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I'm in Maine at Camp Kotok, a private gathering of economists, fund managers, and other financial industry professionals. 

The mood is cautiously optimistic to bullish. 

The financial industry is changing quickly and I'm confident that advanced technology will become an even bigger driver. 

Lots of cool discussions here. Call me if you want to talk about it. 

We often focus on the big changes in technology's evolution … but, sometimes, the smaller details can be as (if not more) interesting. 

Phone companies used to use approximately 1200 cables to handle the traffic of around 600 buildings. 

Below is an image of one of those bundles being cut – and replaced – with 48 fiber optic cables. 

Sometimes, less is more.

Pretty cool. 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• Scientists Discover the First Large Body of Liquid Water on Mars. (Wired)
• Barack Obama Says He's "Surprised by How Much Money" He Has. (CNW)
• Richard Branson Shares a Letter with His Teenage Self.(CelebrityNetWorth)
• Introverts: Use this Flowchart to See If You *Actually* Have to Hug Someone. (Well&Good)
• Apple's Self-driving Car System Could Change How It Drives by Detecting Passenger Stress Levels. (AppleInsider)

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." – Bill Gates

In our everyday lives, a minute doesn't seem like much. When looking at our population and their internet usage, that minute goes a lot further. 

In 2015, I wrote an article on this exact subject. It's interesting to see the difference between 2008 and 2015, and 2015 to today.  Here's an excerpt:

To put some perspective on this explosion of content and web traffic here are the facts on the growth of content and the internet.

Compared to 2008 here is what's happened with social networks:

• The number of people online has more than doubled from 1.4 billion to over 3 billion

• Facebook has gone from 80 million users to more than 1.4 billion

• Twitter had 2 million accounts and now it is 300 million and counting.

• The number of smartphones was 250 million in 2008 and today there are more than 2 billion. That is an 800% increase!

Let's compare that to 2018. 

 Cumulus Media via World Economic Forum

Today, there's an expected 4,156,932,140 people online and over 2,500,000,000 smartphone users. 

Not as big a shift as 2008 – 2015, but still impressive. 266,000 hours of Netflix is an impossible to fathom number – even in a minute scale. 

I'm curious to see what changes as our digital landscape continues to develop. 

France beat Croatia 4-2 to win their second world cup. It's their first in 20 years (since they hosted the event).  

Did you watch?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• The 6 Ways to Grow a Company. (HBR)
• Google's DeepMind Developed an IQ Test for AI Models.(VentureBeat)
• Here are the 12 Tech Trends that Will Dominate Business in 2018. (TechRepublic)
• Organic Material Found on Mars. (CNet)
• Queen Elizabeth Says Bone Spurs Will Prevent Her from Meeting Trump. (NewYorker)

 

I'm in Alaska at Steamboat Bay. I'm at a CEO retreat. 

In my mind, the Four Seasons referred to a hotel chain rather than what happens in nature. 

It's great being out here. 

First time fishing in the ocean and I caught this King Salmon.

 

Pretty cool!

At the F1 race I went to in Montreal recently, I also got to try a Virtual Reality F1 racing game.

It was better and more immersive than I thought it would be.

My body reacted to it like it was really happening to me.  Here's a video.

 

 

The result was pretty funny … yes, I know I squealed.

There's a lot of exciting progress in VR and AR. What do you think is coming next?

For one take, check out this post on Hyper-Reality.

Donald Trump recently proposed a space force. Some people think it's a farce and some say "what took us so long?"  Personally, I think it is inevitable and will likely be the amalgam of several ongoing (but disjointed) projects and initiatives.  Live long and prosper!

What do you think?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• 5 Recommended Summer Books that Bill Gates Thinks You Should Read. (Inc)
• Ginni Rometty: It Should Be Augmented Intelligence, Not Artificial. (ValueWalk)
• Female Velvet Ants are So Scary No Other Animal Dares Eat Them. (NewScientist)
• Trump Calls for Space Force' in Major Military Revamp. (Wall Street Journal)
• There Really is a Secret Club in Washington Whose Members Run America. (WSJ)

 

Imagine being 25 and having reached what most would consider the pinnacle of their profession. 

Sébastien Toutant is 25 and has multiple medals from the toughest competitions in snowboarding. He received two golds at the X-Games in 2011 and 2013 and just won a gold medal at the most recent Winter Olympics. 

It makes you wonder how you reach those heights and how you keep the passion once you've reached them. 

I met Sébastien while leaving an F1 race in Montréal. I had a chance to talk to him about what makes him tick and where he sees himself going from here.

Check it out.

  

There are multiple factors at work in high performance and in keeping yourself passionate and motivated. 

1. Find Your Unique Ability

"Snowboarding is my passion. I was doing it every day … Over time, It's my job, but it's still my passion. Every time I strap in on my board, I love it. You have to balance it. You have to keep the fun alive." 

Unique Ability is where there's superior skill and it gives you energy, instead of taking energy. When you have to grind every day to become the best, and it's taking energy away from you, you're not going to stick with it. 

When it lights you up, there's no limit to the hours or years you can commit to it. 

2. Maintain Good Habits and Build New Skills 

"Keep Snowboarding. Keep Training. Keep Trying New Tricks.  The sport is moving so much, so you always have to improve your riding and invent new tricks. Push the sport to the next level." 

Success is a war of attrition. You gain it every day through consistent habits and hard work. It's easy to talk the talk, but it's harder to set yourself up for success. Structure your life, and your environment in a way that makes success the default.

3. Stay Focused on the Future

"You have to make sacrifices to make it there. But it's worth it."

At my office, we practice the idea of "Measure Backwards, Plan Forwards". 

To us that means it's important to take time to appreciate how far you've come, yet, it's also important to stay focused on what you can still accomplish. 

Your edge is decaying faster than ever before. Competition is growing not just from your competitors but from technology as well.  Stay focused on next. 

By the way, there is one other lesson this encounter reminded me about … opportunity is all around you, waiting for you to notice and act!  It would have been easy for me to filter out the "kid" standing behind me in a line after an event.  Luck favors the prepared.  Stay focused on what you want and keep your eyes, ears, and mind open for ways to get it!

Onwards!

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links

• How to Succeed in High-Stress Situations. (Tim)
• This 95-Year Stanford Study Reveals 1 Secret to Living a Longer, More Fulfilling Life. (Inc)
• Robots Behaving Badly. (DataScienceCentral)
• Very Stable Genius Delivers Thousands of Flamethrowers to Adoring Fans. (BGR)
• Scientists Just Ranked All 50 States by Life Expectancy. the Results are Truly Stunning. (Inc)