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(Dan Ariely) [br]♫ Wise men say...♫

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No.[br]Should I sing? Not really, uh?

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(A woman, off, laughs, then:) No, really you shouldn't sing, no.

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(Ariely) This is Aileen saying I shouldn't sing.

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So, I try all kinds of things, [br]sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

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Singing, clearly, is not one of them.

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I wanted to thank you [br]for taking this class.

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As you can see, I'm unshaved and tired.

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It's because it has been [br]a very long period.

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It was taxing and demanding, [br]but also very enjoyable.

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But I want to link something, kind of [br]broad, about the experience,

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to something we learned about.

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So you remember the principle [br]of loss of urging.

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The principle of loss of urging is that[br]we suffer more from negative things

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than we enjoy positive things.

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And it is this asymmetry that [br]going below is painful,

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going above is just not that happy.

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And I discovered that, of course,[br]we all experience it in our day-to-day lives.

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For me, one of the strongest case was [br]when I wrote my first book.

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Mostly, I got very good reviews,

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but there was one review [br]that was just terrible.

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And you know what?

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I remember that review in much more detail[br]than I remember the positive ones,

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which is our tendency to focus[br]on the negative things.

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And actually, the same thing, basically,[br]happened in the class.

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You know, from time to time, we had[br]people in the class who complained.

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And we had people who complained [br]on the fora,

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we had people who called Duke,

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we had a few people who kind of made[br]our lives very, very difficult

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and if I think about the balance,

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then most of you have been appreciative,[br]and fantastic, and helpful,

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very few have been negative,

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but the problem is that the negative [br]comments loom so large.

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The vast, vast, vast majority of you were[br]so helpful, and

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kind of, I felt, came to the rescue, then[br]basically tried to even out

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the forces of ev--- no, tried to even out[br]the negative comments.

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And I really appreciated this, you know,[br]this is an effort that we're doing

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out of our feeling of camaraderie [br]and participation and helpfulness

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and we are delighting in participating[br]in this community

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that formed together for a few weeks[br]to study together social science

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and learn and reflect and think together,

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and it's been a great experience.

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And there is no question [br]that I'm paying much more attention

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to the negative comments, [br]and there is no question

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that they've impacted my well-being [br]in the last few weeks,

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and all the people who have been involved[br]in the class for the last few weeks

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to a larger degree, but I do think [br]incredibly fondly about

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the people who have been positive

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and I think, this has been [br]such a force of good and you know,

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I think this is one of the things [br]that is incredibly important:

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how do we create a community?

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How do we create a community that,[br]even when there's some outliers

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who try to make things not as good[br]for everybody,

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how do we make sure the community strives[br]and continues and so on?

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And you know, we do learn from the bad,[br]so that's good,

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but I do want to remember the positive.

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So, what is the big positive positive?

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I'll tell you, when I look [br]at the activity around,

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I feel that we've created a community[br]of people who care about research

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and people who care about each other,

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and people who are interested [br]in the same topic:

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we gathered around the world, and [br]people spent a substantial amount of time

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listening to me, talking to each other,[br]reading papers.

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And that kind of activity,

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that kind of ability for people to get [br]together across the world and do something

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together in social science [br]is really exciting.

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And that, for me, is the biggest positive[br]impact, and I thank you all

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-- save for a few of you -- [br]for participate in it.

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So thank you very much.[br]Now I'm going to sleep for a few days

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and hopefully, we'll see you online[br]at some point.

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Bye for now.

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♫ Wise men say: only fools rush in♫[br]♫but I...♫

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[cah Center for Advanced Hindsight[br]an advanced insight production]