Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 205

Saying No, Respecting Design And Other Secrets Of Creative Genuis

If someone asked you to name two of the best living designers and storytellers, who would you choose?

It's not even a competition for me. My two favorite creative forces in the world are Apple's Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive, and famed director and writer, J.J. Abrams. I love, respect, follow and admire them for varying reasons, but I can't think of two more impressive individuals, that I would love to invite to dinner (as the game goes). From the technology that empowers me to do the work that I do, to the stories, movies, tv shows, books and more that keep me entertained. These two are both forces of nature unto themselves. So, imagine my excitement to come across the following conversation. Vanity Fair held some kind of summit, and had both Abrams and Ive share the stage, in a moderated conversation with none other than Brian Grazer (award-winning producer, and author of the magnificent book, A Curious Mind). Truth be told, I'd be honoured to spend time with Grazer too, who is also a genius and deep thinker. 

Here's one hour that will blow your mind.

While I have seen Abrams be very candid about both his creative process, and how he hones in on the ideas that go from ideation to creation in the past, I can't ever recall seeing Ive so candid about his process, his relationship to Steve Jobs and what he thinks about design, technology and the future of our world. I first watched this presentation last Friday, and have since re-watched it another handful of times. My candid recommendation: have a notebook and pen nearby... here's a master class in ideation, creativity and how to sniff out winning ideas.

J.J. Abrams, Brian Grazer and Jony Ive on inventing worlds in a changing one... 

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #280

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: 

New font lets anyone learn Japanese - DramaFever . "Cool design idea: Japanese characters that include their Western pronunciation, making it easy for anyone to find the Western phonetics behind Japanese words. What's happened to typography online is pretty fantastic." (Alistair for Hugh).
On marketing's terminal addiction to personal data fracking and bad guesswork - Doc Seals Weblog . "Since he co-wrote The Cluetrain Manifesto, Doc Searls has been thinking about advertising. His notion of Vendor Relationship Management -- the antidote to CRM, where customers give vendors permission to reach out when they're in the market for something -- was prescient, but somehow online advertising got in the way. His latest bon mot calls personalization 'data fracking,' and I think he's got a point." (Alistair for Mitch).
How our housing choices make adult friendships more difficult - Vox . "How our crappy (car-based) urban/suburban planning makes it hard for adults to maintain friendships." (Hugh for Alistair). 
The Light-Beam Rider - The New York Times . "Relativity is still pretty strange (forget about quantum physics). To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the General Theory of Relativity, read through Walter Isaacson's description of some of Einstein's thought experiments - it will all seem much clearer (though still weird)." (Hugh for Mitch).
Facebook, Twitter and the death of the link - Fortune . "Focus on what you do best and link to the rest. This was the general thinking around online publishing for a long time. It was meant to help newspapers keep their focus, while empowering their readers to explore the Web (and, hopefully, come back). In this fascinating riff, Mathew Ingram, argues that the idea of linking is dying. No one wants to go anywhere. They want to stay where they are. This could change everything we know about publishing. Again." (Mitch for Alistair).
Harvard Law Library Readies Trove of Decisions for Digital Age - The New York Times . "Apparently, Harvard's Law Library has the largest collection of every trial decision since colonial times. The problem, of course, is that it's all stuck on a bunch of shelves is one geographic location. No more. 'Harvard librarians are slicing off the spines of all but the rarest volumes and feeding some 40 million pages through a high-speed scanner. They are taking this once unthinkable step to create a complete, searchable database of American case law that will be offered free on the Internet, allowing instant retrieval of vital records that usually must be paid for.' Kill those scared cows, right?" (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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alistair croll

amazon

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

doc searls

doc searls weblog

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fortune

gigot

harvard law

harvard law school library

harvard university

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambic

j walter thompson

jwt

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

mathew ingram

mirum

mirum agency

press books

social media

solve for interesting

the cluetrain manifesto

the new york times

theory of relativity

twitter

walter isaacson

wpp

year one labs

 dramafever

Google Zeitgeist, Drones And Amazon Will Be Suing People For Posting Fake Reviews

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:

Just got back from Phoenix, Arizona where I attended the highly exclusive Google Zeitgeist private event. It's like TED for Google's "best" customers. It should comes as no surprise, that I was exposed to some great technology. I had a drone deliver a smoothie to me (and my clip of it got featured on NBC News, and in other outlets). I went on a virtual reality field trip to the Amazon Jungle (kids will have this in classrooms very soon, and the tech is amazing), plus I watched the evolution of Google's streetview, which you can now use to virtually climb the vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park known as El Caption. All fascinating glimpses at the near-future of technology.
The technology can help you... the technology can hurt you. How much trust do you put into consumer reviews? Amazon recently announced that it will be suing over 1000 people for posting fake reviews. Their technology for catching bogus reviews is impressive. Not only are they striking out at companies that offer reviews for books, but they're looking in places like Fiverr, to see if people are offering up these services, and they're even scanning social graphs, to see if someone posting a review is a friend or too close to the author to provide a sincere review.
App of the week: Twitter's new feature called, Moments.

Listen here...

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amazon

amazon reviews

app of the week

chom 977 fm

chom fm

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

digital media

facebook

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guest contributor

heather beckman

j walter thompson

jwt

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morning show

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nbc news

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technology

ted

terry dimonte

twitter

twitter moments

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The Future Of Blogging

Episode #485 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Blogging has changed. Blogging is changing. As I experiment and think differently about the value of blogging (see: The End of Blogging), I thought it would be interesting to discuss blog, writing for the digital channels and what people want/think they want when it comes to content with Mark Schaefer. Mark is still an avid blogger (like me). He is a regular guest on this show, insightful marketing professional (and professor) and passionate communicator about how marketing has changed. He's written many successful business books (Return On Influence, The Tao Of Twitter, Born To Blog, Social Media Explained and The Content Code) and brings a wealth of real life experience to the discussion. So, the question is: how much longer should we be blogging in a world where it is getting harder and harder to drag readers back to our own space? 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 #485.

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mark schaefer

mark w schaefer

marketing blog

marketing podcast

mirum

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return on influence

social media explained

the content code

the end of blogging

the tao of twitter

twitter

How To Blitzscale Your Business

"Blitzscaling"... that's what LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, wants all businesses to do.

He believes in this model so much, that he is teaching a class at Stanford University out of the engineering department titled, Technology-enabled Blitzscaling. Reid, who is now with Greylock Partners (he's also a big investor in companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb and many others) is not only teaching the course, but this "blitzscaling" ideology will be the core of his next book. Here's how he describes it:

"It's not about being the first mover to market, but first mover at scale. Because we live in a network age, everything is accelerated and companies need to quickly grow to beat out the global competition. This is what I call blitzscaling."

The course is currently underway and they are posting some of the classes online at YouTube. Today, they published Class #8, which features an in-depth conversation between Reid and Google/Alphabet Chairman, Eric Schmidt. You will want to have a notebook handy, as this is a very candid and honest conversation. It's definitely not the typical content that you hear in the media from either of these two business leaders. In fact, I found myself completely transfixed by the cantor and conversations. They are here, in this class, to help these future business leaders, and what they are saying is powerful.

Tons and tons of business lessons... and they are right here for the taking... 

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stanford university

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youtube

 

 app

A Master Class In Presentation Skills

This is a what a presentation can and should look like.

Over these past few days, I have the pleasure of attending Google Zeitgeist 15. It's a very exclusive (and invite only) event. I best describe it as Google's version of TED. They curate both the content and the audience to ensure that something magical happens... and it always does. I've had the please of seeing Bryan Stevenson speak before. He is not talking about business, leadership, marketing or technology, but this will still be one of the most important presentation that you will ever see, if you are someone who has to get up on stage and present. Stevenson is "the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults." Yes, his content is extremely compelling, but watch the way in which he delivers. No slides, no tricks.

Stand. Be present. Know your content. Deliver it. Make it memorable.

It's not simple to do. Clearly, this is something that Stevenson has been working on, but look at how seamlessly he delivers. Watch his body language, his choice of words and how he structures his presentation to move the audience along. He provides familiarity, empathy and sense of immediacy to his content. It's stunning.

This is a master...

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business

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 app

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #279

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: 

This American Life - Cars . "A bunch of people I know told me this is the best episode of the iconic This American Life. Sell 129 cars? Bonus. Sell 128? Catastrophe. Dealerships are facing back-pressure from direct-sales models, too. If you thought Glengarry Glen Ross was a good example of sales pressure, you should probably listen to this." (Alistair for Hugh).
Chris Draws A Cartoon - FilmCow. "An animator's busy, so his friend offers to help him out by drawing the weekly cartoon. Rather than being nice and helpful, the animator comes up with the hardest script imaginable. What a nice friend." (Alistair for Mitch).
Day of the Dead In Chiapas - Fusion . "Artist Isaac Cordal's photographs of skeleton figurines in little corners of Chiapas, on the Mexican Day of the Dead. Absurdist and moving. These really hit me... it's interesting how some art does this to us sometimes, it feels like an only-just-perceptible conversation between your soul and some kind of 'Understanding', and in the best cases, you have to spend a whole lot of time thinking about it afterwards to try to make sense of it. I can't quite get my finger on what it is about these images that affect me so. Our mortality? Our smallness? The crumbling world around us? The cycle of life? The absurdity of it all? I don't know, but I'll have to look at these again, and think some more." (Hugh for Alistair).
If Everything Is So Amazing, Why's Nobody Happy? - VQR . "Persons of the Dialogue: Plato. CK. Scene: A cafe near Hell's Kitchen, NYC. Now, there's a conversation I'd like to hear." (Hugh for Mitch).
24 Pics That Prove 'Ken M' Is The Greatest Troll On The Internet - Smosh . "I don't laugh that hard when I see silly memes and stuff online. I may smirk. I may chuckle. I had not heard of Ken M, but his type of 'trolling' is right up my alley (and totally acceptable). Wow, is this hilarious. Read it, laugh and share it. Well worth it." (Mitch for Alistair).
What Is Art For? - The New York Times . "Seth Godin told me to check out the book The Gift by Lewis Hyde, when I was prodding him for something new, different and fascinating to read. I devoured the book. Loved it. Wound up picking up his other two books, before realizing that The Gift was written in the early 80s. Crazy how relevant it still is. More surprising, is this article. I was embarrassed that I had never heard of him prior to Seth's mention. Now, it's clear to me, that if you're a creative soul, you should know his story. This is his story." (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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alistair croll

amazon

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

facebook

filmcow

fusion

gigaom

glengarry glen ross

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

isaac cordal

j walter thompson

jwt

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lewis hyde

librivox

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managing bandwidth

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smosh

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the new york times

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 this american life

Ad Blocking And The Future of Advertising with Seth Godin

Episode #484 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Like many people in the marketing industry, I have been paying a ton of attention to the ad blocking world. The growth of this technology, and Apple's recent news, has created a stir of emotions and the recognition for change. Even famed marketing thought-leader, Seth Godin, weighed in on the issue with his blog post, Ad blocking. As I was writing my own perspective to publish here, on this blog, I realized that it might be more interesting to discuss the impact ad blocking, the future of advertising and what this all means to brands and marketers with Seth. As always, Seth was gracious enough to accept my invitation. He really needs no introduction, so 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 #484.

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seth godin blog

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #278

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:

Holloways: Roads Tunnelled Into The Earth By Time - Atlas Obscura . "There's something haunting about these almost-circular trenches, dug by feet and carts over centuries. In an era of tech, it's satisfying to see just how much the years can do with something simple like footfalls." (Alistair for Hugh).
Imogen Heap Performance with Musical Gloves Demo: Full Wired Talk 2012 - Wired . "Imogen Heap is the only person to have won a Grammy for both music and engineering. She's got a haunting voice, and likes to work on lots of tech. In this 2012 performance, she's using a set of gloves, with mics on wrists, which she invented to control samplers. It's pretty cool -- though it's no old-school bass." (Alistair for Mitch).
On Taphonomy: Digging for Dinosaurs in My Twenties - The Atlantic . "You should read this for many reasons, not least the pleasure you'll experience from this paragraph: 'I will look up the word 'career' in the dictionary and see 150 years ago it meant things like the galloped route of a wild horse, or the tack a ship follows when its sails are billowing. More recent definitions of career get you, 'a job or profession that someone does for a long time.' The word career, in other words, started off fun, and then got stuck mostly doing one thing for a long time." (Hugh for Alistair).
Jack In A Box: Can Twitter Be Saved? - The New Yorker . "Om Malik weighs in on the state of Twitter, and its new CEO, co-founder, Jack Dorsey, in the New Yorker. (It's not that long ago that that sentence would have been impossible)." (Hugh for Mitch).
Solu: the Finnish pocket computer that wants to take over the world - The Guardian . "When we think of computers, most of us think about laptops. When we think about mobile, most of us think about smartphones and tablets. What if there should be a new kind of computer? One that is so different, the only thing that we could really call it is a 'computer'... and yet, it looks nothing like the computer that we have known to date. This Finnish company is trying to reinvent the computer... and they may be on to something..." (Mitch for Alistair).
Was Steve Jobs An Artists? - The New Yorker . "This is a tough one to read... and think about. I've never felt comfortable calling the work that I do, 'my art.' It always feel pretentious. Still, when I am with my artist friends, their process and dedication to the their craft is very similar to the way that I work. Well, in this article, the question is this: Was Steve Jobs and artist, or was it all just marketing?" (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Tags:

alistair croll

amazon

atlas obscura

bit current

bit north

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

facebook

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

imogen heap

j walter thompson

jack dorsey

jwt

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

mirum

mirum agency

om malik

press books

social media

solu

solve for interesting

steve jobs

the atlantic

the guardian

the new yorker

twitter

wired

wpp

year one labs

 

Picking Your Brain For Better Ideas

Being an original thinker is near-impossible. Combining ideas to come up with something original is more likely.

It's a truth. The best creatives are the ones who are able to find a new middle in between two (or more) ideas that already exist. This is the kind of work that makes people smirk, remember and feel warm. The challenge, of course, is in finding enough inspiration... and that it's balanced so that there's not too many inputs (this creates analysis/paralysis... when there's too much of something, and nothing stays down long enough to percolate). There are certain individuals who are amazing at curating (have you checked out Media Redefined?). Then, there are the curators who take the things that have existed, and add their own perspective. This is the world of Maria Popova and her incredible newsletter/website, Brain Pickings.

Life-learnings for you to pull from.

In 2013, Brain Pickings turned seven. To celebrate, Popova wrote an article featuring her seven learnings after seven years of reading, writing and living. It was such a powerful read, that the people at Holstee turned the learnings into a letterpress poster. The basis of the thinking can also be seen below in a presentation that Popova gave earlier this year at The DO Lectures event called, Build Pockets of Stillness Into Your Life.

This is some of the most profound, inspiring and powerful lessons you will ever watch on how to live a life worth living...  

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build small pockets of stillness into your life

business blog

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jwt

maria popova

marketing

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