What I Think About Jared Diamond's Talk

Well, for starters, the first thing I thought of once I grasped the theory is, "that makes sense."

It wasn't something that I was initially particularly excited to read. I do find his life and his passions very admirable and I envy the world experience that he's set out to have, but I did not connect to the text very well because I have not been exposed to evolutionary arguments before. I'm the type of the person that doesn't really look back. Knowing how things became is useful to human history, but whether its theory X or theory Y, either way I'm still standing here living my life.

I respect Diamond for his theory: his logical appeals, his deep thoughts, and his rationalization. The way he breaks up his sub-claims makes it very easy to read, and his tone and informal diction as well. When he talks about how animals and plants were able to spread east and west because they were "encountering the same day-length and climate to which they were already adapted," it clicked in my mind how much sense that made and it made me wonder why no one else thought of this before and instead used races to explain it? Perhaps it goes back to David Foster Wallace's claim that we are naturally selfish. So whoever did it first, was the best. It was the race against races. But the fact that Diamond is introducing the idea that it was the race against location and that people just simply took advantage of it, is, in the scientific world, perhaps risque since he is challenging an old (but outdated) theory. Excuse MY risque language but I can't seem to think of a better way to say it: Diamond's got brains AND balls.

I would have connected stronger with his theory if it was something that I was ever interested in, but I was born with a brain for writing, speaking and creativity. Science and math has never really been on my side, and I can easily prove that with my high school transcript!