10th Talk: Garik Sadovy - LSD Changed My Life - Students Taking Responsibility for Their Education

There was another pre-recorded talk by Benjamin Zander on passion and music that was great followed by a performance by Panoramic Dance Project.

The tenth and final TEDxNCSU talk is Garik Sadovy on LSD Changed My Life - Students Taking Responsibility for Their Education.

LSD actually stands for lifestyle design. Garik begins with a discussion of his great depression of 2009 because his goals as an engineering student were being questioned and he lost his grandfather. I also just noticed that he's wearing very odd sandals with thin soles and several very thin leather straps. It almost looks like there are no soles to them.

He met Jeff Huber (Talk #5) during a time when he was reading relationship help books. They began discussing their lives and where they are going and what they are doing with their lives. Garik suggested that they teach a class on their discussions. They assigned the 4 Hour Work Week to read in their Lifestyle Design class. They had a model for creating purpose and meaning in life that gave them confidence in teaching.

They assigned large case studies instead of exams, and had people study their own passions. They went through a conventional life and then developed alternatives at each life stage to inspire students. They wrote personal eulogies and values assessments.

After self-definition they then began to set personal goals to become the person they wanted to be. They had numerous large class discussions that served to inspire and bond the group. They ended up doing very well on their class evaluations.

Finally, what does lifestyle design mean? What do we do with it? Do we have the proper priorities? What if there was a student led department of purpose or the meaning of life?

The whole thing is pretty fluffy without a lot of concrete guidance or food for thought.

9th Talk: Dr. Michael Steer - Ideas from Nothing - Solving a Problem Without Knowing the Problem

The ninth TEDxNCSU is Dr. Michael Steer on Ideas from Nothing - Solving a Problem Without Knowing the Problem. We are told that Dr. Steer has a great accent, and he does have a nice Australian accent.

The talk is personal, and he has broken down before while giving it.

Recently received a military medal for developing a solution for radio controlled roadside bombs. This talk is about that story and the lessons of that 8 year development process.

How do you come up with ideas from nothing?

He starts describing the attacks of 9/11. He wanted to help and make a difference. He worked 70-80 hours per week without a day off. But, he didn't have a problem solve. Engineers know a little science and math and want to create. Currently system consists of taking complex systems and compartmentalizing them into little pieces. The little pieces work great, but the system is not necessarily optimized.

He recommends taking a system view (Yay!). He looked for vulnerabilities in complex systems. He spent his time doing professorial duties, reading, and building (social) networks.

Things that he learned on the way.
1.) There are few in any new ideas. All ideas are synthesized from previous ideas.
2.) Diversity of thought and experiences is absolutely critical. Expose yourself to uncomfortable ideas.
3.) Travel is essential. Try conferences outside of your expertise.
4.) Consciously try to learn new things.
5.) It takes a lot of work to make a real difference.
6.) Think at a systems level (woot!) in all disciplines.

8th Talk: Dr. Stacy Wood - Buying Happiness

They showed another pre-recorded talk by Emily Pilloton.

The eighth TEDxNCSU talk is Dr. Stacy Wood on Buying Happiness.

We are supposed to be happy at the end of the talk. Dr. Wood studies consumer psychology, which seems pretty neat. She starts with that we all know we can't buy happiness. I'm guessing she's going to turn and say that we act as we can buy happiness (I'm right).

Examples: Where do we spend our time? We don't follow our passions, but Mike Rowe told us earlier that following our passions was bad advice. In the end, we spend 300 hours more than Europeans working each year. Also, the average European gets 6 weeks of vacation per year. Vacations are important for the things that make us happy. 52% of Americans take one week or less of vacation per year. We tie happiness to success at work and making more money.

Tells us to go home and check out the stuff we spend our money and thus our time on. We often end up buying unhappiness. There are 3 reasons we spend money unwisely.

1.) Retail therapy. We buy things and it makes us happy momentarily. People feeling the least in control may be the most likely to take advantage of this. People are also very financially illiterate. Finally, once we have things we adapt to it, and our happiness returns to it's previous level. I need granite counter tops -> I need stainless appliances -> I need new cabinets/flooring...

We've created a habit of stuff leading to mindless acquisition. She has recently studied sales of luxury brands during the recent recession using brain imaging (i.e., fMRIs). People saw 3 words and 3 logos. Indulgence Words and Frugality Words as well as luxury brand logos and "practical" brand logos. Seeing indulgence words then luxury brand logos activated part of brain associated with goal achievement?. Finally, she asks us to unplug from messages push blind consumerism.

7th Talk: Dr. Tim Wallace - Who Owns Your Heritage?

The seventh TEDxNCSU talk is Dr. Tim Wallace on Who Owns Your Heritage?

Starts with "what is heritage?" Is it building, religious customs, or art and culture. He argues that it is more. That it is practices and habits. Heritage is something that is always being redefined. Heritage is how we perform and remember things today. He's talking about Old Salem. The original Krispy Creme was apparently torn down to build 1800's era historical building.

Culture and heritage are intimately linked. Being a Phillies fan is a deep part of him, as is spending time with his granddaughter. Does it actually matter who owns our heritage? Yes, it does. He collects "face" pots, and shows one from South Carolina and asks who owns that heritage?

Heritage is a dialogue and a process. We can lose our heritage and we can claim the heritage of others.

What good is heritage?

6th Talk: Kathleen Griffin - Texts, Tweets, and Transnational Technologies - The Role of Social Networking and Citizen Journalism in International Crisis

The sixth TEDxNCSU talk is Kathleen Griffin on Texts, Tweets, and Transnational Technologies - The Role of Social Networking and Citizen Journalism in International Crisis. Kathleen is a senior in international studies here at State.

Technology can empower citizen journalists and social revolution. She joked about possible conflict with Chase and Erick, but assures us that they'd be facebook friends. We are doing word association. I think old people are supposed to think non-tech things when they hear text, tweet, viral and/or myspace.

She mentions cell phone subscription, texts, and tweeting stats and trends. Social networking allows flash mobs, green revolution, and day of revolt.

She is now going into how she became interesting in social networking and change. She was inspired by video clip of a woman beaten to death during the green revolution in Iran.

She then studied social networking for public health in China during the SARS outbreak in China in 2003. Social networking was also used for witnessing breaking emergencies (e.g., 2004 tsunami, Haitian earthquake, Japanese earthquake and tsunami).

They can also be used for social activism. Her first example is the 2009 protests in Iran and then moves to Japan. People who never used social networking turned to Twitter for updates from the country.

So, what's next? More of the same apparently. The talk was interesting, but kind of just rehashed well known occurrences. It would have been good to broaden or extrapolate things.

5th Talk: Jeffrey Huber - The Danes - What We Can Learn from the Happiest People On Earth

Another pre-recorded talk from a volunteer firefighter was presented. It was essentially a story of him saving a women's shoes and her gratitude for the gesture even though he wanted to be the one to save her dog.

The fifth TEDxNCSU talk is Jeffrey Huber on The Danes - What We Can Learn from the Happiest People On Earth. I actually stepped out of this talk early. Jeffrey is an undergraduate at NC State who spent a semester in Copenhagen and was discussing why the Danes are so happy and what lessons can be gleaned from them.

4th Talk: Dr. Toddi Steelman - My Jihad Against Scientific Fundamentalism

The fourth TEDxNCSU talk is Dr. Toddi Steelman on My Jihad Against Scientific Fundamentalism.

The oceans are under assualt, climate is changing, and biodiversity is at increasing risk. She argues that science shouldn't have a large role in these problems. She says we have put science on a podium and turned science into a "false prophet".

She moves to a case study at Camp Lejuene involving men with breast cancer. Men were exposed to a variety of carcinogens in tap water. 5 studies have tried to link the cancer to those chemicals, but none have done so conclusively. Says drawing conclusions is hard due to confounding elements.

Myth #1: Science determines policy.
I think she means the idea that "science SHOULD determine policy, but it's unclear.

She has moved on to "Climategate" and brought up the hockey stick graph. Never gets around to saying that numerous investigations have shown no wrongdoing.

Myth #2: Science is objective.
Shows side-by-side pictures of Al Gore and Glenn Beck. (sigh)

More on putting science on an alter and what if it can't deliver. The U.S. has spent $40 million on climate research, but still no consensus. This blatantly untrue in the scientific community.

Myth #4: More science leads to better consensus
This seems obviously true, and her argument only works if consensus only means "public consensus" instead of scientific consensus.

She says advocates for science argue that science is a better form of knowledge than politics. Science can't tell us what to do in Camp Lejuene and for dealing with the climate.

I want to think on this more, but the idea that we need to downplay the role of science in decision making seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

2nd Talk: Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll - Journalism and Discourse Without Newspapers

The second TEDxNCSU talk is Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll on Journalism and Discourse Without Newspapers.

They are now going into how the internet killed the newspaper. He is mentioning Craigslist, circulation numbers, ad revenue, and free news aggregators. He moved into the unbundling of news in the internet age. People are now able to get the specific content they are looking for.

He moved onto the response from newspapers in reducing hard news and moving towards lighter fare. Shows that that statehouse coverage has decreased 32% since 2003 and how this makes corruption easier to get away with.

Erick is now speaking about the absence of newspapers and the lack of real news media in the U.S. He starts about the need for rapidity and brevity in modern news and how this makes news less reliable (<50% of online articles aren't fully edited).Online articles are also half the length of their dead tree counterparts. People now choose news sources that agree with their pre-existing ideologies.

He's now going into how Sarah Palin invented "death panels" and how it was quickly rebuked by most media sources, but pushed by Fox News. But, still 50% of Americans accepted they existed since no method existed to explain to the American public. The new media landscape allows mistruths to spread quickly and removes almost all means to correct lies and conspiracies.

Chase is back saying 85% of online news originated in newspapers and how online news is "news junk food".

Erick is proposing solutions to save journalism such as pay-walls and ad revenue. He's going into non-profit and public funding. U.S. currently has lowest per capita funding towards public media of any western nation. The whole discussion is pretty pessimistic, but hard to argue with.

I am approaching battery life problems, so I'm going to have to use pen and paper and come back.

1st Talk: Dr. Dan Ariely - Self Control - The Problem and How to Get Over It

The first TEDxNCSU talk is Dr. Dan Ariely who is a professor of behavioral economics at Duke. I'm going to try to update this as he speaks. Hopefully, it'll go well. I may or may not do this for the other speakers depending on how this goes.

He's starting with an anecdote about advice he received in the hospital about avoiding hospitals. He's going further into his participation in a drug trial that caused certain immediate ill effects, but provided a long-term uncertain disease risk reduction. He linked this then to the Fall and texting while driving and the present-bias focus. This is then linked into our time preferences of costs and benefits with a twist that is new to me. He asked about chocolate now vs 1.5 times as much chocolate in a week and then changed it by adding a year. Nearly everyone would wait 53 weeks for more chocolate instead of 52 weeks for less.

He was also apparently the only person would adequately and regularly administered his medication during the study. He did this with reward substitution, where he'd watch a movie when he injected the medication.

Awesome quote:
"If you tried to create a problem that people won't care about, you'd have global warming."

He's trying to link people's ego to their energy decisions, such as how driving a Prius strokes environmentalist egos.

After reward substitution, he moved to self-control contracts, such as how Ulysses tied himself to the mast, while passing the sirens. He's moved to animal studies with immediate vs. delayed rewards and apparently some studies have shown rats and pigeons are able to remove their own temptation by pressing a third button. He's bringing up an alarm clock that gives money from your bank account to a charity you hate and another one that runs away from you.

He brought up stickk.com which is a web site that enforces goals otherwise you owe people money. Another website tells people when you watch porn or uninstall the software.

TEDxNCSU is today!

I'm attending TEDxNCSU today. The program looks pretty interesting, and I'm hoping I'll have some good stuff to write about later. A live stream is apparently available at the earlier link.