Now that many of us are back from the annual ASHRAE and AHR Expo conference, our minds may be jangling from having seen an array of innovative technologies utilizing the cloud, smartphones, and demand automation. While learning new information and changing old patterns is essential to most jobs, leaving behind familiar intellectual territory can be very unpleasant. New ideas that suggest that we must change our behavior can be especially difficult for people who are very proficient at their jobs. Consequently, many highly trained professionals become stuck in their ways. Are the reasons for this just sheer stubbornness, or is there more to the story?
I would like to share a personal experience, and then discuss the brain neurochemistry that many adults encounter when they are faced with change.