VANCOUVER, B.C.–Didn’t have time to watch the more than 100 TED Talks that were given recently during a TED Conference here, where attendees paid $10,000 to hear the next big ideas? Don’t worry, because one person did so and then summed up many of the presentations judged as best worth watching.
Aria Bendix, a writer for Business Insider, suggested the following TED presentations that would be of greatest interest to people inside organizations such as credit unions.
Among Bendix’s recommendations:
Losing Sleep
According to Bendix, there was much talk of doom and destruction at this year's conference, with speakers warning technology will overtake us all, climate change could destroy the planet, and so on -- but by far the scariest talk had to do with sleep.
“One short talk from sleep scientist Matt Walker and I'm going to bed early from now on,” wrote Bendix. “Walker taught me that sleeping six hours versus eight hours could be the difference between a healthy immune system and body that's at risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.”
Rather than popping a sleeping pill, Walker said, the best way to ensure a good night's sleep is to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. Walker also recommended keeping the bedroom temperature at around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, or moving to another room if you're tossing and turning so you don't associate your bed with wakefulness, Bendix reported.
For more, go here.
Why Some People are Empathetic
At just 28 years old, Mayor Michael Tubbs is piloting the first major basic income program in the U.S. in his home city of Stockton, Calif., Bendix reported. “As someone who grew up poor and was raised by a single mother while his father was in jail, Tubbs is intimately acquainted with Stockton's inequality,” Bendix said. “During his talk, he used the Good Samaritan parable -- which tells of a beaten man who is passed by on the street until one kind soul finally stops to help him -- to distinguish between those who give to the poor and those who see themselves reflected in the less fortunate. The latter, he said, are helping to create a more just society.”
Tubbs told Business Insider, “In our country, we really have to contend with this idea of 'the other.’” In order to empathize with someone, he said, we must assume that our fate is tied up with theirs.
For more, go here.
Tech Could Mean The End, Or…
At any credit union conference there are often fears expressed over what technology might mean to the future, especially auto loans and CU jobs. During the TED conference, Bendix reported that while addressing the audience via virtual robot, physicist David Deutsch had some good -- and bad -- news about the future of our planet.
First, the bad news: Deutsch said there's no limit to the size of mistakes humans can make, which means we could eventually destroy ourselves through our own actions. But he also argued that outcome wasn't likely. In the battle between humans and the universe, he said, "our side is not destined to lose,” Bendix reported.
But Deutsch seems to think that human knowledge will help us overcome all manner of ills, including war and climate change.
For more, go here.
Charities & Happiness
Credit unions are actively involved in charitable giving in their communities, but for charity to make people happy, researcher Elizabeth Dunn revealed that it's not just giving that makes us happy.
“It's seeing how our dollars are making a difference in other peoples' lives,” said Bendix. “For a good deed to produce happiness, it must result in a human connection between the giver and the recipient, she said. This implies we may get pure joy out of someone else's pleasure after all. It also gives me a bit more hope for humanity -- part of the goal of this year's conference.”
For more, go here.