Each week, Halcyon brings you a short, sharp and stimulating read - 7 issues that have witnessed significant change over the past 7 days.
ACTIVISM
Ban China’s wild animal trade, urged Quartz, adding that if we want to thwart viral epidemics, we should be urging China to make its temporary ban permanent.
ATTENTION
Technology and devices aren't inherently distracting, according to some behavioural design experts. Distraction comes from internal triggers of discomfort. So, the answer to avoiding distraction may not be a total digital detox, but instead developing healthy ways of identifying and coping with these internal triggers through three main strategies: reimagining the trigger as a sensation of curiosity, reimagining the task itself, and avoiding self-limiting beliefs regarding one's temperament.
AGEING
According to a study published by King’s College London, deciding to unretire is a societal phenomenon we are barely aware of and yet more and more of us are now doing it. The research showed that a quarter of people in the UK who retire now change their minds and resume work, mostly within five years of giving up their jobs. The results indicated that there are various factors behind such a decision.
DESIGN
Companies that excel at design grow revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry peers. A McKinsey survey found that some 90% of companies weren’t reaching the full potential of design, even as, in the past five years, double the number of companies have added senior design roles to their organisation and the fact that research shows that bold, design-led, user-centric strategies correlate strongly with higher financial results.
HOPE
Research suggests that during times of illness, hope has an impact on the nervous system that makes improvement and recovery more likely. This goes some way to explaining the “placebo effect” - a tangible physical improvement created by hope alone. Hope is not the same as optimism - it is active rather than passive. Hope motivates us into taking positive actions that can lead to positive results. Feeling hopeful allows us to approach problems and challenges with a strategy for success, increasing the chances of us actually achieving our goals. Author of The Anatomy of Hope, Jerome Groopman, states how though “false hope can lead to intemperate choices and flawed decision making. True hope takes into account the real threats that exist and seeks to navigate the best path around them.”
IDEAS
Will China’s rise as a global economic power be accompanied by a global shift in ideologies? Are Western ideas the path to progress and growth, or a hangover from colonial dominance? Is the global community rightly sceptical about China’s ideological superiority, or will Daoism and Confucianism become increasingly influential around the world? Oxford professor of China Studies Vivienne Shue, political philosopher Jamie Whyte and author of How The World Thinks Julian Baggini joined China Dialogue's Isabel Hilton at the Insititute of Ideas to consider China’s influence on the future of thought.
ISOLATION
Maria Popova comforts us that “The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone,” according to artist Agnes Martin reflecting in her final years. “Oh comforting solitude, how favourable thou art to original thought!” wrote the founding father of neuroscience in his advice to young scientists. The poet Elizabeth Bishop believed that everyone should experience at least one prolonged period of solitude in life. For in true solitude, as Wendell Berry so memorably observed, “one’s inner voices become audible [and] in consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives” — an intuitive understanding of what psychologists have since found: that “fertile solitude” is a basic unit of a full and contented life.
SPACE
When it rains on at least one distant planet, it rains iron. That’s what astronomers have observed on Wasp-76b, whose days are hot enough to vaporise metals.
TECHNOLOGY
DNV GL’s Technology Outlook 2030 argued that “precision” will define many of the technology developments in the next decade: precision materials, precision healthcare, precision food design etc.