Notes from Robert Sapolsky

• So the day started with a quick reading, Book by Robert Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at our best and worst. 
• He states that we don't hate violence; we fear and hate the wrong kind of violence, the violence in the wrong context. When it's the "right" type of aggression, we love it. (A few days ago, at the Oscars,  Will Smith slapped a comedian, Chris Rock, for a joke about Will's wife. So people think Will did the right thing. I guess some people thought it was the right kind of violence.)
• Avoiding categorical thinking. The boundaries between categories are arbitrary; if you pay lots of attention to where boundaries are, you pay less attention to complete pictures.

• Words:
• Altruism- is the behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense.
• Egghead- an intellectual, very studious, and academic person,(informal and slightly insulting)
• Primatologist - someone who studies monkeys and apes.
• Wreak havoc - to cause great damage

• Determined
• This book has two goals. 1. convince you that there is no free will, or at least that there is much less free will than generally assumed when it really matters.
• wind up as an adult exactly like your parents, or the exact opposite of them, and you are equally unfree.
• A huge percentage of the research done concerning the free-will debate revolves around intent, often microscopically examining the role of intent in the seconds before a behavior happens. 
• Beauty can shape intent; for millennia, sages have proclaimed how the outer beauty reflects inner goodness. While we may no longer openly claim that, beauty-is-good still holds sway unconsciously; attractive people are judged to be more honest, intelligent, and competent; are more likely to be elected or hired, and with higher salaries; less likely to be convicted of crimes. Brain can't really distinguish beauty from goodness.  
• Want to make someone more likely to choose to clean their hands? Have them describe something crummy and unethical they've done. Afterward, they are more likely to wash their hands or reach for hand sanitizer. 
• Gut bacteria vs. gene expression patterns in humans, neurons vs. free will
• By definition, if the frontal cortex is the last part of the brain to develop, it is the brain region least shaped by genes and most shaped by environment. 
• A shortage of nutrients for the fetus, caused by maternal starvation, and there is increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood, along with a variety of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. 
• Genes are turned on and off by the environment.