Are you competitive . Author poe bronson breaks down winning and losing and how to 10 the odds in your favor and well preview 2013 camp fest, a familiar film event with a new name. Im susan sykora and that is on bay area focus. Next. Welcome to bay area focus, im susan sykora. Its a doggy dog world. Dont be on the menu. Good advice. Opening the newest book from author poe bronson. From sports to work and politics, how aggressive must you be to win. And is being competitive a natural gift or can you learn it . Poe bronson explains in top dog, the science of winning and losing. Welcome back. Good to you have here j. Appreciate it. Thank you, susan. This is an interesting subject, and i guess the first question is report we all a little competitive . Seems like being competitive would go to survival sometimes. Were bilogically predispieced to respond to challenge and competition. That is the force of the evolution built in to all of us. The question, how do we take that and work that up over time . How do we respond to different types of challenges . What are the things that make each of us, me, perhaps differently than you, respond well in certain circumstances. Uhhuh. Is it natural . The trail trait, something you born with . Do you have to have competitive parents, inherited or can you you learn it . One important factor is a gene called the comp gene, one is the warrior gene and equally spread. Half of us have one of these, half of us only have warrior genes and a quarter of us only warrior and the quarter of us warrior only. The warriors, not bad to have them only. They think about the future plan, strategize and have a 10 point iq advantage on average, as long as you not stressed. Uh. Under stress, the brain function melts down. The worrier . That is the worrier. Its not bad but has a negative worth to it. The warriors which, sounds cool, they dont, their brains dont work best without stress. They actually need stress and intensity and pressure to raise dopamine levels in their brain to optimal levels. Only then do the brains work their best. Maybe its wrong, is this like people who say i cant do anything until the last minute . I do my best work at the last minute, i cant plan ahead. If they do their best work at the last minute. This is not a way to condone all lazy people out there, right. [ laughter ] that is okay. Some people are slackers and not going to get it done. Right. If they do deliver under deadline, that is probably an indication they have the warrior gene. Huh. Sometimes its hardest, i think, to judge yourself. How do you tell, is there a test that you can take or you can run on yourself and say how competitive am i in. You could take a cheek swab and find out your genetics, inclinations here, but i dont recommend it to anyone. I see we see the patterns in our lives and we recognize them in ourselves. Uh. And also, its important to know that those who have the worrier gene is going to affect kids more than adults. Hmm. At stanford, Quinn Kennedy is doing studies of pilots and fines that recreational pilots, reasonably experienced in a flight simulator, really, really tough flight simulation simulation test, the warriors beat the worriers. When you can get those flying at night with the instruments, the worriers, the genetic advantage, the planning advantage, kicks in with more experience to train and inoculate to stress. So kids have more trouble with all novel stress. If they not used to things. Uhhuh. Adults get used to stressors. A new experience may be a warrior would be thrown off. If theyre used to it, they can manage it and that is fine. You talk about kids, the fact that you started, it came from an idea. You were coaching your sons socker . Yeah, my sons soccer team in third grade. Yeah. And we built a select soccer team to play in the elite leagues of the bay area and they were enormously talented. To put them into an environment where everyone was good and they were challenged . Uh. They had divergent responses. The game would start and some would have clammy hands, their breathing would be shallow and they couldnt run, and they would look confused and other ones were absolutely ready for that challenge. I was fascinated by that. Why is it . How can i help the kids . Uhhuh. And i slowly learned about the stress inoculation and how to take the kids who are having, will what is a challenged state to a threat straight, and train them over time to handle tress. By fifth grade, theyre doing phenomenal. You and ashley, your co author, were you getting into you in territory here . Now territory for us, the scientists, were the first to report in any way, the worrier warrior gene is linked to p tsd. Sounds like fight or flight. And threat challenge physiology is fight or flight. Warrior gene is a prefrontal cortex thing. Uh. Yes. Fighter fight result is baso dilation versus biso constriction, and firefighters weather that warrior networks of the brain and the fear networks are you were ited up or down. You have parents thinking. Im thinking the worrier and warrior, youre better off if one is a worrier and one is a warrior so you have a balance, no . In a marriage or relationship in. To have both jeeps means you have both both genes means you have both enzymes and you will come out somewhere in the middle. Someone would rather have a strength and have no have weakens, too. Some would say i would rather have no weakness. I dont think we should see that one is about ther than the other. They different. Uh. Each person can fend their own best competitive style. You came up with people. You said first borns are less competitive than younger siblings. Yeah. That makes sense the more i think about it. If youre the first one, everyone is doting on you and someone comes look, that person has to takes the attention from mom and dad . And they take that experience outside of the homes to the first soccer games, the first learning to read and where they have to get used to the fact this someone is bigger and better than them and learn not to quit. Is that two kids in the third sibling . Ier they more competitive . Anyone who has been a younger sibling had some foundation in having to stand up to someone bigger than them, stronger than them and wants to crush them all of the time. Uh. If they become the older sibling of the younger sibling, they have the experience. Athletes, are they more competitive, i would think in. Those athletic and more competitive . Uh. Not necessarily. But it seems that sports does train people to understand the a roused level of emotion that happens in competition. Huhuh. And to have some good skills and healthy competition has ebbs and fleece. Its intense and there is a break. Sports do that, you play and recuperate. Uhhuh. And some other environments, like elite competitive schools, there, boys boys dont turn their competitiveness off. Theyll perform worse if they at the top. They need to be a big fish in the small pound popped . Thans small fish in the big pond. Okay, were going to held it there and give you a test of the length of your fingers and what it means about your skills of an entrepreneur and well talk about women. We have been hearing a lot from cherylsanford with her new book and saying women play it too safe and they their is a whole thing about that. Okay. P. Welcome back. Top dog, scientists winning and losing is poe bronsons latest, seventh book . Seventh book. Okay. All right, we said when we went to break, one of the characteristics you talked about was a stud they did in italy . They did them this italy, chicago, and london, and sports all over the place j. Your fingers . Right. And were looking at the length of your fingers . If you hold up and you looking at the length of your index finger. Uhhuh. Ignore the middle finger, you looking at the length of the ring finger. Okay. My ring finger is longer than my index finger. Uhj. 2 3 of the men will have that and 1 3 of women are. If you do, this is going to sound crazy like a trick, you are more likely to be an entrepreneur, more likely to choose risky career paths and successful at entrepreneur, better at sports, make more money on wall street, that kind of thing. Should i go into business or not . That shows to me you would be tolerant of some risks and maybe you should not jump into it. There are some women who have longer ring fingers than. And absolutely. In the stud of study of italy, it predicted how big the company was and the growth rate. The question is why. The same thing lengthening fingers when were two months into fetal gestation into our mothers womb. The same exposure to prenatal testosterone and estrogen changes how the limb brick limbec brain is organized. Huh,. Its a marker for subtle brain differences seated with the joinedder and transscend gender. Chapter 5, was eating that full of ice cream there. You got into the men and women thing. Yeah. And a lot of people would think competitive woman, you know, shes too edgy or too rough, shes not nice and could be evil. Yet, these are the women who get ahead. Where am i wrong in that . I dont know about the characteristic temp ram. And that is what people think. And one of the things they thought was certainly what is a major social issue. How many women are represented in politics and especially at the national level. 18point something , 18. 8. This great victories, right, of the women running in november and its still only 18 . Uh. The scientists for years said, well, women must be less competitive and turns out to be totally wrong. Its that women are good at judging the odds of whether they have a chance to win. Uh. The men are good at ignoring the odds. And cheryl sandberg, the book called lean in, i believe they are going to into an interview, she said womenply it safe and you say in your book that a man will run for politics and ignore the odds and a woman will run if the odds favor her. They have a 20 chance, women start jumping into political contests. Less than 20, she will say forget . Right, once its at 20 or 30 or 40 , women compete more than men do. More women will jump into the race when they have a descent chance to win than men. Once they compete, they compete as hard. Cheryls sheryl is right that a lot of women are a verse to risk. If you go back to the ring finger link, some women are predisposed to take big risks. Uh. For men,thy tend to ignore odds and on wall street, this is what is fascinating, female financial analysts are 7. 3 more act rat than male financial analysts. The men take the overoptimism and ignorance ignoring a lot of risk factors while women accurately judge risk and they better at it than men are. And why do you think that more men get the jobs that know women there . Think of it in an interview situation. Venture offices in Silicon Valley and this is hypothetic. A woman comes in and said this is what i can do for you and she right. This is my track record, what i can accomplish for you and shes dead on. A man comes in and is not trying to lie, but hes overconfident and imagines he can do better than he can and promises it more. Is that jeanette snick. We dont know what causes that but testosterone level affects the fear networks and reward networks of the brain and affect how we judge quick. Risk. That could be one factor. And there are men in rome everyones trained on now, the cardinals. Yeah. They get to the level in the church, they chosen because they holy and everything, i am sure there is a bunk of that bunch of that. However, i would think there is some ambition getting you to cardinal level. Youre behind doors and have to vote. Right j. You have to win and cue okay on you could be literally, i dont want to sound plaintiff mouse or offend anyone, can you be top dog. The pope. You think there is enough competition there . I dont know enough but i would think that competition is everywhere, and there is going to be a lot of potential papal candidates who might be dont go into that room thinking they want to but suddenly people are talking and they rise up and some want it. Uh. And discover its under Competitive Pressure that we accomplish more than we ever thought we could accomplish. Sure, people need to be intripsically motivated and have drive. Uh. Yet, on top of that, to compete brings ever more out of you. You said if you push yourself beyond your limit, you know your limit, there is a certain rush in that, really. Yeah. How competitive are you . I have learned from this book just how competitive i am. Very competitive and i am also wellsuited to short, intense a roused competitions. Uhhuh. I like to get under peoples skins. You look on the best sellerslist . Versus everyone else . Its two weeks on the airtime. Two out of two so far. He knows that right away, right in. And so you look. Were out of time. This is a fascinating study. Chapter 5 is worth the price of admission if youre a female as well. Its called top dog, the science of winning and losing. Thank you for being back. Appreciate it. Stay with us, more ahead. ,,. Welcome back. Its year 31 for a female year annual, vent. The San FranciscoInternational Asian american Film Festival will raise the curtain this year with a new name. Camp fest. For more on this Years Program and a look at what is started march 49th, welcome the managing director, christine quan. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Why is there change . Its so much easier to say, first of all. [ laughter ] and i kind of, im glad. I am sure other people are glad, too and that is quicker. Yes. And he is the organization for american media. Right. And i think what were saying is that that is not just a Film Festival but an expression of what Asian Americans are doing creatively. Huh,. And this is a year that were focusing on film music and food and that is more reflective of how people are creating work right now. Uh. And in yo youre 31 now. Right. And i assume after a banner year of 30, you have to say okay, what are we going to do nowfo tofreshen it up so its not starting the next 30 years. And technology is changing. And artists are changing, and theyre working in new platforms that we want to change with them and be more flexive of how theyre expressing themselves creatively. Lets look at this and this is 11 days of films now and youre opening with a documentary and have not done that in a decade . A long time. Wow. And more of a feature . Yes. And this is about [ indiscernible ] lyn . It is. Lets look. Linsanity. This is like my second or third home game and i havent been in the game yet. I tried to get in the gym and they stopped me. And they were like, sorry, this is the players entrance. I was like i know. He looked at me confused and i was looking at him confused and then he was like oh, im sorry. Are you a trainer . And i just kind of like and another Security Guard came over and like whispered like i think he plays on the team. At guard. Some of the history of the blanket . This is legendary. Yeah . This is all about lion king. We have nala, baby simba, puma and this is my favorite of all time. What about the sesame street blanket . My second favorite is the garfield. Oh, man. All right, fans. Okay, this is a locally made film and lin is from palo alto, isnt he not . He is. And then the director is out of San Francisco, the bridgeman district. Uhhuh. Its a homegrown film and evan, the director, sort of jeremy before the whole lin sanity thing broke up and hes been making the film for years and because of the trust and relationship they built up, this has developed into a fantastic film and a true labor of love. I would say if you have a lot of time, its on your side when you are doing the documentary. Yeah. I would think the hard thing is to get a real person who is not an actor or actress to forget you there with the camera. And they need to know youre not exploiting them and that youre telling their story. Okay. And this is doing that, this film and you get to look into one of the most important Asian American figures in this century. So. Yeah. Okay, and sounds like an uplifting story. The next sounds like a serious one, invoking justice and this is about women trying to get equality and is it in Southern India . Thats right. Okay. And lets take a look first, and then well talk about it. Uh. Invoking justice. [ speaking in native tongue ] [ speaking in native tongue ] [ speaking in native tongue ] in a film like that, it must be a risk for the women to talk on film. Criticize things as they are in their society. Sure. Sure. Yeah, and i think what is great about this documentary, the female filmmaker for one, and secondly, you know, what you usually see about muslim women is how theyre sub. You dated subjugated and in this case, theyre fighting against these roles and all male counsels and its a powerful documentary in terms of their agency. Y that gathering together, theyre grating creating their own organization, their own allwomens to interpret the cure an the way they see is fair and to fight for injustices that have been done against women and wifes and daughters. It must also be somewhat lawyer, i would think if i were the filmmaker, i would worry that i put someone else in jeopardy, too. For what i show. Yeah. And in the film, can you see women at first, theyre kind of like, you know, i dont know if i want to get involved with this organization or the film. Yeah. They push and inspire the more they gather together. Its kind of like a snowball. One woman does it, two women do it. If they collectively give each other strength and that is strength and that is what is powerful about the reality of the group of women. Okay and this is your last festival . It is. And this is by your choice . It is. Okay, we wanted to say that. We wish you well whatever you do. Thank you