporate body is a reservoir of potential energy.
* Just as every cell in the human body is important to the overall health and vitality of the body, so every individual is important to the overall health and vitality of the corporate body.
* The corporate body is a living, breathing entity comprising individual cells of dynamic energy.
* The total capacity of the corporate body to do work is the sum of all of the capacities of the individual cells within the organization.
* The same principles of energy management that apply to individuals also apply to organizations.
* The most important organizational resource is energy.
* In order for an organization to optimize its potential, four separate but related forms of energy must be recruited in the service of the corporate mission: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
* Organizational energy capacity increases as individuals increase their collective capacity.
* A shared sense of corporate purpose, grounded in universal values, is the highest octane source of fuel for organizational action.
* The foundation of energy mobilization in the corporate body is ''physical''. The quality of fitness, diet, sleep, rest and hydration among individuals plays a foundational role in determining overall organizational capacity.
* The corporate body has a strong or a weak physical pulse which reflects its capacity for rhythmically expending and recovering energy.
* The corporate body has a strong or a weak emotional pulse which reflects its capacity for caring, compassion, confidence, enjoyment and challenge.
* The corporate body has a strong or a weak mental pulse which reflects its capacity for good decision making, logical thinking, clear thinking and creativity.
* The corporate body has a strong or a weak spiritual pulse which reflects its capacity for honesty, integrity, commitment and conviction.
* Leaders are the stewards of organizational energy. They recruit direct, channel, renew, focus and invest energy from all the individual cells in the service of the corporate mission.
* Great leaders are expert in mobilizing and focusing all of the energy resources in the corporate body in the service of the corporate mission.
* Great leaders recognize that high positive energy is the fuel for high performance. Every aspect of their leadership clearly reflects this understanding.
* The energy of each individual cell in the corporate body must be actively recruited This requires aligning individual and organizational purposes.
* Alignment drives performance. Lack of alignment significantly restricts the quantity, quality, focus and force of available energy.

= Most important physical energy management strategies =
* Go to bed early and wake up early
* Go to sleep and wake up consistently at the same times
* Eat five to six meals daily
* Eat a balanced and healthy diet
* Eat breakfast every day
* Minimize simple sugars
* Drink plenty of water
* Take breaks every 90 to 120 minutes during work
* Get some physical activity daily
* Do at least two cardiovascular interval workouts and two strength training workouts a week

User:DavidKohler/full engagement training system

2016-03-15T16:33:25Z

DavidKohler:

User:DavidKohler/full engagement training system

2016-03-15T16:27:49Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "=== Objective === Perform in the storm. * Build the necessary capacity to sustain high performance in the face of increasing demand. === Central conclusion === Energy is the..."

=== Objective ===
Perform in the storm.
* Build the necessary capacity to sustain high performance in the face of increasing demand.

=== Central conclusion ===
Energy is the fundamental currency of high performance.
* Capacity is a function of one's ability to expand and recover energy.
* Every thought, feeling and action has an energy consequence.
* Energy is the most important individual and organizational resource.

=== Full engagement ===
Optimal energy in the context of high performance.
* Physically energized
* Emotionally connected
* Mentally focused
* Spiritually aligned

=== Full engagement is a consequence of the skillful management of energy in all dimensions ===

=== Full engagement principles ===
* Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance.
* Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
* Because energy capacity diminishes with both overuse and underuse, we must learn to balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.
* To build capacity, me must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.
* Positive energy rituals -highly specific routines for managing energy- are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

=== Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy ===
* Physical capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the physical level.
* Emotional capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the emotional level.
* Mental capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the mental level.
* Spiritual capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the spiritual level.
* The most fundamental source of energy is physical. The most significant source of energy is spiritual.

=== Four sources of energy ===
* Physical capacity is defined by ''quantity'' of energy.
* Emotional capacity is defined by ''quality'' of energy.
* Mental capacity is defined by ''focus'' of energy.
* Spiritual capacity is defined by ''force'' of energy.

=== Measuring energy ===
* The ''quantity'' of available energy is measured in terms of volume (low to high).
* The ''quality'' of available energy is measured in terms of unpleasant (negative) to pleasant (positive).
* The ''focus'' of available energy is measured in terms of broad to narrow and external to internal.
* The ''force'' of available energy is measured in terms of self to others, external to internal and negative to positive.

=== Optimal performance requires ===
* Greatest quantity of energy.
* Highest quality of energy.
* Clearest focus of energy.
* Maximum force of energy.

=== Barriers to full engagement ===
Negative habits that block, distort, waste, diminish, deplete and contaminate stored energy.

=== The full engagement training system ===
Removes barriers by establishing strategic positive energy rituals that insure sufficient capacity in all dimensions.

=== Positive energy rituals support effective energy management ===
* Skillful energy management requires summoning the appropriate quantity, quality, focus and force of energy.

=== Lifelong energy objective ===
To burn as brightly as possible, for as long as possible in the service of what really matters.
* Strongest possible physical pulse.
* Strongest possible emotional pulse.
* Strongest possible mental pulse.
* Strongest possible spiritual pulse.

=== Chronological age is fixed. Biological age can be modified with training ===
* Biological age (reflected in performance capacity) is determined by one's ability to effectively expand and recover energy.

=== Full engagement requires periodic strategic recovery ===
* The energy that serves full engagement is renewed and stored during periods of strategic recovery (disengagement).

=== The rhythmic movement between energy expenditure and energy recovery is called oscillation ===
* Oscillation refers to the optimal cycle of work/rest intervals.
* Chronic stress without recovery and chronic recovery without stress both serve to reduce capacity.
* In sport, these conditions are referred to as overtraining and undertraining.

=== The opposite of oscillation is linearity ===
* Linearity is excessive stress with insufficient recovery or excessive recovery with insufficient stress.
* High-pressure situations generate powerful forces of linearity.

=== Sustained high performance is best served by assuming the mentality of a sprinter, not a marathoner ===
* Over the span of a thirty- to forty-year career, performance is optimized by schedule work into 90- to 120- minute periods of intensive effort followed by shorter periods of recovery and renewal.

=== Most of us are undertrained physically and spiritually (not enough stress) and overtrained mentally and emotionally (not enough recovery) ===

=== Interval (cyclical) exercise is far superior to steady-state (non-cyclical) exercise in terms of enhancing energy-management skills ===

=== Energy in the human system is multidimensional ===
* A dynamic relationship exists between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.
* Changes in any one dimension of energy affect all dimensions.

=== Energy capacity follows development lines ===
* First level of development is physical.
* Second level of development is emotional/social.
* Third level of development is cognitive/mental.
* Fourth level of development is moral/spiritual.

=== Each of the four dimensions follows its own developmental stage ===

=== The full engagement training system begins spiritually with a connection to purpose ===
(Diagram of the four dimensions of energy as a pyramid with base physical and top spiritual. An arrow titled ''change'' goes from the top (spiritual) to the bottom (physical).)

=== High positive energy is the fuel for high performance ===
* High positive energy flows from the perception of opportunity, adventure and challenge (approach). Negative energy is precipitated by the perception of threat, danger and fears about survival (avoidance).

User:DavidKohler/Relearn Habits Research

2016-03-03T19:04:19Z

DavidKohler:

Here, I store or guid my various research and readings relating to Relearn Habits.

A blog post gathers these principles:
- tiny habits
- focus on one habit at a time
- remove barriers
- stack habits

Deepak Chopra offers the following ideas for new year's resolutions in the shape of habits:
- using mantras, such as "I am not that person anymore" to create a new context for your self.
- the rest is advice around listening to people you don't listen to and favouring expanded awareness. Not actionable.

Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt points that dieting does not work. Rather, mindful eating does. It does not necessarily make people thin, but it is effective at preventing weight gains. She explains that your brain has an idea weight range for you and it will stick to it. Being outside of that range is difficult. That ideal weight range can easily move up, but very rarely down.

User:DavidKohler/Relearn Habits Research

2016-03-03T17:47:30Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "Here, I store or guid my various research and readings relating to Relearn Habits."

Here, I store or guid my various research and readings relating to Relearn Habits.

User:DavidKohler/monk manifesto

2016-01-06T22:38:37Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "By Christine Valters Paintner '''Monk:''' from the Greek monachos meaning single or solitary. A monk in the world does not live apart but immersed in the everyday with a sing..."

By Christine Valters Paintner

'''Monk:''' from the Greek monachos meaning single or solitary. A monk in the world does not live apart but immersed in the everyday with a single-hearted and undivided presence, always striving for greater wholeness and integrity. 
'''Manifesto:''' from the Latin for clear, means a public declaration of principles and intentions. 
'''Monk Manifesto:''' A public expression of your commitment to live a compassionate, contemplative, and creative life.

The Monk Manifesto: Seven Principles for Living with Deep Intention

# I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation.
# I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others.
# I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom for the journey.
# I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.
# I commit to bringing myself fully present to the work I do, whether paid or unpaid, holding a heart of gratitude for the ability to express my gifts in the world in meaningful ways.
# I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do.
# I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations.

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2016-01-06T22:32:13Z

DavidKohler:

== Info ==
By Jeremy Dean, 2013.

== Chapters ==

* Chapter 1 - Birth of a habit
** How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much longer for complex things.
** Three characteristics of habits:
*** ''We perform habits automatically, without much conscious deliberation''
*** ''Habitual behaviours provoke little emotional response by themselves''
*** ''Habits are strongly rooted in the situations in which they occur'' (notion of context)

* Chapter 2 - Habit versus intention
** Habits VS intentions. In short, they sort of line up. Now there is a spectrum of strength of habits. A strong habit, that you do daily or at least weekly, is different than a weak habit that you do only a few times in a year (or less). A clear intention can and does affect weak habits fine. But intentionality yields very little results with strong habits.
** This actually offers an opportunity to start to see how much intentionality sometimes comes backwards (I tell myself after the fact that I wanted to do that).
** There’s also an interesting point about how the stronger the habit (the worse our intentionality affects anything) but also the worse we are at predicting our ability. The most confident people about their prediction were the ones with a strong habit (and they ended up being wrong). NOTE: That might be a way to measure the strength of a habit: how well does it do versus your intention.
** That backward thinking is also quite invisible to us, i.e. we are blind to having changed our mind to create a new intention adapted to the new circumstance.

* Chapter 3 - Your secret autopilot
** Choice blindness: under certain conditions, you have actually no clue why you chose something. Yet when prompted, we more often than not, create a justification (reasons) for our choice.
** There is a great deal of blindness between unconscious and conscious. You choose things without knowing why. You think certain things would influence you when they don’t. Self reports on personality, attitudes and self-esteem show a huge range of confusion too. NOTE: This for me, is the beginning of the evidence that humans are NO THING. We have it that we have properties, but we don’t and we are confined to web of stories, those that run us and those that we tell ourselves and others.
** A lot of what looks like non-behaviour is actually inhibitory behaviour (we were going to automatically drink the glass of water in front of us and we inhibited the action, the total looks like: nothing happened, but that’s far from the truth).
** Meta-cognition can negatively affect performance: thinking about a choice can lower your ability to make predictions or will yield a different choice (one you can think from more easily) when prompted for a reason for the choice. NOTE: So the distinction ‘’choice’’ where you look at all the considerations and then select, not based on any consideration has a powerful potential. The pitfall would be to select based on a consideration, in that case, the cognitive difficulty or availability of reasons will impact the selection.
** This speaks also a lot to the fact that we do things without having any clue about why (the real why) and then make up a story about it (avoiding cognitive dissonance is a reward we actively seek).
** So there is a difference between probing into the unconscious to know why we have a certain behaviour and creating an awareness of our behaviours. NOTE: is that a distinction inside of the notion of ‘’meta-thinking’’?

* Chapter 4 - Don't think, just do it!
** Skinner’s pigeon experiment is really interesting. (He fed them every 15 seconds and fairly quickly, the pigeons exhibited weird behaviours: stretching necks, walking in circles, walking to corners, etc. The reason provided: the pigeons became superstitious. Whatever they had been doing at the moment when the food arrived was taken for the ‘’cause’’ of the food arrival and then validated. Given the short time cycle, the behaviour was turned rapidly into a habit.) This begs the question: how much of our habits are superstitions? Some humans smile constantly at other human beings, how much is that a superstitious behaviour? (Imagine their unwillingness to alter the behaviour).
** There is a link between habits and goals. We form habits thinking they help us reach our goal, but it becomes sometimes less and less true. (A bit like pigeons actually). For example associating socializing with drinking (goal, habit).
** Part of the cues are context-dependent and unconscious. For example priming (Asian students doing math tests).

* Chapter 5 - The daily grind
** To read: the dice man by Cockroft
** This paper distinguishes (hopefully) between habits and non-habits: Wood, Quinn & Kashy "Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion and action" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no 6 (2006) 464-476
** Social Habits: it's more what we do together that makes friendships than attitudes and beliefs. Also notice importance of social rituals, for example taking meals.
** Work Habits: there's a suggested link which is very interesting between innovation and habits (the example is with bicycle industry)
** Travel Habits: the favorite mode of transportation is heavily anchored as a habit, usually one that we are socialized into (rather than from any intentionality)
** Eating Habits: (see Mindless Eating by Wansink) quotes more than 200 food-related decisions per day. Studies show that food quality and appetite are actually more post-action rationalization than what actually triggers food consumption (size of plates though does) there's a lot of things to think about here.
** Shopping Habits: lots here. Nothing dramatically new. Good to have a reference. What they miss is: change in life situation (new job, baby, etc.) changes habits since the CONTEXT has been altered. So the interesting thought here is as follow: strong habits are said to be hardly moved by "intentionality", but life events can alter it (I have a new job, I earn more money hence I'm buying a more expensive brand moving forward) does that mean that a transformation (altered occurring) can shift strong habits?

* Chapter 6 - Stuck in a depressing loop
** Habit Reversal Training (usually for Tourette):
*** Awareness of the tic and the environmental cue
*** Competing response training. Essentially find an alternative routine.
** It's noted that this training is difficult and not foolproof (around 50% success in a study with lots of support, e.g. 10 hours of therapy over 10 weeks. It does point to several aspects missing: motivation willpower and abilities to stick at it. No mentions of rewards.
** Depression as a mental habit (rather than a biological issue) essentially habits of the mind that creates occurings. In the landmark forum we do it a few times sporadically, is the goal or can we, train people to alter the way they create occurings? Something about rumination, as a habit, that could be altered.
** Talk about CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) it seems to be essentially based on shifting these mental habits by catching some of them as stories and creating a replacement story-routine. How much similar is it to a transformative interaction? What's new to me here is to link it to a mental habit, with a set of cues/contexts. Is there a way to express in the language of habits "what you resist persists"?
** There's an interesting distinction being made with the example of worrying. It can be "in the stands" abstract "my leg hurts, maybe I'm going to die" (purely a thread of thoughts) versus "my leg hurts, let's have a doctor check it out" which is on the court, performance related, or rather something is done about it. The author hints that everyone can benefit from the "on the court" type of thinking versus the abstract one that does not serve you.

* Chapter 7 - When bad habits kill
** The more stressed you are, the most likely you are to revert to routines/habits. (This is consistent with our view of habits as “low energy” and doing anything else as more expensive.)
** Read: Norman “Categorization of action slip” Psychological Review 88 no 1 (1981)
** Read: James, W. “Habit” (1890)
** About the idea that “education” or “information” can alter behaviour, there is strong evidence that this is not the case (NOTE: That’s definitely consistent with what I have been saying all along). The UK trying to encourage the use of seat belts in cars is a great example: millions spent on advertisement, explanations, and so on, with very little effect. What made a difference was new laws and strong police enforcement.
** Maybe read: Gawande “The checklist manifesto: how to get things right” (2010)

* Chapter 8 - Online all the time
** QUESTION: How much is there out there about “internet habits”? That seems to be a ripe area to look at. The book has a great analogy for our checking emails habits to a rat getting pellets at random intervals (it’s called variable-interval reinforcement schedule) NOTE: Is there an existing solution to only receive emails on the hour? (I can schedule myself to only look on the hour, but if I look at 9:43 there will be something, so why not doing it in a way that at between 9:01 and 9:59 my inbox NEVER changes. There might be money to make here? The other analogy for email is the slot machine…
** Read: Jackson, Dawson & Wilson “Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace” (2002)
** Read: Ramsay & Renaud “Using insights from email users to inform organizational email management policy” Behaviour & Information Technology no 1 (2010)
** The author suggests a habit of checking email at work (for people with a good deal of work emails) every 45 minutes!!!!!!
** Read: Gonzales & Mark “Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working sphere” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (2004) 113-120
** There is some talk about the cost of switching (multi-tasking)
** Comments on Twitter, essentially, most users consume it like emails (check regularly to get a “reward”).
** Read: LaRose “The problem with media habits” Communication Theory 20 no 2 (2010) 194-222
** Read: LaRose “A social cognitive theory of internet uses and gratifications: toward a new model of media attendance” Journal of broadcasting and electronic media 48 no 3 (2004) 358-377
** On addiction, read: Bergmark & Findable “Extensive internet involvement - addiction or emerging lifestyle?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 no 12 (2011) 4488-4501

* Chapter 9 - Making habits
** Research shows that when people’s goals start to weaken, or are weak in the first place, it’s very difficult to start forming a new habit.
** Research has shown that to dream about your goal fulfilled can create a fantasy that doesn’t help. The research (below, Oettingen and Mayer) showed that there is a difference between expecting a result and fantasizing about it. The fantasies left people thinking/feeling they had already achieved their goal and when later on they had to work on it, it felt discouraging and they quit. Expecting success is different and is a much more practical kind of thinking. Visualization (done realistically) works on the expectation side and is effective (you want to visualize you doing the work, for example, studying for the exam, not just fantasizing about getting the best grade).
** See Oettingen and Mayer “The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 no 5 (2002) 1198
** Human beings suffer from the “planning fallacy” aka things turn out to be more complicated than we expect them to be and plans always go worse than we imagine.
** The author cautions about people biting off more than they can chew (when choosing to create a new habit). NOTE: That is something we underestimate and often encourage our participants to see bigger!
** At the end of the day, it’s about repetitions and that requires a concrete goal to which we are committed. NOTE: we could rename our stats on counting repetitions and then reliability.
** There are “mindset techniques” to help weed-out the fantasies and give you a firmer grasp of reality. Three were tried in a study (on problem-solving):
*** Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
*** Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
*** Contrast: first indulge, then dwell and then do a “reality check” to compare your fantasy with reality.
** In the study, the contrast technique was the most effective BUT ONLY if the expectations of success were high. “What the contrast technique appeared to be doing was forcing people to decide whether their goal was really achievable or not. Then, if they expected to succeed, they committed to the goal; if not, they let it go.” This is somehow a good “check” on whether or not people are committed to something.
** The author mentions how both the indulge and the dwell are difficult. Thinking about negative aspects is confronting and checking out our fantasies against reality is as well. NOTE: That’s a point in favour of a Habit Course (you won’t do this alone easily).
** An alternative to the contrasting technique is the WOOP method. Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan. See Oettingen “Future Thought and Behavioural Change” European Review of Social Psychology 23 no 1 (2012) 1-63
** Also read Oettingen Pak Schnetter “Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 no 2 (1999) 250-260
** A different kind of plan: an “implementation intention” for example, inside of a goal of getting more exercise an implementation intention can be “if I see someone struggling with a stroller, then I will offer to help them”. This is much more concrete and gives you an edge. See the study for more details: Chapman Ermitage Norman “Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruits and vegetables” Psychology and Health 24 no 3 (2009) 317-332
** For more on “implementation intention” see the meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran “Implementation intention and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (2006) 69-119
** Of course, implementation intentions also required some trial and error. Something we could do in the Habit Course.
** The author notes that having the cue of the implementation intention (those are if X then Y) be timing is NOT a good idea. Rather, having the cue be another event is easier for us to notice whereas timing requires the use of our memory. NOTE: essentially this technique works best if the cue is another habitual behaviour e.g. arriving at work.
** Making multi-conditional implementation intention also works (possibly even better). For example: If it’s after breakfast and there is time, then I will go for a run or ride my bicycle”.
** A note: people who are already meticulous planners tend to benefit LESS from implementation intentions.
** You can use implementation intention to counter a loophole as well. NOTE: That sounds awesome. Let’s try!
** SUMMARY (implementation intentions) they are very versatile, research has demonstrated they work. They can be used for a wide range of types of plans: straight plan, planning against external obstacles (circumstances) and planning against internal obstacles (loopholes).
** Dissatisfaction with a new habit is a real killer and has to be addressed (it's lack of progress, tiredness, demotivation, etc.)
** Interesting conversation on reward: given that we want intrinsic, then adding an external one is a trap NOT to fall into.

* Chapter 10 - Breaking habits
** Mindfulness is the first thing that gets discussed, right off the bat. Some advice on what is and how to practice meditation.
** Vigilant monitoring (being present and mindful) is supported by research as the most effective SHORT TERM strategy to counter habits (if you are in the business of breaking a habit).
** The problem with this is that thinking about NOT doing something really fights back and has you think about it even more. (What you resist not only persists, but really punches back).
** Studies show that attempt at suppressing something (drinking, eating, etc.) will often lead to binging episodes (again, what you resist persists).
** Useful analogy: think of a bad habit you want to change like a river that’s been following the same course for a long time. Now you want to stop it suddenly. You can’t just dam the river because the water will rise up, accumulate and eventually break through. Instead, you have to encourage the river to take a different course.
** The notion that you can’t kill a habit is pointed to, but not explicitly.
** Talk about willpower as a finite resource (mention of the study where participants were either resisting chocolate or not and then how much more resistance they had to a subsequent task).
** How to deal with low willpower? Pre-commitment (give your game console to a friend when you have lots of willpower so in the night when you are weaker, there is no game console to use anyway…). NOTE: sounds weak somehow… I think because it leads to the frustration of a thwarted reward.
** Self-Affirmation can help to replenish depleted self-control. NOTE: It seems also that there is something profound here about the occurring world. As a created act, rather than the world of survival which is automatic.
** Changing your environment is another strategy. This example is particularly interesting: the most effective method to get people to use stairs instead of the elevator is a sign at the bottom of the stairs telling people how much more calories they burn by taking the stairs. There is something there to work with (because the reward here is intrinsic but prompted externally). That being said, if it doesn’t work immediately, then it never will as things such as notes will completely be ignored quickly (whether you changed behaviour or not).

* Chapter 11 - Healthy habits
** Mostly all the same underlying discussion on habits only in the context of health.
** Two points of note:
*** Self-monitoring is mentioned as the ONE dominantly successful strategy in a study with over 50’000 participants and 26 strategies tested.
*** “Habit change isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.”

* Chapter 12 - Creative habits
** Discussion on expertise/knowledge getting in the way of creativity.
** QUESTION: what distinguishes a master from an expert?
** Creativity gets stifled by too much freedom. aka creativity loves constraints
** Read: Rothenberg A. “The Janusian process in scientific creativity” Creativity Research Journal 7, no 2 (1994) 97-110

* Chapter 13 - Happy habits
** Lots of things boost happiness BUT IT ALL FADES AWAY EVENTUALLY! In short, if you turn something that makes you happy into a HABIT, then you LOOSE the “happy” component (habits are emotionless).
** So what the author is pointing to is: what will up your happiness is to SWITCH IT UP. I think this is a STRONG argument for happiness being antifragile.
** And again, mindfulness is key here (to not be a robot). NOTE: Robots are NEVER present. That’s a difference between us and them, even if we are on habits.

== To read ==
* Ouellette & Wood ‘’Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour’’ - Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998) 54-74
* Webb & Sheehan ‘’Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.’’ Psychological Bulletin 132, no 2 (2006) 249/268

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2016-01-06T17:39:17Z

DavidKohler:

== Info ==
By Jeremy Dean, 2013.

== Chapters ==

* Chapter 1 - Birth of a habit
** How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much longer for complex things.
** Three characteristics of habits:
*** ''We perform habits automatically, without much conscious deliberation''
*** ''Habitual behaviours provoke little emotional response by themselves''
*** ''Habits are strongly rooted in the situations in which they occur'' (notion of context)

* Chapter 2 - Habit versus intention
** Habits VS intentions. In short, they sort of line up. Now there is a spectrum of strength of habits. A strong habit, that you do daily or at least weekly, is different than a weak habit that you do only a few times in a year (or less). A clear intention can and does affect weak habits fine. But intentionality yields very little results with strong habits.
** This actually offers an opportunity to start to see how much intentionality sometimes comes backwards (I tell myself after the fact that I wanted to do that).
** There’s also an interesting point about how the stronger the habit (the worse our intentionality affects anything) but also the worse we are at predicting our ability. The most confident people about their prediction were the ones with a strong habit (and they ended up being wrong). NOTE: That might be a way to measure the strength of a habit: how well does it do versus your intention.
** That backward thinking is also quite invisible to us, i.e. we are blind to having changed our mind to create a new intention adapted to the new circumstance.

* Chapter 3 - Your secret autopilot
** Choice blindness: under certain conditions, you have actually no clue why you chose something. Yet when prompted, we more often than not, create a justification (reasons) for our choice.
** There is a great deal of blindness between unconscious and conscious. You choose things without knowing why. You think certain things would influence you when they don’t. Self reports on personality, attitudes and self-esteem show a huge range of confusion too. NOTE: This for me, is the beginning of the evidence that humans are NO THING. We have it that we have properties, but we don’t and we are confined to web of stories, those that run us and those that we tell ourselves and others.
** A lot of what looks like non-behaviour is actually inhibitory behaviour (we were going to automatically drink the glass of water in front of us and we inhibited the action, the total looks like: nothing happened, but that’s far from the truth).
** Meta-cognition can negatively affect performance: thinking about a choice can lower your ability to make predictions or will yield a different choice (one you can think from more easily) when prompted for a reason for the choice. NOTE: So the distinction ‘’choice’’ where you look at all the considerations and then select, not based on any consideration has a powerful potential. The pitfall would be to select based on a consideration, in that case, the cognitive difficulty or availability of reasons will impact the selection.
** This speaks also a lot to the fact that we do things without having any clue about why (the real why) and then make up a story about it (avoiding cognitive dissonance is a reward we actively seek).
** So there is a difference between probing into the unconscious to know why we have a certain behaviour and creating an awareness of our behaviours. NOTE: is that a distinction inside of the notion of ‘’meta-thinking’’?

* Chapter 4 - Don't think, just do it!
** Skinner’s pigeon experiment is really interesting. (He fed them every 15 seconds and fairly quickly, the pigeons exhibited weird behaviours: stretching necks, walking in circles, walking to corners, etc. The reason provided: the pigeons became superstitious. Whatever they had been doing at the moment when the food arrived was taken for the ‘’cause’’ of the food arrival and then validated. Given the short time cycle, the behaviour was turned rapidly into a habit.) This begs the question: how much of our habits are superstitions? Some humans smile constantly at other human beings, how much is that a superstitious behaviour? (Imagine their unwillingness to alter the behaviour).
** There is a link between habits and goals. We form habits thinking they help us reach our goal, but it becomes sometimes less and less true. (A bit like pigeons actually). For example associating socializing with drinking (goal, habit).
** Part of the cues are context-dependent and unconscious. For example priming (Asian students doing math tests).

* Chapter 5 - The daily grind
** To read: the dice man by Cockroft
** This paper distinguishes (hopefully) between habits and non-habits: Wood, Quinn & Kashy "Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion and action" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no 6 (2006) 464-476
** Social Habits: it's more what we do together that makes friendships than attitudes and beliefs. Also notice importance of social rituals, for example taking meals.
** Work Habits: there's a suggested link which is very interesting between innovation and habits (the example is with bicycle industry)
** Travel Habits: the favorite mode of transportation is heavily anchored as a habit, usually one that we are socialized into (rather than from any intentionality)
** Eating Habits: (see Mindless Eating by Wansink) quotes more than 200 food-related decisions per day. Studies show that food quality and appetite are actually more post-action rationalization than what actually triggers food consumption (size of plates though does) there's a lot of things to think about here.
** Shopping Habits: lots here. Nothing dramatically new. Good to have a reference. What they miss is: change in life situation (new job, baby, etc.) changes habits since the CONTEXT has been altered. So the interesting thought here is as follow: strong habits are said to be hardly moved by "intentionality", but life events can alter it (I have a new job, I earn more money hence I'm buying a more expensive brand moving forward) does that mean that a transformation (altered occurring) can shift strong habits?

* Chapter 6 - Stuck in a depressing loop
** Habit Reversal Training (usually for Tourette):
*** Awareness of the tic and the environmental cue
*** Competing response training. Essentially find an alternative routine.
** It's noted that this training is difficult and not foolproof (around 50% success in a study with lots of support, e.g. 10 hours of therapy over 10 weeks. It does point to several aspects missing: motivation willpower and abilities to stick at it. No mentions of rewards.
** Depression as a mental habit (rather than a biological issue) essentially habits of the mind that creates occurings. In the landmark forum we do it a few times sporadically, is the goal or can we, train people to alter the way they create occurings? Something about rumination, as a habit, that could be altered.
** Talk about CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) it seems to be essentially based on shifting these mental habits by catching some of them as stories and creating a replacement story-routine. How much similar is it to a transformative interaction? What's new to me here is to link it to a mental habit, with a set of cues/contexts. Is there a way to express in the language of habits "what you resist persists"?
** There's an interesting distinction being made with the example of worrying. It can be "in the stands" abstract "my leg hurts, maybe I'm going to die" (purely a thread of thoughts) versus "my leg hurts, let's have a doctor check it out" which is on the court, performance related, or rather something is done about it. The author hints that everyone can benefit from the "on the court" type of thinking versus the abstract one that does not serve you.

* Chapter 7 - When bad habits kill
** The more stressed you are, the most likely you are to revert to routines/habits. (This is consistent with our view of habits as “low energy” and doing anything else as more expensive.)
** Read: Norman “Categorization of action slip” Psychological Review 88 no 1 (1981)
** Read: James, W. “Habit” (1890)
** About the idea that “education” or “information” can alter behaviour, there is strong evidence that this is not the case (NOTE: That’s definitely consistent with what I have been saying all along). The UK trying to encourage the use of seat belts in cars is a great example: millions spent on advertisement, explanations, and so on, with very little effect. What made a difference was new laws and strong police enforcement.
** Maybe read: Gawande “The checklist manifesto: how to get things right” (2010)

* Chapter 8 - Online all the time
** QUESTION: How much is there out there about “internet habits”? That seems to be a ripe area to look at. The book has a great analogy for our checking emails habits to a rat getting pellets at random intervals (it’s called variable-interval reinforcement schedule) NOTE: Is there an existing solution to only receive emails on the hour? (I can schedule myself to only look on the hour, but if I look at 9:43 there will be something, so why not doing it in a way that at between 9:01 and 9:59 my inbox NEVER changes. There might be money to make here? The other analogy for email is the slot machine…
** Read: Jackson, Dawson & Wilson “Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace” (2002)
** Read: Ramsay & Renaud “Using insights from email users to inform organizational email management policy” Behaviour & Information Technology no 1 (2010)
** The author suggests a habit of checking email at work (for people with a good deal of work emails) every 45 minutes!!!!!!
** Read: Gonzales & Mark “Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working sphere” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (2004) 113-120
** There is some talk about the cost of switching (multi-tasking)
** Comments on Twitter, essentially, most users consume it like emails (check regularly to get a “reward”).
** Read: LaRose “The problem with media habits” Communication Theory 20 no 2 (2010) 194-222
** Read: LaRose “A social cognitive theory of internet uses and gratifications: toward a new model of media attendance” Journal of broadcasting and electronic media 48 no 3 (2004) 358-377
** On addiction, read: Bergmark & Findable “Extensive internet involvement - addiction or emerging lifestyle?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 no 12 (2011) 4488-4501

* Chapter 9 - Making habits
** Research shows that when people’s goals start to weaken, or are weak in the first place, it’s very difficult to start forming a new habit.
** Research has shown that to dream about your goal fulfilled can create a fantasy that doesn’t help. The research (below, Oettingen and Mayer) showed that there is a difference between expecting a result and fantasizing about it. The fantasies left people thinking/feeling they had already achieved their goal and when later on they had to work on it, it felt discouraging and they quit. Expecting success is different and is a much more practical kind of thinking. Visualization (done realistically) works on the expectation side and is effective (you want to visualize you doing the work, for example, studying for the exam, not just fantasizing about getting the best grade).
** See Oettingen and Mayer “The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 no 5 (2002) 1198
** Human beings suffer from the “planning fallacy” aka things turn out to be more complicated than we expect them to be and plans always go worse than we imagine.
** The author cautions about people biting off more than they can chew (when choosing to create a new habit). NOTE: That is something we underestimate and often encourage our participants to see bigger!
** At the end of the day, it’s about repetitions and that requires a concrete goal to which we are committed. NOTE: we could rename our stats on counting repetitions and then reliability.
** There are “mindset techniques” to help weed-out the fantasies and give you a firmer grasp of reality. Three were tried in a study (on problem-solving):
*** Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
*** Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
*** Contrast: first indulge, then dwell and then do a “reality check” to compare your fantasy with reality.
** In the study, the contrast technique was the most effective BUT ONLY if the expectations of success were high. “What the contrast technique appeared to be doing was forcing people to decide whether their goal was really achievable or not. Then, if they expected to succeed, they committed to the goal; if not, they let it go.” This is somehow a good “check” on whether or not people are committed to something.
** The author mentions how both the indulge and the dwell are difficult. Thinking about negative aspects is confronting and checking out our fantasies against reality is as well. NOTE: That’s a point in favour of a Habit Course (you won’t do this alone easily).
** An alternative to the contrasting technique is the WOOP method. Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan. See Oettingen “Future Thought and Behavioural Change” European Review of Social Psychology 23 no 1 (2012) 1-63
** Also read Oettingen Pak Schnetter “Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 no 2 (1999) 250-260
** A different kind of plan: an “implementation intention” for example, inside of a goal of getting more exercise an implementation intention can be “if I see someone struggling with a stroller, then I will offer to help them”. This is much more concrete and gives you an edge. See the study for more details: Chapman Ermitage Norman “Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruits and vegetables” Psychology and Health 24 no 3 (2009) 317-332
** For more on “implementation intention” see the meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran “Implementation intention and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (2006) 69-119
** Of course, implementation intentions also required some trial and error. Something we could do in the Habit Course.
** The author notes that having the cue of the implementation intention (those are if X then Y) be timing is NOT a good idea. Rather, having the cue be another event is easier for us to notice whereas timing requires the use of our memory. NOTE: essentially this technique works best if the cue is another habitual behaviour e.g. arriving at work.
** Making multi-conditional implementation intention also works (possibly even better). For example: If it’s after breakfast and there is time, then I will go for a run or ride my bicycle”.
** A note: people who are already meticulous planners tend to benefit LESS from implementation intentions.
** You can use implementation intention to counter a loophole as well. NOTE: That sounds awesome. Let’s try!
** SUMMARY (implementation intentions) they are very versatile, research has demonstrated they work. They can be used for a wide range of types of plans: straight plan, planning against external obstacles (circumstances) and planning against internal obstacles (loopholes).
** Dissatisfaction with a new habit is a real killer and has to be addressed (it's lack of progress, tiredness, demotivation, etc.)
** Interesting conversation on reward: given that we want intrinsic, then adding an external one is a trap NOT to fall into.

* Chapter 10 - Breaking habits
** Mindfulness is the first thing that gets discussed, right off the bat. Some advice on what is and how to practice meditation.
** Vigilant monitoring (being present and mindful) is supported by research as the most effective SHORT TERM strategy to counter habits (if you are in the business of breaking a habit).
** The problem with this is that thinking about NOT doing something really fights back and has you think about it even more. (What you resist not only persists, but really punches back).
** Studies show that attempt at suppressing something (drinking, eating, etc.) will often lead to binging episodes (again, what you resist persists).
** Useful analogy: think of a bad habit you want to change like a river that’s been following the same course for a long time. Now you want to stop it suddenly. You can’t just dam the river because the water will rise up, accumulate and eventually break through. Instead, you have to encourage the river to take a different course.
** The notion that you can’t kill a habit is pointed to, but not explicitly.
** Talk about willpower as a finite resource (mention of the study where participants were either resisting chocolate or not and then how much more resistance they had to a subsequent task).
** How to deal with low willpower? Pre-commitment (give your game console to a friend when you have lots of willpower so in the night when you are weaker, there is no game console to use anyway…). NOTE: sounds weak somehow… I think because it leads to the frustration of a thwarted reward.
** Self-Affirmation can help to replenish depleted self-control. NOTE: It seems also that there is something profound here about the occurring world. As a created act, rather than the world of survival which is automatic.
** Changing your environment is another strategy. This example is particularly interesting: the most effective method to get people to use stairs instead of the elevator is a sign at the bottom of the stairs telling people how much more calories they burn by taking the stairs. There is something there to work with (because the reward here is intrinsic but prompted externally). That being said, if it doesn’t work immediately, then it never will as things such as notes will completely be ignored quickly (whether you changed behaviour or not).

* Chapter 11 - Healthy habits

== To read ==
* Ouellette & Wood ‘’Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour’’ - Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998) 54-74
* Webb & Sheehan ‘’Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.’’ Psychological Bulletin 132, no 2 (2006) 249/268

User:DavidKohler/focused conversation method

2015-12-29T18:35:20Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "This method goes through four stages. == Objective stage== Here, we gather data. What are the observable facts? == Reflective stage == To access thoughts and feelings. Emoti..."

This method goes through four stages.

== Objective stage==
Here, we gather data. What are the observable facts?

== Reflective stage ==
To access thoughts and feelings. Emotions, images, associations.

== Interpretive stage ==
Making sense of the situation, articulating meaning. Implications, significance.

== Decisional stage ==
What is next? Resolutions, decisions and future actions.

User:DavidKohler/new year workshop ideas

2015-12-29T18:27:31Z

DavidKohler:

= Completing the previous year =
* Going through your calendar and writing down anything of interest or importance.
* Brainstorm most important aspects of the year in different areas:
** friends and family
** work, career, projects
** education, training
** creativity, hobbies
** health
** intellectual
** emotional and spiritual
** financial
* Some guided reflections:
** The biggest lesson of the year was...
** The biggest risk taken this year was...
** The biggest regret I have for this year was...
** The most important moment this year was...
** The most surprising this year was...
** My largest contribution to others this year was...
** What I will always remember about this year was...
** The best thing I discovered this year was...
** What I am most grateful for this year was...
** The people I want to acknowledge for this year are:
** The people I made a difference for this year are:
** My accomplishments this year are:
** The challenges I faced this year are:
** Who am I forgiving this year:
** What am I letting go of this year:
** What am I declaring complete this year:
* A personal timeline where they can note these things down.
* Don't forget some free form writing too.
* Some sharing with someone else as well, let's not have things stay in people's heads.

= Creating the new year =

User:DavidKohler/new year workshop ideas

2015-12-29T18:26:12Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "= Completing the previous year = * Going through your calendar and writing down anything of interest or importance. * Brainstorm most important aspects of the year in differen..."

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-29T04:08:32Z

DavidKohler:

== Info ==
By Jeremy Dean, 2013.

== Chapters ==

* Chapter 1 - Birth of a habit
** How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much longer for complex things.
** Three characteristics of habits:
*** ''We perform habits automatically, without much conscious deliberation''
*** ''Habitual behaviours provoke little emotional response by themselves''
*** ''Habits are strongly rooted in the situations in which they occur'' (notion of context)

* Chapter 2 - Habit versus intention
** Habits VS intentions. In short, they sort of line up. Now there is a spectrum of strength of habits. A strong habit, that you do daily or at least weekly, is different than a weak habit that you do only a few times in a year (or less). A clear intention can and does affect weak habits fine. But intentionality yields very little results with strong habits.
** This actually offers an opportunity to start to see how much intentionality sometimes comes backwards (I tell myself after the fact that I wanted to do that).
** There’s also an interesting point about how the stronger the habit (the worse our intentionality affects anything) but also the worse we are at predicting our ability. The most confident people about their prediction were the ones with a strong habit (and they ended up being wrong). NOTE: That might be a way to measure the strength of a habit: how well does it do versus your intention.
** That backward thinking is also quite invisible to us, i.e. we are blind to having changed our mind to create a new intention adapted to the new circumstance.

* Chapter 3 - Your secret autopilot
** Choice blindness: under certain conditions, you have actually no clue why you chose something. Yet when prompted, we more often than not, create a justification (reasons) for our choice.
** There is a great deal of blindness between unconscious and conscious. You choose things without knowing why. You think certain things would influence you when they don’t. Self reports on personality, attitudes and self-esteem show a huge range of confusion too. NOTE: This for me, is the beginning of the evidence that humans are NO THING. We have it that we have properties, but we don’t and we are confined to web of stories, those that run us and those that we tell ourselves and others.
** A lot of what looks like non-behaviour is actually inhibitory behaviour (we were going to automatically drink the glass of water in front of us and we inhibited the action, the total looks like: nothing happened, but that’s far from the truth).
** Meta-cognition can negatively affect performance: thinking about a choice can lower your ability to make predictions or will yield a different choice (one you can think from more easily) when prompted for a reason for the choice. NOTE: So the distinction ‘’choice’’ where you look at all the considerations and then select, not based on any consideration has a powerful potential. The pitfall would be to select based on a consideration, in that case, the cognitive difficulty or availability of reasons will impact the selection.
** This speaks also a lot to the fact that we do things without having any clue about why (the real why) and then make up a story about it (avoiding cognitive dissonance is a reward we actively seek).
** So there is a difference between probing into the unconscious to know why we have a certain behaviour and creating an awareness of our behaviours. NOTE: is that a distinction inside of the notion of ‘’meta-thinking’’?

* Chapter 4 - Don't think, just do it!
** Skinner’s pigeon experiment is really interesting. (He fed them every 15 seconds and fairly quickly, the pigeons exhibited weird behaviours: stretching necks, walking in circles, walking to corners, etc. The reason provided: the pigeons became superstitious. Whatever they had been doing at the moment when the food arrived was taken for the ‘’cause’’ of the food arrival and then validated. Given the short time cycle, the behaviour was turned rapidly into a habit.) This begs the question: how much of our habits are superstitions? Some humans smile constantly at other human beings, how much is that a superstitious behaviour? (Imagine their unwillingness to alter the behaviour).
** There is a link between habits and goals. We form habits thinking they help us reach our goal, but it becomes sometimes less and less true. (A bit like pigeons actually). For example associating socializing with drinking (goal, habit).
** Part of the cues are context-dependent and unconscious. For example priming (Asian students doing math tests).

* Chapter 5 - The daily grind
** To read: the dice man by Cockroft
** This paper distinguishes (hopefully) between habits and non-habits: Wood, Quinn & Kashy "Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion and action" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no 6 (2006) 464-476
** Social Habits: it's more what we do together that makes friendships than attitudes and beliefs. Also notice importance of social rituals, for example taking meals.
** Work Habits: there's a suggested link which is very interesting between innovation and habits (the example is with bicycle industry)
** Travel Habits: the favorite mode of transportation is heavily anchored as a habit, usually one that we are socialized into (rather than from any intentionality)
** Eating Habits: (see Mindless Eating by Wansink) quotes more than 200 food-related decisions per day. Studies show that food quality and appetite are actually more post-action rationalization than what actually triggers food consumption (size of plates though does) there's a lot of things to think about here.
** Shopping Habits: lots here. Nothing dramatically new. Good to have a reference. What they miss is: change in life situation (new job, baby, etc.) changes habits since the CONTEXT has been altered. So the interesting thought here is as follow: strong habits are said to be hardly moved by "intentionality", but life events can alter it (I have a new job, I earn more money hence I'm buying a more expensive brand moving forward) does that mean that a transformation (altered occurring) can shift strong habits?

* Chapter 6 - Stuck in a depressing loop
** Habit Reversal Training (usually for Tourette):
*** Awareness of the tic and the environmental cue
*** Competing response training. Essentially find an alternative routine.
** It's noted that this training is difficult and not foolproof (around 50% success in a study with lots of support, e.g. 10 hours of therapy over 10 weeks. It does point to several aspects missing: motivation willpower and abilities to stick at it. No mentions of rewards.
** Depression as a mental habit (rather than a biological issue) essentially habits of the mind that creates occurings. In the landmark forum we do it a few times sporadically, is the goal or can we, train people to alter the way they create occurings? Something about rumination, as a habit, that could be altered.
** Talk about CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) it seems to be essentially based on shifting these mental habits by catching some of them as stories and creating a replacement story-routine. How much similar is it to a transformative interaction? What's new to me here is to link it to a mental habit, with a set of cues/contexts. Is there a way to express in the language of habits "what you resist persists"?
** There's an interesting distinction being made with the example of worrying. It can be "in the stands" abstract "my leg hurts, maybe I'm going to die" (purely a thread of thoughts) versus "my leg hurts, let's have a doctor check it out" which is on the court, performance related, or rather something is done about it. The author hints that everyone can benefit from the "on the court" type of thinking versus the abstract one that does not serve you.

* Chapter 7 - When bad habits kill
** The more stressed you are, the most likely you are to revert to routines/habits. (This is consistent with our view of habits as “low energy” and doing anything else as more expensive.)
** Read: Norman “Categorization of action slip” Psychological Review 88 no 1 (1981)
** Read: James, W. “Habit” (1890)
** About the idea that “education” or “information” can alter behaviour, there is strong evidence that this is not the case (NOTE: That’s definitely consistent with what I have been saying all along). The UK trying to encourage the use of seat belts in cars is a great example: millions spent on advertisement, explanations, and so on, with very little effect. What made a difference was new laws and strong police enforcement.
** Maybe read: Gawande “The checklist manifesto: how to get things right” (2010)

* Chapter 8 - Online all the time
** QUESTION: How much is there out there about “internet habits”? That seems to be a ripe area to look at. The book has a great analogy for our checking emails habits to a rat getting pellets at random intervals (it’s called variable-interval reinforcement schedule) NOTE: Is there an existing solution to only receive emails on the hour? (I can schedule myself to only look on the hour, but if I look at 9:43 there will be something, so why not doing it in a way that at between 9:01 and 9:59 my inbox NEVER changes. There might be money to make here? The other analogy for email is the slot machine…
** Read: Jackson, Dawson & Wilson “Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace” (2002)
** Read: Ramsay & Renaud “Using insights from email users to inform organizational email management policy” Behaviour & Information Technology no 1 (2010)
** The author suggests a habit of checking email at work (for people with a good deal of work emails) every 45 minutes!!!!!!
** Read: Gonzales & Mark “Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working sphere” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (2004) 113-120
** There is some talk about the cost of switching (multi-tasking)
** Comments on Twitter, essentially, most users consume it like emails (check regularly to get a “reward”).
** Read: LaRose “The problem with media habits” Communication Theory 20 no 2 (2010) 194-222
** Read: LaRose “A social cognitive theory of internet uses and gratifications: toward a new model of media attendance” Journal of broadcasting and electronic media 48 no 3 (2004) 358-377
** On addiction, read: Bergmark & Findable “Extensive internet involvement - addiction or emerging lifestyle?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 no 12 (2011) 4488-4501

* Chapter 9 - Making habits
** Research shows that when people’s goals start to weaken, or are weak in the first place, it’s very difficult to start forming a new habit.
** Research has shown that to dream about your goal fulfilled can create a fantasy that doesn’t help. The research (below, Oettingen and Mayer) showed that there is a difference between expecting a result and fantasizing about it. The fantasies left people thinking/feeling they had already achieved their goal and when later on they had to work on it, it felt discouraging and they quit. Expecting success is different and is a much more practical kind of thinking. Visualization (done realistically) works on the expectation side and is effective (you want to visualize you doing the work, for example, studying for the exam, not just fantasizing about getting the best grade).
** See Oettingen and Mayer “The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 no 5 (2002) 1198
** Human beings suffer from the “planning fallacy” aka things turn out to be more complicated than we expect them to be and plans always go worse than we imagine.
** The author cautions about people biting off more than they can chew (when choosing to create a new habit). NOTE: That is something we underestimate and often encourage our participants to see bigger!
** At the end of the day, it’s about repetitions and that requires a concrete goal to which we are committed. NOTE: we could rename our stats on counting repetitions and then reliability.
** There are “mindset techniques” to help weed-out the fantasies and give you a firmer grasp of reality. Three were tried in a study (on problem-solving):
*** Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
*** Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
*** Contrast: first indulge, then dwell and then do a “reality check” to compare your fantasy with reality.
** In the study, the contrast technique was the most effective BUT ONLY if the expectations of success were high. “What the contrast technique appeared to be doing was forcing people to decide whether their goal was really achievable or not. Then, if they expected to succeed, they committed to the goal; if not, they let it go.” This is somehow a good “check” on whether or not people are committed to something.
** The author mentions how both the indulge and the dwell are difficult. Thinking about negative aspects is confronting and checking out our fantasies against reality is as well. NOTE: That’s a point in favour of a Habit Course (you won’t do this alone easily).
** An alternative to the contrasting technique is the WOOP method. Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan. See Oettingen “Future Thought and Behavioural Change” European Review of Social Psychology 23 no 1 (2012) 1-63
** Also read Oettingen Pak Schnetter “Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 no 2 (1999) 250-260
** A different kind of plan: an “implementation intention” for example, inside of a goal of getting more exercise an implementation intention can be “if I see someone struggling with a stroller, then I will offer to help them”. This is much more concrete and gives you an edge. See the study for more details: Chapman Ermitage Norman “Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruits and vegetables” Psychology and Health 24 no 3 (2009) 317-332
** For more on “implementation intention” see the meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran “Implementation intention and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (2006) 69-119
** Of course, implementation intentions also required some trial and error. Something we could do in the Habit Course.
** The author notes that having the cue of the implementation intention (those are if X then Y) be timing is NOT a good idea. Rather, having the cue be another event is easier for us to notice whereas timing requires the use of our memory. NOTE: essentially this technique works best if the cue is another habitual behaviour e.g. arriving at work.
** Making multi-conditional implementation intention also works (possibly even better). For example: If it’s after breakfast and there is time, then I will go for a run or ride my bicycle”.
** A note: people who are already meticulous planners tend to benefit LESS from implementation intentions.
** You can use implementation intention to counter a loophole as well. NOTE: That sounds awesome. Let’s try!
** SUMMARY (implementation intentions) they are very versatile, research has demonstrated they work. They can be used for a wide range of types of plans: straight plan, planning against external obstacles (circumstances) and planning against internal obstacles (loopholes).
** Dissatisfaction with a new habit is a real killer and has to be addressed (it's lack of progress, tiredness, demotivation, etc.)
** Interesting conversation on reward: given that we want intrinsic, then adding an external one is a trap NOT to fall into.

* Chapter 10 - Breaking habits

== To read ==
* Ouellette & Wood ‘’Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour’’ - Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998) 54-74
* Webb & Sheehan ‘’Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.’’ Psychological Bulletin 132, no 2 (2006) 249/268

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-27T20:43:21Z

DavidKohler:

== Info ==
By Jeremy Dean, 2013.

== Chapters ==

* Chapter 1
** How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much longer for complex things.
** Three characteristics of habits:
*** ''We perform habits automatically, without much conscious deliberation''
*** ''Habitual behaviours provoke little emotional response by themselves''
*** ''Habits are strongly rooted in the situations in which they occur'' (notion of context)

* Chapter 2
** Habits VS intentions. In short, they sort of line up. Now there is a spectrum of strength of habits. A strong habit, that you do daily or at least weekly, is different than a weak habit that you do only a few times in a year (or less). A clear intention can and does affect weak habits fine. But intentionality yields very little results with strong habits.
** This actually offers an opportunity to start to see how much intentionality sometimes comes backwards (I tell myself after the fact that I wanted to do that).
** There’s also an interesting point about how the stronger the habit (the worse our intentionality affects anything) but also the worse we are at predicting our ability. The most confident people about their prediction were the ones with a strong habit (and they ended up being wrong). NOTE: That might be a way to measure the strength of a habit: how well does it do versus your intention.
** That backward thinking is also quite invisible to us, i.e. we are blind to having changed our mind to create a new intention adapted to the new circumstance.

* Chapter 3
** Choice blindness: under certain conditions, you have actually no clue why you chose something. Yet when prompted, we more often than not, create a justification (reasons) for our choice.
** There is a great deal of blindness between unconscious and conscious. You choose things without knowing why. You think certain things would influence you when they don’t. Self reports on personality, attitudes and self-esteem show a huge range of confusion too. NOTE: This for me, is the beginning of the evidence that humans are NO THING. We have it that we have properties, but we don’t and we are confined to web of stories, those that run us and those that we tell ourselves and others.
** A lot of what looks like non-behaviour is actually inhibitory behaviour (we were going to automatically drink the glass of water in front of us and we inhibited the action, the total looks like: nothing happened, but that’s far from the truth).
** Meta-cognition can negatively affect performance: thinking about a choice can lower your ability to make predictions or will yield a different choice (one you can think from more easily) when prompted for a reason for the choice. NOTE: So the distinction ‘’choice’’ where you look at all the considerations and then select, not based on any consideration has a powerful potential. The pitfall would be to select based on a consideration, in that case, the cognitive difficulty or availability of reasons will impact the selection.
** This speaks also a lot to the fact that we do things without having any clue about why (the real why) and then make up a story about it (avoiding cognitive dissonance is a reward we actively seek).
** So there is a difference between probing into the unconscious to know why we have a certain behaviour and creating an awareness of our behaviours. NOTE: is that a distinction inside of the notion of ‘’meta-thinking’’?

* Chapter 4
** Skinner’s pigeon experiment is really interesting. (He fed them every 15 seconds and fairly quickly, the pigeons exhibited weird behaviours: stretching necks, walking in circles, walking to corners, etc. The reason provided: the pigeons became superstitious. Whatever they had been doing at the moment when the food arrived was taken for the ‘’cause’’ of the food arrival and then validated. Given the short time cycle, the behaviour was turned rapidly into a habit.) This begs the question: how much of our habits are superstitions? Some humans smile constantly at other human beings, how much is that a superstitious behaviour? (Imagine their unwillingness to alter the behaviour).
** There is a link between habits and goals. We form habits thinking they help us reach our goal, but it becomes sometimes less and less true. (A bit like pigeons actually). For example associating socializing with drinking (goal, habit).
** Part of the cues are context-dependent and unconscious. For example priming (Asian students doing math tests).

* Chapter 5
** To read: the dice man by Cockroft
** This paper distinguishes (hopefully) between habits and non-habits: Wood, Quinn & Kashy "Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion and action" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no 6 (2006) 464-476
** Social Habits: it's more what we do together that makes friendships than attitudes and beliefs. Also notice importance of social rituals, for example taking meals.
** Work Habits: there's a suggested link which is very interesting between innovation and habits (the example is with bicycle industry)
** Travel Habits: the favorite mode of transportation is heavily anchored as a habit, usually one that we are socialized into (rather than from any intentionality)
** Eating Habits: (see Mindless Eating by Wansink) quotes more than 200 food-related decisions per day. Studies show that food quality and appetite are actually more post-action rationalization than what actually triggers food consumption (size of plates though does) there's a lot of things to think about here.
** Shopping Habits: lots here. Nothing dramatically new. Good to have a reference. What they miss is: change in life situation (new job, baby, etc.) changes habits since the CONTEXT has been altered. So the interesting thought here is as follow: strong habits are said to be hardly moved by "intentionality", but life events can alter it (I have a new job, I earn more money hence I'm buying a more expensive brand moving forward) does that mean that a transformation (altered occurring) can shift strong habits?

* Chapter 6
** Habit Reversal Training (usually for Tourette):
*** Awareness of the tic and the environmental cue
*** Competing response training. Essentially find an alternative routine.
** It's noted that this training is difficult and not foolproof (around 50% success in a study with lots of support, e.g. 10 hours of therapy over 10 weeks. It does point to several aspects missing: motivation willpower and abilities to stick at it. No mentions of rewards.
** Depression as a mental habit (rather than a biological issue) essentially habits of the mind that creates occurings. In the landmark forum we do it a few times sporadically, is the goal or can we, train people to alter the way they create occurings? Something about rumination, as a habit, that could be altered.
** Talk about CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) it seems to be essentially based on shifting these mental habits by catching some of them as stories and creating a replacement story-routine. How much similar is it to a transformative interaction? What's new to me here is to link it to a mental habit, with a set of cues/contexts. Is there a way to express in the language of habits "what you resist persists"?
** There's an interesting distinction being made with the example of worrying. It can be "in the stands" abstract "my leg hurts, maybe I'm going to die" (purely a thread of thoughts) versus "my leg hurts, let's have a doctor check it out" which is on the court, performance related, or rather something is done about it. The author hints that everyone can benefit from the "on the court" type of thinking versus the abstract one that does not serve you.

* Chapter 7
** The more stressed you are, the most likely you are to revert to routines/habits. (This is consistent with our view of habits as “low energy” and doing anything else as more expensive.)
** Read: Norman “Categorization of action slip” Psychological Review 88 no 1 (1981)
** Read: James, W. “Habit” (1890)
** About the idea that “education” or “information” can alter behaviour, there is strong evidence that this is not the case (NOTE: That’s definitely consistent with what I have been saying all along). The UK trying to encourage the use of seat belts in cars is a great example: millions spent on advertisement, explanations, and so on, with very little effect. What made a difference was new laws and strong police enforcement.
** Maybe read: Gawande “The checklist manifesto: how to get things right” (2010)

* Chapter 8
** QUESTION: How much is there out there about “internet habits”? That seems to be a ripe area to look at. The book has a great analogy for our checking emails habits to a rat getting pellets at random intervals (it’s called variable-interval reinforcement schedule) NOTE: Is there an existing solution to only receive emails on the hour? (I can schedule myself to only look on the hour, but if I look at 9:43 there will be something, so why not doing it in a way that at between 9:01 and 9:59 my inbox NEVER changes. There might be money to make here? The other analogy for email is the slot machine…
** Read: Jackson, Dawson & Wilson “Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace” (2002)
** Read: Ramsay & Renaud “Using insights from email users to inform organizational email management policy” Behaviour & Information Technology no 1 (2010)
** The author suggests a habit of checking email at work (for people with a good deal of work emails) every 45 minutes!!!!!!
** Read: Gonzales & Mark “Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working sphere” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (2004) 113-120
** There is some talk about the cost of switching (multi-tasking)
** Comments on Twitter, essentially, most users consume it like emails (check regularly to get a “reward”).
** Read: LaRose “The problem with media habits” Communication Theory 20 no 2 (2010) 194-222
** Read: LaRose “A social cognitive theory of internet uses and gratifications: toward a new model of media attendance” Journal of broadcasting and electronic media 48 no 3 (2004) 358-377
** On addiction, read: Bergmark & Findable “Extensive internet involvement - addiction or emerging lifestyle?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 no 12 (2011) 4488-4501

* Chapter 9
** Research shows that when people’s goals start to weaken, or are weak in the first place, it’s very difficult to start forming a new habit.
** Research has shown that to dream about your goal fulfilled can create a fantasy that doesn’t help. The research (below, Oettingen and Mayer) showed that there is a difference between expecting a result and fantasizing about it. The fantasies left people thinking/feeling they had already achieved their goal and when later on they had to work on it, it felt discouraging and they quit. Expecting success is different and is a much more practical kind of thinking. Visualization (done realistically) works on the expectation side and is effective (you want to visualize you doing the work, for example, studying for the exam, not just fantasizing about getting the best grade).
** See Oettingen and Mayer “The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 no 5 (2002) 1198
** Human beings suffer from the “planning fallacy” aka things turn out to be more complicated than we expect them to be and plans always go worse than we imagine.
** The author cautions about people biting off more than they can chew (when choosing to create a new habit). NOTE: That is something we underestimate and often encourage our participants to see bigger!
** At the end of the day, it’s about repetitions and that requires a concrete goal to which we are committed. NOTE: we could rename our stats on counting repetitions and then reliability.
** There are “mindset techniques” to help weed-out the fantasies and give you a firmer grasp of reality. Three were tried in a study (on problem-solving):
*** Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
*** Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
*** Contrast: first indulge, then dwell and then do a “reality check” to compare your fantasy with reality.
** In the study, the contrast technique was the most effective BUT ONLY if the expectations of success were high. “What the contrast technique appeared to be doing was forcing people to decide whether their goal was really achievable or not. Then, if they expected to succeed, they committed to the goal; if not, they let it go.” This is somehow a good “check” on whether or not people are committed to something.
** The author mentions how both the indulge and the dwell are difficult. Thinking about negative aspects is confronting and checking out our fantasies against reality is as well. NOTE: That’s a point in favour of a Habit Course (you won’t do this alone easily).
** An alternative to the contrasting technique is the WOOP method. Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan. See Oettingen “Future Thought and Behavioural Change” European Review of Social Psychology 23 no 1 (2012) 1-63
** Also read Oettingen Pak Schnetter “Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 no 2 (1999) 250-260
** A different kind of plan: an “implementation intention” for example, inside of a goal of getting more exercise an implementation intention can be “if I see someone struggling with a stroller, then I will offer to help them”. This is much more concrete and gives you an edge. See the study for more details: Chapman Ermitage Norman “Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruits and vegetables” Psychology and Health 24 no 3 (2009) 317-332
** For more on “implementation intention” see the meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran “Implementation intention and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (2006) 69-119
** Of course, implementation intentions also required some trial and error. Something we could do in the Habit Course.
** The author notes that having the cue of the implementation intention (those are if X then Y) be timing is NOT a good idea. Rather, having the cue be another event is easier for us to notice whereas timing requires the use of our memory. NOTE: essentially this technique works best if the cue is another habitual behaviour e.g. arriving at work.
** Making multi-conditional implementation intention also works (possibly even better). For example: If it’s after breakfast and there is time, then I will go for a run or ride my bicycle”.
** A note: people who are already meticulous planners tend to benefit LESS from implementation intentions.
** You can use implementation intention to counter a loophole as well. NOTE: That sounds awesome. Let’s try!
** SUMMARY (implementation intentions) they are very versatile, research has demonstrated they work. They can be used for a wide range of types of plans: straight plan, planning against external obstacles (circumstances) and planning against internal obstacles (loopholes).

== To read ==
* Ouellette & Wood ‘’Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour’’ - Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998) 54-74
* Webb & Sheehan ‘’Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.’’ Psychological Bulletin 132, no 2 (2006) 249/268

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-17T01:38:41Z

DavidKohler:

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-16T17:19:14Z

DavidKohler:

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-14T23:27:39Z

DavidKohler:

User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

2015-12-14T20:04:39Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "== Info == By Jeremy Dean, 2013. == Chapters == * Chapter 1 ** How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much l..."

User:DavidKohler/SELP

2015-12-02T18:07:54Z

DavidKohler:

* Create a visual display for the registrations that were caused that we can display on the equivalent of a media board.
* Create a visual display for guest events invitations, people can create who they invite, hold each other accountable. Especially for map night, create A MAP.
* Do the thinking about when are the coaching calls happening. When will I talk to the head coaches?
* Do some thinking about managing the WAP, pre and post. The paperwork needs to take less time and be USEFUL.
* Possibly creating community with the coaching body as well as the head coaches.
* Invite coach+production + ALL OTHER ASSISTING to the centre assisting meeting.

3 -> 12 -> 48
3 -> 15 -> 75

4 -> 16 -> 64
4 -> 20 -> 100

5 -> 20 -> 80
5 -> 25 -> 125

User:DavidKohler/SELP

2015-12-02T18:00:31Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "* Create a visual display for the registrations that were caused that we can display on the equivalent of a media board. * Create a visual display for guest events invitations..."

* Create a visual display for the registrations that were caused that we can display on the equivalent of a media board.
* Create a visual display for guest events invitations, people can create who they invite, hold each other accountable. Especially for map night, create A MAP.
* Do the thinking about when are the coaching calls happening. When will I talk to the head coaches?
* Do some thinking about managing the WAP, pre and post. The paperwork needs to take less time and be USEFUL.
* Possibly creating community with the coaching body as well as the head coaches.

3 -> 12 -> 48
3 -> 15 -> 75

4 -> 16 -> 64
4 -> 20 -> 100

5 -> 20 -> 80
5 -> 25 -> 125

User:DavidKohler/Books/Antifragile

2015-11-27T20:12:23Z

DavidKohler: Created page with "== Info == By Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2012. == Key Concepts == * Antifragile: An actual opposite to fragile does not exist. There is a linear scale from fragile, to robust, t..."

== Info ==
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2012.

== Key Concepts ==

* Antifragile: An actual opposite to fragile does not exist. There is a linear scale from fragile, to robust, to antifragile. Response of fragile and antifragile systems to volatility is determinant here.x

* Procrustean Bed: You cut people to fit them into your one-size beds (and doing a great job at it).

* Iatrogenics: the negative impact of an intervention.

* Barbell strategy: which gives you a structure to create antifragility

* Optionality: then you have a positive view towards volatility.

* Lecturing birds on how to fly.

* The green lumber fallacy

* The sucker vs non-sucker

User:DavidKohler/bookmarks

2015-11-27T19:58:28Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/bookmarks to Sandbox:DavidKohler/bookmarks

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/bookmarks]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/bookmarks

2015-11-27T19:58:28Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/bookmarks to Sandbox:DavidKohler/bookmarks

== Wiki bookmarks ==

User:DavidKohler/TAAP resources

2015-11-27T19:58:05Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/TAAP resources to Sandbox:TAAP resources

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:TAAP resources]]

Sandbox:TAAP resources

2015-11-27T19:58:05Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/TAAP resources to Sandbox:TAAP resources

* [[Documentation:Podcasting Basics]]
* [[Documentation:Student_Toolkit/Video]]
* [http://blogs.ubc.ca/communicatingscience2011w210/2012/02/09/video-creation-tutorials/]
* [http://blogs.ubc.ca/communicatingscience2011w210/create/blogging-resources/]

User:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11

2015-11-27T19:57:44Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11 to Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11

2015-11-27T19:57:44Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11 to Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC/Stuff/Theorem 2.11

This theorem indicates that there is a fairly high probability that a random ''d''-regular graph will have a higher eigenvalue than we hope for. This occurs here when a vertex has too many self-loops, a case of what is called a [[User:DavidKohler/Alon%27s_conjecture/Tangle|tangle]].

== Statement ==
{| class="wikitable" width="800px"
!style="background: #777777; color: #D0D0D0; text-align: left; padding:3px;" width="100%"|Theorem 2.11
|-
|style="background: #FFFFFF; padding:12px;"|
Fix an even integer ''d'' ≥ 4 and then fix another integer ''m'' such that ''m'' < ''d''/2 and 2''m''-1  > {{radical|''d'' - 1}}.

Consider the standard model, ''G''''n'',''d'', of random ''d''-regular graphs on ''n'' vertices. Then for sufficiently large ''n'' with probability at least ''n''1-''m''-(1/2)''n''2-2''m'' we have that λ2(''G'') > 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}}.
|}

== Proof ==
We're considering the case in which a graph has at least ''m'' self-loops, for ''m'' < ''d''/2. We'll show that for a value of ''m'' large enough relatively to ''d'' the second largest eigenvalue will be larger than 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}} for a sufficiently large value of ''n''.

Throughout this proof, we'll consider the values of ''d'' and ''m'' fixed while we'll let the value of ''n'' grow.

Assume that there are at least ''m'' self-loops at the vertex ''v''''k'', this is the event, which we'll denote by τ''k'', that π''i'' (''v''''k'') = ''v''''k'' for ''i'' = 1, ..., ''m''. This event occurs with probability 1/''n''''m'' since we simply fix the first value of its first ''m'' permutations.

Let us denote by τ the probability that there are at least ''m'' self-loops at some vertex in the graph, so we have
:<math>\tau = \bigcup_{k=1}^n \tau_k</math>
and hence, using the principle of inclusion and exclusion, we can estimate the probability of τ as claimed:
:<math>\text{Prob}(\tau) \geq \sum_{k=1}^n \text{Prob}(\tau_k) - \sum_{k_1 \neq k_2} \text{Prob}(\tau_{k_1} \cap \tau_{k_2}) \geq n \frac{1}{n^m} - \binom{n}{2}\left( \frac{1}{n^m}\right)^2 \geq n^{1-m} - \frac{1}{2}n^{2-2m}</math>

Let us now show how such a graph will give rise to a large second eigenvalue. To do this, we'll use [[User:DavidKohler/Alon%27s_conjecture/Rayleigh_quotient|Rayleigh quotients]] to estimate the second largest eigenvalue as stated [[???|HERE]].

Let us assume that in a random ''d''-regular graph ''G'' we have at least ''m'' self-loops at a vertex ''v''0. Denote by ρ(''v'') the distance of a vertex ''v'' to the vertex ''v''0 and for any positive integer ''r'' consider the function defined on the vertices ''f''''r'' given by:
:<math>f_r(v) = \begin{cases} \left(\frac{1}{2m-1}\right)^{\rho(v)} & \text{if } \rho(v) \leq r\\ \quad 0 & \text{otherwise}\end{cases}</math>
We would like to estimate the Rayleigh quotient of the function ''f''''r''. For this, we'll consider the function α defined by:
:<math>\alpha(m) = (2m-1) + \frac{d-1}{2m-1}</math>
For which we'll make the following two claims:
# Under the assumption that 2''m''-1 > {{radical|''d'' - 1}} we have that α(''m'') > 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}}
# If we denote by ''A'' the adjacency matrix of our random graph ''G'' then (''Af''''r'')(''v'' ) ≥ α(''m'')''f''''r'' (''v'' ) for any vertex ''v'' such that ρ(''v'' ) < r.
The first claim simply follows from Cauchy-Schwarz. The second claim follows from the following. Let ''v'' be a vertex such that ρ(''v'' ) < r, then we have that:
:<math>(Af_r)(v) = \sum_{w \in V_G}A_{v,w}f_r(w) \geq \left(\frac{1}{2m-1}\right)^{\rho(v)-1} \!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!+\,\, (d-1)\left(\frac{1}{2m-1}\right)^{\rho(v)+1} \!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!= \alpha(m)f_r(v)</math>
This estimate comes from the worst case this computation can take when the vertex ''v'' has only one vertex closer to the vertex ''v''0 and the remaining ''d''-1 vertices are further away from the vertex ''v''0 than the vertex ''v''. The specific case when the vertex ''v'' is the vertex ''v''0 is dealt in a similar way:
:<math>Af_r(v_0) = \sum_{w \in V_G}A_{v_0w}f_r(w) \geq 2m f_r(v_0) + (d-2m) \frac{1}{2m-1} = \alpha(m)f_r(v_0)</math>
Here, the worst case is when the vertex ''v''0 has precisely ''m'' self-loops (each contributing twice in the adjacency matrix) and hence ''d''-2''m'' adjacent vertices. Note also that ''f''''r''(''v''0) = 1.

We can now estimate the Rayleigh quotient of the function ''f''''r''. Let us define by <''f'',''g''>''r'' the partial scalar product on vertices at distance at most ''r'':
:<math>\langle f,g \rangle_r = \sum_{\begin{array}{c} w \in V_G\\ \rho(w) \leq r\end{array}}f(w)g(w)</math>
then we can rewrite our above remarks as follow:
:<math>\displaystyle{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle = \langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r}</math> &emsp; and &emsp; <math> \langle Af_r,f_r \rangle \geq \langle Af_r,f_r \rangle_r \geq \alpha(m) \langle f_r,f_r \rangle_{r-1}</math>
This allows to get the following estimate of the Rayleigh quotient of the function ''f''''r'':
:<math>R_A(f_r) = \frac{\langle Af_r,f_r \rangle}{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle} \geq \alpha(m) \frac{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_{r-1}}{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r}</math>
We know that α(m) is at most 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}} but the remaining fraction being less than 1, we need to work a little to show that it can be made arbitrarily close to 1 for a suitable value of ''r''. First we can estimate the difference in these two terms as follow: notice that there are at most (''d''-2''m'')(''d''-1)''t''-1 vertices at distance ''t'' from the vertex ''v''0 hence:
:<math>\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r \leq \langle f_r,f_r \rangle_{r-1} + (d-2m)(d-1)^{r-1}\left(\frac{1}{2m-1}\right)^{2r}</math>
And so
:<math>\frac{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_{r-1}}{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r} \geq 1 - \frac{(d-2m)(d-1)^{r-1}}{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r (2m-1)^{2r}}</math>
Since ''f''''r''(''v''0) = 1 we have that <''f''''r'',''f''''r''>''t'' ≥ 1 and hence
:<math>\frac{(d-2m)(d-1)^{r-1}}{\langle f_r,f_r \rangle_r (2m-1)^{2r}} \leq \frac{d-2m}{d-1}\left(\frac{d-1}{(2m-1)^2}\right)^r</math>
Which converges to zero if we let ''r'' tend to infinity since (''d''-1)/(2''m''-1)2 < 1. This implies that for any fixed value of ''m'' we can choose a value α0 such that 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}} < α0 < α(''m'') and then choose a value ''r''0 large enough such that:
:<math>\frac{d-2m}{d-1}\left(\frac{d-1}{(2m-1)^2}\right)^{r_0} < 1- \frac{\alpha_0}{\alpha(m)}</math>
Which gives the following lower bound on the Rayleigh quotient of the function ''f''''r'':
:<math>R_A(f_r) \geq \alpha(m) \left( 1 - \frac{d-2m}{d-1}\left(\frac{d-1}{(2m-1)^2}\right)^{r_0} \right) > \alpha_0 > 2\sqrt{d-1}</math>

To complete the proof and use [[???|lemma ???]] we need to find an orthogonal function with a larger Rayleigh quotient that this.

For simplicity, we'll denote by ''f'' the function ''f''''r''0 that we obtained above.

Consider the following set of vertices
:<math>N = \left\{ w \in V_G \,|\, \text{dist}_G(w, \text{supp}(f)) \leq 1 \right\}</math>
which contains the support of the function ''f'' and all the vertices adjacent to it. We consider now the function ''g'' = 1''V''\''N'', which is the characteristic function of the complement set of the set ''N''. By construction, the function ''f'' is orthogonal to both ''g'' and ''Ag''. We now proceed to estimate the Rayleigh quotient of ''g''. Since <''Ag'',''g''> is twice the number of edges in the subgraph induced by the vertices in ''V''\''N'' and since the number of edges in that subgraph is at least (1/2)''d''|''V''| - ''d''|''N''|, that is, the number of edges adjacent to a vertex in the set ''N'' subtracted from the total number of edges in the graph; we obtain that:
:<math>R_A(g) \geq \frac{d|V| - 2d|N|}{|V|-|N|} = d - \text{O}\!\left( \frac{1}{n} \right)</math>
Since |''V''| = ''n'' and since we can consider ''d'' and |''N''| to be constants at this point. This implies that for ''n'' sufficiently large, we'll have:
:<math>d-\text{O}\!\left(\frac{1}{n}\right) \geq \alpha(m) \geq \alpha_0</math>
And hence min{ ''R''''A''(''f''), ''R''''A''(''g'') } = ''R''''A''(''f'') > 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}}; which implies that λ2(''G'') > 2{{radical|''d'' - 1}} and concludes this proof.

[[Category:Alon's conjecture|Theorem]][[Category:Theorem|Theorem]]

User:DavidKohler/RAC

2015-11-27T19:57:44Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/RAC to Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC

2015-11-27T19:57:43Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/RAC to Sandbox:DavidKohler/RAC

Backend page for the [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture|Relativized Alon Conjecture]] wiki.

== Total size ==
The size of this wiki is: {{#dpl:
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|namespace=User
|shownamespace=false
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|mode=userformat
|resultsheader=%PAGES%
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}} pages for a total of {{#expr:{{#expr:{{#dpl:
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}}}}/1000 round0}} MB.

== Flags ==
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! To do !! Work in progress !! Live
|- valign="top"
| {{#dpl:
|category=RAC/Flag/To_do
|noresultsheader=Nothing listed.
|replaceintitle=$DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/$,
|shownamespace=false}}
|| {{#dpl:
|category=RAC/Flag/WIP
|noresultsheader=Nothing listed.
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|shownamespace=false}}
|| {{#dpl:
|category=RAC/Flag/Live
|noresultsheader=Nothing listed.
|replaceintitle=$DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/$,
|shownamespace=false}}
|}

Other ideas
* Live
* Archive
* Work in progress
* Beta version

== Pages for ... ==
* Conjectures
* Definitions
* Examples
* Proofs

What goes in subpages is all the technical stuff. All that stuff gets versioned.

== Site map ==
Here's the complete list of all the {{#dpl:
|titlematch=DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/%
|namespace=User
|shownamespace=false
|replaceintitle=$DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/$,
|mode=userformat
|resultsheader=%PAGES%
|skipthispage=no
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|count=2000
}} pages you can find in the Relativized Alon Conjecture wiki.

{{#dpl:
|titlematch=DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/%
|namespace=User
|shownamespace=false
|replaceintitle=$DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/$,
}}

[[Category: RAC]]

User:DavidKohler/MER presentation

2015-11-27T19:57:30Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MER presentation to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MER presentation

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/MER presentation]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/MER presentation

2015-11-27T19:57:30Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MER presentation to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MER presentation

= An overview of the MER project =

The Math Department makes past final exams available to students. For example, the April 2011 exam of MATH 101.
* [http://www.math.ubc.ca/Ugrad/pastExams/index.shtml Past Exams at the Math Department]

To be more useful, we made it look like this:
* [[Science:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH101/April_2011/Question_7| MATH 101, April 2011 exam, Question 7]]

A guided tour, from the home page
* [[Science:Math_Exam_Resources]]

Example of student interaction:
* [[Science_talk:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH103/April_2009/Question_4_(b)#How_to_get_du_3325|asking a question]]
* [[Science_talk:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH103/April_2010/Question_4_(c)#Confused_with_solution_3322|learning new things!]]
* [[Science_talk:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH101/April_2009/Question_3_(b)#April_2009_-_3b_3333|pointing out mistakes]]
* [[Science:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH152/April_2010/Question_B3_(c)|suggesting a new solution]]

How does it work?
* [[Science:MER|The contributors portal]]

User:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation

2015-11-27T19:57:20Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation

2015-11-27T19:57:20Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110 presentation

A solved problem that I wrote:
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Notes/Optimization/Problem_3]]

Homework at the start of the course
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_05/Homework_3|dense!]]
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_02/Homework_3#Question_11|some pictures]]

Some essays
* [[User:Matthew]]
* [[User:PaigeHolloway]]
* [[User:YihongChen]]

Half-year, the Basic Skills Project
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_05/BasicSkillsProject|exponential growth]]
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_06/Basic_Skills_-_Piecewise_Functions|piecewise functions]]
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_02/Basic_Skills_Project|Lines and their youtube videos]]
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Groups/Group_11/Basic_Skills:_Trigonometric_Functions|and a popular one: trig functions]]

Some cool work they did near the end of the course
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Teams/St_Gallen/Homework/11_Part3]]
* [[Course:MATH110/Archive/2010-2011/003/Teams/Zug/Homework_12]]

User:DavidKohler/MATH110

2015-11-27T19:57:07Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MATH110 to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110

2015-11-27T19:57:06Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/MATH110 to Sandbox:DavidKohler/MATH110

==Statistics==

Most viewed pages in the MATH110/003 wiki:

<dpl>
titlematch=MATH110/003/%
namespace=Course
ordermethod=counter
count=10
order=descending
addpagecounter=true
allowcachedresults=true
</dpl>

Most viewed pages in the UBC wiki:

<dpl>
titlematch=%
ordermethod=counter
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</dpl>

User talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

2015-11-27T19:55:52Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion to Sandbox talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion]]

Sandbox talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

2015-11-27T19:55:52Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion to Sandbox talk:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph

2015-11-27T19:55:52Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph

2015-11-27T19:55:52Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable length graph

{{RAC_To_do|Write the definition here and the main properties. Mostly what's in Friedman's paper should be way enough.}}

[[Category:RAC/Definition]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Trace method

Here, we review the Trace Method.

== Basics of the Trace Method ==
Consider the [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/Random_cover_model|random regular graph model]] ''G''''n'',''d''. The trace method allows us to determine information on the eigenvalues of a random regular graph by computing the expected value of the trace of a sufficiently high power of the adjacency matrix. Since the trace of a power of the adjacency matrix is the sum of the corresponding power of its eigenvalues, it passes through expectations and we have
:<math>\displaystyle
\mathbb{E}[\text{Tr}(A_G^k)] = \lambda_1^k + \ldots + \lambda_n^k
</math>
And so
:<math>\begin{align}
\mathbb{E}[\lambda_2] &\leq \left( \mathbb{E}[\lambda_2^k] \right)^{1/k} \\
&\leq \left( \mathbb{E}[\lambda_1^k + \lambda_2^k + \ldots + \lambda_n^k - \lambda_1^k] \right)^{1/k} \\
&\leq \left( \mathbb{E}[\text{Tr}(A_G^k) - d^k] \right)^{1/k} \\
\end{align}</math>
Since λ1 = ''d'' for ''d''-regular graphs.

The trace of the ''k''th power of the adjacency matrix of a graph can also be interpreted as the number of closed walks of length ''k'' in the graph. In the case of the ''G''''n,d'' model, each edge is labeled with a letter in the alphabet
:<math>\displaystyle
\Pi = \{ \pi_1, \pi_1^{-1}, \ldots, \pi_{d/2}, \pi_{d/2}^{-1} \}
</math>
where each π''i'' corresponds to a randomly selected permutation of ''n'' objects. Hence a walk of length ''k'' corresponds to a word ''w'' in this alphabet and hence corresponds to a permutation of ''n'' objects (using the usual composition of permutations). And the (''i,j'') entry of the the ''k''th power of the adjacency matrix is the number of words ''w'' of length ''k'' taking ''i'' to ''j''. Given a word ''w'', the probability ''P''(''w'') that the word takes ''i'' to itself is clearly independent of ''i'' and hence we have
:<math>\displaystyle
\mathbb{E}[\text{Tr}(A_G^k)] = n \sum_{w \in \Pi^k} P(w)
</math>
Finding ways to estimate the right-hand side of this equation allows to estimate the expected value of the second largest eigenvalue.

== In Broder & Shamir ==
In their paper, Broder and Shamir give an estimate of the right-hand side of the above equation.
{{RAC To do|Describe the Broder Shamir approach and main result}}

== In Friedman ==
In his proof of the regular case of the Alon conjecture, Friedman shows that

==== ROUGH VERSION ====
First, P(w) has an expansion in 1/n:
:<math>\displaystyle
P(w) = P_0(w) + \frac{P_1(w)}{n} + \frac{P_2(w)}{n^2} + \ldots
</math>
Now set
:<math>\displaystyle
g_i(k) = \sum_{w \in \text{Irred}_k}P_{i+1}(w)
</math>
Since P0(w) = 0 for irreducible words and ''k'' at least 1.

And so we can define the Irreducible trace as
:<math>\displaystyle
\mathbb{E}[\text{IrredTr}(A,k)] = n \sum_{w \in \text{Irred}_k}P(w)
</math>
and get
:<math>\displaystyle
\mathbb{E}[\text{IrredTr}(A,k)] = \sum_{i \geq 0} g_i(k) \frac{1}{n^i}
</math>

What makes the estimation work is to show that the ''g''i functions are [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan_(functions)|''d''-Ramanujan functions]] for all ''i'' less than {{sqrt|d-1}}/2.

[[Category:RAC/Story]][[Category:RAC/Flag/WIP]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangle

A '''tangle''' is a graph that is problematic in some sense for a given random cover model.

== Definition ==

[[Category:RAC/Definition]][[Category:RAC/Flag/WIP]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture

2015-11-27T19:55:51Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Strong conjecture

This strong version of the conjecture has been first suggested by Friedman in ?? (to check)

== Conjecture ==
Let ''B'' be a graph and let ρ be the spectral radius of the universal cover of the the graph ''B'', then
:<math>
\lim_{n \to \infty} \text{Prob}_{\sigma \in \mathcal{S}_n^{E_B}} \big[\text{NewSpec}(B[\sigma]) \subset [-\rho-\varepsilon, \rho+\varepsilon]\big] = 1
</math>
for any ε > 0.

[[Category:RAC/Flag/WIP]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Regular tree completion

The '''regular tree completion''' of a given graph allows us to see important properties of the starting graph. In particular, it shows us that some subgraphs, that we call [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Tangles|tangles]], have a high second eigenvalue.

== Definition ==
Let ''G'' be a finite connected graph with maximal degree less or equal to some integer ''d'' larger than 2. We define the ''d''-regular tree completion of ''G'' to be the unique (up to isomorphism) [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Graph|infinite graph]], Treed(''G'') which consists of attaching additional free edges to all vertices so that the graph obtained is ''d''-regular. Equivalently, this is the [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Graph_cover|universal covering]] of the starting graph.

== Properties ==
Let ψ be a connected [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Graph|graph]] with maximal degree at most ''d'' > 2. Then we have
:<math>\begin{align}
\lambda_1(\text{Tree}_d(\psi)) &= 2\sqrt{d-1} \iff \lambda_{\text{Irred}}(\psi) \leq \sqrt{d-1} \\
\lambda_1(\text{Tree}_d(\psi)) &> 2\sqrt{d-1} \iff \lambda_{\text{Irred}}(\psi) > \sqrt{d-1}
\end{align}</math>
Where λ1(Treed(ψ)) is the [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/Eigenvalue_(graph)#Spectral_radius|spectral radius]] of that infinite graph and where λIrred(ψ) is the largest [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/Eigenvalue_(graph)#Irreducible_eigenvalue|irreducible eigenvalue]] of the graph ψ.

{{RAC_Proof|
Consider ''G'', the [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable_length_graph|VLG]] based on the graph ψ that realizes Treed(ψ). Then λ1(Treed(ψ)), the spectral radius of the ''d''-regular tree completion of the the graph ψ, is the inverse of the infimum of all the positive roots, ''z'', of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\text{det}\left[ I - Z_G(z) \right] = 0
</math>
In other words, we have
:<math>\displaystyle
\frac{1}{\lambda_1(\text{Tree}_d(\psi))} = \inf\left\{ z \mid \text{det}\left[ I - Z_G(z) \right] = 0 \right\}
</math>
Where [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Variable_length_graph|''Z''''G''(''z'')]] is the adjacency matrix of ''G''.

==== Lemma ====
For any connected graph ψ and the variable length graph ''G'' {{=}} Treed(ψ) we have
:<math>\displaystyle
Z_G(z) = zA + \frac{dI-D}{d-1}S_d(z)
</math>
where ''A'' {{=}} ''A''ψ is the adjacency matrix of the graph ψ, ''D'' {{=}} ''D''ψ is its degree matrix and
:<math>
S_d(z) = \frac{1-\sqrt{1-4(d-1)z^2}}{2}
</math>
{{RAC_Proof|
(As in Friedman)
}}
==== Lemma ====
The largest irreducible eigenvalue of the graph ψ, λIrred(ψ) is the inverse of the smallest root, ''y'' of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[ I - yA + y^2(D-I)] = 0
</math>
{{RAC_Proof|
This is a straight consequence of Bass' formula:
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[H - \lambda I] = (\lambda^2-1)^{\chi(\psi)} \cdot \det[(\lambda^2+d-1)I - \lambda A]
</math>
where λIrred(ψ) is the largest solution of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[H - \lambda I ] = 0
</math>
by substituting ''y'' {{=}} 1/λ we get the equivalence of the solutions.
}}
Now consider the change of variables
:<math>\displaystyle
y = y(z) = \frac{z}{1-S_d(z)} \iff z = z(y) = \frac{y}{(d-1)y^2+1}
</math>
which is valid if
:<math>\displaystyle
|z| < \frac{1}{2\sqrt{d-1}} \quad \text{and} \quad |y| < \frac{1}{\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
Notice that this change of variable is increasing as long as it converges. Then we have
:<math>\displaystyle
I-Z_G(z) = (1-S_d(z))(I-yA+y^2(D-I))
</math>
which holds for
:<math>\displaystyle
|z| < \frac{1}{2\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
We can now finish the proof. First, take the case where λ1(Treed(ψ)) > 2{{sqrt|d-1}}
then there is a ''z''0 such that
:<math>\displaystyle
z_0 < \frac{1}{2\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
which is a root of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[I-Z_G(z)] = 0
</math>
Let
:<math>\displaystyle
y_0 = y(z_0) = \frac{z_0}{1-S_d(z_0)}
</math>
which is clearly a root of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[ I - yA + y^2(D-I) ] = 0
</math>
and since
:<math>\displaystyle
y_0 < \frac{1}{\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
we can conclude that
:<math>\displaystyle
\lambda_{\text{Irred}}(\psi) > \sqrt{d-1}
</math>
Finally, for the case where λ1(Treed(ψ)) {{=}} 2{{sqrt|d-1}} then this means that if ''z''0 is a root of det[I-''Z''''G''(''z'')] {{=}} 0 then we have that
:<math>\displaystyle
\frac{1}{z_0} \leq 2\sqrt{d-1}
</math>
Assume by contradiction that
:<math>\displaystyle
\lambda_{\text{Irred}}(\psi) > \sqrt{d-1}
</math>
then there exists a ''y''0 such that
:<math>\displaystyle
y_0 < \frac{1}{\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
and that is a root of the equation
:<math>\displaystyle
\det[I-yA+y^2(D-I)] = 0
</math>
But then, our correspondence of eigenvalues gives an associated eigenvalue ''z''0 such that
:<math>\displaystyle
z_0 < \frac{1}{2\sqrt{d-1}}
</math>
which contradicts our hypothesis. Hence we can claim that
:<math>\displaystyle
\lambda_{\text{Irred}}(\psi) \leq \sqrt{d-1}
</math>
which concludes the proof of this property.
}}

{{RAC_To_do|In the proof of the property, there is a lemma that is missing a proof.}}

[[Category:RAC/Definition]][[Category:RAC/Flag/WIP]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Random cover model

A model that generates [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/Graph_cover|graph covering]] of any desired degree of a given base graph allow to make probabilistic statements. The '''Random cover model''' is such a model.

== Definition ==
Let ''B'' be a fixed connected base graph and choose an [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized_Alon_Conjecture/Graph#Oriented_and_labelled_graph|orientation]] of its edges. We will denote its vertices and oriented edges by
:<math>\displaystyle
V_B = \{ v_1, \ldots, v_s \} \quad \vec E_B = \{ e_1, \ldots, e_a \}
</math>
A covering of degree ''n'' is obtained by choosing a permutation of ''n'' objects for each oriented edge of the base graph. Let σ = (σ1, ..., σ''a'') be a choice of permutations of ''n'' objects, then we construct a covering, ''B''[σ] as follow. Its vertices is simply the set
:<math>\displaystyle
V_{B[\sigma]} = V_B \times \{1, \ldots, n\}
</math>
and its directed edges the set
:<math>\displaystyle
\vec E_{B[\sigma]} = \vec E_B \times \{1, \ldots, n\}
</math>
where
:<math>\displaystyle
\vec E_B = \{ e_1, e_1^{-1}, \ldots, e_a, e_a^{-1} \}
</math>
where ''e''''i'' = ''e''''i''-1 if that edge is a half-loop. The tail and head maps are given as follow:
:<math>\begin{align}
t_{B[\sigma]}(e_i,j) &= (t_B(e_i),j) \\
h_{B[\sigma]}(e_i,j) &= (h_B(e_i), \sigma_{e_i}(j)) \\
t_{B[\sigma]}(e_i^{-1},j) &= (h_B(e_i), \sigma_{e_i}(j)) \\
h_{B[\sigma]}(e_i^{-1},j) &= (t_B(e_i),j)
\end{align}</math>
and where the opposite edge to the directed edge (''e''''i'', ''j'') is the directed edge (''e''''i''-1, ''j''). It is easy to verify that this makes ''B''[σ] a cover graph of the base graph ''B'' of degree ''n''.

We put a uniform distribution on the choice of permutations and obtain a probabilistic model for coverings of degree ''n'' of the base graph ''B''. Note that this is not equivalent to a uniform distribution on all coverings of degree ''n'' of the base graph as different choices of permutations can yield the same covering graph.

== Special case: Regular graphs ==
Let ''d'' be an even integer and consider the base graph ''B'' consisting of ''d''/2 whole-loops on one vertex. Graph coverings of degree ''n'' of this graph are ''d''-regular graphs on ''n'' vertices.
[[Category:RAC/Flag/WIP]]

User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions)

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions) to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions)

#REDIRECT [[Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions)]]

Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions)

2015-11-27T19:55:50Z

DavidKohler: DavidKohler moved page User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions) to Sandbox:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (functions)

#REDIRECT [[User:DavidKohler/Relativized Alon Conjecture/Ramanujan (function)]]