Can 10,000 hours of practice make you an expert?

A much-touted theory suggests that practising any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert. No innate talent? Not a problem. You just practice. But is it true?

The Search for the Perfect Office

More and more of us work in open plan offices, which can be noisy and lead to strife between those staff who are tidy and their neighbours who like to leave papers and dirty plates on their desks and between those who are quiet and their colleagues who talk loudly on the phone.

Claudia Hammond explores what the perfect office would look like if the latest psychological research was applied. She discovers that it is possible to work in open plan spaces and be able to concentrate, be creative and communicate well with colleagues. And she asks why many architects aren't aware of the research of psychologists or ignore it. You can listen to it through this link.

As you listen notice the use of the following phrases. What is the overall conclusion of what people value in the workplace?

The Search for the Perfect Office

A vast desk for my mess

Retractable roof and windows

Pretty grim to work in

Bundled up in the other side of the office

Open plan is the way forward

Non-territorial office spaces

Hot desks where the early birds get the best desks

Efficiency diminishes by about 10-20%

This very subject; organizational psychology

Employers are often under enormous pressure to make offices cheaper

A false economy

Lack of privacy

Sitting in close proximity to others

It’s not conducive to being able to concentrate

Supervisors are less willing to give feedback

Architects favour certain kinds of materials

It gets a little bit jumbled in the middle

Interference from that sound doesn’t diminish

If you happen to sit next to someone with a loud telephone voice

If you have a pin quiet office it is absolutely intimidating

What people use for masking sound is pink noise

One size does not fit all

The more wacky offices

Move from individual to open plan offices

Rules: no bins, no pictures on the walls, plants in drawers

Hot desking

A free for all

No space personalizing

No personal effects

Personalizing space helps people cope with stress

Owner occupied offices or speculative developers

You have to future gaze

Acoustics is a rather difficult science

Activity based working

National Association of Pension Funds

It was masterminded by Alex…

Putting Profit in its Place

Jane Burston: Putting Profit in its Place

Wed, 13 Nov 13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fourthought

 

Jane Burston argues that by placing too much emphasis on profit, companies behave in an unethical way, and it is time for social purpose to take centre stage. Listen to the extract up to minute 6:16 and try to answer the following questions.

     1. Some of the language Ms. Burston uses has been extracted in the following lines. Since some of it refers to banking scandals and circumventing labour regulations, you may need to check some of the meaning through the links provided:

My hopes had been pinned on a lecture called Business and social purpose

Zero-hours contracts

Sub-prime mortgage crises

Libor rate rigging

Large scale oil spillages

A stationery company that had developed a terrible reputation for running the small companies in its sector aground

Reality bites

Cut corners and cut costs

2. According to the speaker in what ways do Friedman and Smith believe capitalism to benefit society?
 

     3. In Ms. Burston’s experience at Harvard, what was the solution put forward to make up for and dispel the company’s reputation?

      4. How does the speaker justify and exemplify the following statement: ‘So long as businesses have profit as the end goal, they will inevitably be unethical’?

     5. What threefold solution does Ms. Burston suggest in order for this business model to be changed?

Drugs in sport

Paul Dimeo: Drugs in Sport

Mon, 14 Oct 13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fourthought

 

Paul Dimeo (Scottish accent) argues that drugs made modern sport what it is today. Listen to the programme up to minute 8:14 and notice both the language used and the ideas conveyed through the following questions:

1. Some of the expressions you will hear in this talk are:

A major sporting event

The glories of human achievement and endurance

Performance enhancing drugs

Part and parcel

A household name

Twenty-five years after Johnson’s ignominy

This is one of the most famous, or infamous, events in sports history

The level playing field

Excellence and rivalries fuelled by steroids

  

      2. Why are Johnson and Armstrong said to have doped?

     3. What reason does Mr. Dimeo provide for the prevailing spread in the use of drugs in sport over the last few decades in the 20^th century?

     4. In what way does Mr. Dimeo say the use of drugs in sports has supported the Olympics and made them appealing to current audiences?

If you want, you can continue listening to the argumentation to the end and we can discuss the arguments provided in this talk, the conclusions reached and their relevance to the current situation in sporting competitions in class. You can find a loose transcript of this talk at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24329252