en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/784877 Comments by carlonhaas http://beyondgrowth.net/social-criticism/social-media-moving-towards-a-brave-new-world/#IDComment56262428 This is an interesting idea. The terms argument and criticism both have negative connotations in modern usage. Outside a philosophy classroom, most people will tell you that arguing is bad. And the term &quot;constructive criticism&quot; is not much better. I tend to make up words on my blog. So, why don&#039;t we re-christen criticism as &quot;help-talk&quot; and &quot;argument&quot; can be &quot;helpful discourse&quot; or if discourse is too big of a word &quot;growth conversations&quot;. Any better ideas? Heck, I may blog about this next. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:57:23 +0000 http://beyondgrowth.net/social-criticism/social-media-moving-towards-a-brave-new-world/#IDComment56262428 http://beyondgrowth.net/positive-thinking/the-4-minute-mile-and-the-myths-of-positive-thinking/#IDComment55822841 This is an excellent article. Many self-help books pretty much cover the same old stories. The 4 minute mile is popular. I find that they way they frame the story is important. They argue that once the 4-minute mile was broken, it was quickly broken by others. Hence, the power of belief. But I scoff at this rationale. For example, Mike Powell broke Bob Beamon&#039;s long jump record that stood for 23 years until Mike Powell broke it. But how come there aren&#039;t a flood of long jump record breakers? Is it because no one believes the new record can be broken? I think the 4-minute mile is just another form of inspiroof (proof by inspirational story). I agree with Bob in the comments that belief does count for something. I mean if I don&#039;t think I can do something, I probably won&#039;t even attempt it. But to say that I can do something because I believe is can is another matter. someone might believe they can fly if they drop enough acid, but that doesn&#039;t mean it&#039;s gonna happen. And I think that was the point of this post. Self-help books frame these stories as inspiroof of positive thinking. But in reality, good training is the more likely reason for the accomplishment. But training hard doesn&#039;t really sounds so sexy as thinking positively, does it? Carlon <a href="http://dontstepinthepoop.com" target="_blank">http://dontstepinthepoop.com</a> Mon, 8 Feb 2010 06:34:59 +0000 http://beyondgrowth.net/positive-thinking/the-4-minute-mile-and-the-myths-of-positive-thinking/#IDComment55822841