RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Anil showed this in class the other day to highlight the concept of proper motivation in the workplace and to pose the question, "is there a proper motivation in the workplace?" The model presented here which is replicated in many places is -
1. Autonomy
2. Mastery of Skill
3. Purpose

He compared things to the Buddha's life in terms of the 8fold path.

Secret Powers of Time

Past Oriented - 1. past positive - focus on the 'good old times' 2. past negative - focus on regret/failure
Present Oriented - 1. Hedonistic - live for pleasure avoid pain.  2. My life is fated (by religion, poverty) Fatalism
Future Oriented - 1. We've learned to work rather than play, and avoid temptation.  2. Life begins after the death of the mortal body.

shared time perspectives characterize nations ---  culture too?

The Geography of Time - Robert Levine
Pace of Life - Time Perspective - How people divide their experiences into partitions
Time Duration - are you bored?  are you excited?

Different cultures have a different pace of life.

Education? Purpose of school is to make present-oriented beasts into future oriented adults (some cultures make them past-oriented).


Kids need to be in a situation where they feel like they are controling something (video games...)
all of our educational systems are designed toward future-oriented kids, yet, they already know the cultural time perspectives - future-oriented kids succeed in school as we have it set up.  How to teach present-oriented kids?

Kids are totally different than we were - revolution of time.

"Many of life's puzzles can be solved simply by understanding our own time perspective, and the time perspective of others.  Conflict we have with other people is simply conflict we have with each other's time perspectives.  Once we're aware of that, we stop making negative attributions like 'you're dumb' or 'you're childish' or 'you're pig-headed' or 'you're authoritarian'.  It's really the most simple idea in the world."

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

Malaria In Nepal

One teacher of mine often gives an "Intro to Nepal" talk that includes statements about pre-WWII malaria barrier that prevented the British from crossing the jungly Terai belt of southern Nepal and conquering the Rana regime in control of the Kathmandu Valley for the last 300 years. 

It is common knowledge that one of the first USAID projects in Nepal was the planned eradication of malaria in 1951.  The intended aim of which was to reduce mortality rates in this southernmost region.  Opportunity for hill tribes to move south to more arable, malaria-free land was an unforeseen consequence which leaves more than imprints of hostility on the Madeshi (native peoples) of this Terai area, complicating the constitution-writing process in various ways.

However, it seems that USAID was not successful - while malaria is not considered a risk in the higher-altitude areas of Nepal, including the Kathmandu Valley, there still remains risk in the terai belt. 

Democracy Is...