Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 223

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #245

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:

When You Are the Adversary - Quinn Norton . "I met Quinn Norton at Foo Camp a few years ago. She was serving homebrew limoncello (with an Aperture Labs label) to all comers, and telling stories. But it wasn't until afterwards that I realized just what a fearless storyteller she was, having ventured into thorny topics like Occupy and Aaron Swartz. In this hour-long talk at HopeX, she speaks about digital privacy--not for Edward Snowden, but for smaller attackers. 'Yes, the big bad guys still matter, but fighting a billion little bad guys probably matters more.' A thoughtful hour on privacy." (Alistair for Hugh).
Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science? - National Geographic . "There's been a huge push-back against vaccine deniers since measles made a reappearance in North America. But, most of the rebuttals have used science to try and change behavior, and that's precisely the wrong approach: it actually makes people dig in more. This National Geographic piece looks at the roots of unscientific thinking. Like it or not, if you're a scientist and you want to change the world, you have to deal with the messy minds of humans." (Alistair for Mitch).
Why reading and writing on paper can be better for your brain - The Guardian . "I'm a digital reader, and while I love a lot about reading ebooks, I've been thinking lately about all the things ebooks do badly. I'm not sure that 'reading on paper' is the necessary answer, but we have a long way to go to design digital ebook reading experiences that accommodate for the weaknesses of screens, while incorporating more of the benefits of digital. Anyway, turns out that paper is better for your noggin." (Hugh for Alistair).
Scrawled Insults and Epiphanies - The New York Review of Books . "One of the things that ebooks handle badly is notes readers put in the margins." (Hugh for Mitch).
Lockheed Martin's new fusion reactor might change humanity forever - Sploid . "This world of ours will require a lot more power and energy (especially with all of the issues that oil has caused us over the years). We also want life to be a lot more like science fiction, right? Well, this is another one of those fascinating pieces about what some of the world's biggest corporations are doing to plot the future. I don't, necessarily, feel like this is all being done for the good of all... it's obviously being done for capitalist reasons, but it's still interesting to see these bigs problems being tackled. And, we all know that a fusion reactor sounds like the right kind of energy to get me one of them X-Wing fighters!" (Mitch for Alistair).
Leonard Cohen's Montreal - The New Yorker . "One of the most iconic figures of our time. One of the most interesting cities in North America. How culture weaves through this person and the city he grew up in... and how it transcended the back alleys of the famed plateau area that inspired him so much. This happened in my backyard. It's just a few blocks from where I am writing this. We're all pretty lucky to live here." (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:

aaron swartz

alistair croll

amazon

aperture labs

bitcurrent

bitnorth

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

edward snowden

foo camp

fusion reactor

gigaom

hopex

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

lean analytics

leonard cohen

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

lockheed martin

managing bandwidth

montreal

national geographic

occupy wall street

pressbooks

quinn norton

social media

solve for interesting

sploid

the guardian

the new york review of books

the new yorker

year one labs

Welcome To The Future: Apple And Google Cars, Anyone?

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:

Heather B. is away on vacation.
It seems to be moving from rumour to fact in a quick way. If you were wondering what, exactly, Apple is going to do for it's next act (after it releases the watch that we're all waiting for)? Would you believe a car? There were a lot of rumours floating around two weeks ago (including some from the Wall Street Journal), but things got real and tangible last week, that Apple is working on an electric car. It makes perfect sense... especially if most vehicles become driverless in the near-future. So, is Apple building a car or are they really just looking to make the applications and user experience for cars?
What can you do in 30 seconds? How about shooting videos and uploading them directly on Twitter. As of last week, when you click on the camera icon next to the field where you can post your tweets, you can now not only take a picture, but shoot video. Many (including me) believe that this is the smartest thing that Twitter has done to build engagement in a very long time. The question - of course - is the same: is it too late? Have Instagram, Vine and even Snapchat stolen the mobile/social video thing away from Twitter?
Speaking of Snapchat, the popular online social network that allows you to send images and videos to friends and then have that content dissapear is now worth close to $20 billion dollars. The Los Angeles-based company is looking to raise another $500 million, so this would place it in the $16 - $19 billion range. Let's not forget that in 2013, Snapchat's founder (Evan Spiegel - who was 24 at the time) turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. Serious business in images that disappear once the receiver sees them.
App of the week: Google Translate (download the app from the Apple or Google store for you mobile device). 

Listen here...

Tags:

android for auto

apple

apple car

carplay

chom 977 fm

chom fm

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

digital media

evan spiegel

google

google translate

guest contributor

heather backman

instagram

montreal radio

morning show

mornings rock with terry and heather b

radio segment

radio station

snapchat

social media

soundcloud

technology

terry dimonte

twitter

vine

wall street journal

What Does It Take To Be A Billionaire That Changes The World?

Episode #450 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

We live in amazing times. We are both at the frontier of what is coming next and also in the midst of being connected like never before. We're seeing humanity develop, evolve and leverage technology to do amazing things. There are many pessimists, but Steven Kotler is an optimist... and a fascinating one, at that. Steven Kotler is an American bestselling author, journalist, and entrepreneur. He is probably best known as the co-author (with Peter Diamandis of the X Prize fame) of Abundance and the recently released, Bold - How To Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact The World. With that, Steven has also written The Rise of Superman, A Small, Furry Prayer, West of Jesus, and The Angle Quickest for Flight. But, this conversation is really about his new book, Bold (also done with Diamandis). It's a fascinating look at why some of the world's most known billionaires are changing the world by doing something more than just making money. The book looks at their entrepreneurial spirit and attempts to decode their success, so that each of us can better understand what it takes to make it big. 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 #450.

Tags:

a small furry prayer

abundance

advertising podcast

audio

blog

blogging

bold

brand

business book

business podcast

david usher

digital marketing

Facebook

flow genome project

google

iTunes

marketing blog

marketing podcast

peter diamandis

steven kotler

the angle quickest for flight

the rise of superman

twitter

west of jesus

x prize

 

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #244

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:

What My Hearing Aid Taught Me About the Future of Wearables - The Atlantic . "This week I'm at Strata, O'Reilly's conference on big data, data science, and ultimately, deciding better. The amount of machine data that we're making as a species is astonishing -- it's like we realized we can instrument everything online, and now we're furiously making everything else measurable. Some people have been wearing digital devices for far longer, though, and we can learn lots from them." (Alistair for Hugh).
The Experience of Resonance - How To Create Vibrant Conversations - E-180 . "A surprisingly good piece on what makes conversations -- the ones where you feel like you really connect -- work." (Alistair for Mitch).
Architects I work for just gave the best reactions I've ever seen in person - Reddit . "Architect intern feeds 3D model into virtual reality glasses, blows away everyone." (Hugh for Alistair).
Hard Truths: Law Enforcement And Race - FBI . "It's been a rough time for relations between police forces and various non-white communities in the US. FBI director James B. Comey tackles the issue head-on." (Hugh for Mitch).
The Shape of Things To Come - The New Yorker . "I tend to shy away from articles that have been making the rounds on Twitter and Facebook. This is one of them. It's a massive read (close to 17,000 words) on Sir Jonathan Ive from Apple. It's a pretty incredible read about design, lifestyle, success and what the future holds for Apple (a trillion dollar company, the world's largest watch company and a luxury brand). I'm actually sharing it here - for you - because I have a feeling that it got shared by a lot more people than those that actually took the time to read it... and think about it. It's worth it." (Mitch for Alistair).
Teddy Roosevelt's 10 Rules For Reading - Farnam Street . "There are lots of articles online about how to write. There are lots of articles online about how to present. What about some great articles on how to read? We skim. We glance. We share. We read bits in busy places. That's not real reading (right, Hugh?). I think reading is quickly become a long lost art form. Here's what Teddy Roosevelt feels about it. I agree with his wisdom. And, while I'm at it, Farnam Street is an amazing newsletter to sign up for." (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

apple

bitcurrent

bitnorth

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

e180

facebook

farnam street

fbi

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

james b cromley

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

oreilly

pressbooks

reddit

sir jonathan ive

social media

solve for interesting

strata conference

teddy roosevelt

the atlantic

the new yorker

twitter

virtual reality

year one labs

Are You Working In Digital Marketing? You Have To Be Drunk Not To Pay Attention To This.

Want to understand what the true digital landscape looks like?

Last May, I introduced you to Scott Galloway. Galloway has a think tank called L2 and is also a marketing professor at NYU Stern. He is becoming more widely known for his ability to captivate an audience with data (twinkled with his own perspective) about what is happening in the world of digital media. At the DLD conference this year, Galloway presented a fifteen minute blast of data titled, The Four Horsemen - Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. It follows in his previous presentation styles of declaring who the winners and losers will be in digital. Galloway admits that he can (and is often) wrong, but his points seem super-salient, and they are coupled with super-interesting data.

What is the digital world really like?

Amazon needs physical spaces to become a dominant retailer, otherwise they will suffer. 
Macy's could be a huge winner (if they execute intelligently/quickly on their digital strategy).
Apple will be a trillion dollar luxury brand, and the pending release of their watch will make them the number one watch company in the world.
Facebook is the Internet and Facebook is social media (don't believe the noise that young people don't use it).
Instagram was an amazing acquisition for Facebook.
Tumblr is a disaster for Yahoo.

Intrigued? I was. Want more? Here you go...

Tags:

amazon

apple

brand

digital

digital landscape

digital marketing

digital media

digital strategy

dld

dld conference

facebook

google

instagram

l2 think tank

luxury brand

macys

marketing

marketing professor

nyu stern

retail

retailer

scott galloway

social media

the four horsemen

tumblr

watch maker

yahoo

What Does Great Work Look Like?

Is what you are creating any great?

Over the years, I have watched many super-creative people with amazing taste quit. They didn't push through. They didn't keep at it. For as many great bloggers that I follow today, I have a huge list of people who were stunningly great at it, but they quit. They ran out of juice. No more steam left in the engine. Podcasting too. I've been podcasting for a long while (every week), and so many of the shows that I used to love (and could not wait to hear) have ceased to exist. Here is a powerful message from the one and only, Ira Glass (the man behind This American Life). He is a storyteller and creative force that we should all be paying more attention to. As someone who writes, I often grapple with the notion that what I am working on "is not quite good enough... yet." It's nice to know that this feeling of constant self-judging may, in fact, be pushing me in the right creative direction. I'm glad that I didn't quit. I hope you don't quit too.

He is a two-minute thought from Ira Glass about where you will find your most creative output...

(hat-tip to Erica Diamond for the find and for sharing it).

But wait, there's more!

If you're really into that two-minute tirade of creative inspiration, I will highly recommend that you watch this "in conversation" session with Ira Glass from a talk he did at Google back in 2013. It's over an hour, but it will inspire as well. Promise.

Tags:

blog

blogger

creative

creative force

creativity

erica diamond

google talks at google

ira glass

npr

podcast

podcaster

podcasting

storyteller

storytelling

this american life

writers

writing

Where Does Your Facebook Content Go When You Die?

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:

What's with this no "Family Day" in Quebec? Not fair! Still, please don't move away from Montreal because of it :)
David Carr passed away last week. You may not know him, but you should. Carr had a killer column in The New York Times called, The Media Equation. There are just a few writers who get me going like David Carr did. He was one of the best. He was 58. He collapsed in The New York Times' newsroom. He, literally, died doing what he loved best. Still, I found myself trolling his Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds, and seeing things he had posted only a few short minutes before he died. It was eerie... and it reminded me of this  idea of a digital will... still, those tweets and posts are the last we see from him. I will miss him and his words. 
On that subject, where does your Facebook page go when you die? Too morbid for a Monday morning? Still, think about it: if something does happen to you, what happens to all of that content, and can you create some kind of "digital will"? Not everyone is going to entrust someone with their passwords, but Facebook recently added in a function called, Legacy Contact, that allows this virtual next of kin to change the deceased user's profile picture, pin a memorial letter to the top of the profile, and respond to friend requests. The legacy contact can also download an archive of photos and posts. The functionality is currently only available in the US, so you may want to consider some kind of digital will, if you live in somewhere else in the world. 
Everyone's favorite online social network of the day, Pinterest, is now looking to flex its muscles and figure out how to make some serious cash. This is coming in the form of a "buy" button (which makes perfect sense). The picture-based digital scrapbooking site will make a killing if this is done well. Why not be able to both "pin" and "buy" without ever having to leave the site? Rumours abound that this buy button could happen any time in the next 3 months. Get those PayPal accounts in order! 
App of the week: Boomerang for Gmail.

Listen here...

Tags:

boomerang

boomerang for gmail

chom 977 fm

chom fm

ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

david carr

digital media

digital will

facebook

family day canada

guest contributor

heather backman

legacy contact

montreal radio

morning show

mornings rock with terry and heather b

new york times

newsfeed

paypall

pinterest

radio segment

radio station

social media

soundcloud

technology

terry dimonte

the media equation

the new york times

twitter

How To Get Your Customers Hooked On You

Episode #449 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I'm a total business book nerd. You knew that already. I do my best to read everything (literally). In the past few years, I have been (somewhat) disappointed in the genre. There has not been that many releases which have blown me away (and some of my peers). That being said, when the topic of business books does come up (which is frequent), the two books that always seem to get mentioned are, Adam Grant's Give And Take (he has agreed to come on the show at some point soon) and Hooked by Nir Eyal. Eyal believes that there is sweet science in creating products and services that get a consumer "hooked." With a background in the video gaming and advertising businesses, Eyal spent a lot of time thinking about this - exact - topic, where he learned, applied (and often failed) at developing the techniques used to motivate and manipulate users. This isn't about the creepy manipulation, but much more about what Eyal calls, "healthful habits" to grow business. 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 #449.

Tags:

adam grant

advertising podcast

audio

blog

blogging

brand

business book

business podcast

david usher

digital marketing

Facebook

give and take

google

hooked

iTunes

marketing blog

marketing podcast

nir and far

nir eyal

twitter

 

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #243

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 Travelling Troupe of Giant Marionnettes - Messy Nessy Chic . "This looks like something from Burning Man stepped onto the streets of France. Insanely large puppets, and demented makers, create amazing art on a scale that's almost impossible to comprehend." (Alistair for Hugh).
The Future of the Keyboard Synthesizer - Contollorism . "Moldover is perhaps the most interesting person thinking about musical interfaces today. He's designed mics and guitars as controllers; he recently posted this video about what some of the founders of Native Instruments are up to. For centuries, music has meant humans learning a new language and new muscle memories. Now, the computer can meet them part-way, with controllers like Ableton Push helping out -- showing which notes belong in a scale, quantizing, and so on. Part of it feels like cheating, but cheating the way using Google is cheating on a library. This quick video shows what's coming for tomorrow's artists." (Alistair for Mitch).
The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality - Quartz . "I've never really thought all that romantically about middlemen, but this article made me pause. Middlemen get a bad rap - they may provide some value, but in exchange, they squeeze the little guy, and raise prices on the consumer. One unsung virtue of traditional middlemen, though: little guys could aspire to be middle men. You work in a grocery store long enough, learn the business, open your own corner store, and build a better life. But, as the Uberization of the wold continues apace, that route to improvement of one's lot in life starts evaporating - for certain people anyway. Uber - and its ilk, such as its grandpa Amazon - use technology to add huge efficiencies to the middle, which enables them to reduce the cost to consumer, and price out all the other little middlemen. So, instead of thousands of workers and hundreds of middles, we get thousands of workers and one in the middle. Gooberzon. And one thing is for sure: if you drive for Uber, there's no way you'll open your own little Uber one day. This is progress. This is innovation. It's inexorable. So it goes." (Hugh for Alistair).
To all the young journalists asking for advice.... - Fusion . "And, if you're in the business of, say, journalism... here's what the Uberization of your profession looks like." (Hugh for Mitch).
Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace. - The Washington Post . "I have a nerd-on for office space. I've got it bad. I actually enjoy spending time in office supply stores. Not kidding. I've spent time watching how office space has evolved over the years, with Silicon Valley being ground zero for innovation. Open spaces... ahh! So modern. So smart. So needed. Right? Then, I became friends with Susan Cain (best known for her groundbreaking work on introversion, Quiet). Susan has written about this, exact, topic. We've spoken about it. People need closed spaces. People don't like the feeling of everyone being able to see them, hear them, etc... So, is the open concept good or bad for business?" (Mitch for Alistair).
Watch Willie Nelson Tell the Story of His Legendary Guitar, Trigger - Rolling Stone . "I am breaking a personal rule this week. I save a lot of content and - for the most part - I usually get a sense for when a story is so juicy that I want to save it during the week, and share it here. In all of the years, I have never tweeted out or shared a link earlier in the week that I wanted to feature here. Well, this is my first. I was so taken by this piece (and the video that came with it), that I am - for the first time - sharing something here that I have already shared out on my social feeds. Don't hate me. It's worth it. So, if I didn't have this whole preamble to write about, I would have probably just said this about the link above: sometimes, the instrument chooses you..." (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:

ableton push

alistair croll

amazon

bitcurrent

bitnorth

book a futurists manifesto

burning man

complete web monitoring

controllorism

fusion

gigaom

google

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

messy messy chic

moldover

native instruments

pressbooks

quartz

quiet

rolling stone

social media

solve for interesting

susan cain

the washington post

trigger

uber

willie nelson

year one labs

Bring Your Whole Brain To Work

How often do you get distracted at work?

All of time, right? It can be a simple calendar reminder or someone who is constantly over your shoulder. Deadlines and more have pushed human beings to be busier than ever at the work that they do. What do you do (at home... and at work) to align yourself? Don't worry, this ain't some New Age-y rant. It's serious stuff. We're seeing the concepts of meditation and mindfulness enter the workplace at a frenetic pace. Yes, with all of this speed, many people are proactively slowing themselves (and their brains) down. Guess what? The results are staggering. Don't believe me?

Watch this: David Gelless from The New York Times discusses Mindful Work at a Google presentation...

Tags:

authors at google

david gelless

deadlines

distraction

google

google talk

meditation

mindfulness

new age

new york times

the new york times

work

work environment

workplace