What's Wrong With This Place?

#26 The 5 biggest problems in the world right now (ranked)! Season finale

The finale episode in season 1 of this podcast! Here is my take on the 5 biggest problems in the world right now. With an emphasis on the biggest problem of them all. Since I will be referring to a lot of the content, points and arguments from the previous episodes, you will get the most out of this final episode if you have listened to many of the previous episodes. … let’s dig in!

#25 Too gentle to be real or too nasty to be kind? Two unhealthy recipes for creating distance between us

How do you approach other people? Ruthless or polite? Too nasty or too nice? Both approaches create distance between us. Ruthless is obviously hurtful - but too polite or too nice keeps us from the interesting space that lives close to our personal limits and boundaries. But it is in this space all the interesting authentic human stuff between us happens! It's about finding the middle path. In this episode I will take you through: The comfort zone, Hans Christian Andersen, authentic human behavior, connections, vulnerability and courage, Immanuel Kant, Me-Too, friendship, good intentions, rudeness, overly polite, the balanced middle path, our true emotional state and consideration-gravy (“omsovs”). And many other things.

#24 Lack of human originality and authenticity

Are AI-tools making us more creative or are we outsourcing our creativity to them? The many AI-tools around us have been touted as creative abundance tools, but in fact, they are reducing our ability to be creative and original - and they will deprive us more and more of the human originality and authenticity that we carry with us in our human edge, the human peculiarities and quirky subtleties. The focus on quick and safe profit and the focus on the end result and not the process will add to the flood of easy AI-generated stuff that is going to leave a mark on us as humans, and possibly cause a creative resignation in us. There is something innately human about creating things. And we have a human need to know if what we are interacting with is a human or something hollow and unreal. Is it fake or real? Superficial AI-generated LinkedIN posts, the Disney tendency, the AI-flood, distrust, the safe bet, the quirkiness and unpredictability of human’s originality, the opposite Turing test, sad useless job applications, Too-Much-Ness, Charles H. Duel and paid Chinese school cheating are some of the things that I will take you through in this episode.

#23 Too-Much-Ness

The world today is full of so many things, options, distractions, choices, products, inputs and other stuff that tries to get our attention. All this, and more, is the overwhelming “too-much-ness” that swamps the world around us. It exhausts our mental energy, it ruins many simple human pleasures and it is currently breeding a young generation of people who are getting a sub-optimal emotional foundation in order to connect as friends or even romantically with others. In this episode I will take you through some of the known and unknown consequences and problems that this too-much-ness creates. Too-much-ness is one of the biggest problems in the world right now. A possible great filter for us humans. This episode will take you through everything from global declining birthrates, Isaac Newton, Wall-E, Japanese moms, circus presidency, the simple life, to Snapchat streaks, CNN, info signs, sand, ADHD, fame and much more!

#22 When we don’t ask “how?”

Statistics, gossip from your friends, scientific articles, YouTube videos, influencers, the media, podcasts and many more - all of these constantly give you information that might be true, might not be true, or something in between. No matter what - these pieces of information are going to shape your mind, just like a bar of chocolate is going to shape your belly. And you will try to fight against some of this information. But not always because the information is wrong. Most likely because it doesn’t match your world view, or you think that it goes against your personal values.  But asking “how can I know this?” - and asking “how-questions” about the information that you are exposed to is both hard for us to do, and it often takes personal and emotional strength to do. Asking “how can I know this?” is about taking yourself seriously - but also about doing the hard and often necessary thing. It’s about understanding what it actually is that you agree or disagree with. This episode will take you through: urban legends, banning water, Trump, statistics, AI, lies, journalism, global problems, vulnerability, 8 spiders a year, second hand knowledge, the star signs, fact checking - and what kickstarts it all is the age old question: “what is the total length of the blood vessels in our body?” I once saw this funny quote on Facebook: “Don’t believe everything you read online” - quote, Hans Christian Shakespeare.