May 23, 2019
Present: Adam, Marianne, Jen, Ben, Nancy, Gail, Justine,
Connie, Levi
1.
Warm Up: Adam: has an exciting MRI opportunity,
with one half of a brain serving as a control for the other half – cool!
2.
Intro – Why I
Like the Circus
a.
What we think is impossible may have more to do
with what we think than what is possible, e.g. sword swallowing
i.
Yes: per Jen, a cross section of the esophagus
is a slender oval… but still not easy
b.
To change our thinking we have to question our
assumptions
i.
And a little vaudeville goes a long way
c.
Most people do worse than random chance in
answering questions about global poverty, education, health; not as bad with
respect to climate change
i.
They consistently select answers that are more
dismal rather than positive
ii.
Is Hans Rosling picking things to measure that
show up positively (other than his climate change exception)? Counter examples:
1.
Obesity
2.
Opioid-related deaths (but just in the U.S.?)
3.
Racial tension / polarities of ethnic or country
origin
a.
There are some bad problems, the world-wide ones
are more significant
b.
Overall, there is much more going right than
going wrong
c.
What is the agent of change? Ben: technology
changes outcomes
d.
Intro, it's about being humble and open minded
e.
Sword swallowing as an example of assumptions we
make and what is actually possible
3.
Chapter 1
a.
The Gap Instinct
i.
We divide the world into two, them and us
1.
This is an ancient characteristic of humans and
how they behave – with each other
ii.
We don't think the two halves touch, or that
members can move between groups
b.
There used to be two divisions in world
population: developing and developed. Now there are four levels: $1 a day, $4 a
day, $16 a day and more than $16 a day.
i.
Today, instead of 50% of the world is hungry,
only 9% is, that means that our solutions are working.
c.
Comparisons usually leave out the lack of
divisions in our world population. How to tell:
i.
Difference between averages
1.
This is a real, but not complete, picture
2.
We think in binary terms; the differences are
multi-factorial that make the difference hard to understand.
ii.
Difference between extremes
iii.
The view from up here
d.
However this perspective does not account for
systemic differences. Men and women may overlap the distribution of their
incomes but none the less men are systematically paid more than women. This affects
their health and their opportunities and their children's health and
opportunities.
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