Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 58

Metaverse? Meta Who? Met-a-confused?

Meta/Facebook posted some very impressive numbers last week during their quarterly earnings call.

This quarter: +13%.
Year to date: +98%.
Now, it’s looking like Facebook is for “The Olds.”
Now, it’s looking like their big bet on the Metaverse (including changing their name to Meta) is evolving (to be kind).

It has left many people wondering: What, exactly, is the Metaverse?

I delved deep into this conversation on a recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast, with Cathy Hackl (author of, Into the Metaverse, and a self-described Chief Metaverse Officer).
But now, Business Insider has published a formal obituary for the Metaverse: RIP Metaverse.

Here’s what I think: The Metaverse has an identity crisis.

Is it online gaming like Roblox and Minecraft?
Is it virtual real estate?
Is it Web3, NFTs and blockchain?
Is it virtual reality goggles and headsets?
Apple is rumored to be coming out this summer with their own headset.
Is it virtual reality?
Is is augmented reality?
Is it just the future of how we access content and information after the mobile internet?

Is it all of things… making it none of those things?

If the Metaverse is real, does it already have a killer app?
For me, it has to be more than a future state of technology and much more than a current philosophy.

What does the Metaverse mean to you?

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 · Metaverse? Meta Who? Met-a-confused?

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.

Colin Coggins On Transforming Your Sales With The Unsold Mindset – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #878 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Do you have a work wife/husband? Whether you do or you don’t, I doubt it’s as strong as the one Colin Coggins has with Garrett Brown. They are business, teaching, writing partner, and keynote speakers… together… always. And, they have made waves in the world of sales with their innovative and entertaining approach that seamlessly blends sales principles with everyday life. This dynamic duo has captivated audiences around the globe and in countless boardrooms and meetings with their unique mindset-first approach to selling. Together, Colin and Garrett teach the popular course, Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs, at the University of Southern California‘s prestigious Marshall School of Business. The pair are also co-founders of Agency18, a firm dedicated to helping mission-driven companies adopt their revolutionary Unsold Mindset. With an extensive background as a sales and revenue leader, Colin has earned a reputation for his innovative methods of scaling revenue generation by fostering sales intelligence throughout entire organizations. His experience includes senior leadership roles at various emerging technology companies such as Bitium, Mobile Roadie, and most recently, Fabric, where he served as the Chief Commercial Officer. It was at Bitium that Colin first crossed paths with Garrett, working together as the company’s SVP of sales. Their partnership continued even after Bitium’s acquisition by Google, with Colin assuming a Chief Revenue Officer role while also advising startups, serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Techstars, and mentoring at Black Ambition. Today, Colin continues to invest, advise, and lead in the commercial sector while furthering his work with Garrett. Most recently, they published their first (and amazing) book, The Unsold Mindset – Redefining What It Means To Sell. In a world where everyone is either selling or being sold to, the true masters of the craft often defy conventional expectations. Through years of hands-on experience, meticulous psychological and sociological research, and comprehensive interviews with exceptional sellers (both in and out of traditional sales roles), the book unravels the mysteries of what sets these individuals apart. Astonishingly, the answer lies not in their techniques or strategies, but in the way they think. 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):  #878 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 #878 – Colin Coggins On Transforming Your Sales With The Unsold Mindset

Welcome to episode #878 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #878. Do you have a work wife/husband? Whether you do or you don’t, I doubt it’s as strong as the one Colin Coggins has with Garrett Brown. They are business, teaching, writing partner, and keynote speakers… together… always. And, they have made waves in the world of sales with their innovative and entertaining approach that seamlessly blends sales principles with everyday life. This dynamic duo has captivated audiences around the globe and in countless boardrooms and meetings with their unique mindset-first approach to selling. Together, Colin and Garrett teach the popular course, Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs, at the University of Southern California‘s prestigious Marshall School of Business. The pair are also co-founders of Agency18, a firm dedicated to helping mission-driven companies adopt their revolutionary Unsold Mindset. With an extensive background as a sales and revenue leader, Colin has earned a reputation for his innovative methods of scaling revenue generation by fostering sales intelligence throughout entire organizations. His experience includes senior leadership roles at various emerging technology companies such as Bitium, Mobile Roadie, and most recently, Fabric, where he served as the Chief Commercial Officer. It was at Bitium that Colin first crossed paths with Garrett, working together as the company’s SVP of sales. Their partnership continued even after Bitium’s acquisition by Google, with Colin assuming a Chief Revenue Officer role while also advising startups, serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Techstars, and mentoring at Black Ambition. Today, Colin continues to invest, advise, and lead in the commercial sector while furthering his work with Garrett. Most recently, they published their first (and amazing) book, The Unsold Mindset – Redefining What It Means To Sell. In a world where everyone is either selling or being sold to, the true masters of the craft often defy conventional expectations. Through years of hands-on experience, meticulous psychological and sociological research, and comprehensive interviews with exceptional sellers (both in and out of traditional sales roles), the book unravels the mysteries of what sets these individuals apart. Astonishingly, the answer lies not in their techniques or strategies, but in the way they think. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 55:32.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 Colin Coggins.Colin’s business partner, Garrett Brown.The Unsold Mindset – Redefining What It Means To Sell.Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs.Follow Colin and Garrett on Twitter.Follow Garrett on LinkedIn.Follow Colin on LinkedIn.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #878.

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 #671

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: 

The Dream of the Motorcycle Warlords – Anarchonomicon. “I’ve been spending too much time thinking about the heavy consequences of a coordination problem — the idea that humans can’t cooperate because they lack full trust, which makes us fall back to less efficient, more competitive ways. This is, effectively, the Great Human Problem: How do we take a species that evolved from competition and make it cooperate? There are plenty who think this is an insoluble, inscrutable problem, and that the overwhelming cost of coordinating society through things like the law and policing soon consume all of that society’s energy (bleak, I know.) If you’re the insurgent or the antagonist, you have an entirely different ‘tech tree’ of tools at your disposal. And on top of that list is … a motorcycle?” (Alistair for Hugh). Game Theory As A Dark Art – Less Wrong . “I’m a bundle of fun this week, aren’t I? Game theory is the study of competition and coordination. Most people have heard of the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Tragedy of the Commons. It’s why two players with imperfect information or misaligned goals often act in ways that seem to be in their individual best interest, but actually aren’t when seen from the perspective of someone who has all the fact and isn’t competing. This post outlines a number of scenarios in which game theory can be hacked, often ingeniously. Hopefully we can apply this sort of thing to Wicked Problems like climate change, AI alignment, and world peace. Hopefully.” (Alistair for Mitch). Evelyn Evelyn – ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ – Amanda Palmer – YouTube . “I’ve been thinking a lot about AI, art and humanity lately. We’ve all seen or heard or read poems and jokes and songs generated by AI, and however ‘good’ these are now, they will all get better. But at some point there’s a question of what exactly we mean by ‘better’, why does art matter, why does experiencing art matter, or creating it? It’s an odd thing, there are certain chord progressions, certain vocal techniques that will send chills down my spine (some might be the same for you; some will be different). With enough data, those moments are identifiable by AI, and (soon enough) will be easily replicated. When they are, will we have the same chills as when we listen to a real human making art? Maybe. If I had to guess though, excellent AI art will make live human art (the kind we consume, and the kind we make) more valued and sought after. I was struck watching this clip, of how deeply different my reaction would be to the AI version of this video, compared with the ‘real’ human version. But maybe I (or you, or our kids) won’t feel that way in 100 or 3 years, I don’t know.” (Hugh for Alistair and the video is below). Oscar Peterson Piano Lesson – David Funk – YouTube . “On the other hand, if AI can create more (artificial) Oscar Peterson and Dick Cavett conversations in front of a piano, would that be so bad? (Maybe it would, I don’t know).” (Hugh for Mitch and the video is below). Edward Frenkel: Reality is a Paradox – Mathematics, Physics, Truth & Love – Lex Fridman Podcast #370 – YouTube . “It turns out that Edward Frenkel is one of the world’s greatest living mathematicians, and the author of a book called, Love & Math. What I love most about The Lex Fridman podcast is guests like this. Super-brilliant individuals that are very well known in certain circles and completely unknown is most others (I had not heard of Edward before this conversation). My limitations with math happened in high school. It was, simply, a difficult subject for me and it’s a climb that I didn’t continue to ascend. But… wow… this conversation… many moments that left me staring blankly into the abyss and other moments that had my eyes welling up with tears. This is a powerful conversation that is also very challenging. This is why I want you (and everyone else) to stick with it. I will also use this conversation as a benchmark for what a true ‘podcast conversation’ should be: Something in-depth, intelligent and really different from the constant stream of self-promotional drivel that fills a lot of shows… sadly. Take a listen… and stick with it, please.” (Mitch for Alistair and the video is below). Reading books is not just a pleasure: it helps our minds to heal – Psyche . “I have always believed that reading isn’t just an escape or a way to grow… but it can heal you when you’re not feeling well. It turns out that my thinking is not unique to me. Bibliotherapy is a practice where people engage with literature to ease the pain of existence and find solace in difficult times. Throughout history, notable figures like Michel de Montaigne, Plato, and George Eliot have praised the therapeutic effects of reading. In the course that is described in this article, students were asked to share books, memoirs, and poems that had deeply affected them, and the result was an emotionally charged and moving experience for all involved. So… read! Read more… and read a lot… It turns out that bibliotherapy can offer huge benefits for mental and emotional health by helping anyone to find the right book at the right time. When incorporated into shared educational or social settings, its healing effects can be even more profound. Read this and ruminate on it.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Guy Pratt From Pink Floyd On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

Guy Pratt is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

Groove – Episode #101: Guy Pratt by No Treble

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #101 – Guy Pratt.

Who is Guy Pratt?

Guy Pratt, a legendary bass player and skilled musician, has been captivating audiences and inspiring fellow bass players for decades. Born in London in 1962, Guy’s passion for music led him to master the art of bass playing, eventually becoming one of the most sought-after session musicians and touring bassists in the industry. His remarkable talent and unwavering dedication to his craft have contributed to his impressive career and lasting impact on the world of bass playing. Over the years, Guy has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in music, including Pink Floyd (Delicate Sound of Thunder, Pulse, The Division Bell), David Gilmour, Madonna (that’s his groove on ‘Like A Prayer‘), Michael Jackson, and Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry solo work as well). As a core member of Pink Floyd since the late eighties, Guy contributed significantly to the band’s iconic sound, showcasing his exceptional skills and versatility as a bass player. With an extensive discography under his belt, Guy Pratt’s influence can be heard across various genres and eras of music. Guy has proven to be a talented songwriter, co-writing tracks for artists such as Robert Palmer, Bryan Ferry, and David Gilmour. He has also explored the world of acting and standup comedy, demonstrating his multifaceted abilities beyond the realm of music. As a natural storyteller and passionate musician, Guy co-hosts the popular podcast, The Rockonteurs, alongside fellow musician, Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet). He’s also the author of his own memoire, My Bass And Other Animals (which was published in 2009). Currently, he can also be seen live with Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets band. 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 #101 – Guy Pratt.

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). 

Meta-Morphosis – Facebook’s Financial Feats and Internal Turmoil

Is this a good or bad time for Meta/Facebook?

Last week, Meta (aka Facebook) beat expectations for first-quarter profit and revenue, resulting in a 13%+ surge in its shares.
The company added over $50 billion to its market value.
Meta’s stock has gained 98% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 8% over the same period.

I know what you’re thinking… “I thought Meta/Facebook was dying?!?”

At the same time, employees (and others) are calling for the head of Mark Zuckerberg, who has been accused of being out-of-touch with his team members, lacking a proper vision for “what’s next,” and missing some key plays in how the tech space has evolved in recent years.

Why does Wall Street love this?

According to the news sources:

Consistent growth in the user base. A strong business model. This focus on optimizing costs… or letting go of many employees, is often loved by the players of stocks. Integration of AI tools to optimize newsfeed and advertising opportunities.A newly announced share repurchase program worth $40 billion.

What is this “year of efficiency”?

Meta plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs and flatten its middle-management structure.
This is 1/4 of its workforce.
And, all of this is happening at a time when companies seems to be shifting from CX (customer experience) to EX (employee experience) – check out Tiffani Bova’s upcoming book, The Experience Mindset.
Now, more than ever, companies are doing everything that they can to reverse the trend of employee dissatisfaction.
Won’t it make the current employees more disenfranchised, as their team members are let go and the stress lingers for their own future?
Yes… and… when you remove so many jobs, you may actually find a core group of people left who really want to be there… and believe in the company’s purpose and vision.

What about Meta’s big best on the metaverse?

Well, I’d recommend taking a listen to this recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast with the “Godmother of the Metaverse,” Cathy Hackl.
Cathy is the founder and Chief Metaverse Officer at Journey, along with being the author of The Augmented Workforce, Navigating the Metaverse, and her latest book, Into The Metaverse.
We discuss, debate and don’t always agree the future of the metaverse.
For Meta (and others), there is no clear path to the metaverse (yet).
Portal was discontinued in 2022.
The Meta Quest devices have not been profitable for the company, with $13+ billion in operating costs last year.
Plus, Apple is rumored to launch a VR device of their own in June.
Will the customers/users follow?

What’s next for Meta?

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

Mitch Joel · Meta-Morphosis – Facebook’s Financial Feats and Internal Turmoil

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.

Link, Laugh And Learn – Why LinkedIn Should Be Your BFF

Is LinkedIn the best social media platform ever?

We need to talk about LinkedIn.
Mostly because it doesn’t get talked about as much as it should.
LinkedIn started back in 2002. I joined in 2003.
I’ve always said that it was the “dark horse” of social media (if you dig through the archives of Six Pixels of Separation, I’ve been writing about it since 2005).

These days, it seems like LinkedIn is the preferred platform for people to share – more than on Facebook and Twitter.

And, yes, people are sharing lots of personal stuff (not just work).
As a reminder: Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016 for around $26 billion.
As a reminder: LinkedIn has a paid/premium features that has been working/making money for many years.
As a reminder: Linked in also has a very robust advertising platform (especially when it comes to HR and recruiting, but it’s expanding beyond that).
And, LinkedIn these days is less about being the social network for work, as the lines between work/life continue to blur.

So, why should everyone amp up their profile on LinkedIn and spend more time there?

It’s (still) a great place to network (looking for new work/new opportunities?)
There are tons of great virtual events and webinars (LinkedIn Learning is great too).
The news feed is REALLY fascinating – where people are working and what they’re up to (with a little less politics/drama).
They have lots of great Creator tools – from live video to newsletters.
And now, they’re promising more and more interesting uses of AI.

So… is LinkedIn the best new/old place to hang online?

This is what Heather Backman and I discussed over on 95.9 Star FM for a couple of minutes today.

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 · Link, Laugh And Learn – Why LinkedIn Should Be Your BFF

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.

Emmanuel Daniel On The Future Of Money And Finance – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #877 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Forget everything that you think you know about the future of the economy, finance and money. We are going through a massive disruption (or transition) – and this isn’t just about crytocurrency or the crypto winter. When it comes to money, there is a lot of power, politics and lives at play. Emmanuel Daniel is a renowned thought leader in the future of finance. He’s an entrepreneur, writer, and model train enthusiast, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the conversation. Emmanuel has been at the helm of his TAB Global research and consulting house since 1996, providing insights through platforms like The Asian Banker and Wealth and Society. In his recently-published book, The Great Transition – the personalization of finance is here, Emmanuel envisions a banking industry revolution, shifting from platform technologies to unprecedented personalization. He dives into the roles of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, gaming, and other emerging technologies in shaping the future of finance and our world. Emmanuel’s global perspective is enhanced by his travels to over 100 countries, with plans to visit all of them. He shares his travel experiences regularly, and is working on his second book, tentatively titled, The Winning Civilization, due for publication next year. As a former member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), Emmanuel has held various advisory and consulting positions in both public and private sector institutions. He is a trusted confidante in leadership circles and a sought-after global speaker. A self-declared “Digital Nomad,” he splits his time between Singapore, Beijing, and New York. 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):  #877 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 #877 – Emmanuel Daniel On The Future Of Money And Finance

Welcome to episode #877 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #877. Forget everything that you think you know about the future of the economy, finance and money. We are going through a massive disruption (or transition) – and this isn’t just about crytocurrency or the crypto winter. When it comes to money, there is a lot of power, politics and lives at play. Emmanuel Daniel is a renowned thought leader in the future of finance. He’s an entrepreneur, writer, and model train enthusiast, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the conversation. Emmanuel has been at the helm of his TAB Global research and consulting house since 1996, providing insights through platforms like The Asian Banker and Wealth and Society. In his recently-published book, The Great Transition – the personalization of finance is here, Emmanuel envisions a banking industry revolution, shifting from platform technologies to unprecedented personalization. He dives into the roles of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, gaming, and other emerging technologies in shaping the future of finance and our world. Emmanuel’s global perspective is enhanced by his travels to over 100 countries, with plans to visit all of them. He shares his travel experiences regularly, and is working on his second book, tentatively titled, The Winning Civilization, due for publication next year. As a former member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), Emmanuel has held various advisory and consulting positions in both public and private sector institutions. He is a trusted confidante in leadership circles and a sought-after global speaker. A self-declared “Digital Nomad,” he splits his time between Singapore, Beijing, and New York. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 50:00.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 Emmanuel Daniel.The Great Transition – the personalization of finance is here.The Asian Banker.Wealth and Society.Follow Emmanuel on LinkedIn.Follow Emmanuel on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #877.

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 #670

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: 

A Chemical Hunger – Part I: Mysteries – Slime Mold Time Mold. “Veering away from artificial life, I’m sharing two things on humans this week. First up: Obesity is an epidemic. 100 years ago, 1% of the US population was obese, and it ate ‘more bread and almost four times more butter than we do today’ as well as ‘more cream, milk, and lard.’ Today, about 36% of the population is obese. The question is: Why? Most of what you think about the causes of obesity are wrong. This series of posts debunks many of the usual talking point, and offers some surprising ones: Did you know obesity goes down as altitude increases? Or that something suddenly happened in the 1980s to make levels climb? Or that obesity has increased as carb consumption has declined? The best current theory is that an environmental trigger — such as antibiotics, drugs, fast food, or additives like phthalates — found in our food or groundwater is causing our bodies to mis-regulate fat levels. They (spoiler alert) suggest a few things, including antibiotics, food marketing, PFAs (teflon, etc.), and lithium. I learned a lot from this series of posts; it leaves me thinking we’ll discover some trigger in the coming decades that’s similar to discoveries about leaded gasoline or smoking.” (Alistair for Hugh). Science, cessation, and human hibernation – Dr. Ruben Laukkonen . “Next up: It’s a surprisingly little-known fact that our senses submit information to our brain out of step — you see someone touch your arm before you feel it, because information travels faster as photons than across electrons. It’s your brain’s job to tell a convincing ‘story’ that makes this disparate input into a consistent, albeit illusory, reality for you. Whenever I think about this, I’m amazed we don’t talk about it more. Here’s a somewhat related look at what happens in the brains of people who can meditate well enough to basically shut themselves down, apparently for days on end. One of the things we don’t talk about enough is a side effect of humans all being online: Even very rare occurrences can be ‘run up the flagpole’ of social media, searched for, and studied. In this case, at least two research groups are analyzing brainwaves of ‘deep’ meditators, and, well, there’s something there. Is this a vestigial form of hibernation? How will what we learn about resetting your brain help therapy? Does this have implications for artificial neurological networks? It’s only scratching the surface, but the implications are huge.” (Alistair for Mitch). This Is What World Leaders Would Look Like As Wes Anderson Characters – Newsweek . “AI assisted art showing world leaders as they would look if they were in a Wes Anderson film.” (Hugh for Alistair). What I Think Is Going On 1) with China-US Relations, 2) with Their Relations with Other Countries, and 3) in China – Ray Dalio – LinkedIn . “More Ray Dalio on US-China relations and the brink.” (Hugh for Mitch). Evolution of Human Civilization and Superintelligent AI – Manolis Kellis – Lex Fridman Podcast . “I do not believe that we will look back and think that all of this worry, concern and excitement over AI was just media hype and hyperbole. I don’t. I think we will look back on these, precise, moments as, ‘what did society do?’ It might be good. It might be bad. Either way, it will be ‘different’. The conversations that Lex Fridman is having on his podcast are very (very, very) important. Here’s another big brain with fascinating thoughts, experiences and perspectives as our world develops something truly smarter than all of us. Follow this conversation… and dig in deep on the brain of Manolis Kellis. This conversation will bend your mind (and everything else).” (Mitch for Alistair and video below). Inside the wild, drug-fueled world of Big Talk – Insider. “I always find it hard to explain to people what I do for a living. ThinkersOne is the easy part (I’m an entrepreneur with a new startup helping to make bite-sized and personalized thought leadership more accessible to any organization). But, I’ve also been a professional speaker for close to twenty years, and the economics of that business are quite different from any other type of work (including consulting and teaching). Here’s a little romp behind the scenes that even include people like Don Epstein (from Greater Talent Network – now United Talent Agency)  who signed and represented me in the US (and beyond) for close to seven years, before I moved over to Leading Authorities. Enjoy the ride…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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