Seth Roberts wrote a book called THE SHANGRI-LA DIET that is the outgrowth of one of his experiments. I tried it diligently, but it didn’t do anything for me. So, end of that particular experiment.

I think the thoughts and questions that learning paper stirred in you are probably the best results they could have hoped for from a reader. You took away from it what was of interest to you, and generated a question that could fuel another research study. That’s where new research ideas come from.

We read a paper where the researchers sent questions via email to academic reference librarians but under names reflecting different nationalities and religions. What kind of galled me about the study was all the factors they didn’t consider and that I perceived they had convicted the librarians of discrimination and prejudice without knowing many facts or having a large sample size.

Still, it was a provocative question and got me thinking. Can’t ask for better than that.

I dived into Seth Robert’s paper and found it oh, so inspiring (especially since I’ve been waking up at 4am…but been able to fall asleep — I link it to intensity of exercise routine.) But just the description of his creative process — or as he calls it, hypothesis creation — and his process of self-experimentation gives one the inspiration and power to DIY (do it yourself.) Thanks for sharing your insights.

And on appreciative thinking: it reminds me of a paper where I did not like their methodology nor found their conclusions earth-shattering; they did, however, bring up on interesting point about what types people were successful in self-directed online learning — people who had a higher IT competency. On the surface this is a “duh” statement. But it begged the question — are they better because they *knew IT* or *knew how to learn IT* — so was it a particular learning strategy employed by these learners in regards to IT? or was it something else? Can it be taught and therefore can we make people more successful in self-directed online learning? These questions stick in my mind — and they all arose from a paper that I tore apart. Perhaps if I’d appreciated it more I would had found more to think about in it.