We know that time flows from the past to the future. We remember the past and make predictions about the future. You stir cream in your coffee, and it mixes in. It doesn't un-mix. The classical understanding of the nature of time is that time is absolute - that time ticks by the seconds, minutes, hours, and years at the same rate for everyone. The directionality of time comes from the idea in classical physics called the 'second law of thermodynamics', which states that a quantity called 'entropy' (which is a measure of the disorder of a system) always increases.

We see time as absolute

Because of the equations of special relativity and the nature of the speed of light, Einstein was forced to let go of the Newtonian idea of absolute time.  Einstein taught that time and space are connected. Space and time are relative. It ticks at different rates for different people, depending on your frame of reference. It's malleable and stretchable. But Einstein takes it further with his 'general theory of relativity' and says what Newton taught about the invisible force of gravity pulling objects together is really about the shape of space-time.

Einstein's view of time

Clocks tick at different rates depending on where they are in Earth's gravitational field. From Einstein's perspective, time is integral to reality itself.  Looking at the way the equations of quantum mechanics evolve in time, you could run the tape forwards or backwards without knowing the difference.  Time is a parameter in the quantum world. It is just a number.  But quantum systems are not isolated, they are always interacting with their surroundings, which gives a direction to time.

Gravity affects time

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation. Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch Jim Al-Khalili 's next interview ► What if quantum physics could eradicate illness? https://youtu.be/gElOu6WzgiU Is our experience of time different from how time actually works? Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and author of The Joy of Science, offers a lesson on the science of time — from Newton to Einstein to quantum thermodynamics. Going beyond the classical “common sense” view of time as absolute, Al-Khalili explains how Einstein changed everything when he taught us that time is relative and time and space are connected. “Time," says Al-Khalili. “ticks by at different rates for different people depending on your frame of reference, and it’s malleable and it’s stretchable.” Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/the-science-of-time/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jim Al-Khalili: Jim is a multiple award-winning science communicator renowned for his public engagement around the world through writing and broadcasting and a leading academic making fundamental contributions to theoretical physics, particularly in nuclear reaction theory, quantum effects in biology, open quantum systems and the foundations of quantum mechanics. Jim is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory in 1989 and has published widely in the field. His current interest is in open quantum systems and the application of quantum mechanics in biology. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read more from The Well: I put a camera on a monkey. Here’s how it shook my understanding of humanity ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/awe-ani... Atheism is not as rare or as rational as you think ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/atheism... System 1 vs. System 2 thinking: Why it isn’t strategic to always be rational ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/system-... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. So what do they think? How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions? Let’s dive into The Well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

Stashed ideas

How Einstein changed time forever | Jim Al-Khalili for Big Think

People have been practising mindfulness for thousands of years. Mindfulness was popularised in the East by religious and spiritual institutions. The popularity of mindfulness in the West is rooted in Buddhist and Hindu traditions and can be traced to particular people and secular institutions.

The History of Mindfulness

Hinduism is widely considered to be the oldest religion in the world. It initially arose as a synthesis of many religious traditions around the historical region that now makes up India. Then, in the 1800s, British writers started calling Vedic traditions Hinduism. The earliest traditions, which have since been incorporated into Hinduism, arose more than 4,000 years ago in the Indus Valley- now Pakistan. These religious traditions continued to develop in Vedic writings 2,500-3,500 years ago, including rituals and the worship of gods common to modern-day Hinduism.

A Brief History of Hinduism

Buddhism was founded around 400-500 B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama, who became referred to as the Buddha. Since the Buddha's lifetime, it has split into several different traditions, including Theravada Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. Buddhism and Hinduism share many commonalities. One is they're both concerned with the concept of dharma - a way of life that is in harmony with the universe's natural order. Mindfulness (Sati) is considered to be the first step towards enlightenment.

A Short History of Buddhism

Some mindfulness meditation practices, such as the body scan, are very similar to yoga as they both involve awareness of one’s body. The origin of yoga coincides with the origin of Hinduism, and the recent rise of yoga’s popularity in the West coincides with the rise of mindfulness. This underscores the intertwined nature of Buddhism, Hinduism, mindfulness, and yoga.

How Mindfulness Relates to Yoga

Jon Kabat-Zinn was the biggest influence on bringing mindfulness from the East to the West. Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Oasis Institute for Mindfulness-Based Professional Education and Training. Here, he developed his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Kabat-Zinn learned about and studied mindfulness under several Buddhist teachers, including Thich Nhat Hanh, which gave him an Eastern foundation in mindfulness that he integrated with Western science.

How Mindfulness Moved From East to West

Mindfulness plays an important role in the greater field of psychology and positive psychology. Mindfulness has become a tool for any practitioner’s toolbox. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) are used to treat a variety of patients. Mindfulness meditation is also used to increase an individual's level of well-being.

Mindfulness’ Role in (Positive) Psychology

<ul><li>Mindfulness could be a yoga practice that involves mindfulness</li><li>It might involve setting aside time for mindfulness meditation sessions</li><li>It could involve practising mindfulness during everyday activities, such as washing dishes.</li></ul> Very few mindfulness traditions are based on restricting their teachings to an exclusive group. Therefore the versatility of mindfulness is the key part of the philosophy of mindfulness, whether it is practised religiously or in a secular matter.

Mindfulness Practice and Philosophy

Mindfulness' roots reach deep into Buddhism, religion, psychology, and philosophy. Here you'll find a complete history of mindfulness.

History of Mindfulness: From East to West and Religion to Science

<ul><li>Loneliness is not only about wanting to feel connected with friends and family, it is also about wanting to feel connected with your government, your employer</li><li>The more individualistic the society is, the lonelier it’s likely to be (neo-liberal capitalist mindset)</li><li>Identity is not about what you believe, it’s about what you value (generosity, excellence, integrity, freedom, etc.)</li><li>When you have a belief, you have two options: fall victim to an overconfidence cycle or subject it to a rethinking cycle</li></ul>

Video: Key Takeaways

<ul><li>21 hours a week is the tipping point where gaming can get in the way of physical or mental health</li><li>Video games before bed can help if you are struggling with negative thoughts or flashbacks</li><li>Playing a game before bed will hijack the attention and visual center (Tetris is the golden game in clinical trials for studying these kinds of effects)</li><li>All human behaviour is induced by the desire to escape discomfort; everything we do, we do for this reason</li><li>The first step to becoming indistractable is to claim the responsibility for the uncomfortable sensations by mastering the internal triggers</li></ul>

Video Games

When you are looked at as your potential, you feel the need and desire to grow into that potential.Naturally, some people will let us down, but there is more value in believing in people than forfeiting because of a small percentage.<ul><li>Smiling at random people on the street: 95% of people will smile back, but 5% that will not respond or even frown</li><li>We forfeit because of that 5%</li><li>5% of trying something only ten times feels like a heavy tax, but 5% of smiling a thousand times in the grand scheme of things makes it worthwhile</li></ul>

The Positive Intent: Power Of The Possible

<ul><li>Kat worked as a waitress at Hooters. Every Friday, a customer would order 50 chicken wings for him and his friends.</li><li>After eating the entire plate, he would complain that 10 chicken wings were missing and ask for a discount.</li><li>Because it happened every time, it was obvious that it was a scheme.</li><li>Instead of fighting with the customers (as some managers and servers did), Kat would bring them 10 more chicken wings on her employee discount before they finished eating</li><li>Everyone laughed because she beat the scheming customer at his own game</li><li>He never complained again and gave her a big tip</li></ul>

The Chicken Wings At Hooters Story

What sets the championship teams apart?<ul><li>The ethos of the team and the organization</li><li>The day to day work and knowing that you need to win</li><li>The attitude of embracing tough situations</li><li>Every team goes through a moment where they want to quit</li><li>The biggest difference is in not quitting and doing your job</li></ul>There can be no cracks between players, coaches, and owners or the media gets in and works their magicIt is a focused effort from everyone involved with the organization

Traits Of A Championship Team

What makes an effective coach?<ul><li>Being prepared and having a game plan</li><li>Ready to deviate if the game plan is not working</li><li>Having the ability to connect with the team and communicate with each member (including the staff)</li><li>There is that fine balance of sticking with what you said you were gonna do and changing it when it’s not working</li><li>The coach can only say the right things to get the right response, the rest is on the players</li></ul>

An Effective Coach

There is probably nothing more lonely than being in a bad relationship or a bad marriage.

Does technology make us feel lonely or do we use technology because we feel lonely?In a landmark study conducted by researchers at Stanford University, a total of 3000 participants were observed (1500 were in the control group and the other 1500 deactivated their Facebook accounts)<ul><li>The group who went off Facebook for two months were significantly less lonely and happier </li><li>They actually spent more time doing things in person with friends and family</li></ul>Other subsequent studies only supported this. Social media makes people feel more lonely.

The Perils of Loneliness

There is a stigma in admitting you are lonely because the market for popularity has never been more visible<ul><li>You scroll on your feed, and everyone looks like they have more friends than you, have more fun, and are more popular</li><li>There is something shameful about feeling like no one wants to be your friend</li><li>Positive outcome about the covid experience – we are talking much more about loneliness</li></ul>The truth is everyone is lonely: old, young, rich, poor, male, female, etc.The more individualistic the society is, the lonelier it’s likely to be (neo-liberal capitalist mindset)

The Shame On Admitting Being Lonely

More individualism, more loneliness, more neoliberalism, more loneliness.

Why are people hesitant to rethink things?<ul><li>It makes the world feel much more unpredictable</li><li>If my views aren’t fixed, “who am I?”</li><li>How do “I” navigate this really confusing and turbulent world?</li><li>It makes us feel like we are not the experts</li><li>And a lot of us take pride in our knowledge</li></ul>

Rethinking Ideas

We need to give ourselves permission to enter rethinking cycles.

The rethinking cycle starts with intellectual humility, knowing what you don’t know despite your expertise in a given topicBeing aware of your ignorance leads you to doubt your convictionsIt makes you curious about what you don’t know and that opens your mind to new discoveries“I’m entitled to my opinion” is not a good way to end a conversationIf you decide to speak out, you have a responsibility to be open to changing your mind in the face of better logic or stronger data.

The Rethinking Cycle

You will make mistakes; NASA didn’t make it to where it is by playing it safeRocket science is not low riskNot being able to carry worries is a big leadership weaknessIf a leader can’t handle worries, it will make the whole organization behave in a way that hides potential risks

The Risk Of Making Big Decisions

<ul><li>Some video games are designed to frustrate you and you have to adapt by learning new rules and interfaces</li><li>You get better at learning new things; dealing with frustrating systems and adapting</li><li>The result is that you get better and you build confidence in your ability to get better</li><li>Every game does this to some extent, it’s not just about escapism or pastime</li><li>Any game that’s designed to be challenging is going to benefit keeping the brain healthy and active</li></ul>

Video Games Are Good For Learning

Procrastination is the inability to deal with emotional discomfort.

People have always been distracted, it’s not something that came with the iPhone or Facebook. The leading cause of distraction are internal triggers: boredom, uncertainty, fatigue, anxiety<ul><li>Craving, desire, wanting, lusting, etc., these sensations are psychologically destabilizing.</li><li>The brain gets us to act by creating discomfort.</li><li>The goal is to deal with the discomfort in a healthy way that moves us forward</li><li>Do not run away from discomfort, harness it to lead you towards traction (the opposite of distraction)</li></ul>

Emotional Discomfort And Distraction

Everyone has been creative at least once in their life.What does it mean to be creative more than once?<ul><li>Extending yourself with empathy to the person you are seeking to serve</li><li>Extending via space and time, into the future, announcing something that might or might not work</li></ul>If you exert the emotional labour to do those two things, sometimes you will have a successful creative outcome (that is a choice).

Being More Creative

<ul><li>Your situation is not always fixed or set</li><li>People have agency over their behaviour. You can change your situation intentionally.</li><li>You can use different mental strategies (self-talk, how you frame things, etc.), but you can also change your actual situation; e.g. when you study, put your phone in another room, or choose a quiet place to study</li><li>You cannot change that you are born into a certain family, but you can always change how you react to it</li><li>It’s not 100%, but you have some control over your reaction</li><li>People develop confidence when they have struggled to overcome hardships and come out victorious</li></ul>

Changing Your Situation

<ul><li>A great relationship is one where if you ask each person independently who benefits more from the relationship, they would each say “Well, I do.”</li><li>This is because both people are putting into the relationship not for what they’re going to get from it, but for what they can give to it</li><li>Because both sides are focused on giving, each side feels like a beneficiary</li><li>The only way to have a really great life is on the relationship side</li><li>In the end, it’s all about relationships and doing things you love with people you love</li></ul>

Defining A Great Relationship

The Knowledge Project closes 2021 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from 10 of the most downloaded and acclaimed episodes of 2021, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into how to make crucial decisions, how to spark creativity, the best ways to avoid distraction, how to deal with loneliness, what traits to look for in a leader, the value of re-thinking your position, and the importance of personal relationships. Guests on this episode include business leader Kat Cole, NBA basketball player Chris Bosh, loneliness expert Noreena Hertz, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, NASA astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen, video game expert Jane McGonigal, author Nir Eyal, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin, psychologist Angela Duckworth, and business expert Jim Collins. 00:00 Intro 01:26 - Kat Cole on pragmatic optimism 06:49 - Chris Bosh on the subjective factors that set championship teams apart 16:10 - Noreena Hertz on the difference between feeling alone and being alone 26:48 - Adam Grant on the work required to have an opinion 36:52 - Dr. Z on how NASA makes decisions and why he wants you to be worried 48:36 - Jane McGonigal on what video games can teach you 57:58 - Nir Eyal on dealing with emotional discomfort and controlling how we respond 01:13:43 - Seth Godin on choosing to be creative 01:23:55 - Angela Duckworth on taking back your self-control 01:35:40 - Jim Collins on relationships not transactions Kat Cole's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidYmxutH3w Chris Bosh's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNF2OEX9_Ls Noreena Hertz's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acm4EOsSpsg Adam Grant's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctkWiO6VcsE Dr. Z's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC7OWgLynhY Jane McGonigal's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25KJf8XWAgM Nir Eyal's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wW9Ouw4dCo Seth Godin's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIHx2H5YT60 Angela Duckworth's full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPMVzsAmJ8E Jim Collins full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dot-Uf1dkE -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

10 Lessons From the Smartest Minds In The World | The Knowledge Project 127

For some time, private investors and Wall Street have been betting on unprofitable startups who spend heavily on growth to scale, that is Growth at all costs.
A strategy gaining in popularity to achieve responsible scale is product-led growth (PLG)—think Slack, Calendly, Expensify, and Dropbox—companies that have shifted power from the buyer to the end-user. If you want to rise to meet the demands of today’s market while growing sustainably, PLG is the secret.

Growth At All Costs

Minimizing the amount of time between developing a product and providing it to customers while maximizing the number of customers that come in contact with the product allows for fast and sustainable growth. When products solve a real problem for end-users, freemiums can lead to SaaS growth with an average of 7% free to paid conversion rate.
Zoom, a leader in video conferencing, is a household name today. But it started small, launching in a crowded space with bigger names like Cisco Webex and GoToMeeting. It did this by centring on customer needs and offering its key features for free.

The Key To Long-Term Profitability

If the first step to building a business that’s worth a billion dollars is to develop a product that solves a meaningful problem for the customer, step two is telling the world. To do that, you need people who will advance the mission. As a company scales, articulating the company culture and vision becomes more important. When other people begin hiring instead of founders, the foundation of the company can get lost. Avoid this by hiring with intentionality around core company values. Your team members should all know and be able to list the company values at any moment.

Build On Culture And Vision

The most successful, high-growth companies listen to their customers and value their opinions. Prioritizing customer relationships start by building and launching products that solve their problems; but also includes continued listening. Having the trust and loyalty of your customers continues to benefit an organization as it grows.In a PLG model, users are close to the products, and that helps dictate company direction. Some people interpret the “p” in PLG to mean that the product organization is in charge. In reality, it means that the customer is in charge.

Listen To The Customer

A partner at VC investor OpenView shares the secret of what it takes to succeed and rise to meet the demands of today’s market while growing sustainably.


Growth secrets from unicorn companies any leader can use

Vitalik Buterin is the founder and chief scientist at Ethereum. He discusses the nascent field of Cryptoeconomics, the best analogy for understanding the Blockchain, why belief in progress is our most useful delusion.

Vitalik Buterin

<ul><li>A Blockchain, as a whole, functions like a computer. It has a hard drive and stores on it what all the accounts are.</li><li>It stores the code of all the smart contracts, and what the memory of all the smart contracts are. It accepts incoming instructions that are signed transactions sent by many different users and process them based on a set of rules.</li><li>On a Blockchain, you can build anything you can build on a computer. But it also provides additional trust guarantees that the computer will run in the way you expect it to run. </li></ul>

On blockchain as a ‘world computer’

There are different circles in the Ethereum community, some overlapping, some not.  You could be a full-time employee of the Ethereum Foundation or its outpost in Singapore. You could be a groupie, someone who has intellectual ideas and hangs out with us. You could be part of Ethereum while being part of a structured team. You could be part of it as a single person working at home, or you could be part of it as a member of a traditional, large corporation.

On Ethereum community

Scalability can increase the capacity of Ethereum blockchain and become substantially cheaper and more ready for mainstream use.  User experience could be another breakthrough in terms of using the blockchain, not being as clunky and security.

On future breakthroughs

The Ethereum creator talks with Tyler Cowen about crypto, the blockchain, social science fiction, why belief in progress is our most useful myth, learning new languages, and more.

Vitalik Buterin on Cryptoeconomics and Markets in Everything (Ep. 45)

What’s the worst thing that could happen if the Customs and Border Patrol succeed in getting hold of your unlocked phone?<ul><li>Think of all the people you've ever called or emailed, or connected with on Facebook and LinkedIn. What are the chances that one of them has committed a serious crime?</li><li>Have you ever taken a photo at a protest, bought a controversial book? That information is now part of your permanent record. It could be dragged out as evidence against you if you ever end up in court.</li><li>The more places your data ends up, the larger a hacker’s “attack surface” is.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Why you shouldn't bring your phone on an international flight

The fourth amendment protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. The fifth amendment protects you against self-Incrimination. But it's completely legal for a customs and border patrol officer to ask you to unlock your phone and hand it over to them. The border is technically outside of US jurisdiction, in a sort of legal no-man’s-land.

Your fourth and fifth amendment rights

Companies like <a href="https://www.elcomsoft.com/" target="_self">Elcomsoft</a> make “forensic software” that can download all your photos, contacts — even passwords for your email and social media accounts — in a matter of minutes.It’s illegal in most countries to profile individual travellers. But it is only a matter of time before downloading the contents of people's phones becomes routine for entering a county. This already happens in Canada.

The US isn’t the only country that does this

When you travel internationally, you should leave your mobile phone and laptop at home.&nbsp; You can rent phones at most International airports that include data plans. If you have family overseas, you can buy a second phone and laptop and leave them there at their home. You could also reset your phone to its factory settings before boarding an international flight, knowing that there won't be any personal data on it.&nbsp;

You can’t hand over a device that you don’t have

A few months ago I wrote about how you can encrypt your entire life in less than an hour. Well, all the security in the world can’t save you if someone has physical possession of your phone or…

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Lucas Jackson
@lucaja

How Einstein changed time forever | Jim Al-Khalili for Big Think

History of Mindfulness: From East to West and Religion to Science

10 Lessons From the Smartest Minds In The World | The Knowledge Project 127

Growth secrets from unicorn companies any leader can use

Vitalik Buterin on Cryptoeconomics and Markets in Everything (Ep. 45)

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Lucas Jackson@lucaja

How Einstein changed time forever | Jim Al-Khalili for Big Think

History of Mindfulness: From East to West and Religion to Science

10 Lessons From the Smartest Minds In The World | The Knowledge Project 127

Growth secrets from unicorn companies any leader can use

Vitalik Buterin on Cryptoeconomics and Markets in Everything (Ep. 45)

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Lucas Jackson
@lucaja