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Dan Pink On The Power Of Regret In Business And Life – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #868 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Are you looking for a way to move forward and create a life well-lived? Look no further than Daniel H. Pink and his latest book, The Power of Regret – How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. As a bestselling author and expert in business, work, creativity, and behavior, Dan’s insights on this misunderstood emotion are sure to inspire and empower. Based on unprecedented research, Dan’s latest work challenges conventional wisdom about regret and shows how properly handling this emotion can point the way to a fulfilling life. But The Power of Regret is just the latest in a long line of bestselling books (that I truly love!), including: When, To Sell is Human, Drive, A Whole New Mind, Free Agent Nation, and the grossly under-estimated manga beauty of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. Plus, if you’re not tuning into his newsletter and The Pinkcast, you really should. With his insights and expertise, Dan has become a respected voice in business (and the kind of thinker that I aspire to be). Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the greatest thinkers in business and behavior. 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):  #868 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 #868 – Dan Pink On The Power Of Regret In Business And Life

Welcome to episode #868 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #868. Are you looking for a way to move forward and create a life well-lived? Look no further than Daniel H. Pink and his latest book, The Power of Regret – How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. As a bestselling author and expert in business, work, creativity, and behavior, Dan’s insights on this misunderstood emotion are sure to inspire and empower. Based on unprecedented research, Dan’s latest work challenges conventional wisdom about regret and shows how properly handling this emotion can point the way to a fulfilling life. But The Power of Regret is just the latest in a long line of bestselling books (that I truly love!), including: When, To Sell is Human, Drive, A Whole New Mind, Free Agent Nation, and the grossly under-estimated manga beauty of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. Plus, if you’re not tuning into his newsletter and The Pinkcast, you really should. With his insights and expertise, Dan has become a respected voice in business (and the kind of thinker that I aspire to be). Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the greatest thinkers in business and behavior. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 47:31.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 Daniel H. Pink.The Power of Regret – How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.When.To Sell is Human.Drive.A Whole New Mind.Free Agent Nation.The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.Sign up to Dan’s newsletter.The Pinkcast.Follow Dan on Twitter.Follow Dan on LinkedIn.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #868.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #661

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:

Conspiracy Theorists Think Walkable Cities Are Really Open-Air Prison Dystopias Now – Motherboard – Vice. “File under ‘why we can’t have nice things.’ The latest conspiracy to take to Canadian streets—or rather, threaten to remove them—is that so-called ’15 minute cities’ that emphasize walkability over vehicles are actually secret prisons. Our lives have changed dramatically in recent years: Gig workers and solopreneurs; food and product delivery; remote work. A reconsideration of how we live is in order. And now the usual Outrage Pundits have taken up a new cause: How dare we make our lives more comfortable and local?” (Alistair for Hugh). Unpriced climate risk and the potential consequences of overvaluation in US housing markets – Nature . “Speaking of poorly-placed houses: This study in Nature looks at the value of US housing once climate change is factored in. It’s grim. Residential properties are overvalued by around US$200B when you build in uninsured flood risk. Florida and Appalachia are particularly bad, with low-income houses the most at risk. Worst of all, if you’re a municipality that depends on property tax and has overpriced properties, your government itself may be vulnerable. Again, coastal Florida, but also the Northeast and Northwest.” (Alistair for Mitch). A new study reveals how psychedelics can physically reshape our brains to help fight depression – Insider . “I haven’t taken any psychedelics in 25 years, when I had a few (positive) run-ins with magic mushrooms/psilocybin. But I’ve been following from afar the recent promising research around the use of these substances for treating a range of mental health issues, including depression and PTSD. They say that psychedelics ‘expand the mind’ and lead to a sense of connection with the universe. My experience of mushrooms was something similar (though a caution to all the young folk: I also have a friend who went to a dark place and then quit university right after a mushroom trip, so it’s not all good). In any case, recent studies suggest that psychedelics literally expand the mind, by re-growing new dendrites, the little branchy bits at the end of brain cells, that may have atrophied over time.” (Hugh for Alistair). The price of freedom – Engelsberg Ideas . “It’s been a nutty few years, with US election chaos and pandemics and George Floyds and Chinas and freedom convoys and Ukraines, among other things. As a neighbour of the USA, we Canadians have watched – mostly in a mix of terror and awe – at the upheavals down South, knowing at the end of the day Canada has no choice but to adapt to whatever happens in the USA. What’s interesting from all this, is the massive engagement from US population in politics. Canadians can barely get themselves to spell Poilivevre properly, let alone get excited or even excised about the selection of the new leader of the conservative opposition. For all the craziness of the US body-politic, they sure care. And in the long run, for all of the flaws and fears, caring — in so many different polarized directions — makes for a dynamism in the US that we just don’t have here in Canada. Let’s hope the US stays dynamic and together.” (Hugh for Mitch). What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? – Stephen Wolfram . “Am I done thinking and writing about creative ways to use artificial intelligent chatbots like ChatGPT? I am not. This article is a long and impressive read from a pure technologist. If you don’t know Stephen Wolfram, just click on his name and be amazed. This is a long read, but a very valuable one. If you can get beyond the technical chatter, it can really help you think about what prompts and uses this kind of tech can be used for. I recently tweeted that, ‘Using an AI chatbot to check facts is like using a search engine to write your next tweet.’ These lines may blur in the (near) future. But for now, it is my belief that when people think about this tech, they’re thinking about it as a competitor to search and not as a compliment to it. Which is what this is.” (Mitch for Alistair). The End of Grading – Wired . “Before my very eyes, I am watching the school system collapse inside and on itself. We make kids sit in rows, with people of their own age, and score their abilities based, primarily, on memorization and their ability to communicate that information. As we see the tidal waves of technology hit our shores (from the Internet to mobile to social to commerce to AI…), it seems like nothing could be more antiquated than the current pedagogy. And, of course, some schools have broken the mold, but how helpful is that if, ultimately, the kids are forced back into this very traditional and hierarchical structure as they get older? Slotting students into numbers… it seems absurd these days, imagine how future generations will look back on this system.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

How To Make Every Meeting Count With ThinkersOne

When Shopify announced the end of meetings as we know it, there was this sense that the business world was stepping away from time spent in meetings.

Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.
As the world continues to grapple with the challenges of hybrid, physical, and work from home, it seems like there are more meetings than ever (some good… some bad).
The biggest challenge with this exponential growth in meetings is making sure that every meeting has value, meaning, and actionable results.

How’s that working out for you?

For most businesses, they are struggling.
It’s tough to keep everyone engaged and inspired.

That’s where my new venture, ThinkersOne, comes in.

It’s a place where companies can now buy unique bite-sized and personalized video content from some of the best Thinkers in the world.
Have you ever wondered if someone like Whitney Johnson could record a personalized video about the pace of change for your next management meeting?
What about having Tom Peters go live for a quick AMA at your next weekly gathering?
Wouldn’t it be great if Jay Bear created a special video for someone on your team who has been going over-and-above for your customers, as a way to thank that team member?

Wonder no longer.

Now, you can access world-class leaders and experts to add a quick boost of inspiration, a fresh perspective on a challenge, or use it as a way to recognize and thank team members for their hard work (and, yes, we’re adding new Thinkers every week).

ThinkersOne has you covered.

But it’s not just about the big names.
ThinkersOne is also about personalization, by allowing you to tailor the content to your team’s needs and interests (the Thinkers are even happy to include some inside jokes as well).

It’s also a great gift for your clients.

Whether you’re looking to impress a new client or show appreciation to an existing one, a personalized video experience from a world-class Thinker can be a powerful and memorable gesture.
It’s a thoughtful way to show your clients that you value their business and are committed to their success.

ThinkersOne is simple to use.

Choose a Thinker from a wide-range of topics that matter to you, select from three exciting video experiences, fill out the form so that it’s personalized just for you, put it on your card… and you’re done.

Let’s face it we went from having to surprise and delight our customers to having to work equally hard at surprising and delighting our fellow team members.
As the world continues to speed up and change at exponential rates, it’s more important than ever to make sure that our teams and clients are inspired, engaged, and connected.

So, check out ThinkersOne today and put an end to boring meetings.

The Future Is AI-ncredible – Why Every Organization Needs To Embrace AI Technology

This new batch of artificial intelligence tools will change your everyday work life (if you let it).

That isn’t some braggadocious statement.
Not only have I spent a lot of time playing with these tools, they have now become interconnected with almost every aspect of my everyday workflow.
You can take that as a warning or an opportunity.
We’re quickly learning that for content creators (of any shape, size, or level of experience) — and when used properly – tools like ChatGPT (but well beyond the text-based tools) can be your:

Brainstorm Buddy.Junior Copywriter.Copy Editor.Voice Over Artist.Photo Editor.Research Assistant.Virtual Assistant.

Here’s my hot take on ChatGPT and other AI-assisted writing and editing tools:

I know they work, mostly because no one has been able to notice when I am (or when I am not) using them (like right now?).
And, if that isn’t the power of helping to create better work (with what feels like a hint of magic), well… I don’t know what is.

What we’re quickly learning…

Using an AI chatbot to check facts is like using a search engine to write your next tweet.
Using an AI chatbot to do all of the writing (editing, creating, etc.) is not as powerful as using it to assist in the beginning and the final process of the work’s creation.
Might AI disrupt search engines… they will… eventually.
Might AI get to the point where it can do all of the writing for the creator… they will… eventually.

The win?

Think assisting… not creating.Think research… not facts.Think frameworks… not boring content.Think questions… not answers.Think helpful… not replacing.

No more blank screen.

With tools like ChatGPT, you can get creative inspiration and bounce ideas off of it.
It can help you refine your concepts and suggest different angles and phrasing.
It can even point out areas of research that you may have missed, helping you to create content as a differentiator.
Whether it’s writing a simple email, coming up with an article to post, or editing a bio for a guest on Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast, I am constantly using AI prompts to fill the screen.
By filling the screen, the words start flowing.
The end of the blank screen has removed that dire moment of hesitation that happens when the spark is overcome by an empty page.
Now, there is always a brainstorm buddy to help the work to flow.
The prompts keep evolving until my brain connects the pieces.
At the end, the work gets put back in for some minor copyediting and suggestions.

A new keynote presentation.

Because of my workflow and time spent with these tools, I believe every organization needs to understand how these tools can help (every department).
I’ve built a new keynote presentation to address this new way to work.
If we truly want to decode the future, it starts here.
My goal is to provide a roadmap for how businesses can harness the power of AI to drive innovation, creativity, and storytelling.

Here’s the abstract…

The Future Is AI-ncredible
How AI Infuses Better Ideation, Creativity, And Storytelling In Business (And Your People) Today

The pace of change driven by AI in recent years is astounding, and it has the potential to continue disrupting businesses in the future. Let’s explore how it’s driving better ideation, creativity, and storytelling. AI is already revolutionizing idea generation by analyzing massive amounts of data and providing insights that were previously unattainable to anyone on your team. While there are undoubtedly concerns about the impact of AI on society, it’s critical to know and use the current platforms for positive business change. In this presentation, we’ll dive into the challenges and opportunities that come with incorporating AI into your content and storytelling. We will look at real-world examples of companies that are successfully (and subtly) integrating tools like ChatGPT and Descript into every level of how their team works. The future is AI-ncredible, and this presentation will provide a roadmap for how businesses can harness the power of AI to drive innovation, creativity, and storytelling.

If this might be of interest to your team or event, please do reach out.

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.

From Free to Fee – The Future Of Paying For Social Media

Social Media might start hitting you in the wallet.

Mitch Joel · The Future Of Paying For Social Media – TechTuesday February 21 2023 – Star 95.9 FM

It’s no longer a secret that these platforms are mature markets, and looking for new ways to squeeze money from users, while fighting for loyalty through new features and more cooler digital experiences.
Internet advertising helped launch the first two decades of monetization for social media, but the times they are a-changing.. and a-charging.
From a business model perspective, finding customers willing to pay for speed, visibility, customer support, status and more can help these platform to diversify their sources of revenue.
It is, as Kevin Kelly would call it, an ‘inevitable‘ that social media companies would follow other digital business models and start rolling out paid extras.
Let’s not be surprised that both Meta and Twitter are starting this process.

Here’s my radical thought…

I think it’s a good idea to pay for access to the social media platforms that work for you.

Is it about verification?
No.
A blue check mark used to mean status.
Social media is now turning a paid blue checkmark into a “verified user”.

This is good.

I’d rather have verification than status any day of the week.
I’d rather pay for quality than become the product through my data.

Now, the question becomes: What is worth paying for?

Meta has announced its new paid verification service for Instagram and Facebook users, providing customers with a badge signifying that they’ve authenticated their identity. Customers will also receive proactive account monitoring for impersonators and access to a real person for account issues.
Twitter, on the other hand, has relaunched Twitter Blue, where customers can pay monthly for a blue checkmark, edit tweets, see fewer ads (coming soon), post longer tweets (4000 characters!), and be featured more prominently on other users’ timelines (status), among other offerings.

Challenge!

What does this mean for those who can’t afford to pay?
Will this create an information gap?
Will this create a greater digital divide?
Will this clean up the dis-information?
Should security be a paid feature?

Should access be a universal right in a world where local news, etc. is increasingly harder to access?

What do we really want?
Accessibility and fairness in the digital space.
Will companies like Meta, Twitter and Snapchat be able to find the balance between monetization, inclusivity and everyone’s ability to enjoy a better quality of life on the internet?

That is the real question.

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….

David Sax On The Power Of Human Connection In A Screen Crazy World – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #867 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

If you are looking for an insightful and thought-provoking book that challenges the idea of a digital future, then you need check out, The Future Is Analog, by David Sax. David is a freelance writer and author who has lived in several cities across the world, including New York, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro (now Toronto). In The Future Is Analog, David questions the notion of a completely digital future, arguing that we need to embrace the reality of human experience to create a healthy future. With the Covid pandemic, we have been forced to rethink the way we work, learn, and interact with each other. David believes that the best parts of quarantine were the least digital ones, like baking bread, playing board games, and going hiking. David is also the author of Save The Deli, The Tastemakers, The Revenge of Analog, and The Soul of An Entrepreneur. If you’re looking to explore the role of analog culture in our modern lives, this debate is for you. 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):  #867 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

SPOS #867 – David Sax On The Power Of Human Connection In A Screen Crazy World

Welcome to episode #867 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #867. If you are looking for an insightful and thought-provoking book that challenges the idea of a digital future, then you need check out, The Future Is Analog, by David Sax. David is a freelance writer and author who has lived in several cities across the world, including New York, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro (now Toronto). In The Future Is Analog, David questions the notion of a completely digital future, arguing that we need to embrace the reality of human experience to create a healthy future. With the Covid pandemic, we have been forced to rethink the way we work, learn, and interact with each other. David believes that the best parts of quarantine were the least digital ones, like baking bread, playing board games, and going hiking. David is also the author of Save The Deli, The Tastemakers, The Revenge of Analog, and The Soul of An Entrepreneur. If you’re looking to explore the role of analog culture in our modern lives, this debate is for you. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 52:04.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 David Sax.The Future Is Analog.The Soul of An Entrepreneur.Save The Deli.The Tastemakers.The Revenge of Analog.Follow David on LinkedIn.Follow David on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #867.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #660

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:

When The Internet Becomes Chat – People Vs. Algorithms. “I’ve been writing a bunch of things about ChatGPT, democratized AI, and where humans are headed. I wish I’d written this article, which is one of the best takes on where search goes. Troy Young says the current, page-centric model of the Internet is Search > Result > Link > Page > Transaction. And with chat, this becomes Ask > Answer > Citation > Page > Transaction. This moves the focus of power from Page to Answer. It’s an interesting hypothesis, and his arguments make a lot of sense.” (Alistair for Hugh). Does My Son Know You? – The Ringer . “Not gonna lie, this is an emotional read. A posthumous article from Jonathan Tjarks, who left behind a 3-year-old son. What can a father do for a son who will outlive him, and have no father? How does he keep his memory alive, and make the son know how loved he was? My own dad died when I was eleven, and my sister only two, and I’m still figuring out what I never learned. As Tjarks says, ‘that’s the age when your parents go from authority figures to actual people.’ And as he says in conclusion, ‘I want him to wonder why his dad’s friends always come over and shoot hoops with him. Why they always invite him to their houses. Why there are so many of them at his games. I hope that he gets sick of them.’ I’m not crying, you’re crying.” (Alistair for Mitch). How to Build a Collaborative City: In Conversation With Sheila Foster – The MIT Press Reader . “Cities are such amazing entities. Think about all that food, water, electricity, garbage and sewage that moves in and out of a city over the course of a day week month. Regular cities are astounding; great cities more so. What makes a great city? How do we build great cities that truly deliver for (all) their inhabitants?” (Hugh for Alistair). Got a Granny? Build Her a House in Your Backyard – The Washington Post . “I think the housing-cost crisis could be one of the biggest challenges Canada is facing, especially when tied to our huge targets for immigration. If people can’t afford to live in Canada already, and we’re expecting to add hundreds of thousands of new citizens needing places to stay, well it’s going to be a fundamental problem in the functioning of our economy and society. One reason for the housing problem in Canada is zoning laws making it hard to build new houses. I don’t know how to solve the housing crisis, but I like the idea of thinking creatively about zoning, and allowing more houses to be built in backyards. Ideal? Maybe not, but certainly worth looking at.” (Hugh for Mitch). How ChatGPT Works: The Model Behind The Bot – Towards Data Science . “Like Alistair, I am spending a lot of time with tools like ChatGPT and many other AI technologies. I’m left wondering if there has ever been another technology in my career that has become so quickly integrated in my day-to-day work, so quickly and in so many different ways? I can’t think of a comparable. With that, I am also making several media appearances to discuss the impact of AI on work, culture and the society at large. My general frustration with these conversations is how little the interviewers really know about how ChatGPT works. I’ve bookmarked this article to send along, and it’s one that we should all read. The general sentiment I get from people who don’t spend a few minutes understanding this technology, is that ChatGPT is like a better Google… or search tool. That could not be further from the truth, but that starting point makes it even more challenging to discuss and debate the power and merits of these tools.” (Mitch for Alistair). When AI thinks and writes like Kurt Vonnegut – Ethan Mollick – Twitter . “I usually avoid these types of AI exercises. They seems elementary and lack the true spirit of how to best use these tools. If ChatGPT makes something rhyme in the style of Dr. Seuss, it usually doesn’t really feel like the great kid’s books writer. In this case, it gets a little more interesting. The creator of the prompt asks the AI bot to write two paragraphs describing eating a slice of cake. He then prompts the AI to learn Kurt Vonnegut’s famous rules for writing, and to improve the writing by using those rules… and that’s where it gets interesting. What makes this smarter is how they compare the Bing AI tool to ChatGPT. Spoiler alert: Bing wins.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

From Chatting to Chattering: ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft’s AI Chatbots Are The Talk Of The Tech World

The future of communications is here, and it’s all thanks to the rise of AI chatbots.

Mitch Joel · Move over ChatGPT, there are two new AI chatbots on the scene – CJAD 800 AM – The Elias Makos Show

Move over ChatGPT, there are two new (and possibly rushed to be released) AI chatbots on the scene Google‘s Bard and Microsoft‘s which is a part of their Bing search engine and Edge web browser. These chatbots are not your typical bots, they’re smart, playful, creative, and they’re constantly learning (and often wrong). With advanced artificial intelligence technology, they’re able to converse with users just like a human would. More importantly, they are helping humans create all kind of content (like this article). They’re making the tech world scream, and it’s not hard to see why.

My hot-take: This is an exponential advancement in technology that will have profound impact on how we work (and it has already started).

So what does all of this mean for the future of communication, culture and the future of humans?

Take a listen to this debate: CJAD 800 AM with Elias Makos: Move Over ChatGPT, There Are Two New Ai Chatbots On The Scene.