That was a pretty good read. I guess I’m just adding to the problem, huh?

As an evil overlord aspirer, I found this bit interesting:

A true sign that a study or studies have acquired mythical status is when they lend their name to an ‘effect’ (…) once something’s got a name it somehow seems more concrete and real.’

Maybe I should coin a “Dolezal effect”?

Chiesa and Hobbs sampled over two hundred books published between 1953 and 2003 and found an astonishingly broad range of uses for the term ‘Hawthorne effect’, with many such meanings actually contradicting each other. In some cases the term was used to imply that simply being the subject of an investigation can enhance workers’ performance. Elsewhere the term was used more specifically, to refer to the presence of a ‘warm climate’, the ‘presence of an observer’, ‘concern’ or merely ‘friendly supervision’. Moreover, there were widespread inconsistencies in how the effects were supposed to exert their influence, with some accounts suggesting an unconscious effect, while others pointed to ‘feelings of pride’ or ‘job satisfaction’.

I recommend reading the entire essay. It and this blog post made me significantly more skeptical regarding the findings of psychologists.

Definitely. It’s something I’m still working on myself though (right now I’m eating my dinner at the computer).

@Srinvas:

Hell yeah

It’s really astonishing how much you can achieve in a single year if you improve a little bit every day.

Also, as far as doing change every month – I’ve heard Scott Young say the same thing several times – most people get really motivated when they first hear about the “30-day trial” method, try to do 4 or 5 at the same time, and then crash and burn after two weeks, and don’t keep any of the habits.

If you instead focus on one habit at a time, for 30 days, you will have enough time to get it established, and then move on to the next. That’s 12 habits a year, which can pretty much completely transform your whole life. In a single year.

Srinivas Rao’s last blog post..10 ways to be a prolific personal development blogger

I absolutely agree! Hey, the whole second chapter of my free e-book is about awareness.

I definitely agree with you that it’s the first and most important step to change.

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Ya, I also love learning about new things. I just couldn’t help sharing this one, when I came across “Hawthorne effect” while doing a reading assignment for a psychology module, googled it it find out more, and found all the totally awesome information!

@Dave:

Whoops, you’re absolutely right! I got a source with the correct data… and then MISREAD it when writing this article :/ (I fixed the article now)

And cheers for following for me so long

I hate to come across as nit picking but I would hate to see a genuine piece of good research like this descend to the level of some of the stuff that the pop psychologists peddle around the internet.

Great blog, Vlad, been a subscriber for a couple of years now!

Dave Bull’s last blog post..Train me tender? Don’t!

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