Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 56

Apple Vision Pro – A New Reality For Our Virtual Lives

Apple Vision Pro was announced yesterday (in case you have been living under a rock).

Some are calling it the most significant new device from Apple in years.
Some are saying that Meta/Facebook/Oculus must be having a bad week.
Some are saying they could never imagine a world (on the street, at home or in the office), where people will walk around and work/play/interact in goggles.
Whether you’re “in” on the concept or not, we have entered a new era in virtual reality, augmented reality and the metaverse…
And this mixed reality headset is looking like the benchmark for how things might go.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had this to say during the launch of the Apple Vision Pro:

“It’s the first device you look through and not at… Your surroundings become an infinite canvas.”

Marketing jargon, hyperbole or truth… that’s a great line.
So, here we are.

The dawn of facial computers… or spacial computing.

Controlling the content with our eyes, voice and subtle hand gestures.
Star Trek... today.

What is the “good” and “the unknown” of Vision Pro?

The Good:

This platform seems much smarter than what we’ve seen to date with virtual reality headsets and platforms like Google Glass. The ability to expand any screen beyond physical matter is huge (think small apartments, remote working, airplanes, etc…). The ability to have multiple screens anywhere, and move the content from one to another is transformative.Expansive experiences like this work – humans love bigger screens and more immersive experiences.Experiences that place content on physical objects (desks, shelves, the floor) will create a different way to work and play.The ability to toggle between seeing through the goggles and going completely immersive into virtual with an “in-between” functionality is unique.Ultimately, this is a new way to think about content and our world.

The Unknown:

Will this start off as a niche product?Will this be something for the masses (out of the gate)?Will consumers be ok with the steep pricing? $3500 USD = $4700 CDN.How will we connect and what will that cost? Is it wifi? Mobile data? How do you use it “on the go” or in a plane/places without connectivity?This is the first generation, and it seems “limited” in the way the Apple Watch was. So, if the functionality is limited, it may take a while before Vision Pro is more akin to a MacBook’s functionality..Apple will have to condition humans that wearing goggles is good. Much in the same way the world adapted to having a computer at home or using a smartphone. It seems like those habits happened quickly, but it took years for those behaviors to take hold.

So… are you in? Will you get a Vision Pro?

What is Tech Tuesday?

Every Tuesday – for just a few minutes – I join Heather Backman (my old buddy from her days on CHOM FM and Jack 103) on the air at 95.9 Star FM to give a quick blast about the current state of technology, media and Internet culture.
We call it Tech Tuesday (and we do it in just a few minutes).

Once the segment goes live on 95.9 Star FM, I will post it here for you to listen in, learn, share and engage.

Mitch Joel · Apple Vision Pro – A New Reality For Our Virtual Lives – Tech Tuesday – Star 95.9 FM

Deb Mashek On Incredible Collaborations – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #882 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

What makes for great colloboration? Especially in this new world of business. Many people have mixed feelings about workplace collaboration. On the one hand, they know collaboration is essential to achieve complex goals. On the other hand, they know collaboration is a slog. People pull in different directions. There’s desperately little communication and even less follow through. One person ends up doing all the work. The result? Friction mounts. Projects fizzle. Great employees walk. This at the core of a new book called, Collabor(h)ate – How To Build Increadible Collaborative Relationships At Work. The author is business advisor, professor and executive, Dr. Deb Mashek. She is recognized as one of the Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Deb’s work has been featured in prominent media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Fortune, among others. She also regularly contributes to Psychology Today, sharing her knowledge and perspectives on a range of topics. Deb served as a Full Professor of Social Psychology at Harvey Mudd College, where she also held the position of Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She was the founding Director of the Claremont College’s Office of Consortial Academic Collaboration and the inaugural Executive Director of Heterodox Academy, a national nonprofit dedicated to promoting constructive disagreement on college campuses. Currently, she is the founder of Myco Consulting, where she assists business leaders in navigating the complex relationship dynamics that can impact timelines, bottom lines, and overall well-being. She is a member of the Association for Collaborative Leadership and the International Coaching Federation, and has been an invited speaker at prestigious organizations including the United Nations and the American Psychological Association. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #882 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #882 – Deb Mashek On Incredible Collaborations

Welcome to episode #882 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #882. What makes for great colloboration? Especially in this new world of business. Many people have mixed feelings about workplace collaboration. On the one hand, they know collaboration is essential to achieve complex goals. On the other hand, they know collaboration is a slog. People pull in different directions. There’s desperately little communication and even less follow through. One person ends up doing all the work. The result? Friction mounts. Projects fizzle. Great employees walk. This at the core of a new book called, Collabor(h)ate – How To Build Increadible Collaborative Relationships At Work. The author is business advisor, professor and executive, Dr. Deb Mashek. She is recognized as one of the Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Deb’s work has been featured in prominent media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Fortune, among others. She also regularly contributes to Psychology Today, sharing her knowledge and perspectives on a range of topics. Deb served as a Full Professor of Social Psychology at Harvey Mudd College, where she also held the position of Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She was the founding Director of the Claremont College’s Office of Consortial Academic Collaboration and the inaugural Executive Director of Heterodox Academy, a national nonprofit dedicated to promoting constructive disagreement on college campuses. Currently, she is the founder of Myco Consulting, where she assists business leaders in navigating the complex relationship dynamics that can impact timelines, bottom lines, and overall well-being. She is a member of the Association for Collaborative Leadership and the International Coaching Federation, and has been an invited speaker at prestigious organizations including the United Nations and the American Psychological Association. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 53:46.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Dr. Deb Mashek.Collabor(h)ate – How To Build Increadible Collaborative Relationships At Work.Myco Consulting.Sign up for Deb’s newsletter.Follow Deb on LinkedIn.Follow Deb on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #882.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #675

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 (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) 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: 

Who really ever wants a civil war? – Paco Nathan – Derwen. “Paco Nathan is a merry prankster in the tech world. Endlessly mischievous, he’s been instrumental in building some of the data and AI technologies we use today. He’s also worked for three-letter agencies and served in the military. Oh, and he makes a mean cider. Recently, he published a book entitled, Latent Space. It’s amazing … and free. He also built software tooling to help authors keep track of threads, enforce continuity, and generate artwork. His bonkers description of the book is ‘A fuck-around-and-find-out whodunit tale of neo-noir gore and messy flip-the-script cli-fi about artificial intelligence, animism, national security liberals, insurrection, climate guilt, weaponized media, advanced mathematics, conspiracism, global cyberwar, overlapping polycrisis, and the strangest of bedfellows.’ Highly recommended, and did I mention, free?” (Alistair for Hugh). AI in the Arts Is the Destruction of the Film Industry. We Can’t Go Quietly – Newsweek . “In addition to being a child star, writer, and director, Justine Bateman completed a degree in computer science. There are few people so well positioned to talk about the current writers’ strike, which hinges on a vital disagreement: The use of AI in the creative process of filmmaking. A decade ago, Robin Wright starred as an aging actor who accepts one final role — being turned into a virtual self so she can appear in movies forever. From the initial scenes, the film goes a little bonkers: It’s not just actors who are at risk: It’s society’s definition of truth itself. Prescient, to say the least.” (Alistair for Mitch). Randall Kennedy: The N-Word – History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power – The Lex Fridman Podcast . “I am such a Lex Fridman fanboy, because he keeps delivering, bringing on great thinkers, and tackling big issues with the time and space they deserve. I particularly enjoyed this conversation with Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law professor, focussing on race, law and freedom of expression. In 2002 (21 years ago!) he published this book with a very controversial title, probably more controversial today than it was then. In our world of inexcusable taboos, Kennedy, a lifelong advocate of improved race relations in the USA, makes the case that we need to be able to talk about hard issues. And that both right and left are moving to shut down any number of critical debates and discussions, not least about that ‘troublesome’ N-word.” (Hugh for Alistair). Why improv jazz could be the key to understanding quantum weirdness – BBC – Science Focus . “The wave equation and collapsing notes, how jazz improvisation and quantum physics reveal the universe (maybe).” (Hugh for Mitch). AI Panic = AI Hype – Douglas Rushkoff . “One of the bigger ‘problems’ that I have with the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence, is that we are seeing such a huge gap (polar opposites) in how the smartest people see the imminent opportunity/threat of AI, and where this is all going. Last week was a great example of this. In Montreal, we had the C2 Montreal conference. The two sessions that stood out for me was an AI conversation between Yoshua Bengio and Yuval Noah Harari and a separate keynote session with one of my favorite brains, Douglas Rushkoff. I would hold all three of these thinkers in the upper echelons of people I look to for salient perspectives on technology and society. Well, Harari and Rushkoff could not be further apart when it comes to AI. Harari is worried about the clear and present dangers of AI, while Rushkoff thinks this is all parlor tricks. And this is but one of his rants about how what we’re seeing isn’t even AI. Now, I consider myself smart enough to parse all of these opinions and keep pushing forward, but this whole ‘AI is going to kill us all and AI is not even AI’ is not helpful for the greater population.” (Mitch for Alistair).   NFTs Aren’t Obsolete — They’re Just Evolving into Something Much More Useful – Retail Touchpoints . “Does anybody remember or care about NFTs anymore? Are we bored of Bored Apes? Was that a bubble? A ponzi scheme? Quality digital art? The beginning of a new era? Time will tell. The tech hype cycle works this way… build it up…. watch it grow (and grow)… watch it implode… and then (the most important part) the real value starts to uncover itself. I am, actually, a huge fan of NFTs. Not the hype but the philosophy behind them. I do believe that digital assets should have provenance and scarcity (like everyday physical objects). This is a great read about where NFTs are at but – more importantly – how they’ve evolved into something that will have both a commercial and tangible value. Sure, we’re all hyped up about AI, but let’s not forget many of the other emerging technologies that will change the landscape…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Avishai Cohen On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

Avishai Cohen is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

Groove – Episode #102: Avishai Cohen by No Treble

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #102 – Avishai Cohen.

Who is Avishai Cohen?

Around this time last year, I was eagerly representing the No Treble community at the Festival International De Jazz De Montreal in my hometown. With that, I still bought tickets to see acclaimed Israeli bass sensation and his band, The Avishai Cohen Trio. In what seems like a lifetime ago, Covid was still foiling the best laid plans. Avishai Cohen‘s gear got lost in travel and his piano player never made it. Avishai soldiered on to a sold-out crowd that hung over his every note played. The Jazz Fest returns this month to Montreal (June 29 – July 8), and we have lined up a series of incredible conversations for this podcast featuring many bass players that will be live at the fest. Avishai is returning to the Fest with his trio to finish what he started (the tour surrounding the incredible album, Shifting Sands), while also on the cusp of releasing his latest, Iroko, which he recorded with Abraham Rodriguez Jr. If you have not been following the four-stringed adventures of Avishai Cohen, it’s time to jump on this non-stop bullet train of music. Born in Kabri, Israel Avishai has been a transformative figure in the world of jazz. His innovative approach to the bass has not only brought the instrument into the spotlight but also expanded the boundaries of jazz itself. His work has garnered him international awards and global recognition, and his unique compositions have found their way into films, TV, and other media. After moving to St. Louis, Missouri with his family at the age of fourteen, he continued his piano studies and discovered the bass guitar. The electric bass captivated him when his teacher introduced him to the music of luminary bassist Jaco Pastorius and Chick Corea’s Return to Forever. After serving for two years in an Israeli army band, Avishai took a significant step and moved to New York City at the age of 22. Despite the initial challenges, he managed to carve out a unique musical identity, performing on the streets and working in construction to make ends meet. His perseverance paid off when he enrolled at The New School in New York City and became a contemporary of artists such as Brad Mehldau and Peter Bernstein. A call from Chick Corea in 1997 changed everything. After listening to a demo tape Avishai had passed to one of Corea’s friends, Corea was so impressed that he invited Avishai to become a co-founder of his Origina ensemble and a member of his New Trio. For over six years, Avishai became an integral part of Corea’s music, honing his skills as a bassist, composer, and bandleader. Avishai’s first four albums were released under Corea’s label, Stretch Records, and already featured the essence of his musical vision and original compositions. His music, which blends Mediterranean and Latin influences with the use of horns and vocals, creates a sound that is truly unique. In 2002, Avishai created his own record label, Razdaz Recordz, which allowed him to follow his own path and record talented young musicians he believed in. So many albums over the years… so many tours… and Avishai feels like he is just getting started. Enjoy the conversation…

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

Listen in:  Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #102 – Avishai Cohen.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends). 

What Is AI… I Mean, Really?

Technology continues to face the problem of “definition.”

Many of the experts in the metaverse have a hard time explaining what the metaverse is.
Many of the experts in the Web3 world have a hard time explaining what Web3 is.
It feels like the same thing for artificial intelligence.

It seems like everything these days is AI.

Here’s what I think AI is: A software/code/algorithm that learns how to do things on its own, and also has the ability to explain its reasoning without ever being programmed by a human on either of those two main concepts.
I’m sure that’s simplistic.
I’m sure many will jump on that definition and add clarity (please do).
Maybe that’s why I had a good chuckle reading the Inc. Magazine article, Stop Calling Everything A.I. It’s Just Computers Doing Computer Stuff.

AI is real, but a lot of the hype and marketing jargon is simply riding on the frothiness of what the term “AI” delivers at the box office and the valuation of a company.

Some are even wondering if ChatGPT is even truly an AI, versus a human-programmed interface that is very good at parsing and organizing words based off of the inputs it continues to receive (and those inputs are of scale).
With that, it seems like AI might evolve beyond the current shiny object into a purely mundane functionality of how we use computers (think spreadsheets, maps, word processing, etc.).
It’s just “there” in everything… like copy and paste.
That’s the argument made in this article from The Guardian: AI will be everywhere, but its rise will be mundane not apocalyptic.

But… wait… there’s more…

What if AI is as advertised?
What if AI changes all the rules (and breaks them too)?
What if AI is the true automation and creation for the “thinking class”… then what?
Well, according to academic, writer and big brain, Yuval Noah Harari, we will create “The Useless Class” in relation to “The Working Class”… and we’re going to need a complete different approach to civilization than we thought.
And you can read more about that right here: The Rise of The Useless Class.

Where does that leave us?

As someone who has spent a very long time listening to every side of the AI story and beyond, it’s very clear that nobody really knows.
It’s very clear that the future used to be this opaque space off in the distance, and that now the future feels like it could turn things on our heads tomorrow.
And, what scares me more than that is the blatant reality that even the actual AI experts (the ones building these super-intelligent programs and building the companies around it) can’t agree on what this is or where it’s going.
So, maybe (and hear me out for a second), instead of worrying about what AI might be come, we should first concentrate on what we, the humans (you know, the ones who are creating this automation and replacement for us) might want first?

Crazy… I know.

What is Tech Tuesday?

Every Tuesday – for just a few minutes – I join Heather Backman (my old buddy from her days on CHOM FM and Jack 103) on the air at 95.9 Star FM to give a quick blast about the current state of technology, media and Internet culture.
We call it Tech Tuesday (and we do it in just a few minutes).

Once the segment goes live on 95.9 Star FM, I will post it here for you to listen in, learn, share and engage.

Mitch Joel · What Is AI… I Mean, Really? – Tech Tuesday – Star 95.9 FM

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic On AI, Automation And More Humanity – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #881 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Hailing from the Villa Freud district of Buenos Aires, he spent the majority of his professional career in the dynamic city of London, before making his home in Brooklyn. Meet Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a renowned psychologist, author, and entrepreneur, Tomas has made it his mission to decode human potential. With a flair for bridging the gap between science and business, he’s a bit like a Sherlock Holmes of the corporate world, using his keen intellect to solve the mysteries of talent, leadership, and innovation. Currently, he holds the position of Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a role that allows him to explore the realm of talent and potential. Beyond his corporate and entrepreneurial endeavors, he is a Professor of Business Psychology at two esteemed institutions – University College London and Columbia University. Tomas is also a prolific writer. He’s written ten books and over 150 scientific papers on the psychology of talent, leadership, innovation, and AI. His latest, I, Human – AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, takes readers on an enthralling and eye-opening journey across the AI landscape. Though AI has the potential to change our lives for the better, he argues, AI is also worsening our bad tendencies, making us more distracted, selfish, biased, narcissistic, entitled, predictable, and impatient. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #881 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #881 – Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic On AI, Automation And More Humanity

Welcome to episode #881 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #881. Hailing from the Villa Freud district of Buenos Aires, he spent the majority of his professional career in the dynamic city of London, before making his home in Brooklyn. Meet Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a renowned psychologist, author, and entrepreneur, Tomas has made it his mission to decode human potential. With a flair for bridging the gap between science and business, he’s a bit like a Sherlock Holmes of the corporate world, using his keen intellect to solve the mysteries of talent, leadership, and innovation. Currently, he holds the position of Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a role that allows him to explore the realm of talent and potential. Beyond his corporate and entrepreneurial endeavors, he is a Professor of Business Psychology at two esteemed institutions – University College London and Columbia University. Tomas is also a prolific writer. He’s written ten books and over 150 scientific papers on the psychology of talent, leadership, innovation, and AI. His latest, I, Human – AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, takes readers on an enthralling and eye-opening journey across the AI landscape. Though AI has the potential to change our lives for the better, he argues, AI is also worsening our bad tendencies, making us more distracted, selfish, biased, narcissistic, entitled, predictable, and impatient. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 50:21.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.I, Human – AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique.ManpowerGroup.Follow Tomas on LinkedIn.Follow Tomas on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #881.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #674

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 (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) 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: 

Did Scientists Accidentally Invent an Anti-addiction Drug? – The Atlantic. “We’re motivated by our needs. This served us well when lust and calories were scarce, but today, pleasures are only a click away, and our jungle-surplus hardware hasn’t had time to catch up. From refined sugar to opioids to screentime, the biggest human predicament seems to be addiction itself. Ozempic, originally a diabetes drug that’s been repurposed to stop obesity, has an interesting side effect: Beating back other compulsions. Patients report a drop in cravings—from cigarettes to nail-biting to shopping—altogether. The consequences are far-reaching: What happens when we stop wanting? If the risk of addiction goes down, how does our consumption of addictive substances change?” (Alistair for Hugh). Why The The’s Infected Is More Relevant Now Than Ever – The Quietus . “I had forgotten how great The The‘s 1983 album, Soul Mining, was. ‘This Is The Day’ came on at the climax of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and reminded me of my teens, and the feeling of pouring this strangely cathartic, synth-and-guitar, post-punk darkness into my brain. The only flaw in an otherwise perfect album is that (ironically) the CD version of Perfect is a weirdly slow ballad; there was a different, faster version on the cassette. The The frontman, Matt Johnson, was an articulate critic of Thatcherism and Britain’s dysfunctional symbiosis with America. But while Soul Mining is one of my top albums, it’s the successor, Infected, that really got noticed. They even made a full-length movie. Going down the resulting rabbithole, I found this 2016 piece on the band’s history.” (Alistair for Mitch). The The – The Beat(en) Generation – YouTube . “Here’s my entry into The The fandom… maybe the straightest song from their intense 1989 album, Mind Bomb, but one of my favourite tracks nonetheless. (Hugh for Alistair and video below). Bullshit Memes #8: An ancient Egyptian cucumber – Artistic licence or why i trust no one . “An archaeologist gets very annoyed (in a charming, self-aware way) with the Internet for slagging on archaeologists for (supposedly) not noticing that an ancient Egyptian ‘model cucumber’ was actually a dildo (when, in fact, it actually was not a dildo, due to archaeologists actually knowing what they are talking about).” (Hugh for Mitch).  AI and the future of humanity – Yuval Noah Harari at the Frontiers Forum – YouTube . “I spent a few days this week in Montreal at the C2 conference. Beyond a brilliant keynote by famed Media Theorist, Douglas Rushkoff, it was great to hear from AI big brain (and local superstar), Yoshua Bengio, who discussed the present and near-future challenges and opportunities in AI with one of my favorite thinkers, Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, etc…). Sadly, Yuval wasn’t at the event in person, but the conversation was absolutely engaging. They both argued for quicker government responses, checks and balances as we move closer to developing a system that will be smarter than humans. While humans may be the most intelligent species on earth, we also do the stupidness things… and their concerns are real. Without having access to that debate, here’s a deep-dive into why Professor Harari wants us to move faster to regulate AI.” (Mitch for Alistair and video below). Sentiers – Patrick Tanguay . “My main source of information is: Newsletters. I subscribe to an unhealthy amount of newsletters. I just love them. Even as they clog my inbox, I feel like I am ‘in the know’ by glancing through headlines and saving certain articles to read later. Within that mountain of email, I find Sentiers to be one of the best (I will usually hold on to the latest edition for a moment that I can truly savor it – it’s that rich in context). So much so, that I am happy paying customer. I’ve known Patrick Tanguay from the early days of social media, and to watch his ascent has been something. We had a nice little catch-up at C2 Montreal this week, and it reminded me that I don’t amplify his Sentiers newsletter as much as I should. If you’re not a subscriber, it’s worth it… promise.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

You Can’t Take An Influencer Anywhere These Days

There’s a new disruption at concerts: Influencers trying to create viral content.

It appears that individuals looking for social media fame and glory are becoming a nuisance at concerts by engaging in wild shenanigans, annoying noises, and demands on artists to play unusual songs.
Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal: Why People Are Getting More Disruptive at Concerts.
Some of them are holding up massive signs to disrupt the other concert-goers.
Some of them are screaming out at inappropriate moments to get the artist’s attention.

Whatever happened to tossing a beach ball around?

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have contributed to this trend by making it possible for any moment of a concert to go viral.
The behavior of these “influencers” is hurting the concert experience for others.
As if the prices of tickets and artists using a ton of backing tracks weren’t painful enough.

It goes beyond concerts.

We’re hearing about patients who are concerned that their therapists are trying to create content more than help.
We’ve already seen comedians force smartphones into a locked bag prior to entry.

Do these creators and influencers have a right to film and act as they choose?

It seems like the desire to create a quick piece of content to share online has become a buzzkill for everybody else at the show, obstructing views, causing early exits, and creating unruly audiences.
Now, artists are starting to respond to the misbehavior they’re witnessing from the stage, reminding fans that they are there to hear the music, not to make noise and distract from the performances.
Does the debate boils down to this: Are you attending the concert to enjoy live music with like-minded fans, or are you just there to get something for your TikTok channel?

What do you think?

This is what Ken Connors and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM this week. Listen in right here.

Mitch Joel · You Can’t Take An Influencer Anywhere These Days

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.