Something You Should Know - Why You Wear Your Hair That Way & The Surprising Science of Human Stupidity

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

UPGRADE TO SYSK PREMIUM! To unlock ad-free listening to over 1,000 episodes plus receive exclusive bonus content, go to ⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://SYSKPremium.com  When you stay at a short-term rental property such as Airbnb, you often notice security cameras. After all, it is someone’s home. But what about cameras inside the home? This episode begins with surprising data about just how common hidden surveillance is—and what every guest should know. Source: https://www.ipx1031.com/surveillance-rental-study/ For as long as humans have been around, we’ve had to do something with our hair. We’ve cut it, colored it, styled it—and hairstyles have come and gone through the centuries. But where do these trends really come from? Why do they say so much about who we are? And why are some styles (like the mullet, the pompadour, or “The Rachel”) so iconic? To answer these questions, I speak with Rachel Gibson, a hair historian who knows more about hair than anyone you’ll ever meet. She’s currently writing a book on the subject and shares fascinating content on her Instagram @thehairhistorian https://www.instagram.com/thehairhistorian/# People can be brilliant, but they can also be incredibly stupid—and sometimes in spectacular ways. Why do individuals, organizations, and even governments make such foolish choices? And what can we learn from it? My guest is Cezary Pietrasik, co-owner of Synerise (a global AI leader in predicting human behavior), former investment banker at JPMorgan, former consultant at McKinsey, and author of Homo Idioticus: Why We Are Stupid and What to Do About It (https://amzn.to/3Jqsa6D). He explains the psychology of stupidity and shares jaw-dropping examples you won’t forget. When people are sad, they often ruminate—rehashing negative thoughts over and over. It feels hard to stop, but there is something simple that helps break the cycle. Listen as I reveal what science says about how to stop rumination. Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/how-walking-in-nature-prevents-depression/397172/ PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! INDEED: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Indeed.com/SOMETHING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ right now! QUINCE: Keep it classic and cool this fall with long lasting staples from Quince! Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Quince.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns! HERS: Whether you want to lose weight, grow thicker, fuller hair, or find relief for anxiety, Hers has you covered. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forhers.com/something⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you! SHOPIFY: Shopify is the commerce platform for millions of businesses around the world! To start selling today, sign up for your $1 per month trial at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://Shopify.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's code happy me at happy mammoth.com for 15% off your entire first order. Today on something you should know, when you rent an Airbnb home, what are you supposed to do about those security cameras? Then the story of human hair and hairstyles, the Bob, the Pixie, the Rachel. The mullet. The mullet is such an bold haircut. There's nothing subtle about it. It's quite a strange haircut, and it's a hybrid of long hair and short hair. And that is why people have such strong reactions either way towards it.

People either love them or hate them. Also, how to stop ruminating, because it does you no good. And the science of human stupidity, some wonderful examples of it, and why we may be getting more stupid. So since 1995, our IQ in the Western world is declining. So basically there is this research from, I think, IBM, that frequent messaging and being bombarded by texts is decreasing our IQ by 10 points. All this today on something you should know. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you as a trackside.

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and practical advice you can use in your life. Today, something you should know with Mike Carruthers. If you ever stay in a short-term rental like an Airbnb, there's something you have to be concerned about that was never a problem a few years ago. and that's what we're going to start with today. Hi, I'm Mike Carruthers, and I welcome you to this episode of something you should know. So when you stay at somebody's short-term rental,

like an Airbnb or a Verbo rental, it is someone's home, and it is common for homes to have surveillance cameras, ring cameras at the door, which means when you rent it, the owner of that property can, from their home, watch you come and go from the house. see who else comes and goes,

and it can feel a little creepy like you're being watched. But it gets weirder. In a survey by a company called IPX-1031, nearly half of the people surveyed, 47% say they discovered a camera in a rental property they were staying in, a significant increase from just 25% in 2023. Now, last year, Airbnb banned the use of all indoor cameras. Verbo also does not allow cameras indoors

but in the survey of a thousand people it's clear those rules are often not followed among those renters who found a camera one in five of them was in a common area a bedroom or a bathroom now before the ban last year Airbnb did allow indoor cameras in common areas like hallways and living rooms but now all indoor cameras are not allowed at all

and hosts are required to disclose the general location of outdoor cameras. Alarmingly, 55% of Airbnb hosts admit to still using surveillance cameras indoors even after the company's ban last year. Many say they just need to to make sure the rules are being followed. And that is something you should know. So here's something pretty cool. We now have a premium membership, where you'll get daily, mini-episodes.

These are quick 90-second bursts of fascinating facts and insights. Plus, you get every regular, something you should know episode, commercial-free. And your membership helps keep the show going strong. It's just a few dollars a month. Sign up now at sysk Premium.com. On top of your head, there is, or at least, there was hair. And for many, many centuries, humans have had to figure out what to do with it. We cut it, we style it, we color it, and we use it to make a statement about who we are.

So what's the story and the history of all of this? Where do hair styles come from? Why do they fade away? Why is hair so important? I mean, think about it. When you leave the house to go out, what's one of the last things you do to make sure you look good? You check. You check. and fix your hair. And it seems we've been doing this since almost forever. Rachel Gibson is a very knowledgeable hair historian. She posts some wonderful content about hair on her Instagram account, which there's a link to in the show notes.

And she's here to talk about hair. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to something you should know. Hi, Mike. Thank you so much for having me. So how far back do we know people actually paid attention to this? Like, you know, your hair's there and your hair is there. But when did somebody say, you know, what if we combed it this way or what if we did this to it or what if we cut it this way?

Do we have any idea when that started? I think it's kind of one of my favorite things about the topic of studying hair is because it really connects us to the past and it serves as a helpful reminder that the desire to transform our appearance is absolutely nothing new. We have recipes for hair dyes and styling products that date back to ancient civilizations. And I think what's particularly interesting is that the key concerns remain very similar to today. So namely covering gray hair and preventing balding, they're sort of the general topics that have lasted from day one till now. We know that from the earliest times, people have sought to change their hair, to style their hair, do things with their hair. And there are so many examples of how it ties into religion, to life stages, to kind of ceremonial experiences that people live through. So there's lots of reasons why people have been interested in their hair, and it isn't always just down to vanity.

It is often tied to a bigger thing as well. If you're going to style your hair and color your hair and cut your hair, at some point, and I mean, this may not even be a real question. But you also have to clean your hair. And I wonder, like, have people always washed their hair? Or was that part of this evolution of styling and things that, you know, we need to keep this clean so we can do stuff with it? Sure. One of the solutions to keeping hair clean has often been to shave the head and to use wigs instead, because that means you don't have to worry so much about having things like knits or oily hair or anything like that.

And we see Roman knit combs exist in museums. You can go see them. And they look exactly the same as the knit combs that we have today. They haven't changed in design at all. And I think even if people didn't have access to running water and shampoo in the same way that we do, they were certainly concerned with keeping things out of their hair and combing it and grooming it in such a way that it would keep clean. Given how much trouble hair can be,

it would seem that you would just want to generally keep it short rather than keep it long. But we see movies and histories of things that make it look like long hair for both men and women has been fashionable on and off forever. Yeah, long hair is really associated with kind of health and vitality. You know, if you can grow a thick, lovely, luscious head of hair, it's a really instant signifier to anyone that sees you that you are a healthy person. And particularly for women, this has always been really intrinsically linked with kind of reproduction and being able to have children. But you're right, for men too, having a lot of healthy hair tells the world that you are a healthy person.

Well, at some point, somebody must have said, or it just happened, that we generally associate shorter hair with men and longer hair with women. When did that, has that always been? No, it hasn't always been. So when we think about powdered wigs and particularly in England and in Europe, we have a large period of time where men are wearing big powdered wigs. And there's a man who I like to talk about who is really kind of responsible for what you just asked is he's called Francis Russell. And in the 18th century, he decided to stop wearing a powdered wig. There was a hairpowder tax was brought in here in England. in May 1795, and he was annoyed at having to pay this. So basically, if you wore a powdered wig, you had to pay a tax. And if you didn't pay the tax, you would be publicly vilified. And he decided one day that he just wanted to stop paying this. So he stopped wearing a powdered wig. And he started being seen in polite society, in London society, with his natural, short, unstyled hair, which is the kind of hair that we see most men wear most of the time

today. But it was very scandalous at a time when most people wore white powdered wigs, often with bows and curls. And it slowly caught on amongst his set, his group. And he almost single-handedly changed the way the men in the West at least wore their hair forever. Nobody wears powdered wigs now. And he is kind of the person to thank for that. So I always think of him as being quite an interesting figure in a time when particularly men's hair really changed its style and became what we know today. One of the things I find interesting is when I look back at pictures of me growing up, or I look back at pictures of, say, people at a party in the 60s and you can say to some degree

about their clothes as well, but I often look at hair and pictures of me when I was young in my hair and think, what was I thinking? I mean, it looks horrible. I think we all have our regrets with our hairstyles. I know I certainly do. And I think that's to the point of being cut up in a trend. And that that's something that today's generation are probably going to have less of

because you're able to curate your style and change it so much more. And you have much more of a vision of yourself. You know, you have your photo taken, or you can take a photo of yourself a thousand times a day if you want to and make sure that you look exactly as you want to. So I do think,

we're going to lose some of those embarrassing moments. And I think it's interesting how technology and the art of sort of recording our own image has influenced hair trends. And there's been a trend recently for young men having what is sometimes called this llama haircut, this curly hair on the top, kind of short hair, very curly on the top. And one of the theories of why that's so popular is from people spending so much time looking down into their phone screens. So you want a hairstyle that falls forward more and that kind of fills the frame of the camera.

And it's so interesting that technology, I mean, technology influences hair all the time in terms of product development, but in terms of how a phone could change a hairstyle, I think that's really fascinating and a very current issue that we haven't really thought about before. And during lockdown, there was this real trend certainly amongst people in the UK for the Mullet revival really came back. And again, that's often, we discuss this idea that that's down to the fact that people are looking at themselves in a camera all day. So you want something that's kind of visually interesting from the front that you can also see the back of your hair. You can see the hair hanging down at the back as well as the front. So all of these things like phones and the way that we communicate online have really influenced hairstyles beyond just trends circulating more widely. Well, the mullet is iconic in the sense that, I mean, I don't know much about hair. styles but the mullet stands out as if you if you say that word i know exactly what you mean and

and you know it's got a lot of ridicule as a hairstyle but but also i guess it was very popular the mullet is such an interesting hairstyle and i feel like i talk about mullets all the time because i'm very interested in them but you know it's a hairstyle that has a long history this obviously it wasn't called a mullet but hair that's short in the front and long at the back has been around for a very long time. It has its roots as a quite a practical military haircut. So you see it in ancient Greece and Rome and amongst the Vikings and amongst some early Native American groups as well. And it's this idea that you have or men tended to have long hair, which is good for keeping you warm and, you know, the many other reasons people might have long hair. But having it short at the front meant that you were able to see better and your hair wasn't going to be grabbed when you were in combat. So, you know, the hairstyle. may not have been called the mullet, but versions of that are very popular for a long time. And yeah, in terms of more modern history, we start seeing it in the 1970s, when the Ziggy Stardust moment, and it's very fashionable for a while.

But as with anything that starts as a trend amongst a subculture, it eventually becomes more mainstream, and then it became the giant version that I suppose people think of a lot for the 80s and 90s, and that's when it really becomes, you know, over for so many people and it becomes a bit of a joke. But it has definitely had a revival and certainly where I am in London there is a big mullet moment and people are very fond of them

and I think it's because the Gen Z generation don't have memories of it being an embarrassing haircut to them. It's something cool they found a picture of and there is no association with it of being anything embarrassing or cheesy at all. But is there any sense of why specifically the mullet which was so popular became this item of ridicule.

Like, why did people turn on it? I mean, it wasn't just that it faded away. People made fun of it. And unlike so many other hairstyles, I mean, you could sit and talk about lots of hairstyles from the 60s and 50s that look silly compared to today. But people don't do that. But the mullet seems to attract ridicule.

I think it's a very bold haircut. It's very confrontational. When we think of those 80s ones, particularly, it's a very larger-than-life hairstyle. There's nothing subtle about it. And it is very dramatic. And I think that's where people have such a visceral reaction to it. It's not pretty on a woman and it's not kind of considered handsome on a man. It's quite a strange haircut.

And it's a hybrid of long hair and short hair. And there's a lot of volume in them and perming a lot. of the time. So I think it's just quite a strange haircut and that is why people have such strong reactions either way towards it. People either love them or hate them. We're talking about why and how people style their hair the way they do. And my guest is hair historian Rachel Gibson. Wait, I didn't get charged for my donut. It was free with this Tim's rewards points. I think I just stole it. I'm a donut stealer. Ooh. Earned for points so fast, it'll seem too good to be true.

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Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. So Rachel, when I look back at some hairstyles, say of the 60s and the 50s and the 40s, it looked like it had to be a lot of work. And I wonder, like, do hairstyles change because people say, you know, I just don't have the time to keep this up? Absolutely. That's a huge part of why trends change. And when we think about, to reference Marianne's, Annette again, or those elaborate hairstyles from days gone by when a woman could sit for hours and have her hair dressed by a hairdresser, even at that point, those hairstyles were only for people who could have the time and money to achieve such things.

But looking in more recent history, when the Bob comes in in the 19, well, 1910s, 1920s, that's very much linked to what's happening with women's liberation and women being more free to do more things with their life than sit at home and have their hair done. And we see it again in the 1960s when Vidal Sassoon cuts bobs in London very famously and that becomes a big trend. And he talked about wanting to do hairstyles that were wash and wear. So you could just have a shower at home and leave. You didn't have to go to the salon once a week to have your hair permed and set and sit there for a couple of hours. You know, it really marks a shift in specifically women's lifestyles, I suppose. The change from a 1950s housewife to a 1960s woman who might be managing a job and a household. And this idea of a haircut that didn't require lots of effort and was able to just be washed and left and it looked perfect.

that really marks a big change in people's lifestyle. So I think the time that people have to spend on their hair really does dictate trends. My sense about men's hair, at least in recent history, was it wasn't a real exciting topic for many decades, maybe until the Beatles and then everything seemed to change. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, I think we have a lot of interesting hair styles for the Teddy Boys and that kind of late 40s, early 50s,

rock and roll moment. But certainly the Beatles made a big change. And I think it's interesting how scandalous their hairstyles were seen because to us who generally are quite used to seeing men with longer hair or different styles of hair, you might think they might look slightly silly hairstyles perhaps, but you certainly don't think they're scandalous. But people were really outraged by this longer hair.

So it definitely marked a really big moment. And I think that era of 1950s in, to the 60s when teenagers are really becoming a big marketing group of their own and trends are being directly targeted at teenagers. All of that changes and music play such a huge part in that. And I think we then go on into the 70s, which is obviously a really fascinating time for hair history because we have the punk movement and that's when color, you know, hair coloring really becomes a big trend and becomes much more widespread, much more acceptable. Obviously, the punk movement was very extreme, but it did usher in these products that allowed you to have bright

colored hair for the first time. So the punk movement and some of the hairstyles that came out of that are a good example of what I'm going to ask you. And that is, people will say, well, you know, why is your hair that way? Well, it's, I'm making a statement. But I, like, I don't know what the statement is. It's just different. It's a different hairstyle. But unless you explain the statement you're making, I wouldn't know. And, you know, punk, you know, with very spiky hair and all, I don't know what it's saying other than my hair is different. So I think punk is a great example of hair demonstrating status.

It's a total rejection of societal expectations. It's an expression, or, you know, at that time at least, was an expression of a combination of anger and wanting to rebel against what had gone before. and also creativity and this idea of being quite experimental and trying things. And I think the reason I mentioned punk is I find it fascinating that most hairstyles these days don't particularly shockers, but the Mohican is one of very few hairstyles that still has the power to really turn heads and surprise people. If someone walks into a room with a two-foot-high green Mohican, you will have a

reaction. And there are many hairstyles left that have that impact. But I think that speaks to the purpose of them, which is this rejection of society. It's very purposefully not natural. No one is going to mistake that for a natural hairstyle. You have done something very specific to be confrontational, and I suppose that's the appeal. What about hair color? I mean, I understand people will color their hair strange colors like purple and green that are not natural hair colors to to be different but you know women have been coloring their hair blonde to be blonde for forever and and changing their hair color but not a not shockingly change it but they would rather be blonde than a brunette and and i'm curious why that is i mean colorful hair is nothing

you. Again, that dates back to ancient Greece, ancient Rome. People have always used whatever they could get their hands on, really, to change the color of their hair. I think speaking specifically to blonde, it's such a scarce color in nature. Very few people have naturally blonde hair. They might have mousy brown hair, which is quite light, but pure blonde hair is very rare, and scarcity always attract people, and that's why people want to imitate it. But yeah, we see ancient recipes going back to the earliest times of people wanting to change their hair color. Probably my favorite one is Venetian women during the Renaissance who bleached their hair. They actually used horse urine to go blonde, which I know sounds very unpleasant.

And I'm sure it did not smell nice either, but it contains ammonia, which is an effective bleaching substance and is used to bleach hair. So although the product isn't very nice, there are contemporaneous anecdotes and even illustration. of women in Renaissance Venice, sitting on roof terraces wearing hats which have holes in so their hair can be pulled through, which would allow the sun to work with the ammonia and bleach their hair. You know, we see examples throughout history of people doing quite extreme things in order to become blonde. And when we see someone's hair, we make lots of assumptions about that person based on their appearance. And we have, yeah, so many connotations with what being blonde means that it's no surprise that I think people will

suffer to be blonde. It does seem that in recent history anyway, that hairstyles have changed, that the driving force for hairstyle changes has been, in many cases, people in the entertainment business. You think of Clara Bow, Farah Fawcett, Jennifer Aniston, with these iconic hairstyles that people seem to really gravitate to. Yeah, those in positions of power have really always inspired other people with their fashion and beauty choices. I'll mention Mary Antoinette. Again, she inspired higher society and her hair was reported on in the newspapers of the time in really great detail, much like the kind of get the look features you see in magazines today. So people have always been very interested in that. And I think as we go into the 20th century, obviously

the birth of really popular media and cinema and color photography really make a big difference. And I think a really interesting candidate would be Veronica Lake with the, famous peekaboo waves which were really popular in the 1940s. In fact, that was so popular that she had to do a public safety campaign during the Second World War, asking women factory workers in the US to not wear their hair like her because it was really dangerous for people doing practical work. So they made this video with her showing you how to start your hair in a slightly different way. Jennifer Aniston's hair became a big thing and she was on that show Friends. Well, there were other women on that.

show friends, but nobody like ran to copy their hairstyles. There was something about hers that really seemed to strike a chord with people. I think that haircut is such a good example of the kind of your hair, but better idea, which people always strive to, which is, it doesn't look overly done. It just looks really kind of natural and beautiful. And we think, oh, I could make my hair like that. And the irony is her hair is naturally very thick and curly. And she talked about in interviews after the show had gone out years later, saying how difficult it was to maintain that hairstyle and that she couldn't do it herself at home. You know, it had to be blowdried by her hairdresser, Chris McMillan, who was able to, you know, get it really

straight and glossy. But the appearance of it on the show, I think, so many people are very invest in this idea of it's kind of a girl next door beauty. It doesn't look overly done, although the irony is it did take a huge amount of effort to get it but it does look sort of natural but beautiful and we kind of think it's achievable for us to get ourselves at home well I have to admit that I never really thought much about the history and the psychology of hair is being a topic but it's really interesting and I appreciate you sharing it Rachel Gibson has been my guest she is a hair

historian she has an Instagram account with lots of cool content on this topic She's at the Hair Historian at Instagram, and there's a link to it in the show notes as well. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you so much. I'm glad it was interesting. I'm always happy to talk hair history. The new Mitsubishi Outlander brings out another side of you. Your regular side listens to classical music.

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I mean, we've all witnessed people doing really stupid things. And history is full of stories of people doing really stupid things. stupid things. However, people also do amazingly wonderful, brilliant things. We're really good at that too. So why do we do stupid things? Well, that's what we're going to talk about. With Cesare Pietresik, he is co-owner of Cinerize, a global AI leader in predicting human behavior. He's a former investment banker at J.P. Morgan, and he is author of a book called Homo Idioticus, Why We Are Stupid and what to do about it. Hi, Susari. Hello, hi. Good to be here. So I love this topic because I think everybody has had the experience of, you know, thinking about all the great things human beings have

done and yet how stupid people are. And just in everyday encounters with people, go, God, that guy is, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. So this paradox, explain it. I mean, what is it? the human stupidity has several layers of causation some of them are really serious and difficult to change for example biology right there's other layers that we create ourselves such as psychology which mostly boils down to the biases that we have and heuristics the simplifications that we make in everyday life or how we structured our society and how we structured our institutions

well I know there are many to choose from but give me an example of really good human stupidity, so we can dive into this and then we'll go from there. Look at San Francisco, for example, right? It's the city I used to live in for a long time. This is the city which created such stupid policies, and this is another layer of stupidity, right? Society of stupidity, which is mostly related to conformity. So the society there created such stupid rules which do not recognize recommend or do not allow to solve problems. Like, for example, not criminalizing theft under $950, encourages theft, right?

Not being hard on the bikers gangs going through the city on red light in the middle of the day encourages this, not doing hot pursuit of the people who stole something, which is the official policy of San Francisco. Basically, like, if somebody in front of you takes away your, watch from you, the police is not pursuing them because it's too dangerous, right? So if you create all those rules, then obviously you will leave in a place which is not safe. Do you think, this is a question I've had for some time, do you believe in the example you just gave of San Francisco that passing a law that we don't prosecute for people who steal money or steal things worth less than

$950, that people really don't understand that that encourages theft and that maybe they're doing it for some other political reason to cater to some other group. It's not that they're stupid. They just don't care. Yes, I guess that not caring is, I consider it part of stupidity because if you do not care about something that ultimately bites you back. That is your own fault, isn't it? It's look at Russians, for example.

I'm giving in my book this example of Navy fleets of Russia and United States. Until 1960s, both of those had very big submarine fleets, which had a lot of accidents. In 1960s, Americans decided that, you know what, we're not going to be stupid. We are going to prosecute every single malfunction. We are going to look and analyze every single. failure, every procedure, we will not tolerate stupidity. And since that time, Americans haven't lost a submarine. Russians have lost nine. Because you know what? In Russia, it's okay if you're a little bit drunk and it's okay if you don't obey this rule and it's okay. It's your choice. And then

150 people die in a sub which goes down, right? Yeah, I saw that. I read that. There have been incidents where there have been disasters with Russian submarines and it was traced back, at least in part to alcohol consumption and human error as a result of that. But is that culture or is that stupidity? Or is it both? If nobody cares, I mean, if it's okay, then it's okay. Is it? Is it? Because ultimately, well, if I guess, look, it's a very philosophical question you asked, a valid question, is, you know, if, okay, so let me ask you this question. If you were a woman in China, in early 1900s, if you were lucky to be born as high-class woman, you would have almost 100% probability that your feet would be broken into the shape of a lady. Wait, wait, what? Your feet would be broken into the shape of a lily? 100%, almost 100% of Chinese Han women in early 1900s in China had their feet broken, broken bones.

They couldn't walk, right? Or belly walk. It was part of the culture. Almost 50% of the whole society had this done. Is it stupid or not? Because they thought it's a chic. It's kind of part of culture. But is it fair to?

to call that stupidity because you're looking back at that in China around 1900 you're looking back at that through today's lens right today that seems really stupid but I doubt it did to them then so is it stupidity or is it culture and we have learned since that we don't do that A fair point, but it doesn't mean, yes, in other times we were accepting things you would not accept today. But isn't it our duty to ask those difficult questions, to be those guys who are actually questioning the status quo, that today? That's exactly what I'm thinking about. Like, if you are born in a society which does, which, for example, doesn't wash its hands, Maybe it was a right question to ask this question.

This was Ignat Zemelweiss, Hungarian doctor in 1840s, Vienna, who enforced washing of hands of doctors from maternity ward. The mortality rate came down from 10% to 1%. He saved so many lives. And you know what happened to him? He was fired and he died in poverty. because his own environment and his colleagues and doctors, and particularly the Mr. Virhoff, I remember,

the contemporary Pope of Medicine, I was referred, just was making fun of him. That was a ridiculous thing to do because, you know, we doctors, we don't wash hands. Yeah, okay. Well, I mean, I get that, but it seems to me that we don't wash hands until we do, and somebody has to start it, and often, because, people are resistant to change there's ridicule but until somebody changes it there's no change true doesn't it suggest that we should be those ignat zemal vices those people who actually ask those

difficult questions i think that if we have more people like that who have the courage to ask inconvenient questions and that's better then society functions better better. Right, but I guess what I'm saying or what I'm asking is, so he was very right, clearly, very correct to question this and that we should all wash our hands, doctors should wash their hands. But are we right to today look back and condemn those people who didn't before that and say they were stupid? They were just doing what people did. correct but the people who were presented with evidence such as this guy called virhoff which is this kind of at that time the most famous doctor in vienna when he was

presented with evidence and he still rejected it that i think he we can blame him i think there is no excuse for him so give me some examples of through your view of the way people are stupid today of the dumb things that people do today that may we may say well wait well wait a minute that's stupid look I think there's it's everywhere around us right so you go and you buy a coffee and while buying a coffee you sign typically something and whether you sign mickey mouse or you put a smile or cross which actually means you cannot read the transaction goes through so why do we do it. If you go to Target and you want a bottle of red wine and you have, you're 65 and you're bald or you're gray, they will not sell it to you until you show them the passport or ID.

Isn't it ridiculous? You go on American Airlines flight as I often go. And every time I go on American Airlines, I have to select gender. Why do I have to select gender every time? I don't, I'm not changing my gender. Like, I don't need to change. my name every time. They pick it up from the previous time. Why do I need to change my gender every time that I go on an American Airlines flight? And then, you know, you go into Spain and they ask you for a Wi-Fi password on a high-speed train. And this train moves so fast that only the people on the train can catch the signal. And if you're on the train, you're actually allowed to have it for free. So why having a password in the first place, right?

It's just, this stupidity is just everywhere, everywhere around us in small decisions in how government works, in government forms. For example, I had to apply for the green card in the US and they were asking me questions such as, are you terrorists? Or essentially, have you been killing Jews between this date and that date? Like, what a stupid question? Like, first of all, if you were involved in any genocide, then you should be prosecuted despite the time frame, right? And who would report, self-report on yourself? Anyway. Wait, so when you apply for a green card, you are asked if you were a terrorist and if you've been killing Jews.

Yes, yes, yes. Okay, but don't you think? especially when you just explained it the way you did. Everybody listening would agree with you that this is stupid. It isn't human stupidity, it's bureaucratic stupidity. Absolutely. But that's not, people aren't stupid. It's just some bureaucrats said, well, let's ask, on the airline,

they want to know your agenda, like there's different seats for different. Yes. What possible difference could that make? But there must be, I would like to hear the reason for it. Somebody should ask him, why do you ask that? You know, who has time on the government side to review even those things, right? And can you just, like, do the last 50 years? How many terrorists have you caught who just self-reported themselves on this form?

How many? Right. And if you haven't, then why haven't you changed the procedure in the last 50 years, right? Or there's on the same form, there's a question about, have you ever been member of Communist Party, right? And you know what? Like in France, it's actually quite chic to be a member of the Communist Party. It's like, you know, it's kind of, you know, like high society thing, right? So it's just ridiculous.

All those questions are ridiculous. And you know what? Also, for someone who's coming from outside of the U.S., it's very strange to see the tolerance. for for bureaucracy in the u.s right i always thought that u.s is incredibly efficient country and when i got in touch with the bureaucracy i just i was shocked right so for example you know even the the the the vocabulary that is being used like your miranda versus something rights or your 8802 form or your 401k 401 yeah before 1k right like why do you call your pension plan 4 or 1K.

Is it not important to be like one digit? Why does it three digits? And is it not as important to be A or B? It's K. Isn't it ridiculous? It's like, but you know what? Those things start small and then they grow. So my point is we need to fight the stupidity every day in the small battles.

Because if we don't, it becomes this bad moth of bureaucracy and state power which you cannot defeat if I'm going on a trip and I'm filling out my information to American Airlines and they ask me my gender I'm not going to stop and call them

and say why do I have to do this it's just easier to fill it out and there's other airlines which in their Swiss airlines that in their complaint form they don't allow you to use so many signs

such as hyphen and star and this and bullet and this that you know it's almost impossible to submit a claim so they have very low amount of claims right because they just make it almost impossible right is that intentional you think uh it's intentional for probably some smart manager self-serving manager of that department just invented this because his bonus probably dependent on amount of claims, right? It's bad for the whole of the company, but it's good for him. So is there a reason to think that we're getting more stupid? Yes.

Sadly, we are getting more stupid. So there is research by Mr. Flynn, the famous guy who claimed that our IQ was growing in the many, many decades since particular Second World War. and then he observed in around 1995 that it stopped and then started declining. So since 1995, our IQ in the Western world is declining, and particularly observed it on Norwegian records because they have database of IQ tests from 1962 to today. And they can see that through IQ test that people are getting more stupid.

So basically there is this research from, I think, IBM that was pointing that frequent messaging and being bombarded by texts alone is decreasing our IQ by 10 points. If you add on top of it reliance of us on AI, we don't need to remember anything, we don't need to know anything, then the future is not looking good. Well, maybe this is part of the problem that all these incidences that you're talking about are most of them are pretty small and insignificant that collectively add up to a, you know, a lot of stupidity. But as I said, I'm not going to stop what I'm doing when I'm filling out my information for my

airline ticket and call the airline and say, why do you need to know my gender? What difference does it make to you? And I'm not going to hold up the line at Target and say, wait a minute. You know, clearly look at me. You can see I'm over 20. why do you need to see my ID to buy that bottle of wine? I'm not going to

do it. Exactly. But then, where do you draw the line? You should draw the line somewhere. Because if you don't, then over long term, it turns into a totalitarian, ugly, dark state. Who's going to draw that line?

You and I, everyone. We need to draw the line. We need to, in our every day, we need to evaluate if something makes sense. If you don't like that you're being asked about your gender every day, well, you need to speak out about this. And there's so many examples of the stupid things being done for years and then overturned by conscious effort of small number of people.

Think about the lead pollution, for example. Lead that was in our paints until 1978 and our petrol until 1990s created huge damage to our brains. There's this phenomenal graph by Rick Nevin which shows the correlation of violence in the US with the levels of lead in the blood of males

shifted by 23 years to adjust when they become problematic and it's almost perfect correlation. And you know what? We have been doing this for years, and why not keep doing this? And there were a few smart people who figured it out, and they were trying to fight. And they were ridiculed. But you know what? Finally, they changed how we operate society.

And now we have much safer society, among others, because we do not have lead pollution, which is raking havoc in our brains. Well, I appreciate the fact that you're calling this out, because I sense there's this resignation. You know, people do stupid things, and, you know, people do. That's just the way it is. But maybe it doesn't have to be the way it is, and you've certainly made the case. Cesari Pietresik has been my guest. He is co-owner of Cinerize, a global AI leader in predicting human behavior.

And he's author of a book called Homo Idioticus, Why We Are Stupid, and What to Do About It? And there's a link to that book in the show notes. Cesari, thank you so much. Thank you, Mike. It was a pleasure. Do you ever ruminate? I think most people do sometimes. Rumination is that thing that happens when you get really sad and you can't stop thinking about what's causing it.

That breakup or getting laid off or that biting remark from the jerk in the office. If rumination continues for too long, depression can set in. One way to reduce rumination is with distraction. taking part in a hobby, or enjoying a long chat with a friend. Those things can be very effective to stop the rumination. And researchers at Stanford also found that taking a walk in nature can do the same thing. They divided people into two groups. One group walked along a busy street,

and the other group walked in a setting with trees and views. The nature walkers show decreases in rumination that the urban walkers did not show. So next time you get stuck ruminating about something bad, a walk in the park may be just the ticket. Something You Should Know is produced by Jennifer Brennan, Jeffrey Havison, and our executive producer is Ken Williams. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. You might think you know fairy tales, and you might think that they are cute and sweet and boring. But the real grim fairy tales were not cute at all. They were very dark, and they were often very grim. On grim, grimmer, grimist, we tell a grim fairy tale to a bunch of kids.

Perfect for car rides or screen-free entertainment. Grim, Grim, Grimmer, Grimmist activates kids' imaginations and instigates fun conversations, because fairy tales speak to all of us at a very deep, primal level, and they raise interesting topics and questions that are worth chewing over together as a family. Every episode is rated grim, grimmer, or grimist, so you, your kids, your whole family can choose what is the right level of grim for you. Though if you're listening with Grandma, she's just going to go for Grimmist. Trust me on this one. Tune in to Grim, Grimmer, Grimmist, and our new season, available now.

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