Fluid Intelligence and Dual-N-Back Workout Success!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, one can increase their Fluid Intelligence playing Dual N-Back as described in a Wired article.

One can download a Dual N-Back game from sourceforge. The tutorial is there as well.

How is it going for me? Today, I got a 100% score with N being 1. That means I can remember and match 1 back for both the image position and audio sound (letter) being said. It was not trivial.

As a reward, I heard clapping which was great! It also automatically increased N from 1 to 2. So, now I am playing Dual 2-Back. Oh my gosh it is challenging!

All in all, I encourage all to try it and level-up your Fluid Intelligence!

Surrounded By Failure and Still Winning

As you know, "failure leads to success." A quote really brought it home to me again today:

Read Quote of Michael Wolfe's answer to Survey Questions: What are common misconceptions in your field that non-specialists refuse to believe aren't true? on Quora
Whether it is trying out new ideas like Gamification in engagement projects or something personal like a new exercise plan, try and try again.

 One more thing, I am trying out a TODO / good-habits-building web app called HabitRPG to see if it is fun and life enhancing! It's another micro-try. In other words, micro-failures lead to macro-successes! It looks promising.

So, try it out and let me know what you think!

Here's to failures and successes!

Huge Lift This Quarter - Gamification and Mentor Program

Today, I did the numbers and wow! There was a huge lift this last Q1 quarter compared to last year's Q1. The score for the Mentor Program FY14Q1 is 3590 compared to 1080.

Since 10 points equals 15 minutes, 3590 points equates to almost 90 hours of knowledge sharing! All of it is comprised of CARFAX employees sharing knowledge with CARFAX employees! 

Granted, the number of potential players expanded from our group / department to the whole company. If I focus on just the people in my group, the score is 2930 which is still a huge lift!

The benefits of knowledge sharing are increased productivity, morale, self-esteem, sense of empowerment and more! Doing it with Gamification made it fun and more engaging for the players. 

So, what are you doing to make your world more engaging either at work or in your life?

Love It? Share It! Gamification

Giving a presentation about something you love and believe in is one of the biggest positive rushes!

Recently, I gave a presentation about Gamification at CARFAX, Inc. The audience was awesome!

I covered the following:

•       Why Do We Care?

•       What Is Gamification?

•       Fun? Where? In The Wild!

•       Epic Win or Scary?

•       Gamification Facts & Figures

•       6D Gamification Framework - Professor Werbach’s Design Framework

•       Many Paths To Wisdom

That format served quite well. Helping others where to get more knowledge was satisfying. In the Many Paths To Wisdom, I shared these:

•       www.gamification.co - Getting Started, GBase

•       GSummit Conference

•       The Gamification Revolution – book

•       For the Win: How Game Thinking Can RevolutionizeYour Business - book

•       Coursera Gamification – Free Online Course

So, if you love Gamification, be sure to stand up and share the love!

Storify Epic Wins And Not Waiting To Die

I am having a lot of fun over in Storify! My latest Storify piece deals with Gamification and my journey in the last few months. Videos, tweets and blogs, oh my!

It's titled Epic Win Living Or Waiting To Die?

Environment and Intelligence

I am reading Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman.

One thing I just recently read was about a study that was done with two groups of mice. One group of mice were living the good life with having a treadmill and another device. The other group didn't get the items and had similar cages yet void of such mentally interesting things.

The brains of the mice which had a more stimulating environment had a brain structure (brain-network) which reflected better intelligence. They even had heavier brains. They ran mazes much better than the ones which had the dull environment!

Resources, stimulation and a rich environment are needed by all. The future looks bright!

Gamemooc to Horizon Report to Empire and State Game!

Gamemooc has shared lots of great things for me to consider! One of the most recent is a business game called Empire and State. Other students of the MOOC may say, where did you see something about that? It was a link on page 23 of The NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition under the section titled "University of Washington Business Simulations"

Why Empire and State? It's free, looks fun and is the first "political strategy MMO" I have ever seen that interests me.

This demonstrates another benefit about the Gamemooc.  Besides the connectivism atmosphere, the friendly people and the knowledge, there is an opportunity to explore all kinds of new things!

Update! I dug deeper and see the following in the game's FAQ: "Linux and Mac OS X support is to be determined" No Mac love. Well, perhaps I will try again another time.