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<ul class="summary-list"><li>China's stock markets surged this week, marking the best weekly performance since late 2008.</li><li>The rally was driven by Beijing's aggressive stimulus measures to boost the struggling economy.</li></ul><p>China's stock markets closed sharply higher Friday, notching their best week in 16 years as investors joined the rally party.</p><p>The euphoria was thanks to Beijing's big-bang stimulus announcement on Tuesday, which showed the authorities' urgent and concerted commitment to boosting its ailing economy.</p><p>Since Tuesday, Chinese authorities have flooded the market with announcements of interest rate cuts, bank reserve ratio reductions, liquidity injections, and pledges to boost fiscal spending. The stimulus blitz has jolted investors into buying into the previously downtrodden market.</p><p>"The ante has been upped on China stimulus. Forget just monetary 'bazooka,' Beijing is mobilizing the fiscal arsenal too," wrote Vishnu Varathan, Mizuho's head of macro research for Asia, excluding Japan, in a Friday note.</p><p>He added that this is "as close as Beijing gets to guns blazing." And markets have reacted by swinging from "despondency to delirium."</p><p>Mainland China's benchmark <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/csi-300">CSI 300 index</a> closed 4.5% higher on Friday, its best week since November 2008.</p><p>Meanwhile, Hong Kong's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/hang_seng">Hang Seng Index</a> closed 3.6% higher in its best performance since 2009.</p><h2 id="873d4d1f-efda-4b09-8baa-171092af49d4"><strong>The stock market party overwhelmed tech systems</strong></h2><p>The stock market party got too hot to handle.</p><p>"Due to surging trading volume, the Shanghai exchange and brokers report some trades have been delayed," Hao Hong, chief economist at Grow Investment Group, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/HAOHONG_CFA/status/1839498669864923621">posted on X.</a></p><p>"The trading system is simply overwhelmed. There is a huge stampede of stock bulls," added Hong.</p><p>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.sse.com.cn/disclosure/announcement/general/c/c_20240927_10762480.shtml">Shanghai Stock Exchange</a> said in an announcement that it was investigating the delays.</p><p>The market euphoria — now into its fourth day — came despite reservations about China's aggressive stimulus that it rolled out on Tuesday — which some analysts suggested <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-stock-market-bazooka-liquidity-stimulus-sparks-panic-speculation-2024-9">panic in Beijing</a> over the state of the world's second-largest economy.</p><p>China's economy has struggled to sustain its growth momentum since the pandemic ended. It is battling multiple challenges, including an epic property crisis, high youth unemployment, and deflation.</p><p>While Chinese authorities have introduced support measures earlier, its stock markets couldn't sustain gains convincingly following a massive <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/china-stock-market-meltdown-brutal-year-explainer-whats-happening-2024-1">meltdown</a> at the beginning of the year — a stark contrast to the hot money flowing elsewhere like the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-outlook-rally-sp500-recession-china-economy-interest-rates-2024-5">US, Japan, and India.</a></p><p>"Investors we spoke to generally have low conviction in the sustainability of the rally," acknowledged Bank of America analysts in a Friday note. However, the bank is more optimistic.</p><p>"Chinese financial regulators rarely encourage banks/financial institutions to increase leverage for the stock market but are doing so this time," the Bank of America analysts wrote, referring to Beijing's announcements of swap and re-lending facilities for stock buybacks.</p><p>Furthermore, the US Federal Reserve has started cutting interest rates, which has historically benefited Chinese markets, they added.</p><p>So even if Beijing's stimulus isn't enough for China's economy, a liquidity or leverage-driven market rally could still be "very powerful," they wrote.</p><p>There's historical precedence, the Bank of America analysts added.</p><p>The CSI 300 index more than doubled from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the first half of 2015 after Beijing used <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-mini-stimulus-2014-4">government stimulus</a> to arrest a slowdown. This preceded economic recovery that did not happen until the second half of 2016.</p><h2 id="a014ea6a-41e1-4a13-af63-bbc31fd09242">Top-down direction matters a lot in China</h2><p>Despite reservations about whether China's stimulus is enough — and if the current market rally is sustainable — it does look like Beijing is ready to do whatever it takes to revive its economy and markets.</p><p>On Tuesday, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/fabu/202409/content_6976186.htm">People's Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng</a> said at his stimulus announcement that authorities stand ready to inject more liquidity into the system if the support measures for swap and re-lending for share buybacks — collectively at $800 billion yuan, or $114 billion, prove successful.</p><p>"Indeed, while this isn't QE, moral suasion in China has somewhat more force than elsewhere. " wrote Global Data.TS Lombard economists Freya Beamish and Rory Green in a note on Thursday, referring to quantitative easing.</p><p>After all, "Chinese companies live and die based on whether they are singled out as policy favorites, CEOs sometimes literally," they added.</p>

China's stock markets are partying like it's 2008, overwhelming systems

<ul class="summary-list"><li>When <keyword id="21474" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Italy">Italy</keyword> went into lockdown in early March to slow the spread of the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>, residents across the country were stuck at home.</li><li>Being cooped up at home might seem like a hindrance for someone who loves long-distance running, but Alyssa Clark, an ultra marathoner and Navy spouse, didn't let it slow her down.</li></ul><p>Even before Italy locked down in response to the coronavirus, Alyssa Clark could tell something more severe was coming.</p><p>"It was probably mid-February where we started having [authorities say] if you've traveled in this region, you need to make sure that you are reporting where you've been ... and if you have any fevers or coughs, reporting it," said Alyssa, who until recently lived in Quadrelle, a town near the headquarters of US Naval Forces Europe-Naval Forces Africa in Naples, with her husband, Navy Lt. Codi Clark.</p><p>"We started to have a premonition that it was going to get a lot worse, and then Northern Italy was really slammed, and they started imposing pretty harsh restrictions on March 9," which was the "last day of freedom," Alyssa said in a May 22 interview.</p><p>Across Italy, authorities clamped down. As the country's hospitals strained with patients, <a href="https://www.insider.com/italian-mayors-yelling-swearing-at-residents-to-stay-home-2020-3">politicians confronted residents</a> who disobeyed the stay-at-home orders.</p><p>"We could not walk, run, or travel in a car except to go to and from work or to and from the grocery store, and we had to carry papers with us," Alyssa said. "We could be stopped by police at any time and be fined if we were not moving within those restrictions."</p><p><div type="image" title="Alyssa Clark marathon Amalfi Coast" height="811" width="1081" msid="76205365" hostid="261"></div></p><p>A Morale, Welfare and Recreation fitness specialist with Naval Support Activity Naples, Alyssa was the only one in her building at the military complex's Capodichino location.</p><p>Isolation may have been important for public health, but for Alyssa, an ultra-marathoner who's run everything from 32-milers to multi-day stage races of more than 150 miles, just sitting at home wasn't appealing.</p><p>"I am a competitive ultra runner, and I always have a very set racing schedule. I had some big goals for this year and then everything started getting canceled," Alyssa said. "So I was looking for the next project that I could take on."</p><p>"I was toying with a few ideas and kind of randomly thought, 'Oh, wouldn't it be interesting to try to run a <keyword id="6397749" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="marathon">marathon</keyword> every day while we're under lockdown?'"</p><h2>'Oh, this is a possibility'</h2><p>The original plan was to run a marathon every day until people could run outside again. "Then I started looking up what the world record is for consecutive days running a marathon, and I started getting closer and closer to that and thinking, 'Oh, this is a possibility.'"</p><p>For women, that record is 60 days straight. She ran the idea by Codi, who said it was "pretty feasible" for her. "And it just has continued to snowball," Alyssa said.</p><p>Insider spoke to Alyssa just hours after she finished her 53rd marathon, another four- to five-hour hour outing on a small treadmill.</p><p>"We have an upstairs room that we don't use very often, so it just has a couch and a TV that doesn't really work," Alyssa said. An open door let in sunlight and a Velcro sticker kept her iPad fastened to the treadmill so she could watch "easily digestible" shows like "Love is Blind" and "Too Hot to Handle."</p><p>"Luckily I had an AC fan on me, and then I have my nutrition set up next to me and a water bottle," Alyssa said. "Pretty basic, but it works."</p><p>Staying energized was a challenge, especially for Clark, who has a compromised immune system. "I have ulcerative colitis," Alyssa said. "I actually had my colon removed when I was 14. That's a whole other story."</p><p>Now gluten-free, Clark eats rice cakes with peanut butter and bananas before running and has gluten-free waffles while on the treadmill.</p><p>"I often eat snickers bars — it's a very good source of energy and sugar," Alyssa said. "Ultra-marathoners love drinking Coca-Cola, so oftentimes that will be a good pick-me-up."</p><p>So is sugar-free Red Bull. "I actually did about one of those every marathon for quite a while," she added.</p><p><div type="image" title="Alyssa Clark" height="631" width="841" msid="76205368" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Running marathons is taxing — running them on a treadmill even more so.</p><p>Alyssa is very specific about her shoes, using ones she trusts and that offer a lot of cushion. "I'll rotate two pairs, and I'll probably throw in another pair by the end, and I was using a couple of pairs to start. So I probably used three to four pairs of shoes."</p><p>In addition to stretching, Alyssa said she uses lotion to help with recovery after running. "I've been starting to have a little bit of quad pain that I seem to have wrangled, but I've been icing that a bit," she added.</p><p>Mentally, the trick to running long distances is not to think about the long distances, Alyssa said.</p><p>"I'm never sitting there thinking about the whole 26 miles when I begin. I'm thinking about at mile 8, I'm going to eat something. At mile 13, I'm going to have a Red Bull or something that is enjoyable," she said. "Then, 'Hey, I'm already halfway through.' OK, I'm going to get to mile 16. Then I have 10 miles to go. That's great. I can do that."</p><p>"I also have a lot of external motivation from people reaching out to me saying that they're going on runs, that they haven't been on a run forever and I've been motivating them to get out, and also other people saying, you're inspiring me to get healthier to keep going during this lockdown that's really challenging, and so that really has helped me keep going when things get tough," Alyssa added.</p><h2>Marathon 61 and beyond</h2><p>Days after speaking, Codi and Alyssa left Italy for the US and their next duty station, but Alyssa kept after the record, setting a goal of completing a marathon each day before midnight Italian time.</p><p>"We will be flying out on Tuesday [May 26] to go to Germany. So I will do one Tuesday morning before we leave, and then in Germany before we leave the next day I will do another one on the Air Force base, and then we'll fly to Virginia," Alyssa said.</p><p>"The next day I will run one in Virginia, and then we will drive to Charleston and I will run one or two in Charleston and then eventually we'll get to Florida," Alyssa added, praising her husband for helping make sure she could continue the runs during the move.</p><p>"The hard part with this is it's not a 20-hour event or a 12-hour-a-day event. It's only a four- to five-hour a day event," Codi said in the May 22 interview. "So my job during this time has been to force her to attempt to stay in bed and put her feet up and do that kind of focus on recovery."</p><p>Alyssa finished her 60th marathon in Norfolk, Virginia, on the last weekend of May. Marathon 61, and with it the unofficial women's world record for consecutive days running a marathon distance, came the next day in Charleston, South Carolina. Marathon 62 followed amid protests across Charleston, Clark said in an Instagram post.</p><p>Marathon 63 came on Monday evening, after five days of travel, with the couple having finally reached their new duty station in Panama City Beach, Florida. Tuesday and Wednesday brought marathons 64 and 65.</p><p>Alyssa's most recent marathons went the same way her first did: step after step, minute after minute.</p><p>"None of these happen by trying to jump into running 10 miles right away. It's breaking it down, doing what you can, and being consistent. Consistency is the key to success," Alyssa said when asked for advice to prospective marathoners.</p><p>But passion is important, and no one should feel compelled to take up long-distance running, she said.</p><p>"Find something you enjoy, because that's way more important than forcing yourself to do something you don't love. I love running. I get to do four hours of what I love every day, and that is incredible."</p>

65 marathons, 1 treadmill, 0 days off: How a Navy fitness trainer took on a world record during lockdown in Italy

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Jacquelyn Martin/AP</span></p><p class="caption">People with the Human Rights Campaign hold up equality flags during an event in support of transgender military personnel in 2017. A Supreme Court decision Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to implement its transgender military ban.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>A Supreme Court decision Tuesday let the Trump administration begin implementing its transgender military ban.</li><li>The Department of <keyword id="6354810" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="defense">Defense</keyword> issued a statement reiterating its long-held stance that its new policy regarding transgender troops is "NOT a ban."</li><li>The policy does allow transgender troops to serve but only if they do so in their biological sex, do not have a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria, or can show a 36-month period of "stability" prior to military service.</li><li>Advocates maintain the administration's justifications, including potential negative impacts to unit readiness and cohesion and medical costs, have mostly been debunked.</li></ul><p>On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to go forward in implementing its transgender military ban, meaning that the ban can go into effect while it is being challenged in court.</p><p>Although the administration's policy, shaped after a report from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, is widely viewed as a bar against transgender troops, the Department of Defense has long held that its policy on military service by transgender persons is not a universal ban.</p><p>"As always, we treat all transgender persons with respect and dignity. DoD's proposed policy is NOT a ban on service by transgender persons," DoD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said in a statement Tuesday. "It is critical that DoD be permitted to implement personnel policies that it determines are necessary to ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world."</p><p>The policy currently in effect is based on a <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2018/Mar/23/2001894037/-1/-1/0/MILITARY-SERVICE-BY-TRANSGENDER-INDIVIDUALS.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memorandum</a> filed by former Secretary Mattis at the end of his review of the previous administration's decision to open the ranks. It does not outright ban transgender persons from service, but there are caveats that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/scotus-transgender-ban/index.html">make military service difficult for members of the transgender community</a>.</p><h2>The Defense Department maintains its policy is not a universal ban.</h2><p>The policy differentiates between transgender persons and those with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the medical diagnosis for someone who experiences emotional distress with one's biological sex. Not all people who identify as transgender have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, <a href="https://transequality.org/issues/resources/frequently-asked-questions-about-transgender-people">The National Center for Transgender Equality explains</a>.</p><p>For those who identify as transgender, but have not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the policy outright disqualifies any transgender person who has already transitioned - or a person living as the gender they identify as not the gender assigned at birth - or requires transition.</p><p>The policy also disqualifies those who may require a medical transition based on a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Citing "considerable scientific uncertainty" and blurred lines "that demarcate male and female standards," the defense department maintains that the requirements of transition-related treatment come at too high a cost for taxpayers and could result in impairments to unit cohesion and readiness (how soon they could deploy).</p><p>Transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria are generally disqualified, although there are some exceptions. Anyone who has previously been diagnosed with gender dysphoria must demonstrate "36 consecutive months of stability (i.e., absence of gender dysphoria)" immediately prior to military service. This would require a transgender person to prove they have not experienced discomfort with their biological sex for three years before joining. They must also agree not to transition during service and adhere to the standards of their biological sex.</p><p>Essentially, if persons identify as transgender, they can serve in the military - but only if they do so in their biological sex not as the gender they may identify with.</p><p>For those who identify as transgender who are already serving the the military, persons diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the policy's date, can still go through with transition. Those who join the military and then are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, can stay in the military if they do not transition.</p><p>According to CNN, waivers may be granted by the Department of Defense "on a case-by-case basis."</p><h2>The DoD's justifications have been debunked by its own officers</h2><p>Under former Secretary Mattis, the DoD upended a milestone policy change that allowed a path for transgender people to serve in their preferred gender versus their biological sex.  According to a report released in February 2018, a panel of military experts found that former <a href="https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/features/2016/0616_policy/Transgender-Implementation-Fact-Sheet.pdf">Secretary of Defense Ash Carter</a>'s <a href="https://dod.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/821675/secretary-of-defense-ash-carter-announces-policy-for-transgender-service-members/">2016 policy</a>, implemented towards the end of the Obama administration created a financial burden and carried potential risks to unit cohesion and readiness.</p><p>But other experts - and the service chiefs from each branch of the military - have highlighted that these claims are largely without evidence.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Alex Wong/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before Congress in early 2018 that there were no known issues resulting from transgender troops serving openly.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In independent hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee in early 2018, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand asked all four service branch chiefs whether they had received any reports of lowered morale, unit cohesion, or disciplinary issues rising due to transgender troops serving openly.</p><p>All four stated that there were <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/04/24/all-4-service-chiefs-on-record-no-harm-to-unit-from-transgender-service/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no known issues</a> or reports.</p><p>The other DoD justification concerns medical costs and deployability of transitioning service members.</p><p>According to Radha Iyengar, one of the authors of a RAND Corp study that influenced the decision to allow open transgender service, those justifications are also misguided. </p><p>In an interview with the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/07/26/trump-called-transgender-troops-a-costly-disruption-an-expert-who-studied-it-says-hes-wrong/?utm_term=.fcfd897536d3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Post</a>, Iyengar explained that the actual costs of medical care for transgender troops - which would amount to about $2.4 to $8.4 million - would comprise only one-tenth of 1% of the military's annual medical spending.</p><p>Iyengar also told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/07/26/trump-called-transgender-troops-a-costly-disruption-an-expert-who-studied-it-says-hes-wrong/?utm_term=.fcfd897536d3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Post</a> that the 10 to 130 troops who would be unable to deploy would have negligible impact on the military.</p><p>"In 2015, about 50,000 soldiers alone were not deployable due to medical reasons in the active component. So the scale of the effects here are relatively small," she told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/07/26/trump-called-transgender-troops-a-costly-disruption-an-expert-who-studied-it-says-hes-wrong/?utm_term=.fcfd897536d3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Post</a> reporter Alex Horton. </p><p>Advocacy groups maintain that in light of these factors, the administration's policy is, in effect, a ban against transgender people serving openly. <a href="https://www.glad.org/post/supreme-court-allows-challenges-to-trumps-transgender-military-ban-to-continue-in-lower-courts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four lawsuits</a> have been filed on behalf of transgender plaintiffs who are actively serving. Tuesday's Supreme Court decision allows the Trump administration to implement the ban temporarily while those lawsuits continue through the courts.</p><p>The fate of transgender service members, including those serving openly, remains unclear. The DoD statement did not clarify how the ban would be implemented in the immediate aftermath of the decision. </p><p>Kristin Beck, retired Navy SEAL and transgender civil rights activist, called the ban "bulls---" but said transgender troops would still find a way to serve.</p><p>"We're going to do whatever we have to to live our life. Life always finds a way, and we're going to find a way," she told Business Insider. "We're not going to be told we can't do this." </p><p><em>Alex Lockie contributed to this story.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-combat-jets-refuel-navy-military-aerial-fighter-2018-12">The US Air Force refuels combat jets in midair with a 'flying boom system' - watch it in action</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Here's a breakdown of the Trump administration's transgender military ban that the Supreme Court allowed to move forward

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan / Staff / Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Compromise isn't a win.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The win-win mindset pushed by so many negotiation experts is usually ineffective and often disastrous.</p><p>At best, it satisfies neither side. And if you employ it with a counterpart who has a win-lose approach, you're setting yourself up to be swindled.</p><p>Of course, as we've noted previously, you need to keep the cooperative, rapport-building, empathetic approach, the kind that creates a dynamic in which deals can be made. But you have to get rid of that naïveté.</p><p>Because compromise - "splitting the difference" - can lead to terrible outcomes. Compromise is often a "bad deal" and a key theme we'll hit in this chapter is that "no deal is better than a bad deal."</p><p>Even in a kidnapping?</p><p>Yes. A bad deal in a kidnapping is where someone pays and no one comes out.</p><p>To make my point on compromise, let me paint you an example: A woman wants her husband to wear black shoes with his suit. But her husband doesn't want to; he prefers brown shoes. So what do they do? They compromise, they meet halfway. And, you guessed it, he wears one black and one brown shoe. Is this the best outcome? No! In fact, that's the <em>worst </em>possible outcome. Either of the two other outcomes - black or brown - would be better than the compromise.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Clinton Brandhagen</span></p><p class="caption">Chris Voss.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Next time you want to compromise, remind yourself of those mismatched shoes.</p><p>So why are we so infatuated with the notion of compromise if it often leads to poor results?</p><p>The real problem with compromise is that it has come to be known as this great concept, in relationships and politics and everything else. Compromise, we are told quite simply, is a sacred moral good.</p><p>Think back to the ransom demand: Fair is no ransom, and what the nephew wants is to pay nothing. So why is he going to offer $75,000, much less $150,000, for the ransom? There is no validity in the $150,000 request. With any compromise, the nephew ends up with a bizarrely bad result.</p><p>I'm here to call bulls--- on compromise right now. We don't compromise because it's right; we compromise because it is easy and because it saves face. We compromise in order to say that at least we got half the pie. Distilled to its essence, we compromise to be safe. Most people in a negotiation are driven by fear or by the desire to avoid pain. Too few are driven by their actual goals.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>HarperBusiness</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>So don't settle and - here's a simple rule - <em>never split the difference</em>. Creative solutions are almost always preceded by some degree of risk, annoyance, confusion, and conflict. Accommodation and compromise produce none of that. You've got to embrace the hard stuff. That's where the great deals are. And that's what great negotiators do.</p><p><em>Excerpted from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2">NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE</a>. Copyright © 2016 by Christopher Voss. Reprinted with permission of HarperBusiness, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.</em></p><p><em>Chris Voss is the Founder and CEO of the <a href="http://blackswanltd.com/about/team/chris-voss/">Black Swan Group Ltd</a> and author of "<a href="http://info.blackswanltd.com/never-split-the-difference">Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It</a>." He has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/things-do-during-day-sleep-better-night-consumer-reports-2016-5">12 things to do during the day to get the best night's sleep</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="x2dDNnMzE6Y28IrDbfcx48BC68CjEWng" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A former FBI hostage negotiator explains why compromise is a bad deal in life and in business

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz</span></p><p class="caption">Adam Neumann, former CEO, and current non-executive chairman of the board of WeWork.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Since Adam Neumman's ouster from WeWork, reporting from Business Insider and many other publications has revealed several idiosyncrasies with the former CEO and the company that he founded.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Neumann is perhaps the highest profile - or certainly, at least, the latest - case of the visionary startup CEO who gets into trouble as the company scales, goes public, or otherwise matures.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Business Insider spoke with experts who explained an all-too familiar dynamic: a leader who is glorified to the point of excess, and their startup becomes something of a "new religious movement" - a cult.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime content.</a></strong></li></ul><p>When WeWork filed its S-1 in August, the company was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-roasted-over-cultish-ipo-filing-2019-8">summarily roasted</a>, starting with the second page. </p><p>"We dedicate this to the energy of we - greater than any of us, but inside each of us."</p><p>A few pages down, under the "Our Story" section, the manifesto continues to go maximal. "We are a community company committed to maximum global impact," it reads. "Our mission is to elevate the world's consciousness." </p><p>Since that filing six weeks ago, WeWork has been the biggest story in business news, with a constant cascade of drama, reaching a crescendo on Tuesday when Adam Neumann, the charismatic, controversial, visionary founder and CEO was demoted by the board, putting in his stead a pair of chief executives with decades of experience in tech between them. </p><p>In that time, the reporting of Business Insider, and many other publications, has revealed several idiosyncrasies with Neumann and the company that he founded. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-vp-lawsuit-discrimination-cultish-culture-2019-9">One former vice president</a> told us that working there was one of the weirdest years of his life, including many spiritual discussions with higher-ups, odd internal optics from Neumann, and a mandatory "camp" where he and thousands of other employees slept in tents. In one newsworthy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ceo-adam-neumann-layoffs-firing-tequila-shots-run-dmc-2019-9">incident</a>, back in 2016, Neumann announced cost-cutting layoffs, and then tequila shots were handed out to employees. And <em>then</em> employees were treated to a performance by a member of the legendary rap group Run-DMC. Rebekah Neumann, his wife and now WeWork's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rebekah-neumann-stepping-down-from-wework-2019-9">former</a> executive, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-rebekah-neumann-adam-gwyneth-paltrow-energy-goop-2019-9">reportedly</a> asked that employees be fired because she disliked their "energy." </p><p>Richard Markel, the vice president, told Business Insider that there was a massive disconnect between WeWork's stated goals of harmony and earth friendliness and the actual day-to-day running of the business - like when, in the lead-up to his eventually being let go, he came to work to find his calendar empty, having been taken out of all his meetings. "The way I was treated was so professionally repugnant, so unprofessional, so that it was almost like, 'Hey, WeWork, is everything you say bulls---?'" he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-vp-lawsuit-discrimination-cultish-culture-2019-9">said</a>. </p><p>Neumann is perhaps the highest profile - or certainly, at least, the latest - case of the visionary startup CEO who gets into trouble as the company scales, goes public, or otherwise matures. There's a whole Mount Rushmore of these figures, who are today famous or infamous examples of leadership. Steve Jobs. Elizabeth Holmes. Elon Musk. Leaders who push boundaries, disrupt norms, perhaps act strangely, and find themselves adrift in some way: taken out of the head of their company, revealed to be frauds, or not able to deliver on their great visions. </p><p>These are often taken to be business stories. </p><p>But really, these are tales of social psychology. </p><p>And startups are, in many meaningful senses, cults. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>We Company S1</span></p><p class="caption">From the S-1: "We dedicate this to the energy of we"</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h1><strong>New religious movements </strong></h1><p>Lorne Dawson is a sociologist of religion at the University of Waterloo. He has spent decades studying "new religious movements" - that's academese for "cults" - and his latest work has tilted toward terrorism and the process of radicalization. To Dawson, all these various social situations exist along a continuum. There's the normal state of affairs, then startup business contexts, and then further afield from that, religious movements, or even sectarian/extremist ones. The startup and the cult have very strong parallels, and deal with some of the same problems, he said - those of leadership, small group dynamics, and institutionalization. Both the startup founder and the cult leader face <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-business-books-of-all-time-2017-8#the-innovators-dilemma-by-clayton-m-christensen-3">the innovator's dilemma</a>. </p><p>He knows about the dynamics personally. A family member of his worked for a small startup, ran by a serial entrepreneur who met national success. After selling the first company, he started another one on a new set of ideas, again heading for a big sale. When he'd hear about the office dynamic, he was struck by how much the owner and leader reflected the elements of what draws people into small religious organizations.  </p><p>"The very fact that you have strong focus on the inspirational, dynamic founding figure - that person will almost always be considered a charismatic leader," he told Business Insider. "The popular notion is that people have inherent skills or talents, but sociology and business management realizes that it's much more about positioning." </p><p>The dynamic central figure leads followers to attribute certain powers to them. </p><p>"The leader is the one with the money, contacts, the force to drive the thing forward, and everyone wants in on that action," he added. "In religious movement, it's the certain special knowledge that'll make your life perfect or grant you salvation. Or for business, you get in on the action. Not just being paid, but given percentage of company. You want the big payoff." </p><p>That, in turn, can create a dynamic where the leader is glorified to the point of excess. And that, in turn, has a psychological effect: if the leader already had a strong personality with egomaniacal elements, those qualities can be exaggerated. (When people have power, <a href="https://qz.com/work/1188071/powers-effects-on-the-brain-help-explain-sexual-harassment/">dozens of psychology studies have shown</a>, they grow even more confident.) And with that comes risk. </p><p>Erratic behavior that would never be accepted in a normal organization is accepted in a small startup, just as what happens in a cult wouldn't be allowed in a mature religious organization. That lack of norms does come with potential business benefits: it allows a company to be very flexible and adaptable, ready to pivot at a moments notice, and it could feel like an exciting place to be. But it can also be destabilizing or alienating for employees, or even surreal.  </p><p>And then, Dawson says, small group dynamics can begin to take over. Employees compete to curry favor with the leader, and proximity grows important. In these contexts, even when the leader does erratic things, you defend it. And in the case of the unitary executive - where literally or metaphorically, the leader controls all the voting shares - there can be a desire for excessive social cohesion. ("You don't want a family to do everything that the father always does," Dawson says - being able to disagree with an authority figure is a sign of health in a group.)</p><p>With all of this comes vulnerability: "Because you don't have rules or regulations, that makes the group very flexible, but it creates demand for loyalty, social cohesion, and ultimately makes it brittle, so that the situation could break apart in a crisis," he says.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Obit-Steve-Jobs/b65b26e791874f2bb09d1d12b1a94a7c/39/0">Jeff Chiu/AP</a></span></p><p class="caption">Steve Jobs was known for his "reality-distortion field."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h1><strong>The needs that startups serve</strong></h1><p>People work <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-incentives-dont-actually-make-people-do-better-work-2014-3">for more than paychecks</a>. They also have psychological needs to be filled. And consciously or not, visionary startup founders tend to be excellent at doing so. </p><p>Jay Van Bavel, who runs the Social Perception and Evaluation Lab at New York University, is part of a group of researchers who study "identity leadership" - that's when leaders act in such a way, and cultivate a culture in such a way, that the group becomes a part of who you are. The logo is not just emblazoned upon a mug or a T-shirt, but the heart. "It's about when leaders, managers, CEOs, or visionaries cultivate a sense of in-group identity," he tells Business Insider. "We're 'us,' in it together, have this set of values that are virtuous, share a vision that's virtuous, and we have a set of norms or actions to achieve it." </p><p>When a leader creates that culture, you get engaged followership. Folks feel a sense of identity, they understand the actions and norms to be taken - what, in management-speak, you'd call culture. It's exhibited a lot in sports teams: there's the Patriot Way or the Packer Way. Politicians employee it: those that use "we" or "us" more <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077952">tend to get elected</a>. And followers act to fulfill what they perceive the wishes of the leader to be - like when the White House asked the Navy to make the USS John S. McCain <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-rebukes-white-house-over-uss-john-s-mccain-incident-2019-6">"out of sight"</a> for President Donald Trump's visit on Memorial Day. </p><p>In startups, it's making people feel like they're all in on some vision together. They'll work long hours, stay late, recruit their friends, use whatever social capital they have to build the organization. In a small or early company, especially if you're yet to hit big on funding, you might not have much you can compensate people with in terms of funds, so you create incentives that other firms can't offer. The sense of belonging, prestige, the feeling that you're doing something high status. (Tech is not alone in this: Anyone who's been <em>paid in prestige</em> in fields like fashion, publishing, or media can probably relate.) Again, same thing with sports teams: If you're a Yankees fan, you get some of the glow of being associated with a massively, historically successful organization whenever you lay eyes on the pinstripes. </p><p>"You have strange followings of people like Elon Musk," Van Bavel said, "where you see overlap between both employees and consumers or fans." Even if you've never sat in a Ferrari, you might own the hat. </p><p>Startups, Silicon Valley in particular, can also imbue a sense of morality, that you're pursuing some kind of meaningful social goal by schlepping into the office every day. Facebook's <a href="https://investor.fb.com/resources/default.aspx">mission statement</a> is "to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." Google's <a href="https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/">mission</a> has "been to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."</p><p>You're not just working a job; you're part of something bigger. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Mike Stobe/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Elite groups give a glow of prestige. Ask Yankee slugger Aaron Judge.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h1><strong>Being a visionary comes with risks</strong></h1><p>One of the greatest challenges for a startup is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-grow-a-business-startup-scaling-advice-2019-6">scaling</a>, that sought-after hockey-stick growth where users and revenue accelerate rapidly, and team size along with it. It's the stuff that headlines are made of: 2x, 10x, 100x. A new religious movement also wants greater attention, platform, and membership, otherwise it won't survive. Recruiting (or evangelism) are key to the success of both. But as either kind of organization expands, it can run into problems of structure. </p><p>"As a group succeeds, attracting followers or growing and hiring, you have to start getting the delegation of authority," says Dawson, the religious scholar. In turn, the charismatic leader has to give authority away, and this, in turn, is the crunch point. "Most new religious movements die from becoming successful, ironically enough. They fall apart from schisms and struggles as they try to institutionalize," he says.</p><p>The inspirational leader can often be resistant. "They want the success, but not to give up the authority, power, freedom to do what they want," he says. And if the leader resists the delegation, the religion begins to fail in some way - higher-level subordinates will break off, start a competitive group, bring followers along or attract new ones. And that'll happen in startup companies, too.</p><p>There are, of course, exceptions. Dawson says that the Unification Church, popularly known as "Moonies" due the leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is one such example, since the group created a middle-management layer. </p><p>The other, perhaps more central, issue is the "power of revelation," Dawson says. The messianic religious leader has to be coming up with ever new visions and messages from the divine. The founder needs ever new projects or innovations. In both cases, the leader is a medium in tune with some greater force in the universe - the higher power of god or disruption. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">"Musk has been hitting the border of that, people are starting to think he's lost his touch. Like a religious leader, he's fallen out of favor, no longer in tune with the hidden forces of the world."</p></div><p></p></div></div>"When they stop seeming to have that power to provide special things, then you start to notice their flaws and they get knocked down in their status," Dawson says, adding that Elon Musk has become something of a recent case study. There was PayPal, then Tesla, SpaceX, renewable energy and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boring-company-race-tesla-in-tunnel-and-on-road-2019-5">the car that goes in the tunnel</a>.</p><p>"The inspirational leader is coming up with new ideas, they often make additional prophecies that fail and don't amount to anything, but that's not noticed, because everyone looks at their successes," Dawson says. "Musk has been hitting the border of that, people are starting to think he's lost his touch. Like a religious leader, he's fallen out of favor, no longer in tune with the hidden forces of the world." </p><p>In Neumann's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-co-founder-adam-neumann-is-stepping-down-as-ceo-2019-9">resignation memo</a>, he noted that "scrutiny directed"  toward him had become a distraction to the company, as all those reports of tequila shots and private planes (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-is-putting-neumanns-60-million-jet-up-for-sale-2019-9">later sold</a>) came out.</p><p>The charismatic leader was always pushing for not only greater scale, no matter the loss, but new investments or innovations, putting money into <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-adam-neumann-investments-wavegarden-laird-superfood-full-list-2019-9#neumann-also-contributed-millions-last-year-to-an-israeli-medical-marijuana-company-whose-chairman-is-former-israeli-prime-minister-ehud-barak-neumann-participated-in-a-175-million-investment-round-for-intercure-a-public-company-on-the-tel-aviv-stock-exchange-15">wave pools and superfood</a>, launching <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-welive-wegrow-all-subsidiaries-owned-by-we-company-list-2019-8#wegrow-to-unleash-every-humans-superpowers-3">the co-living space WeLive, the "micro-school" WeGrow, the boutique fitness offering Rise by We</a>. </p><p>On Tuesday, amid the turmoil and his demotion, Neumann sent a company-wide email touting WeWork's mission. "The spotlight on us has never been greater than at this moment, and with this visibility we have an opportunity to expand our global business to more people than ever before," he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-neumann-company-wide-wework-email-touts-growth-opportunity-2019-9">said</a>.</p><p>It's a nice note for the founder's tenure to end on: identity leadership, powered by we. </p><p><em>Sherin Shibu contributed to this story.</em></p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sneaky-ways-credit-card-companies-make-you-spend-more-money-2019-9">Sneaky ways credit card companies get you to spend more money</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

'The power of revelation': Adam Neumann and Elon Musk show how startup founders use the same tactics as cult leaders - and why it eventually backfires

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Every year, a humble Vancouver convention center becomes one of the wealthiest places on Earth, as Silicon Valley notables arrive for the annual Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) conference.<p>At the conference, internally&#xa0;nicknamed "summer camp for adults", attendees will observe a Google co-founder walking&#xa0;between snack stations in crocs, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos chatting up a speaker, or countless sneaker-clad Internet founders standing in a taco truck line for some midnight munchies.</p><p>Given the extreme concentration of wealth and pricey ticket (&gt;$8,000), TED routinely finds itself in the crosshairs of <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/04/when-ted-lost-control-of-its-crowd/">critics</a>, who slam it as an <a href="http://gawker.com/362800/why-ted-sucks">elitist</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/the-church-of-ted.html?_r=0">cult</a> of millionaires that <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/09/listen-and-learn">uncritically</a> <a href="http://pando.com/2014/01/17/get-em-while-theyre-young-amid-criticism-for-false-talks-ted-launches-clubs-for-kids/">propagate</a> dangerously <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18511696">utopian</a> ideas. Despite its haters among the press, TED is a beloved Internet gem; an estimated 1 billion people will watch TED's videos this year.&#xa0;</p><p>In this way, the critique of TED is nearly identical to the hate that regularly gets hurled at Silicon Valley, a region of the world increasingly unaffordable to outsiders and filled with influential technologists who believe untested but popular ideas can solve the world's ills. Attending TED is a shot of Silicon Valley - a concentrated dose of both the most loved and hated parts of the tech industry.</p><p>TED's harshest critics hurl invective from afar because they <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/ted-now-with-more-elitism/">are rarely - if ever - invited</a>; I was invited last year, so I took the opportunity to interview attendees on how they view TED and what it represents. Specifically, I asked attendees 3 uncomfortable questions, which I think cut to the heart of disagreement between fans and critics:</p><p>&#xa0;</p><ol><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Why give to TED, a nonprofit, when you could give to another charity, like a soup kitchen?</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Is inequality bad?</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Is utopianism counterproductive?</span></li></ol><p>&#xa0;</p><p>Their answers unveiled a fascinating look into the philosophy of the next great generation of inventors (more detail on that philosophy <a href="https://medium.com/the-ferenstein-wire/silicon-valley-s-political-endgame-summarized-1f395785f3c1#.ked4v3rv6">here</a>).</p><h2><strong>Onfo-topian, not techno-utopian</strong></h2><p>TED's mantra "ideas worth spreading" is deceptively bland; it doesn't reveal the optimism with which the organization and its attendees hold for the power good ideas.</p><p>"Ideas alone do have force," explained Esther Wojcicki, longtime TED attendee and education technologist.</p><p>"Reason is a better angel that deserves the greatest credit for the moral progress our species has enjoyed and that holds out the greatest hope for continuing moral progress in the future," said TED speaker Steve Pinker, whose talk on "The Long Reach of Reason" was <a href="http://blog.ted.com/why-this-might-just-be-the-most-persuasive-ted-talk-ever-posted/">so central to the organization</a> that it was spruced up into a fancy animated short (below)</p><p><div></div></p><p>TED's inescapable optimism flows from a belief that humanity can, over the long run, learn that war, racism, and poverty are really stupid ideas.</p><p>As an example of just how pervasive this belief is at the conference, during one random encounter, I approached an investor and actress engaged in animated conversation just outside the mainstage.</p><p>The actress, Sarah Jones, had just performed an imitation-heavy science fiction skit on 21st feminism, wherein she plays a futuristic history teacher that can zap her students into the past minds of modern-day pimps, prostitutes, and college girls. The implied moral of message of her play is that imagining how silly future generations will view our culture should illuminate our own biases.</p><p>Outside the main stage, Jones and <a href="http://www.mayfield.com/team/investment-team/tim-chang">investor Tim Chang</a> were gushing over one of TED's floor demos, <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/the-day-virtual-reality-made-me-cry/">a Vice News-funded virtual-reality</a> simulator that tells life of a refugee camp through the eyes of a little Syrian girl.</p><p>Chang went on to regale me with how virtual reality could be a path to world peace and prosperity. "One way that you could potentially solve against wars and poverty and all these things is if a billionaire could live a day in a life of a homeless person," he says.</p><p>"Don't you think he or she might have more empathy for what that person's situation is like? If you know that an Israeli and someone from Palestine were to swap their day in each other's lives through this kind of technology, would it create more room for common ground discussion."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>It is difficult to overstate just how much TED values solving things through the spread of ideas. Last year, the coveted $1,000,000 TED prize was awarded to StoryCorps, an app that makes it easier to record and listen to people's personal stories.</p><p>The year prior, the prize was given to Sugata Mitra, a jolly Newcastle professor of educational technology <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra">whose groundbreaking research proved</a> that poor rural children could teach themselves science, math, and English with little more than free access to the Internet. Mitra explained to me he that believes the central problem with education is that we tell children what to learn and how to learn it.</p><p>The power of the Internet is that it helps students discover the subjects they naturally enjoy and lets them figure out how best to engage. Self-discovery should be the very foundation of a better education system.</p><p>TED is wildly optimistic that ideas are a force for good: talks, side conversations, and prizes seem like versions of this belief manifested over (and over) again.</p><h2><strong>Naive optimism by design</strong></h2><p>TED's faith that ideas can solve the world's ills naturally leads it to permit presentations that critics find optimistic to a fault. Overwhelmingly, critics loathe the way TED wraps intractable problems in eminently solvable language and cinematic flair.</p><p>"Science, philosophy and technology run on the model of American Idol - as embodied by TED talks - is a recipe for civilisational disaster" <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/30/we-need-to-talk-about-ted">wrote</a> TED critic <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/benjamin-bratton">Benjamin Bratton</a> for the BBC. TED, he argued, makes solutions to difficult problems seem all-too-easy. "Given the stakes, making our best and brightest waste their time - and the audience's time - dancing like infomercial hosts is too high a price."</p><p>Yet TED's attendees see a strategy behind engaging with ideas that seem crazy at first. "I think experimentation of radical ideas is key to social progress," argued <a href="http://iava.org/people/paul-rieckhoff/">Paul Rieckhoff</a>, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. For Rieckhoff, there already exists plenty of poorly funded ideas; at least TED seems like it has a track record: "Our whole society is spending money on a lot of bulls---. TED is better."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>While TED does vet ideas for scientific rigor, the scope of their impact leans on the side of exaggeration. Brazen utopia is a feature of TED, not a bug.</p><p>Early Google employee and tech investor, Wesley Chan, explained, "I mean if one idea out of a hundred can go somewhere, then TED would have met its mission of spreading a great idea and inspiring people or changing the world."</p><p>TED is a hedge fund of radical ideas; many talks may die <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/05/17/the-10-ted-talks-they-should-have-censored/">a spectacularly embarrassing</a> death. But a few will be prescient enough to make the whole portfolio of optimism worthwhile.</p><h2><strong>The original ivory tower MOOC</strong></h2><p>Attendees have a knee-jerk defensiveness when asked about TED's ticket price and selective admissions. "Would you criticize Harvard?" replied one attendee. Indeed, when I asked some of the wealthier attendees why they spring for the expensive +$17,000 "donor" ticket, their answers drifted to the ivy tower.</p><p>"I am as loyal to this institution as I would be to my Alma Mater [<a href="http://stage.ferrazzigreenlight.com/content/executive-bios">Yale and Harvard</a>], which have given me the gifts to make a difference in the world," explained author and business consultant Keith Ferrazzi. "I could give to a food kitchen. That is the status quo" he continued.</p><p>While Ferrazzi does give to a number of charities, "Here at TED we could actually create disseminating technology processes or concepts that could contribute to ending hunger."</p><p>Like Harvard, or MIT, much of the philanthropy goes to supporting low-income scholarships, research, and TED's vast platform of free network. That is, TED is the original Ivory Tower Massively Open Online Course (MOOC): attendees pay big bucks to network with their peers, but the knowledge is freely open to all.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Even the attendees' justification of TED's free videos seems to follow the logic of MOOCs. TED attendee and MIT economist Andrew McAfee <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/05/can-facebooks-massive-courses-improve-education-for-developing-nations/">regards</a> online education as "diamond finders", platforms that give equal opportunity to geniuses anywhere in the world, rich or poor. &#xa0;</p><p>Likewise, many attendees envision the benefit of TED videos as casting a wide net of educational opportunity, inspiring viewers to solve problems in both the usual circumstances of privilege and unexpected places of poverty.</p><p>"You don't know if it is going to come from an impoverished child in Nepal or it's going to come from somebody that grew up in luxury in Manhattan. But we want to give everybody an opportunity to contribute and to make the world a better place," explained Wojcicki.</p><p>So, it's fair to call TED elitist, but not aristocratic. Like a top-tier college, they do have a discriminating eye, but it's for entrepreneurial talent and intelligence.</p><p>"It's not about the money, it's about having the ability to do things better than others" argued Ron Gutman, founder of the medical startup, Healthtap. Giving more resources and attention to smarter people, he says, is fine "as long as elitism benefits everyone."&#xa0;</p><h2><strong>Idealism, ahoy!</strong></h2><p>Even though I'd never been before, TED felt like a very familiar place. The optimism, the gadgets, the billionaires wearing sneakers - it was like I was home in San Francisco. TED is a concentrated dose of Silicon Valley. And, Silicon Valley is a concentrated dose of optimism that, over the long run, humanity wises up to better ways of living.</p><p>If you buy into the belief that ideas have force, that they can compel even very powerful people to bend to their will, then TED's moonshot approach to the world's ills is quite strategic. I suspect many critics don't hold the same assumptions.</p><p>But TED's overwhelming popularity reveals that there is a large class of people, including very powerful people, that do believe ideas can change the world.</p><p><em>*For more stories like this, subscribe to the Ferenstein Wire newsletter </em><a href="https://tinyletter.com/ferensteinwire"><em>here</em></a><em>.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cindy-gallop-on-the-way-porn-changes-sex-education-2013-4">TED Speaker Explains What Porn Is Getting All Wrong About Sex</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1vOXA3YjpW4YIlx3B9e_z-de1mO9HoyP" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

TED isn't a cult. Here's what attendees actually believe

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Marisa Palmer, Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Cliff Sims, author of "Team of Vipers"</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Former Trump White House aide Cliff Sims talks with INSIDER about his new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Team-Vipers-Extraordinary-Trump-White/dp/125022389X">"Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House."</a></li><li>Sims dishes on the back-biting among senior White House officials, and how he compromised his own morals in helping Trump create his "enemies list."</li><li>He's a passionate supporter of refugee issues, thinks the media relies too much on anonymous sourcing, and thinks "Russia is a farce."</li><li>"We couldn't collude with the office next door. You think we can collude with a foreign government? Give me a break," Sims tells INSIDER.</li></ul><p>Ex-Trump administration aide Cliff Sims' newly released book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Team-Vipers-Extraordinary-Trump-White/dp/125022389X">"Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House"</a> is arguably the most candid tell-all published by any former Trump White House alumnus to date.</p><p>Sims was an Alabama-based journalist before joining Trump's presidential campaign in August 2016, a role he parlayed into a special assistant to the President position before later serving as the director of White House message strategy.</p><p>In "Vipers," Sims dishes on the oft-told back-biting among senior Trump administration figures, and he doesn't let himself off the hook for the moments when his eagerness to serve the president led him to take shots at his colleagues. Most notably, Sims writes about helping Trump craft his so-called "enemies list," comprised of White House aides Sims believed were disloyal to the president. </p><p>And while Sims takes issue with some of the president's stances - Trump's hardline position on refugees, among them - the staunchly conservative Sims remains proud to have served in the Trump White House. </p><p>On the day of "Team of Vipers" release this past Tuesday, Sims sat down with INSIDER's <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> editor Anthony Fisher for an extended interview. <em>(Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)</em></p><p><strong>INSIDER: Why did you decide to write about your experience in the White House?</strong></p><p><strong>Cliff Sims:</strong> <span>I wanted to write this because every book that I've seen about the Trump presidency to this point has been an anti-Trump view. Either just wanting to burn the place down and set him on fire or, you know, an unabashedly pro-Trump, kind of sycophantic book. It's the most talked about presidency in history and </span><span>I want to tell you the truth about what's going on in there. </span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: So, on the spectrum of anti-Trump bashing or sycophancy, where would you put your book?</strong></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sims</strong>: </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Man, I haven't really thought about it in those terms. It's kind of good, bad, and ugly of [the Trump White House]. So I guess I would put it right in the middle. That's what I was shooting for.</span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: What were you most looking to expose from your time in the White House?</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sims:</strong> I'm </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">trying to help you understand the way that Trump ticks. How he approaches decision-making. Everything that guy says is newsworthy. You could fill volumes of books with the things that he's said, but every story in my book helps you understand it in a larger context. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I had a unique vantage point of someone who had seen him operate up close and personal in various settings. Foreign leaders dealing with Congress, behind the scenes recording different things. I think I'm probably most critical of myself of anyone in the entire book. I just want to be the guy who was in the room who's willing to give it to you straight.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/632914812">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. Also pictured, from left, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, Press Secretary Sean Spicer and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. On Saturday, President Trump is making several phone calls with world leaders from Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Australia.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: The title of the book is "Team of Vipers." Can you speak specifically about how you were a viper? Who in the White House did you hurt, and why?</strong></p><p><strong>Sims:</strong> <span style="font-weight: 400;">I paint a lot of scenes of the internal machinations of the staff-on-staff violence as I call it. You know, everybody's going after everybody. I participated in a lot of that and there were some people who I helped engineer their departure and then there were people who helped engineer mine. So it's kind of like what goes around comes around in that way.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the scenes in the book that has gotten the most pickup i</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">s where the president's really frustrated because he's reading all these stories where unnamed White House officials are not just trashing a policy, they're trashing him personally. And he's like, "Who are these people that work for me?" So I ended up in the private study just off the Oval Office sitting with the President of the United States, basically making a list of people that I think are probably behind some of this stuff. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As I looked back, [I realized] how lost in it all I had become. I didn't lie to the president. I didn't say anything I didn't think was untrue. I told what I thought was the truth about these people, but I didn't feel like there was anything honorable about stabbing my colleagues in the back to the president. </span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: Ultimately, do you regret what you did?</strong></p><p><strong>Sims: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">I regret things like that.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">If I had to go do over again, I would have handled the situation differently where I'm sitting there with the president basically making an enemies list. I joke in the book that if this were a horror movie, this would have been the moment where you realized that the call is coming from inside the house.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cliff-sims-struggled-reconcile-christian-beliefs-trumps-anti-refugee-stance-2019-1">Ex-White House aide Cliff Sims struggled to 'reconcile' Christian beliefs with Trump's anti-refugee stance</a></span></em></p><p><strong>INSIDER: You wrote about struggling with your Christian faith and the Trump administration's position on refugees. </strong></p><p><strong>Sims: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">It hits me very personally. We spent time in the Middle East working with Syrian refugees. So when we talk about that issue, I picture the faces of those kids and those moms and the people that I met over there. I saw firsthand what they're going through. I think the administration's stated policy goals on the refugee issue are good. We want to relocate these people to safe places as close to their homes as possible. We want to give special treatment to Christians or religious minorities who were persecuted in that part of the world.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><strong>INSIDER:</strong> <span style="font-weight: 400;">It's totally understandable to have sympathy for persecuted religious minorities. But does your concern extend to Muslim refugees?</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sims:</strong> I would say 99% of the refugees that we worked with were Muslim refugees. The United States historically has been very explicit about persecuted religious minorities around the world. Even the State Department, the different ways they classify refugees, persecuted religious refugees are given favorable treatment. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">T</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">he first job of the president is to secure the safety of the American people. There are ways you can ensure safety while also being welcoming, or at least, helping them there [in the Middle East]. I think that makes a lot more sense because a lot of refugees I've interacted with, they don't want to be Americans. They love their culture, the way that we love our culture. They love their life, they want to speak their language.</span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: So, you were an anchor on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/trumptvofficial/">Trump TV</a> for a hot second. There was a lot of speculation that the president thought he was going to lose in 2016, and Trump TV was going to be his next big media gambit.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sims:</strong> M</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">an, I almost forgot about that. We were sitting around the war room in Trump Tower and somebody said, "We've got this giant online following, what if we just did our own show and the people will eat it up." So we just kind of started doing it. Next thing you know, we start getting all these media requests coming in asking if this was what Trump's going to do after he loses the election. It really wasn't. It was really just a handful of us idiots sitting around the war room deciding that we wanted to do it. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst</span></p><p class="caption">Riot police protect members of the Ku Klux Klan from counter-protesters as they arrive to rally in support of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. July 8, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cliff-sims-bannon-thrilled-with-trump-charlottesville-response-2019-1">Bannon was 'thrilled' with Trump's Charlottesville response as staff panicked, ex-Trump aide Cliff Sims says in new book</a></span></em></p><p><strong>INSIDER: I want to talk a little bit about the White House's reaction to the neo-Nazi murder of a protester in Charlottesville in 2017. You wrote that a lot of White House staffers were not happy with the president's response. How did you personally feel at the time?</strong></p><p><strong>Sims</strong>: <span style="font-weight: 400;">I was really conflicted, because I think that we have completely lost nuance in the public discourse at this point. </span></p><p>When Trump says something like, "There's good people on both sides," it's a very provocative thing. For me, what I heard him say was, "There are good people who say we shouldn't have monuments to slavery." <span style="font-weight: 400;">There are also people who say, "I think we should keep those monuments because I don't agree with slavery and I think racism is evil, but that's part of our history. And we should remember even the bad parts of our history, whichever side you're on, you can be a good person."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So if you like Donald Trump, you're hearing him say that. He's not very nuanced, but there is a nuanced argument there. If you think he's a racist, you think he just said that there are good white supremacists out there. I give him the benefit of the doubt, having spent time with him one-on-one. I have absolutely no reason to believe that Donald Trump has a racist bone in his body.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our country, for generations, has been dealing with the consequences of slavery and segregation. And the president has a unique platform, a giant bully pulpit to be someone who brings racial reconciliation and healing. That is a part of the job that I think that the president could do better at.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the great mischaracterizations of Trump is that he's a terrible boss, yelling at everyone and "you're fired." That he's </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">just going crazy the whole time. I actually had a great experience working for the guy. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the scenes in the book I liked most is when the Congressional Black Caucus comes in to meet with him and they are loaded up to really give it to him. And they get in the room with him and the door closes and they find out the same thing everybody else does, which is you just can't be in the room with the guy and not end up liking him. He's a great host. He's having a good time. He's fun. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-talks-to-reporters-as-he-departs-the-news-photo/969750322">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs the White House June 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump is traveling to Canada to attend the G7 summit before heading to Singapore on Saturday for a planned US-North Korea summit.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><strong>INSIDER: In the book, you seem to be riding the fence when it comes to media coverage. On the one hand you concede it's dangerous for Trump to refer to the media as "enemies of the people." But you also clearly think that there's a preponderance of misreported pieces on Trump, and that that's evidence of an unhealthy bias. What do you think the press gets right about the president and what do you think they've gotten the most wrong?</strong></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sims:</strong> I do have some discomfort with that particular phrase "enemy of the people" because of the historical connotation, the ways that has been used in the past. I have no idea if Donald Trump is aware of the historical connotation or if he's just shooting from the hip. The fake <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> thing doesn't bother me as much. And the reason is because I've seen reports on tons of meetings that I was in that were just bull crap. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The things I think the media gets right about Donald Trump, they're correct in saying that there is a relatively chaotic environment [in the White House]. What they get wrong is how that manifests itself. It's not a universally bad thing is that there's a kind of this creative chaos going on.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My biggest beef with the media is an overreliance on anonymous sources. It's really frustrating and I don't think it's fair as a reader. I'm reading these stories and I'm like, I don't know who these people are. They have an ax to grind. And I'm supposed to take this reporter's word for it. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the reasons I think my book is unique is because I'm willing to put my name to this stuff. You can read some of these other books and see what anonymous sources say and you don't know who they are. I'm right here. My name's on the dang thing. You can read it and think what you want.</span></p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cliff-sims-trump-fires-off-tweets-all-hours-no-advance-notice-2019-1">Trump involved in every tweet on personal account and fires them off 'at all hours,' ex-White House aide says in new book</a></span></em></p><p><strong>INSIDER: The president seems none too pleased with the fact that you wrote this book. (<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1090244651578204160">Trump tweeted</a> Tuesday morning: "A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!") What would you say to Trump about why you wrote this book?</strong></p><p><strong>Sims: </strong>I would say that my goal here was just to tell the truth. I'm not trying to set you on fire, I'm not trying to make up stories about you. And he's not going to read the book, he's going to base it off of the press coverage. I'm a conservative, and I'm still a supporter of the Trump agenda. I want a lot of those things to be accomplished and I think I did a service here of telling the truth about what's going on in [the White House].</p><p>And a lot of it, he would actually be surprisingly happy about because I defend him on things he cares about. We talked about the race issue, I defend him on that. In the book we talk about the Russia thing, I think Russia thinks a farce. We couldn't collude with the office next door. You think we can collude with a foreign government? Give me a break.  </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-marriage-three-times-ivana-melania-marla-maples-divorce-2016-2">Meet the three women who married Donald Trump</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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