Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 191

Intelligence? Talent? What Do You Need To Really Make It?

I don't take bullying lightly. I was bullied in school. I'm sure many of us were. It sucks.

Still, there's this famous comedic bit by Chris Rock where he says that we need bullies. If it weren't for bullies we would never have people like Bill Gates. It's a joke, of course. Bullying isn't funny, of course. Without dissecting the comedic genius that is Chris Rock, his point is true. You can have the smartest and most talented people in the world, but if they're not driven and if they don't push past those who think that what they're doing is dumb, then our world will see no innovation. Our world will end. Some of the best innovations have been created by those who were bullied, insulted and told that their ideas were worthless. Of course, we need bullying to end... Rock was taking it to the extreme to get a laugh. 

Why do some people succeed and many more fail?

Back in 2013, I saw a TED Talk by Angela Duckworth on the keys to success. She used a word. It struck me. It stuck with me. It's something I've always felt I had, in certain aspects of my life, but could never define it down to one word. We know that talent doesn't define success. We know many people who are super intelligent and have a load of talent, but can't ever seem to catch a "lucky break." Duckworth believes perseverance and passion matter as much (maybe even more) than talent and intelligence. After studying this area, she believes that "grit" is what counts. There's the word: grit. You have to keep at it. It's not just grit, but how grit coupled with talent and intelligence can really change and propel one's life. That TED Talk has now been seen over eight million times. More recently, Duckworth published a book, Grit - The Power of Passion and Perseverance, to unpack this concept even more (it's an entrancing read). 

Who is Angela Duckworth?

From her bio: "Angela Duckworth is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. An expert in non-I.Q. competencies, she has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Prior to her career in research, she taught children math and science, and was the co-founder of a summer school for low-income children that won the Better Government Award from the state of Massachusetts. She completed her BA in neurobiology at Harvard, her MSc in neuroscience at Oxford, and her PhD in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. More recently, she co-founded the Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development in children." She has studied people - of all ages - and has seen those with grit push and push on through. Today, Google published her recent visit to their NYC office, where she discussed her book with Ben Fried, Google's CIO.

Watch this: Talks At Google - Angela Duckworth: "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance."

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Social Media. You're Doing It Wrong.

It's getting harder and harder to do social media right these days.

There is a collective frustration with brands and organizations playing in the social media space. On one hand, we want brands and organizations to listen to consumers. To be present. To engage and connect in a much more human way. On the other hand, the collective "we" likes to not only judge, but pass judgement. This judgement is never binary, because we all have different thresholds, values and beliefs. What is tongue and cheek to me, is horribly offensive (and taken the wrong way) by you. One another hand (let's assume you can have three hands), we plead for brands to go silent or not comment, when something major in the world is happening. When things are tough, the last thing people need to see in their feeds is a brand trying to capitalize or monetize the moment. In that instance, we're asking brands to not say anything, but we're all adding in our own opinions, statements and rhetoric. With that, we're saying to brands: don't be like us. Be corporations. Is that reasonable? Is that social? Isn't a brand a bunch of human beings - like you and I?

In some instances, it's obvious that there is something being done in poor taste, but is it always the case?

Yesterday marked the five year anniversary since Osama bin Laden was killed by American soldiers. The CIA decided to live tweet the day, like it was happening in real time, to give everyone a sense of how that historic day truly unfolded. Interesting? Smart? Bad taste? Terrible idea? As you can imagine, there were a myriad of reactions. Andrew Carter of CJAD radio wanted to unpack whether or not this was a bad idea, and why organizations might live tweet anything?

Here is our conversation: CJAD Radio - The Andrew Carter Show - Osama bin Laden was killed by American soldiers five years ago today.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #307

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: 

All Prior Art. "If you can't beat 'em, join em. If you can beat 'em, do it with an algorithm. This software generates pretty much anything you can invent, then publishes it, establishing prior art. 'The pull tab is attached inside the bag between the two perforated lines and has at least has one loose end extending outside the bag. In certain example embodiments of this invention, the lateral position of the rear drive wheels may be selectively adjusted as desired by the operator.' I literally can't tell if this is satire, art, or brilliant obfuscation that makes patent research grind to a halt." (Alistair for Hugh).
The Post-Productive Economy - The  Technium. "The extraordinary Kevin Kelly has come up in our Six Links series four times over the last six years (#44, #64, #100, and #110) and he's one of my favorite thinkers about technology and society. I checked, because I was sure I'd mentioned his latest book, The Inevitable, already. It's just so damned good. And it holds hope for those who worry robots will take our jobs: 'In short, productivity is for robots. Humans excel at wasting time, experimenting, playing, creating, and exploring. None of these fare well under the scrutiny of productivity. That is why science and art are so hard to fund. But they are also the foundation of long-term growth.' A sobering read that bursts filter bubbles." (Alistair for Mitch).
Inside The Assassination Complex - The Intercept . "Edward Snowden talks about whistleblowing as political resistance." (Hugh for Alistair). 
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them -  Upworthy. "In 10 years+ of writing on the web, I can't recall once when negative comments towards me or my work veered beyond 'that's a bit unpleasant/unnecessary.' I'm lucky. I happen to be male. Women face a whole different universe when they put stuff out on the web... and it ain't pleasant. This video is pretty hard to watch, but you should." (Hugh for Mitch).
Unbundled - Chris Saad - Medium . "Everything is coming apart. We're taking a major piece of software and - literally - unbundling it into several types of services and products and apps. Think about the apps that are out just for writing... or a dictionary... or a thesaurus... or whatever. Features of a word processing software are now a standalone. We're taking things and breaking them up... unbundling them. This is only happening more and more, in a world of 3D printing and the gig economy. There's a lot of wisdom in this article. Funny, it smells like both opportunity and sadness in the same long piece." (Mitch for Alistair).
Creatives Turn Smartphones Into Interactive Books During Facebook Hackathon - AdWeek . "Facebook is rounding up agency talent and showing them what a strong Hackathon can look like (and do). The results from a recent one created a bunch of interesting interactive books for kids." (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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Is The Financial Industry Pointing Us To The Future Of Technology?

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 to SoundCloud, 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: 

FinTech is disrupting the banking and lending business. Is it going to make your life that much easier?
60 Minutes had a big feature on FinTech last night: 60 Minutes - Shaking Up The Financial Industry.
On Wednesday, I'll be taking part in a Canadian Marketing Association event featuring Don Tapscott. Tapscott is widely known for writing a book called the Digital Economy back in 1994. That's when there wasn't even a web browser. Since then, he has written countless bestselling books and advises the world's biggest companies and governments on our digital world. Now, he's back with another book, Blockchain Revolution (which he wrote with his son, Alex Tapscott). Blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin and many believe that Don and Alex are right: this is the next, big disruptive technology. So, what exactly is Blockchain? 
Facebook's numbers are crazy amazing. Facebook added 60 million more users in the first three months of the year, according to its first-quarter earnings statement released last week. That means it now has 1.65 billion monthly active users, a 15% increase over the first quarter of 2015. Mobile users account for 1.51 billion of the total, a 21% year-over-year increase. Mobile revenue accounted for 82% of all ad sales, up from 73% in the first quarter of 2015. Facebook's advertising revenue in the first three months of 2016 totalled $5.2 billion, a 57% increase over the same period last year. It also reported total revenue of $5.4 billion.
App of the week: Passport Parking.

Listen here...

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Understanding The Blockchain With Alex and Don Tapscott

Episode #512 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

The technology behind Bitcoin is something called Blockchain. Many think of it as a complex new way that technology works and connects information and value to consumers. Legendary digital thinker, Don Tapscott, believes it's going to change our world - much in the same way that he predicted (back in 1994) that we would have a digital economy. For his latest book, Blockchain Revolution, he teamed up with his son, Alex Tapscott. Don wrote books like Wikinomics, Grown Up Digital, and many more that have become seminal books of our digital culture, and he is an advisor to some of the largest corporations and governments in the world. Alex is the founder of Northwest Passage Ventures. For seven years Alex worked to help entrepreneurs raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital. He is a passionate advocate for the disruptive potential of new technology. Blockchain Revolution has already been called, "an iconic book for these times," and brings us back to the excitement and opportunities that many felt, when the first web browser was introduced. Is the blockchain revolution the future of creating value or will it fall into the wrong hands? 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 #512.

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A More Elegant Question About Twitter

What should Twitter do?

Do you have an opinion? Do you know what they have done in the past year? It has been a year of change for the platform that allows people to share 140 characters with one another. Still, after their quarterly earnings call this week, we see a very different Twitter than one we have known to date. In June, it will be one year since CEO Dick Costolo left (and was replaced by co-founder, Jack Dorsey). The online social network is still not profitable, and even though it got five million more users this quarter (they are at around 310 million total), it's still considered relatively flat by industry standards. It also looks like Facebook is eating anything and everything in comparison (have you seen Facebook's results this week?). With that, Twitter has tried... and is trying. They have done everything from a television ad campaign and the launching of Moments to improving their tools around harassment and abuse. With that, they have opened up the algorithm to sort tweets by user quality over recency, allowed for longer direct messages beyond the 140 character limit and integrated their live, streaming platform - Periscope - into their general timeline.

Is all of that enough?

Video. This is the "be all" and "end all." Whether it's Twitter's announcement of NFL streaming or the need to push the growth of their Periscope acquisition, every pundit feels that the future of Twitter is video. Video is hot right now. Live streaming video is even hotter. So, everyone wants to know if Twitter has what it takes to evolve, to improve their product and grow (like Facebook is doing). I'm left wondering if this is possible... is this a fair request? It's easy (for everyone) to say that video is the here, now and future of online, but Twitter built a legacy on being the first mobile-first social network. It really was the first social media platform that was better, more interesting and easier to use on your mobile device than the desktop. In a world where Facebook and YouTube were offering a "lesser than" product on mobile, Twitter gained traction and audience because of how intuitive and glorious it was (and still is) on the smartphone. Consumers never felt like they were missing anything on the mobile version. The other aspect of Twitter's hyper-growth was the simplicity in content creation: 140 characters. Much easier than blogging and much easier (at the time of their initial growth) than posting a photo (let alone video). So, where does this net out? Twitter was about mobile and simple text. Now, everyone's shouting that Twitter needs to be about video.

Shoot that video. Make that post.

Have you seen what is going on over at Snapchat? Snapchatters (this is what all of the cool kids call them ;) are watching close to ten billion videos every day. The growth is staggering, and this is what the pundits are comparing Twitter to (be like them!). If Snapchat can grow like this, why can't Twitter? Twitter is newish to video (everyone is new to video). Twitter's users are blurting in text message format. They're (occasionally) posting pictures (granted, it seems like Instagram and Facebook own that whole mobile, social photo sharing space with Snapchat). Are we asking too much of Twitter? Jack Dorsey believes that Twitter is all about "live." He believes that Twitter is a leader in live and video. Is this where consumers go to post video and share videos and create live streaming videos? As a brand, that means something. Still, instead of trying to figure out what Twitter needs to do next, we need to ask another question...

A more elegant question about Twitter: can we expect a platform that mastered the art of 140 characters of text to also master the realm of live and streaming video?

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6 Business Books That Are Coming (That You Better Get)

There is a whole new batch of business books that are coming out in the next few months.

My book reading pace has slowed. Dramatically. Not because of Netflix (but, let's be honest, have you seen the latest seasons of Daredevil and House of Lies?), but because there really wasn't all that much that was moving me in the non-fiction book space. I've been neck-deep in some great long-form reads online (special thanks to Pocket for making it all so accessible), but a great business book? It has been some time. With that, I often get asked to interview authors for Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast. In the past few weeks the stack of books building up to the left of this Macbook Air has got me pretty excited. All of these books are not yet available, but look super-fascinating. So, get your credit card ready and let's do this...

6 Business books that are coming (that you better get)... in alphabetical order:

TED Talks - The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson. "For anyone who has ever been inspired by a TED talk, this is an insider's guide to creating talks that are unforgettable. Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has shown how carefully crafted short talks can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, spreading knowledge, and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's worldview. Done right, a talk is more powerful than anything in written form.        This book explains how the miracle of powerful public speaking is achieved, and equips you to give it your best shot. There is no set formula; no two talks should be the same. The goal is for you to give the talk that only you can give. But don't be intimidated. You may find it more natural than you think. This is the 21st-century's new manual for truly effective communication and it is a must-read for anyone who is ready to create impact with their ideas." This book will be published on May 3rd, 2016.
Invisible Influence - The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior by Jonah Berger. "Berger explores the subtle, secret influences that affect the decisions we make -- from what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat--in this fascinating and groundbreaking work. If you're like most people, you think that your choices and behaviors are driven by your individual, personal tastes, and opinions. You wear a certain jacket because you liked the way it looked. You picked a particular career because you found it interesting. The notion that our choices are driven by our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong. Without our realizing it, other people's behavior has a huge influence on everything we do at every moment of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous occasion. Even strangers have a startling impact on our judgments and decisions: our attitudes toward a welfare policy shift if we're told it is supported by Democrats versus Republicans (even though the policy is the same in both cases). But social influence doesn't just lead us to do the same things as others. In some cases we conform, or imitate others around us. But in other cases we diverge, or avoid particular choices or behaviors because other people are doing them. We stop listening to a band because they go mainstream. We skip buying the minivan because we don't want to look like a soccer mom. In his surprising and compelling Invisible Influence, Jonah Berger integrates research and thinking from business, psychology, and social science to focus on the subtle, invisible influences behind our choices as individuals. By understanding how social influence works, we can decide when to resist and when to embrace it -- and how we can use this knowledge to make better-informed decisions and exercise more control over our own behavior." This book will be published on June 14th, 2016.
Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday. "Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.  Ego Is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to his­tory. We meet fascinating figures who all reached the highest levels of power and success by con­quering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.  In an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts. Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, 'you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you've set out to achieve.'" This book will be published on June 14th, 2016.
The Inevitable - Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly. "Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives -- from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture -- can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends -- flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning -- and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kelly's bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading -- what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place -- as this new world emerges." This book will be published on June 7th, 2016.
Unmistakable - Why Only Is Better Than Best by Srinivas Rao. "After getting rejected from many business schools and fired from several sales jobs, Srinivas Rao decided to stop doing what he thought he was supposed to do and start working in a way that felt honest. He launched the Unmistakable Creative Podcast to interview some of the greatest minds in business finding a surprisingly big audience. This book distills the lessons, anecdotes, and insights of the 500+ people he has interviewed. Unmistakable art needs no signature. As soon as it's in front of you, you know exactly who created it, like Banksy's street art or Tim Burton's films. Whether you're a business owner, artist, or anything in between, when your work is unmistakable, your competition becomes irrelevant. They can't copy you.  The key to being unmistakable is to stop trying to be the best - because that would mean you're sticking to plans and rules that have already been set for you, choosing what's safe and reliable. Rao argues that your most meaningful, impactful, and joyful work exists outside the 'being the best' mindset, if you can strip away the expectations and pressure that you've internalized - to lead you to be the only." This book will be published on August 2nd, 2016.
Blockchain Revolution - How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World by Alex Tapscott and Don Tapscott. "The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information. The second genera­tion -- powered by blockchain technology -- is bringing us the Internet of value: a new, distributed platform that can help us reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better.  Blockchain is the ingeniously simple, revolution­ary protocol that allows transactions to be simul­taneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value. Though it's the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital cur­rencies, the underlying framework has the potential to go far beyond these and record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certifi­cates to insurance claims and even votes. Why should you care? Maybe you're a music lover who wants artists to make a living off their art. Or a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from. Perhaps you're an immigrant who's sick of paying big fees to send money home to loved ones. Or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business.  And those examples are barely the tip of the ice­berg. This technology is public, encrypted, and readily available for anyone to use. It's already seeing wide­spread adoption in a number of areas. As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, the blockchain will create winners and losers. And while opportunities abound, the risks of disruption and dislocation must not be ignored." This book will be published on May 10th, 2016.

Happy reading!

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Humans First. Technology Second.

It seems simple enough. Let's put each other first, before the technology.

What is simple is not often what we - as humans - do. Think about it this way: what is the first thing that you touch right after you wake up? What is the last thing that you touch right before bed at night? If you are living with someone, is it your smartphone or your (smart) partner? The data doesn't lie. It's the tech, silly. Call it a sad state of affairs. We often forget, that in the deluge of technology we may be losing some form of human face, connection... reality. Kids toys now have iPad holders. Kids don't sit and eat dinner in the restaurant with adults, unless they can fidget with a device. Not all? Some? Most? It is a deeply philosophical debate... but a powerful one. Often the adults are no better than the children. It is a debate that some very big brains took on last month at the Global Peter Drucker Forum, and this is a fascinating look into internet culture, society, media and humanities. The debate, conversation and deep-dive involves Andrew Hill (Editor of the Financial Times), John Hagel (Director of Deloitte's Center for the Edge), Charles Handley (social philosopher and writer) and Sherry Turkle (professor of social studies at MIT and author of Alone Together, Reclaiming Conversation and more). The positions, questions, answers and discussion provides a ton of great quotes, insights and something for all of us to think much more about.  

Here is something for every business professional to watch: Global Peter Drucker Forum - Humans First - Technology Second. 

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alone together

andrew hill

brand

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center for the edge

charles handley

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jwt

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mitchjoel

peter drucker

philosophy

reclaiming conversation

sherry turkle

smartphone

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social philosophy

social studies

society

technology

trust

writer

 wpp

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #306

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: 

Bots won't replace apps. Better apps will replace apps - Dan Grover . "Everyone in Silicon Valley is talking about chatbots. I've written about them a bunch. But, here's a great counterpoint-- an amazing, long post on the history of mobile and desktop apps, in which Dan Grover argues that the chat bubble is ephemeral, and if we look at WeChat and others, we'll see that they've already realized conversational UIs aren't optimal. Definitely a chewy, essential read." (Alistair for Hugh).
Worth a thousand words? The power (and the limitations) of data visualization - Martin Wilcox - LinkedIn . "I was in Hamburg this week, and one of my hosts, Martin Willcox, pointed me at this. It's a teardown of one of the most famous infographics of all time, showing Napoleon's march on (and retreat from) Russia. Martin observes, with good evidence, that there's as much omitted as there is revealed, and that the author almost certainly had an agenda when creating it." (Alistair for Mitch).
The Pillaging of America's State Universities - The Atlantic . "How's this for a damning factoid: 'Between 2008 and 2013 states reduced financial support to top public research universities by close to 30 percent. At the same time, these states increased support of prisons by more than 130 percent.'" (Hugh for Alistair).
Postcards From Google Earth . "A collection of Google Earth glitches, or how AI sees the world?" (Hugh for Mitch). 
Nothing Twitter Is Doing Is Working - The Verge . "I still love Twitter. It's sharp, quick and fits in my nomadic, travelling, infovore-soaked lifestyle. It's also easy. 140 characters. Boom. Done. Still, they're a public company. They made $590 million instead of Wall Street's dream of $610 million this quarter. They added 5 million new users this quarter (when most people thought it would be flat), but Wall Street still wants more, more, more. Twitter's stock is tumbling, and many are now saying that it has lost its course. Now, many think that Twitter needs video to save them. They're going to shift from words to video? We live in a crazy world, don't we?" (Mitch for Alistair).
Why click-bait will be the death of journalism - PBS Newshour . "I have a love and passion for journalism, newspapers and publishing. I don't mind the click and link bait articles of the world. For every high brow magazine about global economics that I like to read, I am well-aware of the headline-powered journalism that makes people stop and pick up magazines while in line at the checkout counter of their local grocery store. The problem - as this article defines it - is that they are both not the same form of media. We have to be very careful about what we call journalism moving forward... especially, if we really want to hold politicians and public officials accountable for their actions." (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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abs newshour

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amazon

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

bots

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dan grover

data visualization

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human 20

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j walter thompson

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jwt

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martin wilcox

medium

mirum

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pbs

postcards from google earth

press books

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the atlantic

the verge

twitter

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wpp

year one labs

Facebook's Secret Inbox

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 to SoundCloud, 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: 

This is a public service announcement. There's a secret inbox in Facebook's Messenger. And, sadly, it's filled with messages you may have missed over the years. Open the Facebook Messenger App --> Tap on Settings --> Select the People option --> Then Message Requests --> Tap See Filtered Requests. You may have a heart attack. I did. Requests from years ago. No one is sure why Facebook did this. A lot of the messages are "spam," but there are many that are not. Here's a video on how to find them from Business Insider. 
Do you use an e-reader like the Amazon Kindle or a Kobo? I read about a book a week, and I mostly do this on my iPhone using the Amazon Kindle app. That could all change with this past week's announcement of the Amazon Kindle Oasis e-reader. It's expensive (close to $300 dollars), but look at this thing of beauty. Bright for day reading, sensitive for nighttime reading, months of power (yes, months without recharging) and it looks so slim and light. It gives you feeling of holding a book, but the convenience of carrying thousands around. I'm getting some e-reader envy.
App of the week: Microsoft Translator.

Listen here...

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amazon

amazon kindle

amazon kindle app

amazon kindle oasis

app of the week

business insider

chom 977 fm

chom fm

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

digital media

facebook

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google

guest contributor

heather beckman

iphone

iphone app

j walter thompson

jwt

kindle

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kobo

messenger

microsoft

microsoft translator

mirum

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mornings rock with terry and heather b

radio segment

radio station

social media

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technology

terry dimonte

twitter

wpp