In August 2017, former Google software engineer James Damore wrote a ten-page manifesto claiming that the disparity between men and women working as software engineers could be explained by biology. The now-infamous document (Damore's Twitter bio reads: "Author of the pro-diversity #GoogleMemo") said that men and women biologically differ in many ways and that this is what led to their representation, or lack thereof, in tech fields.

The idea that men and womens differences are derived from biology has haunted the past couple of decades, in fact. You may recall, for instance, that in 2005, Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard University, similarly announced that there weren't very many women scientists at elite universities due to "issues of intrinsic aptitude."

In May of 2013, when a Pew study found that mothers were the sole or primary source of income in four of ten American households with children, Fox Business held an all-male panel to respond. Fox News contributor Erick Erickson said that women being breadwinners went against the rules of nature.

Im so used to liberals telling conservatives that theyre anti-science, Erickson said. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology, when you look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role.

People still believe that men are somehow biologically programmed to be in charge. As Angela Saini wrote in her 2017 book, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the New Research Thats Rewriting the Story: "Summers may have dared to say it, but how many people haven't thought the same? That there might be an innate essential difference between the sexes that sets us apart?"

The unspoken assertion is that women don't biologically belong in leading and demanding fields, and that they are supposed to be in more domestic and servitudinal roles. As we enter the 2020s, its clear that refuting this idea is still necessary, even though understanding sex differences this way gets the scientific evidence so wrong.

Men and women do think there are variations in how they express themselves, their physical abilities, how they parent, and their hobbies and interests, according to a 2017 Pew survey. But when it comes to the reason for those differences, men and women point to a different cause. Most men thinklike Damorethat biology explains it, while more women attribute it to societal expectations. To explain differences between men and women in the things theyre good at in the workplace, 61 percent of men said its because of biology, compared to 35 percent of women who thought so.

Erickson doubled down on his position from the Fox panel in a follow-up blog post. Pro-science liberals seem to think basic nature and biology do not apply to Homo sapiens. Men can behave like women, women can behave like men, they can raise their kids, if they have them, in any way they see fit, and everything will turn out fine in the liberal fantasy world. Except in the real world it does not work out that way.

For a deep dive into the science of gender differences, Saini's book is excellent. For a narrower counterpoint to the notion of a biologically-mandated male-dominated society, here is a pro-science example for female-dominance: the spotted hyena. It is one of several species of animals where the females run the show, and while comparing human societies to animals is problematic (more on that later), reflecting on totally matriarchal hyenas can at least remind us that it's not a steadfast rule that males have to be #1.

Native to several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, female spotted hyenas are the typical rulers of their societies, which is rare among mammals. They are about 10 percent larger than males, much more aggressive, and socially dominant to adult males that live alongside them; their clans can comprise up to 90 hyenas all together.

Its pretty strikingly obvious when you watch these animals interact that the females are in charge, said Eli Strauss, a behavioral ecologist who works in the lab of Kay Holekamp, a zoologist at Michigan State University who has been observing hyena behavior for nearly 30 years. You can see that males are displaced from kills, prevented from feeding, and the females will come in and take the food that the males may have killed themselves.

After reaching adulthood, males will leave their biological families to become the lowest-ranking members of a new hyena clan. The females remain, and inherit the ranks of their mothers. If youre the female daughter of the highest-ranking hyena in the clan, youll get the most to eat, be the most aggressive, and produce the most successful offspring. In these and many other respects, spotted hyenas appear to violate many of the accepted rules of mammalian biology, Holekamp wrote in 2011, in a travel diary of her research for the New York Times.

Besides increased aggression, female spotted hyenas have another fascinating feature: masculinized genitalia. Their genitals are so similar to male genitalia at first glance that people believed hyenas to be hermaphrodites for centuries.

The spotted hyena doesn't have a conventional vaginal opening. Instead, her clitoris elongates out of her body, creating a pseudo-penis (also called a pseudo-phallus) that can become fully erect and is the same length as the males penis. The females urinate, get pregnant, and give birth through their pseudo-penis. Their labia are folded over and filled with fat and connective tissue to form a structure that looks remarkably like the males scrotal sac, Holekamp wrote. Even when she was examining a hyena close up, she added: I thought I was palpating real testes.

For decades, researchers have tried to explain the female spotted hyenas masculinized traits. When searching for a hormonal explanation, scientists found that spotted hyenas did have higher concentrations of androgens, or male sex hormones, compared to other female mammals. Hyena cubs that were born to mothers with higher androgens, along with their masculinized genitalia, had higher rates of aggression.

But in experiments at the University of California Berkeley, researchers found that giving pregnant spotted hyenas anti-androgens did not prevent their offspring from having masculinized genitals. They found that the ones that received the treatment, their offspring ended up still having masculinized genitalia, although it was less extreme, Strauss said. So, the androgens werent the whole story.

Holekamps lab thinks that the masculinized genitals are partially explained by evolutionary adaptation, independent of hormonal differences. When hyenas greet each other, they do so by sniffing each others erect penises (pseudo or not), so the pseudo-phallus could have evolved to serve a social role.

It also gives female hyenas control over reproduction because mating is so logistically difficult. As such, they determine which male hyena's sperm fertilizes their eggs. While observing two spotted hyenas mating in 2011, Holekamp saw a female named Baez stand still in front of a male, named Oakland, with her hindquarters toward him and her head lowering to the ground, a signal that she wouldnt bite him. Oakland attempted to mount a few times, but would veer off at the last second as if he was simply overcome by nervousness, Holekamp wrote. Finally, he managed to put his penis into Baezs pseudo-penis, which points forward and downward, so the male must hop around behind the female while he squats behind her, thrusting blindly upward and backward.

Oakland eventually achieved [penetration] while Baez remained motionless, then he lowered his chin to her shoulders, and even groomed her back with his tongue, Holekamp noted.

The social dominance of the females, combined with their genital structure, means that sexual coercion is impossible. "If the female is not keen to mate with a particular male, then hes just plain out of luck, Holekamp wrote in her travel diary.

Researchers at Holekamps lab think there could be an adaptive influence for female hyenas' aggression too: Spotted hyenas have a powerful skull and jawtheir teeth can crush bones up to 3 inches in diameterbut they don't achieve that level of strength until sexual maturity. The competition for food among hyenas is high, so Strauss said that females had to compensate with aggression, to protect and feed their offspring for longer periods of time.

Strauss said there is recent evidence that the way hyenas form and use social alliances help maintain female dominance too. Hyenas will team up together to bully a third hyena, and prefer to buddy up with their close relatives. "New work has shown that females with many social allies can overtake other females with fewer social allies and ascend to higher positions in the social hierarchy," he said. Since the males leave their families to go to new groups, they don't have as much of this supportreinforcing the female-led clan.

Spotted hyenas arent alone as a mammalian species that break the so-called normal male-dominated society. They are joined, albeit with less extreme examples, by lemurs, bonobos, red colobus monkeys, and elephants. While it's a fact that most mammalian societies are male-dominant, the point is that nature doesnt have to follow that rule, as evidenced by the wide spectrum of behaviors that exist.

In a lot of societies, its not clear cut that its either female- or male-dominant, Strauss said. There can be females that are dominant to certain males, or more of a mixed hierarchy, where certain males and females both outrank each other depending on the individual.

Strauss said that in some primate societies, theyre finding that even when males are more aggressive, it doesnt automatically make them dominant. The females can be the glue that holds society together, supporting males in competition, and determining which males are the leaders. The female [primates] are playing a much more important role than people initially thought, he said.

Ultimately, though, applying animal behavior to humans directly is what got us into this whole mess in the first place.

Sari van Anders, a neuroscientist and professor of Psychology & Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, studies how social behaviors are related to gender, and how intimacy or sexual behavior affect hormones in humans, in a field called social endocrinology. She said in humans, everything is much more complicated because we have to take culture and social constructs into account. With those caveats, she can still find it helpful to be aware of sexual diversity in nature.

[It] helps us understand that, in animals themselves, theres no one way that their reproductive capabilities, interests, or physiologies look, van Anders said. Arguments that rely on whats 'natural' can be very problematic. Thats not to say that I think that we should make decisions about humans based on what is or isnt in other speciesbut it is important because people do make those arguments.

To consider men and womens role in human society, we need a more nuanced approach. Alice Eagly is a social scientist at Northwestern University whos been conducting psychological research about sex and gender for almost 50 years. She explains gendered behavior differences in humans using a biosocial model that takes both biology and environmental determinants into account, not just one or the other.

Her theory says that every society has a division of labor between men and women and much of our psychology follows from that, meaning that the jobs and roles men and women hold lead to how they behave and think of themselves. As to how people get into their job or role, biology can be relevant. For example, for thousands of years women were more burdened by reproductionthere was little access to safe birth control, and they shouldered most of the childcare. That limited the types of work they could do.

But those divisions can change, and it reflects in our societies. There were once sex differences in average mathematical ability that favored men, and those have gone away. Women are gaining leadership roles, even if slowly. There are still some differences in the types of careers women seek out, and the fields they're interested in, but that might be because caregivers promote sex-typical activities and interests in children and very young children form gender stereotypes as they observe women and men enacting their societys division of labor, Eagly wrote in an essay about the Google memo for The Conversation. They automatically learn about gender from what they see adults doing in the home and at work.

Though it would be nice to claim pure biology or social construction to explain our gender roles as humans, we will never be able to. Many pundits make the mistake of assuming that scientific evidence favoring sociocultural causes for the dearth of women in tech invalidates biological causes, or vice versa, Eagly wrote. These assumptions are far too simplistic because most complex human behaviors reflect some mix of nature and nurture.

For better or worse, we are not hyenas. As women, we dont unilaterally control intercourse, nor do we have totally dominant behavior over the men in our society. But what we do have is the capacity to change at paces faster than evolutionary ones, and use our large cerebral cortexes and culture to restructure the division of labor, and, along with it, stereotypes, expectations, and behavior.

Even if it were true that nature had strict gender and sex rolesand hyenas prove that it isntthats not the whole story for humans, as evidenced by the fact that gender roles have shown so much change, even in the last 50 years.

People will often invoke whats 'natural' to make arguments about what is natural for humans, van Anders said. One of the important things about sexual diversity is it helps us see that theres no one right or natural way for mammals or any species to be when it comes to reproduction, sex, or sexuality.

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Suffering from Holiday Anxiety? Heres How to Cope

Andy Williams has always considered Christmas to be the "most wonderful time of the year," but for many of us, its actually the most stressful. The holiday season is a time when it's easy to feel overloaded with social obligations, financial pressures and the general expectation to be jollier than usual. With December 25 quickly approaching, some of us will relate more to Scrooge than Santa Claus, turning the holidays into an anxiety-inducing marathon with no end in sight.

Jack Duddy, a Behavioural Strategist at Ogilvy Consulting's Behavioural Science Practice, says there's good and bad news for Scrooges when it comes to festive trends.

RELATED: How to Deal With Being Alone During the Holidays

"I believe that in years to come Christmas will become more low-key in terms of a reduction in gift-giving," he predicts. "But I also believe that in keeping with the trend of people moving towards gaining experiences rather than material possessions, social obligations will continue to be a key aspect.

Essentially, people are likely to prioritize spending time with family and friends during the holidays to an even greater extent than they do now.

With this in mind, here's a guide to navigating the holidays even if you find the whole shebang more gut-churning than heartwarming.

The festive treadmill of family gatherings, office parties and happy hours with friends can test your mental health as much as it challenges your liver. Duddy recommends being tactical with the events you attend, as well as those you politely decline.

You cant be there at every single social event, he says. [And] if you try to be, you may find you become more over-tired and stress yourself out even more.

This might seem like a buzzkill, but it makes a lot of sense. Duddy says that so-called hang-xiety is a real thing which can stress you out even more for the next day or two after a heavy night.

Drinking in moderation is also a surefire way to make sure you leave a holiday party before it gets too late and while youre stuck on the festive treadmill, youll need as much sleep as you can get.

As the holidays are often used to reflect on the year gone by, its all too easy to slip into a toxic cycle of comparing yourself unfavorably to others.

"If you're a single man you might feel a pressure to get a partner by Christmas so you have someone to go the office party with," says Jo Emerson, a Confidence and Human Behavior expert, but who says you need a partner to enjoy a party?"

The key is to approach the holidays in a way that suits you, not boring societal norms.

We all know that people tend to present idealized versions of themselves on social media. As you mightve guessed, this just intensifies during the holiday season when people want to show the world just how much fun theyre having.

"Because our brains are wired to constantly make comparisons between ourselves and others, posts we see of others sharing their 'perfect' Christmas their presents, social outings and the rest can make us feel far more anxious that we're not living our lives to the same level," explains Duddy.

He also warns against using social media as a crutch during occasions where you're anxious about speaking to people face-to-face, noting that "habitually 'checking' your phone can increase anxiety because our brains become programmed to believe something might be wrong if we dont get on Instagram right away."

If you dont like sitting around all day, go on a massive hike and pack a turkey sandwich for your lunch, advises Emerson. She also points out that in 2019, there's no such thing as a "normal" way to spend Christmas Day itself.

"I have other friends with no children who spend the day in their pajamas sipping port, eating cheese and binge-watching movies," she says. "And I have another friend who's single who volunteers at the local homeless shelter she spends her day peeling potatoes and washing up."

Youre going to hear Santa Baby and All I Want for Christmas Is You at every party, bar and market from now until December 25. Break up the monotony by making your own playlist of the most defiant and unseasonal songs to play in your downtime.

Duddy acknowledges that "there's a danger that if people dont think you're being 'festive enough,' youre going to get called a 'Scrooge.'

This in turn can heighten your anxiety, but one solution is to make a joke out of your Scrooge-like behavior. After all, so many people get a little carried away during the holidays that it might be refreshing for your friends and family to hang with someone whos not that into it.

Vive la festive difference.

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44% percent of executives believe employees have erroneously exposed personally identifiable information (PII) or business-sensitive information using their company email account.

The Egress survey of 500 IT security decision makers in the U.S. also revealed that accidental internal breaches are a growing security risk for organizations. Over 70% of respondents recorded experiencing this type of breach during the last five years, with half of these incidents occurring in the previous 12 months.

IT security decision makers also ranked accidental employee breaches as one of their top three concerns (46%), just behind external hacks (55%) and malware (53%).

Yet, surprisingly, despite this increasing threat and more stringent compliance regulations coming into effect, like the pending California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), less than half (39.6%) of organizations are educating staff on how to improve security when sharing data.

Were only human and people are always going to make mistakes. But as the workforce has become more reliant on digital communication, and is increasingly remote and flexible, it has also become more difficult for traditional network perimeter security technologies to protect data, said Tony Pepper, CEO, Egress.

In fact, people are now the new security perimeter in most organizations, and as a result, businesses need to evolve the way they protect themselves. This research highlights the growing imperative to detect abnormal human behavior including accidental data leaks to stop breaches before they occur.

The survey results showed that both corporate and personal email are the leading applications for accidental data leaks. Other at-risk applications include: file sharing services (39%), collaboration tools (34%), and SMS instant messaging (33%).

These applications have remained an ongoing issue for organizations throughout 2019. Comparatively, external email increased in risk from 50% to 54% over the last year, while other applications maintained the same level of risk, based on a previous survey.

Despite awareness of these risks within the organization, one in four respondents (26%) stated that employees share sensitive data outside of the organization without encryption, increasing the likelihood of a potential breach. Additionally, internal data sharing has become a worrying blind spot, with 65% of respondents revealing that their organization does not use encryption for this.

According to IT decision makers, 93% of organizations have taken steps to comply with regulations like GDPR and the pending CCPA. These steps include improved use of existing security technologies (58.8%), improved data handling practices (55.8%), investment in new security technologies (55.2%), staff education (39.6%), and hiring new security personnel (29.2%).

One of the pivotal components of CCPA compliance is the ability to complete Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) within 45 days, which can include information shared via email and stored on network drives, as well as that contained within databases.

Highlighting their general focus towards CCPA, respondents were confident in their ability to comply with these requests, with 72% thinking their organization could accurately fulfill a DSAR within 45 days. However, timing is still a concern for 23% of respondents, who believe they would require longer than the 45-day limit.

Its encouraging to see organizations taking proactive steps to enhance their compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, said Pepper.

We hope these measures will curb the number of internal data breaches this survey uncovered but in reality, and certainly for the immediate future, we will probably continue to see organizations struggling to mitigate peoples unpredictable behavior using traditional static technologies.

Instead, IT security decision makers are advised to examine emerging solutions based on contextual machine learning that dynamically react to potential breaches in real time as employees share data.

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Most security pros admit to accidental internal breaches at their organization - Help Net Security

DENVER Nearly two years after investigators celebrated the federal government's shutdown of a notorious website linked to prostitution and human trafficking, a local prosecutor said there have been some negative consequences.

Christian Gardner-Wood, the director for Community Protection Legislative Affairs at the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, said shutting down the website Backpage, notorious for its thinly veiled ads for prostitution, was a good thing but it's made investigating human trafficking even trickier.

RELATED:Backpage 'seized': FBI raids founder's home just as classified listing site shutdown

"This behavior wasn't going to stop," said Gardner-Wood.

Backpage was one site known to be used by traffickers, and it was therefore closely watched by investigators. Since its end, Gardner-Wood said traffickers dispersed online and started using several platforms to target victims.

"We certainly have seen that more recently," said Gardner-Wood. "Social media is becoming a place for traffickers to go."

Gardner-Wood told Next with Kyle Clark that along with social media, dating sites and apps are places were traffickers can check photos and read up on a person, even start communicating and grooming future victims before meeting them. Gardner-Wood said new websites have also been created specifically for illegal activities.

The FBI said this has been showing up in their investigations. In a video they posted online, investigators said they saw it as recently as this summer in the Denver metro area, as they worked to rescue victims.

"A lot of the operations that we do also include social media operations," said Victim Specialist Anne Darr, with the FBI. "And typically what we see is underage minor boys who are engaging in unsafe methods online where they agree to meet for a date in exchange for money or anything of value."

"What they essentially are doing is extremely dangerous," she added. "You never know who you're going to meet on the other end. It could be a pimp. It could be an online predator. Somebody that's going to exploit them, who could essentially rape them, take their money, do whatever to harm them."

In July, the FBI reported with the help of local law enforcement they rescued four kids and eight adults and arrested one sex traffickers.

But when it comes to holding an online platform criminally responsible, it's very difficult.

"There's not really a route for that," said Gardner-Wood. "Colorado law is based around holding an individual accountable for their actions."

Many social media platforms weren't created to commit crimes and may not always be aware that some of their users are using it for illegal activities.

The one way a business could get in trouble is through consumer protection, essentially if a company does find out someone is using their online platform for trafficking and allows it to continue.

Gardner-Wood said U.S. companies often cooperate to help investigators but it can get tricky when the company may operate in another country.

He said it's very important to check privacy setting, which many social media platforms have details on, and keep an eye on what kids are using.

RELATED: Training more eyes to watch for human trafficking

RELATED: How to watch for the signs of human trafficking

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The passing of every year brings some new perspectives, and insights. However, in the age of information overload, it becomes difficult to keep track of what is important. As the year comes to an end, here are the business books that encapsulate the best learnings for 2019. (Image: Reuters)

Good Economics for Hard Times, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo: The authors, who won the Nobel Prize for their work in development economics this year, tackle the most challenging problems that are plaguing the worlds economy head-on. The book relies heavily on the duos empirical research to bust myths and assumptions concerning immigration, inequality, growth, and climate change, among various other topics in a lucid manner. They suggest that the world is not lacking in resources, but consensus on our priorities, and that the right sort of idea will help us to bridge the disagreements and distrust that divide us. (Image: Goodreads)

What It Takes by Stephen A. Schwarzman: The founder and CEO of Blackstone talks about his journey, and his learnings from creating one of the most successful private equity and real estate investors in the world. In this book, Schwazman recounts how his simple motto dont lose money added a strong rigour to the companys investment process and its unique method of deal-making. (Image: Goodreads)

Ultralearning by Scott Young: The author breaks down the process of learning and retention by analysing the lives and techniques of polymaths such as Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgr, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman. He comes up with nine important models that reshape our idea of learning away from the old-model school learning and maximises our ability to grasp new ideas and concepts in a shorter period of time, and in an efficient manner. (Image: Goodreads)

The Third Pillar, by Raghuram Rajan: The third pillar that the former RBI governor refers to is the community. Through this book, Rajan explains how the state, markets, and our communities interact, what goes wrong in these interactions, and the way forward to a more secure footing. He suggests a method of empowering local communities to ensure a way out of the anxiety, unrest and despair that a majority of the civil society faces in this day and age. (Image: Goodreads)

The Man Who Solved the Market by Gregory Zuckerman: The author is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who does a deep dive into the story of Jim Simons a mathematician and code breaker whose flagship Medallion fund has earned 66 percent average annual returns since 1988. These returns beat those of greats like Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Ray Dalio. Read this book to know about Simons data-driven, algorithmic approach to make money in the market and its possible impact on investing and the world of finance. (Image: Goodreads)

Range by David Epstein: The author argues that in this rapidly changing world that is moving towards automation, it is the generalists that are most likely to taste lasting success in the future. Through his research, Epstein discovered that in most fields, though generalists find their path late, they can make special connections better than their specialistcounterparts, they are more creative, agile and as a result, are likely to thrive in todays fast-paced environment. (Image: Goodreads)

Indistractable by Nir Eyal: The author makes a case that our ability to focusinour highly-distracted smartphone age depends on us being able to find the root, or the psychology, behind our distraction. Eyal, a behavioral design expert, and a formal lecturer from Stanford University, explains the drivers behind human behavior, the importance of remaining focused in our daily lives and how to mediate our behavior with addictive technology in a way that makes our lives more fulfilling. (Image: Goodreads)

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Best business books of 2019: From investing to the economy, check out good reads of the year - Moneycontrol.com

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Thanksgiving is behind us, Christmas is around the corner and the rest of the long, dark winter lies ahead and that means peak reading season is upon us.

So here are a few books I will read, or at least start. What attracted me to these books is how they approach thinking about thinking: Each tries to tease out why our general understanding on a subject is so often wrong; they explore better cognitive frameworks that could help us comprehend issues more clearly; they consider unique perspectives in securities trading, national security, genetics and artificial intelligence.

On to the reading:

No. 1. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.

The professor of biology and neurological sciences at Stanford University (and a MacArthur Fellowship winner in 1987) takes a deep examination into the most basic question of human behavior: Why do we do the things we do?

He probes the things that influence and determine behavior: neurology, endocrinology, structural development of the nervous system, culture, ecology and the millions of years of evolution. Why we do what we do turns out to be even more complicated than you might have imagined.

No. 2. The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator by Timothy C. Winegard.

Forget sharks, terrorists or guns: Mosquitoes have killed more people than all other factors in history combined. Of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived, almost half 52 billion have died from mosquito-borne illnesses. For 190 million years, the mosquito has been waging a war against the rest of the planet, and for all of that history we have been fighting a mostly losing battle.

This has long been one of my very favorite topics; I am thrilled there is finally a book dedicated to it.

No. 3. The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman.

This is my nominee for finance book of the year: I read it, reviewed it and interviewed the author for Masters in Business. All thats left is to reread it slowly and deliberately, with no purpose other to enjoy the tale of how one brilliant man saw the markets in a different way from everyone else.

No. 4. Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity by Jamie Metzl.

What will happen to children, lifespans, the plant and the animal world when humans begin to retool the worlds genetic code? Metzl tackles the risks and potential rewards to tinkering with the determinants of life as if theyre just another piece of software.

No. 5. Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.

Investors know that unconscious bias is at work all the time, undermining our goals. What we may not realize is how bias infects our visual perception, attention, memory and actions. The author suggests solutions to managing our biases, but I remain skeptical we can get past our own error-prone nature.

No. 6. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.

Among top performers, specialization is the exception, not the rule. Thats the startling conclusion of Epstein, a journalist with Sports Illustrated and ProPublica. Considering some of the worlds most successful athletes, artists, inventors, scientists and business people, he found that it was the generalists who excelled, not the specialists.

No. 7. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre.

What colleagues, institutions and competitors do you trust? How does counterintelligence and disinformation affect how we make decisions? These issues are explored in this nonfiction tale of the three-way Cold War game of espionage between the U.S., the U.K. and the Soviet Union.

No. 8. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino.

Tolentino looks at the basic building blocks of social media and how we use it to deceive not so much others as ourselves. This series of essays tracks among other things the evolution of the internet from a band of enthusiastic geeks and hackers to the trolls and agents of agitprop that have taken over.

No. 9. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Dont Know by Malcolm Gladwell.

Communication breakdown is the focus in this tour of errors, miscommunication and lies. One of our eras most engaging storytellers, Gladwell roams from Fidel Castro to Bernie Madoff and lots of folks in between. His big premise: the default condition of our species is to assume others tell the truth. This makes all of us vulnerable to the deceptions of politicians, salespeople and con artists.

No. 10. Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb.

What happens if we rethink the concept of artificial intelligence as a drop in the cost of prediction? That is the question tackled by the three authors of this book, all economists at the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management. The conclusion is that AI, instead of complicating human affairs, may improve decision-making.-Bloomberg

Also read: Bhagavad Gita wasnt always Indias defining book. Another text was far more popular globally

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On a crisp Saturday morning in Boulder, 50 people, most of whom were white, streamed into the basement of a stately old downtown church to spend three hours immersed in the history of racism in America, a lesson that included uncomfortable truths, disturbing images and a belief that knowledge, ever powerful, could lead to change.

Outside, it was one of those blustery but sunny autumn days that draw people to Chautauqua Park for one more snow-free hike, or out to the Saturday farmers market for local honey and heirloom squash. It wasnt a bad day to run errands or sit on the sidelines at your kids soccer game.

Instead, people poured themselves a coffee under fluorescent lights in a church basement, hugged friends and gave warm handshakes to strangers as they chose seats at large, round tables. They talked about what drew them to this anti-racism training, from big, obvious instances of racism that made national news to the knowledge that from the justice system to schools to housing, racism was systemic, but how bad was it, and what could be done? Above all, they wanted to do something about racism, and anti-racism training presented an opportunity to learn and, hopefully, become informed enough to act.

Regan Byrd, the Denver-based anti-oppression consultant leading this anti-racism training, began by telling the crowd theyd learn about the history of racism, as well as how theyve been taught to think about racism.

She recited a defense used by people who say racism is no longer a problem: There were some bad people who did bad things, and were past that and were over that. History classes in school might cover slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era. But they skip the efforts to create second-class systems that persist today, she said, and thats just the start of systemic racism.

Understanding history is critical to understanding oppressive systems, Byrd said. Most of us are not even 10% into understanding the history of these systems.

Individual and explicit acts of racism are good at grabbing the attention of the public and the body politic. In November, following an FBI report that 123 hate crimes were reported in Colorado in 2018 (an increase of 16%), Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the formation of a coalition to fight hate crimes in the state.

Implicit, unconscious bias and systemic racism the kind of racism that affects housing, employment, schools and the justice system can be harder to see or quantify, but theyre no less a part of the public conversation. They were at the heart of the two-hour public discussion Boulder City Council held about racism and white privilege in the first week of December, sparked by a councilwomans remarks about the white male council members whod volunteered to serve as mayor or mayor pro tem for the city. And they revealed themselves again during an incident in March when a Boulder police officer tried to detain a black man who was cleaning up trash in front of his own home.

Looking to expand your own understanding of systemic racism? Marissa Tafura, co-founders of the Boulder chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, has put together a list of podcasts, books and articles including special recommendations for kids.

Click here to jump to the list.

Anti-racism training is designed to arm people who want to fight against the big, systemic examples of racism, such as hate crimes, and also engage in the subtler, more nuanced conversations that so easily flare into heated discussion and reveal stark ideological divides whether that means responding to a coworkers inappropriate comment or standing up to speak at a public hearing.

These divisions were captured in a Pew Research Center study from earlier this year on peoples perceptions of issues related to race in America. Of the 6,637 people Pew surveyed about race, whites and nonwhites (as Pew puts it) expressed widely varied views on many questions around racism, from believing racial discrimination is an obstacle to black people getting ahead (white respondents: 54%; black respondents: 84%) to whether black people are treated less fairly when applying for a mortgage (white respondents: 38%; black respondents: 74%) and in hiring, pay and promotions (white: 38%; black: 74%).

The ideological differences that undergird the survey responses are familiar to people who work in anti-racism. Racism operates on many more levels than the individual, so were going to talk about that, and racism can be conscious and unconscious, Byrd told the crowd at the church. So we want to get out of the idea of this conscious intent and into systems.

The flyer for the anti-racism training, which was open to the public as part of All Souls Churchs Lab series, included a quote from historian Ibram X. Kendi, whose book How To Be an Antiracist draws a line between being non-racist, which is what most people might think they are, and anti-racist: There is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of racist isnt not racist. It is anti-racist. Its a distinction that had people at the training that Saturday morning thinking about what they personally can do to be actively anti-racist.

Some people at the training were just getting acquainted with the nuance of non-racism versus anti-racism and wanted to learn more. Others wondered how racism might be playing out at their childs school, or at their work. Others were ready to spring to action: A University of Colorado student who sat at my table said she had classes in the Engineering Center on the Boulder campus, where a woman (who is not part of the CU community) spewing racist vitriol that was caught on video on Oct. 6. She hadnt witnessed it, but the incident spurred her to sign up for the training. At the end of it, as she tucked her notebook into her backpack, she told me she next wanted to attend bystander intervention training, where people learn how to intervene safely if they witness harassment.

Being non-racist only exists under this individual-character status, Byrd said in an interview later. Being anti-racist is, I understand how racism works as an oppressive system and Im actively working against that. And another distinction: You can be non-racist and contribute to a racist system. Because being neutral as a system rolls along means youre contributing.

For three hours that morning, Byrd held forth with a presentation that captivated her note-scribbling audience. She began by covering the bad science that established supposed biological difference between races, and how even though the Human Genome Project definitively debunked all of it, those ideas of biological difference persist. She gave a sweeping history, from John Punch, the first person in America who was enslaved for his entire life, to the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 that banned interracial marriage, to boarding schools for American Indian children that, for much of the 20th century, demanded assimilation and prohibited kids from speaking their native languages.

The historic images of enslaved people in her presentation were visceral, the Jim Crow-era representations of black people horrifyingly dehumanizing, and at the end of the training, some participants were overwhelmed by what theyd just seen and heard. There was head-shaking as people leaned into one another to discuss it. Sometimes, Byrd said later in an interview, people are really just shocked by what they didnt know.

Others complete her trainings feeling validated that they were right to be concerned about racism, that it really is a tangible problem. Some leave completely unsurprised about the depth and extent of the history of racism in the U.S. and how it continues in less-blatant ways today. The devastated reactions of white folks the people-of-color folks, theyre walking out saying, Yeah, thats what I grew up in, she said.

Attendees Rebecca Bundy and Keely Taylor, members of All Souls who had recently started an anti-racism group at Taylors home in Louisville, were not in the devastated camp at the end of the training at least not this time. I was noticing that that sense of overwhelm that I was witnessing in other people was not what I was experiencing in my body, but that it is familiar, said Taylor, who had attended trainings like this before and, along with Bundy, has been on a path of anti-racism for years. I know it and I remember it.

It felt really incredible to be learning from Regan, and I felt grateful that the church would invite her in, and that people would show up, Bundy said.

Seeing the full house that Saturday, it was clear the church was meeting a community need. These white people wanted to know how to be good allies to people of color. They wanted to know how to stand up, and hopefully not blunder and make the situation worse. They wanted to understand the history they didnt learn in school and teach it to their kids. They just didnt know what they didnt know, or where to start.

People are showing up because they feel the problem, and theyre not sure what they want or need out of it, but now, they cant handle it anymore, said The Rev. Adam Bailon, a pastor at All Souls Church, which partnered with Pine Street Church for this training. Also, he said, We want to be able to have a practical tool that helps us do something different in the world.

All Souls has been talking about anti-racism for several years. Were mostly a white congregation, mostly middle-aged families, mostly middle to upper class, and we feel like this is our problem, Bailon said. The church meets on Sundays in the heart of downtown Boulder, where the population, according to the latest U.S. Census figures is 88% white, 9% Hispanic and 1.1% black. There have been these incidents in Boulder that are racially connected that we cant approach this topic as the world-out-theres problem.

We have to realize this is our problem here and now, he said.

Byrd, who led the training, grew up in Highlands Ranch. She had been working for nonprofits involved in advocacy for marginalized populations in the Denver-metro area when she decided to start her anti-oppression consulting company after the 2016 election, and after the Me Too movement came to the fore.

MORE: A Denver startup asks every potential investor: Have you faced sexual harassment complaints?

I saw a lot of folks offering a lot of 101 types of training, but not 201, 301 really understanding these trainings on a deeper level, she said. She advertised a training for 40 participants. It sold out in an hour. She now offers a variety of sessions, for companies, government agencies and churches, like All Souls, as well as individual consultations.

Her work comes with grave personal risks but rewards as well. Ive had to alert the police, Hey someone who has posted a lot of gun pictures has posted theyre coming (to my training) and theyre clearly alt-right affiliated. The other side of it is, I get to be seen and heard in ways I havent been before. I get to talk about my experiences as a person of color to people who are here to hear about it. To have my expertise living this, but also having formal training in this it also feels joyful and empowering on the other side, too.

When she gives an introductory training, she sticks to foundational learning. If someones only going to get one training from me, Im going to focus on theory and concepts, she said. People often want to leap into action, to immediately solve the problem of racism. (In anti-racism circles, this I-can-fix-it tendency is called white saviorism. In those same circles, however, people say racism is a problem white people have, so white people need to fix it. A good way to avoid crossing into white saviorism, they say, is slowing down and listening to people of color about their experiences with racism.) Action can come later, she said. After people have had time to reflect, they can put theory into action. You going out to do something without having a good foundation can actually cause harm, Byrd said.

Though her introductory training at the church didnt include bystander intervention or tips for talking to people about racism, she did arm participants with a slew of factoids on the history of racism in the U.S. and perspectives on how it continues that they could easily break out at work, or at the holiday dinner table. And she hopes people do start conversations.

I always like to say that some of the hardest work in anti-racism is convincing people who dont think this is a problem that it is an issue, she said. Oh, I dont talk to my racist uncle anymore. Doing that is not helping the work. White folks listen to white folks differently, thats why allyship is important.

This isnt conjecture. In a study on confrontations about racial prejudice, white people were more accepting of the confrontation when it came from a fellow white person than they were when it came from a person of color.

But its still hard. No one wants to hear that theyve made a racist blunder, or worse, be accused of being racist. Even the suggestion is anathema.

Robin DiAngelos book White Fragility: Why Its So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is on many anti-racism reading lists, including Byrds, which was printed on a half sheet of paper placed at every seat at the training in Boulder. DiAngelo is a sociologist and longtime diversity trainer, and her book which has spent 73 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list is peppered with examples of white peoples extremely defensive reactions at her trainings. Many of them have to do with what she calls the good-bad dichotomy: People think of racism as bad, and good people dont engage in it, ever, period. Even accidentally, or out of ignorance.

She argues that well-intentioned white peoples anxiety about being seen as racist, and therefore bad, is what prompts them to make dismissive declarations, such as, Im color-blind or I have black friends. The problem with these defenses is that they shut down self-reflection and conversation. They also exempt the person who utters them from responsibility Im color-blind, so racism isnt my problem. Failing to see themselves as part of the larger problem (or solution) of racism at a societal level allows racist systems to persist in perpetuity.

Some people at All Souls Church are overcoming this anxiety together and taking it into their lives outside of the church.

Bundy, who started the at-home anti-racism group with Taylor, said the interest in their group has been encouraging. You would think people would be afraid, she said. They arent. Instead of forming a group with fellow churchgoers, Taylor and Bundy invited people they knew from their kids school, as well as some business owners in the community.

They didnt know everyone very well. But people are showing up to have hard conversations. The participants listen to assigned episodes of the Seeing White podcast and show up every few weeks to discuss it. Also, We always bring in an outside voice, from a person of color, whether its poetry or a TED talk or a video, Bundy said. Its only a six-week session, so its accessible. People are desperate to talk about it, and theyre curious, she said. I wouldnt expect 20 people to show up to talk about racism, but they are.

They keep the structure of the meetings consistent, so participants know what to expect. When youre discussing a topic this intense, you have to think about that, Bundy said. You have to think about structure, you have to think about safety. They set up rules of engagement for their discussions: Assume the best in one another. Take turns. Say oops when something you said doesnt come out quite right. Another important rule: Confidentiality.

Were seeing a willingness to be uncomfortable is one of the only things you have to bring with you, Taylor said. She added that its strange to invite people over to your home to be uncomfortable.

I did have to go back to a friend of mine who was in the conversation and just check in with her the next day and make sure that I didnt hurt her feelings with my honesty, Taylor said.

Its messy, Bundy replied.

Its messy, Taylor agreed.

And I think its a mess that typically lands on the shoulders of people of color in our community, so Keely and I have been talking about, can we shoulder some of that weight, Bundy said, hitting on an idea in anti-racism that people of color are often put in the difficult position of having to explain racism to white people. It can be helpful if white allies can do some of this work if they have a foundation in understanding racism. And if they can help without getting into white saviorism. (Byrds advice, before acting: You can always take direction from marginalized folks.)

Theyve seen this in their own group, Bundy said, which is predominantly white people, but there are people of color in the group as well.

And their feedback has been helpful because they are thankful to not be leading it or initiating it, that its coming from white people, and that was a surprise, Taylor said. I dont mean to say all people of color would feel that way, but thats been the feedback.

Bundy and Taylor said they approached hosting the group as people who were also on the path of learning more about racism. Theyre just facilitators for the conversation, theyre not there to teach. Even having this interview, I dont want to be portrayed as a woke white person, because I think thats the first step to losing my integrity, Bundy said.

Last year, Taylor attended another anti-racism training at All Souls, one that was organized by church elder Marissa Saints, who along with Bailon has emerged as a leading proponent of anti-racism work in the congregation.

I think part of taking an active anti-racist stance is, theres deep internal work that needs to happen, but then theres the external work, Saints said. I think a lot of times, people get overwhelmed, because, oh my gosh, theres so much to do. Im really focused on how we can integrate these things into the lives were already living. So I did that personal analysis: where am I involved, where does my voice carry weight? And one of those places is in my church community.

Saints and Bailon became partners in moving the church into anti-racism work after Bailon gave one of the churchs workshops on race and the history of the church four years ago. A small group formed from that Lab for anyone who wanted to keep the conversation going, Saints said. So we developed a 101 on social justice and what it has to do with the Christian faith.

Saints led one of those groups, then developed a follow-up. Several people at the church, including Bailon, began hosting small groups at their homes.

Our church is not universally progressive, Bailon said. There are many in our midst who have different views. After the 2016 election, though, there were many people in our church who were wondering, what does it mean to call myself a follower of Jesus right now?

Its also personal for both of them. Bailon said he has been thinking about how to use his privilege, because, Im a mixed-race person, but I have very light skin, so I move through the world as a white man. Saints, who identifies as multi-ethnic and multi-racial, said, Ive had people on both sides say, youre not white enough, or youre not brown enough to be a person of color.

When asked whether its hard, given Boulders demographics, to do anti-racism work there, Saints said, I think Boulder is really good at being in denial about this. And we see this shifting, in the past couple of years, we are seeing more conversations.

Its possible to live in our Boulder bubble, as its called, and say, I believe in these political ideals and I vote for those things. And were educated, and we dont think were racist, we just happen to be white, she said. Theres this denial and dissociation for why Boulder might be predominantly white.

People who are engaged in anti-racism work call it just that: work. They talk about doing the work, the constant effort, the commitment to lifelong learning about racism and building relationships with people of color. The idea that this takes sustained, long-term effort is supported by research on race-based bias.

Josh Correll, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU, researches how we react to racial and ethnic groups; hes nationally known for his work in how those reactions apply in police shootings. A lot of his work is in face recognition and implicit bias, the unconscious bias we dont even realize we have. I called him to ask if we can change. His answer was probably, yes, but with many caveats.

Research in short-term interventions to counteract implicit bias suggests that some things can shift our biases, but theyre temporary, they dont stick. To create an intervention, researchers might show participants photos of people who defy stereotypes, give participants a goal to override their biases or ask a white person to imagine the perspective of a black person. (If you want to test your own implicit bias, try one of the tests at Harvards Project Implicit. Corrells shooter task, where you can try to shoot bad guys of various races and not at someone holding a cell phone, is online as well.)

A large study published in 2016 on reducing implicit racial preferences found that interventions that were more self-relevant, emotional and vivid tended to be more effective than those which were less involving. Still, none of those shifted preferences remained days or even hours later, the study said.

Its one reason Correll said he doesnt have much faith that one-off or annual diversity training at work the kind people are forced to attend does much to change bias.

You can kind of view the problem with all of these trainings as these very localized, intensive interventions that happen with the individual, where the individual is cast back out into the real world, where the old sets of associations apply, he said. The brains not stupid. Its going to say, OK, we were in the lab.

Some, but not all, research in long-term bias interventions shows promise. The data from that work is not as clear as wed like, Correll said. Some researchers believe that being aware of implicit bias and fighting it constantly can retrain your brain. There are people who advocate for: if you are aware, and if you fight constantly every time you experience an association, if you stop yourself, and say, No I reject that idea, thats not how I want to live my life, the idea is that you can retrain your brain.

Correll likened it to learning a new language or learning to play a musical instrument. The idea is that by constantly training them over weeks like you would practice if you were trying to learn the cello if you can practice that, you can change the network of associations, Correll said.

Motivation can be a factor. In a study entitled Training away bias, researchers found that some types of training didnt change participants implicit bias. But people who learned that they showed bias in tests but consciously did not want to be biased, felt guilt that later led to a reduction in biased responses.

But motivation alone isnt enough. Correll mentioned an older study on fear induction around health behavior: Researchers tested whether fear would motivate people by telling study participants about a terrifying but preventable disease, then recording how many people showed up for the vaccine. Few did. But in the second phase of the study, after telling people about the scary disease, researchers also mentioned that a clinic just across the street from their classroom (the participants were students) had the vaccine. Suddenly, many people showed up for the shot.

You need to provide the step you need to take, he said. White people dont want to be racist. It is fundamentally disgusting to them to think theyre racist. It turns their stomachs. But the simple next step to take doesnt exist. But just, you know, when you leave your English class, go across the street that step doesnt exist, we dont have that. Theres no easy way to address the problem.

At the end of the training at All Souls Church, several of the participants stopped near the door to talk to Nii Armah Sowah on their way out. During the Q&A, Sowah had asked Byrd how she thinks we can reconcile our personal efforts at anti-racism and the institutional effort thats needed to effect widespread change. Sowah teaches African culture at CU, and his 1000 Voices Project calls for collective work to bring about cross-cultural understanding.

If we live a life where the majority of our intake, our diet, is so toxic, whether its school, its media, its family conversations, its comedy we watch, its friends in the park, its church its ideology that will get pumped into us, its all imbalanced. And we are expected to read a book here, a book there, attend a workshop like this to undo all that? I think we should focus on challenging systems instead of trying individually to carry our own oxygen, Sowah said.

To fix all this damage with your own effort, when the damage is every day being reinforced he paused. Id like to have a conversation about that reality.

Sowah was born in Ghana but has lived in Boulder for more than 20 years. He has become an anti-racism mentor to some, including Saints, and has even hosted one of her anti-racism groups at his home.

Like so many big issues, the intractableness of racism makes change feel impossible, which is why activists of all stripes say to start local. Saints began her anti-racism work at her church. Byrd is running for the RTD board in her home district, H, in 2020. Its another way Im trying to make change in my community, she said. Im a transit-dependent rider, have been for years, since I was 15.

Sowah wants to go beyond the local, though. We spend more money trying to go to the moon than we put into learning about ourselves as humans. If we put as much into human cognition or human behavior, really investing in anti-racism, how to change your habit we can do it, we just dont value these things as much as external stuff.

Marissa Tafura, one of the co-founders of the Boulder chapter of SURJ, or Showing Up for Racial Justice, a secular organization that focuses on engaging white people in anti-racism, said anti-racism work in predominantly white, left-leaning Boulder is a challenge.

Before the local chapter started working with families, she said, we were constantly aware of, how are we engaging people, especially progressive white people, who say, I did my part, I showed up at this thing. I think what we try to do is give them a call to action at the end of events. Giving them resources to change their media diet would be one simple thing we encourage people to do.

What people read continued to play a strong role in their mission as the organization underwent a transition. SURJ Families of Boulder Countys shift to a family-focused organization happened based on who was showing up to events (many mixed-race families, like co-founder Marissa Tarufas own) and what Tafura was seeing in parenting groups online.

People were looking for concrete language: How can I teach my kid how race shapes things in the U.S. and globally? The chapter has been working with local libraries and schools to get them to offer more diverse childrens books.

She offered this reading list (including special recommendations for kids):

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Training white people in Colorado to be anti-racist (not just not racist) is one step in the fight to correct historic wrongs - The Colorado Sun

Alphabets driverless vehicle subsidiary Waymo recently announced that it has acquired Latent Logic which is a startup that spun out of Oxford University. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.Going forward, Latent Logic will continue to operate out of Oxford as Waymos first European engineering hub.

Currently, Waymo runs 10,000 virtual vehicles and it tests various scenarios. And Waymo vehicles have logged over 10 billion simulated miles so far and theacquisition of Latent Logic will bring a newimitation learning environment to simulate human behavior to the companys technology.

Launched in 2017, Latent Logic was founded by professor Shimon Whiteson and head of the Whiteson Research Lab (WhiRL) machine learning research group within the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University in the UK.

In reinforcement learning environments, engineers flag good behavior so that the system knows how to behave whenever it encounters similar behaviors. However, real-world scenarios can be tricky sometimes. And reinforcement learning maximizes rewards instead of helping machines learn to behave more like humans during complex environments.

Latent Logic collects data from traffic cam videos. And Latent Logic analyzes the data for setting up policies that are able to simulate human behavior.

At an event in Detroit a few months ago, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said that robot ride-hailing may not be the first autonomous vehicle technology to take off commercially. Waymo is already testing rider only robo-taxis in Chandler, Arizona. Krafcik suggested that driverless delivery trucks that travel in easily repeatable routes could become mainstream faster.

Where uses are strictly commercial and where we have very high confidence of delivering the outcomes that our commercial business partners would desire, we could have a much quicker ramp, said Krafcik at the event via Bloomberg. So it could be that although were starting with robotaxis that a truck product could catch on faster.

Waymo is also building a self-driving system for trucks. But its robot-taxi service has been seeing more attention following a decade of research at Alphabets Google.Krafcik acknowledged at the event that it is unknown when everything will be ready.

I do share your sense of uncertainty, even in my role. I dont know precisely when everything is going to be ready, but I know I am supremely confident that it will be, added Krafcik at the event.

Link:
Waymo's Acquisition Of Latent Logic To Drive Imitation Learning For Autonomous Vehicles - Pulse 2.0