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TED Talk by Scott Galloway: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google manipulate our emotions
- I just watched this for what I believe was the fourth time. It is direct, powerful, and very important.
Excerpts:
“At the end of the Great Recession, the market capitalization of these companies was equivalent to the GDP of Niger. Now it is equivalent to the GDP of India, having blown past Russia and Canada in ’13 and ’14. There are only five nations that have a GDP greater than the combined market capitalization of these four firms.”
“Walmart, since the Great Recession, has paid 64 billion dollars in corporate income tax; Amazon has paid 1.4…
…This is despite the fact that Amazon has added the entire market capitalization of Walmart to its market cap in the last 19 months.”
“We no longer worship at the altar of character, of kindness, but of innovation and people who create shareholder value.”
“Children with poor nutrition but a lot of affection have better outcomes than children with good nutrition and poor affection.”
Recommended Reading
America’s Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies
In historic deal, Gabon to get $150 million to protect its rainforests
- Excerpt: “The deal is part of the United Nations’ Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), which helps six African nations to develop conservation plans.”
Why extreme rituals might benefit your health
This one is a bit rough, but also pretty cool. It further reinforced my belief that one should occasionally push their mind/body to its limits.
Excerpts:
- “The results showed that people who underwent the painful ritual reported a greater quality of life and subjective health improvements.”
- “…we were able to predict people’s social distance simply by looking at the similarities between their heart-rate patterns.”
The Two Most Fascinating Experiments
No experiments have shaken my view of reality like these two.
1. The Double Slit Experiment
- Note: The experiment described above was just repeated with molecules containing over 2,000 atoms. The results still hold. Here’s an article describing this recent advancement: Mind-Bending Quantum Experiment Puts 2,000 Atoms in Two Places at the Same Time.
2. The Superposition Experiment
Notes
- This video is an explanation of the often-misunderstood Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
- It takes a while for this one to warm up, but once it does, it’s mind-blowing.
Great Website: Meetup
Meetup is a fantastic website for meeting new people. It displays information on groups in which people meet and do something together. Activities range from discussing philosophy to going on runs. I’m a member of over a dozen of these groups and attend meetups regularly. I also made my own meetup group, who’s objective is to discuss advances in science, technology, and medicine. It’s official title is “Discussions of Advances in Science, Technology, and Medicine.” If you live in Seattle, use meetup, and feel so inclined, you should join it!
If you’d like to learn more about Meetup, and how to use it, check out the video below.
Question I’ve Been Asking Myself: Which aspect of the supply line needs attention?
I’ve recently been thinking about the ways in which people are analogous to mining companies… Bear with me. There are many aspects to a successful mining operation. The ore must be extracted from the ground, hauled to a factory, processed, advertised, and shipped to buyers. In other words, there are many steps involved in converting buried ore into a product / profit. If any aspect of the supply line in this operation becomes compromised, there will be problems. Specifically, there will be a deficit of ore downstream of the issue, and an excess of ore upstream of the issue.
Humans also extract and produce, figuratively and literally. A writer’s product is their book, a musician’s product is their song, an artist’s product is their painting, etc. In order to create these products, “ore” must first be extracted. For the writer, this initial step in the supply line (The extraction) might be reading books generated by others. Then comes the processing in the factory; The writer will work with these ideas in their mind and on paper, and attempt to connect and shape them into something new. Then comes the literal writing. After this, there is the process of publishing and advertising.
Again, in any creative process, there are several steps along the supply line. And if one of these steps is compromised, issues begin to arise. The writer might not have done enough research for their book; Not mined enough informational ore. Alternatively, they might have read many books, but not actually practiced writing to the point that they can clearly convert their thoughts into flowing sentences. Or, they might have written a beautiful piece, but are too fearful to put out into the world so that others may read it. Any of these issues lead to a downstream dearth and an upstream excess. For example, I well remember the time before I put in the effort necessary to type properly. Though my head was overflowing with ideas, the literal act of getting them down was a struggle. They piled up and ended up causing a lot of mental chaos. Things got better once I learned how to type, as doing so let ideas flow one step further down the supply line, and stop overcrowding my mind.
I also well remember the time before that, when I had simply not read enough to develop a well formed concept of how reality worked. I hadn’t mined enough raw ore, so to speak, and felt pretty empty. It seems that most people have similar blockages and deficits within their lives. I certainly do, despite my efforts to remedy them. But things got a whole lot better for me once I started asking myself the question, “Which aspect of the supply line needs attention?,” and immediately taking action to address it.
Quotes
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
“In string theory, all particles are vibrations on a tiny rubber band; physics is the harmonies on the string; chemistry is the melodies we play on vibrating strings; the universe is a symphony of strings, and the ‘Mind of God’ is cosmic music resonating in 11-dimensional hyperspace.”
Drone Photos
