Business is a game. There are strict governing bodies, rules to play by, and best practices that increase your chance of success. Games allow for free movement within rigid structures. The people who win utilize skill, strategy, and luck.

Athletes compete for championships. Academics compete for influence. Entrepreneurs compete for profit. Creators compete for attention.

Unlike most games, the rules of business are always evolving. Sometimes they evolve quickly — sometimes they evolve slowly. We are entering a period of rapid evolution. The strategies required to win the game of business are changing.

The traditional pathway to monetize consumer attention on the Internet is becoming archaic. Creators measure their influence using metrics like follower counts and albums sold. This is an inefficient strategy, and an outdated style of thinking.

We tend to think about our society in terms of bell curves. On a bell curve, the vast majority of data points fall in the middle of the graph, which is where the average lies. A small percentage of abnormal people rest at the far edges of the graph.

What Happens When the Playing Field Changes?

The playing field has changed before. When it shifts, the winners utilize new strategies that reflect how the game has changed. Technology, or lack thereof, has always played a pivotal role in how creators create content, distribute it, generate attention, and earn an income.

In 1781, Mozart moved from Salzburg to Vienna, the cultural capital of Austria to advance his music career. People could only listen to music live. Mozart moved to Vienna to perform for wealthy audiences and achieve fame. Only the political leadership of small city-states could finance Mozart’s travels and watch him perform. He did not even begin cataloging his own music until 1785. Many of his early performances were improvisations. After he performed, people could speak with Mozart directly. Wealthy aristocrats financed Mozart’s career.

Three-hundred years later, Prince rose to fame through television and recorded music. Records and new communications technologies enabled Prince to record anywhere. Empowered by technology, geography was removed as a constraint. With a boost from mainstream media, Prince had national reach and became a prominent star. He depended on the Warner Bros. music label for marketing and distribution. Prince had a one-way relationship with his fans. Prince performed — fans watched. He famously sought independence from music labels. While he tried to challenge conventional monetization streams, he was largely constrained by the tools of the era. He monetized through album sales and concerts. The masses financed Prince’s career.

Today, artists like Chance the Rapper distribute their music for free on SoundCloud. Chance the Rapper can record a song from the comfort of his own bedroom and distribute it globally to millions of fans at the click of a button. He interacts directly with his fans on two-way communication channels: Facebook and Twitter. He profits by selling merchandise and experiences, not albums. Passionate fans are financing Chance the Rapper’s career.

The winning strategy always reflects the rules of the game and the constraints of the playing field.

We see bell curves everywhere. Think of the height of the average adult American male. There is a small percentage of people who are shorter than 5’5”, and a similarly small percentage of men taller than 6’3”. Most adult men are average in height.

You may have seen the same thing in your college English class. Most students got Bs, a small percentage of strong students got As, and a small percentage of students got Cs. Bell curve graphs fail to convey extreme differences between the best students and average ones.

To use simple math terminology, the median and the average are the same on a perfect bell curve. The fields of natural sciences and economics depend on bell curves in their models the world. While we continue to think using bell curve mental models, power laws are becoming more common and integral to the way the world works.

A power law has more sample data with extreme values. One new value input dramatically changes the average.

To jump back to math terminology, the median and the average can be very far apart. To illustrate this shift, let’s look at the modern distribution of wealth. If you dropped 100 people from a fictional small town into a room, the cumulative distribution of wealth would largely resemble a bell curve. A small number of people are relatively poor, a large number of people have average wealth, and a small number of people are very wealthy. This is how most people think about the world.

Now let’s drop Bill Gates (net worth: $86 billion) into the room. The average, or mean, jumps up dramatically, but the median stays the same. This is how power laws work. One person can dominate a large percentage of the pie. Power law dynamics are increasingly common on the internet and in the modern world. Creators who are focus on their average fans instead of their most passionate ones are playing the wrong game.

The Upcoming Shift

We are living through a pivotal moment in the history of work. The rules of the game are changing. We are moving from a knowledge economy to an entrepreneurial one. None of this would be possible without the internet and recent technological advancements.

The story of the past five years has been about the democratization of distribution. The story of the next five years will be about the democratization of creation.

Digital technology enables everybody to reach a global audience with intrinsically motivating work. Powerful algorithms and personalized advertising enable creators to reach highly targeted audiences. We will see the rise of millions of niche creators.

This shift from bell curves to power laws is a consequence of a world governed by abundance, instead of scarcity.

To thrive in this new world, we need to recalibrate our minds to think in power laws instead of bell curves. Creators must adapt to this new game. Traditionally, businesses have focused on share of market. In this new digital economy, they should focus on share of customer. Creators who cannot adapt to this new game are leaving economic opportunity on the table.

The bell curve model of the world does not take into account the desires of avid fans who fuel us to do work we love. The current influencer model represents an archaic style of thinking. Influencers sell their reach and total distribution to brands looking for more “authentic” reach. Influencers pitch their total follower counts and the number of eyeballs they capture with each post. These passionate fans are looking for new ways to connect with their favorite artists or creators.

The 80/20 Principle offers a clear example here. In many businesses, 80% of revenue can come from 20% of the customers. In the gym, 80% of our gains can come from 20% of workouts. In life, 80% of our happiness can come from 20% of activities. The numbers do not have to add up to 100.

The 80/20 Principle applies to everything that has a positive feedback loop. In a world of averages, the best performers are slightly better than the average. In our world of extremes, the best performers outperform the average at an exponential rate.

The key point is that most things in life (effort, reward, output) are not distributed evenly. Creators systematically focus too much on the masses and too little on their most passionate fans.

Looking at the world in terms of averages is a fool’s errand. We need to shift our thinking to extremes, exponential growth and powers of ten.

We see large gains going to a small percentage of people all the time. The top 20% of Americans own 85% of the country’s wealth and the wealthiest 1% of Americans own 35% of it. 9% of countries hold 80% of the world’s wealth. A great album with 15 songs usually has two or three popular songs with one becoming a Billboard top-10. Great artists are famous for the exceptional works of art they produce. See: Warhol and the Campbell’s soup cans, Green Day and American Idiot, and F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby.

Big gains come from a small percentage of our actions. By understanding the desires of their most passionate fans, creators can spin up new revenue streams.

These passionate fans will happily pay extra for exclusive meet-and-greets, and signed limited edition albums. When I have more disposable income, I plan to do both of these things regularly.

A group of friends recently traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to see their favorite artist Bassnectar perform on New Year’s Eve. They traveled from Maryland, North Carolina, and Texas. At first glance, this is absurd. Collectively, they traveled thousands of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to attend the show. 99.99% of people would call this ridiculous. To them, it was an easy decision. Passionate fandom has no limits.

From industry to industry, creators are focusing too much on the masses and not enough on their most passionate fans.

Beyond the Bell Curve Model

In his post Why the Normal Distribution is Vanishing, Alex Danco conveys the potential upside that creators ignore when they operate under the bell curve worldview.

Danco tells the story of a business school professor who walks into a room with two Taylor Swift tickets. The professor asks the class how much they would be willing to pay for the tickets on a piece of paper. The answers tend to resemble a bell curve. Some people do not want to go to the concert, some people will pay a reasonable sum, and others will pay a lot of money.

The business professor explains that based on the data, Taylor Swift should price her concert tickets at around $40 to maximize sales. This reflects an archaic, bell curve style of thinking. A modern power law graph propels us towards a new strategy.

Taylor Swift should increase her ticket prices substantially. Her most passionate fans will happily pay prices that far exceed what the average person is willing to spend. They will gain satisfaction from not having to deal with the stressful rush to buy premium concert tickets. They will also pay extra for a more intimate event with fewer crowds. Swift can increase revenue in by creating additional scarcity. She can hold an exclusive meet-and-greet or sell limited edition merchandise.

Creators can please their most passionate fans with authentic, one-of-a-kind products and experiences that will thrill their most passionate fans. The result will be an increase in income for Swift and happiness for her fans.

Embracing the Power Law

Musician Amanda Palmer is a case study on how to best leverage power law market dynamics. Her modern, internet-native strategy took her from working as a “living statue” on the streets of Boston to international acclaim. Palmer directs her attention towards building powerful, two-way direct relationships with fans.

I first discovered Palmer’s monetization strategy in this excellent post from Taylor Pearson. Throughout her career, she has transitioned from a bell curve model of monetization to a more modern methods. Her first album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer sold roughly 36,000 copies. Assuming an average cost of $15 per CD, Palmer earned about $540,000. Her second album, Theatre is Evil reflected a modern strategy that Palmercontroversially called “The Future of Music.” Palmer turned to Kickstarter where she earned $1.2 million from just 24,883 backers.

Yep, you read that right! Palmer more than doubled her income by focusing on a much smaller number of fans. How did she do it?

Palmer focused on share of customer over share of market. She collaborates with her fans instead of selling to them. She gives fans at all parts of the power law curve personalized and exclusive ways to connect with her.

For just $1, casual fans could support her in exchange for a digital album download featuring bonus songs and exclusive content. For $25, fans received a packaged backer-only version of the CD and a 24 page art booklet in a hardbound case. For $100, fans received a signed heavyweight art book featuring 70 pieces of artwork inspired by songs on the accompanying signed album. For $5000, Palmer performed at a house-party.

Palmer toured the world, played at 34 house parties and dined with fans. The result was happier fans and an average income per fan of $50 per fan instead of $15. When we change our mindset, we increase the intrinsic value of smaller, highly engaged audiences. We discover they are worth much more than what our instincts tell us.

The underlying shifts from markets of scarcity to markets of abundance and the corresponding technological improvements will create a paradigmatic shift in how creators monetize. From art, to music, to movie making, we are seeing the collapse of the mainstream. We are already witnessing the balkanization of culture, a trend that reflects this paradigm shift.

Consumers are in control and they want to interact as much as possible with their favorite creators. They seek opportunities to engage in niche, identity-based communities. These consumers escape the masses and proudly support the creators who inspire them.

Those who fail to adapt to an 80/20 worldview may encounter a shortfall of financial opportunities. By focusing on their most passionate fans, creators can win the attention game.

The Future of Work

Sometimes, it feels like we’re living in a science fiction novel. Robots and sophisticated computer algorithms have workers around the world fearing automation. This widespread distress has contributed to today’s turbulent political environment and specifically, many of the issues that Americans grapple with today. 

The digital revolution is a fiercely powerful trend. A World Economic Forum study noted that 65% of students entering primary school today will end up working jobs that don’t exist yet. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow argues that 99 percent of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant for the performance of most modern jobs.

By nature, technological change leads to an exponential rate of change. Automation, speed, globalization, and complexity increase non-linearly over time. The result is an interconnected environment that is seemingly random and complex.

The law of accelerating returns says that human progress moves faster and faster over time. The law states that the rate of technological change doubles every year. Linear thinking has made sense until recently. The natural world changes in a slow and gradual fashion. Humans are biologically fit for a simple world with linear change. The modern world is complex and change is non-linear. We need fresh ways of thinking about the nature of work to succeed in this complex and rapidly evolving new world.

Today, skills that were once relevant for a lifetime are only relevant for decades. Soon, these skills will only be relevant for a few years. Ask anybody who is over the age of 50, and they will tell you that they are overwhelmed by technological advancement. Many of them “just do not get it.” The differences in how generational gaps think, learn and communicate expand every year. An eternal state of chaos and complexity is emerging. This reality of exponential non-linear change challenges the foundational institutions born out of the 20th century — namely education and jobs.

As the rate of change shoots skywards, computers and mobile technologies are uniquely enabled to process and synthesize these paradigm shifts.

How we prepare and respond to these changes will determine our ability to prosper in the 21st century work environment.

This new emerging work environment rewards an entrepreneurial, nimble mindset. Business owners and brand owners are plugging into existing technologies and selling their products to diverse populations around the world. The commoditization of distribution has given rise to global marketplaces that aggregate hundreds of thousands of unique individuals. Geographically limited and remote markets have turned global.

In this new world, people are incentivized to produce customized and diversified work for distinct niche markets. The next decade will give rise to companies and entrepreneurs that can connect with consumers on a more personal level. We are already seeing the end of mainstream, “one size fits markets — examples include razors, music, philanthropy, media, clothing, and cosmetics.

Routine tasks are increasingly being automated by powerful machine learning algorithms or low cost labor around the world. The result is a market that rewards human ingenuity and creativity, making it more possible than ever before to focus on what we, as 21st century workers, “do best.”

Alec Ross, the former Senior Advisor of Innovation for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explains how geographical areas are adapting to the 21st century. In his book, Industries of the Future, Ross contrasts attitudes to show how two regions prepared for the 21st century. Ross compared his home state of West Virginia, with 1.8 million citizens, to Estonia, an Eastern European country with fewer than 1.5 million citizens.

The State of West Virginia hung on to coal as its main industry export even as it became automated. The state of Virginia is built on the coal industry in the same way Pittsburg is built on the steel industry, and Detroit for automobiles. In the early 1900s, West Virginia expanded into chemical and plastic production. These were stable industries that provided prosperity to local citizens. For a century, the “Chemical Valley,” which neighbored Charleston, hosted the highest concentration of chemical manufacturers in the United States including Union Carbide, DuPont and Monsanto. However, the end of the 20th century, the economy ceased to flow as these industries collapsed. Machines replaced coal miners and chemical companies relocated their plants to India and Mexico in search of cheap labor and fewer regulations. West Virginia saw a rapid rise in unemployment, degraded infrastructure and cultural distress. From 1960 to 1990, the state capital of Charleston lost 40 percent of its population. By 1988, West Virginia’s unemployment rate was close to double the USA’s national average.

Across the world, the powerful forces of globalization hit manufacturing hubs hardest. Charleston flourished through years of stable economic growth in the early 20th century, only to be hit hard by technologically induced capital and production flight. The downfall of Pittsburgh’s steel sector contributed to rapid migration and a stagnation in job growth. In Detroit, the population declined from 1.8 million to 700,000 as automobile manufacturing jobs moved elsewhere. Manufacturing hubs like Charleston, West Virginia struggled to face a downward turn, while geographical centers that embraced technology advancements thrived into the 21st century.

After regaining independence in 1991, Estonia benefited from a fresh perspective and new ways of thinking about the future. Estonia leaned and stretched into the future through a national embrace of computer science education, digital currencies, and digital transparency. A collective culture of innovation was born. Estonian students learned to code beginning in the first grade, and government services, including voting, were conducted online. These tech-friendly policies had a powerful impact. Estonia now holds the world record of startups per person, yearly tax returns take less than five minutes, and the country enabled startups such as Skype which sold to eBay for $2.6 billion in 2006. These results speak for themselves.

How cities, states, and countries respond to this new rate of change will impact their level of political and economic preparedness for the 21st century landscape. In the same way, how we prepare and adapt to 21st century labor trends will dramatically shape our quality of life. Leaning into the future is the only option. Let’s be like Estonia, not West Virginia.

The industrial revolution brought dramatic acceleration to the economy. Before 1850, connections and communications were local. Most citizens never traveled farther than 50 miles from their original birthplace. They personally knew the farmers that grew their food, they frequented the same merchants that sold their goods, and they wore clothes that were locally manufactured. Most communities were relatively self-sufficient.

The 20th century kick-started globalization. People, products and ideas could travel across the world efficiently and quickly at lower costs. Shipping containers, interstate highways and networked telecommunications infrastructure connected the world and reshaped the playing field. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, economic and production advancements accelerated GDP growth. The epoch was dominated by multinational corporations, stock market investments and growth, driven by consumerism of the western world. The world was transformed by, advancements in communication technologies, electricity and the automobile.

As Thomas Friedman wrote in his 2005 book, The World is Flat, we are entering a brave new world defined by an unprecedented rate of change. An entirely new and global playing field that will disrupt well-established theories of economics, politics, and work. Friedman says we are entering the third wave of globalization. Globalization 1.0 was spurred by countries and governments while multinational corporations led Globalization 2.0. Now, we are on the brink of Globalization 3.0. This third wave will be defined by complex global supply chains and increased competition. The emerging abilities of individuals and developing countries will reshape the global economic landscape. Due to the competitive nature of this new world, individuals who differentiate themselves will do best.

The rapid pace of technological change has lowered the “half life of skills”, which is the period of time with which existing skills are likely to be superseded by better ones.

This photo shows a scene in the movie, The Apartment, a 1960s film featuring a clerk in a large New York insurance company. This office depicts hundreds of workers with telephones, Rolodexes, typewriters and large electro-mechanical calculating machines.

Today, the jobs of most all these workers have been replaced by Excel spreadsheets, laptops, high capacity servers and mobile handheld devices.

In medieval times, skills extended over many centuries. In the industrial economy, skills extended over many generations. Now, skills last less than a career, and very soon, they will last less than a decade. Skills are becoming ephemeral and impermanent. The “half-life of skills” has never been lower and will continue to decrease.

The digital revolution, which took off with the introduction of the iPhone is largely encapsulated by the instant spread of ideas and information, inspired significant workplace changes. With exponential population increases in emerging growth nations, the result is an abundant global supply of low wage workers. Millions of technological jobs have been outsourced. India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Southeast Asia and China have become skilled manufacturing hubs, while the United States has emerged as a hub for design, innovation and new ideas. This is a good thing for people who can adapt to change. However, this trend is a challenge for those who cannot. In the USA and Western Europe, routine tasks, from manufacturing to processing, to accounting to medical procedures, are being automated by robots and intelligence algorithms managed and stored on cloud-based servers. The result in the USA is a climate of labor abundance.

Three recent books on the economies of the future, Industries of the Future, The Future of Professions, and Inventing the Future all came to the same conclusion: robots are taking our jobs and it is going to happen soon. Robots surpass human capabilities on multiple levels. They can work 24 hours per day with more precision at a lower cost. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, who purchased a robotics company in 2012, recently stated “it’s hard to overstate how big of an impact robots are going to have on society over the next twenty years.”

Robots are already fulfilling hundreds of thousands of orders every day for Amazon Prime customers. Large robotic arms take care of routine tasks that can be automated. Humans are responsible for cognitive, non-routine tasks that require problem solving and flexibility.

We are already seeing the second order effects of globalization reflected in tense political climates around the world. We have seen a backlash from Britain, to Hungary, to the United States. The backlash has come in the form of nationalism, closing borders, and rising political tension. In Britain, the people who voted for Brexit were, disproportionately older, less educated, poorer, and working class. CNN political analyst Fareed Zakaria believes we are seeing the emergence of a new political divide between openness towards globalization and technological change, and national sovereignty and border control.

The new divide is likely to shape Western politics for the next 50 years and will only become stronger due to technological advancements.

We are just beginning to see the ancillary effects of automation. Increasingly ambitious, technically precise, customized tasks require fewer and fewer people. One needs to look no further than Amazon, worth more than $400 billion, with less than 350,000 employees. By contrast, WalMart, a staple of the post World War II boom is valued at $211 billion with over 2.3 million employees worldwide.

The numbers are even more staggering in the software businesses. Blockbuster, formerly a retail giant distributing videos and CD’s from big box retail stores employing 60,000 jobs, gave way to Netflix an online subscription delivery model, employing 2,000 jobs.

The returns for a small cohort of winners are increasing exponentially as companies scale more efficiently at lower costs. Once prestigious work is being displaced by technology. JP Morgan & Chase Co. software automates the tedious and routine interpretation of commercial-loan agreements. These tasks once consumed 360,000 hours of work each year by lawyers and loan officers.

According to some estimates, the changes brought to the global economy in the next two decades could be as impactful as the entire industrial revolution, which took more than a century and a half to materialize. This rapid change marks the advent of increasing complexity, unpredictability and randomness. We must confront reality as it is, not as we wish it were.

Robots and computers far exceed human capabilities when similar processes are repeated multiple times, over and over again. The good news is that creativity and ambition can now be realized like never before. Creative work is more likely to be enjoyable and creatives are less likely to lose their jobs to robots.

The Internet has opened the door for niche businesses that tap into human creativity. Recent guests on my podcast, the North Star, have included some creative talent who stay on top of emerging niche opportunities — stop motion animators, illustrators, and two self-published authors to name a few.

The history of human automation shows us that new and better jobs are created when automation replaces traditional workers. This will continue. As the number of people participating on both the supply side and the demand side of the global market grows, economic opportunity emerges at the edges where algorithms cannot replicate human creativity and only motivated and talented individuals can build their own businesses. Unskilled, soon-to-be commoditized labor is not a great career plan.

The old world, defined by assembly lines and large work environments rewarded manual and routine work. Manpower was everything and workers adopted the 9-to-5 schedule which arose out of the need to coordinate worker hours and facilities uses. An Oxford University research paperconcluded that machines will take over nearly half of the work done by all humans.

To date, automation has helped overall standards of living, improved literacy rates, lengthened the average life span, and contributed to fallingcrime rates. In 1908, it took about 4,800 hours of work to purchase a Model T. Today, the average person has to work about 1,000 hours to buy a car that is much better than the Model T. By 2030, robots won’t just build our cars. Robots will drive them too. They will replace taxi drivers, truck drivers, and train conductors.

The new, emerging world rewards cognitive, non-routine work that reflects a creator’s individuality, which cannot be automated. Even routine knowledge work in the areas of accounting, medicine, and law are becoming automated. Workers in these occupations may be intrinsically motivated to try to advance their careers, while the forces of automation and technological advancements will put them and millions of other general skill and manufacturing workers out of jobs and leave hundreds of companies without a future — if they don’t adapt.

The rapid arrival of new technologies is unpreventable. Humans will compete directly with machines and algorithms that continuously improve and operate 24 hours per day. The world emerges with more connected, complex, non-linear, interrelated, adaptive and spontaneously evolving networks with each passing day, giving humans who conduct cognitive, non-routine, quick to market, high value work a tremendous advantage in the 21st century economy.

To thrive in this new world, we must respond to the rising value of individual creativity and the adaptive power of robotics, personalization, customization and mobile automation which will iterate and evolve at a rapid pace.

Differentiated workers will perform best. They will harness the unique capabilities of the internet and build their careers around the new realities of the modern world. We should build our careers and work styles around the inevitabilities of globalization, abundance, and automation.

Sources:

1. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/our-automated-future
2. http://www.newsweek.com/2016/12/09/robot-economy-artificial-intelligence-jobs-happy-ending-526467.html
3. www.cnn.com/2016/06/27/opinions/western-world-after-brexit-vote-zakaria/
4. http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21685437-why-economic-growth-soared-america-early-20th-century-and-why-it-wont-be

All people crave significance. We long for the assurance that our time on earth is inherently worth something. In pursuit of personal fulfillment, we live unconsciously, guided by ephemeral pleasures and sacrificing meaning for happiness. 

Ancient wisdom and modern wisdom tells us that the pursuit of meaning trumps the pursuit of happiness because it grants us deep purpose, which, in turn, grants the happiness we desire. Our vocation creates the means for how our growth unfolds, the medium where we craft a meaningful life. 

One does not arrive at an answer. Rather, life is an arduous process of peeling the layers of our hidden selves to uncover our truest nature. Only then, can we discover why we exist and build a life of significance. 

Our personal fulfillment demands the audacity to confront our own true nature. Our darkest truths may then transform us to realize the essence of our existence and our destiny. 

Happiness is transitory, but meaning is what we carry to the grave. Meaning is a more profound quest that gives us purpose beyond ephemeral pursuits of happiness and pleasure. This reality begs the question: why are we so busy chasing happiness? 

Perhaps it is the repetitive pursuit of happiness that directly contributes to the rise in depression and anxiety. Americans list happiness as their number one goal. Happiness is born out of an unquestioned obsession with proverbial pleasure and the $11 billion self-help industry. 45% of Americans set New Year’s resolutions around living happier lives.

The pursuit of happiness negatively affects well-being. It forces us to frantically chase fleeting desires – a pursuit that makes us feel inadequate. 

Its pursuit is rooted in toxic comparisons to others, a pyrrhic lust for status, and American consumerism. Americans are preoccupied by the aspirations for wealth, a desire for abundance and a quest for comfort over growth. Too many of us are stuck on the hedonistic treadmill, where desires rise with our income, resulting in no permanent gains in happiness. 

Why are we so unhappy?

Our search for the answer begins with Victor Frankel, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning, and a Holocaust survivor. From his experience in the concentration camps, Frankel called for a shift in our attitudes towards life. To ask what life expects from us instead of what we expect from life. To find our purpose through our response to life’s circumstances.

When we understand why we are alive, we can bear the difficulties of the arduous pursuit of significance. Its quest impels deep introspection and uncovers hidden quarters of the soul. Without growth, we atrophy into old age, chasing ephemeral pleasure and longing for the assurance of our own significance.

To borrow from John Gardner, “meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you. … You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life.”

Rather than chasing happiness, we should aim for fulfillment. The answers rest between the lines of our distinct life experiences found through the gradual unpeeling of our deepest selves. The happiness we desire is a byproduct of our vocation and the meaning we create from it.  

Brooks, author of The Road to Character encourages us to choose a vocation that acknowledges our quest for meaning and serves community at large. Echoing Frankel, he instructs us to find what our circumstances are calling on us to do.

We construct meaning upon the marriage of our deepest gladness and the world’s profound needs.

Connect patterns from your younger years. What projects have brought you the most satisfaction? What were your childhood hobbies? What were your favorite school subjects?

New questions emerge as we mature: what would you do if you weren’t afraid? What pains are you willing to endure?

Frankel calls upon us to find work that marries the struggle of achievement with ideas inspired by our truest human nature. Where extensive joy intersects with the world’s deepest needs. Personal satisfaction is born from the seeds of service, grounded in our work dedication and community.  Meaning lies in the vocation we choose, the people we serve, and the sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Enduring personal fulfillment is not something we can buy or pursue directly. Instead, we cultivate it over time, through the journeys we choose, the pain, or the sacrifices that we surmount.

Through a progressive lifelong search and cultivation of meaning, we can attain the ethereal beauty of discovering our destiny and accomplishing the intrinsic success of a life well lived.

Life is a perennial journey of self-discovery.

In our younger years, we see learning as a chore. It is only when learning is no longer mandatory that we come to appreciate its inherent beauty. We begin to love learning for its intrinsic value. Not for a better grade or to impress somebody else.

Learning emerges as a majestic byproduct of curiosity and humility.

Doubt before truth. Questions come before answers. Answers can enter our minds when questions make space for the journey of exploration.

The roots of discovery are core to the human condition. To be human is to question assumptions. It inspires man to set foot on the moon only half a century after air flight was called impossible.

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. The acknowledgement of one’s own limitations requires a commitment to courage and a personal confession of shortcomings. As humans, we push past these once concrete barriers. Our stories unfold as we seek growth and inspiration, finding meaning in the never-ending pursuit of knowledge.

We make our world significant by the pursuit of our questions and the depth of our answers. The path of discovery is always unfolding. It flows unpredictably like raindrops trickling down a window pane, flowing randomly by gravity and the osmosis of assimilation.

Our undirected quest to explore the universe, invent technology, and ask deep philosophical questions binds humanity. Discovery creates unity — for all people are innately endowed with the genes for persevering beyond obstacles, driven by a passionate goal. We are seekers on an infinite, iterative journey.

As we acquire wisdom, we discover that learning itself is counterintuitive. The more we know, the more we realize that we do not know.

Knowledge humbles us. It transforms us as we zig and zag towards the light of our distant north star.

To grow our mind is to be human. Our intellectual endeavors bind us as a species and endow our lives with eternal purpose. Learning is the evolving magic that fulfills us.

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“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Creativity is just connecting things.” – Steve Jobs

Everybody wants to be more creative. We are told to think “outside the box” and “focus on being creative.”

These recommendations reflect an inherent misunderstanding of where inspiration comes from.

Creativity unfolds subconsciously. It rarely happens purposefully and when it does, it is a byproduct of a more fundamental truth: creativity happens at intersections.

Novelty stems from the clash of cultures, mindsets, worldviews, and ideas. Assorted inputs churn original outputs.

To illustrate the creative power of intersections, we can to travel back to 15th and 16th century Florence, a city that launched Europe out of the Dark Ages, and inspired imaginative art, ideas, and architecture.

Unlike previous generations, the Florentines looked to previous generations and different cultures for inspiration. They welcomed the influx of scientists, philosophers and artists into their social spheres. As a result, Florence inspired avant-garde ideas and figures such as Leonardo DaVinci and Michaelangelo. Renaissance Florence thrived as the cultural melting pot that inspired ingenuity and kickstarted the scientific revolution.

More recently, Steve Jobs drew inspiration from his own blend of rich experiences. In college, he experimented with LSD and dropped in on a typography class that seemed inconsequential at the time. He traveled to India and discovered Zen Meditation. Those experiences shaped his passion for simplicity and elegant computing.

Creativity does not unfold straightforwardly. One cannot inspire somebody to be creative through mere direction. It cannot be constructed. Rather, creativity is a byproduct of random composition — a child-like playfulness that transcends to supple contemplation and then inspires conscious action.

Creativity is the natural offspring of the human mind digesting abstract experiences and making them lucid. A fusion of touch, taste, sound, smell, and sight — the erratic brilliance of the human mind.

Great ideas are resting in plain sight, waiting for curious minds to synthesize them.

Creativity is the brainchild of insatiable curiosity, wide-ranging diversity, serendipity, and spontaneity.

Ingenuity is the natural byproduct of conscious action and subconscious contemplation. Creativity, then, is not a matter of fact, but rather a matter of being.

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Cover photo by Giuseppe Mondì on Unsplash

I wore Spectacles for the entirety of a recent trip to northern Chile. They served as my camera and my sunglasses. They’re fun, trendy and intuitive.

Spectacles offer a simple and truly meaningful experience. Each recorded Snap is an opportunity to record and relive memories exactly how we experienced them.

Publishers and creators who experiment with Spectacles and create content for social media should focus on three things: making the videos fun, showing dynamic movement, and recording near-view subjects. With this in mind, people can create engaging content that’s authentic to the Spectacles experience.

1. Make the Video Fun

Inspiring, uplifting, and beautiful content is most likely to be shared on the Internet. When a video makes us smile, we naturally want to share it with friends and family. Sharing content has become a way to connect with others, and naturally, we want to share positive, enjoyable experiences.

Give a millennial 8 days in Chile and a pair of @Spectacles and this is what you get 🇨🇱🇨🇱🇨🇱🇨🇱 pic.twitter.com/D4EiH7cQWo

— David Perell (@david_perell) January 4, 2017

2. Show Dynamic Movement

We live in a world where people share and discover content on Facebook. Distribution has been democratized and it has never been easier to record, edit and share lived experiences. These shifts have birthed a world of content abundance and unlimited consumer choice. It’s never been easier for people to discover your content, but once it’s discovered, it’s never been more difficult to persuade people to watch it.

People go to Facebook to cure boredom. They stay there when they’re entertained. The most successful videos cut through the noise with shot diversity and quick storytelling.

3. Record Close-up Subjects

Creators who share their content on social media should assume that viewers will watch on their phones. Small screen real estate must be maximized. Spectacles do not have a zoom function because they are designed to capture the world in the way you see it. The best shots will focus on a compelling subject within 3–10 feet of the camera. Details in the far distance will be too small to engage the viewer.

The Takeaway:

Recording with Spectacles is a unique opportunity to create new conventions. The best videos will be enabled by the types of videos that can only be recorded with a hands-free camera. Let viewers embody your authentic experience. Let them walk in your shoes and feel what you feel.

In the next decade, all friction will be removed from recording video. We will wear cameras on our bodies and liberally share our experiences with friends, family and sometimes strangers. Spectacles offer a unique perspective at the world we’re entering, and the kind of video that will shine in this new world.

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Please reach out if you’re interested in learning more about Spectacles or discussing the future of technology.

Special thanks to Daniel Tucker for editing this post 💯

 

 

“History’s classic solution is either politics distributing prosperity or revolution distributing poverty.”  —  Naval Ravikant

Donald Trump is the new face of America.

The message “Make America Great Again” has resonated with a swath of angry Americans. The 90% of all voters under 25 who placed their blue vote are livid, perpexed and anxious about the present and future state of America. They see a deeply intolerant country, an increasing divide between political parties and fear an impending revolution against the status quo.

The wickedness of Trumpism has shown its face since the election. Trump’s appointed Myron Ebell, a climate change denier to oversee the EPA transition. Racism is in full force across the country. Black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania were targeted with racial slurs and hateful imagery depicting lynchings. Hispanics and Muslims are being threatened and harassed. Trump’s hateful rhetoric is normalizing.

Trumpism is here. Where do we go next?

Donald Trump’s election is a reflection of the rising strength of populist movements throughout the developed world. Society is plagued by segregation on and off the internet. A lack of empathy, a byproduct of racial and class segregation is expanding the political divide between rural America and dense urban pockets. This illuminates the need for more equal distribution of wealth to achieve social stability, technological progress, human health, well-being, and sustenance.

The middle class feels stuck behind a curtain of free trade agreements and GDP growth. To them, economic growth is a zero sum game with all the gains going to untrustworthy elites.

Can we blame them? Dependable manufacturing jobs are leaving for foreign lands. Big banks were bailed out after destroying the lives of millions of Americans who’ve lost faith in the American Dream. Meanwhile, mainstream elites bowed to the altars of technological progress and trickle down economics. Each advancement has perpetuated greater inequality and contributed to the frustration. The battle between nationalists and technologists is here to stay.

Trumpism is fueled by the cascading loss of trust in government, big business, and the establishment.

For decades, the rising elites kept the middle class in check with two powerful parties. Both Democrats and Republicans leveraged longstanding media and lobbying relationships to manipulate public opinion. Suspicious investments and two-faced personas perpetuated distrust.

Now the system is broken. A mass revolution is about to begin. Plutocrats vs. the middle class — globalism vs. nationalism — technologists vs. luddites.

We’ve seen this before. Information finds new streams to flow through, filling once empty reservoirs of populist angst. The printing press displaced the once omnipotent church with the revolution of books and literacy. Democracy and progressive philosophies replaced tyrant kings. America itself was born when 18th century colonial rebels rallied against taxation without representation.

Progress never comes easily. The industrial revolution sparked two catastrophic world wars, a debilitating climate and waves of communist threats.

Powerful technologies have a long history of reshaping the global order. International trade grew with the introduction of big ships in the 15th century. Modern banking emerged in the 17th century when banking became mobile. The tools of the 21st century won’t be exclusive to Wall Street bankers. Smartphones have already empowered small-holder farmers in rural Thailand. Mobile networks catalyzed an Arab Spring in 2011. The American Spring in 2016.

While crises are tragic, they provide a rare opportunity for reflection and improvement.

Creative destruction and a truly global economy will spark the downfall of the wavering bastions of the 20th century. Neglected sectors of society will lash out against economic injustice. They will reject the once comforting rhetoric of elites who’ve betrayed them. The exponential rate of technological advancement will create widespread insecurity.

Steven Levy predicts more than 90% of news stories will be written by algorithms in 15 years. Within the decade, truck drivers – the most common job in America – will be replaced by autonomous vehicles. College professors will be replaced by online classes that are cheaper to produce, infinitely replicable, and more immersive. The advancement of skills can’t keep up with the pace of technological change. 

Established institutions can no longer compete with nimble, networked systems. New methods are shattering the once opaque monolithic curtain that for years shunned the despairing voices of the powerless middle class. As we dive into an era of exponential progress, we can no longer afford to ignore this once muffled plight.

Social media will create a world where everyone has a voice that transcends cultural and geographical barriers. We will move beyond from today’s painful reality with fresh communication platforms that make it easy to engage with diverse perspectives.

A post-American world inches closer every day. The digital revolution represents the next wave of meaningful change. The collapse of mainstream media and impenetrable bipartisan political parties will give way to postmodern systems that reflect a new world order. Technology, complex data, exponential information and globalization are inevitable forces of change.

Around the world, populist movements are a byproduct of the democratization of everything — everywhere. Information, which used to be scarce is now abundant.

One human can instantly broadcast their message to the entire world without permission or censorship. Widespread information sharing will transcend national borders. Agile social networks will enable mass organization and resistance.

Whispers will turn into shouts. Thoughts will inspire actions. Individuals will become tribes.

The arc of progress is hardly a straight line. Instead, the windy road of progress tacks, twists and turns towards a north star of tolerance and prosperity. Nations that embrace the open flow of people and information will prosper. The times call for a more unified human race, more transparency, and more distributed prosperity. Progress will grant women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, LGTBQ, and people with disabilities the respect and opportunities they deserve.

Choosing to ignore these tectonic shifts is a flawed path forward. America should never return to its old ways. Turning back the clock would not make America great again. The world may feel different today, but the playbook of positive change repeats itself.

Embrace the shock of Donald Trump as our new President elect. Don’t succumb to the impending normalization of Trump’s antics. Begin your own personal path for conceiving revolutionary solutions and achieving resilient progress.

Challenge the status quo. Remember that all human beings are fully human. Reject intolerance. Fight climate change. Speak up. Let the traumatic shock of Trump’s presidency inspire action.

Hour by hour, day by day, we continue to pass the torch of leadership to a progressive class of Millennials and Digital Natives. Each rising generation will lay new bricks on a foundation built by countless generations before them.

Keep learning — keep working — keep progressing.

Disciplined action can redefine the American spirit. We can build a country with liberty and justice for all. Together, we can create lasting change.

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“One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”  —  Barack Obama

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Cover photo by DVIDSHUB on Flickr

“Commitment is discipline. Commitment is guts. We know it, and so should you.”

It’s Monday morning. The sun is rising and I’m waiting as long as I can to pull the covers off myself and get out of bed. Doing so is the difference between a relaxing weekend and five days of locked-in intensity. As I lay in bed scrolling my Twitter feed, I see a new post from Equinox: “Morning people aren’t born. They’re made. #EarlyRiser.”

I rip off the sheets, jump out of bed and throw on neon compression shorts, a bright orange shirt and gray shorts to complement my bright blue Nikes. I look in the mirror and nod my head to pump myself up. It’s game time. Let’s go.

Ask any Equinox member about their experience and they’ll say the same thing: I love it there.

Equinox is more than a gym — it’s a fitness club. It’s a sanctuary. It’s home. And it’s a soothing escape from the intense streets of New York City… with refrigerated eucalyptus scented towels! That’s why the average Equinox member visits four times per week, more than double the monthly attendance of the average American gym member.

As one member put it, Equinox regulars personify the journey of the Equinox itself, a journey of fitness that leads towards self-discovery. It’s the one luxury I treat myself to in spite of a shoestring budget that keeps me away from fine steakhouses, bars on the weekends, and events at the Madison Square Garden.

Equinox is a mecca for passionate urban achievers who wake up every day trying to become better versions of themselves. Brand messaging reminds its members why they moved to New York in the first place — to put in their 10,000 hours and achieve greatness.

Equinox has built a powerful luxury brand with a careful focus on hospitality and strong brand partnerships with high-end brands like Juice Press, Net-A-Porter, Smartwater, Lululemon and Kiehls. Equinox capitalizes on the unique characteristics of high achieving urban Millennials, differentiating themselves from the macho-man, blue collar vibes of Gold’s Gym and Planet Fitness. The club is geared towards technologically-savvy, successful Millennials looking to maximize their lives.

Members will say their Equinox membership has made them a better citizen of the world. They credit the health boost to increased productivity, stronger social networks, and increased fulfillment.

Inherent in its rise, Equinox capitalizes on five core trends:

1. Millennials demonstrate success through their lifestyle, not material possessions
2. Health is a status symbol
3. Need for New Communities
4. Media Reinforcement
5. The Equinox Lifestyle

1. Millennials demonstrate success through their lifestyle, not material possessions

The rise of social media gives us an outlet to broadcast our lives in ways that weren’t possible just a decade ago. Facebook hosts our memories and our interests. On Instagram, we show off the glamorous parts of ourselves with carefully edited feeds that convey contrived personas. While we’re more transparent on Snapchat, we’re more likely to share our experiences when we’re doing something that boosts our social capital. At its core, experiences shared through social media become the lens through which the world sees us.

As our lives become more transparent, the things we do influence social status more than ever before. People don’t go to social media to see what their friends own. People follow their friends and influencers to see what they’re doing and what they stand for.

The Equinox routine is an attractive routine to share on social media, in addition to the boost in physical appearance that frequenting the gym offers. Belonging to Equinox says you’re deeply committed to health. It makes you cool.

2. Health is a status symbol

While status was once defined by the size of our house and the car we drove, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat provide 24/7 insight into our lives, thereby putting experiences above possessions in the quest for esteemed social status. As humans rise up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, wellness is at the center of more conversations than ever before.

The rise of health as a status symbol is a byproduct of the millennials have towards health. On average, Boomers and Gen X’ers define health as not being sick, or having an appropriate height/weight proportion. Millennials have a different perception of what it means to be healthy with a bigger focus on day-to-day routine, living an active lifestyle, eating well and taking care of their minds. Increased passion for wellness is showing up outside the gym too with the number of people participating in running events growing an average of 9% every year since 2005.

Older generations defined success with a nice home, two cars in the garage and a 52-inch flatscreen in the living room. In contrast, Millennials don’t strive to own more stuff, opting to spend their disposable income on brands and experiences associated with a wellness lifestyle instead. Boosted by the increasing ease of mass communication, and the shift in how we communicate from from text to images, Millennials proudly one-up each other by sharing these experiences on their social channels.

3. Need for New Communities

As the world becomes more secular, younger generations will find new ways to foster community and friendship. For hundreds of years, humanity has turned to the church and their neighbors for these ubiquitous human desires. With the rise of globalization and urban migration, cities are increasingly diverse, crowded and secular.

Taking inspiration from cult-like subsidiary Soul Cycle, Equinox is adding group fitness classes and meet ups to build stronger ties between its members. Classes like AMY’s Army Cycling, 30/60/90, and The Pursuit: Burn, foster a shared sense of loyal commitment that Equinox members are known for. Members enter weekly check-in goals (mine is 5), and track their health and wellness activity within the app. These are powerful reinforcers.

Since moving to New York 124 days ago, I’ve proudly logged 101 check ins. Like a large cohort of members, I’m more obsessed with the club than my own fitness goals.

The experience is tribal. It’s luxurious, but not intimidatingly so. It’s tons of fun.

Each one of New York’s 36 clubs comes with its own vibes — at SOHO, you’ll find Kanye West and an eclectic mix of fashion models. Meanwhile, hardcore businessmen flock to the more traditional feel of the Rockefeller Center location while creative types frequent Flatiron. Equinox locations vary as much as the neighborhoods themselves, all pristinely maintained while reflecting the vivid intricacies of surrounding businesses and coffee shops.

Equinox members hold a special bond that comes from the inherent commitment that comes with being a member. People there don’t half ass their hour at the gym. Members connect while breathing heavily as fresh sweat drips down their forehead and into refreshing eucalyptus towels.

4. Media Reinforcement

The rise of smartphones and social media means that brands who seek to foster deep connections with customers need to find new ways to foster these relationships. In return, loyal customers spend more time engaging with their favorite brands as they willfully opt-in to branded messaging. Furthermore from Equinox accomplishes exactly this.

Focusing on “The science, the travel, the style, the music and more for the high-performance life,” Furthermore adds to the overall membership experience with brand-relevant content for members. Each piece of media reinforces the Equinox brand with nutrition advice, special workouts, fashion commentary, and travel tips. Brand messaging is further reinforced on the platforms technologically savvy Millennials use most: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube.

With each piece of content, loyal members are willingly deepening their connection with the Equinox brand. By offering members seemingly personalized content, high lifetime value members who’ve already built friendships through Equinox and incorporate the gym into their daily routine gain increased brand loyalty.

5. Equinox as a Lifestyle

Equinox is a part of my identity. Each day, I strive to embody the Equinox brand with deep passion for holistic wellness, and a longterm commitment to becoming a better person tomorrow than I am today.

These messages are reinforced with branded slogans like “It’s Not Fitness. It’s Life,” “Commit to Something” and “We’re All Works in Progress.”

Each neurological reinforcement continues to a powerful flywheel that keeps members engaged with the brand, and more importantly willing to pay the monthly membership fee. With strong motivational messaging and vivid aspirational images, high performance members strive to embody the Equinox brand in ways other high end brands can only hope to do.

Daylight savings time has ended, the clocks have turned back an hour, and I’m laying in bed on this frigid Sunday morning. Once again, Equinox reappears in my feed just when I need it most. Keeping my head on my soft pillows and hiding under my blankets sounds more appealing than a 10:30 Pure Strength class at the High Line location. “Clocks fall back. You don’t. #CommitToSomething.”

By tapping into unique urban Millennial desires, Equinox is forging a a stronger connection with members than any gym before it.

Like a religion, members find meaning and fulfillment by striving to become their best selves through a daily worship. With Equinox, people revere wellness and a mutual commitment to sound minds and sound bodies. Health, like religion before it, is the first step towards achieving their loftiest goals and living their best possible lives.

Equinox is the new church 🙏

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Further reading and the inspiration for this post: Inside Equinox Gym’s Perfectly Fit World (and Top-Secret Club)

Special thanks to Daniel Tucker for editing this post 💯

If you liked this post, please hit the ❤ below or the follow me to see more posts like this 🙌

The only certainty is uncertainty. 65% of students entering primary school today will end up working jobs that don’t exist yet. To enable students to realize the American dream, school should prepare students for the world of the future in ways our incumbent school system isn’t made for. Today’s school system was built for the industrial revolution, not the digital revolution.

The American system was invented to raise compliant workers for the dominant industries of the 20th century where most jobs demanded compliance and obedience. Standardization was the goal. A century later, we still depend on archaic tools for performance measurement — standardized and multiple choice tests. The system trains widespread conformity instead of individual creativity.

We lock our children in windowless classrooms to doze during long, “straight from the textbook” lectures. We teach compliance with fear-inducing rituals that shun bravery and passion. Children who dare to be different and wander off the well-lit path — who don’t follow the directions — are punished with bad grades.

Meanwhile, the cost of education is skyrocketing as the system stagnates.

The solution is new and more diverse systems of education to prepare our youth for this evolving world — a world where entrepreneurs, technologists and self starting generalists will shine. While Americans benefit from widespread freedom of choice from airlines to toothpaste, we’re stuck with a monolithic school system that hinders the success of its imaginative constituents. We’re in desperate need of more choice.

My passionate rebellion against the status quo stems from my frustrations within it. Class boxed me into a clostrophobic mental bubble that prized brute memorization, and where predefined yardsticks served as gospel. I lost points for “drawing outside the lines” and letting my creative mind wander.

Unable to motivate myself to commit to classes, I turned to the internet to educate myself. I dove into the intellectual worlds of Stratechery, Crash Course, and Wait But Why, and graduated from college with a job I’m proud of. I crafted a spirited love for learning and mental expansion. Three years later, my rapid rate of learning and personal growth finally reflects the passionate curiosity that school once made invisible. 🙏

While my qualms with the system sparked a restless commitment to self-motivated learning, I wish I had spent less time in classrooms, and more time exploring my imagination. I long for a system that rewards curious exploration, instead of shunning it with rules and tests, a word that still makes me cringe.

The future demands novel approaches to education. The current system shuns technology, thereby contributing to greater levels of economic inequality as the middle class in developed countries gets left behind by globalization.

Seth Godin speaks to the imperative changes in Stop Stealing Dreams: “Amplified by the Web and the connection revolution, human beings are no longer rewarded most for work as compliant cogs. Instead, our chaotic world is open to the work of passionate individuals, intent on carving their own paths.”

As computers become more powerful, they’ll automate mindless tasks with advanced algorithms, spelling the end of the menial jobs school prepares its students for.

Dramatic changes to the economic landscape are underway: 47% of jobs today could be automated within the next two decades! Brace yourselves — turbulent times are coming.

Instead of producing robotic conformists, schools should raise global citizens who dream of a world with more equal opportunity and less hate.

Montessori schools are pioneering the way forward by developing students’ imaginations with intellectual and physical freedom. Under the Montessori system, children grow through trial and error instead of traditional instruction (AKA boredom 😉). Students learn through interaction with students in different age groups and aren’t measured by grades. It’s a liberating system that nurtures the imagination and gives students an entrepreneurial spirit.

Little suprise that Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are byproducts of the Montessori system, attributing their lavish successes to self-directed learning. Additional success stories include Jeff Bezos, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.

Meanwhile, the AltMBA is an educational program for older students who seek a novel approach to advanced education. The online leadership and management worksop empowers students who learn through trial and error instead of long, university-style lectures. Students ship 13 projects in a month and challenge each other with critical feedback and collaboration. They develop intimate relationships with coaches who offer personalguidance.

Both approaches prove there’s a better way to raise creative minds.

Additional approaches to education reform:

• Lectures at home instead of the classroom. Teachers should answer questions and serve as personal coaches instead of delivering the same lectures over and over again. Students could learn from the world’s leading minds in a cost effective way. The most informative lectures would be seen by millions of students and distributed at zero marginal cost.

• While in class, students should work together on long-term projects. Each student will have specific responsibilities and encourage equal participation. Teachers will publicly celebrate those who invest the most effort with attractive rewards to encourage equal participation. This will encourage empathy, and foster a culture where people are comfortable challenging each other.

• Studies show we learn best by teaching others. Upon completion, students should teach each other about what they learned and where they struggled. Students should be encouraged to take pride in their work and compete to be the best.

• Give kids time to pursue a subject on their own. Professors can show them how to discover online resources and complete personal projects.

Classrooms were set up in the same way as they are today back when we had black and white photos. We can do better.

Let’s prize individuality over conformity and elevate the human spirit. Above all else, let’s build a world where students prize learning and creation. We’ve managed to bore our curious youth with interminable slogs of class that deaden the inventive mind, while teaching students to avoid failure instead of developing through trial and error.

Let’s raise visionaries, not cynics — entrepreneurs, not employees — cosmopolitans, not parochials.

I fear for a future with the same, one-size-fits-all approach to education. Instead, students and their families should be able to choose from a diverse range of educational programs, each with different objectives. Like any successful capitalistic society, consumers will benefit from a vast menu of options to suit their personal desires. It’s time to embrace technology and teach continuous reinvention, the core tenants of our future world. In turn, we’ll create a safer, happier and more prosperous world.

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Let’s chat! I tweet obsessively at @david_perell and will probably respond within 30 seconds 😎

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🚗 Surge Pricing Can Save Hundreds of People

👻 Snapchat’s Big Advantage

✈️ How to Get More From Your Travels

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Cover photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

Your college years are pivotal.

College is a time to consider your career aspirations and embrace your passions. While most kids are drinking, or slacking off in class, wise students use their free time to get ahead of their peers. As the world evolves with increasing speed, young students are in some ways, at an advantage in comparison to their older peers. They aren’t burdened by the inherent assumptions of the old world order and offer unique insight into how young people think and behave.

Four months after graduating from Elon University, and three months into my work at a media company, there’s one thing I wish I’d spent more time learning about: Facebook.

Cultivating a strong understanding of Facebook requires more effort than merely scrolling through your algorithmic feed. Among other things, it demands a nuanced understanding of social media strategy, distribution, new video formats, and advertising.

In a perfect world, universities would empower their students with a deep understanding of Facebook. Unfortunately, education is too inertia prone to truly prepare its students for success in rapidly evolving industries. Facebook has become so essential to the way we communicate that colleges would serve their students well to devote semester-long classes to the platform. With 1.71 billion monthly active users, 1.13 billion of which use the service every day, Facebook is central to the way we communicate. For millions of these users, Facebook is the internet.

Most university communications programs are stuck teaching their students skills for the pre-mobile world. The ubiquitous rise of the internet, and by extension, Facebook has catalyzed tectonic shifts in the way we communicate, learn, and engage with the world. Some examples below:

1. Fall of television → rise of short form video
2. Fall of the cable bundle → rise of SVOD (subscription video on demand) services and social media
3. Fall of newspapers → rise of personalized news feeds

The once permanent bastions of the old world are crumbling before our eyes, giving way to more efficient mediums of communication. The changes extend to all sectors of communications including journalism, public relations, advertising, cinema, television, design, and media analytics. As a student, you’d be smart to conceptualize your own vision for where the world is headed and focus on building skills for that new world. If your professors think you’re crazy, you’re doing something right. 😉

The internet has democratized distribution — brands, traditional publishers and students have the same opportunity to spread ideas, making college the perfect time to share your work with the world. Whether you’re a writer or a filmmaker, Facebook is a low cost distribution channel where you can target your posts to potential employers or the exact people who will appreciate your work. Recent changes in distribution allow viral videos like this one and this one to reach millions of people at little to no cost. This wasn’t possible ten years ago!

Facebook isn’t going away any time soon — it owns your online identity, your memories, your online friend graph, and knows your interests. For at least the next decade, it will dominate our attention, and by extension, serve as the online hub for media and communication.

College students should let Facebook to guide their preliminary career decisions. Find businesses that are leveraging the platform in ways that intrigue you. Facebook’s impact extends beyond media and communication and into novel, more niche businesses using Facebook, and the internet broadly, to reach a clearly defined set of consumers.

Examples include: Harry’s, Thrive Market, Bevel, TrunkClub, and (yes, I’m so excited for this one 🍭🍬) Candy Crush. All these businesses are uniquely enabled by hyper-targeted Facebook ads. The businesses of the future will look a lot like these companies — smaller, nimble, focused, and Facebook dependent.

College students: learn everything you can about Facebook. Observe how it’s impacting the world, giving rise to new business models. In particular, watch what Facebook doing to video — Zuckerberg is on record saying the news feed will “probably be all video in five years.”

Those who narrowly focus on their craft with no understanding of business models and broad societal trends are at a disadvantage. The internet uniquely empowers independent creators like Casey Neistat who produce their own content, distribute it, and build a business around it. Doing so however, requires a business acumen that communications students aren’t known for.

As a college student, you’re about to enter a highly competitive world ripe with opportunity for those who dare to test the status quo. Technology, the industry where college students have a competitive advantage, is increasingly impactful and lucrative.

As Facebook continues to permeate society, developing an expertise on the platform will become increasingly beneficial. Understanding Facebook is a worthwhile endeavor that you’ll probably have to conduct on your own.

Next time you’re crushing beers in your friend’s dorm room on a Saturday night, remember that Facebook is the pillar of modern communication and the nexus of online activity. The company is increasingly powerful and filled with potential — and if you possess the intrinsic curiosity to make it through this blog post, so are you. 👍

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To start, explore these resources:

Facebook Newsroom

1. Follow these media companies: Cycle, BuzzFeed, Vox, Refinery29
2. Follow these SVOD (subscription video on demand) services: Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime.
3. Subscribe to Stratechery and listen to Exponent
4. Wall Street Journal Media Mix
5. Follow Matthew Ball, and subscribe to the Media REDEF newsletter

Recently, an explosion in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood injured 29 people, causing widespread panic. The blast was caused by a pressure cooker bomb placed in a trashcan at the corner of 23rd and 6th.

Within the hour after the bomb went off, Uber turned off surge pricing in the explosion area. Doing so served as a response to previous public uproars against the company for maintaining the implantation of surge pricing for people in danger. In doing so, Uber was abiding by a previous agreement with the state of New York to cap surge pricing during emergencies and natural disasters.

At first glance, this seems like a good policy — people shouldn’t have to spend a fortune to flee a dangerous situation. On a deeper level, it feels morally wrong to take advantage of the desperate need of those fleeing a situation in the form of charging them more money for the safety of escape. This argument, however, ignores basic economic theory.

Uber drivers are independent contractors with full control over when and where they drive. Like any rational human being, they have two primary concerns at the wheel: safety and profit. Naturally, drivers will flock to the neighborhoods where surge is highest to maximize their earnings, and in turn, profits.

As everyone knows, when the demand for a good (in this case, a service) goes up, holding everything else constant, the price of that good also goes up. So, when consumer demand for rides goes up (in the form of a rightward shift in the demand curve), which is what happened during the Chelsea bombing, prices should increase.

“Surge prices” are simply the result of the supply of drivers and the demand for rides throughout an area. And though they may seem immoral, surge prices actually signal the creation of a new equilibrium, an equilibrium by which the supply of drivers can meet the demand for rides, and consumer utility can be maximized.

While this formula may sound soulless and mathematical, the reality is that when people are in danger, that equilibrium can save lives by getting more drivers to the danger zone.

By turning off surge pricing, Uber drivers have no incentive to go to Chelsea over any other neighborhood, because the prices there are the same as they are everywhere else. The beauty of surge prices is that they signal to drivers that they should go to a certain area as soon as people in that area begin to request rides en masse.

This is exactly what would’ve happened if Uber had kept surge pricing in place on the night of the Chelsea bombing. If we prioritized the safety of our citizens, we would encourage Uber to maintain its implementation of surge pricing to get drivers to the neighborhood as soon as possible.

As Russ Roberts, the host of the EconTalks podcast writes, surge pricing is a signal to “potential passengers whose desire for a ride was not urgent to step aside and make room for those whose need was very urgent indeed.” Surge pricing deters people who are not in danger from calling a ride, thereby increasing supply for people in desperate need of one.

What if there had been active shooters or other bombs in the area? We should do everything we can to get people out of Chelsea safety, even if it means people in danger have to pay more. To maintain its image as a consumer conscious company that benefits local economies, Uber should realize the widespread benefits of surge pricing and forfeit its 30% revenue split to incentivize drivers to help citizens in need.

In turn, Uber would improve relationships with local governments, demonstrate corporate consciousness and build customer loyalty. It’s a tremendous opportunity for Uber to prove its worth to cities like Austin, Texas that have tense relationships with the company.

Without this policy change, drivers will be limited to imperfect knowledge of the consumer demand for rides in different areas of the city. While on any normal night, all this means is that someone outside a bar might have to wait a few extra minutes for a ride, on the night of a bombing, or a mass shooting, it may just mean the difference between life and death for someone fleeing the scene of the crime.

Without surge pricing, Uber’s resources will go to riders across the city at random — more than a simple resource misallocation in the event of a terrorist attack.

It’s time for Uber to collaborate with local governments to educate citizens about the life-saving benefits of surge pricing and give their 30% stake back to the drivers during rare moments of peril. As Uber’s influence grows stronger, the long term benefits of taking a pay cut far outweigh the temporary drawbacks.

Let’s prioritize the safety of our citizens and encourage surge pricing, ensuring that everybody who needs a ride can find one quickly.

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Special thanks to Zander Nethercutt for editing this post and refining the nuances of economic theory included in this piece. So helpful! 🙏

Let’s chat! I tweet obsessively at @david_perell and will probably respond within 30 seconds 😎

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If the aphorism is any indication, sliced bread is the greatest thing ever.

Seriously, can you imagine if we actually had to slice our bread?

In one of the first TED talks to ever to make it online, Seth Godin tells the story of Otto Frederick Rohwedder who invented the sliced bread machine in 1912. “For the next 15 years, nobody bought it, nobody knew about it, and it was a complete and total failure.”

Nobody wanted sliced bread — it didn’t make them feel anything.

Sliced bread was not widely distributed until Wonder Bread came along in 1930. Sliced bread is not iconic because it’s a great invention; it’s iconic because of great marketing. Inventions are important, but their splashes are negligible when people aren’t drawn to them.

A new technology is only the first step on the road to making an impact. People are guided by their often irrational feelings and emotions, not faster processors or policy changes.

Social movements are led by leaders who inspire their followers with a powerful ethos. Building on the legacy of failed movements before him, Gandhi used nonviolent civil disobedience to rally thousands of angry Indians to protest against the British-imposed salt tax. Despite being wholly unqualified and unfit for the job, Donald Trump has millions of supporters because he makes them feel important and recognized. Good or bad, powerful leaders prioritize the strong emotional connections they make with their followers.

Social movements and politics teach us that ideas only spread when they deeply resonate with people.

The same is true for companies. We buy a company’s story as much as the products themselves. We create art with Apple products because they make us feel artistic and limitless. We wear Nike shoes because they make us feel athletic and unstoppable. We love Disney because it makes us feel happy and like a kid again.

We buy the feelings these products give us as much as the products themselves.

We’re emotional creatures guided by deeply subconscious feelings and impulses. The future has already been invented. From sliced bread to Apple, the next great thing already exists.

We’re just a shift in rhetoric away from the next great “invention.”

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Let’s chat! I tweet obsessively at @david_perell and will probably respond within 30 seconds 😎

Click here to see more posts like this 💯

And if you’re really feeling generous, share this post on Facebook, Twitter, or text a friend who’d like it 🙏

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