restore calm after stressful events.  Can I have a shot, please?

The link between a heightened level of NPY and resilience to depression has been studied before, at least as it applies to combat exposed veterans.  Word has been out for a while describing how this brain chemical makes some soldiers stress free under fire.  And if them, why not the rest of us mortals too?

Anyway, this news is based on research done by a team at the University of Michigan.  Which mightn’t interest you too much.  Until you learn that they have a Depression Centre which is doing some really great work.  While flicking around their website I came across some goodies I’d like to share with you.

There is a good, short article on managing depression by positive self-talk.  Other aspects of the ‘depression tool-kit’ provided include advice on diet, exercise and goal-setting.

Another point that struck me was the link between junk food and depression.  This in a week where the news was that junk food lowers IQ in children.  If you are what you eat, and you eat junk food, then…

For those who would rather watch a vid than read an article, there is an excellent short series of videos on managing depression.

For primary care workers, there is a selection of treatment guidelines designed to increase your knowledge.

And for those, like me, with a special interest in the mental health of men, there’s a good article on men and depression, as well as a link to a relevant section in the site of the National Institute of Mental Health.

So maybe depression is in your genes.  But it doesn’t always have to be in your life!

So you’ve  heard of Freud and Jung.  But there’s more psychologists out there than that pair.  I’d like to introduce you to a few of them.  Maybe you’ll like them too, maybe not.  That’s up to the both of you.  Grab an Earl Grey.

First, meet three unlikely amigos: K. Anders Ericsson (expert in the psychology of expertise), Robert Sternberg (expert in the psychology of intelligence), and Chris Langan (highly intelligent guy with no discernible expertise but killer biceps).

What do they have in common?  Read my Amazon book review of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to find out.  If you make a comment I’ll be your friend for life, or as near as dammit.  (It’s the first book we’re deconstructing at BookCamp.)

Then there’s Donald Winnicott, psychiatrist and general deep thinker.  As well as inventing the concept of anti-social behaviour, Winnicott has some seriously interesting stuff to say about the relationship between play and reality.

Next, Carol Dweck, yet another psychology type person, this time specialising in motivation and personalty.  Specifically, she has researched the mindset of success, or, I should say, the mindsets.  Some believe success in ‘fixed’ according to innate ability, others that success ‘grows’ by hard work and learning.  The second don’t dread failure because they realise that performance can be improved.

And talking about personality, try Gordon Allport, founder of ‘trait’ psychology, or those habitual patterns that can rule our lives.  Interestingly, Allport believed that most of us don’t have a ‘cardinal trait’, a trait that dominates and shapes a person’s behavior. These are rare as most people lack a single theme that shape their lives.  Sad.

Finally, you just have to meet Theodore Dalrymple, psychiatrist and prison doctor.  I particularly dig his analysis of modern sentimentality, a dangerous emotion that is the cause of many of today’s societal ills.  IMHO this toxic attitude is behind much of the trouble our wee island has suffered over the last number of years.  Sermon over.

So that’s the introductions made.  Now you’ll have to excuse me.  I must mingle.

Image credit: redgoober4life.

So you know my view that comics are smart and that animated superhero movies like The Incredibles can be used to teach philosophy.  Well it seems I’m in good company.  For a change.

William Irwin, a philosophy professor at King’s College in Pennsylvania, edits the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, which includes titles such as Batman and Philosophy, and X-Men and Philosophy.

The article gives examples of how he and other teachers like him do this.  For instance, what can Batman’s refusal to kill the Joker illustrate about complex ethical dilemmas?  Or what can Dr Manhattan’s musing on physics add to the free will debate?

And in case any of you are aghast at this example of university-level dumbing down, be careful to let the man speak for himself.

“We are not saying that the canon of Superman comic books is equivalent to Homer and Dante and you can study them for their own sake. We’re not suggesting that comic books replace Plato and Descartes – not at all. The goal is always to get people interested in philosophy by speaking first in terms that people are familiar with.”

Comics are a recruiting tool to get people interested in life’s deeper problems.  They can also serve to illustrate those problems as a kind of artistic thought-experiment.  But they neither solve them, nor replace the study those thinkers who have tried.   They aren’t supposed to.

Comics or graphic novels have their greatest educational potency as portals for higher thought.  Especially for young males – like me – who hated everything to do with school.  I would also want to argue that some graphic novels – Watchmen for instance – contain more depth and complexity than 90% of the trash in your average second-hand bookshop.  Heck, you can even use them to teach career guidance.

That’s one comic book every high school kid should read.

PS  This year in the Queen’s University Open Learning Programme there is a course I’m thinking of attending called Investigate and Create: Comic Book Illustration by Duncan Ross.  I’m no artist but Duncan has assured me that this isn’t encessary.  See you there?

Image credit: audiinsperation.

Here are my top resources for those of you making a living out of technical writing.  Some are also of use to anyone who writes in any style for a living.  First though…

What Is a Technical Writer?

I’ve always written my own training content, workbooks, manuals, user guides, procedures and policies.  I was a Technical Writer long before I realised it.  And, my personality type is tailor-made for the role.  Simply put, a Technical Writer is someone who writes technical documentation.  Non-writers often make the mistake of reading IT into the technical bit of the job title.  However, while many technical writers deal with information technology, many don’t.  There are many fields that come under the heading of “technical”: Medicine; Engineering and Construction; Food; Health; Research; or Education for example.

Sometimes, Technical Writers are also referred to as Technical Authors or Technical Communicators.

What Do Technical Writers Do?

Technical Writing often involves a great deal of jargon or specialised language.  It is the task joy of the Technical Communicator to become familiar, often very quickly with new concepts, technology, jargon and environments, in order to produce a guide, manual or handbook that will illuminate the topic for newbies, or provide a useful resource for the more experienced.

What Online Resources Are Available?

There are some online resources that I simply cannot do without.  Some are human in form.

I’d Rather Be Writing

Tom Johnston is a Technical Writer from Utah.  He writes a blog entitled, I’d Rather be Writing, about “The Latest Trends in Technical Communication” and is never too busy to answer a query, or recommend some useful online resources via Twitter.  Each blog post is mighty useful.  Add it to your RSS reader now!

Merriam -Webster

An Encyclopedia Britannica company, Merriam Webster operates an online dictionary and thesaurus, a delight to anyone into who wishes they’d studied semantics or etymology at university.  This website is a resource for all those who need to know the precise origin, old and modern meanings of words, and pronunciation guidelines.

The Plain English Campaign

It’s not too great a strain to say that this may just be my favourite concept in the writing domain: Plain English.  It prompted the style of the strapline we use for our Coaching Service: No Fuss; No Jargon; No Crystals: Only Results.

Strunk and Whyte

If you’re looking for an old, reliable guide to how English should be written, then this is what you have been waiting for.  Strunk and Whyte is a plain English reference guide from the early 1900s, highlighting and explaining those English rules that are so often contravened.

Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog

This is a highly useful blog, combining video, links and how-tos.  The man himself, Ellis Pratt is on Twitter and is always helpful, even to the point of sourcing local technical writers for me.

The Chicago Manual of Style

“With state-of-the-art recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices in the digital age, The Chicago Manual of Style is the must-have reference for everyone who works with words.”  Sign up for the immensely compact and useful Q&A Alerts.  They’re also on Facebook.

The Grouchy Grammarian

If you just cannot bear to take English seriously, then I’d suggest Thomas Parrish’s The Grouchy Grammarian, as a humourous starting point.  Once you begin to laugh while learning the rules, you’ll be pedantically hooked forever!

If you need a Technical Communicator, contact me to discuss your project.  And, if you are a Technical Communicator working in Ireland or the UK, get in touch, I’d love to meet you online or offline!

Image credit: nirak (main image).  All other images are taken from the resources’ websites.

The title for this blog comes from the mouth of one of my favourite stand-up comedians, Rich Hall.  (See him say those words live at the Apollo on YouTube from 6:31 to 7:40).  They came to my mind as I read an article about how creative minds ‘mimic schizophrenia’.  Apparently, high levels of creativity can be associated with mental illness and lead to it.

I’ve blogged before how I admire comedians as a creative type, and on the link between depression and humour.  This is not a vague association.  According to creativity expert Edward de Bono, there is a definite relationship between creative insight and humour.

“There is often an alternative way to arrange information. This means there can be a switchover to another arrangement. Usually the switch is sudden. If the switch is temporary it gives rise to humour. If the switch is permanent it gives rise to insight.”

But as we know, a disproportionately high percentage of comedians seem to suffer from depression.  Add to this the stereotypes of the mad scientist and the tortured artist, and we’ve got a pattern.

In the 1990′s, Apple Computers encouraged us to Think Different.  Many large groups within humanity already do.  Among those groups who see the world differently from each other are:

• Westerners and Easterners
• Left-handers and Right-handers
• Introverts and Extroverts
• Religious and Secular
• Men and Women

I think a creative person is someone who narrows down this range of shared perspective on the world even further until they find themselves in a group of one.  They see past the limits imposed by their upbringing, their environment, their education, and even their genes.  They don’t just take up an opposing view, but shift their perspective to a different place entirely.  Such a change requires herculean effort and leads to isolation.  The structure of their brain is literally changed by it.

So see the world differently if you will.  See the world differently if you can pay the price!

As Nietzsche said, “How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare?”

And he should know.

Image credit: pasukaru76.