Comments on: Negative reinforcement http://squaregalaxy.com/insights/negative-reinforcement/ A blog by Jacob Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:53:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: justin hileman http://squaregalaxy.com/insights/negative-reinforcement/comment-page-1/#comment-8528 justin hileman Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:14:17 +0000 http://jacob.peargrove.com/columns/2007/06/26/negative-reinforcement/#comment-8528 a bike shop owner in california once showed me a photo of a pretty amazing wreck. there was a skid mark about twenty feet long down the sidewalk, heading toward a fire hydrant. it looked like the rider would have cleared the hydrant until about five feet away, when the skid mark veered sharply toward it. he obviously knew the hydrant was there, because he started skidding fifty feet away... he obviously didn't want to hit it. but rather than focusing his energy on what he wanted to do (avoid a wreck) he focused on what he didn't want. because he fixated on the thing he wanted to avoid, he hit it. he messed his bike up pretty good, too :-) a bike shop owner in california once showed me a photo of a pretty amazing wreck. there was a skid mark about twenty feet long down the sidewalk, heading toward a fire hydrant. it looked like the rider would have cleared the hydrant until about five feet away, when the skid mark veered sharply toward it.

he obviously knew the hydrant was there, because he started skidding fifty feet away… he obviously didn’t want to hit it. but rather than focusing his energy on what he wanted to do (avoid a wreck) he focused on what he didn’t want. because he fixated on the thing he wanted to avoid, he hit it.

he messed his bike up pretty good, too :-)

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