Capitalogix

Speaking At The 13th Annual Rocky Mountain Economic Summit

The Rocky Mountain Economic Summit is one of my favorite events to attend each year.  It is hosted by the Global Interdependence Center and the Bronze Buffalo Club just outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

Major media outlets like Bloomberg, Forbes, and Reuters cover the event live.

This year, some of the key speakers included Paul Ryan, Megan Greene, David Kotok, John Silvia, and Paul McCulley. 

I had the pleasure of speaking during their session on Cybersecurity and AI. The Global Interdependence Center also recorded our session, so I'm thankful to share it with you here. Let me know what you think. 

 

The mood was pretty optimistic and bullish. As you might expect, there was a growing interest in crypto and blockchain … and a growing sense of “us versus them” directed at China and Russia. We live in interesting times!

If you want to download my presentation slides, you can do that here. 

Mindset Matters – When the Revolution Comes Knocking

Last week, we talked about the future of AI and the potential for AI to start taking over some jobs (freeing humans to raise their chins and do something better and more meaningful).

One of the key factors I talked about was "mindset." For example, consider whether you’re in a scarcity or abundance mindset? If you are in a scarcity mindset, that probably means you see life as a finite pie with only so many slices ... and if someone else gets a big slice (or something new interrupts you getting your slice), you worry that you might not get what you deserve.  On the other hand, an abundance mindset recognizes that there’s plenty out there for everybody, and if there’s no more pie, we can always create new pies (or something better).

I have a picture in my conference room that says energy might be the most important thing to measure.

via GapingVoid

Yes, it means what it sounds like - but, for us, it also means more. 

We use A.I. to trade.  So, measuring performance is important.  But so are all sorts of production, efficiency, and effectiveness measures. 

There are hundreds of important metrics we track day-to-day.  Energy impacts many of them (and absolutely affects your ability to respond to change). 

Energy affects how you feel, what you do, and what you make things mean.  Consequently, energy is an effective way to measure your values too.

We’ve seen numerous inflection points in the past with the introduction of electricity, and then the assembly line and the industrial revolution, with the internet, and now with AI.

There’s always disruption, and there’s always pain, but your mindset and energy can radically change what that means to you ... and what you choose to do.

AI is coming.  Disruption is coming!  It's no longer simply possible; it's not even just probable; it is inevitable.   With that said, what you make it mean and how you respond is up to you.

In a prior post, I shared a mindset scorecard I created at Genius Network.

Normally, Genius Network is private, and these recordings are for internal use only; but I asked permission to share my impromptu session with you. 

Check it out. In the first 5 minutes, I introduce the scorecard concept. For the next 10 minutes, you'll get an extra look at the resulting group discussion. 

 

Think of each comparison as a spectrum. They're not necessarily "one-or-the-other," but they can help identify where you are on the scale of "what to avoid" versus "what you want."

• Blaming <-----> Encouraging
• Insistent <-----> Inspirational
• Fearful <-----> Abundant
• Steadfast <-----> Curious
• Clogging <-----> Cleansing
• Resentful <-----> Grateful
• Zero-Sum <-----> Relational
• Small-Minded <-----> Visionary

These words mean something to me, but they may need tooling to work for you. Changing the names, the order of the comparisons, the number of comparisons, etc., can have a profound effect on the usefulness of this scorecard to you. 

I encourage you to think about how you could use this scorecard and how you can bring attention to those people and actions that best embody the traits that are important to you or your business.

Identifying the words you want to embody and the person you want to be can help make you responsive to change and a better version of yourself.

Hope that helps.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - July 11th, 2021

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

Lighter Links:

• Video: Richard Branson's Space Flight Takes Off. (Flipboard)
• Bezos and Branson are Going To Space! Or Maybe Not. (Wired)
• Kosher Lab-Grown Pork from Israel's Growing Cultured Meat Sector. (JPost)
• Death Rates are Declining For Many Common Cancers In the U.S., Report Finds. (StatNews)
• How a Lizard's Venom Inspired the Promising Weight Loss Drug Wegovy. (Vox)

 

Trading Links:

• The Meme Stock Trade is Far From Over. What Investors Need To Know. (Barrons)
• 7 Upcoming IPOs To Watch In the Second Half of 2021. (BankRate)
• For the First Time, the Fed Flags Crypto Prices as a National Financial Risk. (Fortune)
• The S&P 500 Could Drop Sharply in the 3rd Quarter as the '5 P's' Pressure Markets, Bank of America Says. (Markets)
• Shaquille O'Neal Shuts Down the Internet with His Financial Portfolio, Owns Forever 21, Elvis Presley, and Much More. (ABS)

 

Enter The Hivemind

It can be hard to visualize AI.

You might imagine something based on pop culture references of virtual lifeforms with sentience and free will ... but, at least for now, that's far from the truth.

Here's an infographic debunking 8 common AI myths.

Modern AI does many things and has many applications, but it's still relatively primitive. It works in the background, silently collecting vast amounts of data, and performs increasing amounts of work.

AI may not currently compare with the Star Trek character Data, yet it already is transforming our economy at warp speed.  For a recent example, McDonald's is now doing a 10-store pilot replacing their human drive-thru attendants with AI. 

Some current uses of AI and robotics are genuinely impressive.  Here's a video taking you into "The Hive" a supermarket warehouse run by a "Hivemind" AI. With thousands of "bots" and various other forms of AI and technology, this will give you a glimpse of the future of AI and automation. 

via Tom Scott

This system is from Ocado in the UK. If you want more info, here is an article from Forbes about it.

Pretty cool! 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - June 27th, 2021

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

Lighter Links:

• Why is Cognitive Flexibility Important and How Can You Improve It? (WEForum)
• The Perfect Number of Hours to Work Every Day? Five. (Wired)
• Artist Sells Invisible Sculpture for Over $18K. (NYPost)
• Check Out the Rotation of the Earth from a Whole New Perspective. (Flipboard)
• CRISPR Injected into the Blood Treats a Genetic Disease for First Time. (ScienceMag)

 

 

Trading Links:

• The Global IPO Market Has Never Been Hotter Than It is Right Now. (Bloomberg)
• Banks Will Double Their Capital Return After Successful Stress Test, No. 1 Analyst Mayo Says. (CNBC)
• Hotels and Restaurants' Rebound Summer Held Back by Shortages of Everything. (Wall Street Journal)
• Feds Accelerating Crypto World Crackdown. (FoxBusiness)
• Virgin Galactic Gets Official Clearance to Start Flying Paying Customers to Space. (Gizmodo)

 

A New Experience For Me

We had Nick Nanton and his crew in our office, recently, to film for a documentary on 'Getting to Next' – How AI is transforming the world and humanizing technology. 

 

Nick has been involved with many cool projects from a documentary on Peter Diamandis to Operation Underground Railroad (and more). He's also won more than 20 Emmys. 

Nick is also working on a documentary with Chris Voss - who wrote Never Split the Difference. I spent time in D.C. watching Nick shoot with Chris and his son Brandon Voss, who is the president of Black Swan Group. 

While I've done podcasts and interviews before, this was a surprisingly fun and cool experience for me.

It was also interesting to watch some of our more introverted data scientists in front of the camera. 

The documentary just started shooting - but I look forward to showing you the finished product when it's ready. 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 23rd, 2021

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

Lighter Links:

• Clearly AI is Going To Win. How People are Going To Adjust is a Fascinating Problem'. (3QuarksDaily)
• How AI-Powered Ships Can Help Us Collect Valuable Data About the Ocean. (ThePrint)
• How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body. (Vice)
• How Jewish is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah? A Forward Investigation in 9 Verses. (Forward)
• The 5-Second Rule: Science Debunks Food Myth that Stretches Back to Gengis Khan. (Inverse)

 

Trading Links:

• More Investors Than Ever are Borrowing To Buy Stocks. Here's What this Really Means For the Market. (MarketWatch)
• Governments are Deploying 'Wartime-Like' Efforts to Win the Global Semiconductor Race. (CNBC)
• Space Inc: 10,000 Companies, $4T Value ... and 52% American. (Forbes)
• The Pandemic Changed Where Americans Live. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Billionaire Creator of Ethereum Already Expected the Collapse of Cryptocurrencies. (Entrepreneur)

AI Meets Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was recently in the news for stopping the release of 6 of its books. 

Whether it was a marketing ploy or not, I've been seeing a lot more Dr.Seuss content. 

To start, here's a video of an A.I. written Dr. Seuss book with animation. 

 

via Calamity AI

In addition, here's an A.I. remastered World War II cartoon written by Dr. Seuss with a character named Private Snafu. It's one episode of a series of shorts that were banned post-WWII, and it's one of the more tame episodes.  For an extra piece of trivia, the name of Private Snafu and his series of shorts was based on the military acronym for "Situation Normal: All F***ed Up". 

It's an interesting piece of history ... enjoy. 

 

via Adam Maciaszek

While produced by Warner Bros., these shorts which were made for the US military did not have to go through the Production Code Administration and thus got away with raunchier humor, foul language, and what we would today categorize as racist propaganda against the Japanese and Germans. 

While it's okay to acknowledge that we should be doing better today, I also think it's interesting and informative to watch older materials in the context and time period they were written. 

Racism isn't okay, but if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it, and art can be discussed and enjoyed within that context as well.  

 

The Rise of Augmented Reality

Last week, Microsoft won a contract to provide the U.S. army augmented reality ("AR") headsets. It's worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years, and they'll be providing over 120,000 AR headsets. Porn has been the leader in VR/AR innovation, but it's unsurprising that war is also being used to drive innovation. Human nature is human nature. 

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality have been around for a long time, but there's been a massive boom in innovation and interest over the last 3-5 years. Not only are the technologies becoming more affordable, but the animation is becoming more realistic, headsets are becoming more portable and longer-lasting, and our physical and virtual realities are beginning to blend. 

We're moving towards a world where technology envelops every aspect of our lives ... figuratively and literally. It's funny because I felt the same way in the late 90s as cell phones and the internet proliferated. It feels quaint in comparison to the ubiquity of technology today. Even our toasters are smart now. 

The following (still fictional) video is thought-provoking. What happens when these new technologies are used to influence behavior, decision-making, and even your identity?  

 

Keiichi Matsuda via  Vimeo

Like many things, these technologies make possible awesome new capabilities (if used well) and horrific consequences (if abused or used in authoritarian ways). 

Your doctor or nutritionist could help you make better choices for yourself. Your therapist or coach could help you perceive and respond differently to the challenges life presents you. Marketers could better influence your purchases. Employers could better monitor and measure your performance and productivity. And governments will not be far behind ... doing what they do. It all toes the line between beneficial and creepy. 

Because of where we are in the adoption curve, it is becoming more common to discuss bioethics and AI ethics.  Likewise, as we accelerate into an age of exponential technologies and mindsets, be prepared for increasing scrutiny of the promise versus the peril of various new technologies and capabilities.

We live in interesting times, and only getting more interesting as it goes!

 

 

Streaming Wars

Streaming services were big winners during the pandemic.  While that wasn't surprising, their subscriber growth and usage surge are impressive.

VisualCapitalist put together an infographic highlighting the numbers. 

 

via VisualCapitalist

I enjoyed the chart, and had a couple of different takeaways: 

• Many companies tried to capitalize on the streaming wave by launching half-baked streaming services, but it's clear that the pioneers are still extending their lead on the fast followers. 
• Despite Netflix already being the industry leader, they saw a 34% increase in 2020. 
• China's largest provider - Tencent Video - only has 120M users, which is about 8% of China's population. In contrast, Netflix has 74M US users, which is about 23% of the population. 
• The New York times is the only News subscription source big enough to make the list, yet it's at the very bottom with 6M users. Though, it did see a 61% increase in 2020. 
• Disney+ grew 95M in its inaugural year, which is a credit to the brand recognition Disney holds.

Interesting stuff and large numbers!

How will the world re-opening impact those numbers?  How about 5 years from now? What do you think?

Will virtual reality and augmented reality start to impact these numbers?

With that much money and on the line, I expect this to remain an industry segment primed for innovation, growth ... and a few surprises.