Church Talk

Today I learned that it takes me about 14 minutes to deliver a 2300 word talk.

The King and I

Adam and I went out on a date tonight. We went to Thai Orchid Cafe for dinner then watched Thor - The Dark World. At the restaurant I learned that the movie The King and I is banned in Thailand and that they don't use the seeds of chilies in Thai food. I also learned that Kalyn is better at putting the kids to bed than Michelle is. :)

Hovding

Today I learned that two women in Sweden (I think it was Sweden...) designed what they are marketing as an "invisible helmet". It's a collar that inflates into a helmet in the case of an accident. I think it's pretty awesome and would totally use it. Adam is more skeptical.

Introverts as Leaders

Today I learned that for many things, particularly in business, being an extrovert is expected and being an introvert can be a bit of a handicap. It brings me back to college interviews and how awkwardly shy I was, and gosh, no wonder I didn't get into Brown or Harvard!

However, just because introverts are quiet does not mean they are poor leaders. The book cites a few studies, though the area has not been thoroughly researched, showing that introverted leaders have better outcomes than extroverted leaders when their employees are extroverts, and vice versa.

Cain also went on at length about evangelical Christianity and the overwhelming expectation of extroversion. I think that's one reason I always felt supremely awkward at the few big box Christian churches I've been to. I just didn't fit in. She uses an example of an introverted pastor who questioned his faith because, if all the other people are so enthusiastic, maybe they really believe more than he does. Malarkey!

She also used an example of an exercise done at Harvard Business School where the incoming class is split up into groups and told that they are handicapped in a subarctic climate. They're supposed to individually rank the importance of 13 items they were able to salvage. They rank them first individually and then as a group. The group succeeds if the group ranking is more correct than any individual's, and likewise lose if any of the individuals had a higher score than the group. This exercise tends to reveal that the big extroverted take charge personalities overwhelm good ideas from quiet people. I know for myself that I've held my tongue and gone ahead with sub-par ideas in academic settings just to get it over with and to make people just STOP TALKING.

I also learned that I really ought to write my learning blog on the correct day, because I've been letting things pile up and then trying to remember what I learned and it's much more difficult to remember things even one day later.

King Blah

Today (I'm going to count 2am on Thursday as being Wednesday, because, really, 2am!) I learned that eating King Wah's chinese might have given me a touch of food poisoning. Luckily I'm not too bad off, but I'm definitely not feeling great.

The Holy Temple Part Two

Today I finished reading The Holy Temple. Again, most of the stuff I knew pretty well. I did learn that at some point members of the church were instructed to keep and write the story of their lives, to gather important documents and whatnot about themselves, and that this is also a good way to start thinking about family history work.

I also got my temple recommend renewed today.

The Holy Temple

Today I read the first half of The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer. I already knew a lot of the stuff in there but I thought there was some interesting discussion about continuing revelation particularly in regard to temple work.