Take Five. A List of 2018's best. (Books, Podcasts, Youtube Channels & More).

Every new year comes with new hopes, habits, notes to self and reflections on the passing year.
It's not important what you have covered this year, but what did you discover.

Keeping up with the festive tradition here is a list of the best 5's I have stumbled upon this year.

5 podcasts 

1- Big Questions with Cal Fussman:

First stumbled upon him with Tim Ferris (another great Podcast), then was thrilled to find that he started his own podcast. Fussman is a New York Times bestselling author, longtime Esquire writer, corporate consultant.

The format is simple, it's one on one interviews with diverse driven,accomplished and success figures I highly recommend stating with Kobe Bryant episode

2- Leadership & Discipline:
Because motivation is like showering we need to do it everyday in the morning Jocko Willink  is a decorated retired Navy SEAL officer, author of the book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win.


3- The Message:

The first confirmed signal from outer-space has reached us, a team of specialists is trying to decode the message. Documenting the whole process is a Cyphercast podcast host Nicky Tomalin.

The reason why this is not all over the news, is that it's fake. The Message is fictional podcast about a podcast that was described as a sci fi serial. Interesting concept worth discovering.

4- You're not so Smart:

The easiest person you can persuade and manipulate creatively is yourself, as it turns out your brain sometimes takes part in self delusion as well.

you are not so smart is a podcast dedicate to the exploration self delusion. It covers topics like why your memories are not reliable, the idiot brain and naive realism.


5- HBR Ideacast:

Some podcasts are great at capturing the start up life, the silicon valley spirit of positive productivity at work, other podcasts are great at theoretical academic analysis of theory and philosophy of business.

It is very rare (at least for me) to find a podcast that does both greatly. HBR Ideacast is a weekly podcast featuring the leading thinkers in business and management.

5 Youtube Channels.

1- Jablinski Games:

This is Jack Black's gaming channel, as I am writing this now the channel got more than 2.5 Million subscriptions and 13.4 Million views with only 79 seconds of video content.

No Spam, No sponsorships, No Ad campaigns just jack speaking for 79 seconds.

2- Nerdwriter1:

This is a weekly video essay series that visualize and articulate beautiful a wide variety of thoughts and concepts.

The Channel covers diverse topics, From how to understand a Picasso and why did Dylan won the Nobel prize?, to topics like Fidget Spinners and why Apple needs a Samsung.

The Videos are average of 6:00 minutes long which makes them a perfect refresher in the middle of the day.

3- The Hot Ones From First We Feast:

Inbound Marketing in action at it's best.

The Idea is to interview celebrities over while they eat 12 spicy chicken wings. While the concept is extremely simple, the questions are very well researched and the host is extremely competent.

The series of videos gained traction of both celebrities and viewers alike, some of the guests of the show were Natalie Portman, Kevin Hart, Jeff Goldblum & many others.

The show is a great case study for inbound as the whole show is build around promoting and increasing sales of the products of the Hot Ones.

So the viewer not only opt in for the commercial by subscribing and viewing the content.
The celebrities endorsements adds to the mega influence campaign that is the Hot Ones.

Worth watching if not for the content then for the concept.

4- Kurzgesagt:

This Channel creates one animation video per month about scientific concepts and it is beautiful.

The visualization of concepts like aliens under ice, why beautiful things make us happy and time: the future and history of everything.

The channel is also known as in a nutshell as they chunk down scientific concepts into a bite size animated video. In an age where our digital world is overwhelmed by massive quantities of content, such a channel provides a quick intelligent breeze that pays respect to our very short attention span.

5- OnePercentBetter:

"I wish I can read more books" and "I don't have time to read any more", are two statements that I hear very frequently.

One Percent Better provides animated book summaries! featuring the key lessons from success and self-development books in 10 minutes or less.

While a recent article published by Inc. Magazine, says you only need 417 hours a year to read 200 books.The  average person spends 608 hours on social media and 1,642 hours on TV.

If these stats are not enough and you still don't have time then I do recommend 1% better.


                                                                     5 Books

1- Becoming by Michelle Obama:

Only 46 families got to live in the same house that she lived in, and only one family of her heritage and back ground got to be the residence of the White House.

This is a story of existence, resilience, tolerance and acceptance. The book provides an eye on a very rare life in the human experience and an insight into a survival spirit.

2- Educated by Tara Westover: 

Born and raised on a mountain in Idaho. her survivalist family didn't believe in schools, collages or any form of education; But Tara did.

This is the story of her ascendance from a young girl raised by her anti- education family to a woman with a PhD from Cambridge University. The story is unbelievable, captivating and above all true.

3- Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke:

The average amount of remotely conscious decisions an adult makes each day equals about 35,000, Annie offers a better mechanism to increase the quality of the decision making process. 

The poker champion shares her insights, on what kind of decisions we should be making and what actions we should be taking.

On a side note you can find Annie's google talk and other interviews online.

4- The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks:

From "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" to "Hallucinations ", Oliver Sacks's work is a must read.

In this collection of essays the professor of neurology, explores his own evolution on ideas, memory, innovation, and sickness,along with a range of subject matter from Freudian psychoanalysis to Darwinian evolutionary theory.


5-  Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi:

In this work of fiction we get introduced to a city, where the sins can be eaten.
When a sin-beast is killed, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on the mind.

The story is captivating and the narrative is unique.     

                                                                        
                                                                     5 Movies

1- A Quiet Place:

Other than dominating the movie theaters by becoming the number 1 movie in USA,
getting recognized by the king of horror himself Stephen King.

A Quiet Place is a great piece of content and storytellers can view this movie, not just as a successful cinematic experience but a great piece of content as well.

2- Searching:

This is a story about David Kim. A father who becomes desperate when his 16-year-old daughter Margot disappears and an immediate police investigation leads nowhere.while the story sounds very familiar we have never seen it implemented that way before. the story is told from the perspective of phones, laptops and Ipads.

This is a classic story retold with digital technology. Innovative and brilliant.

3- Bohemian Rhapsody:

Because Queen.

4- Green Book:

This is a journey of A working-class Italian-American bouncer who becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.

The car ride doesn't only reveal the struggle throughout the long road, it also reveals the characters differences, similarities and most importantly their personal stories.

5- Hereditary:

Very unsettling horror movie.

Having said that as a storyteller, content creator and a movie buff, I deeply appreciated the strong visual storytelling aspect of the movie.

The story is engaging, captivating and disturbing. Worth watching.


                                                                  5 Articles. 

1-  A Few Principles for Thinking Clearly by Charles Chu

A quote from the article:

"It gets worse. When people are exposed to evidence that contradicts their identities or tribal affiliations, they’ll actually double down and become more confident in whatever they believed. This is why it’s important, when trying to think clearly, to avoid identifying with any particular tribe."

Read More here: https://bit.ly/2NINGlu 

2- The (Very) Best Books I Read in 2018 by Ryan Holiday

A quote from the article:

"I know that people are busy, and we don’t always have time to read as much as we like. Nothing wrong with that (though if you want to read more—don’t look for shortcuts—make more time!). What matters is that when you do read, you pick the right books."


Read More here: https://bit.ly/2F3pngB


3- The 10 Biggest Archaeology Stories of 2018 by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor

A quote from the article:

"The inscriptions are actually similar to speech bubbles in comic books, because they describe the activities of the characters, who offer explanations of what they are doing,"

Read More here: https://bit.ly/2Ql9aVR

4- Why CRM Projects Fail and How to Make Them More Successful,
     by Scott Edinger

A quote from the article:

"CRMs today also serve a lot of masters, from executives in the C-suite, technology, marketing, finance, and, oh yeah, sales. They try to address more objectives than are reasonable for any software system."

Read More here: https://bit.ly/2SZbyU1

5- There Is More to Behavioral Economics Than Biases and Fallacies. By Koen Smets 

A quote from the article:

"The proliferation of biases masks the truth that human behavior is fluid and fuzzy. The use of discrete, distinct labels implies a rigor that is simply not there."

Read More here: https://bit.ly/2NIZHa1


That has been a recap of my best lists of fives, Thanks for reading.

Twitter: @Fouad_Khafaga

Just what kind of a leader are you? (Expectations & knowledge skills)

I have developed a healthy addiction to MOOC’s they have a great impact on my understanding of marketing, markets , Human thought and Leadership.

In a MOOC offered by edx.org Titled “Leaders of learning” they introduced an interesting four models of leadership that I am about to share with you.

Hierarchical Individual Expectation:

Being a successful leader in a Hierarchical Individual learning environment means bringing the external requirements of a governing institution (Frequently state or federal government) into the work and practices of the organization.           

Knowledge & Skills:

•Manages successful superior subordinate relationships.

•Focuses the organization and its learners on clear performance targets

•Marshals the human and material resources of the organization in the service of those performance targets.

•Builds and sustains stable relationships with learners and their families based on high expectations.

Hierarchical Collective Expectations:

Being a successful leader in a Hierarchical Collective learning environment means leading according to the requirements of an external authorizing environment, while also encouraging and enforcing the norms, values, principles, and practices specific to the learning community.         

 

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

A Hierarchical Collective learning environment typically values a leader who:

•Articulates and models the key values of the organization.

•Incorporates external requirements into the specific values and practices of the community.

•Builds and sustains stable relationships with learners and their families based on norms specific to this learning community.

Distributed  Individual Expectations:

Being a  successful  leader  in  a  Distributed  Individual  learning  environment  means  articulating  an  appealing  vision of  learning That  is  shaped  by  the  needs,  preferences,  and dispositions  of individual learners.

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

A  Distributed Individual learning environment typically values a leader who:

•Responds to learner  needs  and  interests,  and  consider  how  they  will  change  over  time.

•Is unafraid to embark on new, entrepreneurial ventures.

•Builds and inspires a team of collaborators with diverse knowledge & skillsets.

•Mobilizes  human  and  material  resources  to  respond  to  learner  needs.

•Closely  monitors  learners’  engagement,  interest,  and  connections  to  the  learning  environment.

Distributed Collective Expectations:

Being a successful leader in a Distributed Collective learning environment means identifying and supporting the common values, beliefs, and goals that bind the learning community together. Often it means openness to sharing ownership of an educational vision with the community.    

Leadership Knowledge & Skills:

A Distributed Collective learning environment typical values a leader who:

•Inspires individuals and organizations with common interests to operate in networked relationships

•Recognizes shared community values and articulates them within the community and the larger world

•Identifies community members ‘resources, and motivates members to share them

•Brings resources from the external world into the community while maintaining community norms and standard.

Source: http://bit.ly/2085N5N

The Other Game Theory (Customer Motivation)

“If you study as much as you play games, you would’ve become a rocket scientist”

 I think this is an iconic statement that every gamer was told by his parents, just change the career path and the position based on the country and culture of the gamers’ family, yet it could be a worldwide iconic statement.

One of the reasons that made me believe in the commonalty and the universality of this statement is the vast amount of both time and effort that the gamer’s community invests in gaming.

According to Forbes magazine

"The 100 Biggest Gaming YouTube Channels Now Bring in 3.5 Billion Views a Month. That’s more than the number of all the people who have access to the internet combined which is 3.1 billion active internet users."

Over 59% of Americans play games this adds up to 150 million people in the U.S.  alone with the average age of 31. So what keeps gamers in general motivated? What makes them invest long hours in gaming?

Well Maslow might have the answer to these questions; Dr. Abraham Maslow is an American psychologist who described human needs in a pyramid hierarchy and the pyramid levels of motivation or needs is as follows:

• At the bottom of the pyramid are the Basic needs or Physiological needs of a human being.
• The second level of the pyramid is Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability.
• The third level of need is Love and Belonging.
• The fourth level is the Esteem
• Then on the top of the pyramid is the Need for Self-actualization.

Just as a thought I wanted to apply Maslow’s motivation theory or the pyramid hierarchy of needs into the gaming world and see if games satisfy the human needs as Maslow visualized them.

Level one the “survival”:

In the 80’s games like Mario, Street Fighter, Contra and Pac man came to being. The common factor being these games is that they are a survival task through satisfying a basic need like eating mushrooms or white dotes in the dark. In street fighter and contra the task was to survive against time or to literally maintain health in front of the opponent.

Level two “Security”:

This is an issue of debate on how the gaming industry has satisfied this level in Maslow’s pyramid of motivation and here are 3 of those points of views:

1- That the gamer himself is safe, not matter what kind of explosions, death threats or even actual killing the gamer is safe.

2- That the game allowed the character to level up increasing the characters power or equipment which provided a higher sense of security, for example in a game called “Earth Worm” the more points the character collects the better the weapon becomes and sometimes get a different stronger weapon all together, In another skating game named after the skater “Tony Hawks” the more points the character collects tony gets to own a new better skating board which means he will fall less and he will be safer and more  secure.

3-This theory suggests that the gaming industry replaced security for progress. In games like “Aladdin”, “resident Evil” and “Mutant Ninja turtles”. The character doesn’t get to advance or progress to the next level of the game until they kill all the enemies or clear all the danger from the level that is currently being played. In other words the character does not get to progress or advance until the area is both safe and secure.

Level 3 “belonging”:

 The gaming industry was able to satisfy this need in more than one way, one way is that the simple fact of being a video gamer your invited to join that inner circle of gamers, the feeling of if you enjoy video games you’re not alone there are other people, other group that shares the same passion as you.

Another way in which games enhance the sense of belonging especially in the age of high speed internet and fiber optics connection, the Internet opened up opportunities for play across local area networks and vast distances. The majority of games have some kind of social features - whether that’s multiplayer, co-op, or massive multiplayer online game (MMO).

Now the gamer is connect with his or her team in real time feed, some of the most obvious examples of this are games like Call of Duty, Far Cry & the racing game Need for Speed.

 

Level 4 “Esteem”:

 From stunning visuals to loud music and praising commentator’s one can easily tell that the gaming culture knows how to raise the gamers self esteem, from the arcade era of gaming up to date achievements, trophies, awards and high points are a big part of the game. This is from as simple as having a high score in the arcade game putting the name on the top list to now sharing the score on every social media platform.

 

Finally level 5  on the top of the pyramid self actualization:

This is actually a hard level to write about as the concept itself of self actualization is debatable even Maslow has modified his pyramid in an academic paper. Yet Maslow himself defined this level in his book motivation and personality as the desire to achieve the highest form of what one aspires to become.

For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions.

Gaming satisfy this need in a unique way in gaming the gamer not only gets to be whatever he or she aspires to be, the gamer gets to create both his character and his world in games like “SimCity”, “Spore”, and “Civilization”.

I would like to sum up by saying that all the games that were mentioned have other features and could simulate different motives to different people. Yet this article as part of the series just deals with Maslow’s pyramid and what could mirror his stages in the levels of gaming..

Twitter: @fouad_khafaga
Google Plus : +fouadkhafaga

How do social norms come to be? (marketing trends, social campaigns)

I cannot help but mention the wet monkey theory aka (theory of five monkeys).

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the other monkeys with cold water. After a while another monkey makes the attempt with same result, all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not?

Because as far as they know that is the way it has always been done around here.

Could this be the reason behind a lot of our dogmas, taboos and cultures
I really don’t have the answer to that but I do know one thing I do test all my actions and beliefs just to make sure that I am not following the monkey's path

Twitter: @fouad_khafaga
Google Plus : +fouadkhafaga

How accurate are brain scans in predicting behavior?

This is a deep question, and it all turns on what you mean by “predict”. Current machine learning technologies coupled with high-resolution MRI are able to successfully classify scans with near-100% accuracy in simple settings. But that’s for fairly contrived scenarios such as classifying the orientation of a line that the subject is viewing, or the direction of a moving stimulus. Other work has shown that it’s possible to decode natural images, movies and even dreams from the pattern of activations in the visual cortex with fairly high accuracy.

None of this should surprise us - the activity in visual cortex is topographically organized, with different regions dedicated to different regions of space, and tightly coupled to the subject’s perception of the world. With the right technology and decoding algorithms it’s possible to pull out this signal. What’s much less understood is the neural “code” in higher brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex, that subserve abstract thought. But even here it’s possible to classify abstract operations such as addition or subtraction from activity patterns, albeit with lower accuracies around 65%.

However the way most of these decoding algorithms work is that they are first “trained” on a dataset where the experimenter knows the ground truth (such as whether the subject was adding or subtracting) and then applied to a test set to predict mental states or behaviour. Without the training set decoding is often impossible - e.g. it’s not currently possible for us to scan your brain and decode your thoughts unless a suitable training set is available for each possible thought. This is unlikely to change as technology advances - while ultimately every behaviour and mental state is a product of patterns of brain activity, the distributed nature of neural coding and the uniqueness of individual brains means that our thoughts will remain safely locked up for some time to come.

Find the answer here: http://bit.ly/1OSGcH3

This answer was provided by : Steve Flemin,

Cognitive neuroscientist, University of Oxford

More about me here:

Twitter:@fouad_khafaga
Hotmail: Fouad_khafaga@hotmail.co.uk
Google+:  khafagafouad@gmail.com