Written for the Duke University Scholars Program blog. The second group for the University Scholars Symposium 2017 discussed various political and economic perspectives on Relativity. We began with Alex Oprea’s thought-provoking talk exploring “Does Moral Diversity imply Moral Relativism?” With a show of hands, we all agreed that eating is morally acceptable and eating children is morally unacceptable…but there was a gray zone in between with pigs and shark fin. Similarly, we agreed that women working in the office is acceptable and female genital mutilation is not, but is it morally acceptable for women to wear a veil? Or to be obligated to wear a veil? Alex thus demonstrated moral diversity. Does this imply that there are different acceptable standards? Is it ok if we have certain standards for ourselves and our local culture, but are simultaneously accepting of other standards in other areas of the world? Some philosophies say no, that there should be a single, absolute set of acceptable behaviors. Others think that there is a collection of acceptable standards (“pluralism”), but then the question arises as to which standards fall within or without this collection. What do you think? Alex’s presentation was followed by Zach Heater’s enlightening overview of slavery in ancient Athens and Rome: “When Slaves Write the Laws”. The history of slavery in the United States is quite sordid; conversely, slaves in ancient Athens and Rome often held admirable positions in society. They were state-owned, and as such, anyone who mistreated another, whether a free person or a slave, could be reported and punished. Slaves often held erudite positions, including recording the current laws, recording the weights and measures, teachers, and remembering names to whisper into their client’s ear in social events. Lastly, they were a large proportion of society, estimated at 40% of Romans in the first century BCE, as compare to 10% in the USA in 1855. Bobby Harris then guided us through an intriguing exploration of how the phrasing of your available options can influence the rationality of your decisions: “Can Rationality Explain Weird Outcomes?” For instance, consider a disease expected to kill 600 people, and you could pick between two treatment programs: A) If program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. B) If program B is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved and 2/3 probability that no people will be saved. Which option would you pick? Now consider these two options: C) If program C is adopted, 400 people will die. D) If program D is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die. Did your choice change from the first two options? People will often choose options A and D, contrary to expected rational behavior since the two sets of options are the same except for the phrasing: the upper options start with 600 dead people, allowing us to save people, whereas the lower options start with 600 living people, requiring us to let people die. This importance of reference point and framing can be related to the latest US Presidential Election, where Trump had a much larger range of potential performances, leading to a riskier option, but with the possibility of higher performance and higher utility, whereas Clinton had a higher expected performance, but within a much narrower range of possible performance and utility measures. We finished the student presentations with two talks on trade. Greg Lyons brought us into the world of big money and advanced statistics in the Business of Sports. The sports industry continues to grow, forecasted to be worth $75b by 2020, but creating a successful sports team is complicated. How do you quantify the value of a player? And their value in the context of a team? And are you aiming to win in the short-term (experienced players) or long-term (train up young talent)? Sports analytics is an exploding industry, employing data analysts and statisticians to capture a player’s full value; as a simple example, the number of touchdowns scored will not be indicative of a football linebacker’s value. These methodologies of assessing relative value are used to allocate money amongst contract offers, to trade players and coaches, and to select draft picks -- including the option to tank your team for the sake of better picks in the future! Lastly, Kavya Sekar led us in a fabulous interactive activity to explore the challenges of trade negotiations. In each group of four, there were two people from Country A (wealthy country with high labor protections and patent technology for mass production of leather goods) and two from Country B (poor country with low labor protections, but ample land for leather cow farming). Currently, there are high import tariffs for both countries and Country A citizens cannot start businesses in Country B. The groups were given 5 minutes to try to make a trade deal, role-playing as a leather factory worker & shoe manufacturer from Country A and an unemployed laborer & leather artisan in Country B. There was a wide variety in outcomes amongst the dozen groups in the room, although only a couple came to an agreement. Most discussions seemed to disadvantage one or both of the Country B citizens. Further, most groups aimed for consensus on the terms of the trade deal, but thereby failed to come to agreeable terms, given us all a sense of the challenges of real-life, large-scale trade negotiations. Excellent presentations and activities all-around!
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Written for the Duke Graduate School Professional Development Blog. I am sitting cross-legged on the bank of a river. I am surrounded by grand, serene trees. The light is diffuse. I am watching the river flow past as I take slow, calm breaths. Sometimes the water lazes by, sometimes it turns into torrents. This is what I visualized during a guided meditation with psychiatrist Dr. Holly Rogers during the BME PhD Peer Mentoring Program mindfulness workshop. Dr. Rogers shared a definition of mindfulness with the 30 attendees: non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Using a metaphor, Dr. Rogers suggested that rather than being swept away in the turbulent flow of the river of our thoughts, we should each climb onto the bank of the river so that we could observe our thoughts without judgment. Being a graduate student carries many challenges:
Developing a practice of mindfulness can help create a lens through which you view your life – its joys, its challenges, and everything in between – with more clarity and less judgement. Living mindfully does not aim to eliminate stressors. Rather, it provides tools for noticing your mental, emotional, and physical states. By stepping back and taking a more mindful stance, we can see our situation with more understanding and clarity, and thus, can better see how to move forward. Dr. Rogers, who works at Duke’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), shared her story of discovering mindfulness over two decades ago through the book Mindfulness in Plain English. She was due to move back to North Carolina from New Zealand, where she was completing her first job as a psychiatrist, and was experiencing significant anxiety about the move. Through the book, she realized that her anxieties weren’t stemming from the looming challenges themselves, but from the way she was relating to these challenges. More importantly, she realized that she could change that relationship. In that moment, she began to develop an ability to step away from a challenging situation and see it with more clarity, with more mindfulness. Dr. Rogers has since co-developed and co-founded the Koru Mindfulness program, designed to teach mindfulness to young adults with various approaches, including meditation. Thus, she was perfectly poised to discuss the challenges of developing a practice of mindfulness with our academic audience. She asked us what we would do if we had to bench-press 200 pounds to graduate with our PhDs. We wouldn’t simply go to the gym and start with 200 pounds; rather, we’d start with a low weight and gradually work our way up. Similarly, we need time, patience, and persistence to build a practice of mindfulness: we shouldn’t set personal expectations to sit still for 15 min and meditate with perfectly calm focus on the first try. We discussed some reasons to have a regular meditation practice:
We also discussed reasons we might not practice mindfulness regularly and ways in which we can reframe our perspectives around these challenges:
As a yoga instructor, I have discussed and practiced meditation and mindfulness in various capacities, allowing me to become more aware of myself, my environment, and my situation, as well as the impact of my actions on my environment. I practice being in the moment, being present, with the ability to step away from persistent worries about the past, the future, and potential failure. Continuing to explore different resources, be it books or workshops, is an important part of my mindfulness practice, as I deepen my understanding and broaden my perspectives. Next time I find myself stuck in circling, anxious thoughts, I’ll try taking a few breaths and stepping out of my turbulent river, onto the bank. You can watch a recording of the workshop here. I organized the workshop with three other biomedical engineers: PhD students Rob Morhard and John Gilbert, and postdoc Amy Martinez. We founded and launched the BME PhD Peer Mentoring Program in Fall 2016, matching first-year BME PhD students with senior student mentors. The mindfulness workshop was an end-of-year event open to all BME PhD students, postdocs, and faculty. We would like to acknowledge generous funding support from the Duke University Graduate School Professional Development Grant, which provided lunch for the event, and from the Duke University Graduate and Professional Student Council, which provided copies of Wherever You Go, There You Are (by Jon Kabat-Zinn) and fidget toys for the attendees. References:
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