Learn about why successful people should reveal their failures; the extreme story of the death of planet WASP-12b; and why tulips used to cost more than houses during a period known as “tulip mania.”
Learn about why successful people should reveal their failures; the extreme story of the death of planet WASP-12b; and why tulips used to cost more than houses during a period known as “tulip mania.”
A Reason to Reveal Your Failures by Kelsey Donk
The Death of Planet WASP-12b by Grant Currin
Tulips Cost More Than Houses During Dutch "Tulip Mania" by Cody Gough
https://curiosity.com/topics/tulips-cost-more-than-houses-during-dutch-tulip-mania-curiosity
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/a-reason-to-reveal-your-failures-the-time-tulips-cost-more-than-houses-and-the-death-of-planet-wasp-12b
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why successful people should reveal their failures; the extreme story of the death of planet WASP-12b; and why tulips used to cost more than houses during a period known as “tulip mania.”
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Success is a double-edged sword. Hard work comes with amazing benefits like more pay, more responsibility, and more stability. But it can also carry jealousy, competition, and resentment right along with it. So how do you keep the scales tipped toward the positive? According to new research from Harvard Business School, you can do it by talking more about your failures.
This tip might sound counterintuitive. Isn’t it important to talk up your achievements? Don’t you want people to know you’re successful? Why would you ever highlight your failures?
The thing is, when successful people only talk about their success, they come off as egotistical. And that can stir up what the Harvard Business School researchers call malicious envy. That’s the kind of destructive envy that makes people want to harm the successful person.
According to the researchers, if you’re really successful, then it’s likely that everybody already knows about your achievements. It’s more interesting and inspiring for people to learn about your mistakes.
That makes sense, right? When you reveal both your successes and your failures, the team says you’re more likely to stir a “benign” kind of envy — the kind that drives people to be more like the successful person, instead of tearing them down. They found that people don’t have less admiration for a leader when they know about that leader’s failures, and they still respect his or her status. The envy just becomes less harmful and more motivational. And as a bonus, revealing past failure tends to make people think you’re more deserving of success.
Now, you can still talk about your successes. That’s especially true for people who are just starting out. If you’re a paper-shuffling intern, for example, your colleagues probably aren’t envious of you in the first place. But as you climb the ladder, remember that it’s good to talk about your failures, too. You won’t fall down, and you might even get to climb higher.
There’s some extreme stuff in outer space. To prove it, look no further than the planet WASP-12b. This thing is super hot, super huge, super dark — aaand soon to be super dead. [dramatically] Here is that planet’s story.
WASP-12b is a gas giant, sort of like Jupiter. It’s so close to its sun that a year lasts just 26 hours. One side of the planet is always facing its sun, seared by neverending daylight and broiling in temperatures of about 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Those temps don’t just keep clouds from ever forming and reflecting sunlight; they’re so high that most molecules can’t form at all. As a result, any light is absorbed by free hydrogen atoms, which convert it into — wait for it — more heat. This process absorbs nearly all the light that hits the surface, so this blast furnace of a planet isn’t white hot — it’s actually pitch black.
Astronomers first spotted WASP-12b in 2008 orbiting a star in the constellation Auriga [uh-RYE-guh]. The last 12 years of research paints a convincing picture: this is one weird planet. And now, new evidence suggests that WASP-12b is swiftly approaching certain death.
Why do astronomers think the planet is doomed? The problem is gravity. Both WASP-12b and its star are huge, and they’re very close to each other. The gravity between them is so strong that the planet causes its sun to bulge, which creates tides that distort its shape and make it wobble. It’s kinda like how the moon creates tides in Earth’s oceans.
That tidal bulge in the star takes energy, and that energy is coming from somewhere very important to WASP-12b. It’s coming from the energy it uses to orbit.
Here’s now researchers think the story will end: WASP-12b will continue making waves on its sun for about 3 million more years. During that time, the planet’s orbit will slowly decay, bringing it closer and closer to the sun. After 3 million years of this, WASP-12b will lose its gravitational tug-of-war and plunge into its sun.
It’s already begun its downward spiral: observations suggest that its orbit is already shortening by about 29 milliseconds per year. Farewell, WASP-12b! We hardly knew ye.
If you thought there have been some extreme economic bubbles in the U.S. in recent years, then here’s something that might make you feel a little better (or worse): once upon a time in the Netherlands, a tulip cost more than a house. Yes, back in the 1630s, a period called ”Tulip Mania” caused tulip prices to soar 20-fold in just six months before plunging in half that time.
At that time, tulips were a novelty. They’d just been introduced to Western Europe from their native country of Turkey. And this happened during the Dutch Golden Age, when the Netherlands was one of the wealthiest countries in Europe.
Collectors assigned value to tulips based on their species and coloring. And at the heart of the mania were “broken” tulips, which looked super awesome. Instead of being just one color, broken tulips boasted vibrant lines and flame-like streaks. Ironically, they were colored that way because of a tulip-specific mosaic virus, though that reason wasn’t discovered until centuries later.
Anyway, by 1637, a single bulb of Semper Augustus cost enough to "feed, clothe and house a whole Dutch family for half a lifetime." Or if that’s not your style, it could "purchase one of the grandest homes on the most fashionable canal in Amsterdam for cash, complete with a coach house and an 80-foot garden."
This whole situation is known as a speculative bubble, also known as a price bubble, asset bubble, or financial bubble. It happens when the price for something far exceeds its fundamental value. Historically, these bubbles “burst,” followed by a spectacular crash in that item’s price. And that’s exactly what happened here. Luckily, the economic repercussions were relatively minor, as there weren’t that many people involved — and fortunately, nobody was recorded as going bankrupt. And yet! “Tulip mania” is often referred to as “history’s biggest bubble.” Even though more recent bubbles have been way more devastating, like Japan’s asset price bubble collapse in the 1990s, and the dot-com and housing bubbles here in the U.S. even more recently. So why is this? Well, historians believe the scale of “Tulip mania” was blown out of proportions by Dutch Calvinists. They actually spread propaganda pamphlets because they were worried that the tulip boom would lead to societal decay.
Fortunately, it didn’t. In fact, tulips are now an essential economic industry in the Netherlands, which exports two thirds of the world’s tulips and attracts thousands of tourists to its beautiful tulip fields. So, count yourself lucky that you get to see these beautiful fields and buy a bunch of beautiful tulips without having to trade your house for it.
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ASHLEY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk, Grant Currin, and Cody Gough.
CODY: And edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!
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