Tag: TED talk

Podcast notes – Bjorn Lomborg – TED talk, Global priorities bigger than climate change

If we have $50B to do good, how do we spend it?
Ex: Governance corruption, Sanitation and water, Global warming, Malnutrition, etc

This question was asked at Davos

UN existed for 60 years, but we’ve never made such a list and discussed how to prioritize them
Prioritization is incredibly uncomfortable
But it’s like walking into a pizzeria but not knowing the price of each pizza

3 well-known economists were tasked to come up with such a list
“Bad projects” = invest $1, get <$1 back

Bottom of list was climate change
This offends people
But why is it a bad deal (eg, Kyoto)? It’s very inefficient – can only do very little, at very high cost
Benefits don’t accrue for many decades – and by then most of the affected people will be much richer and more prosperous (even better than 1st world citizens today)

Kyoto agreement estimated to cost $150B/year – 2-3x global development aid to Third World yearly
For half of that amount – $75B/year – we can solve all major basic problems – clean water, sanitation, etc to benefit everyone on the planet

Top priorities – the “best deals”
1. HIV/AIDS – $27B over 8 years, avoid 28M new cases, prevention > treatment
2. Malnutrition – lack of micronutrients, lacking iron zinc vitamin A, $12B
3. Free trade – cut subsidies in US and Europe, enliven global economy, $2.4T improvement in global GDP
4. Malaria – few billion cases each year, invest $13B over 4 years to cut incidence by half

We should do all of them – but we don’t – in fact aid to developing world has been decreasing not increasing

It’s not about making us feel good, about things with the most media attention

Copenhagen Consensus – mapping out right path for world, think about political triage
“Let’s do enormous amount of good at very low cost right now”

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: Chris Ryan on why humans are promiscuous but gorillas are not

Every week, I share my notes from great TED talks. Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s a long page).

Here are two talks from Chris Ryan about sex. I took notes on both, but the notes were smushed together like a chicken pot pie so it’s not clear what set of notes are from which talk.

Chris Ryan on sex

  • humans are more related to chimps and bonobos than one elephant species to another
  • the standard narrative: men trade resources for sex, a woman’s fidelity, and childcare
    • this has been the narrative since Darwin’s time
    • but it sets up male vs female as competing, oppositional genders
  • the standard narrative is wrong; instead, it’s about sperm competition INSIDE the woman’s reproductive tract, within an ovulatory cycle
  • this is fierce egalitarianism — everything is shared, which is the smartest way to survive in a foraging society
  • monogamous primates (gorillas, gibbons) have small testicles and penii
  • …while promiscuous primates (humans, chimps) have larger testicles and penii
    • the human female is rare in being available for sex through her ENTIRE menstrual cycle
    • humans have testicles in a sac outside of the body to keep them cool so they’re available for sex at any time
    • A chimp’s swollen ass signals she’s available for sex with different males; this confused Darwin because he expected a pair-bonding relationship
  • our sex act to birth ratio is 1000 to 1, whereas for gorillas (monogamous) is 10 to 1
    • most mammals don’t have sex unless there’s a good chance of fertilizing
    • why do we have so much sex? we use sex to develop complex social networks — common in intelligent social species like dolphins and chimps
    • sex is like vegetarianism — it’s healthy, it’s social
  • examples
    • in a SW China village, women and men are sexually autonomous, both have many sexual partners; when woman has a child, it’s cared for by her, her sisters and her brothers; the biological father is a non-issue
    • in a S American (?) village, children are viewed as product of many men’s sperm, so if you want a strong, smart, and funny child, you have sex with those types of partners; the partners all recognize the role they played in fathering the child

* * * * *

Here’s the full list of TED notes!

Alain de Botton on success

I always enjoy Alain de Botton’s work. He’s insightful, he’s prolific, and among the writers I follow, he cares the most about helping us become better people, to reach for our better angels.

Some people may call his work “pop philosophy”, but what’s wrong with that? Those very same people might benefit most from engaging with his questions and observations.

I recently watched his below TED talk on how to think about success, and wanted to share my notes with y’all. For more on Alain, here’s my initial post. In the timelines of our lives, mine would have an arrow pointing to early 2012 with the label “started reading Alain de Botton.”

Notes

  • snobbery is when you only know a little bit about someone but draw much larger conclusions about them
  • iconic question: “what do you do?”
  • if we could all be like our mothers, who don’t care if we’re successful and accept us unconditionally
  • we’re not by nature materialistic, we simply live in a society where emotional rewards are pegged to material goods; when you see a Ferrari driver, don’t criticize them for being greedy, because they’re actually communicating that they’re incredibly vulnerable and in need of love
  • we’ve done away with the caste system and we’re told that anyone can achieve anything, which generates envy
  • envy: when you can’t relate to them, you can’t envy them (which is why you don’t even the Queen of England, and why de Botton believes you should never go to a school reunion :)
  • any vision of success needs to admit what you’ll lose out on
  • why we love nature: in part, an escape from the human anthill
  • in the Middle Ages, the word for someone at the bottom of society was an “unfortunate”, which describes the lack of control in their life station
  • make sure your ideas of success are yours: “it’s bad enough to not get what you want…it’s even worse to get what you want, after all this hard work, only to realize it may not be what you wanted all along”
  • think of your ideal dad – someone who’s tough but gentle – tough line to straddle