Podcasts: Thinking, isolation and connectivity

We live in a world where we are always on – increased screen time, wearable technology that tracks our heart rate, smart notifications, air pods in our ears, and brands constantly bidding for our attention.

Making time to thinking in today’s world is increasingly important, exposing yourself to different ideas and contexts. This week in one of the podcasts that I listened to themed around digital collaboration, the interviewee highlighted how there are numerous tools to aid our productivity (Slack, Trello, Notion, Asana to name just a few), but our deliverables haven’t increased at the same rate at which we ‘manage’ our productivity. With the amount of tech we have at our disposal, we should be using smart tech like this to increase our rate of delivery. Being move productive doesn’t necessarily mean that we are delivering more…

Being exposed to lots of information and sources of content we need to physically allocate time to thinking more (unplugging from the connected world. Do you realise that when you start answering emails as soon as they hit your inbox you are giving up some of your control to someone else?! We should make time to collate our experiences and learn from everything around us.

Through greater connectivity, models and businesses are changing. Media is shifting and the way we communicate with fellow humans is evolving. What does greater connectivity mean for the future? Well I think that the Internet of Things (IOT) is a lot closer to widespread integration and adoption than many people think… more on this in another blog soon.

Before getting into the podcasts that I listened to over the last week, here is a medium article that is worth your time. It’s titled, “The Power of Isolation”. Alida Miranda-Wolff expands on what isolation thinking is and the importance of asking more questions of who, what and why…

“Taking a big-picture view is valuable and necessary. But breaking the undoubted apart into pieces to explore what remains dubious allows for us to expand our view even further.”

Interesting podcasts for the past week:

• Collaboration in the Digital Age with John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong Industries
• Democracy is for sale, says “The Great Hack” director Karim Amer
• Tim Ferriss on life-hacks and psychedelics
• Plastic waste in SA… how bad is it?
• Forbes’ Mark Howard: Advertising is still a double digit growth business

Two reads for you to consider and think about:

• At Twitter, it seems no one can hear the screams.
• Study: Teens get the news from YouTubers and not news outlets