Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 176

The Life And (Working) Times Of Millennials

You can't flick a screen these days without reading something about Millennials and the workplace.

As a professional speaker, I get to see the types of topics that corporations are trying to tackle. You would be hard pressed to not see a conference or corporate event without some time allotted to Millennials, and how they're changing the face of work today. Who are they? What do they want? What do they believe in? Are they so different from adults of generations past? With that, this generation (and, by way of definition, most would agree that Millennials are people who are from the early-1980s as starting birth years and ending birth years ranging from the mid-1990s to early-2000s). It's a pretty broad timeframe, but that's what we're working with.

So, what makes them so different? It depends on who you ask.

Simon Sinek is a deep thinker and brilliant orator. Simon is the author of three best selling books, Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and his latest book, Together Is Better - A Little Book of Inspiration. His main fascination is how leaders and companies can make the greatest impact in the world. He looks for those with the capacity to inspire. Simon is also best known for popularizing the concept of "Why" with his first Ted Talk in 2009 (just his spoken words and a simple flip-chart). That talk (Simon Sinek - How great leaders inspire action) has become the third most watched talk of all time on TED.com. It has close to 30 million views. With that, Sinek took part in Inside Quest, which is a great content marketing platform created by Quest Nutrition that features the company's Co-founder and President, Tom Bilyeu, as the host. In the clip below, Simon defines Millennials, their challenge and how it affects the work that we do today.

This is staggeringly smart stuff from Simon Sinek. Watch this: Simon Sinek on Millennials In The Workplace - Inside Quest.

So, are Millennials that much different or have the rules of our society and work changed that much?

Most business professionals will watch this clip, and think that Simon has his pulse on who Millennials are and what they're looking for. He does, but that was not my main takeaway. My main takeaway is this: this is not about how a certain generation was brought up, and what their expectations are. This is - one hundred percent - about how the rules of society and work have changed. It's about how the expectations of our society has shifted. How will public markets keep pushing on, when the workforce doesn't see revenue and pure wealth as the main reason to do something? Simon is most widely known for helping individuals and corporations to find their "Why"? After viewing this clip, it became abundantly clear that, perhaps, our society has yet to tackle this one question, and all of the complexities that it may imply.

Regardless of a new generation coming into the workplace, what is the "why" of our society today... and moving forward?

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The Mobile Commerce Chicken And Egg Conundrum

This was a big week for shopping.

Unless you have been living under a rock in North America, we had both Black Friday and Cyber Monday take place this past week. Beyond the riot police and YouTube filming of customer stampedes, fisticuffs and people behaving badly, these two days act as a key indicator as to how the holiday shopping season is going to roll out. Obviously, this is even-more closely monitored, as it also provides a peek into the wealth of nations. Just how much people are spending is directly related to the overall economy and beyond. 

Well, we're spending... but how are we buying?

As a business professional, who gets up in front of large audiences to talk about consumers and their shifting buying habits, there is some data that points to a large opportunity, wrapped in one of the biggest consumer shifts in buying that our world has ever seen. Let's put this all into context. AdWeek published the news item, Cyber Monday Sales Totaled $3.45 Billion, Which Set a New Ecommerce Record Up 12% year-over-year. Adobe stated that $3.45 billion was spent online for Cyber Monday alone. This is a 12%+ year-over-year spike. Impressive. The same report from Adobe also stated that for the first 28 days in November, that four-week period showed closed to $40 billion in digital sales. In fact, only one day this month generated less than $1 billion in online revenue.

Billion is the new million.

It's true. We toss around the number "billion" like it's any other "million." These amounts are staggering. Period. Full stop. Still, this is not where it could be. The number could be a lot higher. For years, I've been on a "mobile-first" rant. In short: your mobile experience should be better than your desktop experience (think about Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder, Uber and beyond). It also means that your mobile experience should not be a less-than experience from your desktop. It's an area that brands are failing at. It's an area that is costing brands huge revenue. If brands are ever going to actualize their true market opportunity, the time has come (and, maybe, passed) to ensure that your mobile experience is not a watered-down version of your desktop website, or a responsive design without the usability and experience that mobile does provide. Your consumers are used to apps and smartphones and more. They're living it. Your brands are falling them.

The argument against mobile-first.

Too many brands believe that mobile traffic is not significant enough for them to make the full-on mobile-first leap. That, for some reason, their consumers are different. Their consumers don't follow the macro trends, growth, usage and penetration of smartphones. Hey, it's your head and your sand, if you ask me. MediaPost published the news item, Cyber Monday Breaks Records, Hits $3.4B in Online Revenues, that boasted similar numbers from the AdWeek piece. Still, the quote that we should all pay attention to is this one:

"Mobile drove 47% of visits to retail websites, about 38% came from smartphones and 9% from tablets. Smartphones also drove purchases with 22% share, compared with 9% from tablets. Conversions were well above holiday averages, with smartphones at 2.8%, tablets at 5.1% and desktops at 6.3%, compared to holiday averages of 1.3%, 2.9% and 3.2%, respectively... The average order value (AOV) on iOS smartphones came in at $141, which remained slightly higher compared with Android smartphones at $128."

TL;DR: Smartphones were used in one out of every three purchases. That's staggering.

Many would see this as a massive sign. Mobile continues to grow in marketshare. Mobile still has a long way to go, until it can catch-up and surpass desktop usage. That's not the sign it signals to me. Mobile is not being given a real chance to shine and prove its dominance. And that, dear brand people, falls directly on our shoulders. Yesterday, Research Brief published, Mobile Smartphone Shoppers Struggling With Navigation. Guess what? Mobile devices accounted for one-third of every sale on Cyber Monday, and according to a comScore report, they also accounted for 20% of the $84.3 billion in US digital commerce spending in Q3 2016. 

What's happening here?

e-commerce is shifting. Big time. It is moving from desktop to mobile devices, but brands are woefully unprepared. So, the numbers look worse. The numbers don't look as impressive. Why? According to the Research Brief article: 

"Mobile devices could be even more influential... if some user experience problems were taken care of. Recent research from Monetate indicates that only around half of e-commerce site visits come from mobile devices. Mobile's smaller share of actual sales is a result of lower conversion rates relative to desktop and smartphones, as mobile users struggle with navigation, difficulty with checkouts, and security concerns. These problems lead to lower shopping cart conversion rates, with just 1 in every 6 shopping carts on smartphones turning into orders, as opposed to 1 in 4 on desktops."

In short: brands must wake up and start removing  all of this friction that their mobile experiences are providing.

From pinching to touching the wrong part of the page and from checkout process and product information, it's a struggle. Think about it this way: your consumers can hop over to Tinder and find someone to mate with in a fraction of the time that it takes them to add one of your products to a shopping cart and purchase it. Ugh. The data will tell you that mobile is not everything, so you should take your time with. The data will tell you that your consumers are mobile-first, but struggling with your mobile experience, so they're just not bothering. This makes no sense in our "customer at the center" experience world, that each and every CMO in the world leads off their brand presentations with. 

So, which comes first? Your amazing mobile experience or your belief that most of your consumers are not on mobile, because your analytics don't speak to how bad your mobile experience currently is?

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Waze Does Display Advertising Right

There was a time when I thought all display advertising was "meh." 

I have reasons (and deep) rationale to think this way. Few were around selling banner ads when they first came out, like I did. I was on the front lines of the dot com boom, bust and echo. I was there when search engine marketing first became a thing. I was there when the IAB came online, and standards became part of the formalization and validation of this advertising channel. This was before search engine marketing became the online advertising juggernaut that it is. Back then display (known as banner advertising) was much bigger than search. Now, it's becoming abundantly clear: publishers can't get off of the drug of display advertising. Still, consumers are pushing back with ad blocking, and marketers need a place to park the massive ad spend from dollars that are shifting over to digital. From brands to media companies to publishers, I have spent the vast part of the past two decades selling, promoting and watching this form of online advertising evolve. From the initial promise of performance and analytics, to its current state of branding.

Most of the time, display advertising is an afterthought. 

As online advertising evolves, my feelings have changed as well (I trust that yours have as well). Display units have become a necessary but complex part of publishing, and have not adjusted to replace the dollars that publishers have lost in their other traditional business models. Candidly, I had accepted them for what they are. That is until I started using the mobile app and awesome navigation tool, Waze (which was acquired by Google for over $1 billion in 2013). 

Waze does display advertising right. 

Like most display advertising formats, I was initially frustrated by the interruptive nature of Waze's display advertising. After about ten minutes, I was in awe by how well done it is... and, more importantly, by how well done it will be, as it evolves and matures. Waze takes display advertising, and adds two components to it that make it so glorious. It's not only relevant and powerful, but perhaps one of the smartest applications of display advertising online that I have come across:

It's only there when you're not moving. Waze is great. Waze is free. It amazes me, because of what the typical cost of navigation systems have been in the past, and also because of the high level of user-generated value that is layered on top of it. Road closings, accidents, where the cops are hanging out, and more... in real time. This is the type of app that I (and many others) would probably be willing to spend some serious dollars on. So, if the "cost" of usage Waze is advertising, I'm willing to power through it. There are tons of dubious ways that Waze could have deployed an ad platform (banners along the bottom, interruption interstitials as you tap in your coordinates, etc...). The first thing they do brilliantly, is that you only see an ad when your car is at a red light or stopped for a longer period of time. At first, it was still an interruption model, but as soon as I realized how the creative was being initiated (and how it gracefully departs when the vehicle moves), it felt like a really smart execution.
It's hyper-local... or, at least, it can/should be. Almost all of the ads are relevant to where you are or what you're doing. Gas stations, fast food dining, local merchants and more. If there is a lack of local advertising, Waze adds in a major chain (think fast food, gas stations, etc...). So, the ads are (or can be) super relevant, super local and super useful. This part is not perfect, but you can see that it can be, from the advertiser's perspective (being able to target specific types of drivers in a range of distance from their business). Plus, it tells you how far that advertiser is from your current location, and wisely allows you to add them as a stop along your way.

What makes a great ad?

Relevant, timely, easy and valuable. Waze's advertising platform is not perfect. It's not always relevant and timely, but you can feel that this publisher has put a significant amount of effort into making the advertising experience valuable to the brand, and relevant with a hint of additional value to the user. Huge win in a world where most (including me) have become skeptical of display advertising efficacy and evolution.

You can't ask for more, when it comes to display advertising. 

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Facebookers Are 2.5 Times More Likely To Read Fake News Plus More - The Week's CTRL ALT Delete Segment On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on iHeart Radio, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed: 

Last week we had a deep discussion about fake news, and whether Facebook should be held accountable for the spreading of it. Well, here's some interesting data: It turns out that Facebookers are 2.5 times more likely to read fake news. Also, super-interesting, Millennials are least prone to do that sharing! 
Let's not get too excited about those millennials! According to another study this week, researchers were "shocked" by how many students failed to effectively evaluate the credibility of news items. The students displayed a "stunning and dismaying consistency" in their responses, the researchers wrote, getting fooled over and over. They weren't looking for high-level analysis of data but just a "reasonable bar" of, for instance, telling fake accounts from real ones, activist groups from neutral sources and ads from articles. More than 80 percent of middle schoolers believed that 'sponsored content' was a real news story. "Many assume that because young people are fluent in social media they are equally savvy about what they find there," the researchers wrote. "Our work shows the opposite." Ugh. 
What if you no longer needed Yelp and other recommendations for dinner, because real data lives in unique places? Well, Business Insider just published an article titled, The top 9 most popular restaurants in New York City, according to Uber. It got me thinking: Uber could have seriously interesting and divergent business models that we've never even thought of. Including the fact that it might become the best recommendation engine any of us could have ever imagined... without the need for anybody to review, rate or say anything.
App of the week: The Companion app.

Take a listen right here.

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Finding What Fascinates With Julie Klam - This Week's Six Pixels Of Separation Podcast

Episode #542 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Our team at Mirum has launched a interesting program for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. It's a series that takes places across multiple InterContinental properties to tell stories that will get consumers excited about what travel brings into their lives (beyond visiting a different city or country). The first part of this program has been focused on the theme of "fascination." With that, our team connected with famed bestselling author, Julie Klam, at the InterContinental New York Barclay's Gin Parlour for a conversation about the power of fascination. Truthfully, I had nothing to do with this project, but jumped at the opportunity to have Julie on this show. I've been a fan of her work for a long time. Julie Klam interned at Late Night with David Letterman and went on to write for the likes of Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, and The New York Times Magazine. She also worked on the VH1 television show Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class Writing. She's the author of many narrative non-fiction books like Friendkeeping, Love At First Bark, You Had Me At Woof and Please Excuse My Daughter. Her next book, The Stars In Our Eyes, will look at celebrities, memes and what makes us all so enraptured by those who have influence. So what makes us fascinated? Do we all have the same ability to capture attention like celebrities? Where do great stories come from? 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 - The Mirum Podcast #542.

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Creativity Is Alive And Well

Don't worry, the robots and artificial intelligence-driven creatives will have a hard time doing this.

The rock band OK Go make some of the most astonishing and creative music videos. In fact, I'd argue that they are much more than just "music videos," but rather engines that inspire creativity - on many different levels. Many believe that we live in a world, where it is increasingly difficult to do anything that is original. How does a brand create a message that can cut through the many levels of noise that we're all exposed to? Is it even possible to have viral video breakthrough without spending a ton of money on media? Well, OK Go did it in only 4.2 seconds. Still, what makes this so creatively exciting, is that they took this 4.2 seconds of rapid-fire explosions and slowed it down to match the four-plus minutes of the band's song, The One Moment. It's amazing how they did it (and they explain it, in detail, right here: Background Notes And Full Credits For The One Moment Video). For those who don't want to click over for the full-rundown, the TL;DR is this: math.

New and improved with... salt?

The big winner in this video (from a marketing perspective) will, ultimately, be Morton Salt. Yes... a salt company. Apparently, Morton Salt has a new initiative titled, #WalkHerWalk (a CSR program to support a group of young people, who are making a positive difference in the world by tackling some tough issues that we all face). The brand collaborated (paid? sponsored? supported?) this video. I believe, the payoff on views and attention will be well-worth whatever deal was brokered behind the scenes. Let's see if this is true... or if there is a backlash (which, again, might still give the brand countless impressions, PR attention and more). 

Well, here is your moment of creative zen... OK Go - The One Moment.

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The Thing About Disruption

How good is your brand when it comes to disruption?

For my money, disruption is the current big bad wolf of business today. It's everywhere. B2B, B2B, small, medium and large enterprises. Everyone is feeling the huffing, puffing and heavy breathing of disruption on their shoulders. I often laugh when reading articles in places like Fast Company about these major brands, who insist that they could never be disrupted, because they are too busy, disrupting themselves. There's a really fast, simple and easy litmus test to see if this is true: simply go and check out their website on a mobile device. Look and see how many apps this brands has published. Try to connect with them on one of the many social media channels, and pay attention to how long it takes them to respond (if they even respond at all). The disruptors are starting in those arenas as most brands have either fallen behind or are racing to catch up. 

Brands are a little delusional. Brands should be less delusional.

Being disruptive in your industry means that you are doing something completely different from what you are presently doing, and the results are pacing at a better clip than your current business model. Go for it. Please. List below the major brands that have truly disrupted themselves. You can probably list them on the hands of a bad high school woodshop teacher (to steal a classic joke from Dennis Miller). Why? It's like asking newspaper publishers why they didn't embrace the Internet sooner or why companies like Yellow Pages allowed Google to overtake these mighty institutions. Disruption is hard, because it means that you, in effect, are doing something completely different from what you had been doing to date, and this new effort is the one that will become the industry standard. Uber didn't become another kind of taxi company. Tinder isn't just another online dating site. Ask any entrepreneur, this is not easy. Especially, when there is a legacy of success, growth and opportunity.

It's hard to kill your darlings, while they're still developing into darlings. 

I'm bullish that more and more industries will be disrupted. I'm bearish on the current slew of industry leaders that are able to make that leap. History doesn't tell a kind story here. Still, a few days ago, eMarketer published this fascinating article: CMOs Are Safeguarding Their Businesses from Market Disruptors. This is what the Chief Marketers Officers believe:

"During February and March 2016, Accenture surveyed 847 CMOs and 535 CEOs worldwide about the impact of disruptive growth on their businesses. According to the data, 97% of respondents said they are placing emphasis on safeguarding their business from new competitors that have not traditionally been a part of their industry. The research, though, also revealed a slight divide on just how much of a priority this is for CMOs; while 43% agreed it's greatly taken into account, another 54% said only to some extent."

97% of Chief Marketing Officers believe that they are safeguarding their brands from new competitors.

Because they're buying startups? Because they are developing new products and services? I find this hard to believe. Innovation is not the same as disruption. Have we seen instances when buying an emerging startup has stopped an industry from being disrupted? If yes, was it something that stuck? Have we seen instances when launching new products and services has stopped an industry from being disrupted? Isn't disruption an inevitability? What do these safeguards look like? Especially if, as a consumer, we're not seeing them currently in the marketplace?

Disruption is a tough one to beat. 97% percent think they're focused on it. Do you agree? 

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We Are Not (That) Social Media

Social media was not supposed to act like traditional media.

In fact, one could argue that everything we thought was possible about connectivity and social media could best be understood by reading the business book classic, The Cluetrain Manifesto. The anchor quote from that book was, "markets are conversations." Let's roll with that. Would you agree that if you were to split up your marketing efforts by traditional media and social media that your social media activity acts like a conversation?

Before we go any further...

I would guess that most brands have abandoned ship on this concept. It's a well known turn-of-phrase that social media is anything but social. And, to truly get any results of marketing efficacy, you have to embrace the fact that social media is now a paid media channel. In other words... no reach or amplification without paying for it. That may sound depressing. Still, can anyone truly argue with this sentiment? For over a decade, I have been writing posts, here on this blog (going into my fourteenth year, to be exact). Through that time, the sentiment of all things related to Six Pixels of Separation (the blog, the podcast, writing for other publications, radio appearances, public speaking, business books, etc...) has been that the content you consume from me should incite you to create a better brand for yourself and/or open up your thinking in a way that would enable you to add your own commentary. Why? Why was I breaking the golden rule of social media so early on? Simply put: I wanted to add my voice to the discourse without the gatekeepers. I did not have faith that a true community or conversation was actually taking place. A community is not having a lot of followers. For me, a true community would only arise when others who I am connected to started connecting to one another. When those individuals have voices that are equal to mine... and beyond. That's a tall order, when I'm the one creating the text, images, audio and video. Yes, we are all here for a similar reason. Yes, by the pure definition of the word "community" we are a social group who have common interests. Still, just how social are we? In terms of conversation, what do we really have? Candidly, we see a lot of content with some likes, shares and comments. Is that actually a conversation? Seems more like differing levels of engagement, over actual conversation.

What if social media is no longer social media? 

That's the other side. I used to be a journalist and a publisher of magazines. Pre-social media, if you had ideas to share, you needed someone else's platform... because they owned the audience. They were - as Seth Godin best describes them - the "gatekeepers." Social media got rid of the gatekeepers. Actually, that's not true. The gatekeepers still exist. They've just moved from owning what content is published (think about magazines, newspapers, radio stations and television networks) to owning the platform where everyone is a publisher (think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google and Snapchat). So, the media channels evolve with how people use them. Suddenly celebrities, politicians, business leaders and others realize the power has shifted. Suddenly, they test their newfound ability to have a direct relationship with their fans, followers, etc... It's powerful. Some become influencers on this platform. These platforms wind up creating celebrities on their own. It's a fascinating social experiment. We trust someone with a verified account and followers because... well, they have a verified account and followers. Now, people like me (and you) no longer need the "permission" of your industry's top trade publication to get your message out. When done well, you become a media channel on your own. 

The (social) media is now messy. 

The problem, of course, is what we've now become. These channels are not social. The people with the most followers make a lot of noise. Because they are speaking directly to their audience, there is no form of fact-checking or journalism to provide an opposing view or more depth. It's broadcasting, in its purest form. No conversation. No discourse. Statements are taken as truth and fact. Lines are being drawn in the sand. The spirit of the media is all but lost. Personally, this is my struggle. For all that I had anticipated from social media, it has become. With that, the power of building these communities, conversations and new voices is present for some. People like me (and you) have this platform. People like me (and you) can create, care and share. It has your best interest at heart. With that, the other side is terrifying. We're seeing a hollowing out of traditional media, which is killing journalism. We're accepting opinions as facts. We're not that media savvy. We're not forcing people to better study and understand media (hence, the rise of fake news). We're following those who are most like us. We are making our world views that much smaller, each and every day. Make no mistake about it, this was not the promise of social media. Make no mistake about it, the average person is taking the merits of a tweet with the same level of acceptance as a six-month investigation by a crack team of seasoned journalism veterans. If we want better. We have to be better.   

I wish markets could become conversations... again... still.

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What Problems Are You Solving?

Disruption. Automation. Innovation.

People are no longer terrified that their jobs are going to be shipped overseas. Oh, don't be fooled. There's still that. Now, technology is also threatening to have our jobs (yes, all of our jobs) become obsolete through automation. There are two divergent trains of thought on the topic of automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. On the one hand, you have those who believe that the future will be without jobs for most of us, as these technologies and innovations take hold. Clearly, this will reach that tipping point when it is cheaper and less time consuming for a computer and/or robot to do your work. On the other hand (and, the hand that I prefer), you have those who believe that the marvels of technology and innovation will provide a platform where human beings may no longer have jobs (as we have known them to date), but will be working alongside these technologies, in truly valuable and important work.

Both point to a very different world than the one we're presently in.

In this excellent TEDx Talk, Tim O'Reilly (founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media and the man behind the reshaping of how technology has changed business) takes a look at what comes after a world in which he coined the terms "open source software," "Web 2.0" (and identified countless other movements in our world that were shaped by technology). Titled, Why we'll never run out of jobs, Tim asks one, critical question, to those who are concerned about what kind of work they will do in the future...

"What problems are you solving?"

The future will require people who have courage. The future will require people who can be either entrepreneurs or those that are entrepreneurial. Instead of focusing on what has changed or how things are changing, the future will be set for those who are willing to accept that there is so much work to still do. Those who are ready, willing and able to think about, create and build what's next (funny enough, our tagline - and battlecry - at Mirum is "Let's make what's next."). Aritficial intelligence, automation and machine learning should not replace us. First, we must define and solve these global problems. And, who better to accomplish this task than you? These future technologies should be created to help us... and not hinder us. How will we all be active participants in helping this challenge become a reality?

Our true opportunity. 

The true opportunity here is to understand that we shape our economy... not the computers and algorithms. So, the one true opportunity here is for all us to be the ones who really do update the rules of business today (and moving forward). Tim's message is true. Tim's message is powerful: great, big and new technology should make us all much better, not replaceable.

Watch this: Why we'll never run out of jobs - Tim O'Reilly - TEDxSanFrancisco. 

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #336

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 (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) 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: 

The code I'm still ashamed of. - Bill Sourour - Medium . "We live in an era of algorithms, and they will increasingly decide who gets fed, paroled, promoted, or educated. It's a huge ethical challenge for us, because code is esoteric, inaccessible, and often a black box that knows no mercy or gray areas. In this post, Bill Souror confesses to a crime: Writing software that harmed, or even killed, other people in the hope of turning a profit. His story became a kind of confessional for developers working on questionable software everywhere. What have we wrought?" (Alistair for Hugh).
This $5 Device Can Hack Your Password-Protected Computers In Just One Minute - The Hacker News . "By now you've heard this story. Most people have. It's a physical exploit that tricks your computer into thinking the USB is an Internet connection; followed by a spoof of every major website out there, so it can harvest your login cookie, so an attacker can pretend to be you online. And a bunch of other, smaller, hacks, cleverly stitched together. But that's only part of the story: I interviewed Alasdair Allan (who, years ago, discovered iPhones were tracking your location all of the time) in preparation for Pandemon.io, a conference I'm running next February. Alasdair said this: ' n the past, a great deal of computer security has assumed that the end user will have no physical access to the computer. That if an attacker has physical access, then there is no way to stop them compromising what security does exist. But the whole point of the Internet of Things is that they're physical things. So physical access to Internet of Things devices is a real problem, and for hackers, a real opportunity.' That's a seriously important observation -- we've gone from security that assumed the computer wasn't touched, to computers designed to be touched, without updating how we keep hackers out." (Alistair for Mitch).
Ringside With Steve Bannon at Trump Tower as the President-Elect's Strategist Plots "An Entirely New Political Movement" - The Hollywood Reporter . "What to make of the fact that the best insight into Steve Bannon, the alt-right maven and man behind Trump's victory, and likely behind his presidency, comes from the Hollywood Reporter? The article tip-toes around some of the truly awful stuff that came out of Brietbart, but it gives a good sense of where Bannon will try to push the Trump presidency. We live in interesting times." (Hugh for Alistair).
Global Trumpism - Foreign Affairs . "I'm going to try very, very hard not to send too many political links in the next while, since I just find it all too depressing. But please indulge me while I get this out of my system. This article, which I agree with, suggests that Trump's nationalism is an unsurprising response to neoliberalism. And, yes, the world order will be shaken greatly by this shift." (Hugh for Mitch).
Tech giants rush to invest in Montreal artificial intelligence research lab - CBC . "This could well be one of those scenarios when you start thinking about an area of technology and suddenly, it's all that you see. Artificial intelligence seems to be on the rise. But, now, I see it everywhere. Especially here, in our hometown of Montreal. I'd love to know why, how and when our city became this massive hotbed, for what everyone is considering to be the future of business and technology? AI is everywhere and it's going to dominate our lives. Yes. I believe this to be true. So, will Montreal be the Silicon Valley for this?" (Mitch for Alistair).
Leonard Cohen on Moonlight, the Mystique of Creativity, His Influences, and Why He Loves It When People Cover His Songs - Brain Pickings . "In all of the media chaos that has surrounded the US elections, I would hate to think that the death of Leonard Cohen is getting drowned out by a world of fake news. Cohen was through-and-through a Montrealer. His home is across the street from my regular breakfast place. Over the years you could, occasionally, catch a glimpse of him. Sometimes, he would be sitting right there, in this restaurant. No regrets for not interrupting him for a photo (trust me, the thought had crossed my mind). This was his hood. And, if you know this city, you can feel it in his words and music. I was never a huge fan, but was always massively respectful of his art. Here's a great tribute. More than that, here's a great piece on creativity and influence." (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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