The Rational Animal by Douglas T, Kenrick and Vladas Griskevicius

The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think by Douglas T. Kenrick and Vladas Griskevicius (U of MN professor)  attempts to describe the underlying evolutionary behaviors that explain why behaviors that first appear irrational have solid reasons for being part of the human and animal responses to environmental stimuli. They authors refer to a wide range of studies and offer these up with tasteful goblet of dry wit served slightly chilled.

The authors suggest that humans do not possess a single character but consist of seven fragmented sub-selves that respond to priming.  The classic marshmallow experiment that predicts future success in life can be be altered easily.  If the person offering up the marshmallows demonstrates unreliable and untrustworthy behavior, the kids will choose to not wait for the next marshmallow.

People who grow up in stable environments will often adopt long term conservative delayed gratification strategies for accumulating and retaining wealth.  See rock star Gene Simmons' book Me INC .  Individuals growing up in unstable environments live fast and burnout quickly.  Many other rock stars, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and others don't even make it to age 30. M.C Hammer went quickly from rags to riches to back again in a very short period of time.

Mating behavior can be deadly and expensive if the male to female ratio is out of balance.  The authors point to a study of credit card balances in two Georgia counties.  In the county with many more males than females, men's credit card balances were significantly higher as they spent money attempting to woo females.  The risky showing off behavior results in male death rates at 5 times those of females in Spain for those in their 20's.

In a section on parasites, the authors explain how the advertising slogan, "A diamond is forever", now successfully extracts approximately 2 month's salary from the proposing fiance.  Prior to the early 30's there was no strong tradition of exchanging diamonds. The diamond company has also penetrated the Japanese market where the exchange of diamonds had previously not been part of the wedding ritual.  

Rational Animal - 3.5 minutes

Why Do We Put Diamonds on Engagement Rings -Brain Stuff -  2.5 min.

Platform Revolution by G.G. Parker, M.W. Van Alstyne and S.P. Choudary

The Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You describes how network markets differ from traditional pipeline markets.   Markets that rely on the ability to connect customers with products often don't need heavy investment in brick and mortar infrastructure.  The Uber transportation service relies on cars provided by other individuals.  Airbnb relies on other people's homes instead of large hotels for lodging.

The authors predict that platform revolution will have a disruptive effect on higher education.  Once the certificates from Coursera or other platforms become accepted by employers as evidence of competency, the monopoly of access to higher education by gatekeepers and economic condition will be broken.  Some higher education institutions are moving into this area.  Language acquisition, traditional social science, mathematics and liberal arts degrees will be the first to transition.  I predict that research areas that require extensive laboratory work will not translate well into the platform environment.

Energy, transportation and labor markets will also be disrupted.  A society of freelancers will be built up and displace the centralized industries that are unionized.  Decentralized power generation for home owners and small businesses will increase as battery storage (Tesla and Panasonic) is centrally integrated into intermittent power generation.

I've read that Walmart will be cooperating with Uber and Lift to set up home delivery networks for groceries and other items.  Walmart will taken advantage of an existing platform system and not have to invest in the cost of transport vehicles or the cost of employees with benefit packages.  Both Target and Walmart have been laying off people as computer algorithms are replacing the knowledge base of back office workers.

The platform revolution has the potential to transform consumers into producers.  Readers of Amazon Kindles can now be authors without having to go through the publishing world where gatekeepers make bets on which books will be popular.  J.K Rowling has a long list of rejection letters as proof that the current crop of publishing gatekeepers is far from infallible.

Platform Revolution - Geoffrey Parker - 52 min.

Data Driven Business - Sangeet Paul Choudary - 61 min.

Nutrition Made Clear by Roberta H. Blanding

The 36 half hour lecture series Nutrition Made Clear by Professor Roberta H. Anding provides a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge on nutrition for a lay person.  Professor Anding is a registered clinical dietician focusing on pediatric and sports nutrition in the state of Texas.

She emphasizes eating whole foods over specific nutritional supplements.  There is more nutrition in foods than simply the vitamins and minerals listed. Supplements are not well regulated with respect to purity.  There may be an ingredient that is not on the label or the concentration of the supplement may not be accurate.  She recommends eating foods with a wide variety of colors.  They do not need to be exotic or expensive fruits.  She does urge caution about the consumption of grapefruit as a chemical in the fruit alters the effectiveness of a significant percentage of prescription drugs.

Her guidance on weight loss was very helpful.  You can increase the total daily requirement for calories by increasing you bodies lean muscle mass.  She recommends a combination of 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity per day with twice a week strength training to optimize health benefits.
 

School lunch safety - 3 min.

What are supplements - 1 min.