Greetings!
This week’s newsletter at a glance:
On Knowing Nothing
5 Tips for Improving Your Presentations
Being Impossible to Offend
Enjoy responsibly.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
—Plato
✏️ On Knowing Nothing
Wisdom is knowing you know nothing. It sounds cliche and high-sounding, but it is true.
Right now, I am 6 weeks into my Ph.D. and am currently in the freefall phase of the Dunning-Kruger Effect (see above). When I started my M.Sc., I remember learning a thing or two about creativity and thinking to myself, “this isn’t so complicated”. We did a couple of studies, and my confidence was even more emboldened. But it was only when I started submitting to journals, had to defend my thesis, and started planning the next couple of studies for my Ph.D. that I realized I actually don’t really understand what I am doing. Creativity is probably the most confusing concept I’ve ever encountered. Everyone feels they know what it means, but from a scientific standpoint, how do you define it? What are its components? How do you measure it? I realized that there were over 100 definitions of creativity. And that there was no true definitive consensus on it. How does one do a Ph.D. on a topic that doesn’t even have an accepted definition?
Being aware of the Dunning-Kruger Effect is helpful for contextualizing my academic journey and not getting too high or too low when learning new things. It’s okay to take heart and confidence in early successes — that is why you choose to do things: to enjoy them. But if you are a novice in a given area, don’t fool yourself into thinking because one thing makes sense to you that you’ve understood all there is to know.
It’s actually quite exciting to feel a bit confused about what creativity is because I know one day it will start to make sense, and I’ll begin forming my own conceptual understanding of this elusive construct. And it will be an understanding that has been through all the necessary phases of over-confidence, confusion, despair, and revival.
sola gratia
by grace alone
💡 Food for Thought
80% of it is just showing up.
🔗 Sunday Best
Methodological Issues in Measuring Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review
Citation: Said-Metwaly, S., Noortgate, W. & Kyndt,E.(2017).Methodological Issues in Measuring Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review. Creativity. Theories – Research - Applications,4(2) 276-301.
The growing body of creativity research has raised severalchallenging issues with regard to the measurement of this construct. This paper aims to provide a review of current challenging methodological issues related to measuring cre-ativity. Five methodological issues are discussed: selecting measurement instruments, sampling, testing conditions, psy-chometric properties and domain-generality/specificity ofcreativity.
5 Small Changes to Improve Your Presentations Forever
By Jeff Su
1️⃣ Contextualize Your Data: Never share a data point in isolation. This helps you control the story and keep your audience engaged.
2️⃣ Master the SCQA Framework: This framework is the backbone of every MBB presentation and it's a surefire way to structure your slides for maximum impact.
3️⃣ Embrace the Pyramid Principle: Start with your conclusion and then present your supporting arguments.
4️⃣ Color with Purpose: Whether it’s using contrasting colors to differentiate data points or choosing a color palette that reduces cognitive load, intentional color choice can make your slides pop.
5️⃣ Know When to Table It: Charts are great for trends and comparisons, but sometimes you need a table to show precise values or a mix of different data types.
Pavane for Dead Princess
By Maurice Ravel
Certified banger
One of the most beneficial traits in both relationships and life: being nearly impossible to offend.
—Mark Manson
See you next week.
Alex