TED talk notes: Thomas Piketty on why the US is more unequal than Europe, and Andrew Hessel on making cancer fighting viruses

Every week, I share notes from some of my favorite TED talks. Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s just a continuous, single page).

Thomas Piketty: New thoughts on capital in the twenty-first century

  • in the long-run, r > g (return on capital is greater than the return on economic growth), which leads to income inequality
  • in the last century, Europe and US have flipped: the US is now much more unequal
  • there are many reasons for this, including unequal access to skills, fast rise in top incomes
  • wealth inequality is always a lot higher than income inequality
  • wealth inequality is still less extreme than 1900
  • with r > g, initial inequalities are amplified at faster pace
  • there is always some level of dynamism and change (e.g., large families, poor investment decisions)
  • for most of history r > g (g was mostly 0 in agrarian society)
  • r > 0 was necessary for eventual labor diversification and societal evolution
  • both r and g have risen over time
  • long-run g is about 1-2%, we’ve seen unusually high g (3-4%) in post-war 20th century
  • long-run r is about 4-5%
  • r-g delta is caused by technology, savings rate, other factors
  • r > g particularly strong for billionaires; there are scale effects (e.g., portfolio management, financial instruments, tax evasion and lawyers and accountants)
  • main suggestion: increased financial transparency
  • if he were to rewrite the book today, he’d actually conclude that US income inequality higher than he reported

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Andrew Hessel: Synthetic Virology

  • the Pink Army Movement is the exact opposite of a traditional pharma company:
    • focused not on broad, but narrow-based drugs
    • not a closed system, but open-source
    • not for-profit, but non-profit
  • an oncolytic virus is a weak virus that can’t takeover a healthy cell, but can takeover a cancerous cell (which is by definition weaker than a healthy cell); the cancer cell then makes copies of the oncolytic virus, the cancer cell dies and the virus goes on to infect other cancer cells
  • cost of synthetically printing DNA is dropping dramatically
  • pharma is the opposite of Moore’s Law, costs of development have risen dramatically while # of approved drugs has fallen dramatically (me: a16z  jokingly calls this eroom’s law)

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Here’s the complete list of TED notes

December quotes: “We often confuse a clear view of the future with a short distance” – Paul Saffo

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form. – Nabokov

I read Nabokov’s Lolita but his writing felt powerful but foreign, like tasting spicy Balinese food for the first time (I actually don’t know if that is a thing). Need to re-read.

God gives a choice to every soul between truth and peace. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mastery, in various forms, has defined civilization and gauged human achievement. To name, to number, to time, to represent–symbolic culture is that array of masteries upon which all subsequent hierarchies and confinements rest. – John Zerzan

An elegant, concise way to define humanity in its highest form.

Life consists with Wildness. The most alive is the wildest. – Henry David Thoreau

Reminds me of Nietzsche’s quote: “Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.”

Follow the best way of life you possibly can, and habit will make this way suitable and pleasant for you. – Leo Tolstoy

Yes, the power of habit!

I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I shall have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Till then, not all the forces of mankind can do anything against me. – Napoleon at the opening of his Russian campaign

I am reminded of the theme and messages in Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer.

A donkey was placed between a pail and a bale of hay and starved to death – Derek Sivers

Therefore I say, the Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame. – Zhuang Zi

Remember that you are more free if you change your opinion and follow those who have corrected your mistakes, than if you are stubborn about your mistakes. – Marcus Aurelius

I am re-reading Aurelius’s Meditations. Wise and concise. I particularly enjoy the section where Aurelius describes what he has learned from the people closest to him, from his father to Maximus (I believe this is THE Maximus from Gladiator) to Roman senators to his wife.

The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day. – Steven Pressfield

I am also reading Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. It’s an inspiring book for artists, musicians, writers, creators (really, though, every job can be a creative one).

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance – Rockefeller

To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right. – Heraclitus

Reminds me of Shakespeare: “nothing is right or wrong but thinking makes it so.”

We often confuse a clear view of the future with a short distance. – Paul Saffo

I try not to forget this, especially in the context of technology startups and Silicon Valley.

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour. — William Blake

Every thought a person dwells upon, whether he expresses it or not, either damages or improves his life. – Lucy Malory

An innovation is anything that breaks a constraint – Michael Raynor

A clear, concise definition of innovation, heard on the a16z podcast.

Without truth there is no kindness; without kindness the truth cannot be told. – Leo Tolstoy

I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. – Albert Einstein

I believe in something like this, too.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man. – Mark Twain

You can always count on Twain for a piercing platitude. Even if he didn’t say it, which is probably true for most quotes…

Put that coffee down…coffee’s for closers only. You think I’m fucking with you? I am not fucking with you. – Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross

I highly recommend Alec’s podcast, Here’s The Thing.

Thanks for reading! Here’s a growing collection of my favorite quotes.

Book Notes: How to Fail at Almost Everything by Scott Adams

How to fail by Scott AdamsI’ve written about Scott Adams before [1, 2].

He just seems like an awesome guy: funny, opinionated, someone who succeeded through hard work and cleverness and a determination to live on his own terms.

In particular I like his recommendation to build systems [3] instead of chasing goals, and I couldn’t agree more when he says “passion is bullshit”.

—

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big [Kindle]

If you read nothing else:

Recapping the happiness formula: Eat right. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Imagine an incredible future (even if you don’t believe it). Work toward a flexible schedule. Do things you can steadily improve at. Help others (if you’ve already helped yourself). Reduce daily decisions to routine.

(all of the below are quotes)

On life: Always be improving

  • There’s one step you will always do first if it’s available to you: You’ll ask a smart friend how he or she tackled the same problem. A smart friend can save you loads of time and effort.
  • It’s a good idea to make psychology your lifelong study.
  • If your gut feeling (intuition) disagrees with the experts, take that seriously. You might be experiencing some pattern recognition that you can’t yet verbalize.
  • The directional nature of happiness is one reason it’s a good idea to have a sport or hobby that leaves you plenty of room to improve every year. Tennis and golf are two perfect examples.

On career: What were you obsessively doing at ten years old?

  • I’ve been involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion. The ones that didn’t work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed.
  • I believe the way he explained it is that your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job. This was my first exposure to the idea that one should have a system instead of a goal.
  • If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. (one of my favorite quotes!)
  • In my career I’ve always felt that my knack for simplicity was a sort of superpower. For example, when I draw Dilbert I include little or no background art in most panels, and when I do, it’s usually simple.
  • My cartooning skills improved dramatically within a week of United Media’s offering to syndicate Dilbert. The simple knowledge that I had become an official professional cartoonist had a profound effect on unlocking whatever talent I had.
  • One helpful rule of thumb for knowing where you might have a little extra talent is to consider what you were obsessively doing before you were ten years old.
  • There have been times I stuck with bad ideas for far too long out of a misguided sense that persistence is a virtue. The pattern I noticed was this: Things that will someday work out well start out well. Things that will never work start out bad and stay that way.
  • The Success Formula: Every Skill You Acquire Doubles Your Odds of Success

On health: Do stuff that gives you energy

  • The main reason I blog is because it energizes me. I could rationalize my blogging by telling you it increases traffic on Dilbert.com by 10 percent or that it keeps my mind sharp or that I think the world is a better place when there are more ideas in it. But the main truth is that blogging charges me up. It gets me going. I don’t need another reason.
  • Energy is good. Passion is bullshit.
  • Tidiness is a personal preference, but it also has an impact on your energy. Every second you look at a messy room and think about fixing it is a distraction from your more important thoughts.
  • When you see a successful person who lacks a college education, you’re usually looking at someone with an unusual lack of fear. The next pattern I’ve noticed is exercise. Good health is a baseline requirement for success.
  • The main thing I learned is that nutrition presents itself as science but is perhaps 60 percent bullshit, guessing, bad assumptions, and marketing.

On relationships: Smile!

  • Research shows that loneliness damages the body in much the same way as aging.
  • As a bonus, smiling makes you more attractive to others. When you’re more attractive, people respond to you with more respect and consideration, more smiles, and sometimes even lust.
  • A lie that makes a voter feel good is more effective than a hundred rational arguments.
  • It’s a good idea to always have a backlog of stories you can pull out at a moment’s notice. And you’ll want to continually update your internal story database with new material.
  • Your story isn’t a story unless something unexpected or unusual happens. That’s the plot twist. If you don’t have a twist, it’s not a story. It’s just a regurgitation of your day.
  • The reality is that everyone is a basket case on the inside. Some people just hide it better. Find me a normal person and I’ll show you someone you don’t know that well.
  • Another good persuasion sentence is “I don’t do that.” It’s not a reason and barely tries to be. But it sounds like a hard-and-fast rule.
  • Crazy + confident probably kills more people than any other combination of personality traits, but when it works just right, it’s a recipe for extraordinary persuasion. Cults are a good example of insanity being viewed as leadership.
  • Studies show a commanding voice is highly correlated with success. Other studies suggest that both men and women with attractive voices find partners more quickly than those with less attractive voices.
  • For in-person humor, quality isn’t as important as you might think. Your attitude and effort count for a lot.

“Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed”

The artist and the fundamentalist arise from societies at differing stages of development. The artist is the advanced model. His culture possesses affluence, stability, enough excess of resource to permit the luxury of self-examination. The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it. He is lucky. He was born in the right place. He has a core of self-confidence, of hope for the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that humankind is advancing, however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world. The fundamentalist entertains no such notion. In his view, humanity has fallen from a higher state. The truth is not out there awaiting revelation; it has already been revealed. The word of God has been spoken and recorded by His prophet, be he Jesus, Muhammad, or Karl Marx. Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed. Its spawning ground is the wreckage of political and military defeat, as Hebrew fundamentalism arose during the Babylonian captivity, as white Christian fundamentalism appeared in the American South during Reconstruction, as the notion of the Master Race evolved in Germany following World War I. In such desperate times, the vanquished race would perish without a doctrine that restored hope and pride. Islamic fundamentalism ascends from the same landscape of despair and possesses the same tremendous and potent appeal. – Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

This resonated with me, especially when reading about current events: the Paris attacks, school shootings, the ideas in Mass Movements, and Paulo Coelho’s quote:

Fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul – Paulo Coehlo

By page ten of The War of Art, I knew it was a book I’d re-read, along with books like “What Technology Wants” and “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” (here’s more).

TED talk notes: William Li on how to starve cancer, Marcel Dicke on why we should eat insects

Every week, I share notes from some of my favorite TED talks. Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s just a continuous, single page).

William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?

  • angiogenesis is the creation or reduction of blood vessels
  • it occurs for many diseases, e.g., cancer; also injury, pregnancy (uterus and placenta)
  • otherwise, blood vessels are largely fixed from early in life
  • once angiogenesis happens, cancer is much harder to treat (the tipping point)
  • treat cancer by cutting off its blood supply, “anti-angiogenic therapy”
  • avastin is one example
  • your diet is 30-35% of the environmental causes of cancer (5-10% is genes)
  • what foods are naturally anti-angiogenic?
    • red grapes (resveratrol)
    • strawberries
    • green tea
    • men who consumed cooked tomatoes 2x/week, lower incidences of prostate cancer, cause: anti-angiogenesis
  • anti-angiogenesis may also have applications for obesity

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Marcel Dicke: Why not eat insects?

  • 1/3 of fruit we eat is the result of insect pollination of plants
  • insects represent more biomass than humans
  • every processed food contains insects — tomato soup, peanut butter, chocolate
  • there are allowed FDA limits for insect material in foods
  • current meat supply has many problems:
    • animals cause diseases, e.g., pigs
  • insects are more efficient source of food — 10kg of feed produces 1kg of meat OR 9kg of insects
  • insects create less waste (e.g., manure for meat)
  • insects are more nutritious (me: need to research)
  • 70% of all agricultural land used for livestock
  • 80% of world already eats insects, 1000+ insect species

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Here’s the complete list of TED notes