Notes from CBC Ideas episode: The Fool's Dilemma

• The episode and show notes



By Kitty Terwolbeck

• While we may note when others are not self-aware of their blunders, misconceptions, etc., it is difficult for us to realize when we are thinking or acting irrationally, poorly, etc.
• Clinically depressed people are more accurate in their self-assessment compared to "happy" people.  Typically people overestimate their abilities or control over a situation  
• There are two modes of thinking, (1) Unconscious (snap judgments, hunches) and (2) deliberate thinking.  The latter takes a lot of effort to do  
• Our access to the external world is subject to a layer of interpretation that we are not even aware of.  In the paper, "Wishful Seeing", there is an experiment where after a group of participants have been given a lot of salty pretzels to eat, they perceive a water bottle placed before them to be several inches closer than before the pretzels, despite the actual, exact same distance.  Also see "Epistemological Dualism"
• Generally people are overconfident but this confidence provides hopefulness and resiliency, and the ability to overcome setbacks
• Related to wanting to have a sense of control of a situation, people have an extreme aversion to uncertainty.  The episode describes that people will agonize while waiting for the results of a cancer test, and even when they are told that the results are conclusive, that they indeed have cancer, often people will have a sense of relief, "at least I know"
• People are drawn to confidence and the most successful pundits are the confident ones, not necessarily the ones that accurately forecasted.  For theoretical issues, as opposed to, e.g. what's the best family sedan to buy, people don't want complexity and nuances  
• Confirmation bias, group think, internet is house of mirrors/echo chamber?
• Cultural differences?  Canadian students will play with puzzle that they can solve during their spare time.  Japanese students will work on a puzzle they are unable to solve during their spare time, but once solved, they will set it aside.
• To overcome our cognitive blindness, we should challenge our own beliefs as much as we challenge competing beliefs, applying Socratic questioning on ourselves 

Nicknames

In the DNTO episode, What's the story behind the name?, nicknames are noted to:

1. Distinguish a person from others (for those named John or Jane, e.g.)
2. More aptly fit the nickname'd person's traits 
3. Bond the person to his/her group of friends/peeps as the nickname is given by that peer group to the nickname'd

I wonder what nickname Skylar may have in the future.

Meaning of money, to me

By 401(K) 2013

Money IMO is about obtaining freedom to do what you want (for some, these activities may resemble "work") and spending quality time with friends and family.  We sometimes need to buy things to do those enjoyable activities but sometimes shopping for those items  (cars, gadgets, etc.) can be time-consuming and be counter to the goal of spending time with family and friends.  When I say shopping, I mean comparing, analyzing and evaluating among other things. 

Also setting up gadgets can be time-consuming although one can argue shopping for and setting up or maintaining (waxing car, etc.) is part of the enjoyment.  We just have to ensure that we are able to give the gift of ourselves (our time) to our loved ones, perhaps in addition to any physical gifts. 

Money shouldn't be about buying for status especially when the products don't fit one's needs or vastly exceeds those needs.  I feel we need to live with a feeling of scarcity and restraint in mind because it helps us leave something for our future selves (saving for a rainy day), our less fortunate neighbors, and/or future generations.

UPDATE:  This DNTO episode talks about what happens to people when they win the lottery.  Some people feel empty, don't feel they deserve it.  There is a power imbalance with previous relationships.  Whatever the state of a person, it is exaggerated by a lottery win.  E.g. if someone is anxious, suddenly having money doesn't fix that but instead aggravates it since the person now needs to worry about all the people that may treat them differently.  The Current also discussed this situation, Sudden Wealth Syndrome.   

Parenting conflicts

My family has had its share of internal conflicts since the birth of my son.  In part it was due to the stress of having a premature baby and also the precarious health of my wife.

Why bring this up?
- for my therapy
- to help others.  While I talked to many friends and people about my family's problems, I may have been looking in the wrong places but there were not many online resources during my darkest time.  

Why not to bring this up?  Why don't  others talk about it?
- reflects badly on others or self
- don't want to appear whiny or not as devoted parent

Rather than a less positive structure, I will frame my problems or past issues in terms of thanksgivings, for the silver lining around each storm cloud.

Why collaborative consumption now?

Is collaborative consumption because of our financial constraints since the 2008 financial crisis or is it something we do even when we have the financial resources?

I believe the collaborative consumption trend stems from a few movements:

• movement away from materialism because of moral conscience:  Knowing that the most coveted iPhone or Nike sneakers is made in less than ideal circumstances makes owning a lot of "nice" things for the sake of showing off less of a status symbol and more of a blight on your reputation
• seeing how overwhelming it is for our parents to down-size and and discard their many belongings, and thus a striving for minimalism (http://www.theminimalists.com/)
• environmental awareness - in general, less consumption means less stress on the planet
• an awareness of mass production and duplication and therefore (1) a desire for uniqueness and personalization by hanging onto certain things (e.g. furniture, clothes) and making them "your own" by customizing or skinning and/or (2) it is undesirable to accumulate mass-produced copies
• desire for physical mobility and exploring the world - owning stuff ties you down

Traditional Chinese medicine

For around the past two years, my wife has been boiling a herbal remedy that our son drinks that is meant to improve his overall health and particularly his eczema symptoms.  The drink is produced by reducing (boiling off ) a specific amount of water until only several ounces remains.  In order to overcome the bitter taste that these herbs naturally create, she adds dried dates to the mixture.

By spotreporting

I am thankful that we switched to boiling with a stainless steel pot rather than a ceramic pot.  Sometimes one of us would forget that the mixture was reducing and the pot would boil dry.  For the stainless steel pot, the burned blackness can be scoured off but for the ceramic pots, they crack and we went through at least four of them this way.

I am thankful that my son drinks this remedy less often now so that we don't have to be boiling these herbs every day (down to once every three days or so).

Before buying pit-less dates, my wife used to take out the pits of the dates herself.  For her, it would take approximately a minute to remove the pit of each dried date, for about 8-12 dates. During this pit removal session, she'd be oblivious to everything else.  I am thankful that she finally verified with the herbalist and was told that:  There is no need to remove the pits of the dates.