Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation

Scaling Character In The Age Of Scale

It’s one thing to scale a company.

It’s another thing to scale your character at the same time…
And in this AI world, it might be the most important conversation we’re not having?
We celebrate the rocketship… the valuations… the growth hacks.
We celebrate the leader who raises a round on Monday and doubles headcount by Friday.
But we whisper (if that) about what really cracks most organizations: when the humans at the center can’t keep pace with the thing they’ve built.

Scaling revenue is a process… scaling character is actual chaos.

Because growth isn’t just the sales that are coming in.
It’s more meetings where your words land harder than you intend.
It’s more employees watching every move for signs of fatigue, hypocrisy or control.
It’s much more feedback loops with some disguised as praise, some dressed up as insubordination.
It’s the widening gap between the leader you think you are… and the leader the company suddenly needs.

I’ve felt that lag myself.

The business evolves faster than the operating system inside me.
One moment you’re a scrappy individual contributor who thrives on hustle.
The next, your team needs someone patient enough to listen, generous enough to coach, calm enough to hold space when things catch fire.

And here’s the dirty little leadership secret few will speak of: most leaders don’t make that pivot fast enough… if ever.

That idea hit me hard when I was editing this week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel podcast with Margaret Andrews.
Her book, Manage Yourself To Lead Others, explores this gap between business growth and personal growth, and it stuck with me.

That lag (or lack) destroys more companies than competitors ever will.

We love to say leadership is lonely.
I don’t buy it anymore.
Leadership isn’t lonely… it’s disorienting.
It’s standing at the front of a room, realizing the company has scaled beyond the version of you running it.
And unless you can scale your character with the same discipline you scale your product, you’re leading with yesterday’s software.

And yesterday’s software crashes… always.

This isn’t therapy-speak.
It’s not about being “nice.”
It’s about survival… yours and the company’s.
They’re not just buying into your model.
They’re buying into your temperament.
And temperament doesn’t scale by accident.
It scales by choice… by design… by the willingness to stop chasing external growth long enough to ask: What kind of leader is this company asking me to become?

Businesses don’t fail because the market shifts… businesses fail because the leader refuses to shift.

So maybe the more honest question isn’t “How fast can we grow?”
It’s “How fast can I grow into the person this growth requires?”
If you’re not scaling your character, your company is just running away from you.

Are you growing your character as fast as you’re growing your company?

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

What Can Stop The Brain Rot?

Let’s not bury the lede… it’s reading books.

We don’t talk enough about what books do to the brain.
Not what they contain… not the story… not the author.
The act of reading itself.
Because reading is not natural.
Speaking is… breathing is.

Reading? That’s an acquired skill.

One that rewires the brain.
According to the experts, it coordinates visual processing, language comprehension, memory and imagination… all firing in milliseconds.
And those circuits are fragile.
They only grow stronger through practice.
Through focus… Through repetition.
Through sitting still long enough to let the words do their work.

That’s why leaders like you should be obsessed with books.

Not business books… not the latest bestseller…
Any book.
Because when you read a book, you’re training the one skill that distraction culture is trying hardest to kill.

Attention.

And attention is leadership.
Think about it… in meetings, what people crave isn’t more slides.
It’s your presence… your focus.
Your ability to sit with a problem longer than the others.
You ability to stay focused in that moment (especially when most of those moments are still happening online in tiny squares).

But here’s the hard truth…

Technology isn’t just stealing time.
It’s competing with the very circuits that reading builds.
This isn’t the television of our childhoods.
It isn’t even the video games some of us grew up with.
Those demanded sustained attention.
Hours of immersion.
But there was no tracking… no ads slipped between levels.
No other apps or social media gaming our brains.

Today’s games and apps are different.

Engineered by design.
Built around persuasive loops.
Every ping another crack in the scaffolding of your focus.
So when you scroll, you’re not just passing time.
You’re retraining your brain.
You’re practicing distraction.
You’re rehearsing fragmentation.

And our kids are watching.

They don’t see what’s on your screen.
They just see you buried in one.
They just do what kids do: model themselves after the adults.
If all they see is scrolling, that’s the habit they’ll learn.
If they see a book, a pause, a moment of stillness… they’ll learn something else (whether they know it or not).

That’s the secondary story here.

When you pick up a book, you’re not only raising yourself as a reader… you’re raising them too.
Warsaw gets it.
They built a library inside a metro station.
Fresh herbs growing in the walls… coffee.
Sixteen thousand books to borrow as you wait for a train.
Another signal that books belong in daily life.

Signals matter.

Because the question isn’t whether books will survive… they will.
The question is whether we will survive without them.

What happens when leaders stop building those circuits?

When they can’t hold a thought long enough to see it through?
When strategy becomes another dopamine loop… reacting instead of reflecting?

AI could make this worse.

Not just because it can write books too.
But because it will feed us ideas pre-chewed… an illusion of knowledge without the discipline of attention.
Leaders who stop reading will think they’re still learning.
But they’ll just be skimming.
Floating on the surface.
Never building the deep circuits that thinking requires.

And that’s the biggest provocation here.

Books aren’t just for entertainment.
They’re not even just for knowledge.
They’re training for focus.
For leadership… for being present in a world designed to scatter us.
A world that is being designed to give us everything we need in that tiny, glowing rectangle that we carry with us everywhere.

So yes… read for your kids.

Model it.
Let them see you with a book instead of a phone (and, sure an e-reader does the trick as well).
But more importantly… read for yourself.
Because the future will not belong to those who know the most.
It will belong to those who can sit still long enough to think.

Or think about it this way… if you can’t hold your attention on a book… why should anyone bother holding their attention on you?

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM.

Mitch Joel · What Can Stop The Brain Rot? – The Elias Makos Show – CJAD 800

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Manage Yourself To Lead Others With Margaret Andrews – This Week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel Conversation

Episode #1003 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast) is now live and ready for you to listen to:

When you look closely at leadership, it often seems like a conversation about others… how to motivate, how to manage, how to inspire. But what if the real work starts somewhere far more intimate… with yourself? Margaret Andrews, a distinguished educator, consultant and leadership expert, has spent years making the case that true leadership begins with self-awareness. It’s the quiet realization that the patterns of your past, your assumptions and your worldview don’t just shape who you are… they shape how you lead. Margaret’s career has taken her from executive roles at institutions like MIT and Harvard to the classroom, where her popular course Managing Yourself And Leading Others has drawn thousands of leaders seeking to better understand their own strengths and blind spots. This journey culminated in her new book, Manage Yourself To Lead Others – Why Great Leadership Begins With Self-Understanding, which distills years of teaching and research into practical frameworks for leaders who want to navigate complexity without losing sight of their humanity. In this conversation, Margaret pushes us to rethink the building blocks of effective leadership: feedback as a gift (even when it stings), authenticity as resilience and adaptability as a modern necessity in a world where AI and technology are rewriting the rules of management. We also explore how success is deeply personal (not a one-size-fits-all construct handed down by society) and something each leader must define for themselves. Margaret’s perspective resonates because it is both pragmatic and deeply human. She doesn’t shy away from the messy truth that leadership is often uncomfortable, but she also insists that discomfort is where growth lives. By weaving together scholarship, personal experience and insights from her work with executives around the globe, Margaret makes a compelling case for leadership as an ongoing journey of self-discovery. For anyone looking to evolve not just as a professional but as a whole person navigating a rapidly changing world, her work is a beacon. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Thinking With Mitch Joel here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): #1003 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast).

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Manage Yourself To Lead Others With Margaret Andrews – TWMJ #1003

Welcome to episode #1003 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

When you look closely at leadership, it often seems like a conversation about others… how to motivate, how to manage, how to inspire. But what if the real work starts somewhere far more intimate… with yourself? Margaret Andrews, a distinguished educator, consultant and leadership expert, has spent years making the case that true leadership begins with self-awareness. It’s the quiet realization that the patterns of your past, your assumptions and your worldview don’t just shape who you are… they shape how you lead. Margaret’s career has taken her from executive roles at institutions like MIT and Harvard to the classroom, where her popular course Managing Yourself And Leading Others has drawn thousands of leaders seeking to better understand their own strengths and blind spots. This journey culminated in her new book, Manage Yourself To Lead Others – Why Great Leadership Begins With Self-Understanding, which distills years of teaching and research into practical frameworks for leaders who want to navigate complexity without losing sight of their humanity. In this conversation, Margaret pushes us to rethink the building blocks of effective leadership: feedback as a gift (even when it stings), authenticity as resilience and adaptability as a modern necessity in a world where AI and technology are rewriting the rules of management. We also explore how success is deeply personal (not a one-size-fits-all construct handed down by society) and something each leader must define for themselves. Margaret’s perspective resonates because it is both pragmatic and deeply human. She doesn’t shy away from the messy truth that leadership is often uncomfortable, but she also insists that discomfort is where growth lives. By weaving together scholarship, personal experience and insights from her work with executives around the globe, Margaret makes a compelling case for leadership as an ongoing journey of self-discovery. For anyone looking to evolve not just as a professional but as a whole person navigating a rapidly changing world, her work is a beacon. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 1:03:08.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Thinking With Mitch Joel.Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.Check out ThinkersOne.Here is my conversation with Margaret Andrews,.Manage Yourself To Lead Others – Why Great Leadership Begins With Self-Understanding.Her course: Managing Yourself And Leading Others.Follow Margaret on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Introduction to Leadership and Self-Management.
(05:55) – The Role of Feedback in Leadership.
(12:01) – The Impact of AI on Interpersonal Communication.
(17:55) – The Challenges of Self-Selection in Careers.
(23:54) – The Evolution of Job Tenure and Leadership Dynamics.
(32:35) – Navigating Leadership Challenges in a Public World.
(39:51) – Understanding Leadership Styles and Personal Evolution.
(45:26) – The Changing Perception of Leadership in Society.
(53:13) – Balancing Fast-Moving Environments with Reflective Practices.
(01:02:23) – Parenting Lessons Applied to Leadership.

Download the Podcast here: #1003 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

Before you go… ThinkersOne gives you direct access to the experts shaping tomorrow’s conversations. Get their insights on leadership, AI, culture and innovation all delivered to your team before the rest of the world catches on. Ideal for your meetings, off-sites, and lunch & learns.

Six Links That Make You Think #798

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

AI Will Not Make You Rich – Jerry Neumann – Colossus. “AI is definitely an innovation. But is it more like the microchip (which created thousands of very rich people) or the shipping container (an innovation that had an incredible impact on productivity, but whose gains were distributed widely, rather than concentrated?) Jerry Neumann argues the latter, in a great piece that frames both historically. Ironically, the obvious value of AI means there’s less time to ‘corner the market’, similar to containers. It was the obscurity of the microprocessor – long the stuff of homebrewers and geeks – which gave an industry time to form and build moats. ‘For decades, the way to make money was to bet on what the new thing was. Now, you have to bet on the opportunities it opens up.’ Of course, AI companies have the benefit of hindsight when thinking about the openness and distribution of their technologies, but will they use it?” (Alistair for Hugh). The Militia And The Mole – Joshua Kaplan – ProPublica . “This reads like a true crime documentary, and offers a fascinating look into the militias South of the Border. In an era of gun violence and calls for protesters to be labelled terrorists, it’s a sobering read, and frankly, astonishing that the mole got their story out.” (Alistair for Mitch). Hope External: Phil Christman’s Prophetic Ambivalence – Todd Shy – Pittsburgh Review Of Books . “I am a long-lapsed Catholic agnostic/atheist. But, I cannot help but wonder if the moral/philosophical rot we seek overtaking our society is not somehow related to the disappearance of organized religion from daily life. What’s amazing in this time is the quasi-religions that have supplanted the old ones, whether MAGA or wokism, or climate apocalysm. I just hope Peter Thiel doesn’t get anointed pope of the world.” (Hugh for Alistair). With The Em Dash, A.I. Embraces A Fading Tradition – Nitsuh Abebe – The New York Times . “I cannot tell you how outraged I am about the anti-em dash ignoramuses out there. ChatGPT knows how to use one of our greatest punctuation marks. The fact that most people couldn’t tell you the difference between a hyphen, en dash and em dash is their fault not GPTs. It’s possible I will only link to em dash controversy articles from now on.” (Hugh for Mitch). Inside A Real Genius Club: The Santa Fe Institute – Big Think – YouTube . “A fascinating documentary about an institute I had only heard about tangentially. This is where smart people go to do smart work with other smart people working on different types of projects. I’ll take a guess and figure that places like this exist everywhere? Maybe not (bu tthey should). Spaces like this are so inspiring. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this documentary before (ht to Sentiers for this one), but what a beautiful look at people really digging deep and spending time thinking about big problems (and solving them). As a sidebar: It’s amazing how much envy one can have about a world that is both connected, where people spend their time not worrying much about being that connected… or (said another way) the good stuff ain’t happening on their phones…” (Mitch for Alistair). Why 95% Of AI Commentary Fails – Jon Evans – Gradient Ascendant . “I’ve been a long subscriber to Jon Evans’ thinking (we actually hung out a couple of times decades ago when his sister and I circuled the same orbit), and I’ve loved his writing and thinking ever since. There is a now-famous MIT paper circulating that 95% of AI projects fail. When you actually dig into this and spend some time looking beyond the headlines, you start getting to the same place that this commentary gets to. Which is that the headline isn’t reality. In fact, as this article points out, AI usage is actually everywhere in enterprises and a lot of it is still growing and adding value. So… whether this is a bubble or not… dig in beyond headlines… lots if insights here.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Dynamic Pricing Is Dynamically Breaking Us

Remember when prices were… the price?

A ticket cost $40.
A carton of milk was $2.49.
A hardcover book was $19.95… printed right there on the cover.

Those days may be ending… or already have (and, wow, I’m really dating myself here).

Dynamic pricing isn’t new.
Airlines and hotels have used it for decades, but it’s seeping into everything.
It’s a topic I covered back in 2012: The Frightening Ramifications Of High-Frequency Pricing.
Concert tickets, baseball games, parking spots, ride sharing apps, even some grocery chains are experimenting with it.
Airlines are experimenting with charging more if you’re a solo traveller.

The idea is simple: the price floats.

It reacts to demand in real time.
High demand pushes prices up… low demand pulls them down.
Location, weather, even device type can nudge it further.
To an economist, it looks efficient.
To a consumer, it feels like quicksand… anxious uncertainty.

Because here’s what dynamic pricing really does: it erodes trust, comfort and care.

When a carton of milk can be $4.19 at noon and $6.59 at 6 p.m., who feels safe?
And why would anyone then be loyal to any brand?
When the ticket you hesitated to buy yesterday is double the cost today, you feel punished.
When the same concert seat is priced differently depending on whether you’re on your laptop or phone, you feel scammed.

Dynamic pricing doesn’t just move numbers… it shifts culture.

It turns shopping into gambling.
It makes everyday life feel like a stock exchange.
It teaches us that waiting, hesitating or simply logging in at the wrong time means losing.

That does something to us psychologically.

It makes us anxious.
It makes us competitive.
It makes us resentful… of platforms, of companies… even of each other.

Yes, there are benefits.

Dynamic pricing can keep events full.
It can reward flexibility.
It can smooth out supply and demand in crowded markets.
It can ensure that the company is getting paid the actual market value.

But what it can’t do is build loyalty… build a true brand.

If everything feels like surge pricing, then everything feels like exploitation.
Dynamic pricing points to a world where the price tag itself disappears.
Where every purchase is a negotiation with an invisible algorithm.
Where consumers no longer have a sense of value… just a sense of volatility.

That’s the real story here.

It’s not just about scalpers or Ticketmaster or basketball games.
It’s about whether society is ready (or wants) to live in a perpetual auction house.
Because if every moment is “pay what the market will bear,” then maybe the market bears more than just the price.
Maybe it bears the weight of our patience, our sanity and our trust.
Imagine your parking app quietly charges extra because there’s a concert nearby.

Now add AI into the mix.

Suddenly, it knows exactly how much you make… how you spend… what you can’t resist.
Prices tuned not just to demand, but to your psychology.
The final evolution of dynamic pricing might not be supply vs. demand… it might be you vs. the machine.
And maybe the only way to win… is to let someone else shop for you.
A human VPN for your wallet.

So the question isn’t whether dynamic pricing works… it’s whether we want to live in a world where it works everywhere.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM.

Mitch Joel · Dynamic Pricing Is Dynamically Breaking Us – The Elias Makos Show – CJAD 800

I also discussed this topic on CTV National News…

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Vibe Coding And The Illusion Of Magic

We used to think of coding as learning a new language… a complicated and ever-evolving language.

Precise rules, arcane commands and strings of logic that only a select few could master.
Now? It’s starting to feel more like conversation.
You describe what you want… the machine builds it.
No semicolons… no stack overflow forums… Just “vibes.”

That accessibility is intoxicating.

It feels like magic… and that’s the danger.
When things feel effortless, we either stop asking if they’re trustworthy or don’t know… because we don’t even know what it’s doing.
Anyone with an idea can now prototype software.
Anyone with a dream can get the code and publish it into reality.
It’s not perfect… but it can get you “there.”

The barrier between “thinker” and “builder” is eroding.

But here’s the other reality…
Vibe coding gives us speed, but it can also make us careless.
We start to trust the shimmer of possibility without asking…
Is it reliable?
Is it secure?
Is it right?

I catch myself in this space often.

I’ll test-drive many of these Generative AI chatbots, describe a workflow and marvel when the machine spits out something functional.
And my instinct is to smile… to share it… to move fast.
But when I pause, I realize how little I actually understand about why it works, or what risks might be lurking behind the polished result.

That pause… the reflection between the output and my decision about what to do with it… is where the expertise of human work lives.

It’s not about rejecting the vibe.
It’s about interrogating it.
It’s about knowing what I am interrogating… and what I should be looking for.
I will know if it solves the right problem.
I will know if it aligns with my values.
I will know if it might hold up when the novelty wears off.

But I don’t really how it got to where we are… or what it might be missing.

This is the new fork in the road for leaders, creators and technologists.
Do we treat AI like a spellbook or like a workshop?
Do we get drunk on accessibility or double down on accountability?

Maybe the future isn’t about coding as craft or coding as conversation… but about learning to hold both at once.

To use the vibes for creativity… and the rigor for reality?
Because if everyone can now conjure an app, the differentiation won’t be in who builds fastest.
It will be in who builds with judgment and skill.
Who slows down enough to test the edges, anticipate the failure points and make sure the bridge doesn’t collapse when more people walk across it.

This is what I took away from my conversation with Sam Arbesman this week on Thinking With Mitch Joel.

Sam’s new book, The Magic Of Code – How Digital Language Created And Connects Our World And Shapes Our Future is.. well… magic.
Lowering the barrier to entry for coding doesn’t remove the responsibility to ensure the foundation holds.
It also doesn’t make anyone an expert in programming… but it does get us much closer to understanding what is happening.

Because when everyone can summon software by “vibes,” the real question isn’t what we can build… it’s what we’ll be willing to trust enough to stand on.

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

From Magic To Machines… The Wonder (And Worry) Of Code With Sam Arbesman – This Week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel Conversation

Episode #1002 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast) is now live and ready for you to listen to:

What if code isn’t just software, but the culture script of our age shaping what we notice, how we decide and who holds power? That’s the provocation at the heart of Sam Arbesman’s new book, The Magic Of Code – How Digital Language Created And Connects Our World – And Shapes Our Future, which he uses to reveal how programming moves from the screen into the fabric of everyday life. Sam is Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital and a visiting scholar at Harvard. He connects emerging technologies with human systems and helps founders, leaders and the rest of us make sense of complexity. He is also the author of two other influential books (The Half-Life of Facts and Overcomplicated). In this episode, we get a plain-English tour of why coding now functions as cultural literacy, why “vibe coding” and natural-language tools lower barriers without removing responsibility, and how to think clearly about the trade-offs when AI accelerates creation but also amplifies hidden assumptions. Sam breaks down how to treat algorithms less like oracles and more like instruments, demystifying engagement mechanics on social platforms, highlighting the shrinking shelf life of facts and offering ways to keep agency when tools get smarter and more opaque. These are practical frames for navigating complex systems (and their failure modes), along with a humane case for humility in product and policy and a reminder that the goal isn’t more tech for its own sake, but better versions of ourselves using it. If you care about where code, culture and creativity meet… and how to keep your bearings as the ground shifts… this one delivers both the big picture and next steps for smarter, more intentional use of the tools we’re all inheriting. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Thinking With Mitch Joel here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): #1002 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast).

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

From Magic To Machines… The Wonder (And Worry) Of Code With Sam Arbesman – TWMJ #1002

Welcome to episode #1002 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

What if code isn’t just software, but the culture script of our age shaping what we notice, how we decide and who holds power? That’s the provocation at the heart of Sam Arbesman’s new book, The Magic Of Code – How Digital Language Created And Connects Our World – And Shapes Our Future, which he uses to reveal how programming moves from the screen into the fabric of everyday life. Sam is Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital and a visiting scholar at Harvard. He connects emerging technologies with human systems and helps founders, leaders and the rest of us make sense of complexity. He is also the author of two other influential books (The Half-Life of Facts and Overcomplicated). In this episode, we get a plain-English tour of why coding now functions as cultural literacy, why “vibe coding” and natural-language tools lower barriers without removing responsibility, and how to think clearly about the trade-offs when AI accelerates creation but also amplifies hidden assumptions. Sam breaks down how to treat algorithms less like oracles and more like instruments, demystifying engagement mechanics on social platforms, highlighting the shrinking shelf life of facts and offering ways to keep agency when tools get smarter and more opaque. These are practical frames for navigating complex systems (and their failure modes), along with a humane case for humility in product and policy and a reminder that the goal isn’t more tech for its own sake, but better versions of ourselves using it. If you care about where code, culture and creativity meet… and how to keep your bearings as the ground shifts… this one delivers both the big picture and next steps for smarter, more intentional use of the tools we’re all inheriting. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 56:47.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Thinking With Mitch Joel.Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.Check out ThinkersOne.Here is my conversation with Sam Arbesman.The Magic Of Code – How Digital Language Created And Connects Our World – And Shapes Our Future.The Half-Life of Facts.Overcomplicated.Lux Capital.Sign up for Sam’s newsletter.Follow Sam on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Exploring the Role of a Scientist in Residence.
(03:08) – The Evolution of Knowledge and Information.
(05:50) – The Importance of Coding in Modern Society.
(08:54) – Demystifying Coding and Access to Technology.
(12:11) – Cultural Shifts in Technology Perception.
(15:08) – Understanding the Complexity of Code.
(17:58) – Code as the Grammar of Modern Civilization.
(20:48) – The Impact of Code on Society.
(24:08) – The Future of AI and Coding.
(32:58) – The Evolution of Programming.
(36:14) – Vibe Coding: The Future of Software Development.
(39:44) – Democratizing Software: Customization for Everyone.
(43:09) – The Complexity of Technology and Trust.
(48:28) – Understanding Complex Systems.
(51:58) – Human Limitations in Technology.
(54:09) – The Role of Technology in Shaping Humanity.

Download the Podcast here: #1002 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

Before you go… ThinkersOne gives you direct access to the experts shaping tomorrow’s conversations. Get their insights on leadership, AI, culture and innovation all delivered to your team before the rest of the world catches on. Ideal for your meetings, off-sites, and lunch & learns.

Six Links That Make You Think #797

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

Too Long; Didn’t Read – BBC Friday Night Comedy. “Part of my Saturday ritual is listening to BBC panel shows. Here’s one featuring comedian Olga Koch, who I didn’t know also has a PhD in human-computer interaction. Amidst the comedy, it’s also a genius observation of many profound truths about AI. Start at 5:30.” (Alistair for Hugh.) How To Make Doing Hard Things Easier Than Scrolling YouTube – Newel Of Knowledge – YouTube . “This should be mandatory in schools, and maybe for all of us. Best explanation of how to break the cycle I’ve seen.” (Alistair for Mitch).The Rise Of ‘Conspiracy Physics’ – Dan Kagan-Kans – The Wall Street Journal. “I wonder what will be left of Western society in 20 or 30 years?” (Hugh for Alistair). The Disorder Of Things: Politics And The Printing Press In The Early Reformation (1517-1526) – The Driftless Area Review . “I’m not sure if it makes things easier or harder to deal with, knowing that we’ve see all this before? If only there was a ‘History for Dummies Handbook: How to Stop Societal Collapse’.” (Hugh for Mitch).   One Of The Scariest Hackers I’ve Ever Met – Pablos Holman – Tim Ferris – YouTube . “I had never heard of Pablos Holman until he walked out on to the stage at Startup Festival a few years back and… well… he blew me away. I can’t say that I agreed with everything that he said (onstage and off), but I know one thing for certain: If Alistair is choosing someone to speak on that stage (and I had never heard of them), they are someone to pay attention to and follow. What followed his presentation was more than a handful of conversations backstage and in the hallways… and… I was just super-blown away by his work expereince and how he thinks (and he does think deeply) about how technology can help us and save us. I was thrilled to see that he sat down with Tim Ferriss for two plus hour to dig into his thinking and perspectives… on everything from how to think like a hacker and nuclear power to AI and how we can make better progress in our world. Well worth the time spent…” (Mitch for Alistair). Lilith Fair: The Story Behind The Iconic ’90S Music Festival – CBC Docs – YouTube . “I had not thought about Lilith Fair is quite some time. I was lucky enough to see this mega-tour of all-female artists several times over the few years it ran… and in looking back at the line-up and the culture of the time, I feel so lucky to have been an active music journalist when all of this was happening. Many of the artists were people I knew, many of them were rockstars that I was covering. This incredible (and new) documentary (free for all to watch) really captures a moment time that I both lived and worked through. I had a little bit of a bird’s eye view because Buffy Childerhose came up with the name of the festival and we were both working for the Montreal alternative weekly at the time (Hour) and I was also doing quite a bit of work covering other Nettwerk musicians (the company that managed Sarah McLachlan)… It’s all werid because it feels like yesterday and while it was happening it didn’t feel like culture was changing… getting old is weird…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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