Evolve or Die

by Thomas C Triumph

  In 2016, there was a loose gorilla onboard the International Space Station that chased the astronauts. Turns out it was astronaut Scott Kelly in a gorilla costume, pulling a prank on his colleagues. Although there have been chimpanzees in space … research shows they won’t be building rockets, or sneaking onboard, anytime soon.

  Andrew Whiten helped me understand this, and he knows a thing or two about chimpanzees and humans. He’s an emeritus professor at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom. He does fascinating research on the social behavior of nonhuman primates. Interesting work, especially because scientists have traditionally considered the chimp to be human’s closest living relative—with a genetic difference of about 1.2 percent

  In one of his groundbreaking research projects, Whiten and his researchers went to South Africa and studied 109 monkeys in the wild. The monkeys were in four different groups, and his team of researchers gave each group two trays filled with corn. In one of the trays, the corn was dyed blue, and in the other tray, the corn was dyed pink.

  For two of the groups, the blue corn was made to taste bitter, and for the other two groups the pink corn was made to taste bitter. In each case, the respective corn was soaked in bitter aloe leaves. Within a short period of time, the monkeys all learned to completely ignore the bitter-tasting corn.

  Four months later, after 27 little baby monkeys were born, the monkeys were again given the blue corn and the pink corn—although this time none of the corn was bitter. The adult monkeys all still avoided the color that previously tasted bitter. Even more surprising, the infant monkeys only ate the same corn as their mothers, although they had never even tasted or even actually knew there was such a thing as bitter corn.

  Furthermore, during the time that the researchers were conducting the study, 10 adult male monkeys migrated from one of the groups to a different group that preferred the other color of corn. And 70 percent of those adult males quickly adopted the behavior of their new group and switched to eating the new preferred color.

  Fortunately, at least some humans are more independent thinkers, and remain unswayed by social influences. Yvonne Brill was one such person. Brill was born in Canada in 1923 and, perhaps because her parents didn’t graduate from high school, Yvonne recalled, “Education wasn’t high on the agenda.”

  Brill enjoyed learning and did well in high school. Despite her acumen, she said, “None of the teachers particularly encouraged me. We had a male teacher for physics who just felt that women would never get anywhere.”

  Even the minor encouragement she received was misguided. The high school principal wanted her to go to a one-year preparatory teaching school after high school and get her teaching certificate so she could teach. She laughed when she remembered the advice, “And that just didn’t sit well with me. I just felt I had more enterprise than that.”

  So she went to the University of Manitoba. At that time the university didn’t allow women into its engineering program, so she graduated in math and chemistry at the top of her class at the age of 20. After graduation, she left for California and went to work for Douglas Aircraft on the design of the first US satellite. She simultaneously went to the University of Southern California in the evenings and got her master’s degree in chemistry. Yvonne Brill was one of the first women working in rocket science!

  She worked tirelessly, despite the challenging jobs and occasional criticism. When Brill got home at night, she fed her children and put them to bed. And then she would burn the midnight oil on an idea she had for a new type of rocket engine.

  After years of after-hours work, calculating with a slide rule over the kitchen table in the wee hours of the night, Brill invented something called the hydrazine resistojet rocket engine. The rocket engine was more fuel efficient and offered increased performance. She patented the design in 1974.

  Her engine concept was adopted first by one company and then another and eventually became a standard within the rocket industry. Brill’s work contributed to the first weather satellite and rocket designs that were used on Moon missions. She received numerous awards in her lifetime, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation presented to her by President Barack Obama.

  Despite Yvonne Brill’s incredible efforts and accomplishments, she always remained humble. “It wasn’t that I was so great, I was just in the right place at the right time, which was really my good fortune.” Actually, it seems more accurate that Yvonne Brill was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but didn’t let those circumstances sway her.

  Our genetics might be 98.8 percent identical to a chimpanzee, but the good news is that somewhere in the remaining, unique 1.2 percent, each of us is like Yvonne Brill. And that’s all we need to build a rocket.

  So, let’s remember to try the different colored corn. Innovator Yvonne Brill would approve, and so would astronaut Scott Kelly in his gorilla suit.

  Karma, and Why My

  Ex-Boss Might Go to Jail

  I’ve always loved the song “Instant Karma” by John Lennon: “Instant Karma’s gonna get you / Gonna look you right in the face / Better get yourself together darlin’ / Join the human race.”

  Karma is the concept of “what goes around, comes around.” It’s the principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.

  Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell from just a couple of conversations with someone if they’re a good person or a bad person. That’s true, in part, because the bad person is doing his or her best to conceal their true identity and schemes from you.

  It’s also true because you perceive things through your own lens, which has been altered by your own predispositions, outlooks, and biases. So, whenever there are two people communicating with each other under these conditions, there’s inherent margin for inaccuracy. Generally, my preset perspective is assuming people are genuine, hardworking, and have fair intentions. You’re probably the same way.

  At one point in my career, I was hired by the CEO of a small company. During the interview process, it was explained to me that the company was pioneering a breakthrough technology. It was building prototypes and planning more lab tests. However, after being hired, I was told to have zero involvement in that effort, because it wouldn’t be commercialized until “some point in the future.” Instead, I was directed to lead marketing and sales for the one other product that had been slow to gain traction.

  I’m going to be purposefully vague here, but over the next few months, suffice it to say, I saw quite a bit of mismanagement and underperformance at the top level of the company. After several months I left. Hindsight has put the experience in the category of a consulting gig with bad management. The company isn’t listed in my résumé or in my LinkedIn profile. I’d nearly forgotten about my time there.

  Then, years after leaving the company, I tried visiting its website. Zilch! I then searched for the company online, and found articles describing how it had been closed, and the CEO had been convicted of tax evasion and was still on trial for allegedly defrauding investors. I was shocked. But not wholly surprised.

  I was not entirely surprised because of issues that became increasingly apparent during my time there. And there’s no shortage of other business, societal, and political leadership misdeeds—Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) racketeering, fake Wells Fargo accounts—to remind us that greedy behavior is not rare.

  My predisposition still remains that people are generally well-intentioned and have the goodwill of others in mind. But, I realize that’s not always the case. I like the idea of karma, of good people coming out on top. But, I realize that’s not always the case.

  It seems obvious that the goal every day should be to get wiser and better. Live and love m
ore. Start with yourself, and spread it out to your family, friends, colleagues, and clients. We’re humans, and our history, albeit with an objectionable number of setbacks, is to advance toward improvement. So, onward we go trying to do the right thing. Hopefully making even a small contribution in the right direction.

  I think that’s what John Lennon meant. “Well we all shine on / Like the moon and the stars and the sun / Well we all shine on / Ev’ryone come on.”

  After reading about that conniving CEO being on trial, I found the name of the detective investigating the case and called him the next day to inquire if I could be of any help.

  Your First Exam and the Butterfly Effect

  I like the idea that everything matters. That each of us—through the work we do, through even our seemingly inconsequential interactions—has an impact on others. And furthermore, that it’s not just the work we do, but that our efforts and intentions matter too. That might seem like a soft argument, but it’s actually an easy one to validate for ourselves.

  Think about it, we’ve certainly all been inspired and affected by people who fought tirelessly and valiantly, whether it was for a just cause or against an illness, even if they lost the battle in the end. History is full of such examples that inspire and motivate. And given the construct that what we do affects others, it follows that the results from what we do either fall on the contributing side or the negative side of this “impact ledger.”

  Here’s something else that’s important to understand. It’s often difficult to predict just how much good might come from our efforts. What we might regard as a seemingly minor suggestion—might provide that first critical spark necessary to ignite a new way of thinking. Or our lending a hand might just be one more drop in a necessary change toward a fundamental societal shift. But in either scenario—it matters.

  The concept that small causes can have large effects is often described as the “butterfly effect.” The concept originated in the early 1800s, and was advanced by Ray Bradbury in his fictional writing and by Edward Lorenz within the science of meteorology. The term was coined by American scientist and meteorologist Lorenz to describe how seemingly small things can have a huge impact.

  This was evidenced mathematically when Lorenz was using a computer model to determine weather predictions. When he entered an initial condition of 0.506 rather than the precise value of 0.506127—the resulting weather prediction model was astoundingly different.

  (Of course, it’s also difficult to predict how much harm can come if our contributions are on the negative side of the ledger, but let’s focus on the positive.)

  Here’s one story about how a seemingly simple and small idea actually had big consequences—and … it involved you. Chances are you don’t even know this story, but it’s true. It begins with the person who was responsible for your first exam (actually, your first two exams). And then how your exam results were then used as another drop in an ocean of data to bring clarity to previously unseen and unknown insights, which have since been credited with saving the lives of tens of thousands of babies every year in the US

  Allow me to introduce you to the person responsible for your first exams. Her name is Virginia Apgar. She was a woman of integrity and persistence, of intelligence and character. She had your best health in mind. And Virginia Apgar always strove to make contributions on the positive side of the ledger.

  Apgar was born in 1909. The world was a different place. Henry Ford had just introduced the Model T, the Morse code distress signal or SOS (three dots, three dashes, three dots) had recently became the worldwide standard, and the first boxes of Crayola Crayons were just a few years old. There was also significant sexism and racial inequities. Fortunately for you, Virginia Apgar didn’t let the sexism and inequities of the day slow her down.

  Apgar was an active child, did well in school, and loved music. Perhaps because her father died from tuberculosis, and because her brother had health issues, Apgar decided to become a doctor.

  She went to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933. Due to the fact that no university would provide her with a scholarship or financial aid because she was a woman, Apgar graduated with substantial debt, even though she was fourth in her class.

  After graduation, her advisor explained to her that it’d be difficult for her to succeed as a surgeon because there were basically no other female surgeons, and patients would be unlikely to choose her. So, he encouraged her to study the newly emerging field of anesthesiology, explaining that she had the “energy, intelligence, and ability needed to make significant contributions in this area.” It was a difficult decision, but Apgar thought the idea made sense.

  After completing the six-month anesthesiology program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Apgar spent another six months in the anesthesiology program at Bellevue Hospital in New York, before returning to Columbia University as the director of the division of anesthesia.

  During her work at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Apgar observed there was no adequate means of assessing the overall health of newborn babies. There were, of course, some obvious indications, such as if the baby was breathing or pink, but there was not a standardized means of consistently scoring the baby’s health.

  Apgar decided a simple, yet comprehensive system was needed, and she came up with a rating system to quickly assess the health of newborn babies. The system involved five parameters: skin color, heart rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and respiration. Each characteristic was then scored 0, 1, or 2.

  Perhaps, not surprisingly, the idea was met with resistance, yet it was grudgingly put into practice where she worked. The aggregate score, which could range from 0 to 10, was both simple and effective. The exam and scoring were done at one minute and five minutes after the baby was born. The rating system and the one-minute and five-minute examinations spread to other hospitals throughout the US.

  A few years later, an intern using the methodology at a hospital in Denver, Colorado, came up with an acronym for the practice that used her name Apgar: appearance (skin color), pulse (heart rate), grimace (reflex irritability), activity (muscle tone), and respiration. The scoring became ubiquitous in hospitals throughout the United States and around the world.

  As physician Atul Gawande wrote in The New Yorker,

  “The score was published in 1953, and it transformed child delivery. It turned an intangible and impressionistic clinical concept—the condition of a newly born baby—into a number that people could collect and compare. Using it required observation and documentation of the true condition of every baby. Moreover, even if only because doctors are competitive, it drove them to want to produce better scores—and therefore better outcomes—for the newborns they delivered.”56

  What’s more, when the two scores for one minute and five minutes were aggregated into hundreds of thousands of other numbers—physicians and healthcare analysts were able to clearly discern trends that previously had been hidden. The numbers gave meaningful insight into the health of the baby, and if the baby was in danger. You were one of those babies.

  The data showed physicians with statistical significance how the health of babies varied, depending on what anesthetics were used or not used. This led to significant insights and changes in neonatal practices.

  As Dr. Gawande wrote, “If the statistics of 1940 had persisted, fifteen thousand mothers would have died last year (instead of fewer than five hundred)—and a hundred and twenty thousand newborns (instead of one-sixth that number).”57

  Virginia Apgar was both honest and tenacious in her quest to improve healthcare, and she was without ego. She always made it a habit to carry a pocketknife and tubing in her purse, in case someone needed an emergency tracheotomy. She said nobody was going to suffocate in her presence.

  Once, after one of her patients died following surgery, Virginia feared that perhaps she had mistakenly clamped a vessel during the surgery that could have contributed to the patient’s dem
ise. Although Virginia didn’t have permission, she snuck into the morgue, reopened the closed incision and saw that she had in fact ligated the vessel in question. Virginia immediately reported what she discovered to the chief of staff. Learning was of paramount importance to her, and she steadfastly pursued improved patient outcomes.

  Years later, after she worked tirelessly building the anesthesiology division, it was decided that it would become a stand-alone department. The director of that new department was given to a man. But Apgar took what must have certainly seemed like a slight in stride and continued forward. She then got her master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in 1959.

  She published over 60 journal articles, wrote a popular book with Joan Beck titled Is My Baby All Right? and assisted in delivering nearly 20,000 babies. So, thanks to Virginia Apgar for creating the Apgar score. And thank you for taking the exam (twice) and contributing the data that continues to help save tens of thousands of lives a year.

  Turns out, seemingly small things can have a huge impact. Just ask any baby.

  How to Crush Your Fears, Innovate, and Hug a Snake

  Say what?! Turns out, ophidiophobia is one of the most common fears people have. It’s a fear held by Justin Timberlake, Matt Damon, and even Indiana Jones. In fact, it’s a fear held by an estimated 30 percent of the population!

  Ophidiophobia is the abnormal fear of snakes. And ophidiophobes aren’t just fearful when they’re in the presence of snakes—they’re mostly terrified even when just thinking about them. And, of course, it’s not just snakes that large percentages of people fear. A similarly large percentage of people fear heights, or public speaking, or even change itself. There are fears holding you back from doing your best creative and entrepreneurial work.

  Brothers David and Tom Kelley can tell you a lot about those fears holding you back from your creative confidence. They have decades of real-world experience building their creative confidence and helping thousands of others do the same.