Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 133

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #498

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 (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, 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: 

I Walked 600 Miles Across Japan for Pizza Toast – Eater . “Via Tim O’Reilly, this is a wonderful piece about the most pedestrian of foods: Pizza Toast. The product of a strange convergence of world events and economics, this culinary curiosity flourished, and is vanishing, as demographics change. I’ve only ever visited Tokyo proper, and this makes me regret not having adventured outside its confines.” (Alistair for Hugh).
La Maupin – The Extraordinary Life of Julie D’Aubigny – Story of a City . “Damned if this isn’t a heroine for our times. Also, astonished that Prime and Netflix aren’t battling for the rights. Next time someone tells you to play by the rules, tell them about La Maupin.” (Alistair for Mitch). 
Science Fiction’s Wonderful Mistakes – The New Republic . “Science fiction is mostly very wrong.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Is There A Crisis of Truth? Los Angeles Review of Books . “Once upon a naive time I thought that giving more people more access to more knowledge would be an unqualified good thing. But across the board — from morality to politics to science — more truth doesn’t seem to result in more agreement.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Old Musicians Never Die. They Just Become Holograms – The New York Times . “Imagine going to see The Beatles playing in a small Hamburg club. Imagine seeing Elvis Presley is his prime (shaking those hips). Imagine going to see a live band, full (and modern) lighting, and the lead performer is a hologram version of Frank Zappa. Some of that could happen. Some of that is happening (the Zappa example). The question is not would pay to see a hologram of a famous live band/artist (at least, I don’t think it is). The questions might be: would it feel like the real thing… would it feel like you were seeing that artist ‘live’? Hologram tours are already out on the road, and (based on this article) we can expect many more of them. I’m torn. The truth is that a lot of the bands that we currently go and see live are faking it (backing tracks, lip-synching, added instruments, etc…) so who’s fooling who and does anybody really care? Am I interested in seeing a band like Led Zeppelin looking and playing like they were rocking in the seventies? Sure… yes… I would.” (Mitch for Alistair).
Chuck Palahniuk on His Childhood Love of Ellery Queen and Writing in a Good Mood – Lit Hub . “While this is a quick (and great) chat with one of the world’s most interesting writers, it’s actually relevant to anyone searching for ways to think creativity (and, who among us is not doing that)? Chuck Palahniuk is a brilliant mind. I can’t wait to dig into his latest book, Consider This. And, after checking out this quick interview, my guess is that you will want to read his new book as well.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

The Self Reliant Entrepreneur With John Jantsch – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #704 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

When it comes to small businesses thinking big, I always think of John Jantsch. John is a marketing consultant, speaker and best selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, The Referral Engine, and SEO for Growth. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world.​ Most recently, my old friend published a really interesting book called, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur – 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business. The book is organized as a daily devotional with 366 entries, one for each day of the year, including Leap Year. Each day starts with a reading from a transcendentalist era author, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Willa Cather, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau, followed by a reflection and application by the author for today’s entrepreneur. It’s a real pleasure of a book to dig into, and the perfect book to launch this new year of the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast. Welcome to 2020. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #704.

SPOS #704 – The Self Reliant Entrepreneur With John Jantsch

Welcome to episode #704 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #704 – Host: Mitch Joel. When it comes to small businesses thinking big, I always think of John Jantsch. John is a marketing consultant, speaker and best selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, The Referral Engine, and SEO for Growth. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world.​ Most recently, my old friend published a really interesting book called, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur – 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business. The book is organized as a daily devotional with 366 entries, one for each day of the year, including Leap Year. Each day starts with a reading from a transcendentalist era author, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Willa Cather, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau, followed by a reflection and application by the author for today’s entrepreneur. It’s a real pleasure of a book to dig into, and the perfect book to launch this new year of the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast. Welcome to 2020. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 57:22.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
…or on Twitter.
Here is my conversation with John Jantsch.
The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur – 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business.
Duct Tape Marketing.
Duct Tape Selling.
The Commitment Engine.
The Referral Engine.
SEO for Growth.
Duct Tape Marketing System.
Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network.
Follow John on Instagram.
Follow John on Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #704 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #497

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 (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, 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: 

2019 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary – Supreme Court . “I’ve carefully avoided politics in these links, despite an abundance of things to share. But this is nonpartisan, in the most important of ways. It’s the year-end letter from the US Chief Justice, in which he warns the judiciary to hold true to nonpartisan decisions—a particularly crucial message in a time when much of the judiciary is accused of political affiliation. Again, get ready for an interesting year.” (Alistair for Hugh).
I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married – MIT Technology Review . “I got an Oculus Quest for Christmas. It’s qualitatively different from its predecessors. It just works, out of the box, and even a neophyte can use it competently in around five minutes. And the more we have immersive interfaces, the more people will want to live in them. Here’s another piece of fiction that sounds all too real. 2020’s going to be an interesting year for humans.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Meaning and Mayhem – The New York Review of Books . “The symbolism of the Calabrian mafia.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Adele Carpool Karaoke – The Late Late Show with James Corden . “James Corden hosts The Late Late Show. He loves singing, as evidenced in his Carpool Karaoke segments, in which James is joined in a car by a celebrity, usually a singer, and they sing together. Here he is with Adele.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Welcome to the Era of the Post-Shopping Mall – The New York Times . “I’ve spent the holidays down in South Florida. If retail is struggling, clearly, nobody told the people and tourists down here. It often takes 45 minutes to leave the shopping mall’s parking lot… and every store (from mall to strip mall to big box stores) seem popping with excitement and commerce… I’ve seen some shops not manage to understand e-commerce and omnichannel, but if this is the post-shopping mall era, somebody should tell the thousands of people who keep cramming into these many shopping malls.” (Mitch for Alistair).
The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade – Literary Hub . “You will be hard pressed to find a bigger non-fiction book nerd than me (especially business books). There has been way too many ‘best of’ lists when it comes to books lately. Still… it’s this kind of linkbait that I can’t resist. So I click. Most times, I like to self-gloat about how many books I’ve hoovered over time. Then, a list like this comes along. I see the title, my chest puffs up, my shoulders shift in self-pride. I just know that I’ll be perusing the list, self-patting myself on the back over how many of the titles I’ve read. Well… I’m a big enough man to admit it when I’m wrong. Dead wrong. After looking through this list, I have a lot of reading to do. Some good reading.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Basil Fearrington On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

Basil Fearrington is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #61 – Basil Fearrington.

Groove – Episode #61: Basil Fearrington by No Treble

Who is Basil Fearrington ?

The city of Philadelphia has produced some of the world’s most prolific bass players. Basil Fearrington is one of the many, but he sits at the top of the list. From funk and soul to R&B and pop music, the bassist, producer and composer has many hit records under his belt, working with artists like Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige and countless others (like George Benson, Jean Luc Ponty… do you want me to keep going?). With mentors like Anthony Jackson and Alphonso Johnson, Basil is a treasure trove of bass player stories and music through the decades. The output of which you can hear on albums like Kameerijano (and countless others). It’s 2020. Happy New Year… and here’s to another year of great conversations with great bass players. Enjoy the conversation…

Listen in:  Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #61 – Basil Fearrington.

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

My 3 Words For 2020

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2020. 2020? That blows my mind. Science fiction is now the present.

It’s day one of the new year. Have you set up your resolutions? Have you got your goals in place? Maybe you’ve even created a moodboard for your office to visualize, or you blocked off some time every day on your calendar to meditate, maybe you’re doing a Bullet Journal or working in Evernote to keep track of life? I did what I normally do: I put a little bit of time aside to choose my three words that will define my 2020.

Only three words?

Every year, Chris Brogan does an exercise he calls, My 3 Words For The Year. Chris explains it like this:

“In an effort to tell bigger stories, I’ve found that the concept of three words allows me to think in more dimensions about what I want to do with my life and it lets me apply lots of tangible goals instead of what most people do when they focus on just a finite task. It’s a bit like turbo-charged goal planning.”

Going public (again).

I’ve been doing this exercise ever since Chris first introduced it (I think it was back in 2006?). Each year, around December – without prompting – I find myself starting to think about my three words. The personal pressure is on. It’s a good pressure, but it’s pressure. All of us hope to do more, be more and achieve more. Nailing it down to three words is always a welcome challenge. Over the years, I have made only a few of these public. This year, I have decided to put it out there in the hopes that you will be encouraged to take this exercise on, and share it with the world as well. So, here’s goes everything…

My 3 Words For 2020:

Write. Words matter. I need, want and will write more this year. While audio was my one of My 3 Words for 2019 (and creating audio is still a massively important part of the content that I love to create)… writing is still my core. I’ve been blessed to build a very powerful (and private) Facebook Group for business and non-fiction authors, but I have not put in the same amount of time that I have in the past toiling over the words. That changes. Now… and forever.

Have. I have enough. I have more than enough. I have more than most. I am not bragging. Still, I am human. I still compare and try to figure out why (and how) others have more. Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram or in real life, I find myself trying to figure out how to achieve more. Is that the goal? Is that the metric? Especially when I have more than enough? Especially when I have accomplished so much? Success, wealth and happiness are funny words. They are deeply personal. They are deeply defined by our insecurities. Enough because I have enough… maybe even too much… of the good stuff. And, no, this is not about money and wealth… that’s only a fraction of the equation.

Personal. Private is personal. Public is personable. This has always been my approach to creating content for social media (good or bad). I try to be very personable on social media, but keep my life as private as possible (for a myriad of reasons, but look no further than how our data has been snatched over the past decade). But bigger than that, I’ve noticed how people have let narcissism and showing off fall under the context of “personal branding”. It’s not. Here’s what I posted recently on Facebook: It’s not marketing if all you do is try to demonstrate to the world how great you are. It’s not even personal branding. It’s just showing off (and inflating your own tires/puffing your chest). Marketing (and personal branding) is providing value to clients (and potential customers), and the creation/curation of content based on your domain of authority. Or: “how can I make this post/article/picture/podcast help you be better, based on the content and experience that I have?” Look, I get it, Facebook (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc…) are all places where we show the world the person that we want the world to know us as. It’s almost too easy. But, all of those posts – where people are quoting themselves with shots of them on a plane, in a hotel, at the gym, as a reflection in the mirror, bragging about some speaking event that they are ‘ eynoting’ – is not marketing. It’s not even personal branding. It’s just showing off… and it doesn’t make you an expert (or have a domain of authority) in anything but vanity and narcissism. Look, I’ve been guilty of doing a lot of the above in the past (the recent past). I’ve been changing (and thinking about it a lot), because I realize that bragging is not marketing or personal branding. I’m going to try to do a lot less showing off and much more showing up with value.

What three words will define your 2020?

Brett Hurt On Entrepreneurship And Starting Up – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #703 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

He’s an old friend and someone who has experienced a tremendous amount of success in the technology and startup world. While many know his name… most do not. Let’s change that. Brett Hurt is the CEO and co-founder of data.world (of which I am an advisor), a Public Benefit Corporation focused on building the modern catalog for data and analysis as well as the world’s largest collaborative public data catalog. data.world helps you tap into more of your company’s collective brainpower—everyone from data scientists to nontechnical experts—so you can achieve anything with data, faster. Brett is also the co-owner of Hurt Family Investments (HFI), alongside his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 72 startups and counting, mostly based in Austin. HFI are also invested in 21 VC funds and multiple philanthropic endeavors. Brett founded and led Bazaarvoice as CEO from 2005-2012, through its IPO (it hit over one billion dollars), follow-on offering, and two acquisitions (PowerReviews and Longboard Media). Prior to Bazaarvoice, Brett founded and led Coremetrics, which was rated the #1 Web analytics solution by Forrester Research and, like Bazaarvoice, expanded into a global company and category leader. Coremetrics was acquired by IBM in 2010 for around $300m. A three time winner in the startup and entrepreneurship world, Brett is also the author of the freely available, The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #703.

SPOS #703 – Brett Hurt On Entrepreneurship And Starting Up

Welcome to episode #703 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #703 – Host: Mitch Joel. He’s an old friend and someone who has experienced a tremendous amount of success in the technology and startup world. While many know his name… most do not. Let’s change that. Brett Hurt is the CEO and co-founder of data.world (of which I am an advisor), a Public Benefit Corporation focused on building the modern catalog for data and analysis as well as the world’s largest collaborative public data catalog. data.world helps you tap into more of your company’s collective brainpower—everyone from data scientists to nontechnical experts—so you can achieve anything with data, faster. Brett is also the co-owner of Hurt Family Investments (HFI), alongside his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 72 startups and counting, mostly based in Austin. HFI are also invested in 21 VC funds and multiple philanthropic endeavors. Brett founded and led Bazaarvoice as CEO from 2005-2012, through its IPO (it hit over one billion dollars), follow-on offering, and two acquisitions (PowerReviews and Longboard Media). Prior to Bazaarvoice, Brett founded and led Coremetrics, which was rated the #1 Web analytics solution by Forrester Research and, like Bazaarvoice, expanded into a global company and category leader. Coremetrics was acquired by IBM in 2010 for around $300m. A three time winner in the startup and entrepreneurship world, Brett is also the author of the freely available, The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 1:05:14.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
…or on Twitter.
Here is my conversation with Brett Hurt.
The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.
data.world.
Hurt Family Investments.
Follow Brett on Instagram.
Follow Brett of Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #703 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #496

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 (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, 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: 

Here’s Yoda singing about his big boy stick, courtesy of Bad Lip Reading – Mashable . “It’s the holidays, so I’m not going to get too serious on you. And Baby Yoda is a thing now. Huge kudos to Jon Favreau for convincing Disney to forego what must have been millions in merchandising potential this Christmas to avoid a giant spoiler, and not festooning retail stores with Baby Yoda dolls. But now, it’s time for a Bad Lip Reading.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Romance Novels, Generated by Artificial Intelligence – Towards Data Science – Medium . “There’s lots about the romance novel industry that’s artificial. And they’re fairly formulaic. So, it only makes sense to feed them into an algorithm, and see what that the formula generates. I’ve shared a couple of examples of this recently (I was going to share AI Dungeon, a text-based adventure game that’s remarkably close to ‘playable’, but the incredible demand has made its servers pretty hungry, and it isn’t as reliable as I’d like. Benedict Evans says that many technologies start out as toys, and are discounted as a result. What’s interesting about AI (at this stage) is the mirror it shines on ourselves—training the model on the data shows us, for example, that romance novels love the ocean and high-paying professional jobs (in fact, Surgery by the Sea, one of the AI-generated titles, turns out to be a real book!).” (Alistair for Mitch).
Memories Can Be Injected and Survive Amputation and Metamorphosis – Nautilus . “How many times have you asked yourself, ‘If a headless worm can regrow a memory, then where is the memory stored?’ If that question piques your interest, then how about: can you cut off the tail of a planarian (type of worm) and get that worm to regrow a head in place of the tail (answer: yes); or, Where are memories stored, exactly?” (Hugh for Alistair).
How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger – NPR . “I try hard not to, but I sometimes shout at my kids. For Inuit, an adult shouting is a sign of someone behaving like a child. Which is how I usually feel a minute after shouting. Inuits don’t shout at their kids, but they do have a gentle kind of discipline that’s effective.” (Hugh for Mitch).
The Flying Circus – Henry Mintzberg . “I’ve had the pleasure of knowing management guru, Henry Mintzberg, for many years. First, as a child. His daughter and I went to elementary school together. Back then, you never really knew or understood what, exactly, our parents did for a living (or why it even mattered). Then, as I became a business book nerd, his true greatness emerged. Most of the the modern management practices that we have (and take for granted) come from his frameworks, thinking, and ideologies. Don’t believe me? Check out Mintzberg on Management. Now, Henry is thinking about less about how we manage people (and businesses) and much more about how we manage this worldly mess that we find ourselves in. With that, I’ve been fortunate to spend more and more time with Henry, helping him to figure out how to get his greater message out to the masses. While we were brainstorming last week, he reminded me that his book about travel, The Flying Circus, is a free PDF that anyone can download. So, if you find yourself traveling during this holiday season and looking for something to read… here you go!” (Mitch for Alistair).
Bestselling Novelist Chuck Wendig On Finding His Voice, Productivity In Writing, and The Multi-Headed Beast Called “Writer’s Block” – Writing Routines . “When it comes to writing, I am a big fan of two things. One, this regular feature called, Writing Routines (get on the email list). Two, Chuck Wendig’s newsletter (and/or anything he ever writes about the practice and art of writing). Chuck is hilarious and deeply insightful. Take this answer to the age old question of when and where a writer prefers to write: ‘Once upon a time (where ‘a time’ is defined as roughly ‘two months ago’) I wrote in a writing shed. Not like, where you keep lawnmowers – it was a nice shed with electricity and HVAC and what not. But I have since moved and have no shed, so currently I’m writing in a (*shudder*) room in my house like some kind of criminal. But! I will have a shed again. Already the sinister plans have begun. Thinking of installing some kind of LASER this time. As for time – mornings are good for me, usually.’ So good… and it only gets better.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Scott H. Young On Mastering Hard Skills Quickly – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #702 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Here’s a question that I often think about: Can you learn something really well in a short amount of time? I am not alone. Scott H. Young has also been thinking about what is the best way to learn. Scott believes that learning is the key to living well. This pursuit led him to take on two year-long experiments in learning: The MIT Challenge, where he learned MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum without taking classes, and The Year Without English, where he went with a friend to learn four languages in one year. Mission accomplished. He did it. He started writing his blog before his 18th birthday, because he was interested in behavior change, which led to how we learn, which led to self-mastery and career development. His first book is called, Ultralearning – Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career. There’s something here. From the book: “In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner.” Happy Holidays! Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #702.