Call #
388
: Change Your Brain Trajectory
2013-05-06
We occasionally take excursions into our gray matter. In May 2008, Alvaro Fernandez introduced us to the market for brain fitness.
A lot has happened since then in brain health, including a shift away from pharma interventions in favor of non-invasive options.
Alvaro's just now publishing the second edition of his book, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness. You can read the foreword here.
With Alvaro, let's discuss:
- What are common misconceptions about the brain and the mind?
- What's possible that we believed impossible?
- How can we personalize brain fitness options?
- Where are we headed in the way we invest in our brains?
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Call #
387
: Questioning Conventional Wisdom
2013-04-15
Scarcity equals value. Nature, red in tooth and claw. Does it? Is it? Is the Commons really Tragic?
There are so many sayings we take for granted, narratives that govern our behavior. And many of them are plain old wrong. (Here's a Prezi listing some juicy ones.)
As Mark Twain so elegantly said, "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so."
Together, let's discuss:
- What conventional wisdom do you know is wrong?
- Why? What's your proof? What should we think instead?
- How does the battle over these narratives play out in business and politics?
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Call #
386
: From Sci-Fi to UI
2013-04-01
More and more, we see science fiction become science fact. Melie's and Jules Verne's voyages to the moon? Check. Joe Jitsu's two-way radio watch on Dick Tracy? Check.
Tom Cruise's UI in Minority Report? On its way. (And its personal advertising, too, eventually.) Star Trek's Holodeck is in the works, too.
Last year, Nathan Shedroff and Chris Noessel published Make It So. They've been describing how flights of sci-fi imagination can influence real-world designs.
With them, let's discuss:
- What is the relationship between sci-fi fantasy and real-world fact? Best examples?
- How do you separate wishful thinking and bad design from inspiration?
- Who is really good at this process? Where should we be looking?
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Call #
385
: The Singularity
2013-03-04
Will you be able to upload yourself to the cloud? Are we headed for a technological Singularity? Or some other kind? Will computers become sentient?
As each year goes by, these questions shift from science-fiction fantasy to the realm of reality. But how real?
With Peter Kaminski, David Weinberger, Kathryn Myronuk and Scott Draves, let's discuss:
- What is real and unreal about the different visions of the Singularity or the uploaded self?
- Would you want to live in those worlds? Why?
- When do you think we'll see the first real evidence that things are truly different?
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Call #
384
: The Big Fish
2013-02-19
Which companies do you see as the Big Fish in the tech business now?
Let's propose Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook as a starting point.
Each has catalyzed one or more revolutions, from mp3 players and mobile phones to showrooming, friending and search. They're crossing paths more and more: Amazon's in the cloud, Google's selling hardware... what's next?
With Al Chang, let's discuss:
- Who else belongs on this list? Why?
- How are the Fish's strategies colliding? Differentiating?
- Which Fish is best positioned? Why?
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Call #
383
: The State of the World
2013-02-04
We're just back from our first trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the first one in a few years that wasn't set amid global firestorms such as the 2008 financial crisis, the Occupy movement and the near-meltdown of the Eurozone -- not to mention climate, food and water.
Given that context, this Davos may have been a little too "business as usual."
Is that right? Where do you think the world is these days?
Together, let's discuss:
- Where are we in the grand scheme? Imminent collapse? Typical crises? Things are getting better?
- Whose opinions make the most sense to you?
- What's the most important action to take now? What effects will that action have on world markets?
This call will help us set up for a call about the Singularity that we will hold on March 4.
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Call #
382
: Tech in 2020
2013-01-22
We've just ticked over into 2013, well on our way into the second decade of the new Millennium.
Tablets and smartphones seem to have passed laptops. Screens that don't respond to a swipe feel like they're broken. Printers threaten to turn 3D. Unmanned drones are filling the skies. Garage biology and hackathons are popping up everywhere.
Together, let's discuss:
- What will technology be like in 2020?
- Why do you think it'll play out that way and not another?
- Who are the winners and losers? (think all stakeholders)
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Call #
381
: How Institutions Are Changing
2013-01-07
In The Institutional Revolution, historian Doug Allen cracks the code on why the institutions of pre-modern Britain, particularly the aristocracy, made sense despite all their weird behaviors (here's a Jeff Jarvis review). It was about trust in an age when measurement was unreliable or unavailable.
Institutions are in turmoil, in industry after industry, as well as in government and non-profits.
Leadership is also shifting a lot.
Together, let's discuss:
- How are institutions changing? Which are the successful ones?
- What's shifting underneath that's causing these changes?
- Are new models of leadership emerging? What are they?
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Call #
380
: Land Use
2012-12-17
Land is complicated. It gets appropriated, expropriated, squatted, defoliated, remediated, occupied, enclosed, liberated. What was once the Commons we shared is now parcels brokered by Century 21.
The ways we govern land have a great effect on poverty and a society's overall well-being.
With historian Jo Guldi, let's discuss:
- What are the major forces and trends in land use?
- Who is innovating? What are they doing? To what effect?
- Where is land use headed?
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Call #
379
: Electric Cars
2012-12-03
Someone killed the first electric cars, but they're making a comeback. Slowly.
Issues abound, from cost and range to refueling strategies and (lack of) installed infrastructure. Did you remember to plug your car in last night? Who wants to wait for batteries to charge?
With Tim Meyer, let's discuss:
- What's the state of the EV (electric vehicle) market?
- How are the different business models faring? What's catching on best?
- What's holding the industry up? Whom should we watch?
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Call #
378
: Managing Info Overload
2012-11-19
Back in 2009 we had a similar call, which turned into a fun session of tool and technique sharing.
Much information has coursed through the pipes, so to speak, and it feels like time to ask this question again.
Together, let's discuss:
- What tools and techniques do you use to avoid drowning in information?
- Where are you mentally on the drowning-flying spectrum?
- Does it just get worse? Will it stop?
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Call #: Promise and Barriers of Community Broadband
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Call #
376
: Decision Making Biases
2012-10-15
You're rational, right? You sell your losing stocks willingly, you know how base rates affect which issues matter, right?
Or do you?
Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky launched a revolution in economics by bringing us behavioral econ.
It has been richly accepted that humans don't make "rational" decisions but there hasn't been too much talk about meta methods and practical day to day tactics to combat the negative effects we might have in and on our own lives from the biases that burrow into those decisions like a cancer.
With Dave Bujnowski, let's discuss:
- What are the implications of our biases for investing?
- How can we adjust for our biases and misconceptions?
- What meta methods seem to work? What tactics do you use?
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Call #
375
: Eight Years
2012-10-01
Eight Octobers ago, we began this Yi-Tan journey together. That's a long time in Internet Years. (You can see all the calls we've had here.)
For this anniversary call, we've invited some of our regular guests and participants to join us. With John David Smith, Al Chang, Mary Hodder, Jay Cross, Jean Russell and Bo McFarland, let's discuss:
- How is 2012 different from 2004? What has changed? What hasn't?
- If these eight years have eras, where would you mark them?
- What moments or topics do you remember most from these calls?
- What should we focus on for the next few years?
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Call #
374
: Innovation and India
2012-09-04
Is India a mighty wellspring of innovation and entrepreneurship, bursting on the world scene? Is Bangalore the next Silicon Valley? Or is India still mired in backward attitudes about value, risk, class and gender?
It's not hard to find almost romantic media making the former case. Much rarer are well-informed critiques of what will keep holding India back.
With Neena Buck, let's discuss:
- What are the elements of the "India shining" story, and are they realistic?
- How is India slow to change? In what ways is its prosperity old-fashioned?
- Might poverty + communications lead to uprisings? Is India coping or prepared?
- What evidence would have to emerge for the optimistic narrative to ring more true?
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Call #
373
: Rethinking Education (2)
2012-08-20
Last time, we dove into innovations occurring inside schools. Let's take a look at the rest of the world, focusing mainly on youth, but also on adults.
We'll start with unschooling, then heard toward informal learning and collaborative sensemaking. With luck, we'll dive into ways to unlock the enormous learning potential out there, replete with new Commons and new business ideas.
With Monika Hardy, Michael Lewkowitz, Shawna Lewkowitz and Jay Cross, let's discuss:
- What's unexpectedly true about learning?
- How is it being practiced? What does it look like every day?
- Where are we on the journey from compulsory education to something new and better?
Here's the trailer of a new documentary about unschooling, and here's the topic in my Brain.
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Call #
372
: Rethinking Education (1)
2012-08-06
It's been a long time since we addressed education. (Remember our awesome Unschooling call of late 2009?) With school about to start, let's use both August calls to hear how this sphere is changing.
The demarcation point between our two Yi-Tan calls will be School itself. On the first call, we'll describe the many ways School is being reinvented from the inside, from the flipped classroom to Project-Based Learning, Hip-Hop Genius and the Harlem Children's Zone. (Please bring your examples to the conversation!)
Then on August 20 we'll look at initiatives that are rethinking learning from outside School.
This coming Monday, with Lydia Dobyns and David Preston, let's discuss:
- What are the most promising initiatives to improve schools? Why?
- How does the school system help and hinder change? Where is the leverage?
- Where would you place your resources?
To set some neurons firing, a 30-minute talk I gave recently in Copenhagen on this subject, and an 8-minute screencast about turning scarcity into abundance in education.
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Call #
371
: Industry Futures
2012-07-16
With all the turmoil that's going on, what path do you think various industries will take?
Let's examine them one at a time and dream up scenarios, plausible and less plausible, for their next 20 years.
Will telecom defend its regulated markets, or will spectrum be refarmed? How will the creative industries be reshaped? Will 3D printing substantially replace manufacturing? What about space travel? Education? Warfare? Governance?
Together, one sector at a time, let's discuss:
- What forces are at work on that sector? Where do they point?
- How might the sector therefore shift? Will it be slow or sudden?
- When might we expect these shifts to happen?
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Call #
370
: PassBook, Wallets and More
2012-07-09
Apple's recent Passbook announcement shook up the mobile transactions industry.
Passbook is not just a way to pay, it's a place to keep merchant offers like coupons, plus it will be tied to location information, so offers can be brought to attention easily. Are you in our store? Here's your offer.
With our frequent contributor Al Chang, let's discuss:
- How is Passbook different from similar offers?
- Who's winning the point-of-sale battle? What's with NFC?
- Does Passbook encroach on banks or help them out?
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Call #
369
: Topics You'd Love
2012-06-25
Pip and I normally choose the topics for these Yi-Tan calls, but we'd love to know from you where you'd like us to turn our collective attention.
We're working on better gender balance, and we'll be covering industry events, as we have before. What else has fire for you?
Think of us as a salon we can focus on a thorny question, a possible future or a controversial thesis.
Together, let's discuss:
- What authors would you like us to invite? entrepreneurs?
- Should we be more commercial? international? philosophical?
- Should we experiment with formats? debate? exquisite corpse?
- What forces, trends or sectors should we dive into?
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Oct 2008-July 2010 podcasts (196-288) (redundant, yes?)
