Effective altruism

As much evidence we have that generosity and empathy bring more happiness to givers than receivers, we might consider giving people a break who really don’t care about the well-being of others and in fact are fairly repulsed by the concept. What we could consider is being more strategic and effective in our sense of social responsibility.

Philosopher Peter Singer in his recent TED talk on effective altruism makes this case and proposes some concrete suggestions as to how. His approach supports the idea that instead of trying to make uncaring people care, we need to invest more effectively in how those of us care do care.

Peter Singer: The why and how of effective altruism | Video on TED.com

The Art Student Asset

Every year, every community and region graduates more creative students in art, music, dance, writing, photography, film, and design. Every year, people should come together to talk about how the could best engage, support, and access each new year’s harvest of talent, energy, and perspective. Make it a pot luck. Showcase work. How hard is that? How amazing would that be?

Alternative Economies & Peace

I’m doing some writing for the new book on peace. It’s an odd topic interestingly enough, not as straightforward as it sounds. It is a theme punished by lip service especially in political realms. It’s easy for some to idealize and romanticize about peace. The reality is that there are more people than you would imagine who make a lot of money and stay rich from war. They are as cut-throat about it (pun pardoned) as one would expect any Wall Street shark to be: profits over people and planet, and peace.

This is precisely why any chance of each anywhere is in the building of alternative economies. It is far more difficult, strategic and innovation intensive work than the barbaric acts of war. To that, education must be focused.

The future of entertainment

The entertainment industry has always been inventive and continues its creativity in continuously reinventing its relevance. Its prime asset is not its properties, brands, or financials. Its prime asset is the demand. I would argue that people demand to be pacified as consumers of entertainment to the extent that they are not engaged in their work and world.

The data is there. The vast majority of people feel actively disengaged in their workplaces and communities.

This is not a rant against passive entertainment. It is a call for creating new venues where people can become creators of entertainment and more fully engaged as contributors to a happier world.

Civilizing the planet through lovingkindness

Barbara Fredrickson of UNC and colleagues recently affirmed the relationship between lovingkindness meditation, health indicators and social connections. The vagus nerve plays a vital role in health and our sense of social compassion and connectedness. The researchers studied possible changes in the functioning of this nerve and behavior with two groups who did and did not participate in six weeks of hour-long classes in meditation focused on wishing good for others in their daily lives.

The vagus regulates how efficiently heart rate changes with breathing and, in general, the greater its tone, the higher the heart-rate variability and the lower the risk for cardiovascular disease and other major killers. It may also play a role in regulating glucose levels and immune responses.

In addition, and relevant to the study, the vagus is intimately tied to how we connect with one another — it links directly to nerves that tune our ears to human speech, coordinate eye contact and regulate emotional expressions. It influences the release of oxytocin, a hormone that is important in social bonding. Studies have found that higher vagal tone is associated with greater closeness to others and more altruistic behavior.

More of the meditators than those on the waiting list showed an overall increase in positive emotions, like joy, interest, amusement, serenity and hope after completing the class. And these emotional and psychological changes were correlated with a greater sense of connectedness to others — as well as to an improvement in vagal function as seen in heart-rate variability, particularly for those whose vagal tone was already high at the start of the study.

via The Biology of Kindness: How It Makes Us Happier and Healthier | TIME.com

In this age where people must yet endure barbaric bullying and other insensitivities across contexts, these studies show promise and deserve scaling in any ways possible.

Rethinking Contests

A local foundation recently sponsored a prize awarding contest to high school students competing for best dream. It drew the usual drama of excitement. And many of the submissions were genuinely inspired. Whenever I work with an organization or community who uses contests to spark engagement, I feel a significant obligation to get them considering the community building implications.

In a scenario where 200 people enter a competition where 3 receive generous prizes, we are investing in the creation of 197 new losers. 197 people who have new reasons to question their worth and/or the worth of the group declaring their suckitude.

For some, this is a huge ah-ha. It is completely wasted on others.

Fortunately, there are countless ways to invite engagement in ways that authentically builds a community of worthy contributors.

The Power Of Small Acts

I am always delighted by a community that gets small acts. These are small experiments we can start today, with what we have, to do one thing that realizes a dream. Small is smart. Small is the mother of kind learning. It’s the possible that we need no permission or consensus for. It’s what can liberate us from our excuses to postpone the future we want to see possible.

Small is self-directed empowerment that doesn’t wait for big to save us from our perceived victimhood. It’s magic.

The Power Of Conversations

It’s interesting working with people around the world who have eroded faith in their leaders and the hype of economic success when it comes to the real work of building communities. I’m working these days in the urban core of Detroit whose vacant land is equivalent to the size of the city of San Francisco. People there who see themselves as change makers resonate immediately with the observation that communities move in the direction of their conversations.

When they learn new conversations that make a difference, they refer to their discovery as nothing less than “transformational.” These are the conversations that make a new future more possible. They are conversations where people are invited to voice their dreams and translate these into small acts that engage their gifts and others who share their dreams.

As it turns out, change in urban cores is both inevitable and vital. The character of our communities will always perfectly reflect the character of our conversations.