Jonathan Brun

Seinfeld and Zidane: Two peas in a pod

Just watched two movies about people at the top of their game:

The Path of the (Quasi) Vegetarian

The concept of vegetarianism has always appealed to me. Like many to-do items, I have procrastinated, but it is now clear that (Quasi) vegetarianism makes sense on three massive fronts: Personal Health, Environmental Degradation and Morality. The word “quasi” is not used as an escape root, but rather a warning. In my attempt to move towards a flesh (all animals – including fish) free diet, the most challenging thing has been the inconvience of it all. When you are at friends, a French restaurant or a seaside town – the options are limited. Even the Dalai Lama (Buddhists are vegetarians though not vegans) admits that when offered meat he accepts to avoid waste, I agree.

I try not to preach an evangelical vegetarianism, where I scorn carnivores, but rather to educate people around me to the potential benefits. Just as I think smoking is bad for you, it seems meat consumption is also detrimental to your physical, mental and moral health.

People must make their own decisions, but the corporations who control and mass market food have activly deceived the public with regards to the personal and societal costs of eating a meat rich diet. Below are a few ideas on why we should avoid (too much) meat.

Health Implications

It is very, very, very, established that eating red meat and other meat in excess is bad for you. Notice how young girls and boys are hitting puberty earlier? Scientists agree that it’s linked to the hormone injected chicken nuggets in their happy meal. Need I cite heart attack rates in the West? The list is long and deep, but eat more fruits, vegetables, and a little organic meat and you will live longer and better – guaranteed.

A solid TED Talk on the general reason for eating less meat – by a well-known chef.

Environmental

If we assume that everyone is in agreement on the current situation: global warming, the non-sustainable exploitation of resources and the rising cost of food, then we can also agree that too much meat is being grown and consumed. The UN warns that the oceans’ will hold little more than jellyfish by 2050. Chew on that!

Here is a very scary report on the largest porc producer in the United States. Another interesting article on the rising cost of meat from the International Herald Tribune and another one on the discrepancy between your government sanctioned diet and farm subsidies.

Meat is a tremendously inefficient way of getting protein: imagine everyone showering in Evian water, hunting polar bears and driving hummers. Not the best use of resources you say?

Morality

This one is probably the toughest sell. But ask yourself this: do you regularly kill, clean and cook an animal? If so, you are in the very small minority of the developed world.

I think everyone can agree that factory farming is wrong. Therefore, eating meat from a factory farm is wrong, yes? Vegetarianism is a form of protest against the exploitation of animals (see great article here).

Religion, the moral compass for many, is fairly clear on this issue. The ten commandments (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) state, “Thou Shall not Kill” – it does not say “Thou Shall not Kill Humans”, it says “Thou Shall not Kill”. Buddhism is even clearer and preaches not harming sentient beings. We should do as little harm as possible to others implying leaving our fellow animals to their pastures.

If only schoolchildren were taken on a hunt. Buying chicken breasts at the supermarket is not the same thing as taking a live chicken in your hands, ringing it’s neck, and turning it into dinner. I have nothing against hunters, in fact I support them, they are often ardent conservationists and have a great respect for nature.

If we all touched the source of our food – perhaps we would choose a different way.

Horoscopes – Fact, Fiction, Who Cares

Why do people read their horoscopes? Comfort? Motivation? Is it dependent on personality types?

Recently I watched A Brave New World, based on the book by the same name written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. The (not so fictional) futuristic world has castes based on natural aptitudes, Alphas – the intelligent independent leaders, betas – the diligent workers and gammas, the labourers…

The categorization is done based on genetics and scarily enough, it fits with modern studies done by pioneer Jarome Kagan and the even more recent book by Judith Harris, “The Nurture Assumption”.

Today, such categorizations of personality types are common practice in HR offices. They help identify leaders, workers and thinkers. In a broad sense, they work.

So, is a specific type of person more likely to consult and believe in the daily horoscope? The book stumbling on happiness by Dan Gilbert (previously mentioned in this post) , which is largely based on the psycology of Danny Kahneman, people are shown to be irrational decision makers.

Decisions are made on a set of emotional reactions we have hard wired into us and some basic analysis of the situations. Variables in decisions (i.e. having more than one choice, or having the ability to go back on choices) leads all people (not a specific personality type) to be unhappy with their decision.

Emotions play a much greater importance in decision making than analytical thought. Therefore, perhaps horoscopes are efficient motivation tools BECAUSE they use emotions as the trigger for decisions, and don’t try to fight our natural tendancies.

In fact, one of the few studies on horoscopes states that they use:

Anxiety-generating threats were alternated with irrational promises of gain, an implied high socioeconomic status was juxtaposed against the ultimate dependence of the readers on forces beyond their control, and constant exhortations to extraverted adjustment were combined with recommendations to reject one’s past. The columns thereby appeared to be designed to generate dependence, helplessness, and blind obedience to authority in their consumers.

This falls into line with what makes people happy or satisfied with their decisions. The general combination of off-loading responsibility onto someone or something else and a false sense of empowerment lead to decision making. Humans, unlike deer, act when they are caught in the headlights.

So, if horoscopes make you happy, go for it, but try to use them to good ends – wait, that would be a rational decision on an emotional foundation!

Medicine, a human endeavour

Just read the book “Complications – A surgeon’s notes on an imperfect science” by Atul Gawade. Largely speaking it is about the practice of medicine. Through tightly written stories, it sweeps away many of our preconceived notions of infallible doctors and western medicine. It is absolutely fantastic.

The conclusions I found most pertinent were:

1. Learning

Short bursts with a team who has work history together is better than learning over a spread out timeframe. This is regardless of the skill or intelligence of the person (or group) who is learning.

Learning throughout a career. 75% (or more) of the information and skills you learn in training (school) will be useless. New technology and better practices will inevitably affect you and if you do not continue to learn, you will lose out.

2. Specialization to perfection

The Shouldice hernia clinic in Toronto is the best place in the world to have a hernia operation. This is because that is all they do – hernias – and have thus nearly perfected the process. This treatment of medicine as an industrial process speaks volumes of the possibilities of perfection through repetition.

Anesthesiology has greatly reduced deaths by standardizing medical equipment and practices; removing human intervention and decision making from the process. This may sound undesirable, but in reality if frees up the doctors for more creative thinking. The field of anesthesiology automated their field (thanks to an engineer) much like the airline industry (which is continually improving their safety record).

3. Mental – Physical connection

Obesity and stomach stapling have become part of American culture. After people have their stomach stapled, they still want to eat junk food, but cannot due to physical limitations. After a year or so their actual desire for junk food disappears and they prefer healthy food. This change in appetite goes hand in hand with their loss of weight. The link is between the mental state and physical state is true for most diseases.

4. People want to be told what to do, relinquish responsibility

In a time of increasing awareness of medical diseases and access to information on the web, patients are have become part of the decision making process. Despite this gift, people still want to be told what treatment they should choose. This has more to do with wanting to give up responsibility than anything else. Should something go wrong, it was not their fault. See the book “Stumbling on Happiness”.

5. Cartesian Limitations

Western medicine is based on Cartesian thought – if we know the symptoms, we can find the physical cause, and thus the cure. It is also factored into decision analysis, particularly in business ventures. If I know the risks of decision x and the payoff of the same decision I can calculate the probability of making money. This has been applied to medicine, but it becomes very difficult very quickly. How much do you value a leg, an eye or a life?

Simple cause and effect is very difficult in medicine where so many factors are at play. According to the author of the book, despite the inventions and uses of MRI, CAT scans, and other tools, incorrect medical diagnosis has not decreased in the past 30 years. Scary.

6. Transparency

The ability to openly discuss mistakes and ways to avoid them is absolutely fundamental to improving a system. But because medical practice involves death and harm, this becomes exceedingly difficult to do with pariah lawyers and cautious insurance companies. Yet, it is inevitable, in some ways doctors need to be granted asylum and only prosecuted when a trend of error becomes apparant. Good doctors make mistakes – blame does no one good

Conclusion

Don’t get sick, if you do, trust few.

Favorite quotes from the book:

Talking about free trinkets and medical conferences (pens, pads, stress balls…), “You might think six-figure surgeons would be oblivious to this petty bribery. But you would be wrong.”

And another lesson from trade-shows, “At booths, let people play.”

Fire and Thunder

I love TED Talks because the people are so insanely passionate about what they are doing. As stated by Erin McKean, “The internet is made up of words and enthusiasm.”

And Keroac’s famous (unaltered) musing: “the only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing … but burn, burn, burn like roman candles across the night.”

Forget complacency, waiting in line or doing what you’re told. Burn baby burn.