Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

What a Visual Thinker Teaches us About Being Different

Temple Grandin is an expert on animal behavior. She has designed humane handling systems for half the cattle-processing facilities in the US. The culmination of almost thirty years of research, experimentation, and experience her Animals Make Us Human teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment. At an emotional level, she says, we have more in common with our animal friends than we think. “All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain.” The Core Emotions she explores in the book are — 1./ Seeking, 2./ Rage, 3./ Fear, and 4./ Panic; plus three sophisticated,... Read more →

What Makes Hard Questions Worth Pursuing

For every hard question we encounter there seems to be a simple answer, common sense. We are seduced by the idea that what looks obvious must be so. Yet common sense fails us. Being that right and wrong are not absolutes, to put it with Asimov, what seems so right is often more on the side of wrong. Duncan Watts has been engaged in debunking the myth of common sense for the better part of his career, starting as a physicist, then going on to engineering and math, then sociology, and eventually computer science. In Six Degrees: The Science of... Read more →

What Happens on the Tail End

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” [Oscar Wild] We all suffer from bouts of procrastination, and we may not even be aware of when these instances occur and understand how they hurt us until it's too late. It's become common practice to focus on deconstructing the habits of original thinkers and successful people to find methods and practices we can emulate and adopt. But we rarely look at the habits we have for opportunities to identify what hold us back. Yet, even becoming aware of them could help us improve our... Read more →

What it Takes to Cross the Taste-to-Creation Gap

It is much easier to develop good taste than it is to create great products from it. To do something that stands out we should build a tremendous body of work. “You'll hit gold more often if you simply try out a lot of things,” says This American Life's Ira Glass. Making something that is interesting comes with a hard process. The problem, he says, is that nobody tells us when we're getting started —there is a gap between our taste and our creations. It s far easier to see in our mind's eye what something should look like, than... Read more →

What Real Exploration Necessitates

In his annual letter to Amazon shareholders, Jeff Bezos says, “One area where I think we are especially distinctive is failure. I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. Most large organizations embrace the idea of invention, but are not willing to suffer the string of failed experiments necessary to get there. Outsized returns often come from betting against conventional wisdom, and conventional... Read more →

The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers

After years of studying the dynamics of success and productivity in the workplace, Adam Grant discovered a powerful and often overlooked motivator —helping others. Grant's message resonates deeply at Conversation Agent. In Originals: How Non Conformists Rule the World Adam Grant set out to understand a group of people who take initiative, bring creative ideas to life, and thus become successful. He called them originals: Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the... Read more →

How to Operate within the Tension Between Knowing and Learning

“He only errs who thinks he knows what he does not know.” [Augustine] We're all familiar with the catchphrase “Fake it 'til you make it,” but we likely overlooked its genesis as a ready method to stave off pessimism and fight depression. Things having both intended and unintended consequences when separated from their roots they tend to either wilt or take a new life of their own. What happened is that in our haste to distance ourselves from negativity, we have swung the pendulum all the way to the other side —positivism at all costs— without tallying its costs. In... Read more →

On Anger, Reason, and the Role of Luck in our Lives

“The way they are driving doesn't say that they are driving in England. They could be driving anywhere. They veer across lanes suddenly... they have no regard for anybody else,” says the driver of a delivery company to Alain the Botton. A situation that sounds familiar to many. Our days sometimes seem to be filled by dozens of circumstances when frustration tests our patience. Mistakes do happen, ensuing frustration can make us more creative when we abandon our expectation of how things need to be to shift into problem solving mode. A good night sleep helps us keep our cool.... Read more →

Why Asking "Can I Fix it?" is Better than Stating "I will Fix it!"

Why is asking “Can I fix it?” better than stating “I will Fix it!” The first is in form of a question —and because we love curiosity and learning here, we already like it more for the possibilities it opens. The second is a promise —and while we may be confident, our ability to deliver increasingly depends more and more on our desire to tackle ever more complex problems for which there may not be a blueprint and plenty of hard work. But there is a more scientific reason why the one is better than the other. As Dan Pink... Read more →

The Multiple Benefits of an Inquiring Mind

Intellectual curiosity and spirit of inquiry are part of the same continuum. There isn't a switch that activates one and keeps the other off. Rather, when we pursue inquiry we cultivate our ability to increase the number and richness of connections in our minds. Warren Buffet is a widely known example in the business world. In a recent WSJ article#, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway comments on the reading habits of a young investment manager who is on a quest to read the annual letters of 3,000 companies: “Over the years, there have been multiple times” when reading the annual... Read more →