Mar Hershenson’s Post

3 original strategies from Jonah Berger, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 3 conversational fixes that turn failure to communicate into successful influence https://lnkd.in/e2NtJ8fA

📚 Today’s Essential Reads – 11 Aug 2025 As an educator, I believe that the right reading material isn’t just about information—it’s about transformation. Today’s four carefully chosen articles will help you sharpen critical skills for competitive exams and beyond: 1️⃣ The superhero film genre is on a decline, and so is... 📍 Al Jazeera | By Keith A Spencer 🎯 Advanced | Film & Culture 👉 This is a case study in trend analysis—perfect for honing your ability to spot shifts in public interest and cultural narratives, skills that directly apply to reading comprehension and essay writing in exams. 2️⃣ Under that cloud 📍 The Telegraph | By Gopalkrishna Gandhi 🎯 Intermediate | Science 👉 A reflective analysis of scientific and societal themes—great for improving your grasp on opinion writing and balanced argumentation. 3️⃣ How to confuse people with financial statistics 📍 Reuters | By Elda Maria Román 🎯 Intermediate | Business 👉 An invaluable resource for learning how data can be used—or misused—in persuasive contexts. This skill is critical for interpreting data-heavy passages in exams. 4️⃣ Ancient viral DNA may play a key role in early... 📍 CNN | By Taylor Nicolli 🎯 Advanced | Genetics 👉 A deep dive into scientific discovery that will sharpen your understanding of technical writing and complex cause-effect relationships. 🎯 Read more: readlite.in 💡 Reading Wisdom: When reading, actively ask yourself: How does the author structure their argument? What is the main claim, and how is it supported? How could this topic appear in an exam passage? "The ability to read gives you the power to shape your own future." This isn’t just a quote—it’s your growth plan. #ReadWithPrashantSir #CompetitivePrep #ReadingMastery #LearningJourney #EducationalGrowth #ReadLite

Ever wondered how Perplexity delivers clear, trustworthy answers every time? Here’s the secret recipe, served up in simple steps: Perplexity isn’t just another chatbot it’s an answer engine built on two pillars: 1. Search with Sources: First, Perplexity scours the web to find reliable links and extracts only the most relevant paragraphs. 2. LLM Storytelling: Next, a large language model (#LLM) digests those paragraphs, understands your question, and crafts a concise response. What makes Perplexity stand out? Every single sentence in its answers comes with a citation. Just like academic papers, you’ll know exactly where each fact comes from. No more guessing if information is accurate it’s all backed up. Here’s a quick walkthrough: You ask a question. The search engine gathers relevant passages. The LLM writes your answer, footnoting each point. And it doesn’t stop there! After you get your answer, Perplexity suggests related questions to help you dive deeper because knowledge is endless. Whether you’re researching a project or just satisfying your curiosity, Perplexity keeps you moving forward. So next time you need a fast, reliable answer complete with sources think Perplexity. It’s where #knowledge begins, and the journey never ends. Aravind Srinivas

📚 What is a Citation and Why Does It Matter in 2025? In the age of AI-generated content, information overflow, and digital publishing, CITATION isn’t just an academic formality it’s a statement of integrity. 🔹 A citation is a way to credit original thinkers. 🔹 It tells the world: "I respect the source. I acknowledge the foundation." 🔹 Whether you're publishing a blog, research, or product whitepaper credibility starts with attribution. In professional environments, properly citing data, reports, and frameworks does more than avoid plagiarism it builds trust, transparency, and thought leadership. Want to stand out? Use citations to: 🔍 Back your insights with facts 🧠 Show intellectual depth 📈 Build authoritative content As we move toward a knowledge-based future, remember: Real innovation begins where honest recognition exists. . . . #CitationMatters #ThoughtLeadership #ContentIntegrity #AIandEthics #KnowledgeEconomy #ProfessionalWriting #LinkedInLearning #DigitalEthics #InnovationWithIntegrity

✨🧠 What does it mean that words like skibidi, delulu, or tradwife are now part of the Cambridge Dictionary? Beyond the viral anecdote, there’s something deeper at stake: our language evolves at the pace of digital platforms—and with it, the way we think and relate to each other. At home I often heard a phrase that resonates with me more than ever today: 👉 “Your thoughts are only as sophisticated as your vocabulary.” And it’s true: the words we use don’t just reflect the world, they define the limits of what we can analyze, imagine, and solve. 🔹 Expanding our vocabulary sharpens our critical thinking. 🔹 Naming new phenomena trains our creative thinking to build unexpected connections. 🔹 Sharing words that circulate in community strengthens our social and cultural understanding—essential for solving complex problems. So the question isn’t only which words make it into the dictionary, but rather: 💡 How does this shape our ability to think critically, solve creatively, and imagine the future? 📌 A few clear practices for us as leaders, educators, and professionals: Cultivate an active and diverse vocabulary — it’s not enough to know words, we need to use them. Question the terms we adopt — where do they come from? what ideologies do they reflect? Explore the creative potential of language — play with metaphors, neologisms, and narratives to spark new solutions. 🌍 Because in the end, language doesn’t just describe reality… it builds it. And each new word is an invitation to rethink how we understand and transform the world. 👉 What do you think? Do these new words strengthen—or weaken—our capacity for critical thought? I’d love to hear your reflections. #CriticalThinking #Creativity #LanguageMatters #EdTechLeadership #Neuroscience #Innovation https://lnkd.in/ghNc_74z

I watched my mentee restart his introduction 10 times. "I just can't get the flow right," he said. His manuscript had been stuck for three months. That's when I showed him my writing framework. The same framework that helped me publish my papers. (And it works for writing bits in ChatGPT 5 as well.) The problem was just the process. I'll break it down for you here: 1. Context Mapping First I always suggest we map before we write. Context is a powerful frame. Start with your publication areas and field. Analyze successful papers in your venue. Never start with your introduction. 2. Define Your Theoretical Architecture We can just define boundaries explicitly for a paper: • Three theoretical lenses maximum • Single methodology focus • 10-year literature window Framework clarity drives everything. 3. Create Evidence Hierarchies Structure your sources strategically. Foundational → Contemporary → Cutting-edge. Each tier serves a purpose. Evidence architecture supports arguments. 4. Outline Argument Progression Map your logical flow completely. Claim → Evidence → Analysis → Implications. Transitions predetermined. Logic becomes inevitable. Writing is more like fusion now, not blank-slate birth. 5. Design Citation Patterns Plan attribution strategies upfront: • Direct quotes vs. paraphrasing ratios • Citation density per section • Attribution styles Relevant citation and referencing builds authority. 6. Establish Methodological Boundaries Constrain your analytical approach. What you'll examine. What you won't. Why these boundaries matter. Limitations strengthen credibility. 7. Calibrate Your Academic Voice You want to identify your discipline's conventions. Active where acceptable. Passive marginally. Determine register requirements beforehand. Formal. Objective. Discipline-appropriate. Consistency throughout. Voice carries authority. Academic writing is more than just building sentences. You want to be an awesome architect. Do you structure your academic writing process? #phd #writingtips #research

The funniest thing about buzzwords is how hard they try. “Synergy.” “Paradigm shift.” “Innovation ecosystem.” All dressed up to sound like intelligence - while the brain just shrugs. We’ve known this for decades. Experiments in recall show that people consistently remember concrete words better than abstract ones. 👉 Say “table” - recall rates go up. 👉 Say “synergy” - recall drops. The difference isn’t small, it’s statistically significant. Harvard’s work on memory encoding found the same: specific, tangible language is up to three times more likely to stick. And it gets worse. A recent analysis of academic writing showed that the more jargon you pack in, the less your ideas spread. Your reach shrinks, not because the idea was wrong, but because the words built a wall no one bothered to climb. Meanwhile, Gallup puts global engagement at 21% - a decade low. That’s hundreds of billions lost to messages that never landed. Not because people didn’t care, but because the language gave them nothing to hold on to. Isn't this ironic - buzzwords exist to look smart. But nothing makes you look dumber than words designed only to look smart. It’s the only way to make language do its job: be remembered, be trusted, be acted on. End the jargon and work with what the brain actually remembers.

The reason we should be concerned that students aren’t writing their own papers anymore isn’t because of cheating. It’s because writing makes you a better thinker. Students are robbing themselves of the ability to think critically. And if you lose critical thinking, you give up your autonomy. As a philosophy student I wrote nearly 20 pages per week across 5 classes. My own words, based on my interpretation of hundreds of pages of reading and hours of discussions in and out of the classroom. Writing was our opportunity to battle with our thoughts, synthesize them, and catalog them. During writing I would often discover I didn’t understand a concept as well as I thought, or that I held two contradictory beliefs. That’s hard to notice in your own head. But you do notice when you put words on the page or attempt to teach someone else. I genuinely don’t care that students are cheating. I care deeply that an entire generation is handing over their autonomy by willingly giving up critical thinking skills. No one cares what the average of all people who have ever written about this topic thinks. Not your professor. Not your friends. Not your future employer. But we care deeply what YOU think. Through your perspective. Filtered through your experiences. In your words. Your humanity is your greatest differentiator. And soon it may be your only. #ai #highereducation

No-Click Reading Is Killing the Internet (and Your Judgment) If clicks are oxygen, the web is short of breath. Social feeds and AI overviews hand out bite-sized 'knowledge', and readers never make it past the canapé tray. Sources lose context, writers lose income, and leaders make decisions based on summaries that fail to truely grasp the salient argument. I don't buy that this is because people are 'time-poor'; rather it is that the pace of modern life is normalising being attention-poor while still occupying senior roles. Here's what gets lost when posts replace long form papers: ❌ Provenance: Without a proper understanding of the background material, accountability evaporates. ❌ Nuance: The compression of concepts causes evidence to vanish. ❌ Economics: No traffic, no revenue; no revenue, fewer original think pieces. ❌ Judgment: Bullet points are a poor way to get to grips with complex issues. They are only an aide-mémoire—if you have first done the deep thinking. I'm not anti-AI as part of the journey; I'm anti-AI as the destination. Treat summaries as aperitifs, not the meal. Five habits that actually help: ✅ Read before you share: A 20-minute read of the source beats a 'hot take' summary. ✅ Click through to the primary source: Reading the original report makes all the difference—particularly when the decision to be made is substantive. ✅ Reward the source: If a post helps, subscribe, donate, or at least share to drive traffic. ✅ Build attention like a muscle: Schedule one long read per week—leaders should be doing at least one long read per day. ✅ Measure attribution: "What did the sources say?" not "What did the summary say?" Executives tell me they want better decisions. Here's the unfashionable path: fewer updates, deeper reads, slower but saner choices. Beethoven's Ninth lasts 70 minutes for a reason; not everything resolves in 30 seconds. I'll put the long-form essay in the first comment. Do the rebellious thing today: click through and share. #NoClickInternet #AIOverviews #AttentionEconomy #DeepReading #Leadership #DecisionMaking #MediaEconomics #InformationIntegrity #CognitiveLoad #Publishing #DigitalCulture

When we start to see polished punctuation and consistent tone as evidence of cheating, we inadvertently signal to students and our peers, that good writing is suspect. Dr. J Andrew Welsman and Janine Arantes (Aldous) argue that if you can’t distinguish AI-generated text from human, make sure you know the human (in the case of education, your students). https://loom.ly/MTLPMv0