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July 21, 2005

The Motivating Power of Beauty

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Posted by Elizabeth Albrycht

I thought this was cool: "beauty activates a part of the brain associated with reward."


So if we are parents or teachers or curriculum designers trying to help young people really find or develop their talents or prepare themselves for their future life's work, we we really should be doing is help them find things that they find beautiful. And when they find it, we can help by giving them space and time and help (if necessary) to think and study more deeply.

There's a report on the subject here (pdf download). I haven't read it yet, but will try to find the time so I can report back to you on it. Any experts on beauty out there? I'd love to pick your brain about ramifications on the future of work.

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Culture


COMMENTS

1. meep on July 22, 2005 6:24 AM writes...

Ha -- well, that's why I really got into math -- so beautiful and elegant (great quote from Poincare). And why I got into crafts like crochet and embroidery.

Once I started working outside of academia, I liked making my spreadsheets streamlined, with the ugly bits hidden from the end-user, with pretty interfaces... which might be why spreadsheets I created spread out farther than my original area of intended use.

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