The Boring Lecture: Mars, Curiosity, Creativity, and Our Future
Download as PPTX, PDF0 likes119 views
In this lecture, Dr. Fahri Karakas emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, asking the right questions, and taking risks to solve complex 21st-century problems. He advocates for a lifelong learning approach and encourages students to embrace creativity and explore their interests beyond traditional disciplines. The document also highlights potential future industries that could yield enormous financial returns, driven by innovative concepts such as cryptocurrency, asteroid mining, and advanced technologies like artificial intelligence.
The Boring Lecture: Mars, Curiosity, Creativity, and Our Future
- 1. University of East Anglia Norwich Business School Management Skills and Personal Development NBS-7031X Lecture 8 29th April 2021 Dr. Fahri Karakas F.Karakas@uea.ac.uk
- 2. Review of Takeaways To solve wicked problems of the 21st century, you need to think beyond borders and disciplines. Invest in yourself and your learning every day. This is the biggest investment you can ever make. 1) Ask Right Questions + Follow Your Interests + Intense Curiosity + Continuous Learning + Imagination + Passion 2) Courage: Take Risks + Consistent Small Actions + Smart Moves + Hard Work + Play Your Game + Resilience + Resourcefulness Think about where you will be after 10 years. Act according to that vision. You can be as big as your dreams and ambitions.
- 3. You can use improvisation to increase adventure and quality in your life. Try to apply automated writing, drawing, doodling, story-telling, ideating, designing, creating, dancing, and singing in your life. In this life, it is never too late to follow your interests, curiosities, and passions. Show up for creative work and use random prompts or anchors to get going. Start small – small is beautiful. Business as usual is over. We need a new paradigm of business that solves complex problems ahead of us. Review of Takeaways
- 4. In your profession, it is not enough to know only about business or finance or HR or marketing. You need to think bigger. Be a polymath: An individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Be an autodidact: A self-taught person individual who initiates and manages his/her own learning and reads voraciously Be a hunter and learner of most interesting things. Cross boundaries – there are no borders. Go out of your comfort zone. Learn outside your discipline. Think and act wider. Education as usual is dead. Long live lifetime learning! Assume responsibility for your own learning. Review of Takeaways
- 6. Slide 1.6 Review of Last Class Puzzles The Boring Lecture: ◦ Exercise: Create your Reading Challenge ◦ Exercise: Create your own YouTube Channel ◦ Exercise: Create your own Manifesto ◦ Exercise: Creative writing – complete the story ◦ Exercise: Imagine disruptive innovations and sectors ◦ Exercise: Imagine flying across the universe + daily life on Mars Mini-Workshop: MARS Mini-Workshop: Life and Employability in Mars Key Takeaways
- 7. Slide 1.7 Boredom strikes when we let our habits/routines control us. Lectures are inherently boring – slides are often recipes for mediocrity. It takes courage and experimentation to get out of what is ‘boring’ (the rut) ◦ Therefore, in this lecture, I will try to escape boring by embracing uncertainty and exploration. ◦ To escape boredom in lectures, you can also take actions, such as writing (taking notes), doodling, reflecting, making materials relevant for yourself, identifying action points etc. ◦ Remember: Improvising, surprising yourself, incorporating uncertainty, turning everything into play and adventure also help.
- 9. Slide 1.9 To escape boredom… Invest in your hobbies
- 10. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Elon Musk has started a new company (as a hobby) for building tunnels and solving the wicked problem of traffic. This ‘hobby’ company’s value could be 16b$. What is the name of this company? The Boring Company
- 11. Slide 1.11
- 12. Slide 1.12
- 13. Slide 1.13
- 14. Slide 1.14 To escape boredom… Read and learn exciting things
- 15. Here is what we did throughout last month. My wife Sertac encouraged me to take up a challenge: “Why don’t we read 30 books in 30 days?” 30 Days 30 Books Challenge on INSTAGRAM Many of our friends joined the challenge. We both read 30 books. You can use fast reading and skimming through to quickly read and finish books.
- 16. Successful leaders view learning as a lifelong pursuit. When asked how to get smarter, Warren Buffet held up a pile of reading material and said, “Read 500 pages like this every week. That’s how knowledge builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” HERE IS MY RADICAL SUGGESTION FOR YOU: READ 100 BOOKS EVERY YEAR
- 18. Read 500 BOOKS “The key to reading lots of book begins with stop thinking of it as some activity that you do. Reading must become as natural as eating and breathing to you. It’s not something you do because you feel like it, but because it’s a reflex, a default.” — Ryan Holiday Reading should be treated like a job, not a hobby. Gathering and applying knowledge speeds up the process of becoming successful. You can read your way into becoming an expert at anything. What area are you seeking to become successful in? Read 250 books in that area to build a rock solid knowledge base. Read 250 books in areas unrelated to your subject so that you can form mental models to help you solve difficult problems.
- 19. Read 500 BOOKS This connection of ideas is known as the adjacent possible. •“The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore those boundaries. Each new combination ushers new combinations into the adjacent possible. Think of it as a house that magically expands with each door you open.Keep opening new doors and eventually you’ll have built a palace.” — Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From. •Reading tons of books expands your mind and continues to open more doors in the adjacent possible. Your knowledge base will grow until you explode with creativity and are able to make insightful connects between disparate ideas. •The speed of your success depends on the pace of your learning.
- 21. Now, please create your own READING CHALLENGE Example: I will finish min. 60 books until the end of 2021 This means 2 books every week. Can you do this? Write down your own challenge and plan.
- 22. Slide 1.22 To escape boredom… Search for outliers (extreme examples)
- 23. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Is it possible to write 100,000 words in just one day? Sean Wes attempted it. He ended up writing 55,614 words in one day. https://seanwes.com/2019/writing-100000-words-in-a-day/ https://seanwes.com/2019/i-tried-to-write-100000-words-in-a-day-and-failed- spectacularly/
- 24. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Is it possible to try out 52 jobs in 52 weeks to explore and learn? Yes
- 25. One Week Job (52 weeks, 52 jobs)
- 26. Slide 1.26 To escape boredom… Expand your sense of what is possible
- 27. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Bihar, India. Dashrath Manjhi, known as ‘Mountain Man’, single-handedly carved a road through a mountain Das. After his wife died due to lack of medical treatment because the nearest town with a doctor was 70 km away, Manjhi carved a 360-foot-long, 25-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide road through Gehlour hills. How long did it take to do this? 22 years https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/man-single-handedly- carved-road-mountain/
- 28. HERE IS A PUZZLE: For how long do you think it is possible to live on London’s buses at night? 21 years of sleeping on a London bus https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50459821 For more than two decades after his asylum application was rejected, Sunny found a safe haven aboard the buses that zigzag across London at night.
- 29. HERE IS A PUZZLE: You remember the movie “The Terminal”. This movie is based on the life of a real person. Who is this person? Mehran Karimi Nasseri (Sir Alfred Mehran) 18 years of living in an airport https://allthatsinteresting.com/mehran-karimi-nasseri
- 30. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Is it possible to plant an entire forest by yourself? Yes. Jadav Payeng dedicated his life to planting a forest. He created 1,360 acres of forest. Every bamboo tree on this land was lovingly planted by Jadev after he witnessed the local wildlife population suffering due to a lack of shade.
- 31. Fahri’s Manifesto I have written my own manifesto. In the next two minutes, create your own manifesto.
- 32. Slide 1.32 To escape boredom… Hunt and find interesting ideas
- 34. What is the significance of this picture?
- 35. The photo, called "Station Squabble," depicts two mice fighting in a London tube station. It was taken by Sam Rowley and won Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition (12 Feb. 2020)
- 36. Is it possible to win Wildlife Photographer of the Year award with a city picture? Yes, of course
- 37. Slide 1.37 To escape boredom… Write, write, write.
- 38. Creative Writing Exercise Complete the story. 3 minutes
- 39. Slide 1.39 41 Creativity Lessons I have learned as I have learned as I have entered my 41st age by Fahri Karakas https://medium.com/@fahrikarakas/41-creativity-lessons-i-have-learned-as-i-have-entered- my-41st-age-92f3552970af
- 40. Slide 1.40 To escape boredom… Use the immense power of your mind.
- 41. HERE IS A PUZZLE: Which technologies or inventions do we owe to Einstein and his theories/thoughts? Hint: There are many. Television, Radar guns Nuclear power Solar Power, solar panels GPS systems, satellites Stock market investing Weather forecasting Automatic doors & burglar alarms Digital cameras DVD players, supermarket scanners, laser eye surgery https://www.bbva.com/en/four-contributions-einstein-made-to-our-daily-lives/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/science/technologies-today-thanks-to-einstein.aspx https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/tv-radar-guns-and-other-technology-linked-to-einsteins-theories-of-relativity https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/06/einstein-relativity-lasers-solar-genius-science/
- 42. Slide 1.42 To escape boredom… Move. Take a positive action.
- 43. The Bully in Your Head
- 44. “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal you must count 5–4–3–2–1 and physically move or your brain will stop you.
- 45. Slide 1.45 To escape boredom… Explore yourself.
- 46. HERE IS A PUZZLE: “The most remarkable part of all is your DNA. You have a metre of it packed into every cell, and so many cells that if you formed all the DNA in your body into a single fine strand it would stretch ten billion miles, to beyond Pluto. Think of it: there is enough of you to leave the solar system. You are in the most literal sense cosmic.” This quote comes from a fascinating book titled “The Body: A Guide for Occupants” Who is the author? Bill Bryson
- 47. • “Just sitting quietly, doing nothing at all, your brain churns through more information in thirty seconds than the Hubble Space Telescope has processed in thirty years. A morsel of cortex one cubic millimeter in size—about the size of a grain of sand—could hold two thousand terabytes of information, enough to store all the movies ever made, trailers included, or about 1.2 billion copies of this book.” • ‘We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.’ • Bill Bryson sets off to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. A brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. • A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this new book is an instant classic. It will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence. • ‘What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.’
- 48. Slide 1.48 To escape boredom… Learn about the future.
- 49. POSSIBLE TRILLIONAIRE SECTORS An Imagination Workshop
- 50. Trillionaire Sectors If 7 billion people on earth each spent $143 on the same item, it would yield $1 trillion. Peter Diamandis, serial entrepreneur and engineer with a net worth of $200 million dollars: “If you want a billion dollars, help a billion people.” https://futuristspeaker.com/business-trends/what-industries-will- produce-the-first-trillionaires/
- 51. Right now, we have 1 billion $ companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft) For any industry to produce 100 times more value than today’s corporations, it will need to be: • Rapidly scalable • Global in nature • Products or services with strong demand • Transportable to anywhere in the world • Highly profitable • Extremely influential • Leveraging disruptive technologies
- 52. Possible Sectors 1)Cryptocurrency: The first global currency will likely be a cryptocurrency. These operate outside of the realm of highly regulated, nation-based economies. 2.5 billion adults do not have bank accounts, nor do they use any formal financial services to save or borrow. The opportunity here is huge. 2) Asteroid Mining:The most valuable space industry: Extracting resources found in near earth asteroids. Our growing need for platinum based metals could result in entire asteroids being dragged back to earth, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.
- 53. Possible Sectors 3) Instant Learning – Today’s learning processes occupy entirely too much of the human lifespan. Nicolas Negroponte’s radical prediction: Ingested learning (eating a pill and knowing French) BMI (brain-machine interfaces) & neuro-laces) show promise 4) Internet of Things Devices talk to other devices. Consider having devices that improve your health, energy, stamina, and thinking ability by 100% or more. Or devices that can communicate with plants and animals. Amazon Alexa as the brain of your smart home
- 54. Trillionaire Sectors 5.) Cure for Human Aging or Longevity – If every person had the option of paying $10 a day to make aging stop, how many would choose that option? A billion people paying $10 a day would amount to $3.65 trillion a year in revenue. In the late 1800's, the average life expectancy was 41. Today, it is over 80 years old. Google has invested over a billion dollars into their firm Calico: Longevity or‘the fight against death'. 6.) Ultra High Speed Transportation Tube transportation proposed by Elon Musk and Daryl Oster
- 55. Trillionaire Sectors 7.) Controlling the Weather Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and major hailstorms can be very destructive, so there are already major costs associated with our current weather systems. Farmers to have extra rain, a guarantee of no hail, favourable temperatures and good sunshine Homeowners to not have to water their lawns, or never have wind or hail that damages their roofs Guaranteed wind above 300’ altitude for all wind farms 8.) Instant Sleep How many people would be willing to pay $10 to use an ‘instant sleep’ device to add an extra 8 hours of productive time to their day? A billion people paying $10 a day would amount to $3.65 trillion a year in revenue.
- 56. Trillionaire Sectors 9.) Instant Disassembling of Matter Better ways of working with raw materials. Digging, crushing, grinding, pulverizing, and blowing things up are all on the material science short list for getting to the core material inside. Imagine a process where large boulders can be instantly disassembled into a pile of molecules, simply by breaking all the molecular bonds. 10.) Human Cloning or 3D Printed Bodies – Our bodies wear out. If we could somehow transfer who we are into a younger, stronger, better looking version of ourselves, how many people would jump at that opportunity? 11.) Personal Swarms of Swarmbots –the versatility and utility of having a personal swarm of swarmbots. The same swarm that dries us after a shower, applies makeup, and fixes our hair, assemble themselves as our clothing, our body armor, and function as our personal tech. amplify our strength, enable us to fly from place to place etc.
- 57. Trillionaire Sectors 12.) Robotic Services – Robots are coming. The race to find the killer app for robots and robotic services 13.) 3D Telepresence Avatars – How many times have you heard someone say they need to clone themselves? 3D telepresence avatars are the digital equivalent of cloning where life-size representations of ourselves can interact with others in the same fashion as being there in person. These avatars could attend meetings, file reports, engage in water cooler chitchat, and keep your boss busy, all the while, extending your overall capabilities and earning potential. 14.) Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence is a game- changer on almost every level. It’s difficult to imagine any industry that is not improved exponentially with the addition of AI. 15.) Energy Storage – We are good at generating power, but not with storing power from one day to the next. Anyone who finds a super efficient way of storing power will quickly become the master of the energy universe. Energy industry is $2 trillion dollars globally and is already seeing massive disruption from alternative energy such as solar and wind.
- 58. To escape boredom… Learn about Mars.
- 59. Life & Employability on MARS MINI-WORKSHOP for FUN/CURIOSITY
- 61. HERE IS A PUZZLE: By which year does Elon Musk’s SpaceX aim to send the first astronauts to Mars? By 2024
- 62. HERE IS A PUZZLE: America’s 2020 budget includes funding for a manned Mars mission to launch with a goal of bringing back samples of the Red Planet. For which year is this plan? 2026
- 63. HERE IS A PUZZLE: How many people does Elon Musk wish to send to Mars until 2050? 1 million
- 66. Creativity will also become important in Mars
- 67. HERE IS A PUZZLE: How long does it take to go to Mars? If everything goes right About 7-8 months.
- 68. Getting to Mars
- 69. HERE IS A PUZZLE: How long is one year in Mars? Hint: Longer than the Earth. 687 days!
- 70. The Wonders of Mars Some of what we know
- 71. HERE IS A PUZZLE: How will people on Mars communicate with people on Earth? Which technology? Holoportation technology (virtually placing people in the same room)
- 72. TED: The future of human life in Mars
- 73. Elon Musk making history Inventing reusable rocket systems is a milestone in Mars mission
- 74. SpaceX's plan to colonize Mars, explained “People Who Say It Cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt Those Who Are Doing It”
- 75. Elon Musk’s Plans for Colonizing Mars Elon Musk in 67th Int’l Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico (2016)
- 81. HERE IS A PUZZLE: What could be some leisure and fun activities to be done on Mars? Any ideas? Use your imagination. (Imagine TripAdvisor is asking your ideas: Top 3 things to try in Mars) SAMPLE IDEAS -Exploring Valles Marineris canyon system which stretches 4000 km, 200 km wide, and have walls 2–5 km deep. -Exploring Olympus Mons - the largest volcano in the solar system (700 km across and 22 km high!) -Martian Olympics would be a feast! You can jump 3 times higher, and you can throw things 3 times further (due to 1/3 gravity!) https://www.britannica.com/list/10-places-to-visit-in-the-solar-system
- 82. Imagine daily life on Mars. Exercise Imagine that you have gone to Mars. How would your typical day look like? What would you explore/learn? Can you write a science fiction story about Mars? In the next 1 minute: Brainstorm and write possibilities.
- 83. HERE IS A PUZZLE: National Geographic made a TV Series about The story of how humans make Mars home in 2033. It is on Netflix. What is the name of this TV Series? MARS – no surprises here
- 84. Slide 1.84 MARS Series – National Geographic (on Netflix) The story of how humans make Mars home in 2033
- 85. Slide 1.85 Career Ambitions: Being on a Mission To MARS 15-Year-Old Alyssa Carson Could Be The First Human On Mars
- 86. Slide 1.86 The Mars Generation Imagination, passion, and adventure: Exploring Life on Mars
- 89. “Curiosity and creativity are the new productivity.” Dr. Fahri Karakas
- 90. Slide 1.90
- 91. Slide 1.91
- 92. Slide 1.92
- 93. Slide 1.93 The Evolution of Dance - 1950 to 2019 Ricardo Walker's Crew
- 94. Slide 1.94 Elon Musk: Work twice as hard as others Advice for entrepreneurs
- 95. KEY TAKEAWAYS OF TODAY
- 96. Slide 1.96 Be greedy about your learning. Read widely and diversely beyond disciplines. Imagination and asset creation are linked very closely. Imagine and create your own game. Establish a system of productivity and creativity to create your own assets. Consistent Small Actions + Smart Moves + Hard Work + Play Your Game Establish a system of productivity and creativity to create your own assets. Develop effective meta-habits: https://medium.com/mind-cafe/8-meta-habits-to-make-2020-your- breakthrough-year-3dd00429cf3
- 97. Slide 1.97 Search for novelty and variation in life. Your brain loves surprises, twists, and unexpected things. Move, dance, run, bike, spend time in nature. Read 41 creativity lessons article and apply these lessons in your life. https://medium.com/swlh/41-creativity-lessons-i-have-learned-as-i-have-entered-my- 41st-age-92f3552970af Your imagination has no boundaries. Use it more often.
- 98. Slide 1.98 Watch holistic and futurist films that will expand your mind to new possibilities. Read at least 100 books every year (which means 2 books per week). Your thoughts are powerful. You thoughts create reality. Make your thoughts and beliefs more positive. Amplify your strengths. Compound your skills and assets for the long term. Be a hunter and learner of most interesting things. Learn beyond disciplines.
Editor's Notes
- #2: 1