7/7/2019

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Book I just re-read: Stealing Fire

If someone asked which three books I think everyone should read, Stealing Fire would make the list. In a nut shell, Stealing Fire is all about altered states of consciousness, and how individuals and organizations, (Such as Google, the Navy SEALs, and Red Bull) are using these states to their advantage in order to drive growth and provide insights into the nature of reality. It also describes many of the techniques and technologies anyone can use to achieve these states and reap the benefits for themselves. If you want a copy of this book, I’ll buy one and ship it to you. Seriously.

Excerpts:

“In a recent University of Sydney study, 42 researchers relied on transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce flow—using a weak magnetic pulse to knock out the prefrontal cortex and create a twenty-to-forty-minute flow state. Subjects were then given a classic test of creative problem solving: the nine-dot problem. Connect nine dots with four lines without lifting pencil from paper in ten minutes. Under normal circumstances, fewer than 5 percent of the population pulls it off. In the control group, no one did. In the flow-induced group, 40 percent connected the dots in record time, or eight times better than the norm.”

“By using the tanks (sensory deprivation tanks) to eliminate all distraction, entrain specific brainwaves, and regulate heart rate frequency, the SEALs are able to cut the time it takes to learn a foreign language from six months to six weeks.”

“In a recent study, Apple and the speaker manufacturer Sonos16 took a deeper look at music’s power to connect. To track how much music people listened to at home (on average, four and a half hours a day) and what happened while they listened, they rigged thirty homes with Sonos speakers, Apple watches, Nest cams and iBeacons. When tunes were playing, the distance between housemates decreased by 12 percent, while chances of cooking together increased by 33 percent, laughing together by 15 percent, inviting other people over by 85 percent, saying “I love you” by 18 percent, and, most tellingly, having sex by 37 percent.”

Kotler, Steven. Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work (pp. 141-142). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

One of the many reasons why I support gun licensing laws – Gun violence lower in states that require licensing laws

I’m consistently annoyed at how infrequently statistics are used to back up political arguments, particularly those pertaining to firearm laws. This article bucks said trend.

One of its most important points (In my opinion) is that requiring a more in depth/lengthy registration prior to the purchasing of firearms greatly reduces the likelihood of spur-of-the-moment suicides. I’d like to think this is something pretty much everyone can get behind.

Excerpt: “The researchers cited Connecticut as an example of a state with long-held licensing laws. In 1995, the state passed a law requiring prospective gun buyers to “submit an application to local law enforcement, including fingerprints, and complete at least 8 hours of approved handgun safety training,” and also increased accountability for gun sellers. Since then, gun homicides have dropped by 40 percent and gun suicides fell by 15 percent, the researchers wrote.”

I’m all for hearing both sides of the argument. If you are in favor of gun laws that are more lax and have some good data to back up your position, please send it to me. I’d be interested to read it.

One of my favorite YouTube channels: minutephysics

If you are ever waiting in line and are craving a few bite sized pieces of knowledge about the universe, I’d highly recommend checking out this channel. Its videos are concise, easy to understand, and very interesting. A few examples are attached below.