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STUPID Weddings Will Ruin You - Here's Why Indians Still Want That - FutureIQ

19,292 views Wait, is this logic right? • Jul 19, 2024
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Slog Reference: 4 Surprising Behaviors explained by Theory of Evolution

Description

Weddings are a total Rip-off and make no sense at all but we're still tempted to go through all the functions and spend lakhs, even crores on those occasions. Sometimes, a lot more than that when we take an example of events like Anant Ambani's wedding.

Why does this happen? Is there any evolutionary reason behind this decision of ours? Let's discuss the reason why we spend so much money on things like weddings, college degrees, art, and more. Let's understand why we prefer status-driven things over the simpler and logical ones in this episode of FutureIQ.

Hope you enjoyed FutureIQ by Navin Kabra and Shrikant Joshi. Do hit us up on Twitter:
@ngkabra http://twitter.com/ngkabra
@shrikant https://twitter.com/shrikant

Listen it on the podcast provider of your choice: https://tapthe.link/FutureIQRSS
Watch other episodes of The FutureIQ podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAppTB0r5_TaYueZ0adD42Wiw5X-wTE4v

Books mentioned in the episode:
The case against education: https://tapthe.link/CaseAgainstEducationBook

More videos for you:
Costly signaling: https://youtu.be/0YEBK7eR3Ek
Group conformism: https://youtu.be/_XhIECCt_P8

Chapters
00:00 Stupid things we do
00:15 Weddings in India
01:00 Showing off
02:07 Education
04:00 Do companies care about education?
05:20 Art as a status symbol
08:50 Why can’t we avoid it?
10:38 Evolution & status
13:08 Education & wedding

#futureiq #weddings #ambaniwedding

Related Slog Matches

4 Surprising Behaviors explained by Theory of Evolution

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Transcript

we all do things that are stupid like spending crores on weddings and putting insane effort into getting into a college that's 1% better today we will try to understand this behavior and explain it using hidden human motives in India for example overall the country spends 80% more on weddings compared to the entire entertainment industry wait what we spend more on weddings than we spend on education and almost as much as we spend on healthare I knew that we spent a lot on weddings I didn't know those numbers it's a lot right and when you think about it it's a waste all that money is just gone it's not helping the couple start their new life right it's not an
investment it is like burning money it is so why are we doing this uh I want to use the word show off here but that seems very brutal that is actually the correct answer right but I mean why does it I mean why is showing off so important one of our fundamental urges yeah is that we well ideally what we want is to be seen by the people around us as important or powerful or rich or something like that technical term psychologist term for that would be that we want to be seen as high state status people and how do you show that you are a high status person by showing off by doing the kinds
of things that high status people do okay we have done an entire episode on signaling okay and the signaling has to be honest signaling right anybody can claim to be high status but not anybody can spend a CR right right on something completely useless right so that is the basic idea you want to prove to everybody around you that you are high status that makes sense right that makes sense okay but uh how does that relate to education now let's come to education right okay what would you say is the primary purpose of Education uh to gain knowledge to use that knowledge for future most most of the students are really not gaining much knowledge in
education okay think about it okay they're not there to gain knowledge okay Brian K an economist has a book called the case against education where he points out some basic facts right we the education that the college gave you was really so important okay why would people be struggling so much to get into an IIT or a Stanford when that same education you can get for free without having to appear for any entrance exam just by looking at their lectures online oh yeah yeah stford makes their lectures online available for free and I also right and I mean pretty much most colleges I mean I but the the Allure is IIT the Allure is Stanford like it's not
the education it's not the knowledge right it's the name it's the brand it's the status the status yeah stat you want to be seen as a high status student yeah IIT students enjoy a much higher status than poor BC students like me correct one more thing okay why nobody cares about the knowledge okay you have put in so much effort and you're paying so much money to go to this college right now if a lecture is cancelled you should be very unhappy that you are getting less knowledge for your money do you know if any student who gets unhappy that lectures are cancelled no I not even yeah cor I mean imagine you went to a
restaurant you expensive restaurant and they say well today's food is cancelled would you be celebrating no I would not but the students are right they do not care do companies care about the knowledge uh they should right let's look at their actual Behavior okay okay companies come for campus interviews around the 7th semester by that time they have made offers so they already know what knowledge the student has gained they are happy enough correct that this person knows their stuff right right now if the student doesn't actually get a degree should it matter to the company oh it shouldn't it the student already has the knowledge the degree shouldn't matter but let the student not get the degree and the job
disappears right the company wants that student to have that degree irrespective of the knowledge stuff so it's the degree that matters not necessarily yeah because a lot of the knowledge can also be gained on the job in training in fact most of the knowledge is gained on the job you join enosis they actually teach you what you have to do I mean you spend quite a lot of the first few months getting training right so they not learned anything useful in college anyways okay yeah this this entire thing about uh colleg is actually being just a status symbol is blowing my mind right now uh you also said something about art well that's a different concept okay I
mean that way I mean you and I all we enjoy art that's why we know why art is there yeah but let's try to think in terms of nature right why would nature cause art to exist it's a complete waste it doesn't help in getting you food it doesn't help you in being protected from predators so why could it be that we see art in nature and not necessarily nature promotes art or lets it happen no no no no I mean you could continue seeing art in nature why do people actually go and create art are we talking about in nature that nature lets happen or art that is useless see all art H is useless
as far as nature is concerned right uh because it doesn't have function because it doesn't have function and nature doesn't like wastage that's true so is Art wastage should be technically by this logic same thing right people want status art gives them status now let us ask why does art give status yeah it's the same thing as the peacock's tail and the burning money in a marriage right if you do art like singing dancing okay what it is showing the whole world is a few things one that you have time to waste you can afford to waste time think of how powerful or wealthy or whatever you must be this is hurting me that art is being
considered a waste of time but I know what he's saying from a logical standpoint I don't agree with it necessarily but I understand it correct second it is showing the whole world that you have big muscles that work well you are healthy it shows that you can memorize things like dance moves that you can coordinate with your other dancers right so these are all signals oh yes of your reproductive capabilities dancing was the only signal of reproductive capabilities I would have failed but yes not just dancing any kind of art so this applies to painting as well this applies to voiceovers as well which is why amab bachan is I me Let me Give an example from nature okay and
let's do something other than the peacock this time yeah okay so there are bow Birds it's a little it bitty bird so small like a few inches okay but a bow bird male Bower bird to impress a female bow bird creates an entire structure from twigs and branches and leaves and whatever else it finds sometimes the structure can be as much as 9 ft high right is just a few inches and it creates wow it creates a structure where David ateno could crawl inside and then do like a TV thing from inside okay why is it doing this because later on it brings a female bow bird there and shows her look at what I can do okay it's like
I am so awesome that I can do this thing and still not get caught by Predator still not go hungry imagine what I can do for you and your CH children okay take a look at what a bow bird creates that is where art comes from okay oh man so let's now go to the most important question of all yes right why can't we get out of the Rat Race a simple logic is this I think about 100 years back economist John Menard kin said that as productivity increases as technology improves we would all have to work for just 15 hours a week 100 years later productivity has increased technology has become Godly and we are all not
working we are working 60 hours a week now we are working four times of what he predict I what I asked myself that question every single day what happened why aren't we working less when productivity is more what is the pattern that we have seen so far why don't you try to guess the answer status status so by working more we are see the main thing about status is that it's not an absolute you know your status is relative to everyone else around you so some idiot decides to work 42 hours instead of 40 hours a week that person gets more status so now you have to work 43 you right you are responsible for us
working 60 years you right so whenever somebody says that oh productivity will increase and then we won't have to work so much is under the impression that we have a certain set of needs and as soon as those needs are met we will stop working right the needs being like food and so on but really our need is status and that never stops you're redefining the entire maso's hierarchy here like status is now at the bottom of the bottom of the no no what has happened is that the for a lot of people in the world the bottom layers of the hierarchy have been taken care of by technology advances okay okay and improved trade
and economy and all of that but evolution does not allow us to rest you still have to keep fighting for status because that is a zero some game hold on status and EV why where why would Evolution care about status right so that's where that's the thread that ties together on all these examples right all of our Behavior can be explained in terms of evolution okay everything yes all of our Behavior can be explained by going back to the saana where we evolved he loves going back imagine you're a bunch of humans in the Savana a human alone would die within days or weeks yeah okay humans cannot survive unless it's a group a tribe that's true okay
now A Tribe together they hunt together and they get stuff together and they protect each other together and so on but do everyone get an equal share of whatever the goodies that the tribe gets no no they should but no that's not how things work right there are some always there will be some people who want more there'll always be a tribe leader who will demand more and get more actually not true uh it used to be when everybody was just hunter gatherers it was much more egality Arian society as we became more sedentary and our society became more complex there were layers there were lead tribe leaders and kings and soldiers and workers and beach artists
right so what happens is that the people higher up got more of everything right they got more of the food they got more of the Comfort they got more of the time to do art and they got to have sex with more people yeah okay which means means that now everybody is striving for two things one is to be part of the group we saw that in episodes on conformism group conformism group conformance yes once you're part of the group the thing you're and you're sure you're going to be in the group then you're striving for status within the group okay and that has been around for long enough not just humans but even before that in the apes
monkeys uh this has been there right so it has evolved over a very long time and we are stuck with those so that explains the rat race yes how does that explain something like education well basically you want to prove to people that you are more powerful or you are smarter you are the one to be relied on in times of difficulty right and a Stanford education well not a Stanford education a Stanford degree proves that okay and uh how would a wedding work in terms of evolution and the Savana well if you let's say in the Savana right you are just throwing away food and interesting fruits and meat and giving it to everyone you are signaling
to everyone see how much I can procure you better be friends with me because when times are bad I'll be the one who can provide you food so when there is time to elect a new leader time to give uh you know have get married who's going to get preference so we basically evolve to a crew status yes okay absolutely that's a very different angle on Evolution that I hadn't really thought of but now it's starting to make sense yes Evolution explaining what we do through the lens of status wow right blowing my mind right now and all it comes down to costly signaling right so I think what you should do is if you
haven't seen seen it take a look at our episode on costly signaling that will explain a lot of Modern Life to you check it out Shri naven future IQ costly signaling thank you