Self-Motivation
David Goggins
Former Navy Seal
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Bryan Cranston
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Amaryllis Fox
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Chris Hadfield
Retired Canadian Astronaut & Author
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Midlife crisis? More like midlife calling. Here's how to find yours.
Did you know that shifting to a positive perspective on aging can add 7.5 years to your life? Or that there is a provable U-curve of happiness that shows people get happier after age 50?
15 June, 2020
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<p>
Aging is inevitable, but it doesn't have to be so taboo.<br>
<br>
After helping turn AirBnB into a multi-billion-dollar business, hospitality maverick Chip Conley founded the
<a href="https://www.modernelderacademy.com/" target="_blank">Modern Elder Academy</a>, the world's first midlife wisdom school. In this Big Think Live session, Conley will explain why the term 'elder' must be reclaimed, how to make the absolute best of your career at this stage, and how to conduct the 'Great Midlife Edit' to boost your happiness.</p><p>
<strong>Ask your questions during the live Q&A! Streaming via <a href="https://youtu.be/FfI7Qip-JZU" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/posts/10157423654948527" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, and via <a href="https://www.bigthinkedge.com/" target="_blank">Big Think Edge</a> (for subscribers only).</strong></p>
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- We typically think of events as happening in space and in time. "In reality, space and time are strongly intertwined things and the union of them is called spacetime," explains Konstantin Batygin.
- The force that we understand as gravity, according to Batygin, is the result of the spacetime continuum being curved by Earth's gravitational field. Depending on how close you are to the source of gravity, time will pass at different rates.
- Traveling backward in time is not possible. Traveling forward through time without aging, however, would require going to the center of the planet where the effects of that gravitational field can't be experienced.
For more from Batygin, visit konstantinbatygin.com.
Imagine learning empathy at school. Global Oneness Project does just that.
To create wiser adults, add empathy to the school curriculum.
28 May, 2020
- Stories are at the heart of learning, writes Cleary Vaughan-Lee, Executive Director for the Global Oneness Project. They have always challenged us to think beyond ourselves, expanding our experience and revealing deep truths.
- Vaughan-Lee explains 6 ways that storytelling can foster empathy and deliver powerful learning experiences.
- Global Oneness Project is a free library of stories—containing short documentaries, photo essays, and essays—that each contain a companion lesson plan and learning activities for students so they can expand their experience of the world.
<p><br></p>
<p>When it was decided that schools would transition to distance learning due to the global coronavirus pandemic, I immediately asked myself: What can we offer at the <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/" target="_blank">Global Oneness Project</a> that would be in service to educators and students? We quickly launched a virtual Community Storytelling Conversation series.</p>
<p>The series, also named <a href="https://hundred.org/en/innovations/stories-for-solidarity" target="_blank">Stories of Solidarity</a>, is selected as an education spotlight in HundrED's <a href="https://hundred.org/en/collections/quality-education-for-all-during-covid-19" target="_blank">Quality Education For All During COVID-19</a>. The goal of this spotlight "is not to provide one recommendation to solve all problems, but rather <a href="https://hundred.org/en/articles/spotlight-on-quality-education-for-all-during-coronavirus-highlights-thirty-education-solutions" target="_blank">solutions</a> for different types of challenges around education during this crisis." As a non-profit education organization, we asked ourselves: How can we create a culture of solidarity and contribute to the story of humanity with attention and integrity?</p>
<p>Fostering empathy through storytelling is one solution. We turn to stories in times of grief, uncertainty, and joy as we try to comprehend ourselves and our place in the world. We share stories in times of celebration and in times of loss. We read stories with our children at bedtime; a story can plant a seed into a child's imagination, becoming a foundation for dreams and creativity and a future lived with conviction. A good story provides essential tools to deepen our engagement with the world, with each other, and with ourselves. Stories can be used as tools to remember what is important and what connects us. </p>
<blockquote>"Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human."<br>— Elie Wiesel<br></blockquote>
<p>Stories have always been at the <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/blog/2017/12/getting-heart-global-education" target="_blank">heart of learning</a>. At the Global Oneness Project, we have always been committed to the exploration of global cultures and the theme of our common humanity. Our mission is to plant seeds of resilience, empathy, and a sacred relationship to our planet. Our rich <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library" target="_blank">library of stories</a>—containing short documentaries, photo essays, and essays—do just that. Each story contains a companion lesson plan—for middle school and high school students—and provides learning activities for students so they can hopefully walk away with an expanded experience of the world. Educators currently using the stories and curricula represent a wide range of subject areas from geography, history, earth and environmental sciences, as well as language and media arts. All of our content and resources are available for free with no ads or subscriptions.</p>
<p>With Stories of Solidarity, we host one of our storytellers each week. A filmmaker, photographer, or writer joins us for an in-depth virtual conversation with our network of educators and students. The storytellers share their perspectives and talk about the issues and themes they document. As they explore the inspiration and intentionality behind their work, they make connections to our current global crises as well as the changes they have witnessed in places over time. Their stories humanize climate change, migration, modernization, and language loss, among many other topics.</p><p>Why is this important today? Stories have always challenged us to think beyond ourselves, expanding our experience and revealing deep truths. How might stories foster empathy? The following are six ways in which stories can provide meaningful and powerful learning experiences.</p>
1. Shine a light on world issues
<p>One photo essay or short documentary film can deepen our understanding of the world's cultures and places. Photographer Bear Guerra <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/webinar/discussion-photographer-roberto-bear-guerra" target="_blank">describes</a> how he documents (in his photo essay "La Carretera: Life and Change Along Peru's Interoceanic Highway") underrepresented populations in society, including places that are remote, "giving voices to the voiceless." In <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/lost-world" target="_blank"><em>Lost World</em>,</a> filmmaker Kalyanee Mam documents one woman's relationship to her home in Cambodia, the impact of the sand dredging on the mangroves, the lives of the people who live in the forests, and surrounding ecosystem. Putting these places and people on the map through emotional storytelling is essential in developing understanding and care for our world.</p>2. Challenge core beliefs
<p>What might it be like to be forced to leave your home country and quickly adapt to learn a new language, a new culture, and a new place? This question is explored in the short film <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/welcome-canada" target="_blank"><em>Welcome to Canada</em></a><em>, </em>which documents the story of Mohammed Alsaleh, a young refugee who fled violence and imprisonment by the Assad regime during Syria's Civil War. An individual's story, told visually through a film, can help illuminate a larger issue, like war, by making it more accessible. Educators use this film with students to challenge the misconceptions and stereotypes about Syrian refugees. </p>3. Promote responsibility
<p>Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger, a former apprentice to Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/articles/learning-and-teaching-heart-troubled-times#" target="_blank">explains in his essay</a> that "The current moment calls for moral ferocity." How can we listen, be open, and teach and learn with an open heart? Wiesel wrote, "Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human." </p>4. Evoke memories
<p>Identity, family, and cultural heritage can encourage us to reflect on powerful memories. The short film <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/maries-dictionary" target="_blank"><em>Marie's Dictionary</em></a> tells the story of a Native American woman who is the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni and her work to document the language through creating a dictionary. How does the language(s) you speak reveal characteristics of your culture? </p>5. Provoke action
<p><a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/earthrise" target="_blank"><em>Earthrise</em></a> tells the story of the Earthrise photograph and how it provides a <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/en/e/11856/get/earthrise-discussion-guide.pdf" target="_blank">context</a> for what it means to be a global citizen. The Earthrise photograph led to the creation of the environmental movement and the first Earth Day fifty years ago. Inspired by the story's message, students are challenged to enter a photography contest <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/student-projects/student-photo-contest" target="_blank">Document Your Place on the Planet</a> and document their relationship to the living world at this critical moment in history.</p>6. Provide new perspectives
<p>When our perspectives shift or change, we recognize the power it had all along—to shape, define, and even to limit our experience. Native American photographer Camille Seaman challenges us with her photo essay <a href="https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/photo-essays/melting-away" target="_blank">"We Are Still Here"</a> to see Native Americans differently. She writes, "I was troubled when the textbooks we read spoke about Natives in the past tense—always implying that we no longer existed. We are still here."</p><p>As we learn through stories we become more compassionate, better listeners and collaborators, and more capable of understanding, addressing, and adapting to our changing world. It is imperative that we teach and learn these skills with students, which is the first step towards fostering empathy, or compassionate action, at a time in history when we need it most.</p>
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‘Freakonomics’ study offers simple strategy for making tough decisions
When facing a hard decision, consider choosing change over inaction.
26 May, 2020
frankieleon via Flickr
- A recently published study asked people to make tough life choices by flipping a coin.
- The participants were making these decisions on the margin, meaning they couldn't determine which choice would be better.
- The results show that people who chose change over inaction self-reported being better off and happier after six months.
<p>What strategy do you use to make tough life decisions like whether to end a relationship, quit your job, or go back to school?</p><p>Maybe you weigh the pros and cons. Maybe you go with your gut. Or maybe, if you're like most people, you simply do nothing. After all, we have a cognitive bias that tends to make us prefer <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/status-quo-bias-psychological-definition-4065385" target="_blank">the status quo</a>, and focus more on the potential losses involved with change rather than the potential benefits.</p><p>But here's a simpler strategy: When you're indecisive about a big life decision, choose the path of change. That's the takeaway of research recently published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/restud/advance-article/doi/10.1093/restud/rdaa016/5834495#203358898" target="_blank">Review of Economics Studies</a> by Steven Levitt, an economist at the University of Chicago and host of the "Freakonomics" podcast. </p><p>For the study, Levitt asked people who were facing tough decisions to flip a digital coin on the website FreakonomicsExperiments.com, created in 2013. The coin tosses were randomized, with one side representing change, the other status quo.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxNzI4Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDY2MTExNn0.OzKUXpi11fo8pphdI3_xZz94a0SPY6uYybUo9Hh6mrI/img.png?width=980" id="e9d1e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2db7f4361b4fb074b362052448d8c845" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Notes: This figure presents the percent of participants who make a change by the two-month survey mark according to their stated probability of changing and the result of the coin flip. The vertical axis reflects the percent of respondents who reported making a change. The horizontal axis groups respondents according to to their stated ex ante likelihoods of making a change. Responses are categorized according to whether the coin came up heads (make a change) or tails (no change).
Levitt
<p>Some decisions people were stuck on: Should I quit smoking? Should I adopt? End my relationship? Get a tattoo? Rent or buy?</p><p>The study asked more than 20,000 participants to make whichever decision the coin toss directed, and then report back on how things played out after two and six months.</p><p>Of course, not everyone followed through. The two-month survey found that participants chose change less frequently than they had initially predicted they would. After six months, however, this bias toward inaction disappeared.</p><p>But most surprising were the results on well-being. At both the two and six-month marks, most people who chose change reported feeling happier, better off, and that they had made the correct decision and would make it again.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The data from my experiment suggests we would all be better off if we did more quitting," Levitt <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/oupu-sfp051520.php" target="_blank">said in a press release</a>. "A good rule of thumb in decision making is, whenever you cannot decide what you should do, choose the action that represents a change, rather than continuing the status quo."</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxNzY4NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMzI5MjY5NX0.Xwixb18d_X4X7pj2hW-ieTlycNpdrnRaHmmAZ-Y9gCE/img.png?width=980" id="2b785" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c9dd05c8250ceda3549556e71c6776f9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Levitt
<p>The study had some limitations. One is that its participants weren't selected randomly. Rather, they opted in to the study after visiting FreakonomicsExperiments.com, which they likely heard about from the podcast or various social media channels associated with it.</p><p>Another limitation is that participants whose decision didn't play out well might have been less likely to report back on their status after two and six months. So, the study might be over-representing positive outcomes.</p><p>Still, the study does suggest that people who are on the margin of a tough decision — that is, people who really can't decide which option is best — are probably better off going with change.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"If the results are correct, then admonitions such as 'winners never quit and quitters never win,' while well-meaning, may actually be extremely poor advice," Levitt writes.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxNzI5Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzY1NDI4OH0.P6vYBT_VC67htRW0HdsV1aGk3ZNElasoX9t9rDMClKQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="d31e8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7bbce6e839e8d5d9550b14d2ca6457b2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Disney / Carl Barks
<p>Levitt isn't suggesting you flip a coin to make all decisions. (After all, Donald Duck already experimented with this irrational decision-making strategy in the <a href="https://about-faces.livejournal.com/72971.html" target="_blank">1952 Disney comic "Flip Decision"</a>, where he practices a pseudophilosophy called "flipism." Spoiler: It didn't go well.) But coin-flipping does seem to have some benefits. In the study, Levin notes that some people might prefer surrendering their fate to randomness in order to avoid regret.<br></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"If regret is a product of decisions that one has control over," Levin writes, "giving up control to a randomizing device may, lessen possible regret, thus enhancing expected utility."</p><p>But you can also use randomness a bit more rationally. When facing a tough decision, you could flip a coin and, upon seeing the outcome, notice whether you feel relief or dread. If you feel relieved, that's probably the path you should choose.</p>
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- Elon Musk famously believes we're living in a simulation, that constant technological improvement means we could be trapped inside a video game console created by a more advanced civilization.
- In this video, Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, Joscha Bach and Donald Hoffman, both cognitive psychologists, all weigh in on whether this is base reality or a realistic fiction.
- What insight from these three thinkers gets your mind ticking? Let us know in the comments! We're stunned at the thought that, if this is a simulation, humans might not be the central purpose of it; we may be an accident of a larger experiment.
<p><br></p>
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