Tag: PopTech

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Malcolm Gladwell Explains Why Human Potential Is Being Squandered [PopTech Video]

Sociologist and best-selling author, Malcolm Gladwell, uses the term “Capitalization” to discuss

the abundance and scarcity as it applies to people.” More specifically, Gladwell sees “capitalization” as “the rate at which a given community capitalizes on the human potential… what percentage of those who are capable of achieving something actually achieve it.”

Gladwell’s most recent book, Outliers: The Story of Success, investigates human potential, how it is squandered, how that trend can be reversed, and the reasons why some succeed so much more then others.

Through his research Gladwell discovered that,

Cap rates are really low. They are much lower then you think they are and that’s why I think this is such a worthy topic for investigation.”

Here is a clip with highlights from Gladwell’s talk at Pop Tech on this issue [11 min.]:

3 Conditions Which Constrain The Capitalization Of Human Potential

1. Poverty.

… is the obvious thing that limits the exploitation of human potential.”

2. Stupidity.

… where institutions get in the way of the development of human potential.”

3. Culture.

When we look at these different rates of capitalization, 20 and 30 years later, what we’re seeing is the consequence of those early ingrained cultural notions…”

Why Is This Important?

It is important because I think when we observe differences in how individuals succeed in the world our initial thought is always to say, to argue that that is the result of some kind of innate difference in ability.

And when we look at the different rates that groups succeed we think that that reflects some underlying innate trait in the characteristics of that group. And that is wrong… what capitalization rates say… is there’s another explanation and that has to do with poverty, with stupidity, and with culture.”

Low ‘Capitalization’ = Room For Improvement

We have a scarcity of achievement… not because we have a scarcity of talent. We have a scarcity of achievement because we’re squandering our talent. And that’s not bad news that’s good news; because it says that this scarcity is not something we have to live with. It’s something we can do something about.”

Here is Gladwell’s full talk at PopTech [19 min.]

Here is Gladwell’s description of his new book Outliers: The Story of Success

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Can Your Actions And Thoughts Influence People You Don’t Know? Prof. Fowler Explains [PopTech Video]

If you tell someone they don’t influence anybody, they’re not going to do anything. But if you tell them they influence a thousand people they’ll change their lives. And that’s why I think it’s so critical for us to understand first and foremost how and why we are connected.”

James Fowler, Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science at University of California, is the co-author of Connected: How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends’ Affect Everything You Feel, Think, And Do.

The book describes conclusions from statistical analysis of data that was collected as part of a heart study in Framingham, Massachusetts, tracking over 12,000 individuals for 32 years.

For the first time,” says Fowler, “we are able to get a birds’ eye view of networks like the networks that you live in.”

Here is a 9 min. clip with highlights from Fowler’s talk on social networks at Pop Tech:

Fowler describes a:

Three Degrees of Influence” concept: “Your friends’ friends’ friends’ have an impact on you. They’re going to impact whether or not you’re obese, whether or not you smoke… whether or not you’re happy, whether or not you’re lonely, whether or not you’re depressed…”

Fowler explains that this interconnection works two ways,

We shape our networks but our networks also shape us.” Therefore, “If you do a kind act to a person they’ll do a kind act to another person and that will also spread…” And that this serves an “evolutionary purpose… Human social networks are in our nature… we have grown up over hundreds of thousands of years in these social networks.”

Here is a link to Fowler’s full talk at Pop Tech [19 min.]:
James Fowler: Power of Networks

The official site of the book Connected: www.connectedthebook.com

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The Tragedy Of Our Times Defined By Anthropologist Michael Wesch [PopTech Video]

What I would consider the tragedy of our times is that we are more connected than ever, and yet, we don’t realize it and don’t truly live it.”

Michael Wesch, PhD, a Cultural Anthropologist, stated the above at the end of a talk at PopTech where he shared insights from an exploration of one of today’s most defining characteristics – the development of online culture.

Here is a 6 min. clip with highlights from the lecture:

At the start of the lecture, Wesch clarifies the significance of media in shaping human culture and relationships:

Media is like an environment, it takes us over, and sort of consumes us in many ways. Media are not just tools, they’re not just means of communication, media actually mediate our conversations. Media, in some ways, determine or dictate who can say what to who, what they can say, how it will be said etc. And so, when media change – our conversations change.”

He later adds that the really deep question that he and his students are trying to get at is

not only how our conversations are changing but how our communities might be changing, and even how our selves are changing.”

In contrast to old forms of media, Wesch analyzes the nature of new social media as:

• not controlled by the few,
• not one way,
• created by, for, and around networks, not masses
• having the potential to transform individual pursuits into collective action.”

Towards the end of the presentation, he shows the most responded-to video in the early days of YouTube – an anonymous video that encouraged people all over the world to share messages of love and oneness.

I hope it doesn’t come off as blind optimism,” he says, “because, in fact, these people would not be writing these messages if these things actually existed. If we were one world and one people and all those types of things, then they wouldn’t need to say it.”

You can watch the full lecture (19 min.) here: Mike Wesch: Lessons From YouTube