Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 8

Thinking In Spite Of The Algorithm

I’m starting to believe that there was a time when curiosity meant something very different.

You’d read a book and let it linger.
You’d stumble across a footnote and it would become your next two weeks.
You’d hear a word for the first time and feel the need to chase it across dictionaries, articles, conversations.
You’d read an article and couldn’t shake what was written for a month.

Now, curiosity feels… transactional?

One search… one click… answer delivered… next!
We’ve built systems (social, digital, cognitive) that reward speed… just speed.
But not sense-making… and definitely not wonder.

In my conversation this week with Bob Goodson (author of Like – The Button That Changed The World) on Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast, that shift came into sharp focus. 

And Bob would know (he didn’t just write the book but may have been the first person to design the like button).
For those who remember these more innocent times, the like button started as a way to say, “I see this… I appreciate this.”
But it evolved into something much more powerful… and dangerous.

It became a proxy for attention.

A shortcut for consensus.
A micro-currency for content.
And a vast source of behavioral data for the platforms that profit from our preferences.

Suddenly, curiosity got flattened into performance.

AI makes this worse… and better.
Worse, because it feeds us conclusions without inviting us into the process (you know this if you’ve done a search on Google lately… or completely switched over to Perplexity).
Better, because when used well it can surface connections we’d never have noticed alone.

But Bob reminded me: the real shift we need isn’t about storing more information… it’s about creating more meaning.

That requires different muscles.
Pattern recognition over memorization.
Synthesis over summaries.
Deep reading over fast scanning.
Interpretation over reaction.

And maybe the biggest one:

The ability to sit with a question longer than it takes to answer it.
We used to call that thinking.
Now, it might look like slowing down… pausing before we press “like”… resisting the urge to always be first, loudest, fastest.

Speed is now always mistaken for insight. 

Maybe it’s time to rediscover the quiet discipline of slow curiosity?
To question what we click on… and why (even if it is just a simple “like” button).
To ask whether our ideas are being shaped by intention… or by algorithm.
If you’ve been feeling like I do… like everything is too fast… too shallow… too synthetic…

This all reminded me of what thinking used to feel like… and (maybe) what it could feel like again.

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 AI Intimacy Illusion

There’s a story making the rounds.

A man in Idaho says that ChatGPT sparked a spiritual awakening.
He’s named it Lumina. 
He says it told him he’s here to awaken others.
His wife is (understandably) worried it’s destroying their marriage.
It’s easy to turn this into a punchline.
Easier still to cast it as a parable for our time: a lonely man, a machine that listens, a relationship that bends reality.

But I don’t think this is really about him… or about AI.

It’s about us.
This story isn’t the first and it won’t be the last. 
People falling in love with chatbots. 
People asking them life’s biggest questions. 
People saying the answers changed everything.
People believing the conversation is both real and enlightened.
We should be careful not to confuse novelty with transformation.

When something new emerges… especially something as powerful and personal as generative AI… we’re quick to mistake its behavior for intention. 

We project sentience. 
We imagine agency. 
We bring meaning to the surface and assume the machine put it there.

But what’s really happening?

People aren’t being changed by AI as much as they’re being revealed by it.
If you come looking for comfort, it will sound comforting.
If you come looking for divine affirmation, it won’t argue.
If you come with a shaky grip on reality, it’s not going to steady you.
If you come asking it to create for you, it will (but it may not be that good… or it may stagger you).
This is not about AI making people lose their minds. 
It’s about what happens when people bring their confusion, pain and spiritual hunger into an interaction that was never designed to hold that weight.

We’ve seen this before.

Not with AI but with forums… with social media… with fringe belief groups. 
With algorithms that reward tribalism over doubt and nuance.
AI just makes the conversation feel more private.

More intimate…. which is also why I think we’ve left The Attention Economy and entered into The Intimacy Economy.

AI just makes the conversation feel more true.
AI just makes the conversation feel like it’s just for me.
And that’s the risk.

The media loves these stories. 

They’re clickable… they’re weird… they stir up just enough fear to feel important. 
But these are not stories of mass delusion. 
They’re not warnings about an existential threat.
They are outliers.

Outliers matter, but not because they represent the majority.

They matter because they test the edges of the system. 
They reveal how few protections we’ve put in place.

We should be asking hard questions.

Not about whether AI is becoming too powerful but whether we’ve made it too personal.
Should there be restrictions on its use in moments of mental health crisis? Yes.
Should it push back when it senses a user spiraling into obsession or belief? Probably.
Should we stop pretending it’s a replacement for connection, therapy or purpose? Absolutely.

AI is not a spiritual guide.

It’s not a partner.
It’s not your conscience.
It’s a system designed to respond (often intelligently, sometimes persuasively) based on the prompts it receives.
That’s all.
If the prompt is broken… don’t blame the reply.

This moment isn’t about the evolution of machines.

It’s about the fragility of people and the technologies we keep confusing with something greater.
The bots aren’t ascending… we’re offloading and downloading.

And maybe that’s the most human thing of all… but it comes with consequences.

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

Mitch Joel · The AI Intimacy Illusion – 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.

Bob Goodson On The “Like” Button (And How It Changed The World) – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #991 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Bob Goodson is President and Founder of Quid, an AI-driven company whose models are used by a third of the Fortune 50. Before launching Quid, he was the first employee at Yelp, where he witnessed (and helped shape) the birth of the like button. Bob’s academic roots in language theory (Oxford) and his deep curiosity about patterns of innovation led him to co-author Like – The Button That Changed The World, an illuminating book about how a simple social media feature rewired global communication and commerce. In this episode, we dig into the origin story of the like button and its unintended consequences – from how it shaped the social graph into a tool of surveillance capitalism, to the unintended shifts it created in digital identity and culture. Bob shares insights into the “arms race” of social engagement, the design intentions behind digital signals, and the eerie power of such tiny UX decisions to shape massive behavioral patterns. We also discuss TikTok’s model of engagement, the overlooked nuance of the thumbs down, and the responsibility of technologists in shaping society. For marketers, platform builders and cultural observers, this conversation is a deep dive into how the smallest code fragments can shape our biggest societal shifts. 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):  #991 – 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 #991 – Bob Goodson On The “Like” Button (And How It Changed The World)

Welcome to episode #991 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Bob Goodson is President and Founder of Quid, an AI-driven company whose models are used by a third of the Fortune 50. Before launching Quid, he was the first employee at Yelp, where he witnessed (and helped shape) the birth of the like button. Bob’s academic roots in language theory (Oxford) and his deep curiosity about patterns of innovation led him to co-author Like – The Button That Changed The World, an illuminating book about how a simple social media feature rewired global communication and commerce. In this episode, we dig into the origin story of the like button and its unintended consequences – from how it shaped the social graph into a tool of surveillance capitalism, to the unintended shifts it created in digital identity and culture. Bob shares insights into the “arms race” of social engagement, the design intentions behind digital signals, and the eerie power of such tiny UX decisions to shape massive behavioral patterns. We also discuss TikTok’s model of engagement, the overlooked nuance of the thumbs down, and the responsibility of technologists in shaping society. For marketers, platform builders and cultural observers, this conversation is a deep dive into how the smallest code fragments can shape our biggest societal shifts. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 52:16.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 Bob Goodson.Like – The Button That Changed The World.Co-Author Martin Reeves.Quid.Follow Bob on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – The Birth of the Like Button.
(04:02) – Evolution of User Interaction.
(10:05) – The Emergence of Data Graphs.
(14:59) – The Role of Thumbs Up and Down.
(20:13) – Cultural Impact and Manipulation of Engagement.
(27:03) – The Evolution of Social Media Strategies.
(30:12) – The Arms Race for Attention in Social Media.
(36:34) – The Impact of the Like Button on Identity.
(41:43) – Regulation and the Unintended Consequences of Technology.
(50:10) – Long-Term Perspectives on Technology and Society.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #991.

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 #784

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:

Mobygratis. “Contrary to Eminem‘s opinion, lots of people listen to Moby. He was the first artist to license every track on an album to films (Play, 1999.) He’s also prolific: Mobygratis is a set of 500 tracks that are free for anyone to use in any way they want (provided that isn’t ‘to advertise right-wing politics or causes’ or ‘promote meat, dairy, or other animal products.’ This one is for you, Hugh, who’s dabbled in license-free audio in the past.” (Alistair for Hugh). Eminem – Lose Yourself (Sung By 331 Movies!) – The Usual Suspect – YouTube . “Speaking of Mr. Mathers, here’s a rendition of his classic ‘Lose Yourself‘, with the words replaced by brief clips from films throughout the year. This kind of thing gets easier as we’re able to parse the corpus of all media for words, videos, and images – but it’s still the kind of thing I believe the Internet is for.” (Alistair for Mitch). Concept Borrowed From Video Games Leads To Fusion Energy Breakthrough – Alex Newhouse – Gamespot . “I wonder what the world actually looks like with free energy? I imagine we’ll find other things to fight about, but…” (Hugh for Alistair). Eat Your AI Slop Or China Wins – Robert Bellafiore – The New Atlantis . “If you’ve actually done some real work/projects with AI you know how amazingly powerful a tool it is, and how delightful (and sometimes frustrating) it is to work with. At least that’s been my experience, and so I am mostly a big booster about all the good that AI can bring. But my God the inferno of bad that might come too, China or no China, is big, really big. Throw in a global rival to the West, shake it up with a bit of internal collapse, and values I still hold dear sure seem in danger.” (Hugh for Mitch). How The Light Gets Out – Michael Graziano – Aeon . “If you think AI is impressive, spend more time trying to understand how (and why) our brains work the way they do. It’s astonishing. Why do we believe in ghosts? How does consciousness work? How do our neurons create our consciousness… and our attention? Is awareness a computational process rather than some magical emergence? If it is, does this explain things like out-of-body experiences? This one is a real noodle boiler, so strap in and get ready for the rollercoaster that is your brain beyond its biology… And, yes, AI ain’t got nothing on us…” (Mitch for Alistair). Why Does Every Commercial For A.I. Think You’re a Moron? – Ismail Muhammad – The New York Times . “For the people who use artificial intelligence in their day-to-day work, it’s hard to imagine going back to a time when you wouldn’t use it. What percentage of the population does that impact? What does that mean for the future of work? These are all of the questions that many of us are philosophizing and debating constantly in spaces like this. This journalist points out a humorous and somewhat dystopian reality that I had not thought about. When these artificial intelligence companies advertise for their products, they are typically portraying the users as clueless and overwhelmed people who need to rely on technology for the most basic of information. The types of things you would typically have a conversation with a friend or peer about. The subtle promise in the advertising suggests that artificial intelligence’s killer app is its ability to fill in the gap between human interaction and understanding. But what does that say about all this loneliness and isolation that we’re all experiencing, when we don’t engage with one another anymore? While I don’t think we should use these advertisements as the proverbial canary in the coal mine, it might be interesting to read this article and think about the genuine human interactions we actually want to maintain in a world where artificial intelligence might be so quick to replace them.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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 Most Transformative Work Is Often Invisible

It’s strange how fast we’ve made speed the ultimate virtue in business.

A few decades ago, staying at a company for twenty-plus years was seen as a badge of honor.
Now, if you’ve stuck around for more than two, people wonder what’s wrong with you.
“What are you waiting for?”
“Haven’t you “moved on”?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be chasing something newer, bigger, better?”

We’ve built a professional culture that rewards motion.

New job titles.
New startups.
New pivots.
New industries.
New LinkedIn updates for a resume that screams momentum.

But here’s the question that’s been sitting with me:

Have we confused movement with progress?
Because exploration (real exploration) isn’t always in motion.
It doesn’t always come with a new role or a press release.
It doesn’t always look productive on the outside.

Sometimes it’s the choice to stay put long enough to understand where the edges are…

And then gently, deliberately, push against them.
It’s what happens in the in-between spaces:

The sabbatical that wasn’t about burnout, but discovery.The cross-functional project that made no sense until it changed your worldview.The side hustle that introduced you to the person who changed your trajectory.The mentor you weren’t looking for who gave you the right words at the right time.

These are the parts of a career that don’t show up in LinkedIn updates.

They rarely get framed as “wins.”
But they often hold more power than the traditional milestones we celebrate.
Exploration takes time.
It takes discomfort.
It takes a kind of slowness that feels wrong in a world optimized for acceleration.
It’s in those messy, nonlinear moments where most of the real growth actually happens (or is it just me who believes this?).

So what if we started recognizing that?

So what if we started rewarding that?
So what if we started truly admiring those who are deep into the exploring?
What if we valued curiosity detours?
Celebrated people who took a step sideways or backward to see things from a new angle?
Respected those who stayed long enough in a space to actually understand it… not just leverage it?

Because the truth is:

Not every valuable experience comes with a promotion.
Not every inflection point fits neatly into a box labeled “career move.”
Not every choice we make is forward and upward (especially when it comes to compensation).

Some of the most transformative parts of a career are invisible.

The fuzzy stuff.
But they’re very real.
And maybe the biggest shift we can make in how we think about work is this…

Stop asking: “Where are you going?”
Start asking: “What are you discovering?”

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.

Corey Britz From Bush On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

“Wait… did I miss something? Why is there an article about a bass podcast on Six Pixels of Separation?”

Here’s why:

In the late nineties my first job was as a music journalist (actually, my first interview was with Tommy Lee from Motley Crue right before the band released Dr. Feelgood).
I spent many years interviewing musicians and artists for local weekly alternative newspapers, national and international magazines (and even published three music magazines – before we had the Internet).
I also studied and played the electric bass (in high school and post-secondary) and always felt like bass players never really had a chance to tell their stories.
So, about ten years ago, Seth Godin introduced me to Corey Brown (founder of No Treble – one of the world’s biggest bass platforms – and he also worked on Squidoo with Seth).
From there, Corey and I decided to try this monthly podcast where I would interview bass players and talk about their music, art, creativity and more.
I’m hopeful that these conversations will inspire your work, creativity and innovation as much as they do for me…

Corey Brtiz from Bush is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #127 – Corey Britz.

Corey Britz doesn’t just hold down the low end for Bush, he’s a living masterclass in how to evolve as both a bassist and a human being in an industry that rarely encourages either. In this episode of Groove – The No Treble Podcast, Corey opens up about the long road to becoming the official bassist for one of the most iconic post-grunge bands of the ‘90s, and how his years as a session and touring musician with artists like Gavin Rossdale (when he was solo) and The Calling shaped the kind of player he’s become. You’ll hear about the thrill of stepping into a legacy, how he navigated the pressure of honoring Bush’s original sound while making it his own, and why he believes that groove is as much about listening as it is about playing. We also get into the technical details from his tone, his gear, his love for the interplay between bass and vocal phrasing, but it’s Corey’s emotional clarity and creative honesty that shine through most. He talks candidly about the emotional push-pull of being in a band with a global fanbase, the gift of playing music that still matters to so many, and how he’s learned to silence the noise and trust his instincts on stage and off. Corey reminds us that bass is more than an instrument… it’s a voice, a presence, and sometimes, a life raft. You will come away with a better understanding of what it means to be both adaptable and grounded, especially when the spotlight doesn’t always find you first. If you’re a fan of Bush, love the bass, or just want to hear a smart, funny, soulful musician talk about the moments that matter, this one’s for you. Corey’s story is as much about persistence as it is about performance, and in a world of ego and excess, his humility and depth cut through like a perfectly placed root note. 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 #127 – Corey Britz .

Groove #127 – Corey Britz – BUSH by No Treble

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). 

Polished, Clear And Soulless – The New AI Writers

There’s something eerie about the way we write now.

It’s clear… it’s tidy… it’s too clear… it’s too tidy.
And yet… it all sounds the same (if you don’t know how it all works).

Welcome to the age of autocorrected expression – Powered By AI.

We’re not just using tools like ChatGPT to fix our grammar.
We’re starting to let them fix us.
And in doing so, we might be losing something deeper than a typo.

Let me be clear: AI can be a gift.

For people who struggle with language… non-native speakers, neurodivergent thinkers or anyone frozen by a blank page… this is a game-changer (and I HATE using that turn of phrase). 
It unlocks access, speed and fluency.
That’s not just powerful… that’s progress.
But for average writers and communicators, something else is happening.
These tools don’t amplify your voice, if you use it long enough you can read that it actually begins to average it.
Like a calculator for language: you input your prompt… and out comes something accurate, efficient and emotionally beige.
Check out this article from The Verge: You Sound Like ChatGPT.

It’s why so much content today feels like a cross between a corporate LinkedIn post and a group-edited Wikipedia entry.

Polished… but bloodless.
There’s a word for this: convergence.
Researchers have started to track how AI-trained text converges our language… standardizing vocabulary, tone, even sentence structure.
The result (and I’ll bet you already know where this is going)? 
A homogenized, corporate-y cadence that’s everywhere and from nowhere… it has no real soul.

Yes, we’ve seen this before (in a different vein).

Typewriters… corporate memos… email… Slack.
All flattened communication in their own way.
But this feels different to me.
Because writing isn’t just about saying something “correctly.”
It’s about saying something humanly.

When we outsource our voice to a system that was trained to sound like everyone… we start sounding like no one.

There’s real risk here. 
Especially for younger generations.
Writing used to be how we found our voice.
Writing used to be how we made meaning out of what we read, saw… experienced.
It wasn’t ever about what you said… it was always about how you said it.

Now, it might be how we lose it… if we’re not careful.

If you’ve ever received a heartfelt message from someone… a handwritten note, a clunky-but-sincere email… you know what I’m talking about.
It wasn’t perfect… it was personal… it was personable.
AI doesn’t struggle… it doesn’t hesitate… it doesn’t reveal itself.
But that struggle with the words? 

That struggle is the signal.

It’s the part that says: “I was here… a real person was here.”
Now, we confuse clarity with trust.
But sometimes the mess is the message.
Let’s not mistake utility for intimacy.
A well-written email is nice… a real voice is unforgettable.

So here’s the uncomfortable question:

If your words weren’t yours… would anyone know the difference?
And if the answer is no… what happens to connection? 
To creativity?
To the quirky little ways we fumble toward being understood?
What happens when sounding smart replaces sounding like you?

In the future, maybe authenticity becomes a premium again.

Like vinyl… like film… like a handwritten postcard in a mailbox full of bills.
AI will keep getting better.
The outputs will keep getting cleaner.
The results will sound more like you, me… anyone.
But the most valuable thing in your writing won’t be its polish.
It’ll be the part that couldn’t have been written by anyone (or anything) else.
Because it came from you.

Uniquely you.

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

Mitch Joel · Polished, Clear And Soulless – The New AI Writers – 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.

Lori Rosenkopf On Creating Value Through Innovation – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #990 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Lori Rosenkopf is the Simon and Midge Palley Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and currently serves as the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship. In that role, she oversees Wharton’s Venture Lab and its West Coast campus, while continuing her long-standing research into social networks, innovation and how knowledge flows between people, companies and technologies. Before her academic career, Lori worked as a systems engineer for Kodak and AT&T Bell Labs, giving her a rare blend of practical and academic insight into how organizations innovate. She’s also the author of the new book Unstoppable Entrepreneurs – 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation. It’s a smart, grounded book that expands the definition of entrepreneurship, shifting it away from the mythology of Silicon Valley unicorns toward a more inclusive, pragmatic framework of value creation across industries and backgrounds. Lori’s experience guiding more than 20,000 students has helped her see entrepreneurship not as a single path, but a set of diverse approaches, whether you’re building something disruptive, innovating inside a larger company, or launching a mission-driven startup. In this episode, we explore the evolving nature of entrepreneurial identity and why many of the old narratives no longer fit. We talk about the role of failure, the rise of creators as entrepreneurs and the impact of AI on idea generation. Lori also shares her thoughts on market fit, how to foster innovation in organizations, and why community and mentorship are more critical than ever. There’s a realism here that’s refreshing: entrepreneurship isn’t always glamorous, but it can be deeply meaningful. We also dive into the challenges of corporate disruption, the future of work and the tension between profit and social impact. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit the stereotype of an entrepreneur, this conversation might help you realize that the stereotype is the problem… not you. It’s a powerful reflection on how we build, why we build and who gets to build. 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):  #990 – 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 #990 – Lori Rosenkopf On Creating Value Through Innovation

Welcome to episode #990 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Lori Rosenkopf is the Simon and Midge Palley Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and currently serves as the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship. In that role, she oversees Wharton’s Venture Lab and its West Coast campus, while continuing her long-standing research into social networks, innovation and how knowledge flows between people, companies and technologies. Before her academic career, Lori worked as a systems engineer for Kodak and AT&T Bell Labs, giving her a rare blend of practical and academic insight into how organizations innovate. She’s also the author of the new book Unstoppable Entrepreneurs – 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation. It’s a smart, grounded book that expands the definition of entrepreneurship, shifting it away from the mythology of Silicon Valley unicorns toward a more inclusive, pragmatic framework of value creation across industries and backgrounds. Lori’s experience guiding more than 20,000 students has helped her see entrepreneurship not as a single path, but a set of diverse approaches, whether you’re building something disruptive, innovating inside a larger company, or launching a mission-driven startup. In this episode, we explore the evolving nature of entrepreneurial identity and why many of the old narratives no longer fit. We talk about the role of failure, the rise of creators as entrepreneurs and the impact of AI on idea generation. Lori also shares her thoughts on market fit, how to foster innovation in organizations, and why community and mentorship are more critical than ever. There’s a realism here that’s refreshing: entrepreneurship isn’t always glamorous, but it can be deeply meaningful. We also dive into the challenges of corporate disruption, the future of work and the tension between profit and social impact. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit the stereotype of an entrepreneur, this conversation might help you realize that the stereotype is the problem… not you. It’s a powerful reflection on how we build, why we build and who gets to build. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 56:28.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 Lori Rosenkopf.Unstoppable Entrepreneurs – 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation.Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.Venture Lab.Follow Lori on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) – Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
(03:01) – The Ecosystem of Entrepreneurship Education.
(06:02) – Dispelling Myths: The Reality of Entrepreneurs.
(08:57) – Defining Entrepreneurship: Value Creation Through Innovation.
(12:04) – The Shopify Effect: Accessibility and Challenges in Entrepreneurship.
(15:01) – Surviving the Grind: The Reality of Entrepreneurial Life.
(18:03) – Market Fit: The Holy Grail of Entrepreneurship.
(20:50) – The Rise of the Content Creator as Entrepreneur.
(31:18) – The Cult of Personality in Entrepreneurship.
(32:40) – The Role of Age in Entrepreneurship.
(34:36) – AI and Idea Generation for Entrepreneurs.
(39:21) – The Disruption of Traditional Corporate Roles.
(41:42) – Value Creation Beyond Profitability.
(44:31) – Changing Work Culture and Entrepreneurial Mindset.
(46:34) – Innovations in Business Models and Technology.
(48:47) – The Importance of Community in Entrepreneurship.
(51:52) – Trends in Entrepreneurship and Future Outlook.
(54:34) – Understanding Failure in Entrepreneurship.
(55:56) – Wealth Inequality and the Role of Entrepreneurs.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #990.

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