The New York Initiative Crash Course

I don't know about you, but I'm a total genius junkie. I genuinely enjoy presentations from intelligent people as they explain their amazing life's work. I particularly enjoy the TED conferences and their speakers. To get all of us with the New York Initiative on the same page, I am recommending the TED lectures that have been most useful to me. I'll be posting them here so that you can follow along, get access to the choices I've made and be apart of the conversation on what information is the most useful to the RLSH community.

I'm going to start by covering the three TED Talks that have been the most popular in the community. If you haven't seen them already, these are absolute must-watch presentations that are shaping the way we do what we do.

The very first is the very best. Philip Zimbardo is a world-renowned psychologist who studies why people choose to do heroic things—or villainous things. If there is ever a Villainology 101 course, this would be the overview, covering the famous Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments, the abuses of torture facilities...and how there's a hero in everyone. If you consider yourself a real-life superhero, consider yourself ignorant until you've seen this:

Why Ordinary People Do Evil...Or Do Good:
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The second video is one of my absolute favorites, by my hero Misha Glenny. Mr. Glenny is an investigative reporter that did globetrotting research into the reality of transnational organized crime. His years of interviews and exhaustive reports are packaged into this beautiful amalgam that will change how you think about the criminal underworld. If you're fighting crime in your local area, this is an absolute must-watch:

Misha Glenny Investigates Global Crime Networks:
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The last video I want to leave you with is from David Logan. In this amazing talk, he discusses his view of the world as a collection of tribes, and the five stages of tribal empowerment. He addresses tribes as diverse as prison gangs, major corporations, Super Bowl parties and even the truth and reconciliation process of South Africa. This video presents the city on a hill that the New York Initiative strives to be:

David Logan on Tribal Leadership:
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Please leave feedback on which ideas presented are of the most use to you, so that I can be very selective in the videos that I recommend in the future.

I've gotten ten seconds into the first vid and I gotta say. Thanks for putting them up.

If the first video infrerests you, Pick up The Lucifer Effect: why good people do bad things"

I started reading, and if I wasn't deep in paramedic school, I'd finish it

Thumbs up, Zimmer. Zimbardo-video was especially good, and got me thinking. Very interesting how anonymity and de-invidividuation of self (through military clothing in this case) was seen as a contributing factor in turning ordinary people evil.

The Zimbardo video has been one of my faves for a while now. Still haven't picked up the book. I enjoyed the tribal leadership one as well.

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This is Chimamanda Adichie: The power and danger of a single story

This talk is about our own perceptions of reality and how it can be very very dangerous to have an incomplete view of the world around us.

I had seen the original prison study he did on history channel a while back and I love this video, Really opens your eyes to human nature.

I have thought since my first deployment that evil is relative and most humans in situations where they are responding to a known authority figure will submit and act in an evil way.

Wow btw that video is great, the Adichie one.

Interesting in the Zimbardo talk about the stamford prison experiment that he himself because part of the system even though he meant to oversee it, and was blind until another outside observer tipped him off. I always thought he just made the call himself once he saw how bad it was getting.

Yeah Chimamanda's got it going on. When I first started watching it, I couldn't even tell where she was going. Then it's like oooooooohhhh...

And yeah, I would love to learn more about these heroes that he mentioned. RLSH indeed.

Very fascinating pieces, Zimmer! I especially like the study of tribal leadership as my town pretty much runs on music scenes and groups which, in rudimentary form, are indeed basic tribes. "Life is great!"

This is Dan Gilbert on the secret of happiness. I first watched this in high school, and now that I have the benefit of those years, this is a presentation that had a massive impact on my life. I hope that his findings and philosophy help you as well.

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I really like the concept of this thread and the ideas that it contains. The mafia video is worth memorizing, I probably watched it two or three times. Too bad he kind of tapers off at the end, but otherwise very valuable.

Also, reposting the C. Adichie video on facebook. The more people that see that, the better.

Hey, sorry it's been awhile since I've posted a new video here, been crazy busy.

Here's one of the best videos ever and it's the only one that isn't a TED Talk to make my list.

It's called "Don't Let the Bastards Keep You Down!"

If you ever have a blow to your ego or a set-back or feel down, this is the instant cure.

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Win. Love this one.

I spent yesterday catching up on the TED talks I had missed while being out of town. A lot of good stuff on there. "The Antidote to Apathy" was good.