"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: Stress and Health" by Dr. Robert Sapolsky
Science writer, biologist, neuroscientist, and stress expert Dr. Robert Sapolsky presents the inaugural Fenton-Rhodes Lecture on Proactve Wellness.
Sapolsky states that our bodies' stress response evolved to help us get out of short-term physical emergencies - if a lion is chasing you, you run. But such reactions, he points out, compromise long-term physical health in favor of immediate self-preservation. Unfortunately, when confronted with purely psychological stressors, such as troubleshooting the fax machine, modern humans turn on the same stress response.
"If you turn it on for too long," notes Sapolsky, "you get sick." Sapolsky regards this sobering news with characteristic good humor, finding hope in "our own capacity to prevent some of these problems... in the small steps with which we live our everyday lives."
This lecture was recorded on September 22, 2016 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts' Colwell Playhouse as part of the Pygmalion TechFest
https://youtu.be/D9H9qTdserM
Friday, March 11, 2022
"Who looks outside, dreams; Who looks inside, awakes."
Being alone with the intention of healing yourself and working on your vision is not loneliness; it is self-care.
"It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you." - Rumi
"Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge."
- Carl Jung
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
- Carl Jung
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
Watch Yuval Noah Harari and Masha Gessen in conversation, presented by Munk Debates.
Yuval and Masha share their opinions on the future of democracy in a world of rising authoritarianism. What are the root causes of nations and people turning away from liberalism? How is social media affecting our democratic politics? Are populist politics incompatible with liberal democracy? And most of all, are you living in a dictatorship or not?
Journalist Masha Gessen’s latest article in The New Yorker tells of life on the Ukraine-Russia border, where locals talk of misleading propaganda and language divides. Gessen sat down with Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the current crisis -- and what the media gets wrong about Vladimir Putin.
Do you worry about the effectiveness of your writing style?
As emerging scholars, perfecting the craft of writing is an essential component of developing as graduate students, and yet resources for honing these skills are largely under utilized.
Larry McEnerney, Director of the University of Chicago's Writing Program, led this session in an effort to communicate helpful rules, skills, and resources that are available to graduate students interested in further developing their writing style.
https://youtu.be/vtIzMaLkCaM
My takeaways:
1. This course is not about writing rules 3:04
2. Stop thinking about rules and start thinking about readers 3:55
3. The problems that domain experts have in their writing 4:00
4. Domain experts use writing to help themselves with thinking 4:51, if they don't do it this way, they can't think to the level they need
5. The challenge: the way that experts do their writing (to help with their thinking) is different to the way that readers can understand 6:53
6. The consequences 8:10 - 1. readers need to slow down and re-read many times 2. readers can't understand or misunderstand 3. readers give up
7. Readers read things that are valuable to them 11:52
8. Writings need to be clear, organized, persuasive and VALUABLE 13:45
9. Valuable to the readers of a research area (not everybody in the world) 15:20
10. An example of comparing two writings 17:16
11. Writing is not about communicating your ideas, it is about changing readers' ideas 21:24
12. Nothing will be accepted as knowledge or understanding until it has been challenged by people who have the competence to challenge 23:24, this determines the readers of our writing
13. A piece of writing is important, not because it is new and original; It is because it has value to some readers 25:16
14. What does the world of knowledge look like 28:00
15. Every research communities have their own code to communicate VALUE 31:30
16. Why does it take 5-6 years to get a PhD? 34:30 50% of the time is used to know the readers in the field
17. Using these words to show that you are aware of the research communities: widely, accepted, and reported 35:24
18. Flow/transition words can help to make writing preservative and organized: and, but, because, unless, nonetheless, however, although, etc. 36:00
19. Do things under the code of the communities 42:00
20. Another example 44:25
21. The function of a piece of writing is to move a research area forward, not to be preserved for 500 years 46:54
22. Writing is not about to express what is in our head, it is about changing other people's thoughts 48:50
23. The instability words that create tension/challenge: anomaly, inconsistent, but, however, although 54:00
24. Bad writing style: backgroud+thesis 55:07 and a better style: problem+solution 56:18
25. Learn the language code from the target publications 1:01:30
26. Literature review is used to enrich the problem 1:02:50
27. Problem vs background 1:06:47
28. Gap in the knowledge is dangerous 1:08:45
29. Identify the right readers (research communities) is important, but it could be difficult for interdisciplinary research 1:11:57
Prof Larry,
This is commendable job you have done! writing is not about rules, its about thinking process!
"You are what you do, not what you say you'll do."
5 Important Life Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier:
1. You can’t please everyone.
2. Good things don’t come easy.
3. If they want to leave, let them.
4. In loss and failure there’s an opportunity for growth.
5. Let go of anything and anyone that pulls you back from your greatness.
In the development of intelligence nothing can be more 'basic' than learning to ask productive questions.
- Neil Postman
The five ideas of technological change are all technological change is a trade-off, advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population, embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, technological change is not addictive; it is ecological, and technology becomes ...
