What is the best (or worst) seat on a commercial airliner? That kind of depends on whether you mean safest, healthiest, or most comfortable seat. This episode begins with a look at how to choose the best airplane seat for you. https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19536853/the-worst-place-to-sit-on-a-plane/
Albert Einstein was a cultural rock star. He was arguably one of the most popular people on the planet for much of his life. He was Time magazine’s Man of the Century. Even today, most people know who he is. His likeness is everywhere – even Doc Brown’s dog in Back to The Future was named Einstein. Albert Einstein has 20 million followers on social media even though he has been dead for almost 70 years. What was it about him that made him so popular and what are some of his many contributions to our modern lives? Here to discuss this Benyamin Cohen who actually manages all of Albert Einstein’s social media accounts and he is author of the book The Einstein Effect: How the World's Favorite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds (https://amzn.to/44moatD).
Most of us were taught to be ambitious. After all, ambition is the road to success in life. However, there may be another way to use your ambition that is less about just working harder at your job but rather diversifies your ambition into other areas of your life. This is according to Rainesford Stauffer. She is a journalist, speaker and author of the book All The Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and The Way We Strive (https://amzn.to/3DbQ5QR). Listen as she shines a different kind of light on personal ambition.
How could the color of your hair affect how much money you make? Listen as I reveal the surprising results of a 27-year study about hair color and salary, that may make you want to lighten your hair. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016517651000114X
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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welcome to now.
today, something you should know. What's the best seat on an airplane, be answers a little more complicated than you might think.
Then how albert einstein changed our lives and what a life he wept. I like to look at him as the first modern day celebrity. He was the brad pitt, the car dashing sooner all road into one and again, if you walk out
a ten year old there, a fifty year old or an eighty year old, he say you know, who's differs intelligent person that comes to mind everyone's gonna say: einstein, all
Would you guess women with blonde hair, make more money or less money than everyone else?
A re imagined way to look at personal ambition.
We really need to fix an idea of what invasion me you can search.
it'd be ambitious about work, but I think when we get more imaginative about what ambition can be, we can apply that same kind of care, drive and vision to other aspects of our lives.
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Something you should now fascinating, entail the world's top experts and practical advice. You can use your life today, something you should now make her rather ass by
We can do something you should go
more time, lotta people travel by air, and you often hear the conversation about what's the best seat or the worst seed on the airplane
actually no simple answer in turn.
Of safety, the
the seat in them
section of the plane, is the worst in terms of your risk of dying if the plane crashes, but the risk of the plane crash
is pretty small in terms of comfort, the back room,
of the airplane is the worst because well couple reasons the sea
don't recline your by the bathrooms, which could be a rather unpleasant experience
and you will be the last off the plane which might make it stressful. If you have a connection to make in terms of your
of window seats are a problem.
Primary reason seems to be that if you're sitting by the window, your less likely
get up and walk around, because you don't want to disturb the other passengers in euro. But when you
it still for long periods of time, gravity cause
your blood to pool in the legs, making it easier for blood clots to form, and that can be
real health problem, and that is something you should know
This is,
a topic that when I first saw it, I thought it's not a topic. First,
Then you should know we don't typically do biographical interviews about famous people, but the more
doug into it. I thought this is really interesting, because it's about albert einstein who, when you think about it, he's like
rockstar, but he's been dead a long time and people still reference him in conversation. Kids know who he is. He is like the benchmark for brilliant.
People say about someone he's a real.
weinstein depending
whether there being sarcastic or not? You know exactly what is meant
Albert einstein was and is amazingly famous and I'm sure you can picture his face in your mind, there aren't allowed.
Other scientists or p
in general, who have achieved that level of sustained fame. So how did this happen
so special about albert einstein. Will that turns out to be a great thing to discuss and here to discuss it is benyamin cohen, Benjamin And-
he's pretty cool. He manages all of albert einstein's social media accounts. He is the voice,
albert einstein on social media any has over twenty
lillian followers he's the author of a book,
the einstein effect how the world's favorite genius got into our cars are bathrooms and our minds. I benjamin both of you, something you should know
hey MIKE thanks for having me on
Did you I'm in europe that relatively young guy? How did you
apparently into the whole einstein thing and end up managing his social media account? I was in college
and I read a book about einstein's brains specifically about when einstein died in nineteen fifty five, the pathologist performing the autopsy stall cracked, open einstein's had install einstein's brain
and he was doing it mattered. You know he wasn't like Indiana jones trying to get a relic or anything like that. He was trying to study it to see what made einstein's brain so special. He didn't get the family's permission and the brain went missing for
many many years, but I was reading that book and I was thinking to myself how come they didn't teach that in school
when we learned about einstein like what else is there, but I am saying that people dont know about and that kind of sent me
on a journey to find out as much as I could about einstein
and so what is it just from your involvement, but it step at what is it that make
him? So me,
know what the word is, but I mean he's so
evergreen he so right there I mean there's allow
smart scientists. What makes him so,
special that he stands out years after his death. Then wait. Let me see just that
smarter and everybody else. I like to look at him as the first modern day celebrity. He was the bread
the car dashings. You know all road it rolled into one. You know of his era. He was the most famous person on the planet and I think you know many people had not understand the average. Joe did not understand what he was talking about, but he had this
sweet, genteel grandfather, we quality, he always had a pithy quote, and I think people connected with that. I think he also came to become famous right around the time when,
you, you had all these different types of media, yeah, newspapers and radio and movies we're just coming out, and so he kind I showed up at this intersection of of mass media and
he was instantly famous. Unlike us, he was the most famous person on the war in the world at that time, and you know
Ninety, ninety nine, when time magazine was deciding who make their person of the century they picked albert einstein, you know over gandhi, princess
and are the beatles or martin luther king or any of those people was his fame deliberate. Was he trying
to be famous, or was he just so whatever that is that he became famous he hated fame? He did not like you know, going to parties. He did not like social graces. He is the walk around princeton in his pajamas, but he did understand that he could use his fame to promote the
ideals that he believed him. He took advantage of that in a positive way and he became a really big humanitarian and, for example, when he
fled germany in nineteen thirty three, as the nazis rose to power, he came to the united states and
We created an organization called the international rescue committee, which is and refugee resettlement organization,
and still around today is one of the largest refugee resettlement organizations around today. Its helping ukraine in refugees today and that that's a huge part
if his legacy, he was very involved in the civil rights movement. He didn't understand. You know he had left a place in germany at you know in the beginning of world war, two where people were others and people were discriminated against and he came to america and he couldn't
Leave you. No discrimination was going on here as well, a different kind of discrimination, so he just felt it was a personal mission of is to fight discrimination wherever he saw it, and so he like, I said it was very active.
rights movement, he spoke at lincoln university, which was the first university to give degrees to black students. He spoke there at the commencement ceremonies even paid for one of the students tuition. He just really wanted to do every could to help. Was he rich not at all? Now, as a matter of fact, funny story, he made some money from the nobel prize that he won in eighteen, twenty one, but he had gotten divorced a few years earlier to it. From his first wife
however, and as part of the divorce agreement she knew this was before he won the price. She knew that one day he would win the nobel prize, and so as part of the divorce settlement, she asked for all the money that he would win from the no it's. So
how to pay her all that money. Some, he wasn't a poor person, but he was certainly not rich. You could drive by if you ever in princeton his house, which is about a mile from prince,
university, it's a pretty small, very modest house, so he was
a wealthy. Men are all so we
einstein for his theory of relativity, but but what
in just kind of a shopping list like water, the other contributions that
stein made. My favorite example of this is gps, so we use gps in our cars and our phones. You know getting directions, places
all the time you know, if you think about the next time you have a pizza deputed, though every guy comes your house. He found your house because it gps and the whole without getting into the signs of it, namely because I'm not a scientist but the way
if he s works, is you know you're moving your cars moving? The earth is rotating an essay
lights and spacer are moving constantly. All three of those things are constantly in motion. An einstein theory of relativity came up with the mathematical equation to have all those things work in unison, so you could say that the satellites here that earth this year and you're driving down the street. We know exactly where you're gonna be five seconds from now ten seconds and help,
seconds from now, and so that's all because of einstein. What else in popular culture is is he was
possible for orb or had a part in he had.
Nineteen o five. He was just twenty six years old. He probably had he peak early. He added
prolific year ever in nineteen o five at the age of twenty six
the historian, simply call it einstein's miracle year and during that year,
I wrote for revolutionary papers that just kind of turned science on it's head and have from those papers a lot of technologies came about, so lasers were invented because of those techno. Because of those papers, remote controls stemmed from
einstein's miracle year, when you walk into a grocery store and the doors automatically open up again without going into the science
has to do with light and a beam of light and a beam of light
is you walking in it opens the doors einstein came up with that idea. Einstein's theories can be seen in the stock market and whether predictions in camp
who compounds like shampoo in your bathroom he's he's really everywhere.
If my goal is, is kind of to show people that he's there. But don't you think that says somebody else would have figured out the grocery store door thing if he hadn't been there
It doesn't seem like it takes an einstein to come up with that. One
actually what he won the nobel prize for yeah yeah. It was not for the theory of relativity it was not for equals. Mc squared. It was because of his light theories,
which sure I mean his light theories- are in the space travel there. Other everywhere has his light theory, so I think he does he well here that nobel prize
His family were well deserved.
When you say a lot of things have been invented as a result of einstein's work. Is it because
was trying to invent things for the world.
or he was
doing his science in his research and his teaching and it was
result of that work that somebody else then invented this stuff. I would say the latter
was a theoretical physicists. So he came up with a lot of ideas. He wasn't the type
physicists, like you, know, wearing a lab code in other inner with beakers, and you know actually coming up with things from practical perspective. We came up with the ideas and then people will take those ideas and turn them into practical things. He did how
ever patent several inventions during his lifetime. He came up with a refrigerator that did not need to be plugged in. I guess you can call it the first eco friendly refrigerator. He came up with a very he has a patent. Hmm, I enough I'd call this a technology invention, but he has a patent
and expandable shirt so that you know when you eat dinner, like after thanksgiving dinner, you're feeling kind of heavy the shirt would expand,
and so he has a patent on that sure you see now. If, if you gave me a list of things that einstein invented and that was on there and it said pick pick one that didn't belong, that would be the one that didn't mean that doesn't sound like an einstein thing, no, not at all.
now it is everywhere and, like you were mentioning earlier, it's not just sign. I his. He has been such an inspiration to people across
industries, you'd. Look, I interviewed a bunch of actors and artists who look at einstein as their amuse. You know, there's been so he's appeared in pop culture, he's been in
in a movie he's been in tv shows he's been in books. You know you don't
that with galileo or even our shakespeare use, you know he just has that
I qua I you know he has that everyone wants to everyone can relate to him on some level. You know, even if you're, not a scientist and again, if you walk up to a
you know a fifth grader a ten year old or a fifty year old or an eighty year old. You say you know: who's who's, the first genius who's, the first intelligent person that comes to mind everyone's going to say, einstein,
We are discussing the life career and contributions of albert einstein with Benjamin Cohen. He is the manager of albert einstein, social media accounts and author of the book, the einstein effect if you're apparent. I bet that, subject
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that isn't to say choir. You were talking about that. I, like I said, there's, there's a lot of really smart scientists and and yeah. Maybe he was a little smarter than but he's he's like this
rock star and I dont
Your stand, just exactly
what that genocide qua ism, and maybe that's why we're calling it a genre sake, ache, LA exactly so might
job is, I am the official
manager of us einstein's official social media accounts. So he has to
million fans across facebook, twitter and instagram? He's? Probably the most active dead celebrity on so you know
John John wayne is on twitter, but he really doesn't have much to say you know Ellen
on twitter marilyn Monroe was on twitter, but none of these people have
Many followers as I'd stay einstein has more facebook friends. Then Tom hanks and I think it's you know it is a shame
quiet skokie. Why does he have twenty? My followers and Elvis? Doesn't
or galileo doesn't or newton
customer or any these famous scientists it people relate to him. I met
and, like other dead celebrities. His stuff must be very valuable. There's a large market for einstein, relics at auction houses solely einstein's pipe goes up for auction. Its other bees are.
a couple of years ago the largest einstein auction happened in paris, for it was over eleven million dollars. It was a twenty pages of his scribbling about the general theory of relativity went for over eleven million
works well, we so I was so I was
writing, a lot of stories about einstein and the einstein. Archives are located at most people really closely associate einstein princeton university, which is where he spent the entire spent most of his career, but he was found.
Most people don't notice. He was a founder of hebrew university in Jerusalem. He was one of the founders of that school and he wanted to
quit his estate to them when he died so all of his papers. Everything is at the hebrew university in Jerusalem and the archives. They have. Eighty five thousand documents there they have is original
They have the nobel prize there they have. The original forty six pages of the theory of relativity does agree stain on page forty. Five by I can tell you.
but that's run by academics, the archives they don't really than that really into social media, and so they were.
To hire someone who could post several times a day stories about einstein
and so they saw. I was writing all these articles in the they offered me, the gig, and so I've been doing that for the past five six years have been doing that, and you know just a circle back a full
circle moment in this all started with meat. Reading about einstein's brain
a book, I wanted to find out where the brain was so the eyes, and I mention the pathologists, stole the brain and echoed it up. It
little pieces and was sending little pieces to brain scientists all around the world, but he kept most the pieces in mason jars and
We're, like you, know in his basement and a beer cooler for decades and he died.
In two thousand seven- and nobody knew where the with, where the beer cooler was with einstein's brain in it, but
able to track down another doktor princeton has it now. And
got to hold it in my hand, this jar of einstein's brain and in
it was a real spiritual experience for me holding that brain. You know it's not just. Ok, here's the last physical vestige of albert einstein, which in itself is kind of amazing, but it's what his brain represent.
So he became famous, but was his fame, gradual or was there some moment in time where all of us
in the spotlight went on, and everybody said, look at this guy absolutely so the day he became famous, I like to say the day he became immortal was made. Twenty ninth
nineteen nineteen. Nobody knew who einstein was before. May twenty? Ninth nineteen, I mean nobody outside germany knew who einstein was before. May twenty? Ninth nineteen nineteen, so he had come up with this general theory of relativity, which
quickly. You know several hundred years before him newton had come up with the with how the world worked. Everyone just believe. That's the way the world works,
and then several hundred years later einstein comes along and says: nope I have a completely different framework about the universe, operates and that
his theory of relativity and nobody believed him, he couldn't prove it. He came up with it. Nineteen sixteen, I think nobody believed him and the only way
prove that the fear of relativity worked again without going into all the signs was too.
Photographic, solar eclipse and during a solar eclipse, the star
as in the sun are aligned just in a certain way. That would prove his theory.
so he sent out. He had astronomers helping him all over the world. There was a team expedition in Brazil and there was an expedition in africa off the coast of western africa that photograph this was the longest eclipse of the twentieth century. It was over six minutes long and they took all these photographs and, and those photographs proved the theory of relativity, and so they had this big press conference in london and they made this announcement and people were so surprised. They were not expecting it. The near.
I'm sent their gulf reporter to cover the events at the next day. It was on the front page of the new york times: Einstein you know trot, I think you're. The headline was einstein triumphs and ever since then he became this international rocks.
Was he a nice guy
He was, I think he knew it was a very empathic guy brain pathetic. He was the typical
like we imagine absent, minded professor. He was always losing his keys. You know him,
walk into a room- and you know, forget what he was doing. He got lost all the time. You know we talked about gps. The irony is: einstein had a horrible sense of direction. He never got his driver's license, use the love sailing that was the most
full time for him, but just to be out in the water by himself, and he always got lost and people how to help bring his boat back too sure, because he couldn't be couldn't figure out there
You mentioned a couple of times that the person who did the autumn
the young einstein took his brain or how did he not get into
Well, for that, how did the family not scream? Wait? You can't
take his brain. He ass, he told the family afterwards, a few days
there was no and they were, they were furious because Einstein did not
want to be buried anywhere. He wanted to be cremated and because he didn't want his grave site become
The shrine in other people would throw worship him, as he wanted to see, was. Cremated are the very next day after he died, and then
the family found out? Oh by the way we have this brain here and they were very upset and they tried to get it back and the doktor begrudgingly convince them to let him keep the brain and study it and
but just the doctor he was a pathologist and I wasn't really a brain researcher, and so he didn't know what to do with it, so it just kind of sat there on his shelf.
Years and years and years, and it wasn't all the ninety ninety so late, ninety nineties, that he actually got pieces of the brain into scientists who figure ina, who could actually do serious research on it? At that point, you know einstein. The executor of einstein estate had died already
that point, but this doctor who, when I say that he died in two thousand seven, he died feeling like he accomplished what he was trying to do, because he he felt vindicated, because some scientists did see that einstein spray
will you make sure he has become a meal
I guess he's always been since he's been around this part of our culture, part of the vote
killer. When you call somebody and einstein you'd, be people know what you're talking about what did
the dog in back to the future's name, was Einstein yeah and speaking of that movie, christopher lloyd, who played doc brown told me, because I interviewed him for the book as well, and he told me that that character of doc brown wasn't
by einstein goes back to what we were saying earlier. It's not just scientists who are inspired by inside, but its pop culture. You know depictions of einstein, inspire people as well ma bright. You look at the dark brown from back,
future the hair, the white hair, the crazy hair. I mean deadly upheaval, wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was
and his dogs name. Dynamiters, hello, yeah, like I said christopher.
I said einstein was his template for that character, and he also told me that that's the one character of all the movies he's been in. You know, people come up to him and say it was an inspiration. You know I decided to become a scientist because of
character and that movie or what a great story and the and clearly it appeals and resonates with that off a lot of people. You ve got twenty million social media followers. I mean that's just, but just amazing I've been,
king with Benjamin Cohen? He
the manager of albert ice.
in social media accounts and
author of the book? The einstein effect how the world's favorite genius got into our cars are bathrooms and our minds there's only two that book in a show notes. Thanks for coming on benny
absolutely this? Is I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks? Thank you. So much a k, p m d is people who make the difference for their clients with tat
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the
there is one word in the english language that seems pretty straightforward, not controversial, even admirable. It's the word ambition
Having ambition is a good thing. It is the need to achieve were taught to be ambitious.
We want our kids to be ambitious, but perhaps
There is another side to ambition that we don't talk about much and here
to discuss that is ransford staffer she's, a journalist and
speaker and author of a book called all the gold stars reoccur
joining ambition and the way we strive. High rates heard welcome
something you should know hey there. Thank you
For having me, so you talk
out our productivity culture, which I sense
what that means that we work to be productive, that that product,
but he bring success which in many ways feels very natural, almost human nature,
you want to get ahead and be successful. You have to work hard, be ambitious. That seems
by the way? It is that's the way it has been so
how do you see it when I think of this? The first
thing that comes to mind. Is the idea that we are supposed to work our way into worthiness that, through how
We work the achievements we locked down and our outputs. We prove that were worthy of rest of fine
the space we take up and how we spend,
time is connected to self worth, in the sense that the more productive we are, the better we are, and we see this,
all kinds of ways by it happens earlier than we realise the connection.
achieve and connection between what you produce and how you feel about yourself starts early for
out of us, it starts when were children and when you think of gold, star stickers and school kids needing to be the best at a dozen activities and excel in the classroom, which of course put
pressure on parents too, and then that transition
is the higher education. If you pursue it, it transitions to work, and it spells out
coupled with a society that tells us always being on, is the best thing we can do slowing down feels unrealistic, if not impossible, and I think the hard part about that is its really broken idea of what it means to be
the directive when we zoom out that's a really narrow framing of what productivity can mean because taking care of yourself as productive spending
with your loved ones, is productive. Getting better
a hobby that matters to you also productive, but those things are seen as extra
or luxuries after we ve worked our way into them. First, what would be ideal that? What what is it that you are proposing,
that's different than the way things are. What are you suggesting that that there is a better way, a couple things here? I think, if we're going to,
port people's ambition. That means giving them the resources and support necessary to pursue their ambitions on their own terms. I think really,
in italy. We really need to expand our ideas of what ambition can be. You can search
We be ambitious about work, I'm ambitious about mine, but I
when we zoom out and we get more imaginative about what ambition can be and what back and look like, whether that spending time with your loved ones, whether its practising a
beat whether it's getting ambitious about serving your community. We can apply that same kind of care in
engine drive and vision to other asked
of our lives and make it more robust as a result, but what, if you don't want to what? If does I can remember
but when I had my first job and it was in the radio business and I love
and I lived it breathed it ate. It slept it I there
nothing else I wanted to do I loved it? What's what's wrong with that? I think it
for you nothing's wrong with that. I think what I've
in play out in my reporting, is that a lot of a narrow idea of size,
it means to be ambitious within those confines, isn't working for a lot of people, and I
What comes through is that there is not a one size fits all definition of any of these things of what it means to be ambitious of what it means to be productive. I think, if some
wants to poor their whole heart in there
identity and their whole self into work? Then that's a valid choice if it feels right for them. I also don't think that should be the expectation for all of us, and I think that by broadening our idea of what it means to be ambitious, we give people the space to make that choice for themselves.
You really think that that there is this expectation that everybody,
excel in,
thing in issue like who sets that expectation. I think our system
It says that expectation is for everyone. I think we have a lot of specific and defined irc types of what it means to be successful and timelines on which to do it. I think it looks like being
a star student and a star at your extracurricular and knowing exactly what you want a major and when you go to college and graduating in four years. I think it looks like entering one career path and going up that career.
adder with very little exploration along the way, and that certainly
to say everyone does that, but I do think that that remains the stereotype of what it means to be successful, and I think that that only not only overlap
the structural components and barriers along the way. But again, I think it is
That's our ideas of how we discover new paths,
didn't, discover new things were good. I think it strips away an element of curiosity that, in my opinion, is really important for ambition it.
Though, like if you want
yet in two? Let's say I really press
ages college. You have got to work like crazy to get your grades up to get to do all the ducks in a row that you need to to get in
college, if you don't
if you say well, you know I have
things I need to pursue, and I need to do that these other things you're not going to get in
you're not doing what you need to do, because those are the requirements to get it now.
I dont disagree with that at all, but I would argue, the idea of a really prestigious college varies
based on the needs of a student. You know for myself.
I wasn't
concerned about the reputation of the school I attended, as I was the other parts of my life that were happening at the time. The job that I had beneath
that I had the reality
he's of working? While I was in school all factored into my college choice? I think that the broader point there is that
we think of invasion only as working hard in one specific way in my
opinion we just lose out on a lot for a lot of people,
an absolutely looks like committing themselves to following a dream and
academia or in work or in these things that are considered traditionally successful, and I think that for a lot of people in,
it looks like something else and that both are valid, it sounds like what your offer you
basically an invitation to get out of the rat race to step off the treadmill
There are other ways to go if you're feeling stuck in that, but but if you
are stuck in mad like how do you do this?
Do you move from where, from that, the more
traditional conventional definition of ambition to your day,
the mission of ambition. How do you
that transition- that's a great question, because a lot of
systems uphold one idea of achievement. It does feel very much like stepping off the wheel or kind of going against the grain to do something a certain way. But when I spoke to people, I heard of a couple key thing
number one, instead of separating things out
like thinking what I'm going to work less, I'm going to do less, something that I thought was really interesting with how many people talked about adding things in that when they prioritized friendship and fine.
An hobbes and these things that we think of this kind of being on the sidelines of our lives, is being extra, are after thoughts.
by centering them. It made them feel much more. Fulfil
the much more engaged and more productive in those spaces. I think number two,
setting your own idea of milestones is really important, because we have quite the social script that tells us what it looks like.
To achieve something in when we ought to achieve it. I would encourage people to step back and think of
what matters to them in terms of the future of their lives, and that might very well be something like graduating college or a big achievement at work, but it can also be
lot smaller and making time deposit
and celebrate those smaller wins goes
long way in terms of not just rethinking your ambition, but also making sure that you feel system
in and supported along the way which fires you up to whatever your pursuing keep going on your own timeline. What if you want to do
something, though that requires the more conventional ambition. If you want to be a doctor, you gotta go to medical school. You that, as you know, you're gonna be workin, pretty hard. You're not gonna, be having a lot of time for friends and hobbes, because that's what it takes to become a doctor, you can't say: well, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna re prioritize this and not go too far,
this week and you can't do that. No, but I also don't think anyone's being asked to. I think it goes back to the idea that we have different needs at different points of our lives and if especially, if you're in a career, that's intensive, like you're in the medical profession, theirs and down.
the legal and to be points of life where your work gets the most of you, it gets the most time it gets the most energy. I think that thing
in consciously about those trade offs is really important and I even think it's important from a work perspective. So you know why you're putting
and all that effort and why it matters to you so much
I have to say I also spoke to people in the medical profession and they talked a lot about how having things like hobbes or other outlets.
or staying in the moment and focusing on what they're doing as they're doing it do actually help them
again, I'm sure this looks a little bit different for everyone, but I dont think that
the solution is dont work hard or don't do what you need
do especially in a career
matters to your in something you're passionate about. I think it's about giving more people the upper edge opportunity to do those things, but you can understand, though, that that when I hear you talk it, it does sound like you're telling people not
work so hard. I'm sure that's how some people worry that I have
absolutely. No doubt I don't think that's what came
in the conversations I had with people when I think about some of the individuals I spoke to
the idea of them. Now
working hard of them. Not caring of them not being invested, really does seem laughable
but I also am of the opinion that people should not have to work so impossibly hard and overwork. More specifically, in order to live a safe and fulfilled life
this all begins. You know it seems to begin in school where, where you have to be somewhat competitive, you have to get good grades on your
papers in and do well on tests that you need. So you have to be ambitious to be at the top of your class, and
so it seems like it starts there and that kind of sets the tone for the rest of your life. I do
It starts a very early. I think that this one specific idea of ambition starts long before we might use the word ambitious, especially when thinking about children, but I also think
There is a lot to be said for not ever
student is going to be at the top of the class. That's not possible!
wouldn't be a topic of the class. So
I wonder a lot about how it would look if it was focused more on every student being able to foster.
If they're interested in how they invest,
time and knowledge and how those skills play out and putting them in environments where that's really supported and encouraged and teachers are compensated accordingly, which kind of takes the competitiveness out of it.
But removes none of the hard work or discipline required to practice something and be good at it
That may I get that. That's that's important and I think that the undercurrent of all of this or a lot of this is if you're not ambitious. If you dont work hard, if you don't focus on that,
You will suffer that their you
What have the money? You won't? Have the power
stage in life that that there's a there's a
meant him underneath. All of this is pushing people big. I guess out of fear, I think
Out of it is fear and the idea that we can work our way in to safety and security, which is just fundamentally not true for a lot of people, and I think that work harder is.
then it is the solution in a lot of different directions. If you're working a job
its abusive or under pays, you you're supposed to work harder to find a different job if you're working a job you like, but maybe you're a little burn out where you dont know what to do next, you're supposed to work harder, and
to prove yourself long enough to get to take a rest, and I think that
when we kind of zoom out and think about what that does it's not so much about hard work as it is about people trying to hang on and when I think about the ideas,
we lose out on the things that we missed from people in terms of their talents and their gifts and the things they share with the world. That's what I think of when I think of the idea that we can accomplish
or achieve our way into security. We ve seen time and time again that play out in society is completely untrue and for a lot of us completely impossible, and so again, if more people
had access to resources, benefits like time off, they'd have more opportunities to be ambitious about more things.
I like what you're saying, because it for myself have always been
she's in the more traditional sense, and- and I know that I bet you always have this thing in the back of your mind- that if you don't someone's gonna overtake you someone's it like you, ve gotta stay focused in. I think that's the way. A lot of people are that that you know work first and then, if there's time for everything
else. I do think that that's a really common mentality and look if that works for someone. If that genuinely fulfils them, I think that they should have every opportunity to pursue it in that direction. I think when I think about this, though,
I think that's a really narrow definition of what it means to be successful or what it means to be productive and work hard and I'm more interested in how we create.
Spaces, for people to think about ambition or chasing their dreams are doing these things. They require a lot of dr that are not necessarily inherently connected to work. A lot.
That c drive is the is that force that we haven't really talked about, but but, and some people have a lot more of it than others, and I think that helps to or the that
partly responsible for which way you go and how fast you get there is is, is how driven you are and see
I think a lot of it depends on on structures, because I can be as as driven as I want, but if I dont have some sort of support along the way people helping me getting from point a to point b, I'm not sure
I've matters as much and that's not to say it doesn't matter at all. I think I admire so many people who have said
you drive and such commitment when how they think about the world, but I also don't think that dr weir,
talent alone. Are the end
because, in terms of where someone ends up, I think it is a much bigger, broader picture of the contacts thing
this then, and the support they have that fosters that drive that encourages those too
once that opens those doors. I think the context that really matters, but if you,
If europe say you wanna be a guitar player and you don't practice and make it a real focus
you want to develop other things in your life, your friendship, your hobbes and everything else, but you, you still have to bid. You still have to put in the time to become a great guitar player or you won't become a great qatar player
I think, of course you have to put in the time and the effort- I you know, I think about this in myself. In terms of writing, I obviously really wanted to be a writer, and I spent a lot of time practicing that fast.
during that skill, sat trying to learn as much as I could, which is something I will be trying to do for ever learn from every conversation, learn as much as I can and figure out how to practice that in my own writing. But I also think that,
One of the reasons that I have been able to write. The way I have been is because a lot of people took chances on me. A lot of people were willing to men tore me. They were willing to open doors for me, and so I dont think it was just about.
how much time and energy and effort I put an. I think that there is a lot of luck and a lot of grace from other people.
Inherent in that and again
It depends on the individual. I can only speak for myself and the conversations that I had during my reporting by pouring down
into other things thinking about the world differently because of the conversations I was having in those spaces made me
in my opinion, a better writer and a better thinker than I was before
and so I think, a lot of the time, even if you're not focused specifically in a moment on practising a concrete skill, a lot of the time the expiring
this is your having in your life, come into play to foster that in very unexpected ways. I think, though, to that when you,
that people helped you along the way people tend to help people where they see some potential. They're, not gonna, help somebody if they'd. If they don't see that you, you ve, got that whatever. That is.
though, that it thing that that you know I mean I mean that that they clearly it as a writer you, you have something that people recognise and that's a talent. They were willing to help. You foster- and I think I'll always be grateful to them, for helping me foster that I think the question
kind of preoccupies. A lot of my time is what does it mean
for someone to have potential and who got the opportunity to develop it, because I dont think that I just
was born on this earth, with its specific skills that I think that a lot of my time and energy went into it for sure. But I also think that I was in a position where I had people who encouraged me to be curious,
encouraged me to keep trying. Even when I failed and really spectacular ways, and not everyone
that our systems are not set up for everyone to have that. So I think that we lose out on the potential of a lot of spectacularly talented people in a lot of different fields because of lack of access, lack of resources and lack of support
So let me ask you to sum this up, because you're really kind of re, imagining the concept
ambition for many of us,
So. What is that vision? What is it that you see ambition to be
we re imagining ambition, looks like getting more ambitious about more things. I think it looks like investing in your committee, your friendship,
your colleagues, the people around you with the same sense of drive and care as you would work accomplishment. I think that back and look at
both as putting
standing at check in call with a friend on your calendar every week. I think it can look like reaching out to people to let them know how much you love their work or
something that you're really grateful for that they ve done for you in your life. I think it looks like practicing
hobby doing something beyond work, that's interesting and in terms of work, I think it also.
like broadening what it means to be ambitious about that? How can we move beyond just our
individual accomplishments and make work more collective and open doors for more people
well. This is certainly a different and fresh way of looking at ambition, and
kind opens up a lot of opportunities. So I appreciate you, come on. Ransford has been making
she's, a journalist and speaker and the name of her book is all the gold stars re imagining ambition and the way we strive, and there is a link to that book in the show notes.
Thank you for coming rainsford? Thank you so much
I appreciate it.
the
it true. Blonds have more fun maybe, but it is true,
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the other women on test scores and education blondes had the highest percentage of
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Transcript generated on 2023-09-17.