Feb 6 2013: One way to change the American congres is to mix the seeting.Next to every liberal you sit a concervative person, followed by yet another liberal, and so on. That would change the atmosphere of the discussion within the congres. Pity you can't swap the states around the same way.
Nov 26 2012: Dear Jessica, I believe the idea of beauty or ugly changes still, even with an evolutionary background. Fat people are pretty in some cultures, as being fat can give you a bigger chance on survival and therefore it is an evolutionary pluspoint. In other cultures fatness is associated with the bigger chance on heart disease and is therefore considered ugly. Meaning: it is a bit of both, evolution and culture. Culture in the sense of bigger chance of survival given the local circumstances. Therefore, the ugly people that you are referring to stand a good chance on becoming less ugly through the ages to come. You can follow this development by checking how many ugly people get married and have children, when often the children inherit a bit of their parents uglyness.
My own comment to make was: if so many handaxes were made by our ancestors, why does mr Dutton automatically assume they were made by men and not by women? Women in our age also love to make their own jewelry, why would the prehistory be any different?
May 23 2012: Very good point. However the speaker mentioned the gap between disaster and a fully built new house to be 18 months. In those 18 months a container could be used until the houses are finished. As the containers are mobile, they might be reusable, so maybe they can be rented for the time being. That would make them a lot cheaper.
May 20 2012: Assumptions are made that I don't agree with.
You don't need to have an excuse not to go look for your passion. You have a choice. Some people don't have a serious passion, and you can't expect them to sit still until they do. I agree with the idea that if your primary focus is on surviving you might choose against your passion, but that is not necessarily bad. It is too bad if you choose for surviving and you have the luxury that you don't have to. In that case you are selling yourself short. But that is not always the case.
Following your passion is not automatically the same as doing what you really need to do if you want to have a great career. If you passion is to be a bus driver and your idea of a great career is to be a teacher, you have a conflict with yourself. Secondly your passion and your skills do not automatically collide. It could well be that your best skill is singing, but you never tried, so you never found out. Instead you managed to get your drivers license through passion and a bumpy ride, so you pursued your bus driver passion. And than created a very serious driving accident because you still are a bad driver.
Luck is important, cause you don't rule the whole world all by yourself, there are other people and processes that matter. Live in a war zone and your chances on a career at all diminish rapidly.
Genius is required for winning a Nobel prize, so if you don't have it you better find another passion, that is achievable. You will be a lot happier. If inventing Velcro is your passion (and why not?) then getting a Nobel prize is what can happen if you don't follow your passion. Besides that, they won't hand out more Nobel prizes just because more people find their passion in theoretical physics. For anyone that makes that passion come true somebody else doesn't. They may still have a great career though.
There are manycultures in which interest is enough to get married. This can lead to very happy and/or long marriages. Passion can grow.
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A comment on Talk: Jonathan Haidt: How common threats can make common (political) ground
A comment on Talk: Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty
My own comment to make was: if so many handaxes were made by our ancestors, why does mr Dutton automatically assume they were made by men and not by women? Women in our age also love to make their own jewelry, why would the prehistory be any different?
A reply on Talk: Michael McDaniel: Cheap, effective shelter for disaster relief
A comment on Talk: Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career
You don't need to have an excuse not to go look for your passion. You have a choice. Some people don't have a serious passion, and you can't expect them to sit still until they do. I agree with the idea that if your primary focus is on surviving you might choose against your passion, but that is not necessarily bad. It is too bad if you choose for surviving and you have the luxury that you don't have to. In that case you are selling yourself short. But that is not always the case.
Following your passion is not automatically the same as doing what you really need to do if you want to have a great career. If you passion is to be a bus driver and your idea of a great career is to be a teacher, you have a conflict with yourself. Secondly your passion and your skills do not automatically collide. It could well be that your best skill is singing, but you never tried, so you never found out. Instead you managed to get your drivers license through passion and a bumpy ride, so you pursued your bus driver passion. And than created a very serious driving accident because you still are a bad driver.
Luck is important, cause you don't rule the whole world all by yourself, there are other people and processes that matter. Live in a war zone and your chances on a career at all diminish rapidly.
Genius is required for winning a Nobel prize, so if you don't have it you better find another passion, that is achievable. You will be a lot happier. If inventing Velcro is your passion (and why not?) then getting a Nobel prize is what can happen if you don't follow your passion. Besides that, they won't hand out more Nobel prizes just because more people find their passion in theoretical physics. For anyone that makes that passion come true somebody else doesn't. They may still have a great career though.
There are manycultures in which interest is enough to get married. This can lead to very happy and/or long marriages. Passion can grow.
A comment on Talk: Erin McKean: The joy of lexicography