The QLog

Mythbusters, Part 3: You Lose Most Body Heat From Your Head

When I was growing up, my Mom taught at a Catholic grade school where the priest gave basically the same sermon to the children every day in winter. Instead of probing any deep theological message, he offered this PSA at morning mass: "Your head is like a chimney. Wear Your Hat." My mom would remind my sister and I to wear our own hats when it was cold out, by jokingly repeat the same manta.

This leads me to the last mythbuster for now: you lose most body heat from your head. This statement is partially true, depending on the context. 

I've heard several different competing claims the amount of heat loss from the head, but the various estimates range from 75% to 95%.

If this were true, then one should be able to to stay extremely warm by simply wearing a ski mask or hat while nude. Yesterday, it was 10 below (F) in Wisconsin; however, I decided against conducting the full experiment.

The brain is an extremely metabolic active part of the body and it does produce more heat than other parts of the body (like the pink finger); however, the heat is lost more from the head as in modern Western society, it is normally uncovered while the torso, arms, and legs are fully clothed. 

If the entire body is covered, including the head, there is a very little heat loss anywhere. Likewise, if the entire body is naked, then heat is lost from all surfaces and the percentage from the head does not come anywhere near 75%.

What is more likely true is this: of the body heat that is lost, the head contributes the majority when it is directly exposed to the environment while the rest of the body, except for the hands and feet, are fully clothed. 

Mythbusters, Part 2: You Only Use 10% of Your Brain

The idea that a human beings only use 10% of their brain is often mentioned by motivational speakers and various self-help gurus. It is a great explanation to explain past failures with only one caveat: it is completely false and the origins of the concept seem to be based on outdated science. If 90% of your brain was removed, you would cease to function.

Neurologists that have studied the brain have used modern imaging techniques such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET scans (positron emission tomography) to monitor brain activity. Many different studies have demonstrated that a wide variety of locations within the brain are used. Also, some tasks are highly specialized and are controlled by very localized portions of the brain while other complex behaviors utilize many different parts of brain at the same time.

Nevertheless, what does seem to be true is that human beings often use LESS than their full mental capabilities due to sloppy thinking, ingrained habits, and static world views. Almost everyone has the potential to increase their overall creativity and problem solving abilities. 

For a much more detailed account on this myth, including more on the cultural history, see the following book chapter:

B.L. Beyerstein, Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of Our Brains? in Mind Myths. Exploring Popular Assumptions about the Mind and Brain edited by S. Della Sala, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, pages 3-24, 1999

Mythbusters, Part 1: Your Body is 90% Water

Recently, I've heard three urban myths about the human body and I'm going to take the next few days to debunk them rather quickly.

Question: Your Body is 90% Water. True or False?
Answer: False!

Although I do have a background in biology, this is not needed to quickly think through this idea, especially if you ever have seen a human skeleton. Consider your bones. The human body contains many bones, some of them fairly large. The entire volume and weight of the human skeleton is much higher than 10% of the body. Additionally, every cell is has thousands of different carbon-based molecules such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, each performing a different function in parallel. Animals eat food for both energy and raw organic materials. If our bodies were only 10% carbon-based, then we would consume much less solid food at dinner and instead would be drinking more fluids to maintain that 9:1 ratio.

Yet, the human body does contain a very significant amount of H2O as it is about 60% water. What is true is that one should drink, on average, 2 liters (approximately 8 glasses) of water each day to re-hydrate due to a variety of biological functions. You can read the more detailed health recommendations on this topic from the Mayo Clinic here.   

Create a Legacy List

This is new exercise I developed for someone who was having a hard time thinking of long term goals. I am releasing it on the Log as a raw exercise as it is has not been field tested; yet, I think it is worthwhile. Take a few minutes and consider these questions:

1) You are 100 years old and on your deathbed. You have lived a full life and are satisfied with your personal and professional accomplishment. What legacy would you be leaving behind to your family, friends, community, and the world on the day you died? Be specific.

2) Now imagine it is 100 years after the day you died. What specific impact would you like to have on the world of your grand children's grandchildren?

Reflect on the Nobel Prize, one of the world's best Legacy project. It was inspired by the erroneous publication of Alfred Nobel's obituary (his brother had died, but French newspaper had the facts mixed-up) and the contents horrified him. Why? It began Le marchand de la mort est mort which means "The Merchant of Death is dead" and then condemned him for becoming a rich man by finding ways to kill more people efficiently than anyone before in history. He did not want the remembered by historians as the "Merchant of Death" so a few years later, he donated the vast majority of his estate when he died to establish the Nobel Prize fund. Today, most remember his name for rewarding the great minds of the world instead of as the inventor of dynamite.

Also, let me know your thoughts on the creation of a legacy list.

Three Magic Words are...

...Write It Down!

1) Do you want increase your productivity? Write It Down. Think on paper and consider your top concerns, assumptions, questions, goals, projects, and tasks.

2) Do you want to increase your creativity? Write It Down. Record your observations, conversations, ideas, insights, answers, solutions, crazy thoughts, and wild memes.

Simple advise? Yes. Easy? No! Think of all the times you had a million dollar idea for a great book, movie, business, or project but could not recall the details later.

I do suggest keeping a daily journal as a life enhancing habit. Why? It is an excellent way to insure that you capture your thoughts on a regular and semi-systematic basis.

Stop List for 2008

Take a moment to think about habits, activities, and past times that are extremely low value. Are you watching too much TV? Would you like to stop eating fast food? Perhaps you take coffee breaks at work that are longer and more frequent than they should be, and thereby impacting your overall productivity?

I suggest you set aside 30 minutes tomorrow to consider all of the bad behaviors that waste your time or which are undesirable. Write them down and then create a Stop List. This is a 'NOT to do' list. Review the list and rank each item (no ties). Then pick the top three entries as these are the most pressing time waster which you would like to eliminate from your life.

For the next 28 days, focus on removing the first item on your list and ONLY the first item on your list. If you relapse into the activity, start over. Experts agree that the learning process to remove a habit takes at minimum 21 days. I suggest a full four weeks as that will insure you are ready.

Once you have eliminated the first item from your life, it is time to move to the second item on the list. After a full 28 days of successfully removing that second habit, you can move on the third item on the list.

After all three have been vanquished, you may begin at step one to re-create a new Stop List.

Cultivate Your Minutes

Time, like water, can pass one by, drip by drip...one minute, five minutes, thirty minutes...gone forever. I think Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best "Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."

Short, Short Emails

In general, phone calls have two parts: the greeting ("Hello") and the conversation itself. Email has a similar binary structure which includes the subject line and the body of the message. However, email is much more flexible.

Most business professionals receive over 100 email messages per day. Some individuals I know get over 500. Due to the flood of email, make sure that your information gets to others is the quickest and easier way possible. How? Put as much useful data into the subject line is possible. In fact, some emails should have ALL the information within the subject line and nothing within the body whatsoever. For example "Today's Lunch Meeting is at 1:00" as the subject would be entire message.

This saves time twice. First, a short and concise message within the subject is quick to type for the sender. Second, the receiver does not need to 'open' the full email to retrieve the informational content.

Fear vs. F.E.A.R.

Fear is a legitimate emotion and it seems to be part of the human condition as a survival mechanism. Most importantly, it help protect children as it constrains many behaviors that could prove hazardous or fatal at a young age.

Nevertheless, many fears are really F.E.A.R or False Evidence Appearing Real. F.E.A.R holds people from achieving their absolute best. Often, it helps maintain 'the good' instead of promoting 'the great'. F.E.A.R. keeps many people doing average things in a mediocre way for years without growing beyond their status quo.

Five common examples are:

• Fear of failing
• Fear of looking foolish
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of success
• Fear of loss

Instead, embrace the mantra of the late productivity expert Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Drive Out Fear!

How? Below is a simple 7-step techniques to focus on the real problem and determine the best next action instead of being controlled by fear.

1. State the problem, situation, or opportunity as clearly as possible. Clarity is key. Write it down and include who, where, when, why, what, and how.

2. Review the data as you presented them for possible biases. Be as objective as possible. Determine which facts are really assumptions and personal interruptions.

3. Play Devil's Advocate. Is everyone in agreement on the above facts? What would an opponent claim? What is the opposite hypothesis and how might this point of view be correct? Be honest with this exercise.

4. Restate the REAL problem, situation, or opportunity as a question.

5. Create a list of potential solutions with a mindstorm, including both outrageous answers and conventional methods. Be creative and open to new ideas. Do not stop until you have at least 20 items on your list.

6. Review the list critically, considering variables such as cost, time, effort, and complexity. Pick the best two option on the list. One will be your primary course of action. The other will be your plan B.

7. Act today. Begin working on the solution to your fear now. 

AIDA and Goals

AIDA is an acronym used by marketers. It means: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. You can co-opt this idea for considering your 101 life goals, a list of those things you want to have accomplished before you die:

Awareness: If you are unaware of an idea, experience, or place, how could you desire it. Make sure that you are not limited yourself and missing opportunities due to ignorance. Keep your mind open.

Interest: If there is a skill you would like to learn, a place you would like to visit, or something you would like to try, write it down. Try to gather everything you would like to do over the next 25 years or 50 years.

Desire: Rank the list. Which items would be nice, but are not something you need to do. What should be number one on your list?

Action: Once you have a list of the 101 life goals completed, you need to do something, TODAY. Find a way to take action every day on working on this list. If your number one life goal is to climb Mt. Everest, I would recommend spending 1 hour every day moving closer to that goal until it is finally completed.