Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…That’s an awesome question, isn’t it? There are all those studies about gait — walking gait — and all other health telemetry with people generally correlates with longevity. I don’t know that anyone’s run the regression on that and income, but I think it would be interesting. I don’t know. Is energy plastic, Tyler? I don’t know if you’d have a different view. I think it’s an awesome question, a bit of a nature-nurture biology-esque question. There is some basic mitochondrial factory thing going on that seems more efficient in some people than others. I think that just leads to more hours in the day of work, more chances taken. If you assume the batting average is roughly even, just a higher chance of home run. But when you read the interviews of Paul McCartney, or the documentary, he’s just at it. George Harrison is like, “Again? We have to go again? It’s 10:00 p.m. Again?” There are thousands of those stories — Steve Jobs, whatnot — of people that are more shots on goal. I think that must compound. Tyler, do you think energy’s plastic? I’ve never read a serious research paper on this question, but my intuition is that energy and that kind of vitality is one of the most heritable of characteristics. I’m not saying you will be a copy of your parents, but whatever was plugged into you at birth is what you have. If I think of myself or the other people I’ve known their entire lives, which is not that many people, I just don’t see that much change. The way I am — my sense is I was that way at three or four, at age two. I don’t remember. My mother always told me that — always antsy, wanting the next book, something. I just don’t think it’s something I taught myself. You can, once you’re that way, learn how to use your environment to make yourself better at that and get the gene’s environment interaction going. That is very much something you learn, rather than something you were born with — how to multiply your interaction effects. But that core something or other — Paul McCartney was composing songs at age 14. He’s finishing up a tour now. He’s 80. He doesn’t need the money. Puts out an album every two years. Takes on massive projects: art, books, everything. Incredible. You just read biographies of Paul — it just clearly seems he was born with it. Why do you think human core body temperature is dropping? In 2018, there was a famous study put out by the United States, I think military Army, that captures your human core body temperature longitudinally over time, and the US core body temperature, at least, is dropping. Now, you could say it’s some type of odd measurement effect, thermometers have changed since the 1930s or whatnot, but to the extent that’s an odd proxy towards energy, is it?…

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