Category: video

For the love of science

Eric Johnson

We had a conversation with our campus tour leaders this week about science. Most tour leaders are not science majors. For whatever reason, few science students are drawn to our work. We get plenty of business and journalism majors, and there’s no shortage of English and political science students either.

But as campus tours unfold and they pass by science buildings, it’s easy for the non-science students on our team to dismiss science or apologize that we require at least a couple of science classes for all of our students.

I felt that way when I was an undergraduate. I just wanted to get past my science requirements with as little stress as possible. Now, I regret how little attention I paid to those subjects. Science has become significantly more fascinating to me in recent years.

In the history of humanity, it is the development of and amazing advances in science that stand out as our greatest achievements. Art and statecraft have their place, but science, even though it’s a relatively recent endeavor, has changed our lives exponentially for the better and sparked our inclination to explore and discover as never before. More people should honor and understand science. If we don’t do that in higher education, where will we?

I have begun trying to absorb more now about science and adding books to my reading list by or about Feynman, Darwin, Sagan, and Einstein. I don’t always understand. It’s like reading something written in a foreign language at times. But I can’t help but get excited about approaching the frontier of mysteries our ancestors could not even imagine.

This is the first video in the delightful Feynman Series. Check out the Sagan Series as well.

“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live with not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.” -Richard Feynman

Peter Attia: Rethinking healthy eating

Eric Johnson

Peter Attia is a surgeon who struggled with being overweight even though he was active and fit. But he was eating a conventionally approved low-fat diet which was high in refined grains and carbohydrates. Once he flipped his diet to high-fat/low-carb, he dropped forty pounds. Now he has devoted his career to discovering answers to the most challenging questions about how to live a healthy life and spreading that knowledge to give others better lives.

This moving TED Talk tells a bit about his journey, but it focuses primarily on the probability that our assumed understanding of the roots of the obesity epidemic are completely wrong.

Astonishing facts from Dr. Attia’s web site:

  • 34% of Americans are obese and two thirds are overweight.  This represents more than a 200% increase from 1970.

  • Over 8% of Americans are diabetic, and if you include those undiagnosed, an additional 26% of Americans are pre-diabetic.  This represents more than a 400% increase from 1970.

  • Every 7 seconds someone in the world dies from a diabetic complication (this is not a typo).

  • Diabetes is also the leading cause of stroke, blindness, kidney failure requiring transplantation, all amputations combined, and many other medical problems.

  • According to McKinsey & Company, reducing the U.S. obesity rate to 15% (that of 1970) would save approximately $150 billion per year in Medicare spending alone, and close to $500 billion per year in overall U.S. healthcare spending.

  • A recent study in Obesity estimates that by 2030, 50% of Americans will be obese and 79% will be overweight.

  • The U.S. spends over $2.7 trillion per year on healthcare – nearly 19% of our GDP, and more than any other country.  Even if no other aspect of our spending increases in the next 20 years, the cost of healthcare alone will bankrupt us as a country.

As I’m being more mindful of what I eat this summer, Dr. Attia’s perspective just strengthens my resolve.

Girl power, word power, and charisma

Eric Johnson3 Comments

This is a great presentation at TED by young Sarah Kay. She discovered spoken word poetry as a high school student and wow, did it make her come alive.

She delivers this on one of the most imposing stages imaginable with quite the intimidatingly impressive audience, and she flat out shines:

As the father of two young daughters, I especially admire what a powerful presence she has as a young woman. She is confident and charismatic and gets a standing ovation deservedly. Go girl, indeed. I want my girls to be able to plant their feet as firmly and connect with others as strongly as this young woman does.

She’s also spreading the good news of the power of expression, the magic of words.

“I write poems to figure things out.” -Sarah Kay

We all are artists with points of view and experiences that are unique in the universe. It’s a pity how many go to their graves having never truly expressed themselves or pursued a better understanding of their place in this universe by examining their life through art and self-expression.

Sarah Kay certainly does shine and commands the room like someone who’s been on stage for years. It’s easy to say she is just naturally charismatic, but I believe anyone can develop charisma. Charisma simply is caring deeply about something and having the courage to uncork some passion and share it with others. I love this thought from the speech coach Nick Morgan:

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I regularly assign Sarah Kay’s TED Talk to my student staff during training. She is (or was at the time) their age. I want them to see that they don’t need permission or seniority or a degree or years of paying their dues to be awesome. You don’t need permission, either. Express yourself. Be charismatic. Be awesome.

Think different

Eric Johnson3 Comments

This classic, much heralded ad campaign helped redefine Apple when the company was on the ropes in the 90s, fighting to be relevant again with Steve Jobs back in charge after his long exile. The version of this commercial that aired was narrated by the actor Richard Dreyfus. After Jobs died, this version, with Jobs narrating was released. It’s nice to hear this – his mantra, his vision – in his voice.

Here’s to the crazy ones.

http://vimeo.com/30169342

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
–Apple’s “Think Different” ad

Smile

Eric Johnson

Three times each weekday I greet groups of campus visitors as they’re about to embark on our campus tour. I offer a brief overview and introduce the tour leaders.

Far too often, as I try to warm up the crowd, I’m greeted by a smattering of stone-faced expressions. These people are not waiting for a root canal or an IRS audit, where there may be less obvious reason to smile. They’re about to stroll through a lovely college campus with a couple of charming college students. Why the long faces, people? It’s my team’s aim, of course, to have them smiling by the time they leave.

But in pretty much every crowd there are smilers. Some are subtle with only a happy glint in their eyes. Others are nodding and grinning and practically glowing with positive energy. I love these people, those whose default expression is a smile. Just standing in the presence of smiling faces makes me happier and encourages me to be even a little more awesome myself.

Some children smile as many as 400 times a day. Many adults smile fewer than 10 times each day.
Some children smile as many as 400 times a day. Many adults smile fewer than 10 times each day.

You want to be happy, right? No need to wait until you’ve reached some longed for accomplishment to be happy. Just act like you’re happy, and you likely will be. When you wake up, put a smile on your face. Make it a habit or ritual like brushing your teeth. When you greet people throughout your day, be intentional about smiling at them. Act like you’re happy to see them. Even if it’s just a nod and a quick smile. Fake it if you have to. Act like you are who you want to be. Use your body to inform your mind and your emotions.

There’s an old Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown is telling a friend that the worst thing you can do if you’re feeling depressed is hold your shoulders back and your head up and smile. Then you’ll start feeling better, and “that’s no good at all.”

Sages know this is true:

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Science backs this up:

“Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds.” Charles Darwin

And smiling is contagious thanks to evolutionary wiring. Your smile can cause others to smile. What if one of your missions each day was to elicit as many smiles from others as possible? Make some mischief with your smile to subvert and co-opt the Charlie Browns of the world.

This is a delightful, short TED Talk from Ron Gutman about the power and surprising benefits of smiling:

There’s also this $2 e-book by Gutman that expands on his talk with plenty of support from researchers on how and why smiling is so powerful.

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Just smile.

Seth Godin: What is school for?

Eric Johnson

This is Seth Godin’s take on what’s wrong with our education system:

Our 20th century model for how to educate kids needs a 21st century update. Godin offers some excellent suggestions for what to do next, like inverting the lecture and homework. Students can watch a world-class lecture online on their own at home and then do the work while they’re together at school and can discuss and ask questions. And no more memorizing when the world’s information is in everyone’s pocket. Open book all the time. Teachers become “coaches” who can help bring out the best in each student rather than spend too much time serving as compliance officers.

Godin has written at length about this in his manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams, which is free online and is well worth the time to read, especially if you’re an educator, a student, a parent, or a human who has ever been to school.