Quiet Service with General Stan McChrystal

I love this episode because it’s about optimism, positive leadership as well as the link between companies and the — seemingly — very different context of the army, where General Stanley McChrystal operates. The fact that Simon Sinek’s vision is thrown into the mix, only makes this episode all the more interesting. I highly recommend it.

Peter Vander Auwera — tinkerer, creator, and sensebreaker

Kent Bye (Voices of VR) on Truth, Reality, and the Human Experience (Part 1)

I like Kent Bye and his podcast (and youtube) channel because his view on the VR and AR world — with respect to privacy for example — offers a glimpse on how we may have to rethink several concepts in the “classic” analog…

And so, it’s only logical that business leaders of all levels understand what is exactly happening in the world and where it is heading, in order to make smart decisions about their employees, products, services, supply chain, marketing and every last aspect of their company.

That’s why I wanted to list my absolute top favourite podcasts about the latest paradigm shifts and trends in economy, geopolitics, society and the environment. What you’ll hear here are elite speakers with unique ideas that significantly changed the way I look at the world or the future.

You can immerse yourself in this crash…

“Do you have any idea how special you are?”

It was this bombastic quote from a Netflix series that made me realize how many of its original programming focuses on special and uniquely talented individuals, each of them rough diamonds in sea of mediocrity.

Just to give a few examples of series 1 original storylines:

• The Queen’s Gambit: orphan underdog turns out to be a chess wunderkind and, despite her addiction, grows to become the chess champion of the world
• Hillbilly Elegy: social underdog faces incredibly hardship in family life but, in spite of his unfortunate background, ends up graduating…

150. According to anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar that’s the maximum number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships. That number was actually inspired by Bill Gore, Founder of W.L. Gore (developer of waterproof, breathable Gore-Tex fabrics). He had figured out that once a factory contained more than 150 people they were less likely to work together as a team. Dunbar was intrigued by his assumption, started researching it and did find similar results in other communities such as Native American tribes, military units and Amish communities. …

A few weeks ago, McKinsey, one of the crown jewels of consulting, paid almost 600 million dollars and fired two partners in a settlement for claims that its advice to pharmaceutical companies contributed to the deadly opioid crisis. That’s a huge shift. It means that that type of middle men are just as much in harm’s way as the companies they advise if they display ethically dubious behaviour. (If you understand Dutch, read Peter Hinssen’s blog about that here.)

But this is just one of the many trickles of what may possibly become a stream.

Accountability seems back with a…

I want to talk about power. I know, we have been talking a lot about the growing power of Big Tech these days and their troubles in the US, Europe and even China. But I’m not going to write about antitrust. (Ok, that’s a lie, I’ll mention it, but only to compare it to something else.)

Big Tech’s power has been spreading in two ways:

1. BIGGER: Through the creation of monopolies, category kings and oligopolies. An example would be Google’s dominance in web search, digital advertising and smartphone software. They have very little true competition, the barriers to entry are very high and they can basically ask the prices…

In ancient Rome, Janus was the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. Fun fact: many people (as did I, until I wikipediad (is that even a word?) him just now) believe that the month of January is named after Janus but according to ancient Roman farmers’ almanacs it was related to the Goddess Juno.

Back to Janus, though. He looked both forward and backward, to the future and the past, to the beginning and the end.

I think that we need to rekindle this lost Janusian view of the world. Even in exponential and…

My favorite three pieces of content of the moment are about a world where reality and truth seem to have become options on a menu card — “I’ll have reality number two, please, with a side dish of 5G conspiracy.” — and trust a small print footnote.

The Reality Coup — Sander Duivestein

When I was chatting with a friend about the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, I remember writing to her that “These people are living in an alternate reality, completely out of touch with ours”. And so I was immediately drawn to Sander Duivestein’s Medium article a few days later…