TED Talk- Barry Schwartz

In his TED Talk, Barry Schwartz shared the idea of using our practical wisdom. He says that our country has a collective disagreement with the way things are working. People who are in charge of this nation or our welfare do not have our interests at heart; or if they do, they do not know us personally enough. He, like Pink, talks about the carrots and sticks way of discipline. If things do not go right in our country, we either make more rules, or use clever incentives to make them better. What we need to make a better job of doing, is hiring people who have character. People who want to do the right thing, because no matter what, people will always find cracks in the rules. This all tied back to practical wisdom, an idea Aristotle first described as, “the moral will to do the right thing and skill to figure out what the right thing is”.

During his speech, Schwartz really connected to his audience. He used eye contacts and arm gestures. Through using these movements, you could tell he was passionate about what he was saying. He did not even use pictures or visual aid, yet I was still interested. Schwartz was not redundant as well, so the idea he was sharing did not become boring. I was surprised that the video was 23 minutes long! I feel like the topic was very relatable too, to the real world and our own personal lives. After listening to some TED talks, I like the idea but do not know how to apply it to the real world. Schwartz’s idea is very approachable and he hinted at way we can incorporate practical wisdom in our lives. He said wise people know why and how to bend the rules and know when to improvise. This idea is easy to apply to our lives with patience and a different mindset. Schwartz did an amazing job at sharing his subject in an interesting way and relating it to his audience.

Like Pink is talking about in Drive, Schwartz says the carrots and stick method create people who only do thing for incentive. What we need in society is people who do things because it is right and because they want to. Psychologists have known this for decades, yet our government still listens to economists. My question is why? If we truly want our nation to be the best in the world, why does our government insist on taking shortcuts and not investing in things for the long run? Swartz shared a story of a teacher who went to a meeting. At this meeting, she was told that in order for her class to get high test scores, she should ignore the people who will pass or fail either way, and focus on people in the middle. This is a complete shortcut to good test scores. Sure, it may be a good idea at the time, but in the long run, these kids that are ignored will not learn anything. I think it is sad how schools and government have been so caught up in test scores and grades. What we need to make sure we are doing is teaching children in a way so they can remember what they have learned and apply it to real life. This will only help our country in the long run, and help our children. Our economy is going downhill and we are falling further and further behind other countries academically. We need to pay more attention to doing the right thing and teaching the kids of the future the right way. This all goes back to practical wisdom. In order to live a better future, we need to work hard today with integrity.