Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 7

Angela Chee On The Power Of Only – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #993 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Angela Chee is a keynote speaker, media and communication coach, and author of The Power Of the Only – Own Your Voice, Thrive in Any Environment, a book that challenges us to rethink the spaces we occupy and the voices we often silence… especially our own. In this conversation, Angela explores what it means to truly “own your voice” in an era defined by visibility and vulnerability, noise and nuance. Angela speaks candidly about how being the “only” in the room (whether because of race, gender, background, or perspective) is not a disadvantage but a profound source of power and insight. We discuss the emotional tension of the spotlight effect, where the desire to be seen and the fear of judgment collide, and how discernment (not just visibility) becomes the essential skill for modern communication. Angela opens up about the importance of balancing authenticity with intention, and why the journey of discovering your voice is never really over. It’s a practice, a reclaiming and a reshaping of self in response to a constantly shifting cultural landscape. We touch on the rise of AI, the tension of audience capture, the commodification of personality, and the difference between performance and presence. Angela’s perspective is grounded in clarity and connection, and she brings both wisdom and structure to the chaos of today’s media environment. Her Five Principles of The Power of the Only are not just a framework for communication, they’re a roadmap for identity and leadership in uncertain times. This conversation is for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the demand to “show up” in public, who wonders if they’re saying too much or not enough, or who is searching for the courage to take up space without apology. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider at work, in life, or even in your own skin, this episode reminds us that our difference isn’t something to overcome. It’s the very thing that makes us whole. 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):  #993 – 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 #993 – Angela Chee On The Power Of Only

Welcome to episode #993 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Angela Chee is a keynote speaker, media and communication coach, and author of The Power Of the Only – Own Your Voice, Thrive in Any Environment, a book that challenges us to rethink the spaces we occupy and the voices we often silence… especially our own. In this conversation, Angela explores what it means to truly “own your voice” in an era defined by visibility and vulnerability, noise and nuance. Angela speaks candidly about how being the “only” in the room (whether because of race, gender, background, or perspective) is not a disadvantage but a profound source of power and insight. We discuss the emotional tension of the spotlight effect, where the desire to be seen and the fear of judgment collide, and how discernment (not just visibility) becomes the essential skill for modern communication. Angela opens up about the importance of balancing authenticity with intention, and why the journey of discovering your voice is never really over. It’s a practice, a reclaiming and a reshaping of self in response to a constantly shifting cultural landscape. We touch on the rise of AI, the tension of audience capture, the commodification of personality, and the difference between performance and presence. Angela’s perspective is grounded in clarity and connection, and she brings both wisdom and structure to the chaos of today’s media environment. Her Five Principles of The Power of the Only are not just a framework for communication, they’re a roadmap for identity and leadership in uncertain times. This conversation is for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the demand to “show up” in public, who wonders if they’re saying too much or not enough, or who is searching for the courage to take up space without apology. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider at work, in life, or even in your own skin, this episode reminds us that our difference isn’t something to overcome. It’s the very thing that makes us whole. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 58:53.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.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 X.Here is my conversation with Angela Chee.The Power Of the Only – Own Your Voice, Thrive in Any Environment.Follow Angela on Instagram.Follow Angela on LinkedIn.Book Angela for your next meeting on ThinkersOne.

Chapters:

(00:00) – The Power of Communication and Visibility.
(03:09) – Navigating the Spotlight Effect.
(06:03) – Owning Your Voice and Power.
(08:53) – The Evolution of Personal Branding.
(11:52) – Balancing Authenticity and Marketing.
(15:11) – The Challenge of Expertise vs. Ego.
(17:53) – Media Literacy and Cultural Change.
(29:34) – The Shift from Value to Volume.
(32:15) – Navigating Audience Capture and Content Creation.
(35:41) – Redefining ‘Only’ as Empowerment.
(38:07) – Embracing Unique Identities in Leadership.
(42:08) – Innate Skills vs. Self-Limiting Beliefs.
(49:05) – The Rise of AI and Digital Twins.
(54:31) – Monetizing Individuality in a Capitalist World.
(57:37) – The Importance of Human Connection.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #993.

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 That Make You Think #786

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 (Just Evil Enough, 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:

Rival Consoles – Soft Gradient Beckons – Erased Tapes – YouTube. “I mostly listen to EDM and techno, and there are some amazing artists out there – Max Cooper, Moderat, Jon Hopkins. One real standout is Rival Consoles, a brit by the name of Ryan Lee West. This track’s only around three minutes long. The rest of the video is the behind-the-scenes explanation of how it was made: artist Anthony Dickenson made prints for every frame of the animation. Let’s just say it’s a lot. Love the track too.” (Alistair for Hugh). The False Gods Of Our Feeds – Rohan Routroy – Nothing In A Nutshell . “This is an astonishingly good essay on the current state of social media. I am almost angry at how many sentences in it are small revelations, new perspectives on our online, screen-scrolling society. ‘The rosary bead has been replaced by the endless scroll of the feed, which farms our attention to anoint the gods of our era.’ I love our Six Links tradition in part because it’s not algorithmic, and this is the kind of writing I immediately save for our link exchange when I find it.” (Alistair for Mitch).  The Amount Of Electricity Generated From Solar Is Suddenly Unbelievable – Joe Wilkins – Futurism . “The numbers are a bit mind-boggling, but here’s one: 93% of new installed electric generation capacity in the USA is solar. There’s more…” (Hugh for Alistair).  Adapting Canadian Energy Policy For AI – Energy Security Podcast3 – Canadian Global Affairs Institute . “More podcasts with my recent find, about Canada and energy. This one about more mind-boggling things: how AI will impact energy production and consumption, and how Canadian companies might benefit (the opening 15 mins or so are on another topic altogether).”  (Hugh for Mitch). AI Bands, TikTok, Spotify & The Death Of Songwriting – Rick Beato – Modern Wisdom – YouTube . “When it comes to listening to people talk about music, my two favorites are Rick Beato and Brian Eno (oh, wow, I wonder what it would take to make that conversation happen on Ricj’s podcast?). In the meanitime, Rick just popped into my feed in this appearance of the Modern Wisdom Podcast with Chris Williamson (I’m a fan of this show too). In this conversation, Rick takes us on a deep dive into the collision of AI and music, spotlighting how new tools (from AI-generated band tracks and bands to TikToks) are reshaping the craft of songwriting. He argues that while algorithms can produce stunning ‘songs’, that they lack the human spark born from lived experience, emotional nuance and raw imperfection. Rick warns that as streaming platforms reward bite-sized content, artists are being squeezed into creating for virality rather than artistic integrity… think 60-second loops over full-length compositions and albums. His critique: if creativity becomes formulaic, we risk hollowing out the musical ecosystem, trading depth for dopamine hits. But he also finds hope that human musicians adapt by leaning into authenticity, improvisation and storytelling, traits AI can’t replicate… yet…” (Mitch for Alistair). DHH: Future Of Programming, AI, Ruby On Rails, Productivity & Parenting – Lex Fridman Podcast #474 – YouTube . “I would usually not post a link to anything that I haven’t thoroughly gone through and vetted. So be forewarned that this might be the first. I’m saying this because… and I can’t even believe I’m saying this… This is a 6-hour podcast! One episode. Six hours. I’m not completely surprised that a six hour podcast is being hosted by Lex Fridman. And I am very happy to see that the guest is DHH (aka David Heinemeier Hansson). I’m a huge fan of David’s thinking and his work from his business, 37Signals and Basecamp to the books he’s co-authored. There was a really interesting part in this interview, whjere DHH delivers a thoughtful rejection of the idea that coding is going extinct in the age of AI (hello, vibe coding!). He arugues (and I agree) that programming isn’t just typing… it’s finger-craft, muscle memory and intuition. You don’t learn guitar by reading chord charts, and you don’t learn to code by prompting an LLM. As with everything: You learn by doing. Sure, AI chat tools can feel like a boost but heavily leaning on AI to write code is a different beast. The real danger? Skill atrophy. If you automate too much, you lose touch with the craft, context and creativity that comes from building something yourself (see my other link in relation to this, but about music). For companies and creators, the clear message is: use AI to support your work but don’t let it write your code for you. Otherwise, you risk outsourcing not just effort but expertise… and that’s how innovation stops.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

The CGAI Podcast Network · Adapting Canadian Energy Policy for AI

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.

AI Won’t Wait For You

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea that AI won’t wait for you (or me).

Technology doesn’t change who we are.
It reveals who we are.
And then… it amplifies it.

If you’re driven, curious and awake to possibility, technology feels like a miracle. 

It feels like a miracle to me (each and every day).
A lever that multiplies effort, accelerates impact and extends reach. 
You write, and it gets distributed everywhere and to everyone. 
You build, and it scales to reveal possibilities you didn’t see coming.
You imagine, and it iterates and offers optionality.

But if you’re disconnected, distracted or even doubtful… it can calcify that too. 

It will show you the ugly and amplify that at scale.
You delay and the feed refreshes. 
You doubt and the algorithms whisper “why bother?” 
You coast and the system rewards your disengagement with more comfort, more numbing, more noise and more opinions (that you don’t need in your life).

This is the strange bargain of our age:

Technology doesn’t just create opportunity, it widens the distance between those who leap and those who wait.
It’s never been easier to make something real.
It’s also never been easier to make excuses.
The internet didn’t level the playing field.

It tilted it.

Tilted it toward urgency.
Tilted it toward agency.
Tilted it toward those willing to act (even imperfectly), while others are still waiting for certainty or permission or the right moment in time.

I don’t think we’re talking enough about the cultural divide being shaped right now because of AI. 

There’s a quiet shift happening… most people don’t see it yet.
It’s not between the haves and have-nots (which is a real issue as well), but between the doers and the drifters. 
Between those who are learning how to think with machines… and those who hope this will all go away (and the many who are in between these two divides). 
Between companies that treat AI like a co-pilot and those still questioning, asking and searching in a world where we’ve solved for that.

This isn’t a race in the traditional sense. 

It’s not about hustle or speed or growth for its own sake.
It’s about posture.
It’s about presence.
It’s about deciding to engage with this moment fully (knowing full well that it won’t wait for you).

Because technology doesn’t care.

It will serve whoever picks it up.
So we are faced with another choice (and it feels more momentous than the early 2000s when the Internet first commercialized).

To shape the future or let it shape you.

To wield the tools or become one.
To show up or scroll past.
It’s another one of those “moments in time.”
The gap is widening.

Where will you stand?

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.

Where The Real Work Really Happens

I used to think the story of business success was about the beginning and the end.

The spark of the idea… the thrill of launch. 
The pitch decks… the headlines.
Then… the exit! 
The acquisition… the IPO… the big “exciting” announcement post with champagne and rocket emojis.

But lately, I’ve been thinking mostly about the part in between.

The part that doesn’t get a TED Talk or a Netflix docuseries.
The part we don’t celebrate or glamorize.
The middle… the grind… the good kind of grind.
The years where you’re just… working.
Delivering value… refining the market fit… serving customers… building trust. 
Reinventing things quietly while no one’s watching.

We don’t talk about that part nearly enough, do we?

For my dollar, that’s where everything actually happens.
I’ve been sitting with this because (if we’re being honest) we’ve built a professional culture obsessed with velocity.
Founders are expected to scale fast.
Employees are expected to grow fast and move faster.
Marketers are expected to capture attention fast or get lost in the scroll.

Everything is optimized for motion… but not for meaning.

Here’s the truth (for me) that keeps showing up:
The companies that last… and the people who still love their work decades in… they’re not obsessed with speed.
They’re obsessed with the craft of it.
With the relationships they’re nurturing.
With the culture they’re creating.
With the teams they’ve stuck with through the ugly parts.
With the customers they’ve earned (and re-earned) through years of quiet consistency.

That’s the middle.

And it’s not a waiting room for something better.. it is the actual work.
We’ve been sold a narrative that the point of a company is to grow it, sell it and go again (I’ve been a part of this problem).
As I age, I know that the deeper success is showing up for the long haul… without needing bellyrubs and lollipops in the boardroom to prove you’re still in the game.
Maybe the real flex isn’t launching something new.
It’s not exiting something big.

It’s staying…

Staying curious.
Staying principled.
Staying committed to building something that still matters… even if the headlines have moved on.
Staying with it so that when you’re no longer there, everyone else still wants to keep going.

I’m thinking differently about ambition these days.

Not as the drive to win… but the courage to keep going.
Especially when no one’s watching.

This reflection came out of my conversation this week with Dave Whorton (the founder of Tugboat Institute and co-author of a great new book, Another Way – Building Companies That Last… And Last… And Last) for Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Dave believes we need a different kind of capitalism. 
One that values the long term and the leaders who build not for exits… but for endurance.
If that resonates, I hop you will check out our conversation. 

It might just shift how you think about your own middle and a path towards a healthier economy.

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.

The Four Trillion Dollar Question

When a company becomes worth $4 trillion, we should all pause.

Not because it’s a nice round number.
Because that number now belongs to a chipmaker… one whose products you probably can’t name, touch or explain.
Nvidia just passed Apple, Microsoft and Aramco to become the most valuable company on the planet.

Let that sink in.

More valuable than the largest oil producers. 
More valuable than the inventors of the iPhone. 
More valuable than the entire GDP of Germany.
More valuable than the combined value of all publicly listed companies in the UK.

And it’s not because they make something we all use directly.

They don’t make a product we can hold in our hands.
They make the product that powers just some of those things.
Their chips have become the nervous system of AI.
And AI (if we’re being honest) is fast becoming the nervous system of everything else… or this is another economic bubble?
This isn’t just about market caps or investment returns (it could be… but it’s not feeling like that).

This is more about a shift in how power is formed and distributed (which feels more real and true to me).

In a world of AI dominance, we are now watching capital flow not to creators, builders or even platforms… but to the infrastructure beneath it all.
To those who make the picks and shovels.
To those who hold the keys to the compute.
This didn’t happen during the Internet economy at first (most of the infrastructure businesses back then struggled to provide proper bandwidth, access and pricing to help the Web scale and there wasn’t just one company).

It used to be that oil powered the world. 

Then it was data… now?
It’s compute.
And it looks like Nvidia owns that bottleneck.
Not in the abstract.
In literal, supply-chain-controlling, chip-design-dominating, everybody-needs-them terms.

If AI is the new electricity… then Nvidia is GE.

Except it’s not 1900 anymore… it’s 2025.
And value scales faster than ever.

So now we have to ask…

What happens when the most powerful companies on the planet are not media companies, or manufacturers, or energy conglomerates… but architecture firms for artificial intelligence?
What does it mean when most of the S&P 500’s gains are driven by five companies all building (or powered by) AI?
What does it do to an economy when value concentrates not just in tech, but in one node of the tech stack?

Because here’s the real kicker…

AI isn’t an industry… it’s an accelerant for every industry.
And Nvidia doesn’t just power that transformation… it profits from all of it… every build and every model… in every industry…
Healthcare… finance… retail… climate… government… military.
Every AI advance… every chatbot… every autonomous agent… every autonomous (or not) vehicle… every piece of software supporting every piece of hardware… is a line of revenue for Nvidia.
It seems to me that this is a story about power… both the kind that leaders develop and the kind that keeps the lights on.
Strategic power… economic power… cognitive power… actual power.

We used to ask: “What will AI do to jobs? To education? To creativity?”

Now the question might be:
What happens when AI is the economy?
And what happens when that economy is controlled (not by nations) but by chip designers in California?
We’re not just watching the rise of a company.
We’re witnessing a reordering of global leverage.
It’s not the data that matters most anymore.
It’s who gets to process the data.

And in that equation, Nvidia isn’t a player… it’s the house.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM.

Mitch Joel · The Four Trillion Dollar Question – The Elias Makos Show – CJAD 800

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.

Dave Whorton On Building Companies That Last – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #992 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Dave Whorton has spent his career building, backing and reimagining companies, but not in the way Silicon Valley usually does it. As founder of Tugboat Institute and author of Another Way – Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last (which he co-authored with Bo Burlingham), Dave champions a different breed of business: evergreen companies. These are organizations designed to last generations, rooted in purpose, resilience and profitability… not just hypergrowth and exit strategies. Before this pivot, Dave had a front-row seat to the “get-big-fast” movement as an associate partner at Kleiner Perkins, and he co-founded ventures like drugstore.com and Good Technology. But the treadmill of fast capital and faster exits didn’t resonate. He stepped off and sought a more meaningful model, eventually codifying it into the 7 Ps of Evergreen: purpose, perseverance, people first, and more. In this conversation, Dave explores the cultural and economic consequences of chasing unicorns, and what’s gained when we celebrate the quiet power of companies in the middle. Those not seeking fame or fortune but focused on sustainable impact. Dave talks about the role of introverted leadership, long-term planning, and what capitalism can look like when it’s driven by values rather than valuations. If you’ve ever felt that the venture-backed startup narrative doesn’t tell the whole story or if you’re building something you want to last, this conversation might just give you language and hope. 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):  #992 – 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 #992 – Dave Whorton On Building Companies That Last

Welcome to episode #992 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Dave Whorton has spent his career building, backing and reimagining companies, but not in the way Silicon Valley usually does it. As founder of Tugboat Institute and author of Another Way – Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last (which he co-authored with Bo Burlingham), Dave champions a different breed of business: evergreen companies. These are organizations designed to last generations, rooted in purpose, resilience and profitability… not just hypergrowth and exit strategies. Before this pivot, Dave had a front-row seat to the “get-big-fast” movement as an associate partner at Kleiner Perkins, and he co-founded ventures like drugstore.com and Good Technology. But the treadmill of fast capital and faster exits didn’t resonate. He stepped off and sought a more meaningful model, eventually codifying it into the 7 Ps of Evergreen: purpose, perseverance, people first, and more. In this conversation, Dave explores the cultural and economic consequences of chasing unicorns, and what’s gained when we celebrate the quiet power of companies in the middle. Those not seeking fame or fortune but focused on sustainable impact. Dave talks about the role of introverted leadership, long-term planning, and what capitalism can look like when it’s driven by values rather than valuations. If you’ve ever felt that the venture-backed startup narrative doesn’t tell the whole story or if you’re building something you want to last, this conversation might just give you language and hope. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 1:00:43.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.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 X.Here is my conversation with Dave Whorton.Another Way – Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last.Tugboat Institute.Follow Dave on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Introduction to Evergreen Companies.
(02:47) – The Shift in Capitalism.
(05:52) – The Spectrum of Capitalism.
(08:55) – The Role of Venture Capital.
(11:50) – Defining Scale in Business.
(15:08) – The Importance of SMBs.
(17:53) – The Seven Ps of Evergreen Companies.
(21:13) – Revisiting Venture Capital Models.
(23:54) – Celebrating Success and the Power Law.
(31:40) – Reflecting on the Journey: The Value of the Middle.
(33:14) – The Economic Landscape: Building Evergreen Companies.
(34:38) – Historical Perspective: Resilience in Business.
(38:15) – The Role of Evergreen Companies in a Changing Economy.
(40:19) – Compensation and Value Distribution in Evergreen Companies.
(42:29) – Resisting the Unicorn Mentality: A Different Path.
(47:31) – From Manifesto to Strategy: The Evergreen Approach.
(51:49) – The Culture of Evergreen Leadership: Introversion and Stewardship.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #992.

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 That Make You Think #785

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 (Just Evil Enough, 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:

Post-Scarcity Blues – Found Footage From The Future – KNGMKR – YouTube. “Sometimes AI-generated content can be art. The lyrics to this really hit.” (Alistair for Hugh). Late Night With Seth Meyers Writers Panel – In Creative Company – YouTube . “At the start of Covid I ran some free online sessions about the future of events. One of my points was that we should learn from late night talk show hosts, who were rethinking content in their own way. They embraced their bloopers, called out to their cast and crew, responded to YouTube comments, and generally became more chill and authentic. Perhaps nobody has stuck to this as well as Seth Meyers, whose ‘Corrections’ segment directly responds to pedantic online critics and whose ‘Surprise Inspection’ segment picks on awful jokes his writers submitted. Since then, I’ve been fascinated with what happens in the writers’ room of talkshows, and this interview is a gift.” (Alistair for Mitch). Trump Wants A New Armada. Can America Still Build One? – The Telegraph – YouTube . “The China-US competition has so many facets, one of them is control of the seas. The headline number is incredible: China’s overall shipbuilding output is 232 times greater than the US and last year they built 30 naval ships to 6 new ships added to the US fleet. While the trendlines are clear, there’s more to the story. And the US has announced $47.3B in new spending for 19 new naval ships. Here’s retired UK Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe, talking sailing, war fighting and what the battle for the world’s oceans might look like.” (Hugh for Alistair).  Sustaining Growth In An Aging World – Bertrand Gruss And Diaa Noureldin – Finance And Developement Magazine . “An amazing stat I keep hearing: 70 year olds today have the cognitive abilities of 50 years olds just 25 years ago. Here’s the article everyone is quoting.” (Hugh for Mitch).  Agencymaxxing – Jose Luis Ricon – Nintil . “You can’t say the words ‘artificial intelligence’ these days and not talk about both human agency and agentic outcomes (both are very different things). This may well be one of the better ways to think about agency that I have read. Most people don’t lack ambition, they lack agency. That’s the provocative thesis of this sharp essay on why so many smart folks live small, autopiloted lives. True agency isn’t just making decisions, it’s realizing there’s a whole hidden menu beyond what culture, comfort or circumstance offers. How can you get there? Expand your awareness (through role models, reflection and literal stillness), then act on it… awkwardly, imperfectly and with enough reps to make weird ideas real. Think of it like entrepreneurship for your identity: your choices are your startup. And here’s my hot take: This isn’t just self-help, it’s a business strategy. In an economy that rewards uniqueness, those who question defaults and act on underutilized paths win. Brand leaders, founders, creators: If your current playbook feels stale, it’s because you’re stuck choosing from the kids’ menu. Real growth happens when you stop asking ‘what should I do next?’ and start asking ‘what haven’t I even considered?’ Agency, like creativity, isn’t a talent, it’s a discipline of noticing and doing. And if AI is going where it looks like it’s going… this might be all we’ve got.” (Mitch for Alistair). Rory Sutherland On Thinking Differently – Mindset To Millions – TikTok . “I’ve posted (more than a few times) about Rory Sutherland and how miuch I love his thinking. This is another one that made me laugh and realize that serious thought experiments can sometimes be easy to start and might end in a different way of seeing things. Forget about whether or note you like the idea of electric cars, this is just a great way to work through some work challenges: Invert the timeline. Which version makes the most sense now? Are you lost? Just watch the video…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

@mindset.to.mills Imagine everyone drives electric—and then someone pitches a car that needs liquid fuel to move, needs constant refuelling at special stations, and pollutes the air. No one would go for it. Rory Sutherland-style thinking flips the script: sometimes what we accept as “normal” only makes sense because it came first. #rorysutherland #evs #petrolcars #innovation #behavioraleconomics #perspectiveflip ♬ original sound – Mindset To Millions

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.

Living In A Future No One Else Can See

Every July in Montreal there’s this spark in my hometown.

It’s not just the sunshine or the smell of poutine wafting through the Old Port… it’s StartupFest.
And it always reminds me why entrepreneurship is equal parts delusion, discipline and defiance.

Lots of defiance. 

This year, I’ve been thinking a lot about something Phil Telio (the founder of StartupFest) said on stage to kick off this 15th edition. 
It’s a theme that kept surfacing again and again in the conversations, the pitches and the hallway collisions…
Entrepreneurs see things that other people don’t (yet).
They notice the invisible crack in an industry. 
They obsess over a single inefficiency no one else thinks twice about. 
They get called stubborn. 
Or worse… impossible. 
Incompatible (as Guy Kawasaki once said describing Apple’s Steve Jobs). 
A little too intense for how things already are. 

The reason they feel incompatible is because they’re already living in a different future.

And when they’re right… when the world finally catches up… it’s tempting to look back and say, “Of course! That was obvious!”
But it wasn’t obvious.
Not when they had no funding.
Not when they were told “we already have a solution for that.”
Not when their idea sounded like a napkin sketch from someone who hadn’t showered in three days.
Dana White often talks about the early days of UFC and how no one would host the fights or show them on pay-per-view… and they would show porn on PPV.
UFC was not obvious… it was illegal in many states… a bloodsport. 

And, yes… if I can get personal for a moment… this all hits home for me right now.

With ThinkersOne, I feel like I’m trying to build something that doesn’t exist yet. 
A new category… a new way to think about content, connection and how we can all grow at work. 
It feels so obvious to me. 
The problem is real… it’s something (I believe) every business needs.
But the process? 
It’s slow… it’s frustrating… it’s shocking to me that not everyone gets it and wants it.  

And I won’t lie… this might not work. 

Entrepreneurship is what happens when the present stops making sense.
It’s not about chasing the next big thing. 
It’s about refusing to live inside the limits of something that clearly could be done so much better.
So yes, it’s hard.
Yes, it’s risky.
Yes, it’s often lonely.

But it’s also how the new way begins.

So to the entrepreneurs out there… the ones building companies or rebuilding themselves… I hope you keep seeing what others don’t.
I hope you keep being defiant.
And I hope we give each other the grace to sound crazy for a little while… especially when we know (deep in our guts) that we’re on to something.

Even when those with more money, power and experience don’t see it yet. 

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.