Recollections, reviews, discoveries, and future plans.
As a kid you run around so fast, the world around you seems to stand still. A summer vacation can stretch on for an eternity. With each birthday we circle back and cross the same point around the sun. We wish each other 'many happy returns.'
"Just as the biosphere stands above the world of nonliving matter, so an 'abstract kingdom' rises above the biosphere. The denizens of this kingdom? Ideas"
Tom Tobbins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins A cyclone of unorthodox ideas capable of lifting almost any brain out of its cognitive Kansas.
Jason Silva and the Executive Director of Flow Genome Project, Jamie Wheal, team up to chat 'flow states' and what it takes to trigger peak performance in the human brain.
It's hard not to look at the ground as you walk. To set your sights low, and keep the world spinning, and try to stay grounded wherever you are. But every so often you remember to look up, and imagine the possibilities. Dreaming of what's out there.
The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things
Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn't make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource.
There's a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.
"One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation," says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. "We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them."
photo by Steven Williams
So rather than buying the latest iPhone or a new BMW, Gilovich suggests you'll get more happiness spending money on experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoor activities, learning a new skill, or traveling.
Gilovich's findings are the synthesis of psychological studies conducted by him and others into the Easterlin paradox, which found that money buys happiness, but only up to a point. How adaptation affects happiness, for instance, was measured in a study that asked people to self-report their happiness with major material and experiential purchases. Initially, their happiness with those purchases was ranked about the same. But over time, people's satisfaction with the things they bought went down, whereas their satisfaction with experiences they spent money on went up.
It's counterintuitive that something like a physical object that you can keep for a long time doesn't keep you as happy as long as a once-and-done experience does. Ironically, the fact that a material thing is ever present works against it, making it easier to adapt to. It fades into the background and becomes part of the new normal. But while the happiness from material purchases diminishes over time, experiences become an ingrained part of our identity.
"Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods," says Gilovich. "You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences."
One study conducted by Gilovich even showed that if people have an experience they say negatively impacted their happiness, once they have the chance to talk about it, their assessment of that experience goes up. Gilovich attributes this to the fact that something that might have been stressful or scary in the past can become a funny story to tell at a party or be looked back on as an invaluable character-building experience.
Another reason is that shared experiences connect us more to other people than shared consumption. You're much more likely to feel connected to someone you took a vacation with in Bogotá than someone who also happens to have bought a 4K TV.
photo by Steven Williams
"We consume experiences directly with other people," says Gilovich. "And after they're gone, they're part of the stories that we tell to one another."
And even if someone wasn't with you when you had a particular experience, you're much more likely to bond over both having hiked the Appalachian Trail or seeing the same show than you are over both owning Fitbits.
You're also much less prone to negatively compare your own experiences to someone else's than you would with material purchases. One study conducted by researchers Ryan Howell and Graham Hill found that it's easier to feature-compare material goods (how many carats is your ring? how fast is your laptop's CPU?) than experiences. And since it's easier to compare, people do so.
"The tendency of keeping up with the Joneses tends to be more pronounced for material goods than for experiential purchases," says Gilovich. "It certainly bothers us if we're on a vacation and see people staying in a better hotel or flying first class. But it doesn't produce as much envy as when we're outgunned on material goods."
Gilovich's research has implications for individuals who want to maximize their happiness return on their financial investments, for employers who want to have a happier workforce, and policy-makers who want to have a happy citizenry.
"By shifting the investments that societies make and the policies they pursue, they can steer large populations to the kinds of experiential pursuits that promote greater happiness," write Gilovich and his coauthor, Amit Kumar, in their recent article in the academic journal Experimental Social Psychology.
If society takes their research to heart, it should mean not only a shift in how individuals spend their discretionary income, but also place an emphasis on employers giving paid vacation and governments taking care of recreational spaces.
"As a society, shouldn't we be making experiences easier for people to have?" asks Gilovich.
It's the kind of basic human vulnerability that we'd all find familiar, but is still somehow surprising when we notice it in others. It's an open question why we have such public confidence, and such private doubts. From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com
From Jason Silva's "Shots of Awe" series on Discovery's new Test Tube Network.
"Artists are uniquely placed to ... creatively participate in the larger cultural process of re-engineering subjectivity, of pushing the envelope of experience." - Erik Davis Also, tell us what you think! Take our survey: http://testtube.com/testtubedailyshow/survey Explore the Seeker Network!
yù yī - 玉衣 n. the desire to see with fresh eyes, and feel things just as intensely as you did when you were younger-before expectations, before memory, before words.
The Heroes Project Feature Documentary, directed by Academy Award winner Freida Mock, is an inspiring story about strength, resilience, the human spirit and the ability to triumph over the impossible. It weaves together the story of seven men, all single or double amputees, who served their country with honor. Faced with catastrophic injuries these ordinary young men attempt the extraordinary – to climb the highest mountains of every continent in the world.
The Heroes:
Isaac, a double amputee from Michigan, who goes down under to Australia to tackle Mt. Kosciuszco in the middle of a severe winter storm.
Brad, a double amputee from Phoenix, who just 8 months after his injuries climbs Mt. Aconcagua in South America, the 6th tallest of the 7 Summits.
Kionte, a single amputee from Stockton, CA who climbs the highest peak in frigid Antarctica.
Mark, a double amputee from Michigan, climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Matt, a single amputee from the flats of N. Carolina, climbs the highest mountain in North America, Mt. Denali.
Keith, an above the knee amputee from Colorado who climbs Mt. Elbrus in Russia, the highest mountain in all of Europe.
And Charlie, a single amputee from Boise, ID who sets his sights on the top of the world, Mt. Everest.
For these seven, facing a challenge that demands something deeply human in themselves, what motivates and inspires them on this heroic journey of recovery?
I think this project is worth getting behind and I'm pretty shocked and disappointed that it hasn't reached or surpassed its fundraising goal yet. The guys involved with this project are all real American Heroes that made huge sacrifices beyond what most of us can comprehend. They fought the good fight during the war and are bringing that fight home to take on each of their individual challenges head on. Tim Medvetz is a former Hell's Angel and founder of the Heroes Project, he seems like a pretty solid guy and he's really doing a great thing by honoring and helping all the troops that were wounded during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately our nation has a short attention span and we tend to quickly forget all of those that put their lives on the line for our country, which is why I respect guys like Tim that make sure we don't forget. Regardless of your political beliefs or your opinion of the wars, you can't deny that this is a worthy cause. It should be viewed as something inspiring, because that's exactly what it is. Each of these guys has overcome serious injuries and gone way beyond the typical recovery, they've conquered their challenges by climbing the highest peaks on each of the 7 continents. Most healthy individuals with all 4 functioning limbs can't even do that.
We all go through struggles in life, most of them petty and occasionally some that are serious, but we should look at guys like my friend Mark Zambon and realize that those problems shouldn't stop us from living our lives and challenging ourselves everyday. Mark is the retired Marine that climbed Kilimanjaro after losing both of his legs in Afghanistan AND he's now training for the 2016 Paralympics! He's a truly inspirational individual and one of the most upbeat people I know. I did an ocean swim with him one night awhile back and it was a challenge for me to keep up with him. It's hearing stories like his and those of the other guys featured in the documentary that helped me get through my injuries and recovery process after a terrible car accident a few years ago. I broke a bunch of bones and partially tore both of my carotid arteries. The bones have since healed, but after 4 and half years the arteries still haven't. The injuries were pretty serious, but there wasn't a single moment when I felt down about my situation because I knew it wasn't anything compared to what others have been through. I realized if guys like the ones involved with this project can climb that tallest peaks in the world, I should have no right to complain or even take a moment to dwell.
If you have a moment, I'd really appreciate it if you would take the time to watch their Kickstarter video, donate something if you can, and please help spread the word because there are only a few days left of the campaign and if they don't reach their funding goal they won't get any of the money.
Trailer for Heroes Project / Seven Summits
Additional Press:
CBS with Lara Logan
Bloomberg
CBS in the Morning
Wall Street Journal
