A NY Times short article: "Can you become a creature of new habits?"

A NY Times article on learning/change - good insights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?em&ex=1210305600&en=d23a1bdc535843e5&ei=5087%0A

EXCERPT: Try lacing your hands together," Ms. Markova says. "You habitually do it one way. Now try doing it with the other thumb on top. Feels awkward, doesn't it? That's the valuable moment we call confusion, when we fuse the old with the new."

AFTER the churn of confusion, she says, the brain begins organizing the new input, ultimately creating new synaptic connections if the process is repeated enough.

But if, during creation of that new habit, the "Great Decider" steps in to protest against taking the unfamiliar path, "you get convergence and we keep doing the same thing over and over again," she says.

"You cannot have innovation," she adds, "unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder."

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