Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A.O.C.: Cut, Cultivate, Categorize, & Condition

Haley Scholar Reading Groups
 
By Danielle Hall

In the afterword of The Art of Choosing, Iyengar attempts to address some of the responses she received from her readers and listeners after AOC's initial publication. Here, she offers a concise summary of each chapter that serves as a kind of blueprint or guide of the main ideas/themes one should gather from the book.

The chapter that I thought was more useful and captured the theme of the book, is chapter 6 where she offers four "quick tips":  1) Cut  2) Cultivate Confidence 3) Categorize and 4) Condition (276).


Which of those 4 approaches do you think would be most beneficial for first-year college students to consider? Which one do you think would be the most challenging to master? Why or how so? 

12 comments:

Jennifer Johnson said...

I feel that the cultivating confidence approach would be best for firs year college students to consider because it is always good to have someone who knows and understands what your going through and who also has the wisdom to assist freshman with making the best choices for themselves. I feel that conditioning is the hardest to master because its hard to start small when there are already so many things to choose from

Rohan Genge said...

I feel like cut or limiting choices would be best for new students because in the first year students have much more freedom and choices to manage. Conditioning is the most difficult because to internalize these skills takes time and pratice.

Jim Engracia said...

I feel that cultivating confidence is the most beneficial to freshman students. It is very important life skill that applies to many facets like dating, jobs, other academic portions. Confidence can take many people far by just having the confidence to do something that he/she chooses.

On the same standard, I also feel that one of the most challenging skills to master is confidence as well. It is an interal feeling which is often difficult to master. Many freshman that come to SIUE lose or don't have confidence. It is always hard to build up confidence with so much going on in one's life.

Natalia Habibi said...

I agree that conditioning would be the hardest for first years students. Cultivating confidence would definitely be the most beneficial for freshman as confidence would make their first year away from home a lot easier. Cutting is also beneficial because it ensures that students don't overstep their boundaries as soon as they move away from home.

Ralicia Goble-Hawkins said...

I feel that categorizing is essential to first year students. The concept of categorizing illustrates that there is a time and a place for everything, but in order to succeed, it's necessary to categorize correctly. This is probably going to be a challenge for first year students because for the first time in their lives, they are the ones who must categorize things for themselves.

Jasmine said...

I believe that the most important condition for first year college students is to cut. It's very important not to let all of the extra things going on around to get in the way of your main goal. This is especially important as a freshman because it's the first time that they are out on their own and have so much freedom. I believe the hardest one to master would be cultivating confidence. This is due to the fact that everyone has insecurities and it can be really hard to reach a place where you not accept who you are but love who you are.

Anonymous said...

All of these approaches are difficult in different ways. Thinking back to starting school I had no idea how difficult college would be. It is crucial that freshman cut and limit choices, so they can really focus on their future. In addition, this would help eventually condition the student to have self-control, discipline, and become successful in the future.
Mastering confidence would be the hardest approach, I feel that some people struggle with this most of their lives especially in a society that makes it so easy to compare ourselves to others.

Alexia said...

I think that all of these approaches go hand in hand, but categorizing is first and formost, at least for me. Find out what is most important and you need to do to reach your goals. That requires cutting down the choices you have and other distractions, which is most challenging for me. Once you are focused, be confident in all aspects of your life. Attack any issues that may come your way. Finally, condition yourself so that all of these approaches become second nature to you.

Ashley Jeffers said...

I definitely think that cultivating confidence would be in the best interest for first year students to consider. Moving into a college setting, most likely knowing nobody, puts a lot of pressure on a person. In order to flourish in this kind of environment, one must believe in themselves and his values in order to survive/succeed.

The hardest thing to do would be to condition oneself to the new and much different environment. Mom can't remind you to study, or clean up your room. You don't have sports to keep you in shape all year. The is no study hall to make sure that you get a chance to work on your homework. The list could go on and on. This is a huge change and definitely a huge challenge.

Kizzy Hopkins said...

I think that cultivating condfidence would be farely easy because one is depending on the help of other's advise, wisdom and their past experience to help guide your choice, whereas; acknowledged choices, and building a resume (so to speak) of comparing and contrasting choice can help one build or self reflected future of success.

Shakita Hurt said...

All of these are good for new students which is why I have to choose two of the choices. I feel that categorizing and cut would both be beneficial for the students because when you are new to a setting, sometimes you have to adapt to your surroundings. So students have to learn to be on time for classes and be responsible. They have to learn that there is a time to study, a time to sleep, and a time to party, which is learning how to categorize things. They also need to learn how to cut bad habits and be able to limit themselves when it comes to things that are not as important. I think that Cutting would be the most difficult because people are set or stuck in their ways that they don't want to change or adapt. New students would want to fit in with their peers instead of doing what they know they should do.

Jessica Hickman said...

I feel like cutting would be the best for first year students. You have to learn that you do not have to do everything and you have to limit yourself from some things. The act of conditioning yourself may be the most challenging because you have so many outside distractions.