Disillusioned?

Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the signal that things are moving into transition. At such times, we need to consider whether the old view or belief may not have been an enchantment cast on us in the past to keep us from seeing deeper into ourselves and others than we were ready to. For the whole idea of disenchantment is that reality has many layers, none “wrong”  but each appropriate to a particular phase of intellectual and spiritual development. The disenchantment experience is the signal that they time has come to look below the surface of what has been thought to be so. It is the sign that you are ready to see and understand more now. 

Lacking that perspective on such experiences, however, we often miss the point and simply become “disillusioned.” The disenchanted person recognized the old view as sufficient in its time, but insufficient now.

On the other hand, the disillusioned person simply rejects the embodiment of the earlier view; she finds a new husband or he gets a new boss, but both leave unchanged the old enchanted view of relationships. The disenchanted person moves on, but the disillusioned person stops and goes through the play again with new actors. Such a person is on a perpetual quest for a real friend, a true mate, and a trustworthy leader. The quest only goes around in circles, and real movement and real development are arrested. 

William Bridges, Transitions

The ability to succeed

The ability to succeed requires the realization of what one wants and the passionate desire to attain it.

Making habits that stick for the long term

According to Good Habit, Bad Habit author Wendy Wood, forming new long-term behavioral patterns is possible to some extent for most people, and it’s largely a function of learning to do something so automatically that you perform the task without having to consciously decide to do it, like brushing your teeth before you go to bed.  

Amanda Mull writing in The Atlantic

Most human talent

The maturing of any complex talent requires a happy combination of motivation, character and opportunity. Most human talent remains undeveloped. -John Garnder

The Algorithms of Nostalgia

Nostalgia has become a template for the serial production of more content, a new income stream for copyright holders, a new data stream for platforms, and a new way to express identity for users. And there’s so much pop culture in the past to draw from, platform capitalism will seemingly never run out. We’re told our data is collected in an attempt to predict what we want, but this isn’t quite true. In attempting to predict our tastes, streaming services work to produce them in its image. Since algorithms are trained on the past, they aren’t merely transmitting nostalgia through neutral channels; they’re cultivating nostalgic biases, seeking to predispose users to crave retro. 

Even as Silicon Valley positions itself as progressive, its algorithms are stuck in the past.

Grafton Tanner, writing in Real Life Magazine

Liking

Liking is commercial culture’s substitute for loving. -Jonathan Franzen 

Data Science articles from Jan 2022

CDC announces plan to send every US household pamphlet on probabilistic thinking & Bayesian inferences

Using machine learning models & clustering network embeddings to get meaningful insights into social network ecosystems

Many PhD candidates are willing to publish findings based on fraudulent data based on some less familiar Bayesian methods

Scientists make first detection of exotic “X” particles in quark-gluon plasma

2022 Trends in Semantic Technologies: Humanizing Artificial Intelligence

NRO Selects 5 Companies for Commercial Radar Development Contracts

Tiny machine learning is bringing neural networks to microcontrollers

Why very few machine learning models actually get deployed

Remote Sensing: Deep Learning for Land Cover Classification of Satellite Imagery Using Python   

Hands-on data visualization for interactive storytelling in Python

The goal of a recommendation algorithm “isn’t to surprise or shock but to affirm. The process looks a lot like prediction, but it’s merely repetition. The result is more of the same: a present that looks like the past and a future that isn’t one.” https://bit.ly/3HW7Ior

The algorithmic feedback loop: "If you want to freeze culture, the 1st step is to reduce it to data & if you want to maintain the frozen status quo algorithms trained on people’s past behaviors & tastes would be the best tools..."

What patent trends can tell us about next gen of AI Tech

Stop talking about “statistical significance and practical significance”

Defending old ways of doing business

I learned the danger of excessive caution long ago, when I consulted for huge Fortune 500 companies. The single biggest problem I encountered—shared by virtually every large company I analyzed—was investing too much of their time and money into defending old ways of doing business, rather than building new ones. We even had a proprietary tool for quantifying this misallocation of resources that spelled out the mistakes in precise dollars and cents.  Senior management hated hearing this, and always insisted that defending the old business units was their safest bet. After I encountered this embedded mindset again and again and saw its consequences, I reached the painful conclusion that the safest path is usually the most dangerous. If you pursue a strategy—whether in business or your personal life—that avoids all risk, you might flourish in the short run, but you flounder over the long term.

Ted Gioia writing in The Atlantic

Some people call it failure

What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God’s way of pointing you in a new direction. –Oprah Winfrey (born Jan. 29, 1954)

Escaping from Group-Narcissism

You can’t force everyone to see the value in your group, just as you can’t force everyone to see the value in you as an individual. But you can control how you see yourself, and the narrative you tell yourself about your group and the world. The only way out from the group-narcissism trap is up, by transcending your group’s feelings of entitlement and connecting with fellow humans—even when it’s easier to believe that you’re special. 

Scott Barry Kaufman writing in The Atlantic

Sir Nicholas Winton meets those he rescued

Sir Nicholas Winton organized the rescue and passage to Britain of about 669 mostly Jewish children destined for the Nazi death camps. Fifty years later, The BBC arranged for him to meet with some of those children

This is the work of healing

Thursday, Jan. 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day

This is the work of healing. You deny what hurts, what you fear. You avoid it at all costs. Then you find a way to welcome and embrace what you’re most afraid of. And then you can finally let it go. 

Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger in her book The Choice

Retreating

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction. -General Douglas MacArthur (born Jan. 26, 1880)

Old Solutions

In the pressure situation, you tend to fall back on the old solutions. You don’t want to take the risk of going down a road that doesn't pay off at all. And then you get stuck, because you’re not excited. -Brian Eno

The Leadership Context

The attributes which make for effective leadership depend on the situation and which the leader is functioning. There are no traits that guarantee successful leadership in all situations. the leader of the University faculty may have quite different attributes from the commander of a military attack team. the qualities required of a legislative leader are not those required of a religious leader. This is not to say that the setting or context is everything and the attributes of the individual nothing. What produces a good result is the combination of a particular context and an individual with the appropriate qualities to lead in that context.

John W. Gardner, On Leadership

New remedies

He who will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. -Frances Bacon (Born: Jan. 22, 1561)

Why are some people compelled to cheat?

The fear of losing something appears to be a greater motivator to cheat than the lure of a gain.

Kerry Ritchie, who researches how to improve teaching at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, says the majority of academic cheating is conducted by high-achieving students, (60% of offenders earned grades 80% or more). While cheating in education is not the same as cheating during play, if there are similarities it's that those at the top feel a pressure to maintain their status. Players are more likely to behave dishonestly if they can say that it benefits other people as well as themselves.

William Park writing in BBC Future

Dreams of self-actualization

A culture that funnels its dreams of self-actualization into salaried jobs is setting itself up for collective anxiety, mass disappointment, and inevitable burnout. -Derek Thompson

A Social Media Makeover (part 1)

(Answer the questions in blue)

PERSONAL BRANDING: A SOCIAL MEDIA MAKEOVER (PART 1)

Your online reputation is your reputation. Taking these steps will give you control of your social media brand. Companies want personal brands that run parallel to their own, not brands that compete with their social media reputation.

 WHAT DOES GOOGLE KNOW?           

The first thing a prospective employer may do is Google you. So let’s find out who Google thinks you are.

Open an incognito browser window (so that your Google search is free from any personal customizations or saved search elements) and search for:

·       Your name, first and last (or the name of your business)

·       Variations of your name

·       Your full name, nickname, middle name, etc.

·       Any misspellings of your name

·       If your name is common, add other elements that might help define you like your occupation, your employer, your school, etc.

Are there inappropriate photos, rants, politically divisive or offensive items that do not fit with the brand you want to offer to the public and particularly to potential employers, clients or customers? This includes negative opinions about a company you’re about to interview with.

Tools to help you clean up your act (or keep it clean): Google Alerts and Socialmention. 

 YOUR NICHE

SET YOURSELF APART

What sets you apart from others? Here are some ways to get to an answer: 

·       What is the “one thing” that everyone says you rock at?

·       What are your passions and interests?

·       What do you read about most often online?

·       Will you still be interested in this particular area six months or a year from now?



YOUR HEADLINE

Keep it to 160 characters so it will fit into your Twitter bio.  For examples of what not to do (because some descriptions have been overused), check out the canned (and funny) TwitterBioGenerator.      

Think of it as a headline that would go on an ad for “Brand You.”  But remember: People want to connect with people, not a brand. It might be catchy and unique. Some examples:

 Consider loading it with keywords. Example:

Innovative CMO, Extensive retail experience from start-ups to major global brands. Fluent English, French, Mandarin

It might be a power statement that defines your personal brand. Example:

Helping Companies Find Breakout Ideas and Transforming Them Into Global Technology Brands

The best profiles tell a story, a career story or a personal story. Something that ties all the pieces of your journey together in a narrative.

If you are focused on job hunting, look at job descriptions of the positions you’re after. Look for keywords and treat them like your resume.

Aim at somewhere between 450 and 650 characters.

Walk the reader through your work passions, key skills, uniqueness.  Include the skills you want to be known for.

Consider including:

·       One professional description (your bio should be accurate)

·       One word that is not boring (your bio should be exciting)

·       One niche descriptor (your bio should be targeted)

·       One accomplishment (your bio should be flattering)

·       One hobby (your bio should be humanizing)

·       One interesting fact or feature about yourself (your bio should be intriguing)

·       Your company or another social profile (your bio should be connected)

       Avoid:

·       Insider jargon

·       Clichés

·       Overused buzzwords (such as creative, driven, innovative, hardworking etc.)

·       General statements (Be specific. When possible, include numbers and case studies that prove success)

Write as if you are having a conversation with someone. Inject your personality.

MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS 

Slides, videos, infographics, photos--photos you have taken or photos of you doing things?

If you’re in a creative field, there’s no better way to flaunt your personality, design aesthetic, and vision than through a personal social media profile.

Ask yourself this: Based on what I post, do I look like I’d be awesome to work with?  

Estranged

Whoever protects himself against what is new and strange and thereby regresses to the past, falls into the same neurotic condition as the man who identifies himself with the new and runs away from the past. The only difference is that the one has estranged himself from the past, and the other from the future. 

CG Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul