Sunday, May 22, 2011

Jonathan Zittrain on Trust & Kindness

Call to Action: Engage in Online Communities.

Zittrain frames the existence of the Internet and the success of open communities as a collective movement in trust and kindness. His wit and eloquence is matched by his incisive commentary on human behavior. One of the most worthwhile talks to watch.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

William Li: Preventing Cancer with Food

Call to Action: Eat more soy products, parsley, red grapes, cooked tomatoes and berries.

Dr. Li presents the case of anti-angiogenesis therapy. By cutting off the blood supply to cancer cells, the body prevents cancer growth. He also asserts that eating anti-angiogenic food can help with obesity.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Nina Jablonski on the Sun & your Skin

Call to Action: Get some UV B on your skin.

Jablonski explains that UV exposure differentiated our skin color or pigmentation. People with dark skin require a lot of sun exposure (UV-B) to keep our bones strong and maintain our regenerative capacity. People with light skin require a lot of sun protection from UV-A to prevent skin cancer, but they still need UV-B as well.

She enjoins everyone to celebrate our evolutionary history told by our skin.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Differentiates Pleasure from Wellbeing

Call to action: Exercise your mind.

He likens pleasure to the surface of the ocean, erratic and fleeting. Wellbeing as the depths of the ocean, which is unchanging. Pleasure has a lot of external conditions and requires control. People who are happy have strong inner conditions that external conditions have only minimal effect on their wellbeing.

The primary quality is consciousness, to be cognizant and aware. Another perspective is to find specific antidotes or a general antidote to all negative emotions.

He then presents data on the state of the mind related to emotion. The research shows that meditation works on the left prefrontal cortex of the brain that deals with with loving kindness, patience, openness, and pretty much HAPPINESS. Convincing.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Sheena Iyengar on Choice

Call to action: Check your assumptions.

Choice does not necessarily mean a good thing.

Assumptions of choice
1. Choice is personal.
2. More options result in better choices.
* Some choices are artificial
3. Never say no to choice.

We can benefit from incorporating new perspectives in our narratives.

Bonus Q&A: A rose by any other name looks different and would probably smell different.

Barry Schwartz on Choice & Misery

Call to action: Define your own fish bowl.


Choice is good but more choices is not better. The secret to happiness is low expectation.

Why Choice Makes People Miserable
1. Regret & anticipated regret
2. Opportunity costs
3. Escalation of expectations
4. Self-blame

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Rachel Botsman on the Shared Economy

Call to action: Share.

Botsman presents a very good case for Collaborative Consumption.

Emergent Collaborative Systems
Redistribution: SwapTree
Collaborative lifestyles: couchsurfing
Product service systems: zipcar

"Access is better than ownership." -Kevin Kelly

Some equations from the talk:

trust = reputation = social currency
sharing = sustainability