Tag: banned ted talk

Podcast notes – Robert Waldinger, What makes a good life (TED talk on Harvard study of adult development)

 

Millennial survey – 80+% said major life goal was to get rich, 50% said to become famous

What if we could watch lives unfold as they actually happen?
“Harvard study of adult development” – tracked 724 men for 75 years

60 of those men are still alive and still participating in study – most in 90s
Now they have 2000+ children

First group started as Harvard sophomores – most served in WW2
Second group were group of boys from Boston’s most troubled neighborhoods

All entered the study as teenagers

One became president of the US

Every 2 years, research staff does surveys of the participants
Draw blood, scan brains, talk to their children, videotape them talking to their wives

What’s been learned?
Clearest message: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier

Relationship lessons
1. Social connections are really good for us – family, friends, community; loneliness is toxic – they’re less happy, their brain functions and health decline sooner
2. It’s not quantity but quality of closest relationships that matter – high conflict marriages are very bad for health, perhaps even worse than divorce
3. Good relationships protect not only our bodies but our brains – secure attachments at age 80, those brains and memories stay sharper for longer

Predictors at age 50 of longevity – not health, but “how satisfied were they in their relationships” – these became the healthiest at age 80

Relationships don’t have to be smooth – but need to be able to count on each other through tough times

Those happiest in retirement – actively replaced workmates with new playmates

People who far best are those who lean into relationships – family, friends, community

Twain quote: “There isn’t time – so brief is life – for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. there is only time for loving – & but an instant, so to speak, for that.”

TED talk notes: Nick Hanauer’s famous banned talk on the rich and Clio Cresswell on math + sex

Listening to TED talks was a regular habit of mine. I’m slowly publishing the notes, to share with readers and as a personal refresher. Here’s the full list of notes.

This week we have a talk from Nick Hanauer (one of the infamous banned talks) on why rich people don’t create jobs, and from Clio Cresswell on the link between math and sex.

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Nick Hanauer: Rich people don’t create jobs

  • the rich aren’t job creators, supply side economics is false
  • consumers are king, consumers create jobs
  • hiring is a last resort for capitalists. to call capitalists job creators is disingenuous
  • rich people may consume more, but it’s not commensurate with their higher earnings
  • look at recent decades: as taxes on rich and capital gains have gone down, unemployment has stayed high, real incomes for middle and lower class have stagnated
  • to raise taxes on the rich benefits everyone long-term
  • help the middle class prosper, and create jobs for everyone

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Mathematics and sex | Clio Cresswell

  • there are equations that predict with 95% accuracy whether spouses will stay together over time, includes data on in-laws and body language
  • couples that compromise the LEAST ended up staying together the longest
  • maybe having high standards, finding ways to reach for them, is the way to go
  • mathematics is used in many fields: from creating chocolate to optimizing antibiotics to predicting political elections
  • men overestimate their # of past sexual partners, but estimation as a process usually leads to over-guessing (her favorite clue in the data: 80% of self-reported men’s numbers were divisible by 5!)
  • testosterone peaks in morning, slumps in the evening, and cycles every 2 to 2.5 hours
  • rats can count approximately, but can’t do exact because they don’t have a linguistic / mental representation of numbers. we’re the same: if we can’t count out a sequence, we can only do approximations, too

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Here’s the full list of TED notes!