Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 7 months, 2018–2025
7:15 · 11M views · Mar 18, 2018
Kurzgesagt makes a selfish case for improving the world, arguing that helping people far away raises prosperity and innovation for everyone, including yourself. The animated video frames this as egoistic altruism and positive-sum cooperation.
HN commenters link it to argue for cooperation and engagement over isolation, and as an accessible statement of positive-sum thinking.
8 comments from Hacker News
There is a video [0] I love that explains an argument for this well. The more people you have participating and iterating in a field, and more generally in life, the better that field/life ultimately becomes. Allowing more women in the video game field will ultimately make more satisfying and novel games for you and for everyone else. Modern video games are interactive art. People have emotional experiences from finishing games with stories and performances that speak to them. Part of this emotion comes from a deep understanding of the "lived experience" of people. There are parts of the lived experience that drastically differ for women and men, on the whole. Does that mean that men couldn't write a story that women find powerful and challenging? Of course not. But men aren't going to fully grok the little details of how society treats women, which means a lot of relevant themes relevant go unexplored if there aren't women on creative teams. Diversity of experience translates into diversity of ideas. Hell, I always thought that was a strength for FOSS, after all. --- [0]: this video - Kurzgesagt
This is amazing! I'm very excited for a future where more and more tasks can be automated, enabling humans to get higher and higher living standards with the same/fewer input resources. In short, technology is a wonderful thing that allows very low marginal costs. This is what we need to make the future a better place, given a consistent or growing population. "Technology is miraculous because it allows us to do more with less. " This is a perfect demonstration of that. See also: this video "A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – Egoistic Altruism"
I think a lot of people (including me) want China to join the club of first world countries, not just economically, but also in terms of respect of human rights. How do you get there? By banning chinese products and heavily penalizing them? Or by inviting them to get their people richer and more educated? There's actually a very interesting kurzgesagt video on the subject: this video
If you like this you may also like: - "Egoistic altruism" video by Kurzgesagt this video , supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. - Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen. Presents an argument for how contributing to positive sum economic growth is one of the best things you can do for humanity in the medium-to-long-run.
I'm quite fond of the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt which has deep videos that are targeted at a "you don't need to be an expert in the subject to understand." There's a video on this subject - Can YOU Fix Climate Change? [LINK] You may also like A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – Egoistic Altruism this video