Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Chris Anderson is the head of TED Talks, the online 18-minute lecture series with titles like the Power of Vulnerability or 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm. His thesis sounds like one such talk, exploring being “generous in a way that gives people goosebumps”. He reaches for some familiar examples – heaping more expectation on poor old Patagonia, the clothing brand that always appears in any earnest account of ethical business – and at times the 18-minute attention span seem stretched a little thin in book form. But he saves himself with two provocative takes – the idea that if AI is the aggregator of all online content, we should put as much positive stuff out there as possible, and that the world’s kindness wheels could be greased with a return to tithing, following Islam’s zakat in giving away 2.5 per cent of our wealth. He estimates that would produce an upside of $10 trillion, far more than the UN’s estimated $267 billion needed to eradicate hunger. If you like cheerfully swift solutions to apparently intractable problems, this is ideal reading.