THE INVENTORY JARED DIAMOND
If you had a coat of arms, what would be on it? A New Guinea bird of paradise.
‘Since 1999, I’ve spent an hour a day reading Italian’ Jared Diamond, 78, is professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published more than 600 articles and his 1997 book Guns, Germs, and Steel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. What was your childhood or earliest ambition? I grew up in the aftermath of the second world war and one of my fantasies was that I’d provide food for the starving, displaced people of Europe. My mother was a concert pianist, I started playing at six years old and my monomaniac ambition was to sight-read Beethoven piano sonatas in public. Public school or state school? University or straight into work? Roxbury Latin School, the oldest private school in the US – it meant more to me than university. I went to Harvard College, then Trinity College, 6
Cambridge, where I got my PhD. I had a post-doctoral position back at Harvard, then I got my first real job at UCLA – I’ve been here ever since. Who was or still is your mentor? New Guinea birds: they have taught me what I know about evolution. New Guinea people. Alan Hodgkin, my thesis supervisor, who won a Nobel Prize. Richard Keynes, another great British scientist. And Ernst Mayr, the great evolutionary biologist. Ernst and I spent 30 years writing a book on New Guinea birds. How physically fit are you? I’m gratefully relieved that, at the age of 78, I’m still marching up and down mountains. Ambition or talent: which matters more to success? They’re both important. If lost everything: would get to know JS Bach cantatas
Happiest: in New Guinea Have you ever taken an IQ test? Yes, when I was 10. I scored high but not fabulously high. How politically committed are you? My political commitment is devoting my life to writing books to influence decision-making. Do you consider your carbon footprint? Not really. Do you have more than one home? I own only one house, in LA, where my wife and I live. Every year we go
to Montana, and I go to New Guinea. I don’t own property in those places but they are my spiritual homes. What would you like to own that you don’t currently possess? Nothing. What’s your biggest extravagance? A birdwatching telescope for $4,200. I expect to use it for another 20 years – so, in effect, it costs $210 a year. Since 1999, I’ve spent an hour a day reading Italian: an extravagance in the time I devote to it. In what place are you happiest? At home with my wife and children. And in New Guinea. And in Montana, because it’s so beautiful. What ambitions do you still have? To write one more book on the scale of Guns, Germs and Steel. What drives you on? Unanswered questions. Curiosity. What is the greatest achievement of your life so far? Contributing to the happiness of my family. My books and my exploration of New Guinea birds. What has been your greatest disappointment? I didn’t start to learn my first foreign language until I was 11 years old. Although I know lots of languages, I’m less fluent than many Europeans. And I tried to learn the viola; I spent a year practising every day but I was just too old. If your 20-year-old self could see you now, what would he think? He’d be astonished that life is wonderful at 78! If you lost everything tomorrow, what would you do? Get to know better the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, play the piano and birdwatch. Do you believe in assisted suicide? Yes. Do you believe in an afterlife? No. If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10, what would you score? Somewhere between 9 and 9.8. Interview Hester Lacey Jared Diamond delivers “Crisis! A New Theory of Crises, Personal, Political & Global”, a How To Academy lecture on July 7 at 6.45pm on the Emmanuel Centre SW1P 3DW
ft.com/magazine june 18/19 2016
MAJA DANIELS; DREAMSTIME; GETTY IMAGES
Scientist and author
