Why you should study civil engineering

Every semester, I teach a seminar in the general course on sciences and engineering, to show first-year students why civil engineering is the coolest thing ever. The presentation explores the range of problems civil engineering deals with, and shows the students how civil engineers improve our daily lives day after day.

Here you can find the slides of my presentation:

23 Things Top Students Do - or Maybe Don't Do

I recently came across an article from Lifehack about studying efficiently. While I'm a big fan of productivity hacks, I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all approach to studying. Some people need to mumble out loud when they study. Others sketch, mindmap and doodle to see connections. Our brains are extremely complex mechanisms, and how we optimally learn is embedded deep within.

In the Storify below, you can find a few precise points of criticism I had on the Lifehack article:

Silver Linings: Binaural Beats for Study and Writing

For some time now, I've been using binaural beats to help me focus while I am writing. I am not convinced that the binaural beats themselves help me focus, but for some reason the ritual of putting a binaural track, taking my headphones and committing to finish something makes my productivity soar.

The "science" behind the effect of binaural beats seems to be incomplete at most, and very often fishy. Most likely, using a white noise generator would give me the same results - and I don't think I'm experiencing anything else than a placebo effect.

Nonetheless - when I really need to start cranking out a lot of words, and music makes me irritable because I start to listen to the lyrics or decipher the notes that every instrument is playing, I use these binaural beats to reach a state of elevated focus.

With that said, and -hopefully- convincing you guys that I'm not the person to take any spiriwiri mumbojumbo that has not passed some rigorous testing and that is back by Good Science, I would like to invite you to try out binaural beats and see if they help your study and writing too (or a white noise generator sound).

What are binaural beats?
Binaural beats result when two nearly similar frequencies are played in each ear when you are listening to headphones. Your brain will process this information, and you will "hear" a third frequency. For example, when one ear hears 100Hz and the other ear 110Hz, you will hear 10Hz as a result.

What do binaural beats do
According to the alternative medicine community, if you hear this 10Hz difference, your brain waves will increase by 10Hz too. Because there are different frequencies of the brainwaves, it is said that the binaural beat that you hear, can induce a certain state of mind.

Benefit of binaural tracks
Binaural tracks are similar to white noise generators, although they seem to have a little more variation to themselves. I quite like the binaural tracks that are combined with sounds of running water. Since most tracks on YouTube are either 30 minutes or an hour long, you can commit to finishing a certain task within half an hour or an hour, take your headphones, switch on the track and finish it before the track ends.
It's a trick you are playing on your mind, but one that you might like to try out and see if it improves your productivity, for example with this track"



Have you tried using binaural beats during study or writing? How is your experience?