Quantified Society

What are the social and rights-based implications of the “quantified society?”

This was the mind blowing question behind one of the most interesting gatherings that I facilitated this summer. Artificial Intelligence is advancing at a relentless pace. And the most powerful corporations on earth now have unimaginable troves of data about our most intimate behavior. We don’t seem to have the bandwidth to deal with the implications. And yet answering this question is a democratic imperative.

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The Best Medicine

We have always known that laughter is the best medicine. Grandmothers have always told us so. Today’s science is catching up with ancient wisdom, and the myriad physiological benefits of laughter continue to be revealed. In our high stress, often depressed society, laughter becomes the most precise medicine for our day.

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Couples Work

I most often define my experience of a committed relationshipas the hardest, most rewarding work I get to do. On Saturday, September 9, my wife, Executive Coach and Facilitator, Samantha Tan, and I piloted our first Couples Workshop.

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Work That Matters

I've turned off my WhatsApp notifications. I'm part of too many active groups! But I can turn to it at any given point, much like I did this morning, and let my heart be moved by one group or another expressing love for each other.

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Learning from Your Project X

Launching and piloting Your Project X was a phenomenal experience. I am so grateful for the Boston Founding Fellows, the first participants in our Boston Career Change pilot. It takes courage to be first.

I'm excited about the turns that YPX is taking. This project is right where it needs to be, the team is learning and iterating, it is practicing what we preach.

After a lot of personal reflection, I have decided to step out of the project. I have full confidence in this idea, I love the team that is bringing it together, and I know that it will iterate its way into something pretty amazing.

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Extracting Attention

It was many years back that I read Kevin Kelly say “your attention is your currency.” The futurist technologist was defining the most sought after asset of this new economy - your attention. Now of course that has always been true. We would not be drowning in ads and billboards without this aggressive competition for our attention.

But the supercomputers in our pocket and the unprecedented amount of intimate, personal data that we now willingly give away, mean that our attention is literally being mined. It is being extracted from us.

Tristan Harris gave a powerful TED Talk on this very topic. I encourage you to take the 16 minutes and watch it. Your thoughts are being shaped by someone else.

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Evolutionary Leadership Workshop

We are off to the third annual Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. Here is a note to the participants:

You have probably had a set of landmark experiences in your life. You have had moments that you refer back to over and over again, you have had realizations that continue to feed you. Our goal is to craft another one of those experiences. We want the Evolutionary Leadership Workshop to become a landmark moment in your life. Our intention is to support you as you reach deep alignment with yourself and with your own highest purpose.  We want you to return home with a new community of people and a concrete set of steps that will launch you into what is next for you.  We want you to actualize your dream, we want to enroll you in the evolutionary movement of our time.

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Love What You Do or Do Something Else

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Your Project X! It is my latest effort to help people (re)discover their passions and build careers they’ll love.

You know I’ve devoted my life to helping people do the work that matters most. I cannot think of a more important moment to tap our creative impulse and do what our hearts are here to do.

I am excited by the ongoing success of the Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. But not everyone can get away to a magical island for an intensive seven days. So here is Your Project X.  We run 10 week part-time programs in New York City and Boston designed to help participants accelerate change in their careers -- by amplifying what they are already doing, breaking into a new industry or founding a company.

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Addicted to Outrage

Tim Ferriss shared Daniel Ketchell’s Medium piece breaking down our current media environment. It is an excellent exposition of the way a relatively neutral or even positive story is funnelled towards negativity and outrage. It’s really worth checking out.

Here is a quote that stood out for me –

There is probably an evolutionary reason for the virality of outrage, but I’m not a scientist, so I’ll use a simple, light example. Have you ever seen anyone scream at a sports bar or stadium full of strangers about a logical and sound referee decision?

Outrage encourages interaction and engagement, the fuel of our social networks. So outrage, too often, becomes the narrative — or at least skews the narrative.

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All About The Heart

Thomas Friedman launched a recent column reminding us that automation will define the future:

Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.

He also reminds us that there is nothing that competes with the human heart. It is only the heart that can can love, have compassion and dream. He reminds us that only humans can build deep relationships of trust.

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