Ted Video: A monkey economy as irrational as ours by Laurie Santos

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the video questions the irrationality that we humans tend to show. the speaker draws an analogy between our economy and ‘a makeshift monkey economy’. Surprisingly, monkey reacts in the same irrational way that we do. so she concluded that our irrationality is inherent. The example showed that we think in relative terms rather than absolute. when we are considering profit we tend to play safe but when we are dealing with potential losses we tend to be riskier. we can thus conclude that such behavior leads to financial crisis that we recently faced. people tend to play riskier when faced with potential losses and thus in the process are susceptible to huge loses. such behavior kick starts domino effect in world economy which is hard to anticipate. Watch the video if you are interested psychology, economy, financial crisis, human nature. Speaker quotes ‘man is a species that refuses to accept who he really is’. This line beautifully summarizes what the speaker meant to convey.

Video:

Video: Steve Jobs on How to live before you die

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I saw this video on http://www.ted.com, a repository of talks delivered by world leaders/business leaders/innovators/designers/Entertainment Guru’s. The talks are mind-boggling and they broaden your horizon. i am regular visitor of the site and i proclaim that this ‘awesome’ site has planted a seed of inextinguishable curiosity in me. Thank you TED! i will continue to cherish videos uploaded on this site.

I highly recommend you to watch this video:

UPDATE [4/24/2012]

RIP Steve Jobs

Book Review : Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

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I am scared of huge novels. i imagine them laughing at me while i try to figure out, how on the earth will i complete this monster. But, after reading shantaran which is approx 1000 pages in size [ plus it has medium font size ], my outlook towards such novels has completely changed. i read it in Diwali vacation ’08. . The description of scenes is picturesque and the language is elegant.

It all started when I read that Johnny Depp had bought rights for some book called shantaram and it roused my curiosity. Let me sketch the outline of the book a bit. The protagonist is a man called Lindsay, who escapes Australian prison and arrives in Bombay on a fake passport. Here he befriends tourist guide prabaker, who finds him a place to live in a slum away from the eyes of the law. The slum is to be the home of Linbaba, as Lindsay is called, for the next few years. while he runs a makeshift first-aid center in the slum, he also engages in criminal activities like smuggling and counterfeiting, and eventually fights with mujhahideen of Afghanistan and acts in bollywood. Lin’s experience in Bombay range from falling in love with the beautiful karla to visiting prabaker’s village where he gets the name “shantaram”, or man of peace. The Book is Full of character’s, each character is a jewel in the crown i.e the novel. The fact that the author who is foreign to India makes an effort to understand the pulse of a complex country and does it in style makes this book a compelling read. The adventures of shantaram never ceases to amaze you. it’s a perfect script that can be translated to a movie.

Must read!

This book review found a place in Rotaract club of nirma institute’s annual magazine Reckon.