Jocelyn K Glei: How to be productive in a meaningful way in a world of distraction

Jocelyn K. Glei:

"We’ve gotten very good at making time for busywork and very bad at making time for our best work. In this recent talk, I outline why we’re so addicted to “fake productivity” — those small, mindless tasks that feel productive but actually get us nowhere — and how we can shift our attention back to the work that matters."

Where Do Ideas Come From?

A short film about the mysteries of inspiration. Featuring thoughts on the subject by: David Lynch Robert Krulwich Chuck Close Tracy Clayton & Heben Nigatu Ray Barbee Lulu Miller Susan Orlean and a couple of kids named Mason and Ursula Presented by www.transom.org With funding from The National Endowment for the Arts For more about this video, visit: http://transom.org/2017/where-do-ideas-come-from/

Teaching robots right from wrong

The cover story on The Economist 1843. "Artificial intelligence is outperforming the human sort in a growing range of fields – but how do we make sure it behaves morally? Simon Parkin meets the men trying to teach ethics to computers":

In 2017, this is an urgent question. Self-driving cars have clocked up millions of miles on our roads while making autonomous decisions that might affect the safety of other human road-users. Roboticists in Japan, Europe and the United States are developing service robots to provide care for the elderly and disabled. One such robot carer, which was launched in 2015 and dubbed Robear (it sports the face of a polar-bear cub), is strong enough to lift frail patients from their beds; if it can do that, it can also, conceivably, crush them. Since 2000 the US Army has deployed thousands of robots equipped with machineguns, each one able to locate targets and aim at them without the need for human involvement (they are not, however, permitted to pull the trigger unsupervised).

Public figures have also stoked the sense of dread surrounding the idea of autonomous machines. Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, claimed that artificial intelligence is the greatest existential threat to mankind. Last summer the White House commissioned four workshops for experts to discuss this moral dimension to robotics. As Rosalind Picard, director of the Affective Computing Group at MIT puts it: “The greater the freedom of a machine, the more it will need moral standards.”

Staying sharp

Seth Godin: 

Cooks know that a sharp knife is less likely to cause injury, because it goes where you point it. It does what you tell it to do, which means you can focus on what you want the outcome to be.

Ideas have a 2 week shelf life

Steve Corona: 

I’m guilty. But not as much, anymore. My ideas would just sit for months. Stagnating. Ideas rot, and the only way to keep them from spoiling is to turn them into reality.

And I’m not the only one guilty of wasting ideas. I’ve heard about the same projects that y’all were going to start working on “this weekend” for the past 6 months. Stuck on repeat.

When all you do is talk, you forget the most critical step- making. I’m not saying skip researching your ideas, but less-is-more.