In a cave in South Africa, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a million-year-old campfire, and discovered tiny bits of animal bones and ash from plants. It’s the oldest evidence of our ancient hu-man ancestors—probably Homo erectus, a species that preceded ours—cooking a meal. It’s a long way, of course, from that primitive repast to preparing a multi-course meal on your kitchen stove, or sticking a quick snack into the microwave.【G1】___________________

Cooking, some scientists believe, played a crucial role in the evolution, survival and ascent of early humans, helping to transform them from a ragged, miniscule fringe of struggling hunter-gatherers into the animal that dominates the planet.【G2】__________________

Early humans may have been motivated by a simple benefit. When food was cooked, it probably tasted better to them. But Harvard University professor of biological anthropology Richard Wrangham, author of the book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, argues that cooking had far more profound benefits for humans.【G3】_________________As a result, they got a greater caloric-payoff from their food; a cooked portion of oats, wheat or potatoes provided 30 percent more energy than the raw stuff.

【G4】_______________________And by cooking and making their food easier to chew, they avoided having to spend four to seven hours a day on mastication, as other great apes have to do. That freed up enormous amounts of time that they could use for other purposes, such as learning and developing language.

Cooking, Wrangham has written, may also have led to the division of labor along gender lines and mating practices.【G5】__________________But that division also left the female cooks vulnerable to marauding, hungry males who might be attracted by the smell of the food. In order to protect them-selves and ensure access to the food for themselves and their young, a female found it advantageous to bond with a single male protector and provider. That may have been a factor in development of the basic human pattern of monogamy that continues to this day—as well as gender inequality.

[A] In human society, kitchens shrank in size and cooking for the family, once a communal activity that often involved multiple generations became increasingly the job of the lady of the house.

[B] As a result, human began to seek out new tastes and new cooking techniques, and more of us came to see cooking and eating as a sensual, artistic experience that was an important part of our lives.

[C] Moreover, since then cooking has continued to exert a powerful influence upon human civilization in numerous ways—not just by filling our bellies, but by helping to nourish the culture and rituals that form humanity’s social nature.

[D] By providing quickly-produced calories, it enabled male hunters to get back into the wild and stalk more prey, while females stayed behind and concentrated upon cooking the meat and whatever plant foods they could gather.

[E] But without our early ancestors’ innovation, you might not be here now to enjoy that broiled chicken breast and side of sweet-potato fries.

[F] As a result, Wrangham and others believe, human ancestors were able to consume enough energy to fuel the evolutionary development of successively larger brains. At the same time, because they didn’t need big guts to digest all that raw stuff, their body shape evolved to become more slim and lithe.

[G] By using heat to chemically alter their food, human cooks softened the cell walls of plants to enable them to release their stores of starch and fat, and broke down the connective tissue in meat, making its nutrients more accessible as well.

The Global Competitiveness Report, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) each year, measures 113 factors that contribute to an economy’s competitiveness and it is widely watched by countries that want to find out their weak spots and by companies deciding where to invest. In the overall ranking, the U.S. finishes first out of 131 countries. Next are Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Fin-land, Singapore, Japan, the U.K. and the Netherlands. Further down are some more surprising comparisons, such as South Korea at No. 11, up from 23rd place last year.

【G1】_____________

A fundamentals-driven economy like Egypt or Bolivia is judged more on basic requirements such as the reliability of police services and electricity supply; an efficiency-driven economy like Brazil or Latvia is evaluated more by measures such as Internet access in schools and strength of investor protection; and an innovation-driven economy like France or South Korea sees more weight put on more sophisticated issues such as company R&D spending and marketing.

【G2】________________________________________

U.S., for instance, grabs the No. 1 slot for 10 measures, but in certain areas it doesn’t perform well. It scores 69th for primary-school enrollment and 75th in ability to fend off organized crime. The U.S. does particularly poorly when it comes to macroeconomic gauges: 89th for level of government debt, 107th for savings rate. “It’s a real warning sign coming out of the data,” says Blankem, a senior economist at the WEF.

The data also challenge some widespread beliefs—for instance, that high taxes stifle business.【G3】_____________________

“There’s always the debate about more government, less government, more taxes, less taxes,” says Xavier Sala-i-Martin, the Columbia University economist who designed the index. “This suggests that is the wrong debate. We should be talking about what the government does and not its size.”

Take Kenya. The sub-Saharan nation ranks badly on many basic measures, such as favoritism in decisions of government officials (115th) and business impact of malaria (113th), but on some more sophisticated metrics it does quite well—eighth for legal rights tied to the financial markets and 31st for quality of scientific-research institutions.【G4】____________________

But for all that the data can teach us, keep in mind that the nature of a ranking masks certain economic realities of a globalized world. The ability of countries to raise their citizens’ standard of living is not a zero-sum game.【G5】___________That’s why South Korea invests in North Korea, which is in some respects an economic black hole. At the end of the day, both can be winners.

[A] Dig deeper into the data behind a country’s ranking, and there are often surprises lurking.

[B] Geography, physical capital, technology, worker education—they’ve all taken a turn as the supposed silver bullet.

[C] Skipping the basics while nailing the more complicated stuff is an abnormal yet increasingly widespread trend—think of the places in Africa that leaped from no phones to cell phones, bypassing landlines—but whether a country can excel in the long run without a more stable foundation is another question.

[D] Nearly 200 years ago, Ricardo gave a detailed lesson about comparative advantage: when two economies interact, they both can benefit even if one is more advanced across the board.

[E] The U.S. and Switzerland, two moderately taxed countries, are at the top of the list, but so are Denmark, Sweden and Finland, where taxes are sky high.

[F] Part of the way countries stack up results from how the WEF weights a nation’s scores according to its stage of development.

[G] The index focuses on productivity, not its collateral effects.

[A] Mark the headway

[B] Celebrate the little wins

[C] Exercise is like an investment

[D] Make good choices

[E] Cut down your choices

[F] Allow yourself occasional luxuries

[G] Use visual reminders to stay on focus

Personal Finance Advice Applied to Fitness and Health

With the New Year upon us and the resolutions starting to fly around, I’m planning my annual fitness goals. As I review my plans for last year, I am also looking at my personal finance goals and I see some potential to apply personal finance principles to my fitness and health goals. Here are some personal finance principles which can be used in your fitness and health goals.

【G1】_______________________________________________

I often use a “progress bar” to keep tabs on my progress towards various goals. As I save a certain amount, I fill in a bit of a progress bar; after I lose a pound, I fill in a bit of another bar. This tool really helps me to see how every little bit contributes to a bigger goal. A progress sheet provides you with a good opportunity to celebrate the little wins along the way to meet your fitness goal. Achieving and celebrating the little goals will help keep you motivated to reach the big goal.

【G2】_______________________________________________

With personal finance, I often use images of specific goals to motivate myself—for a long time, I used a picture of a house to keep on track. With dieting, I used a photograph taken of me at my heaviest—every time I see it, I feel sad and it builds my resolve to stay on task with my dieting choices. Such indications are a key part to any goal: something you can focus on to help you reach your goal.

【G3】_______________________________________________

When you’re focused on improving your personal finances, all of the little decisions you make each day contribute to good personal financial health. If you decide to skip that mocha at Starbucks and drink a bottle of water, you’re making a solid choice towards good financial health. In fitness, you can apply this same principle. This usually means thinking about and researching the moves you make. I’ve started investigating the nutritional content of food more carefully, entering into a new healthy relationship with food. I’m also learning to cut down a bit on the excesses. Sounds like good financial planning, doesn’t it?

【G4】_______________________________________________

My real weaknesses for food are twofold: big, monstrous, juicy hamburgers and Ben and Jerry’s Americone Dream ice cream. I allow myself one or the other once a week now and avoid the temptation for the rest, knowing that I will either have a grilled burger on Saturday evening or some delicious ice cream on Sunday. This is very similar to how I plan and prepare for frivolous purchases—I plan ahead for them and am thus much more able to behave well knowing that I’m doing it the right way.

【G5】______________________________________________

Not only do you get the immediate benefit of dropped calories, but you get the “interest” of being in better condition when you need it (better oxygenation and better lung capacity). What you devote to exercise doesn’t always pay off immediately, but if you’re thinking long term on your investment you will see the benefits return in weight loss, better sleep, and a more robust life.

[A] If such a negative bias against creativity is present in times of uncertainty, it might explain why so many notable innovations were initially rejected. The implications for today are particularly relevant, as few executives would claim that they’re not working in an uncertain industry. The same uncertainty that triggers the need for companies to innovate may also be triggering executives to be rejecting the discoveries that could help them gain a competitive advantage. The ideas that could keep company alive are being killed too quickly.

[B] Consider some well-known examples from history. Kodak’s research laboratory invented the first digital camera in 1975 but didn’t pursue it. Instead they paid virtually no attention as Sony developed a different prototype and stole the future of digital photography out from underneath them. Xerox developed the first personal computer, but didn’t invest enough in the technology and allowed Steve Jobs and Apple to snatch the opportunity away. The US Navy rejected 13 submissions from William S. Sims regarding an innovative new firing method. It wasn’t until Sims appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt that his improved method was recognized.

[C] In just a few years, the program has already produced huge gains for the company. In its first year alone, the Mutual Fun accounted for 50 percent of the company’s new business growth. More important than the immediate revenue, the idea market has created a culture where new ideas are recognized and developed throughout the entire company, a democratization of recognition.

[D] When most organizations try to increase their innovation efforts, they always seem to start from the same assumption: “we need more ideas.” They’ll start talking about the need to “think outside the box” or “blue sky” thinking in order to find a few ideas that can turn into viable new products or systems. However, in most organizations, innovation isn’t hampered by a lack of ideas, but rather a lack of noticing the good ideas already there. It’s not an idea problem; it’s a recognition problem.

[E] In addition, it’s a system based on the assumption that everyone in the company already has great ideas and the market just makes them better at finding those ideas. It’s not an idea-solution; it’s a recognition-solution.

[F] One possible solution to this “idea killing” problem is to change the structure that ideas have to move through. Instead of using the traditional hierarchy to find and approve ideas, the approval process could be spread across the whole organization. That’s the approach Rhode Island-based Rite-Solutions has taken for almost a decade. Rite-Solutions has set up an “idea market” on their internal website where anyone can post an idea and list it as a “stock” on the market, called “Mutual Fun.” Every employee is also given $10,000 in virtual currency to “invest” in ideas. In addition to the investment, employees also volunteer to work on project ideas they support. If an idea gathers enough support, the project is approved and everyone who supported it is given a share of the profits from the project.

[G] These aren’t just fun examples of smart people and established companies being hilariously wrong, they actually reflect a bias we all share—a bias against new and creative ideas when we’re faced with even small amounts of uncertainty. That’s the implications of a study published last year by a team of researchers led by Wharton’s Jennifer Mueller.

【G1】→B→【G2】→【G3】→【G4】→【G5】→E

[A] Another corporate approach which is more dominant is Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian way. The English philosopher argued a unit-based approach; as long as the outcome is bigger than the input, the action is justified. Profit-driven organizations see CSR from the utilitarian perspective as a way of gaining a business advantage or to recover from a reputation loss.

[B] There is a significant gap here. And the missing link is emotion. Companies forget emotion in CSR, and that’s why they fail. This is where the teachings of Aristotle come in. He advocated for developing a character of virtuosity that leads to happiness for one’s self and others. He said these traits of the ideal character derive from natural internal tendencies. If they’re nurtured over time, eventually they become established. Aristotle was writing about people. While individual philosophy has been studied and applied to corporate organizations, we wanted to explore the newer concept of organizational virtue and how to adapt it to corporate strategy.

[C] The public has grown increasingly skeptical about the motivations behind corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. This is due to the discrepancy in two dominant approaches in rationalizing why corporations should be ethical. To understand this, it’s helpful to examine some important philosophical history. Basically, corporations are acting the way the philosophical teachings of Jeremy Bentham or those of Immanuel Kant would tell them. They would be wise to learn some Aristotelian lessons and better incorporate the role of emotion in their CSR efforts.

[D] A key strategic implication of the research findings is that companies would be better off if they change their CSR strategy from differentiation to identification. This consideration of stakeholder emotion is what makes virtue ethics distinctive from the other CSR approaches. Developing strategic-virtues in the minds of stakeholders has the potential to turn positive emotion into a real competitive advantage.

[E] So how is it that companies approach CSR from the duty-based philosophy of Immanuel Kant? The German philosopher argued people should act out of moral obligations. Say you see someone begging for money on the street and you don’t feel compassion for that person. You will help anyway, because you feel you have a duty to, or that it is the right thing to do. That’s coming from public-pressure, but not from your true respect or empathy for that person. Corporate social responsibility efforts have this disconnect, too.

[F] To help understand its potential, we conducted a survey of 2,500 employees and customers of seven British services firms. It shows that organizational virtue, represented by integrity, empathy, zeal, conscientiousness, warmth, and courage, is linked to employee and customer satisfaction via identification. When employees perceive an organization to hold high integrity, this leads to employee identification. This emotional attachment then leads to satisfaction, and eventually differentiation (unique attributes that employees perceive as better than competing employers). Similarly, when customers perceive an organization to show strong empathy, it enhances their emotional attachment to the company. This leads to satisfaction and eventually differentiation. The emotional attachment is the important mediator of CSR success.

[G] The problem with most corporate social responsibility efforts is that the duty-based and utilitarian approaches are essentially based on rationality, albeit with contrasting motivations. The company is there to make money, but it also tries to appear to meet the public expectation of acting ethically. To customers and employees, that can simply come across as calculating and superficial. That’s why the CSR activities often don’t ring true.

【G1】→E→【G2】→【G3】→【G4】→【G5】→D