Actually Human

For his forthcoming book Outlast, investor Eric Markowitz wanted to answer a simple question: How have the world’s oldest companies managed to survive so long? In Japan, there’s a construction firm that has been in operation since 578. Italian arms manufacturer Beretta was founded in 1526 when Michelangelo was still walking around Rome. Companies like these have survived wars, revolutions, and massive technological and cultural shifts. Clearly they know the secret of exceptional resilience.

I’m on vacation this week at the beach so I decided to pre-schedule a topical post for you guys. It digs into an all important question: why do I spend such a large percentage of the other 51 weeks of the year daydreaming about this one? What exactly is it about wide open water that haunts our daydreams when we’re inland and relaxes us so powerfully when we’re at the beach?

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash Few psychological rules have as high a public profile as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Way back in 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger showed that the people who were least competent at a given task were also the most confident in their abilities. Meanwhile, the most skilled are the most unsure. In the 26 years since Dunning and Kruger published their landmark paper, scientists have debated the details of the findings. But the public has run with it.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash Look around social media or glance at the headlines and it’s easy to assume that there are a lot of terrible people in the world. Violence, dishonesty, cruelty, and wanton disinterest in the well-being of others attract attention and get boosted by algorithms. As a result, the media is full of stories of humans behaving badly. So why wouldn’t you feel there are a lot of evil people out there?

More cute dogs is always better. Come to my house and the first thing you’ll notice is that we have way, way too many books. They’re jammed into shelves, stacked precariously on tables, and cluttering up closets. My entire adult life has been a battle between my love of words and my desire for a livable space. Which is why sometime around a decade or so ago, I told myself it was time to do the rational thing and start to read on my tablet. E-books have been great to me.

Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash Humanity got up to some pretty dumb stuff in the 20th century, but at least we could take comfort in one fact: overall we appeared to be slowly getting smarter. Over decades and across most of the world people’s scores on IQ tests were slowly improving. Scientists dubbed this the Flynn Effect. Unfortunately for us it appears to be reversing.

Having a pleasant and productive conversation with someone you disagree with has never been easy. These days in America it can feel impossible. One recent Pew poll found nearly half of us think people from the other political party are “evil.” With about even odds that a discussion is going to end with someone being called the spawn of satan, it’s unsurprising we’re reluctant to talk to each other. That’s terrible for our politics.

Everyone in business used to want to be a “self-starter” or a “game changer.” These days in certain circles the trendiest way to describe yourself is “high agency.” “Early last year, the analytics site Brandwatch found there was a 500 percent jump in mentions of the phrase across X, Reddit, and other social media sites,” reports Business Insider. The phrase is suddenly all over LinkedIn, job ads, and certain corners of the media.

Photo by DJ Paine on Unsplash Listen to most of the media and you’ll come away scared silly about the youth mental health crisis in America. The crisis is “life or death” the New York Times claimed back in 2022. The tone hasn’t become any less apocalyptic since. Teen girls are in crisis, many outlets reported in 2023 in response to a particularly depressing CDC report. 20-somethings aren’t doing much better, according to the Atlantic.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting - 2024 via Flickr These days, AI is definitely near the peak of the hype cycle, when pronouncements about a new technology reach their most fevered pitch. But even given that reality, CEOs of AI companies and other assorted AI boosters have been saying a lot of creepy and extreme stuff lately. Some of these comments are just overenthusiastic salesmanship.