Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 201

The 11 Business Books That Shaped 2015

Another list. Sorry.

I tend to shy away from lists (especially ones that recap the year), and here I am breaking my own rules. Why? Well, in case you have not noticed, it's getting easier and easier to spend your time trolling Twitter feeds and Instagram images, and flicking your way through the Facebook newsfeed. For the most part, we think that we're more informed when - in reality - our knowledge is increasingly falling into the category of "a mile long and an inch deep." For true perspective - and time to think - nothing satiates me more than reading a good book (and, yes, I'm a sucker for non-fiction and business books). 2015 ushered in a bunch of gems that captured my attention.

Here are 11 business books that shaped 2015 (in alphabetical order)...

A Curious Mind by Brian Grazer. Famed Hollywood producer explains the power of curiosity, and asking questions in this very powerful book about a soft skill that many of us dampen and dismiss. Sadly.
Better And Faster by Jeremy Gutsche. Can your brand innovate? How about doing it better... and much faster? Here's how. 
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. The author of famed book Eat, Pray Love (and many more bestsellers), is back with a book about where creativity lives (mostly as it applies to writing, in this case) and how to qualify what a creative life looks like. Hint: we are all creative... or should try to be.
Bold by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Do you want to be optimistic about our future or pessimistic? Technology is agnostic (it is neither good nor evil). Bold is about the leaders who are optimistic and placing big bets.
The Brand Flip by Marty Neumeier. A wonderfully small book about the power of branding, with a massive idea and tons of insights.
How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt. We talk a lot about digital transformation in business. We learn from others. MP3s changed the music industry. For fans, they're fine with downloading (and, now, even more thrilled with streaming). For the industry, it was a disaster. This is how it all went down.
Louder Than Words by Todd Henry. It's hard to create anything authentic when you don't even know the sound of your own voice. Here's the roadmap.
Rising Strong by Brene Brown. Nothing great happens without making a ton of mistakes. Most of us make these mistakes in public. Don't worry about rejection or criticism, especially when it comes from those who are risking nothing.
Stand Out by Dorie Clark. Some people have an "it factor." Many people do not. So, is this a nature verses nurture kind of thing, or are there lessons to be learned from those who have true audience?
Steal The Show by Michael Port. The most successful people that I know are the ones who really understand how to present and communicate in front of an audience. Here's a book by one of the masters.
Why We Work by Barry Schwartz. It gets kind of meta. We work not just to pay the rent and cover the household expenses. Or, do we? What's the point in doing all of this stuff that keeps us away from our family and friends?

What books that came out in 2015 moved you?

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #288

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 Man Who Destroyed America's Ego - Will Starr - Medium . "Children should be raised with unconditional encouragement. At least, that's what Carl Rogers said, and after centuries of belief in Original Sin, it was a refreshing change. If someone was mean, or violent, it was because their ego was threatened. So, imagine the fun when, in 1996, Roy Baumeister contradicted all of this with science. Instead, he said, evil was often accompanied by high self-esteem: 'Dangerous people, from playground bullies to warmongering dictators, consist mostly of those who have highly favorable views of themselves.' /me gets popcorn, particularly after your link last week about violence and morality. Your move, McGuire." (Alistair for Hugh).
Unlocking Our Future Past - Solve For Interesting . "When, over five years ago, we started this Six Links thing, it was basically a way to share what we would have talked breathlessly about over lunch. Well, 'm going to break a rule here, and link to something I wrote, mostly because right now, that's all I'd talk about. Briefly, in the last year it has become very apparent to me that machines will soon be able to explain what's happening in videos, and they'll get faster and better at this every day. Which unlocks the history we have locked in video, and makes it searchable and quantifiable. This has huge, widespread consequences." (Alistair for Mitch, with apologies for narcissism).
Assisted Drawing - Samin - Medium . "I've linked to a few AI doom-and-gloom articles in our weekly share, but this week I'm highlighting some other, more interesting AI stuff, looking at how AI might help in creation of art (or, more prosaically, wireframes!)... There is so much that we do that will become so much easier, soon I guess. On the one hand, this is great - making certain simple things easier to do means we can spend more time thinking about and working on more complex problems. That's the theory anyway, though there is always a worry about what happens when you decouple, for instance, the act of sketching from the process of sketching. You might lose some important cognitive steps in creation. So, you might lose. You might gain. As with all tech advances, chances are... we'll do both." (Hugh for Alistair).
Japanese Bookstore Sells Only Only One Book Per Week, Which Is One Way To Decide What To Read - Bustle . "This could only happen in Japan. A book store is stalking one book - only one book - per week. Monday night, the old books get shipped out, new books get shipped in for Tuesday morning. They hold events every night to discuss their one book. I love this notion for many reasons. Our digital lives are so overstuffed with information - finding ways to pull ourselves out of this flood is critical to our sanity. Or mine, anyway. I love that it's one book. I love the sense of curation, of common public community, I love that you can go any night of the week to discuss that book - with other people. And, I love that the bookstore owner describes his philosophy as: 'Issatsug, Isshitsu,' which translates as 'A Single Room, A Single Book.'" (Hugh for Mitch).
10 Of The Scariest Scientific Hypotheses Known To Man. These Are Terrifying - Knowable . "It's the holiday season! A time for joy, celebration and family. Those special moments that force us to step back and appreciate everything that we have. What better way to celebrate this moment in time than to read an article like this? Yes, that is sarcasm. So, who are we? Why are we here? We have some theories, some philosophies and some science to help us feel comfortable with our inability to control our outcomes (or anything else for that matter). So, what if some of these scientific hypotheses are true? Enjoy your eggnog..." (Mitch for Alistair).
The magic that makes Spotify's Discover Weekly playlists so damn good - Quartz . "My theory is that the best algorithms in the world, will be the ones that we - the humans - never notice but always appreciate. An algorithm should be like an awesome waiter in a fancy restaurant. Your water is always filled and frigid, and they're never interrupting the flow of your evening. Yes, an excellent service. The place to spot this excellence in algorithms is happening - for many - in their streaming music services. Some of these computer-driven playlists are astoundingly great, and feel like they've been curated by an uber music nerd of the highest order. Read this to understand just how smart digital experiences are going to get, when it comes to personalization and engines of discovery." (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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Blueprinting Your Brand

Episode #493 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Ian Chamandy (along with his business partner, Ken Aber) recently published a business book titled, Why Should I Choose You? The book is based on their strategic planning methodology that helps brands define who they are... in seven words of less (not a typo). Their unique methodology (known as Blueprinting) help businesses put aside the typical jargon-based mission and vision statements that no team member can ever understand (and few implement). Once your brand knows - in seven words or less -who they are (and why they are), they can now use it to guide better decisions within the organization, and take better action. Business has changed and brands need to formulate messaging and strategy based on clarity to better compete. 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 #493.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #287

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: 

Resistance to last-resort antibiotic has now spread across globe - New Scientist . "Well, crap. Next to vaccination, the discovery of antibiotics is one of the greatest achievements of medicine. Before antibiotics, the world was ugly, messy, and lethal. People died in big, contagious, painful, awful ways. But, by not managing antibiotics properly (giving them out too easily, not finishing our prescriptions, and using them to make livestock bigger faster), we've used up the miracle. Time to wash our hands a lot, and be really, really careful not to cut yourself." (Alistair for Hugh). 
I'm Doing Work - Sluggish . "I'm liking Sluggish a lot. 'We keep using that word, productivity. Maybe it doesn't mean what we think it means. Why is an obsession with productivity making people do bizarre and pointless things? I'm sold." (Alistair for Mitch).
Religious children are meaner than their secular counterparts, study finds - The Guardian . "Alistair challenged me to come up with more morality articles, so here is one to chew on. Study shows kids who are more religious are less altruistic than secular kids. If you are secular kind of guy, like me, this confirms all sorts of hunches and biases I have (namely, that more religious people are more judgemental, and not as nice as their religion suggests they ought to be). Here's scientific 'proof' that my hunch is right!... Right? Well, wait... read my article for Mitch (below) before you make up your mind." (Hugh for Alistair).   
Here's Why That Study Claiming Religious Kids Are Less Altruistic Stinks. Updates - William M. Briggs . "A reminder that, usually, any article you read in the mainstream press that has the words 'study finds'... you should probably just toss in the garbage. This post looks at the study mentioned in The Guardian article above, about kids, religion and altruism. And tears apart any faith you should have that this 'study' means anything at all. The press loves (because, so do we, so do I) controversial topics 'proved' by 'studies'... no matter how thin the evidence, and how preliminary the study. The scientific method works incrementally: someone publishes a study, other scientists look at the study, and try to tear it apart - conclusions are either confirmed (slowly), or disproved (usually faster). But, of course, the mainstream press doesn't work like that: 'study shows' is all they need to get rolling... And we lap it up." (Hugh for Mitch).
Why Mars Should Be Independent From Earth - BBC . "OK, so let's say that we do actually colonize Mars (and, by the way, how crazy of a thought is that?). This is the stuff of science fiction, but we're hearing so much about it, that it's starting to feel like we may actually live to see human beings as a multi-planetary species (which, for the record, just blows my mind). So, let's assume that yes, in fact, we have the science, willingness, capabilities and citizens who will move across time and space to get there. Now what? Are they citizens of Mars and/or Earth? Do they have dual citizenship? Two passports? Stop laughing. This article thinks that whoever decides to move to Mars should have to renounce their citizenship here on Earth." (Mitch for Alistair).
Malcolm Gladwell Hands Out Book Blurbs Like Santa Does Presents - The New York Times . "Apparently, famed business book author and creative non-fiction writer, Malcolm Gladwell, doesn't mind blurbing a book. A blurb is that quote (sometimes on the front of the book, but mostly on the back cover) that enables a relatively unknown author to leverage someone who is more popular to endorse their work. Blurbs are a big part of the publishing business. Book publishers always want to know who will endorse a book. The bigger the name, the more celebrity that they have, the better. Some see blurbing a book as a great form of personal branding and marketing (I know that I do), others think that it can dilute everything (like this piece). I think blurbs are good (especially, if they're authentic). I also see nothing wrong with Gladwell using this forum to get more people to see his name in more places. Apparently, other people don't like this practice." (Mitch for Hugh).

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

"I'm Doing Work" from Sluggish on Vimeo.

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The New Newer Economy

Have you ever heard of resellers? What about the Supreme brand?

People will wait twenty hours in line, and hope that they can get their hands on some kind of product. No, we're not talking about the latest iPhone from Apple and we're not talking about waiting in line for Star Wars - The Force Awakens (which, by the way, is an incredible movie that I saw at 6:30 am today!). We're talking about clothing... and brand called, Supreme. I had seen the logo around, but never knew - or spent the time to understand - just how amazingly powerful of a brand that Supreme is. 

Here's how Complex describes Supreme: 

"In 1994, James Jebbia opened the first Supreme location in a small storefront on Lafayette Street in New York. At the time, Supreme was a brand for skaters by skaters -- even the design for the shop was more open so skaters could come right in with their skateboards. But today, 21 years later, Supreme is a legendary streetwear brand that's cultivated a cult following well beyond that original fan base. Continuing to release product in tightly controlled, limited amounts, the brand is as big as it wants to be in New York, Los Angeles, and London; a titan in Japan -- arguably its largest market.

Complex has covered Supreme for well over a decade (Complex was founded in 2002). Most of it was from afar; we wrote about releases or lookbooks. But for the last year or so, our Complex News team has been reporting from the Lafayette Street shop to cover in-store launches. Every story was the same: Lines snaked around the block, kids camped out for hours or days, sometimes even in subfreezing temperatures, just to get any Supreme item. Each Thursday drop was chaos. In April 2014, the NYPD canceled the Supreme x Nike Air Foamposite One in-store launch at the NYC flagship after a riot nearly broke out earlier that day."

There's something happening here.

We all strive to manage the brands that we represent. Few of us will be as fortunate as the brand architects behind Supreme. Still, times change. And, if the company controls the inventory and the brand too much, the crowd can (and does) often step in. In Supreme's case, many of those people lining up for their big drops would later take the merchandise and resell it online... for massive profits. Some of the markups were 1200% above the retail value (not a typo). The team at Complex started to meet these resellers. Admittedly, the idea of buying goods at retail, and selling them at a higher markup is nothing new, but there seems to be something else happening here. Watch how these resellers build their own platforms, brands and businesses through social media. Notice their strategies when in comes to eBay versus Instagram. Take note of Supreme's roles (or lack of one) in this sub-culture. It's a fascinating group of entrepreneurs, who take the notion of "hustle" to a whole new level, and offers up some very interesting marketing insights on branding, digital connectedness, social media, retail and the global nature of something that started off so small.

This truly is a fascinating 40-minute documentary (warning some of the language is NSFW): Sold Out - The Underground Economy of Supreme Resellers. 

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If This Is True, Brands Need To Rethink Everything

What can't a brand measure in this day and age?

Well, they can measure everything. With beacons and in-store technology they can - literally - know how many people are in a store, how they move through it, how many buy, and they can splice that data up into time of day and down to products. Online is similar. How long was someone on a website? What content did they engage with? When (and where) did they leave? Did the brand do anything to capture some form of a transaction (an email address, an online order, a purchase)? Have consumers engaged with our mobile application? What are they saying about us in social media? When they speak to us - directly - online, how often can we satisfy their needs? The list goes on and on.

It's an impressive list.

It's impressive what a brand can say, how they interact with customers, and what they do based on this feedback. Analytics, data and turning that information into something actionable is nothing new. Advertising is so highly measurable. Put aside the current (and very real) issues that our industry faces around deliverability and ad-blocking, and it's still an incredibly powerful place to see if a message works. From performance-based opportunities (like search engine marketing and email marketing) to affiliate marketing and, yes, even native advertising. For the most part, we're able to understand how a message performs in the marketplace like never before.

There is one exception.

Television. It's contentious, but it's true. Out of all of the traditional media channels, television is still the biggest in terms of advertising dollars spent. With that, you would be hard-pressed to find a senior marketing professional who believes that they understand the nuances of what works with television ads, their ability to measure the impact of TV against their economic outcomes, segmenting audiences, and more. All of this ads up into one major truth: Measuring return on investment for TV advertising is still a huge struggle. Reaching a specific geographic audience is tough. Being able to connect the message to a consumer's action is also difficult (unless the ad is a direct response creative).

So, guess where the brand's lion share of advertising goes in 2015... as we head into 2016? Yes, it's television.

How does this work? Brands are demanding - more than ever - efficacy, results, analytics and to pay less for their media - while getting it to perform better. Don't believe me, dig beneath the surface of what has happened this past year, with all of the media reviews (close to $20 billion are in play). So, the net result of this desire is to spend most of it on TV? Today, MediaPost published the article, TV Still Gets Lion's Share of Ad Budget. From the article...

"...brands still recognize that television remains a dependable means of delivering brand messaging; TV still gets the lion's share of the ad budget. However, says the report, in this era of digital advertising and big data, in which consumers often have a choice about whether or not to view ads, advertisers are more pressed than ever to demonstrate both value and a true return on investment for their ad spending... While brands value TV, digital is making inroads as an advertising vehicle, says the report. In the past three to five years digital has affected how companies allocate their limited budget dollars. Budgets for digital have increased at a much higher rate than for television... TV remains a challenging medium for advertisers in terms of connecting with the audience. While most advertisers are confident that they know the best networks to get their brand message to their target audiences, when companies struggle to understand which networks or channels work best, it is mostly due to an inability to measure a return on investment for TV advertising."

My stomach is turning.

I like TV. I watch TV. I pay a lot of money to have TV in my household. As do you. As do most. With that, this article - and the report that it is based on - clearly demonstrate something very frightening about the state of brands today: Most advertisers really don't know how to define return on investment for these spends, but they're still spending most of their dollars there. If you dig into this news item, you will see that nearly one third of the advertisers that responded to this study say that CPM was a key measurement factor. To translate that: if you paid less for a placement, it is considered a successful campaign. What does the price of an ad have to do with how well it performed, unless you're actually measuring sales? A cheaper CPM does not equal campaign success. Also, we do know that audiences for TV shows have dwindled when compared to the past, they are fragmented (many more networks and shows), they skip ads (or block them completely), and are less attentive/focused on TV because other screens and devices are abound. This translates as: you are paying more for less, which runs counter-intuitive to what every single Chief Marketing Officer has said in market.

Big data will save brands. 

Brands must optimize their spend by focusing on real ROI. They need to shift their attention away from a mass advertising mindset (hoping to find an audience, while exposing their messaging to everyone), to understanding how to become better marketers. This happens through data capture, lead generation-based initiatives and marketing opportunities that are not just advertising based. What grounds for complaint can brands have in a world where they're spending these ad budgets, primarily, in places that they can't measure, and build a relationship on top of. Bid data is not going to save them, because they're not even listening to the current smaller data sets that are screaming at them.

Advertising used to be the best strategy to build a brand. Advertising isn't the only strategy anymore... and it hasn't been for quite some time.

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Content Is Not Advertising

Sadly, many people believe that content is the new advertising. I don't.

The other week, I was interviewed by Rich Brooks for his Agents of Change Podcast (it runs about 30 minutes long). Do start the interview off, I was asked if content is the new advertising? This was my response:

No. In the past, I never said "content is the new advertising," if I did, I'd probably write an article saying how wrong I was. I do believe that content is media. Content and advertising are two very different things. People think advertising is dead because of social media, or messaging apps, and it's just not true. Not that long ago, advertising was a $400 billion business, and currently it's over $900 billion. So, it's actually grown - if not doubled - the ability for a brand to pay to have access to an audience. Plus, the myriad of places these brands can advertise with different types of media formats has increased as well. Every platform and channel now looks at ways to monetize their business model, and they allow themselves to rely on ad-supported initiatives for their revenue.

What has changed is this: how brands create ads.

The types of creative they can do has expanded and gone into different areas. Some of that creative looks a lot like content. Paying for attention is the core advertising. Content can work without the paid component. Content can be very effective, when brands think of a content distribution strategy. I don't just blog at Six Pixels Of Separation, record my podcast and pray that people come to me every day (or every week). What I actually do is I publish in other places (Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, write books, speak on stage, publish to Facebook Notes, Medium or LinkedIn), and I'm using those areas to access and create awareness with other types of audiences, that may not be so inclined to come to my blog or to my podcast, with the frequency with which I publish. With that, I can also add a layer of advertising on to that. If I'm writing on Facebook Notes, I can boost post that by paying for it to reach more of an audience. If I am doing something on Medium, that I think is really valuable, I can invoke Google Adwords to draw attention to it. So, I believe that advertising and content are very separate things, and my concern is that the two should not be confused or become inter-changeable. Sadly, a lot of the content that I see from brands on places like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, still feels more like an ad, than like valuable content. I have a snobby nose, and I poke it up into the air with a holier than thou attitude when I see brands trying to push off an ad as valuable content.

Do you agree? Where is content and media going?

You can listen to the full interview, right here: Agents of Change - Where Should You Publish Your Best Content - Mitch Joel.

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Lessons We Can Learn From How Teens Manage 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:

Teens are much smarter with technology than most of us are willing to acknowledge. The other month, there were a lot of stories in the mainstream media about apps that enabled kids to take pictures and share media that could be hidden from parents. Apps that looked like calculators, but were really password protected storage areas. Now, teenagers are going public with how they handle social media. For "everyone else" they have the traditional Instagram and Facebook accounts, but for their close friends, they have Finstas - or, "Fake Instagram." These accounts are their "real accounts." The ones that are private for just their friends. This may be a smart move for adults who want to separate real family and friends from the rest? 
In 2005, Alex Tew came up with a brilliant idea. He decided make a million dollars by building a webpage that was based on a 1000 x 1000 pixel grid... and he sold each pixel for a dollar = one million dollars. It worked. In fact, it did so well that he sold the final 1000 pixels on eBay, and it pushed the total well passed the $1 million mark. Well, last week Andre Alberto from Lisbon, Portugal begun an  attempt to be the world's first crowdfunded millionaire through a campaign he recently launched on Kickstarter. It involves backers pledging amounts between €1 and €7,000 to get rewards such as a signed book, a meet up in Portugal, and the chance to marry him. So far... not so good. While he's getting a lot of media attention, only €1,170 has been pledged. So, what do you think? Gimmick or smart move? 
App of the week: Laundry Day. 

Listen here...

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Leadership With Simon Sinek

Episode #492 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Simon Sinek created something much bigger than a splash when his TEDx Talk in 2009, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, garnered over twenty-five million views (and continues to grow). Around this time first business book, Start With Why, took hold and more recently, he published his second book, Leaders Eat Last. He's an optimist. He believes that business leaders can (and should) do more to make our world a better place. This is his mission, and he's working diligently to get all leaders to think about purpose... or their "why." 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 #492.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #286

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: 

Our democracy is completely unrepresentative: Citizens United, gerrymandering, and the real story behind the GOP's takeover - Salon . "So, with a title like that, not confrontational at all? But whatever side of the political aisle you're on, if you want to learn, you should listen to Lawrence Lessig. He's the guy behind Creative Commons, and this excerpt from his new book, Republic Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It. And what he has to say should make anyone angry." (Alistair for Hugh).
The State Of Hardware For 2015 - TechCrunch . "It's nearly the New Year, and that means an interminable list of top-tens, round-ups, and prognostications. But if there was one big shift in recent months, it was the Internet of Things came online. As one smart person opined, 'we don't have an Internet of Things; we have a lot of things, on the Internet.' But those things are becoming commonplace: We expect connectivity now. While some of those features seem daft -- does anyone need a tweeting fridge? -- hardware is the new software, and this is a darn good roundup of the state of the art." (Alistair for Mitch).
Most violence in the world is motivated by personal morality - Quartz . "There are a handful of psychological traits that I find fascinating, and depressing. One is the differences in how different stripes of humans assess risk, with a key political difference being how some groups of people see climate change as a great risk to humanity; while others see terrorism. Another strand that comes up again and again is our view of violence, some of which think of as repugnant, and some of which we think of as justified. How do me make that judgement so easily? Very often, personal morality drives our justification of violence. Nothing surprising there, I suppose." (Hugh for Alistair).
Time Picks the Best Space Photos of 2015 - Time . "And now for something to remind us that we are mere specs, in a glorious universe." (Hugh for Mitch).
Tech Startups Long for the Days of Yahoo's Binge Acquisitions - Bloomberg Business . "So, what happens when something like Yahoo fails, gets acquired, or who knows what stealth plans may be underway. It turns out that everything is an ecosystem. See, it's not just a buzzword. So, if Yahoo does goes away (or changes in some substantive way), what is the likelihood that it could stifle innovation, talent and new products to market out of Silicon Valley? My guess is that most would not have thought twice about it. Well, maybe you should." (Mitch for Alistair).
Bret Easton Ellis on Living in the Cult of Likability - The New York Times . "What happens when famed author and cultural commentator, Bret Easton Ellis, take a look at our reputation economy? A world where we toss out likes and shares at almost anything (without checking for facts), and a world where we're not just reviewing the restaurants that we like/dislike, but our Uber drivers are reviewing us - the customers? It's easy to say that it's good and it's democracy. It gets a little trickier when you really start thinking about the implications." (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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