My Digital FootPrint

The Strange Order of Things: Life, feeling and the making of cultures by Antonio Damasio Follow him on Twitter ---- For decades, biologists spurned emotion and feeling as uninteresting. Antonio Damasio, a professor of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, sets out to investigate “why and how we emote, feel, use feelings to construct ourselves and how brains interact with the body to support such functions”. He demonstrates that we are our chemistry and that feelings are central to the life-regulating processes which keep us alive and thriving. What the body feels is every bit as significant as what the mind thinks and we can turn to emotions to explain human consciousness and cultures. It is worth spending a few minutes reading the praise section as the depth and quality will confirm this book is worth taking seriously. You may not like the content or agree with it - but it is worth reading. The link here to data and sensors is that maybe we can deter

The Inflamed Mind Edward Bullmore Follow Edward on TWITTER In The Inflamed Mind, Cambridge psychiatrist, Professor Edward Bullmore presents a new discovery which overturns centuries of medical, psychological and philosophical understanding: the mind and body are linked far more closely than we ever knew - obvious! Central to this thinking is doing away with old notions of dualism, such as mind and body, inherited from Descartes. For years it has been accepted by the medical profession that mind and body were separated by a `blood-brain barrier', which prevented all cellular interaction. It was not considered professionally respectable to investigate connections between the brain, the realm of neuroscience, and the immune system, the province of immunology, because it was well known that the brain and the immune system had nothing to do with each other. Now it is clear that that is not the whole story. Bullmore's research reveals that the existence of the blood-brain ba

The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier  outlines original, pragmatism and ethical ways of addressing the growing gaps between economic prosperity and being more humane. The topic is of great importance and you may not agree with the content but it is beautifully written and important book. The author takes on the failures of contemporary capitalism driven by national and global policy for the now discontent of contemporary high-income western countries and offers (practical) ideas and policies to address them. Drawing on ideas from some of the world's most distinguished social scientists and much of his own personal background and leading research Paul shows us how to save the ideals “capitalism” from itself - and free ourselves from the intellectual baggage of the 20th century. “Deep rifts are tearing apart the fabric of our societies. They are bringing new anxieties and new anger to our people, and new passions to our politics. Thriving cities versus the provin

Open Source Leadership    @RajeevPeshawria We always thought leadership should be democratic but Rajeev Peshawaria shows through his research that a great leaders should be autocratic. I wrote long thought piece in 2018 called Organisation 2.0  I will post it soon as it was a good structure of thinking but lacked a reason (which I think I now have).  The thesis started from ideas that the gen X and Millennials are thinking differently about assets, policy and values.  The are a generation where the gig economy has more alignment than a pension. Rajeev's book starts with identical thinking, which is also echoed in the excellent book by Paul Collier “T he Future of Capitalism ” So knowing that there is a substantive change in the views/ opinions about work and what work means - it means that management and leadership have to adopt.  The 1980’s MBA is now so far out of date on theory and ideals that it is all but irrelevant - however most top management are still thinki

Hello World by Hannah Fry .   Follow Hanna on Twitter My take If you are having any issues explaining algorithms, data or the impact to anyone from a student to the CEO. READ this book ! It is brilliant. I highlighted more in this book than most Hannah brings out that algorithms and data bias is part of society, however the scale is now something we cannot hide from.  Past controls were hidden but now are out in the open, but sometimes we don’t have a clue how it happens We have a choice every time we use a service - be lazy or be in control.  Neither is better however, to become dependent on the algorithm is not about the loss of control but about the loss of identity Control of the algorithm is not limited to the code, but the weaknesses of the machine, design and data. Love Hannah’s take on AI, will be writing up another book on AI soon - so will keep thinking on AI for that. When people are unaware that they are being manipulated, they tend to believe that they

How to survive and thrive in the third digital revolution : #designingreality By the brothers Gershenfeld, Neil , Alan and Joel This books takes the concept of FabLab from the common understanding of a simple fabrication lab where you can make one of (almost) anything (here is a global list of FABLABs ); to how digital tools changes economics and the competitive nature of nations policy.    One to read but be very open minded to ( and the bias of) Path dependency (you can only continue on the path as the constraints and inertia prevent you from change) Why it will be so hard for companies to adopt to this thinking. “The first digital revolution was in communication, taking us from analog phones to the Internet. The second digital revolution was in computation, bringing us personal computers and smartphones. Together they fundamentally changed the world. The Third is digital fabrication.” The book brings the perspectives of science, technology, social scien

Our personal worldview is based on experience but that experience has a bias; the way we make sense of things produces bias ( The Mind is Flat ) and in the end we have no idea just how biased we are in our own opinions, delivery, views or ideas.  However a joy of the Freedom is Speech is that we are entitled to have a biased opinion and express it. Human brains are wired to make all kinds of mental mistakes which can impact our ability to make sense of what our senses are telling us. In total, there are 188 cognitive biases that mess with how we process data, think critically, and perceive reality.   This is the big picture at the end. The School of Thought , a non-profit dedicated to spreading critical thinking has the construct below to help us, it puts the most common ideas in a simple form. Why is this important : a big idea in GDPR and other consumer protection rights /ideas is that of informed consent. The idea falls down at many levels as a complex consent therefore need