Interpersonal communication is your【C1】_____interaction with others. Talking to a friend on campus, chatting to a friend on campus, chatting on the phone with a classmate about an【C2】__test, arguing the【C3】__of a movie with friends, discussing strategies for accomplishing tasks at work,【C4】_for a job, and planning the future【C5】_____a loved one are all forms of interpersonal communication.

Effective interpersonal communication【C6】_____our sensitivity to others and to the situation. One goal of effective interpersonal communication is to maintain relationships, and form【C7】__messages that accurately convey our ideas and feelings【C8】__not offending the other person is key【C9】_____our success.

Effective interpersonal communication【C10】_____us. People who can clearly express their ideas, beliefs, and opinions become influential and【C11】__control over what happens to them and to others that they【C12】__. When we accurately and precisely【C13】__our thoughts, others gain a better【C14】__for our position. Their understanding and appreciation make it more likely that they will respond in【C15】_____that are consistent with our needs.

Effective interpersonal communication helps us manage the【C16】_____we create. Presenting ourselves in such a way that others will【C17】__and trust us is important in both public and private【C18】__—whether we’re communicating in a professional setting, 【C19】__our interpersonal skills are vital to getting a job, holding a position, or rising in an organization, or in a private setting where we’re trying to【C20】_____and maintain relationships.

Asked to pen an endorsement for Paul Allen’s new autobiography, Bono, a well-known musician, declares that the co-founder of Microsoft’s “…intellect and generosity of spirit are there on every page”. He is only half right. “Idea Man” does provide plenty of insights into the ways in which Mr. Allen has helped revolutionize everything from software to space travel. But its pages are also permeated by bitterness towards Bill Gates, the man with whom he created a company that transformed the world of technology. Indeed, there are enough sour grapes in these pages to fill an entire vineyard.

The irony is that the primary focus of Mr. Allen’s resentment—his co-founder’s intense competitiveness—is also one of the things that propelled Microsoft to greatness. That trait, and the tension that it provoked between the two men, is evident from the time they meet at school. Mr. Allen describes how Mr. Gates became restless when a practical joke he played on Mr. Allen backfired. In another scene, he portrays his pal sweeping the pieces off a chessboard in fury when he lost yet another game to Mr. Allen.

As any veteran of a start-up will tell you, the strains of building a company can be enough to undermine even the strongest partnerships. In the case of Microsoft, set up in 1975, the surprising thing is that the union between the two men lasted as long as it did given the tension that already underlay their friendship. Mr. Allen eventually walked out of the company in 1983, leaving Mr. Gates in sole charge of Microsoft, which then went on to turn both men into billionaires.

The main reason the tandem held together for more than a couple of years was that each of the entrepreneurs brought something valuable to the table. Mr. Gates’s single-minded focus on winning everything, whether a chess game or a vital business deal, was complemented by his partner’s ability to see the bigger picture—an ability reinforced by Mr. Allen’s diverse set of outside interests, ranging from music to sport and science fiction. Mr. Allen acknowledges that the two men were “extraordinary partners”. He likens their union to that of Bill Hewlett and David Packard, or Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.

But rather than going on to give Mr. Gates the considerable praise he is due for turning Microsoft into a corporate Leviathan as its chief executive, the book instead dwells on the clashes that the two men got into over the size of their respective ownership stakes while they were still working together—arguments that were fueled by Mr. Gates’s fear that his partner was not sufficiently committed to making Microsoft a success. In the end, Mr. Allen, who has already suffered two bouts of cancer, decided to leave to pursue other projects.

Children live in a world in which science has tremendous importance. During their lifetimes it will affect them more and more. In time, many of them will work at jobs that depend heavily on science. As voters, they will have a voice in making many decisions that involve science—for example, concerning energy sources, pollution control, highway safety, wilderness conservation, and population growth. As taxpayers they will pay for scientific research and exploration. And, as consumers, they will be bombarded by advertising, much of which is said to be based on science.

Therefore, it is important that children, the citizens of the future, become functionally acquainted with science—with the process and spirit of science, as well as with its facts and principles. Fortunately, science has a natural appeal for youngsters. They can relate it to so many things that they encounter-flashlights, tools, echoes, and rainbows.

Besides, science is an excellent medium for teaching far more than content. It can help pupils learn to think logically, to organize and analyze ideas. It can provide practice in communication skills and mathematics. In fact, there is no area of the curriculum to which science cannot contribute, whether it is geography, history, language arts, music or art!

Above all, good science teaching leads to what might be called a “scientific attitude”. Those who possess it seek answers through observing, experimenting, and reasoning, rather than blindly accepting the pronouncements of others. They weigh evidence carefully and reach conclusions with caution. While respecting the opinions of others, they expect honesty, accuracy, and objectivity are on guard against hasty judgments and sweeping generalizations. All children should be developing this approach to solving problems, but it cannot be expected to appear automatically with the mere acquisition of information. Continual practice, through guided participation, is needed.

No woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times. Being thin is deemed as such a virtue.

The problem with such a view is that some people actually attempt to live by it. I myself have fantasies of slipping into narrow designer clothes. Consequently, I have been on a diet for the better—or worse—part of my life. Being rich wouldn’t be bad either, but that won’t happen unless an unknown relative dies suddenly in some distant land, leaving me millions of dollars.

Where did we go off the track? When did eating butter become a sin, and a little bit of extra flesh unappealing, if not repellent? All religions have certain days when people refrain from eating, and excessive eating is one of Christianity’s seven deadly sins. However, until quite recently, most people had a problem getting enough to eat. In some religious groups, wealth was a symbol of probable salvation and high morals, and fatness a sign of wealth and well-being.

Today the opposite is true. We have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat-or even only somewhat overweight-is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength.

Our obsession with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have more overweight people than ever before, and that, in many cases, being overweight correlates with an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases, however, may have as much to do with our way of life and our high-fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem—too much fat and a lack of fiber—than a weight problem.

The real concern, then, is not that we weigh too much, but that we neither exercise enough nor eat well. Exercise is necessary for strong bones and both heart and lung health. A balanced diet without a lot of fat can also help the body avoid many diseases. We should surely stop paying so much attention to weight. Simply being thin is not enough. It is actually hazardous if those who get (or already are) thin think they are automatically healthy and thus free from paying attention to their overall life-style. Thinness can be pure vainglory.

For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the “paperless” office is a classic example of high-tech hubris. Today’s office is drowning in more paper than ever before. But after decades of hype, American offices may finally be losing their paper obsession. The demand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the U.S. economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales—despite a healthy economic scene. Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems. Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.

In the early to mid-1990s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year. But now, plain white office paper will see less than a 4 percent growth rate, despite the strong overall economy. A primary reason for the change is that for the first time ever, some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices. In addition, analysts point to the lackluster employment market for white-collar workers—the primary driver of office paper consumption—for the shift in paper usage.

The changing attitudes toward paper have finally caught the attention of paper companies, says Richard Harper, a researcher at Microsoft. “All of a sudden, the paper industry has started thinking, ’We need to learn more about the behavioral aspects of paper use,’” he says. To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example, Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Notations can be erased or saved digitally. Another idea, intelligent paper, comes from Anoto Group. It would allow notations made with a stylus on a page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.

Even with such technological advances, the improved capabilities of digital storage continue to act against “paperlessness”, argues Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster. In his prophetic and metaphorical 1989 essay, The Electronic Pinata, he wrote, “The information industry today is like a huge electronic pinata, composed of a thin paper crust surrounding an electronic core.” The growing paper crust “is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core that produces the crust is far larger—and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but we hardly notice at all.”

In the same way that digital innovations have increased paper consumption, Saffo says, so has video conferencing—with its promise of fewer in-person meetings—booming business travel. “That’s one of the greatironies of the information age” Saffo says. “It’s just common sense that the more you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting.”

[A] Put it in a hat

[B] Look at the big picture

[C] The 2 minute rule

[D] Embrace the idea of failure

[E] Think black and white

[F] Focus on the present

[G] Make a pros and cons list

Five Tips for Lightning-Fast Decision Making Our lives are defined by our ability to make decisions. Our careers, relationships, health—anything and everything about our present selves boils down to the decisions we’ve made in the past, yet some of us struggle with decision making. For people like us, we need to balance out our decision making processes with a bit of “rashness”, We need techniques that will help us dive in to our decisions head first and to stop worrying about the repercussions so much. Here are 5 tips to help us balance out our decision making process.

【R1】________

The idea behind this tip is to force action through a self-imposed deadline. It’s simple enough to incorporate: any time you have to make a decision, just set the timer and begin the process. The time limit forces you to quickly assess the pros and cons while quickly coming to a decision. The simplicity behind this tip makes it very accessible. If you’re simply slow at making decisions, then this tip is a life saver. It doesn’t have to be 2 minutes either; anything from 1-5 minutes should work fine as well.

【R2】________

There are times when we have more choices than we need. Excess of anything can overwhelm and lead to analysis paralysis, so in this case, try judging your options simply as good or bad, which will simplify and quicken the process of weeding out the less optimal decisions. This limited approach is ideal for the over-analyzers who insist on questioning every variable to death.

【R3】________

If all options seem to have roughly equal value, write down your best ones on separate pieces of paper and place them in a hat. Your decision will be the one you pull out at random. This also works if you have a bunch of tasks you don’t want to do; these you could pair with a reward hat. Do a task, then when it’s done pull out your random reward from the other hat. This will help make the process more tolerable.

【R4】________

We can often become overwhelmed with the big picture, trying to see how our decisions will affect the future. The process is mentally draining, because you’re trying to see every step along with its every outcome. It’s better to save that energy for the task at hand, and simply try and make the best decision possible. Live in the moment, make a decision based on what will make the next step the easiest instead. Doing this for every step is a great choice for the chronic non-decision maker.

【R5】________

Probably the biggest fear for us slow decision makers is that our decisions will lead to bad results. Compensation is then made by overdrinking the situation, causing us to question every aspect involved in the decision. Ultimately we run the risk of making no decision at all because we waste time and energy on useless questioning—this line of thinking must be rewired. Instead, we should see delaying the decision as worse than making a bad decision. Bad decisions can be recovered from and learned from, but not making a decision at all means we don’t get to determine how our lives unfold. A fear of failure means that something or someone will make that decision for you.