🚧 WIP
Ideally posts in this category don’t stay this way - a reminder to yours truly that he needs to return here one day and do something with it!
We Are Becoming A Power Skills Economy
Josh Bershin writes that we are becoming a power skills economy.
In other words, automation did not eliminate work at all – it created new jobs, better jobs, and an acceleration of our workforce into what we now call the “service economy.” We are essentially shifting to the right in this model.
💬 Josh Bershin
BTW, in case you are wondering, ‘Power Skills’ is the 'new' name for ‘Soft Skills’. To be fair, it did need a new name. It’s also fair to say that whilst he’s not wrong, he fails to mention that in the last 15 years (where he references 2007) no mention that the average income of people is flat and that real income is declining.
But that's a different opportunity.
Oh - and maybe not so 'new' Josh was talking about this back in 2019 - and gave us a few clues as to what he was talking about, this is one of his graphics.
Here's My Take
1) Becoming? I think it is really more like that we are starting to recognize these skills. They have always been there - and though not necessarily recognised or even understood - I bet if you find successful people in that 'old' economy - they would demonstrate a lot of these traits.
2) Josh is not alone in highlighting these skills and their importance. What nobody is doing is organizing these skills into a taxonomy - much less an ontology. (What's the difference you may ask) Stan Garfield has a very simple explanation)
Taxonomy
Ontology
... except now there is.
More of this to come, but have to say, very excited by a company I have been talking to that has not only done a lot of research into these skills, but also which skills are most important - and why, depending on what you are trying to do.
Not only that, but they are releasing an app that will allow anybody to
- assess their personal strengths and weaknesses across all skills
- define which of those skills they should focus on to maximise their ability to be most succesful at what they are trying to do
- all through a self paced, self directed, learning program.
As I said - more to come. Just to say - the cavalry is on its way.
Featured Image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
🚧 The Coup We Are Not Talking About
Shoshana Zuboff calls this development The Coup We Are Not Talking About. The subhead of that essay makes the choice clear: We can have democracy, or we can have a surveillance society, but we cannot have both. Her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, gave us a name for what we’re up against. A bestseller, it is now published in twenty-six languages. But our collective oblivity is also massive.
💬 Doc Searls (my emphasis)
🚧 It's A Pattern
In my book ‘For Business Leaders Slapped In The Face By A World They Thought They Knew’, I referenced an organization called 'The Prout Institute'.
It came to mind as I watched this relatively unwatched (in the big scheme of things) video.
Andrew Pancholi is definitely an interesting man.
It's a 2022 video - but predates the invasion of Ukraine, though not the build-up with the result that we have an immediate feedback loop on some aspects of how right or wrong his thinking is. (He seems to be right.)
The talk is only 35 minutes or so of the nearly 1-hour video (the rest is a Q and A) - and touched on many topics including China's penetration into the world that Peter Frankopan - amongst others - wrote about in his 2018 book The New Silk Roads. (The Guardian). An excellent book that if the future of the world is interesting to you, this book should be either on your bookshelf - or (as in my case) in your iPad.
There is part of me that questions the pattern making ‘proofs’. Kind of like the ley lines of England … that are in the canons of ‘lost knowledge’. If you are loose enough with definitions and correlations then yes - everything is going to align.
Still, for all of that, it’s a good 35 minute listen - and it gets harder to say that as each day passes.
Experimenting With Footnotes
🚧 I wanted to write this post as a permanent test of applying ‘footnotes’ on my blog.
Here in the time line it is almost certainly going to look weird if there isn’t a title - but the idea is to improve the reading experience on the site - and then of course explore what it might look like in an RSS feed.
Post Posting
The footnotes aren’t coming through hyperlinked. YET!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl.
Click On The Arrow To Get Some Context
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.
Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.
Video embed test
Blockquote Test
Normal
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.”
💬 Joe Blow
Hitchens Specific
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti."
Meanwhile ….. why not explore header formats while I am here
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🚧
Just Finished Reading: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci 📚
I don’t write many book reviews but for this one I will make an exception - with a good reason - but not yet.
I will be back. (If you will pardon a spot of ‘Arny Channeling’ !!!)
Rebuilding My Micro Blog 🚧
By simply adding stuff / pages and plugins to my blog without thinking something eventually had to break - and it did. My thanks to @manton and @pimoore for pointing out the error. Turns out Hitchens doesn’t include a ‘Replies’ page - which caused my archive to disappear.
Flat Earth time. I mean - everything. (Barring two hidden pages being used for 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic ).
The Rebuild
- Install Hitchens ✅ - thankyou @pimoore
(need to move my footer into Hitchens footer.) - Install Conversation ✅ - thankyou @sod
- Install Surprise Me ✅ - thankyou @sod
- Reply By EMail ✅ - thankyou @sod
Next Steps
🚧
I still need to write more about this - but no more dilly-dallying - time to share regardless. The image speaks volumes.
Credit Tim Urban via Chris Hladczuk
📚 🚧 Funny how you come across stuff that is so cool - and then it disappears again … such as the Literature Map
I used it to create a 🔗 series of 7 posts last year and then it got lost.
Maybe something to use in the 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic?
🚧 CSS Experiments
🚧 Experimental Post as I play around with the CSS ... a LOT!
“wise words being captured for posterity.”
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💬 They Who Said It“wise words being captured for posterity.”
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“wise words being captured for posterity.” 💬 They Who Said It
simple markdown with cite tight and
“wise words being captured for posterity.”
💬 They Who Said It
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“wise words being captured for posterity.”
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“wise words being captured for posterity.”
💬 They Who Said It
Full On Quote
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.”
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.”
💬 They Who Said It
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.”
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius sollicitudin consequat. Etiam cursus blandit nisl accumsan fermentum. Phasellus faucibus velit non porttitor tincidunt. Ut quis erat ac nibh auctor tempus. Sed a metus sed dui pulvinar dapibus pulvinar et nisl. Sed consectetur, magna sit amet vestibulum dapibus, augue orci dignissim nulla, nec interdum ligula nibh at dui. In in dolor sit amet urna tempor pulvinar. In ut odio et ligula faucibus placerat. Proin pulvinar ex et sagittis molestie. Vestibulum dignissim faucibus diam, quis lacinia lacus mollis et. In fermentum ex quis consectetur semper. Nullam ut metus quam. Suspendisse potenti.”
💬 They Who Said It
”You listen, watch, feel, smell, taste … sense"
“You analyse, think, interpret, connect, ruminate … process”
“You write, record, paint, present, talk … deliver”
“And none of it really matters - except you - and what you want out of it all.”
Managing Complex Change
🚧 Brought to my attention by Stuart Robbins, who went on to write ....
It is known as the Knoster Model for Complex Behavioral Change (circa 2000). For those who would like to know more, search for Timothy Knoster. In sum, Knoster identifies the 5 key elements needed for any Change Management initiative to be successful, and the relative symptoms caused if/when one element is missing.
Stuart Robbins
Interesting. I went of looking further and found an even better image (see below) that adds context to the steps and happy smiling emojis that reflect the expected feelings! :-)
The keen observers amongst you will also spot a different order and an extra step - but the principle holds. (The principle being - as Stuart said in his original message to me ... (I paraphrase) ... how much information can be packed into a single image (doffing hat to E. Tufte.)
John Philpin
🚧 I have moved my blog from an old domain to this new space. At the same time introduced some design changes which on occasions causes the old posts to look odd. As I see them, I fix them - but specifically not going back into the archives to fix proactively - life is just too short.
🚧 Navigation
Some Useful Tips To Navigate The Articles
The RSS feed is here.
Article Navigation
Like any good WordPress blog, searching by category is of course possible. We have also work hard to only have a single category per article.
We then refine the indexing of the article with free form tags.
We have also introduced a second layer of article - which is 'post type' ... using this filter you can find posts, asides, videos etc
Combine the two look for
- category = work
- post kind = video
Hit 'filter' and back comes the list of all posts that contain 'videos' categorized as 'work'.
And then, of course, you have search!
🚧 Seen two separate references in the wilds of the blogosphere to this graphic in the last three days - no original source. Posting for posterity to revisit at some point.
🚧 Me? I’m still on the ‘let me in’ part of the list. Anyone else care to share their Roam Reflections?
Three Stories
These three stories provide context to the People First Newsletter that was published on Tuesday April 21st
Mining Coin Through Your Bodies Activity
🔗 Microsoft Files Patent For New Cryptocurrency and Mining System
Body activity data may be generated based on the sensed body activity of the user. A cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the device of the user may verify whether or not the body activity data satisfies one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system, and award cryptocurrency to the user whose body activity data is verified.
And
a brain wave or body heat emitted from the user when the user performs the task provided by an information or service provider, such as viewing an advertisement or using certain internet services, can be used in the mining process."
What could possibly go wrong? The answer - as always - it depends.
Investing In The Student Body
Back in 2015 Purdue announced that it was going to invest in its students. I mean really invest.
Through its research foundation, the school plans to create ISA funds that its students can tap to pay for tuition, room and board. In return, students would pay a percentage of their earnings after graduation for a set number of years, replenishing the fund for future investments.
💬 WaPo
There was a lot of huh hah in the media at the time about people selling themselves into servitude. Education is a right and and and …
and yet 5 years later …
One Man Voluntarily Enters Indentured Servitude
It’s just that this isn’t how he sees it. (The story of the man who sold fractional shares in himself.)
It’s not the same, but it reminded me a little of this idea from 2005 - essentially fractional advertising on a single page to fund Alex Tew’s education. (I am going to say it worked. Ever heard of Calm? Alex co-founded the company and he is now co-CEO. Calm is rocking!
Anyway - back to Alex (the other one) - and isn’t it odd that they are both called Alex?
‘$ALEX’ holders are promised a share of ‘any money’ he makes in the next three years! (He’ll pay out up to a total of $100,000 over three years—the rest is (his) to keep). $ALEX holders can vote on some of his life decisions!
That second one smacks a little of 🖇️📚 Luke Rheinhart’s Diceman
… but essentially what Alex is doing is convincing people with money to give it to him - and in return, he will give them more back within 3 years. Why is that any different to those same people buying stock in a company?
The world has been dallying with these ideas for a long time. There is push back from some quarters that caution needs to be applied because this could return us to millions of people working in ‘indentured servitude’ - and certainly by Investopedia’s definition that is exactly what Alex has just signed up for.
I think they are wrong. Sure, we need to tread carefully and not blindly sell all our rights (Lessons learned from musicians of the 60s?) - but surely none of it can be worse than the alternative?
🚧 Data Is Being Used To Screw Us
This popped into a thread that I am part of ...
A thread that caused 'Friend of People First' - Adrian Gropper to write;
A talk that argues that most of the big data is being used to screw us and mentions data trusts as a possible solution. Data trusts are an immature concept but worth considering because it's one approach to decentralizing governance. Until we figure out data governance principles that are transparent and contextual to specific communities we should limit data aggregation by default and focus on personal agents and other fiduciaries.
Adrian Gropper
It is interesting because on that very same day I received these words from another 'Friend of People First' and occasional colleague Daniel Szuc after he received my newsletter declaring Data is Energy.
Energy is energy.
Daniel Szuc and Josephine Wong
Climate is a result of energy misused.
Environment is the outcome.
What are the impacts on our environment today, inside people and in the outside environment people live in?
What contributes to the health or toxicity of the environment?
Data, understood deeply, should be used to contribute to the healthy environment ... yet ... how is it being used today?
The answer, of course, is exactly what Adrian expressed above.
It is being used to screw us.
Take Three Words
I discovered the three words process only last year from Chris Brogan. It worked nicely for 2019, so I repeated the exercise for 2020. Since publishing the three words in my annual new year newsletter, a number of people have asked questions;
- where did the idea come from?
- what are the rules?
- can you tell me more about the process?
- is it ok to have four words?
etc etc
So first - not my idea. I got it from Chris Brogan - but I don’t think he started it. To fill in some gaps - this is what Chris has to say.
🚧 Ditch The Binary - Redux
As I finished this short post, I headed out to the 'google-web-net' to see if I could find a suitable and representative image. I was failing unitl I focussed on 'Redux'. The images associated with Redux are highly Redux oriented, with a high degree of focus on their logo. What you might expect, given the name - but this is not about what they do. So I kept looking and discovered this.
It's as if Karin Edgett read my mind. The image was perfect and the words so in tune with my thoughts, that I couldn't resist.
My entry 'let go of everything or anything and breathe' is part of a series of paintings and haiku exploring infinity in it's transformative sense.
Karin Edgett
Back On Topic
Interesting to read this post from Doc Searls today - which also happens to be his birthday.