We humans

From the comments: Are we over-sensitive, or what?

Jun 10, 2014 /

Beer-Sheva, Israel-based community member Yubal Masalker wrote this in response to Jennifer Senior’s TED Talk, For parents, happiness is a very high bar:

“In my opinion, as we know more, we make more of an issue of every tiny matter. This is the main reason why there are now so many books about how to raise children. There is high demand for it because parents make an issue of every little matter that might affect even slightly their children’s future.

It’s the same in other fields too, such as food and cooking. In the same way Jennifer Senior saw a shelf full of colorful books about raising children, one could see nearby another shelf filled with colorful books about what to eat, how to eat and how to cook what you eat. When there wasn’t a plethora of so many books about raising children, there also wasn’t a plethora of books about food and dieting. And examples can be found in other fields too. Most of us have become over-sensitive and over-diagnostic about everything. And this causes us to make an issue of each and every little matter we are capable of feeling or seeing.

I guess it’s good to be highly diagnostic in science and medicine. But when it comes to other matters like human relationships, then perhaps being over-diagnostic turns to be more harmful than useful.”
— Yubal Masalker

[ted id=1974]

We’re always on the lookout for sharp critique, thought-provoking questions or interesting insights in response to TED Talks. Post your thoughts alongside any talk; we read them all and will feature one comment on ideas.TED.com each weekday. (Comments are lightly edited for spelling and grammar.)