TARTLE is on a roll. We’ve had a bunch of great guests over on T-Cast of late and today is no exception. This time, Alex and Jason chat with Patrick J. McGinnis. Patrick has done a lot as a venture capitalist, the author of the book, The 10% Entrepreneur, and as a public speaker. What he is most well-known for is coining the term FOMO. For those who don’t follow the latest slang terms flying around the internet, FOMO is short for the Fear of Missing Out.
So, how is it that the invention of an internet slang term makes one's name known to many outside of the investment world? Because FOMO is a legitimate social phenomenon, one that has become more and more significant with the rise of social media. It began back in 2003 when the young Patrick was at Harvard, coincidentally at the same time Zuckerberg was working on Facebook. However, even though social media had yet to really take off, Harvard was full of choices and opportunities that would make one’s head spin. There was so much to do, it was literally impossible to do it all. Patrick noticed the effect this was having on people, himself included and wrote the article that coined the term. Since then, it has been added to the Oxford Dictionary and become part of the common parlance of the modern world.
How does FOMO actually work? It can apply in a variety of ways. It can of course be a situation in which you see or learn of something going on and you just wish that you could do that because it seems great. A more acute experience is feeling as though you’re being excluded from some kind of group experience. Patrick uses the example of the show Tiger King. It reached a…shall we say, surprising level of popularity at the beginning of COVID. How many people watched the show not because it actually sounded interesting to them, but because they just wanted to be part of the discussion? Just so they could understand the memes and the tweets? That’s just one example of something that happens all the time, the herd plays a huge role in determining the interests of the individual, which in turn determines how the individual spends his time and money. You are literally handing over your individual agency to the herd.
In a certain sense, FOMO has always been a part of the human experience. As Patrick points out, back in the early days of humanity, if you were out of the information loop on the latest antelope movements, you would likely starve to death. You definitely don’t want to miss out on that. What is different now is that it is virtually constant, about a variety of things, things that in themselves aren’t all that important. Does it matter objectively if you are up on the latest Tiger King or Game of Thrones episode? No, there are zero existential consequences. Yet, the level of anxiety a person feels may be on par with the tribesman who missed the wildebeest update.
FOMO is also intentionally used as a marketing or motivational tool. Which of course can have good or bad results depending on the ends. But we absolutely need to develop some self-awareness about how we are being manipulated. For one, the more time we spend on social media, the more we are getting manipulated and getting fed a distorted sense of reality. There are of course tons of satirical videos making fun of this, but a real world example involves a lake in Russia. The lake itself is very beautiful and a bunch of influencers go there to take photos. You are given the impression they’re chilling at a beautiful vacation spot. In reality, they are just there for the photo because if you actually go in that lake, it is so toxic that you will then be going to the hospital.
So, how to break that cycle? There isn’t an easy fix. At the end of the day, it’s the same as making decisions about health. Once you realize there is a problem, are you willing to take the necessary steps to deal with it? Can you come up with a plan to put the phone down and stick to it? Can you take back control, and are you willing to do so? That’s something that everyone has to answer for themselves.
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Last time we talked about the various costs of violence. We focused on the fact that the costs of violence if they were gathered together amount to one of the largest economies in the world, a full 10.5% of global GDP. That covers all the costs from wars, gangs, domestic abuse and all the rest of it.
What if we could somehow reclaim all those trillions of dollars dealing with the material and mental costs of violence? If we weren’t having to build tanks or pay for psychologists to deal with the long term effects of PTSD? Well, the over $14 trillion dollars annually that would be reclaimed could greatly improve the lives of everyone. More money for research, for education, for treating people with other mental health issues, as well as redoing and improving national infrastructures.
Naturally, all of that money isn’t going to go into one giant pot we could draw from to accomplish all of these lofty goals. Reality is a bit more piecemeal than that. The way it would actually work would be the government that isn’t learning how to build a bigger nuke is taking all that research to finally get fusion reactors off the ground and finally replace fossil fuels with a clean and stable alternative. It would be the family that no longer has to pay all the costs associated with the mental and physical problems that come with having the mother or father having been injured in a mass shooting. That person would be able to do more productive work, earning more for the family. In addition to not having to spend thousands on medical bills, there would be more money to pay for the kids’ education. That’s more how things would be likely to play out.
Still, how do we get from here to there? The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) – the organization that put out the statistics we’ve been talking about – has also put out Eight Pillars of Global Peace to function as a rough outline. Let’s get into it.
The first pillar is the need for a well-functioning government. That is defined as a government that provides high quality services and engenders trust in its citizens. Okay, that’s a bit of a high bar, yet the idea of a government that puts people above itself is definitely something we can get behind.
Pillar two is all about a sound business environment. This is interesting because it’s very free market friendly and these kinds of lists often aren’t the most interested in private enterprise. Yet, competitiveness and prosperity are typically associated with lower levels of violence. Basically, if you have more stuff and you live in a more stable environment there is less reason for violence in general.
Number three advocates respecting everyone’s rights. This is harkening to the promise of multiculturalism, the idea that it is possible to live side by side with those who might disagree with you. This has turned out to be difficult in practice but is still a lofty goal.
Pillar three is a great lead in to pillar four, peaceful relations with others. On a personal level, that means getting along with your neighbors and on a national scale that means getting along with nearby nations, or anyone you might be engaging with. Basically, don’t go making enemies.
The fifth pillar, the free flow of information will be familiar to you if you’ve been with us for more than a couple of minutes. As you know, we are big fans of the idea that freely sharing data is fundamental to building a better world. It’s nice to see that the IEP agrees.
Once again, pillar five takes you directly to number six which is an educated and skilled people. This is made significantly easier when you have a free flow of information.
Pillar seven – low corruption – is pretty obvious as well. When corruption is widespread, no one trusts the system and no one really participates in it. That leads to whatever is left of the system breaking down pretty quickly.
Finally, pillar eight is an equitable access to resources. This doesn’t mean that people should all be paid the same, but everyone should have the opportunity to pursue the life they want. That’s a concept that is pretty familiar if you think of it, the pursuit of happiness is right in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
This makes a pretty good outline largely because it is adaptable on the individual and global scale. And naturally, TARTLE is working to enable all of its scales by promoting that free flow of information that can make the rest possible.
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We often hear people say, ‘violence is never the answer’. Outside of defending yourself few people have any problem with that cliché. This is true on the scale of someone getting mugged to warring nations. However, the truth is that it’s much more significant that violence also has a high cost in resources, enough resources that it could have a massively negative effect on that nation’s economy.
What kind of resources are we talking about here? Up to 34% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in some countries and globally up to 10.5%. Especially considering that those are figures for western, industrialized nations with fully developed economies, that is a lot of money. Money that could be used for a ton of other, better things. Before we get into that though, let’s look at some of the ways that violence winds up costing everyone.
First, think of war. Everyone knows that wars aren’t cheap and while we often think about how much war costs the loser, it isn’t exactly cheap for the winner either. Tanks, missiles, and training all cost money, sometimes millions of dollars each. Then there is the cost associated with assimilating new territory, taking down street signs, removing statues, and the extended military presence it takes to prevent resistance. Don’t worry, this is in no way meant as a sympathy piece for aggressors. The point is that even the winner loses.
Beyond all of that, imagine a war that ends with no one getting occupied, borders return to what they were before hostilities began. There are still costs. When the soldiers come home, they are often physically injured, hampering their ability to make a living, at least without expensive medical care like prosthetics. Mentally, the issues are often even greater. Just the culture shock of going from civilian life to the rigid structure of the military and back can be significant. Having gone through combat, especially the violent house-to-house combat that many have seen since the invasion of Iraq in 2002, takes that culture shock and dials it up to 111. That can also result in a reduced ability to contribute and lots of money spent on therapy. Obviously, this hurts the individual’s ability to earn for himself but the ripple effects go far beyond that. His immediate family will suffer as will the local community and it also affects the nation’s productivity.
That’s a quick overview of the many costs of war. But that’s just one kind of violence. There are many, many more. Muggings, riots, gang wars, domestic violence, child abuse, police brutality all feed into this. Every death, every injury in some way hurts everyone else through the effects that go through our communities. In the face of gang wars or riots, people will spend their money on defending themselves, not on donating to charities and research groups. And no one can blame them. Again, the point is that violence forces people to redirect their own resources to things that may be less productive but are more urgent in the here and now.
Just think of all the great things we could be doing with all that money if it wasn’t getting spent dealing with the horrible aftereffects of violence. How many scholarships could we give? How much medical research could get done? How many addicts could get treated and kept off the streets?
How to get there? One thing that would help is to use something like TARTLE to get in touch with the people affected by violence to learn exactly how they are affected. What are the problems that they experience in their daily lives? What policies have they seen make a difference? With our global reach, TARTLE’s members could provide an extensive cross-section of all the various kinds of violence in a number of different contexts. That can help people learn how to make a real difference and get some of that money put towards things a little more productive than more tank shells.
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