A synthesis—an abstraction, chunk, or gist idea—is a neural pattern. Good chunks form neural patterns that resonate, not only within the subject we’re working in, but with other subjects and areas of our lives. The abstraction helps you transfer ideas from one area to another. That’s why great art, poetry, music, and literature can be so compelling. When we grasp the chunk, it takes on a new life in our own minds—we form ideas that enhance and enlighten the neural patterns we already possess, allowing us to more readily see and develop other related patterns. Once we have created a chunk as a neural pattern, we can more easily pass that chunked pattern to others, as Cajal and other great artists, poets, scientists, and writers have done for millennia, Once other people grasp that chunk, not only can they use it, but also they can more easily create similar chunks that apply to other areas in their lives—an important part of the creative process.
Barbara Oakley
Related England really is the birthplace, the heart and soul of football. If Barcelona had Liverpool's f... XAVI Well, Toronto, I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I've made three films and this is th... JASON REITMAN I've been waiting over 40 years to come to Cyprus, and it has not disappointed - the birthplace ... JOE BIDEN Whenever I think of my birthplace, Walton-on-Thames, my reference first and foremost is the river. I... JULIE ANDREWS Attacks on a politician's identity - questioning Romney's religion, say, or Obama's birt... JON MEACHAM The whole world is a man's birthplace. CAECILIUS STATIUS Most people don't know that Congo Square was originally a Muscogee ceremonial ground... in New O... JOY HARJO Home is one's birthplace, ratified by memory. HENRY ANATOLE GRUNWALD Oh, how hard it must be to die anywhere but in one's birthplace. FREDERIC CHOPIN We left my birthplace, Brooklyn, New York, in 1939 when I was 13. I enjoyed the ethnic variety and t... IRWIN ROSE
More Barbara Oakley
I'm a fast foodie - like, a foodie, but with food courts. I'd love to go with all my friends... TYLER OAKLEY If love means that one person absorbs the other, then no real relationship exists any more. Love eva... ANN OAKLEY There are always women who will take men on their own terms. If I were a man I wouldn't bother to ch... ANN OAKLEY Men are the enemies of women. Promising sublime intimacy, unequalled passion, amazing security and g... ANN OAKLEY Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of ... ANN OAKLEY Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty. ANN OAKLEY The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative so... ANN OAKLEY Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization. ANN OAKLEY In creating my YouTube videos, I don't want to speak for my audience and the people I represent;... TYLER OAKLEY In 2016, one of the things I really hope to do is discover new talent and help develop it. Take what... TYLER OAKLEY I think social media has amplified a lot of voices that maybe traditional media hasn't perfectly... TYLER OAKLEY Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career... ANN OAKLEY Being a good mother does not call for the same qualities as being a good housewife; a dedication to ... ANN OAKLEY Being a "good" mother does not call for the same qualities as being a "good" housewife. . . . a dedi... ANN OAKLEY The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative so... ANN OAKLEY I always think about the fact that PewDiePie, who has tens of millions of followers, started with ze... TYLER OAKLEY When I graduated from college, I got a 9-to-5 traditional job doing social media for a company, and ... TYLER OAKLEY In elementary school, I loved the 'Bailey School Kids' series. It was about a group of class... TYLER OAKLEY Being misunderstood - that's the thing that scares me. Because my life is about oversharing. TYLER OAKLEY All the money that's donated to the Trevor Project provides resources that directly affect the y... TYLER OAKLEY Once you dye your hair for the first time, you see other people with dyed hair, and you see them dif... TYLER OAKLEY Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just se... TYLER OAKLEY I feel like everybody, whether you have one follower or a million followers, has an opportunity to e... TYLER OAKLEY were very much trying to present themselves as reluctant warriors. They were very much reacting to d... ROBIN OAKLEY I went all to pieces under the care of a home. ANNIE OAKLEY When I was in my single digits, I was subjected to the worst torture you can possibly inflict on a c... TYLER OAKLEY such a hot potato that it was dropped. ROBIN OAKLEY I don't think we'll see huge divisions here in Greece. ROBIN OAKLEY Narcissism has existed for a long time; social media is just a new outlet to express it. Anybody who... TYLER OAKLEY Basically what it boils down to is whether Angela Merkel detaches the Greens from Chancellor Gerhard... ROBIN OAKLEY prompted by a growing concern, deeply held, about the future of the country's national security. PHYLLIS OAKLEY We are not going to see a full NATO operation, ROBIN OAKLEY crumbling under an administration blinded by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of... PHYLLIS OAKLEY My one guilty pleasure is, every airport, I will drop everything to get an airport massage at those ... TYLER OAKLEY The west wasn't won on salad. PETER OAKLEY Bush isn't going to follow the detail to the same extent (as Clinton), but he is helping to put his ... ROBIN OAKLEY I really like Nick Jonas. I think he is super-cute, handsome and talented. TYLER OAKLEY There are so many versions of haggis nowadays. You can even buy haggis in a can. JOYCE OAKLEY We have competitors coming in from California, and we even have one coming from Scotland to compete ... JOYCE OAKLEY have spent their lives working to erect the stature and posture of the U.S. as a leader in the world... PHYLLIS OAKLEY The most satisfactory definition of man from the scientific point of view is probably Man the Tool-m... KENNETH OAKLEY The fact that George Bush has come to Belfast to meet Tony Blair in this location ... is in a sense ... ROBIN OAKLEY (Blair) was saying that one way or another inaction was not a possibility -- there has to be action ... ROBIN OAKLEY Prior to 2015, I had kind of approached every year like, 'Let's hope for the best.' I al... TYLER OAKLEY The moment I realised anyone could be watching - and this is going to sound so name-droppy - was whe... TYLER OAKLEY In middle school, I was really into the 'Redwall' series, about anthropomorphic rodents in m... TYLER OAKLEY Is not the semblance of guilt, however slight the tinge, already a corruption? OAKLEY HALL As prosecutors, we're given a certain amount of discretion. Most use that discretion wisely and focu... CHRIS OAKLEY This is why homophobia is a terrible evil: it disguises itself as concern while it is inherently hat... TYLER OAKLEY When it came to 'Binge,' it wasn't my intention to get on a little soapbox and have a te... TYLER OAKLEY I've never had a single person ask me to prosecute one of these. We're not going to go out and stake... CHRIS OAKLEY This is not the direct result of one issue. We see it as a way to stay ahead as the competition incr... COREY OAKLEY At the Sonoma County Fair, we pride ourselves on being out in front. We are interested in using DNA ... COREY OAKLEY Basically, I just tried to let them know we were here and we were interested in having them. I told ... COREY OAKLEY The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision. We have a mayor who thinks ... ED OAKLEY It's one more slap at Ray Hunt. ED OAKLEY If this weren't Ray Hunt, if this were anybody else the emotions wouldn't be there, ED OAKLEY You circumvent our authority and our process in this, ... You stood there and said 'I,' 'I,' 'I,' 'm... ED OAKLEY We have a policy, ... If you want to change the policy, go to the committee, go to the appropriate a... ED OAKLEY You think you can circumvent our authority and our powers. You can't. ED OAKLEY It is an unused park for the citizens of Dallas, and I think this is the right direction. It would b... ED OAKLEY If anyone does not think that a flood is possible in Dallas, I beg to differ. It is not only possibl... ED OAKLEY I made a promise to craft this, to put something on the ballot. And I've done that. I'm not going to... ED OAKLEY I would say it's in his best interest, at this stage of the game. ED OAKLEY It's a powder that is put into an inhaling device that makes the powder burst into fine particles th... JAN OAKLEY It's the first new delivery device that has been on the market since we started treating diabetes. T... JAN OAKLEY Any man who has got himself set over others and don't have any responsibility to something bigger th... OAKLEY HALL In the beginning, all that was asked that they change the word from the N-word to Negro, and they sa... MARGIE OAKLEY Are our concerns not just as valid? MARGIE OAKLEY We asked them to either take it out or change the N-word to 'Negro' and they told us no. Because whi... MARGIE OAKLEY We urge them to cancel that play in the name of human decency. MARGIE OAKLEY When Hurricane Katrina hit, so many of our steering council members were called out of town to work ... JOYCE OAKLEY The only constant you have from Point A, your birth to Point B, your death is you. There is no point... TYLER OAKLEY I'm convinced that this was well-planned, ROBERT OAKLEY performance of great defiance and passion. ROBIN OAKLEY The Civil Rights Movement, it wasn't just a couple of, you know, superstars like Martin Luther K... BARBARA EHRENREICH Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that g... BARBARA KINGSOLVER Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life. BARBARA KINGSOLVER I have a pig valve. BARBARA BUSH Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every... BARBARA KINGSOLVER One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time. BARBARA WALTERS Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is count... BARBARA BOXER In 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only colour to be found was in the propaganda post... BARBARA DEMICK Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaki... BARBARA KINGSOLVER The most expensive hobby a rich man could have is a boat, and the second most expensive hobby he cou... BARBARA CORCORAN Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place, the found... BARBARA SMITH There's a lot of cruelty going on all the time, and I'm not just talking about inter-human c... BARBARA EHRENREICH I also found that for myself, since I've had no religious education, it was so interesting to se... BARBARA WALTERS A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence. BARBARA WALTERS I find very often people like to confront rumors. It depends on how much they trust you. And you hav... BARBARA WALTERS First of all, the Jewish religion has a great deal in common with the Christian religion because, as... BARBARA WALTERS I found it interesting that as people become more technically oriented all over the world, at the sa... BARBARA WALTERS The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers. BARBARA WALTERS I have affected the way women are regarded, and that's important to me. BARBARA WALTERS Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children... BARBARA WALTERS Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says she doesn't is someone whom I admire but ha... BARBARA WALTERS When you're interviewing someone, you're in control. When you're being interviewed, you ... BARBARA WALTERS A man cannot be made comfortable without his own approval. BARBARA WALTERS Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna - or it can smooth the edges,... BARBARA WALTERS Wait for those unguarded moments. Relax the mood and, like the child dropping off to sleep, the subj... BARBARA WALTERS I didn't have a very religious family. BARBARA WALTERS Don't confuse being stimulating with being blunt. BARBARA WALTERS To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Gho... BARBARA TUCHMAN To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. BARBARA TUCHMAN For me, the card catalog has been a companion all my working life. To leave it is like leaving the h... BARBARA TUCHMAN Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general. BARBARA TUCHMAN The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory... BARBARA TUCHMAN Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library. BARBARA TUCHMAN No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to... BARBARA TUCHMAN Books are humanity in print. BARBARA TUCHMAN War is the unfolding of miscalculations. BARBARA TUCHMAN The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell wi... BARBARA TUCHMAN Honor wears different coats to different eyes. BARBARA TUCHMAN I didn't have any agent; I've never had an agent. BARBARA STEELE Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted. BARBARA STEELE In the sequence where I am burned at the stake, everything was so casual and hazardous that the bott... BARBARA STEELE The crew, like all Italian crews, was generous, warm, and enthusiastic. BARBARA STEELE I don't have an objective overview of Black Sunday. BARBARA STEELE If you were out of a job and your kid needed diapers and your husband just left you, you would be so... BARBARA STEELE Italian cameramen grow up immersed in an awareness of light. It is part of their mythology. BARBARA STEELE I was obliged to stand there, holding the leash of this creature for their welcoming publicity shots... BARBARA STEELE After all, film is so porous, and to my mind, so oddly occult, that I think that film itself absorbs... BARBARA STEELE I'm now the Lord of the Brighton Manor. BARBARA STANWYCK My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty... BARBARA STANWYCK Career is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt privileged to be paid for what I ... BARBARA STANWYCK Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity. BARBARA STANWYCK A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semi... BARBARA SMITH One of the greatest gifts of Black feminism to ourselves has been to make it a little easier simply ... BARBARA SMITH You can only paint through your experience and sub-consciousness. BARBARA SMITH This invisibility, however, means that the opportunities for creative research are infinite. BARBARA SMITH Black women as a group have never been fools. We couldn't afford to be. BARBARA SMITH Black women, whose experience is unique, are seldom recognized as a particular social-cultural entit... BARBARA SMITH It's essential to distinguish between events that are really beyond your control and events you ... BARBARA SHER We are like violins. We can be used as doorstops, or we can make music. BARBARA SHER You don't have to get it right the first time. BARBARA SHER Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do - can love things that no one else can ... BARBARA SHER Isolation is a dream killer. BARBARA SHER When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth ... BARBARA SHER Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren't. BARBARA SHER Change is not only likely, it's inevitable. BARBARA SHER When you start using senses you've neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fr... BARBARA SHER Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. BARBARA SHER Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze. BARBARA SHER Each author has his or her own voice. I read each book slowly so I can see the patterns they use to ... BARBARA ROSENBLAT I went to Disney World for the first time, and I got an ice cream cone. The kid at the booth recogni... BARBARA ROSENBLAT As I read, I start to form clear ideas of the characters and allow myself to be a proper conduit for... BARBARA ROSENBLAT I'm always telling students when I do a master class on audiobooks: 'Watch Meryl Streep. Wat... BARBARA ROSENBLAT I've been recording audiobooks for more than 30 years. I've recorded over 500 titles on all ... BARBARA ROSENBLAT Nothing taxes an actor more thoroughly than a good audiobook. BARBARA ROSENBLAT Those quotations were really quite obscure. Anyone can see that he is a very well read man. BARBARA PYM How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should t... BARBARA PYM I was a good kid, but I was just very chatty. Teachers were rarely entertained, but occasionally a c... BARBARA PARK My own pregnancies were all about me, me, me. My aches, my pains, my swollen feet, and my body that ... BARBARA PARK My criteria for what makes a book an official 'favorite,' is based almost entirely on how de... BARBARA PARK I've stopped reading about my books on the Internet because it's too hurtful. BARBARA PARK My senior year of high school, I was voted 'Wittiest.' So, several years later, I decided to... BARBARA PARK I find the term 'perfect child' to be an oxymoron. BARBARA PARK Of all the novels I've written, my favorite is 'Mick Harte Was Here'. BARBARA PARK Ever since I began writing my Junie B. Jones series, people have been assuming that the character is... BARBARA PARK Society just has a way of inhibiting you, which is good and bad. BARBARA PARK I'm so lazy as far as liking to get up, go to the office in my pajamas, get dressed about noon. ... BARBARA PARK I like to think that Junie B. looks at the world - and this isn't a negative comment on her - fr... BARBARA PARK I'm not actually sure I'm grown-up enough for grown-up books. BARBARA PARK There are many reluctant young readers who haven't yet found books that make them laugh. BARBARA PARK I find that when I'm struggling to think of how a six-year-old would feel about something, I jus... BARBARA PARK I wasn't that over-the-top, but I got sent to the principal in first grade for talking. And my f... BARBARA PARK For 20 years I've gotten to laugh my way through my work. For me, that's a dream job. BARBARA PARK All of my characters are less than perfect. BARBARA PARK There are those who believe that the value of a children's book can be measured only in terms of... BARBARA PARK In the mind of Bill Clinton, political considerations outweigh even life-and-death matters of great ... BARBARA OLSON He decided to plunge on with pardons over the department's objections, or where he knew that the... BARBARA OLSON Phones rang constantly, as if the White House was conducting some kind of pardon telethon. BARBARA OLSON There is one question that I don't think Gary Condit can answer, and that I think is why we all ... BARBARA OLSON From what we've heard about George W., he has a lot issues that he wants to run on. They're ... BARBARA OLSON Hopefully, at some point, people will at least credit the Republicans with carrying out their oversi... BARBARA OLSON Mistakes were made is something we heard back in '92, and that has sort of been the Clinton admi... BARBARA OLSON It's difficult to believe that Al Gore was oblivious to the existing laws. He has to respond at ... BARBARA OLSON Al Gore seems to have found a great political ploy: Picking up whatever issue he is most vulnerable ... BARBARA OLSON I think that's going to be an issue: Whether or not voters are going to get more of the same in ... BARBARA OLSON The mainstream media has chosen their candidates and their issues, and they're not the same as t... BARBARA OLSON I think Gore does have to worry. He is tied to Bill Clinton. We know that there were telephone calls... BARBARA OLSON The decision that has to be made was whether it was material, whether he knew he was lying under oat... BARBARA OLSON Of all presidential perks, the pardon power has a special significance. It is just the kind of autho... BARBARA OLSON It might seem unfair to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize... BARBARA MCCLINTOCK I never thought of stopping, and I just hated sleeping. I can't imagine having a better life. BARBARA MCCLINTOCK I know my corn plants intimately, and I find it a great pleasure to know them. BARBARA MCCLINTOCK If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you o... BARBARA MCCLINTOCK We're only here to love God and each other. I'm not saying I've never gotten angry at an... BARBARA MANDRELL What I do miss that I don't get anymore? You're going to think I'm crazy, but you want t... BARBARA MANDRELL That is the exciting thing: I don't know what God has given me for tomorrow. BARBARA MANDRELL It seems to me that unless you or someone very close to you has had a bad head injury, you really ca... BARBARA MANDRELL I think it was 37 years that I did music. BARBARA MANDRELL I am loving being Momma. I really, really am. BARBARA MANDRELL For the next approximately three years, I have got Nathan to take care of. I know that once he gradu... BARBARA MANDRELL And they just saw me on that and - from the time I was 11 until I was 12, I guess. And then when I h... BARBARA MANDRELL When I had my television show, 'Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,' it was my high h... BARBARA MANDRELL I'm a very competitive person, and I always competed with myself. Every year, I'd take six w... BARBARA MANDRELL When I retired from my music November 1997, it had been 37 years. BARBARA MANDRELL We had to go all through the night thinking that our baby was dead. When God showed him to us, he wa... BARBARA MANDRELL I am not saying that I'm happy about what's going on right now in our nation, but I am at pe... BARBARA MANDRELL