Less Aging & More Rewards?
your Saturday roundup
Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
Vitalism. Are you a vitalist? In the political not philosophical sense. Meaning do you believe:
Life and health are good. Death is humanity’s core problem, and aging its primary agent.
Aging causes immense suffering, and obviating it is scientifically plausible.
Humanity should apply the necessary resources to reach freedom from aging.
If not, where do you disagree or what are your concerns? I’d love to hear the strongest counter-arguments or concerns. One question I have is: if we continue to postpone the physical effects of aging, how do we pass leadership to the next generation in order to allow for different perspectives and a sense of fairness?
Start in New Haven. I’m co-hosting our third Start in New Haven — a community pitch night. During this event, individuals can pitch ideas for new events, civic projects, and startups with the goal of the audience providing energy and resources to turn the ideas into a reality. Congratulations to some of the past Start in New Haven presenters: Clovia McIntosh of Tubee for receiving funding, Ben Wrobel of Proximate Press for launching and Bill Frisch for his grand opening of East Rock Breads! Here’s press coverage of the previous event. A special thank you to ClimateHaven for hosting us. Please register to present or attend.
Extrinsic Rewards. Incentives matter, although it is not always easy to predict how they will influence behavior. As a parent, it can feel like you’re running social psychology experiments in your home without a control group. Examples:
Rewarding kids for academic performance can backfire. Yet it is still worth encouraging them to do their homework.
Tying allowance to completing chores may teach kids about paying jobs. The downside is that it can mix social expectations of contributing to the family with economic contractual thinking (like the famous fine for being late to day care experiment). You expect your kids to contribute at home even if the kid doesn’t mind skipping allowance.
Paying higher interest rates on a parent run savings account teaches about the power of compound interest. Perhaps children’s perceived higher discount rates can only be met with higher interest rates. The hope is that as they age, their internal discount rate will decrease to better match the interest-rate available in the market.
Until next time,
Miles