How Cognitive Overload Can Influence Our Lives: the Example of Poverty

The excellent post ‘Behavioral economics has a plan to fight poverty—and it’s all about redesigning the “cockpit”‘, presents an interesting analysis of poverty. It brings on the surface the issue of cognitive overload.

The theme of the post is that one reason poor people have difficulties escaping from the poverty trap is that because of their limited means, they need to spend a large amount of cognitive capacity (which is limited for all individuals) solving basic issues such as food and shelter. As a result, they can’t quite spend enough cognitive capability on higher purposes such as, for example, developing a sustainable way to escape poverty.

And it is quite true that being well-off basically allows to avoid thinking about certain constraints such as budget when shopping for groceries and where one will sleep tonight, freeing the mind towards higher fields of thinking.

It would also mean that a way to help people escape poverty is to provide support on a temporary basis (a few weeks/months) to free some cognitive capacity to develop a sustainable way to support oneself and family.

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How Competency Also Requires Emotional Intelligence

In a short and powerful blog ‘The confusion about competence‘, Seth Godin reminds us how competency is not just about grades, certificates but also about the ability to perform emotional labor.

In some countries such as for example France, India or China, the university one graduates from defines one’s career capability – even many years later. But the selection criteria used on young people do not involve any assessment of the ability to perform emotional labor, to be emotionally intelligent. And this makes so many super-graduated people incompetent in real life. They can only thrive in protected social settings.

“It doesn’t take a genius to see that competence is no longer about our ability to press certain buttons in a certain sequence. Far more often, competence involves the humanity required to connect with other people, in real time. It requires emotional labor, not merely compliance.”

Well said!

 

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How Co-Dependency and Co-Evolution of Companies Is The Way

Being overly dependent from a customer is considered to be an unacceptable risk for any startup or company. In the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly, based on a comparison with ecosystems, a slightly different view is offered:

(Dangerous) Symbiosis in action: crocodile teeth brushing!

“Here’s news : half of the living world is codependent ! Business consultants commonly warn their clients against becoming a symbiont company dependent upon a single customer – company , or a single supplier . But many do , and as far as I can tell , live profitable lives , no shorter on average than other companies . The surge of alliance – making in the 1990s among large corporations — particularly among those in the information and network industries — is another facet of an increasing coevolutionary economic world . Rather than eat or compete with a competitor , the two form an alliance — a symbiosis”

While I developed my first company on a stand-alone basis, I find increasingly that partnerships are good ways to develop value for our customers and the world. It can be messy, sometimes disappointing (I hate being taken hostage!) but also rewarding and enriching.

I fully agree that co-evolution is the way. Those entrepreneurs that resist collaboration with other entities and try to do everything themselves will fail. Co-evolution needs to be fostered.

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How Modern Innovation Needs Proper Maturing and Evolution

The more I delve into startups and innovation, the more I find the central message of the ‘Lean Startup‘ valid: innovative products need to be confronted to reality soonest, and should not be excessively developed in isolation. The Minimum Viable Product is the way. And multiple, fuzzy iterations are required for maturing the product.

Evolution is the way to achieve success

One reason is developed in the excellent book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly in a parallel with nature’s evolution. “The rule for machines is counter-intuitive but clear : Complex machines must be made incrementally and often indirectly . Don’t try to make a functioning mechanical system all at once , in one glorious act of assembly . You have to first make a working system that serves as a platform for the system you really want . To make a mechanical mind , you need to make the equivalent of a mechanical thumb — a lateral approach that few appreciate . In assembling complexity , the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time — a process anyone would call growth . Ecologies and organisms have always been grown.”

“Creating extremely complex machines , such as robots and software programs of the future , will be like restoring prairies or tropical islands . These intricate constructions will have to be assembled over time because that is the only way to make sure they work from top to bottom . Unripe machinery let out before it is fully grown and fully integrated with diversity will be a common complaint.” We ship no hardware before its time” will not sound funny before too long”

It is amazing that this message must be reiterated so often to entrepreneurs, in particular those coming from engineering colleges where they have been bathed in industrial age scientism. Of course the thing is to enable iteration while keeping costs to a minimum so as to allow success within a reasonable financing requirement. And it will take time and effort. Still it is a must.

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How Stuff Gets Cheaper and Experience More Expensive as a Historical Trend

In his book ‘The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future‘, Kevin Kelly reminds us how historically the prices of commodities and stuff have been decreasing, while the price of experiences increase dramatically.

“A major accelerant in this explosion of superabundance — the superabundance that demands constant increases in filtering — is the compounding cheapness of stuff . In general , on average , over time technology tends toward the free . That tends to make things abundant . At first it may be hard to believe that technology wants to be free. According to a 2002 paper published by the International Monetary Fund , “ There has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per year over the last 140 years . ” For a century and a half prices have been headed toward zero . This is not just about computer chips and high – tech gear.”

On the other hand, “The value of experience is rising . Luxury entertainment is increasing 6.5 percent annually . Spending at restaurants and bars increased 9 percent in 2015 alone . The price of the average concert ticket has increased by nearly 400 percent from 1981 to 2012 . Ditto for the price of health care in the United States . It rose 400 percent from 1982 to 2014 . The average U.S . rate for babysitting is $ 15 per hour , twice the minimum wage . In big U.S . cities it is not unusual for parents to spend $ 100 for child care during an evening out” Kevin Kelly could also have quoted for example the cost of education.

And this historical trend can only continue. The value lies in the actual experience. This is why user experience is an essential success factor for most innovations.

 

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How Urgent It Is to Ban Autonomous AI Driven Weapons

The campaign to ban autonomous bots that act in swarms and have the ability to decide to kill a human on http://autonomousweapons.org has produced an amazing video that is worth watching.

The question of AI applied to daily objects is put in concrete terms in this simulation, not just as an intellectual discussion. In the video a parallel is made with nuclear deterrence and proliferation control approaches, which is quite worth pondering.

Like all technologies AI will bring a huge number of benefits and also its downside. Will humankind be wise enough?

(if you can’t see the video the Youtube link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA)

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How Good Visionary Decisions Are In Fact Reflections of Social Mindset Changes

When automated roadside speed cameras were introduced in France a few years ago, the behavior of drivers with regards to speed was substantially changed and the statistics of rod casualties dropped significantly. This introduction did generate some reactions, but overall it was accepted by the population that was fed up with the dangers of automobile driving – there were no massive demonstrations as it sometimes happen in the country.

The key question here is whether the introduction of speed cameras was the trigger of the change (and a visionary act by a leader), or whether it was rather the concrete result of a change of viewpoint by society.

Today with some hindsight the view is rather the latter: this change was probably more the result of a change of mindset (contrary to what the leader in question – who went on to be President of France- would like us to believe!). It might have taken some courage to transform this change of mindset into an actual concrete change, but that was not the source of the transformation.

It is astonishing to find out that many of the key policy changes in organizations or in society are rather the courageous formalization of an already evolving mindset rather than the visionary decision of a single leader – contrary to what the lore tries to make us believe. Actually purely visionary decisions without a background of mindset change is highly suspicious. Good decisions are the formalization of a pre-existing condition.

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How Nature Can Give Us Directions About the Evolution of the Net

A major theme of the book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by Kevin Kelly is that we should learn from nature’s evolutionary mechanism when trying to understand the dynamics of the modern complexity of the net.

“Nature does this every day: Bootstrapping systems that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves. How do you make something from nothing ? Although nature knows this trick, we haven’t learned much just by watching her”

“The new cyberneticians are extracting the logical principle of both life and machines , and applying each to the task of building extremely complex systems , thus conjuring up contraptions that are at once both made and alive. In these efforts to create complex mechanical things , again and again they return to nature for directions. They have learned more by their failures in creating complexity and by combining these lessons with small successes in imitating and understanding natural systems than the original cybernetic group could have hoped for. And in doing so , they are fulfilling the notion first presented in the Whole Earth Catalog , itself inspired by the original cybernetics group : “We are as gods and might as well get good at it“”

Thus nature, a self-evolving system that creates more and more complexity as it evolves, should maybe be studied a bit closer when it comes to understanding how our current setup evolves increasingly towards more complexity, for example with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence from dumber machines and networks.

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How Original Books Get Remixed with Success By Followers

When I opened the e-book ‘Bootstrapping Complexity‘ by famous Kevin Kelly, I realized that this was actually a remix of a previous book by the author performed by an admiring follower, Andreas Lloyd.

This remix was initiated by the wish of Andreas Lloyd to make some aspects clearer and to focus the book on complexity.

What’s great in this example is the initial author’s reaction: “Soon after putting this remix online , I sent a note with a link to Kevin Kelly to make him aware of the remix , hoping that he would approve. He did approve. Much more than I expected. And it didn’t take him long to reply : I LOVE the remix ! I wish you had been my editor . There is only one thing missing from this fantastic remix – a better title . I was never happen with the book’s title and now that it is more focused , the need is even greater.”

In the Collaborative Age, more and more original works will be remixed and made into numerous publications to address specific needs. A great example of ‘mutual learning’ leadership!

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How The Fourth Revolutions Leads to Re-Engineering Familiar Objects between Software and Hardware

In this interesting article ‘BMW and Audi Want to Separate Vehicle Hardware from Software‘ we can see that the automotive industry is taking a clear direction: re-engineering the view of the automobile as a system and changing basic assumptions. What Tesla is doing in terms of changing their car behavior by simple software updates is but the start of a revolution.

In a wider sense, the software and network capabilities of the Fourth Revolution will certainly lead us to re-engineer fully a large number of familiar hardware systems. This will create new hazards of course (like hacking) and also a large number of new possibilities that we can’t even envisage today. Changing the performance of what we considered to be fixed capabilities will modify significantly our perception of these familiar items.

In any case it will be a revolution for all of us involved in the design and engineering of these systems, and it just starts now, when we know that most of these items have a lifespan of decades. I can’t wait to see the changes unrolling.

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How Not To Confuse Pleasure and Happiness

In this great post ‘The pleasure/happiness gap‘ Seth Godin reminds us that those are very different. And they are also distinct from the physiological point of view: “Pleasure is short-term, addictive and selfish. It’s taken, not given. It works on dopamine. Happiness is long-term, additive and generous. It’s giving, not taking. It works on serotonin.”

“Pleasure and happiness feel like they are substitutes for each other, different ways of getting the same thing. But they’re not.” Actually they are quite the opposite of one-another.

What people sell to us, what society tries to impose on us  is pleasure.

Happiness develops internally and is a voluntary construct. It takes time and personal effort, and it is so much worth it.

It is good to be reminded from time to time how those two can be so opposite.

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How We Interact With Androids and What It Teaches Us

I was fascinated by this piece on Wired about our the research on our interactions and emotions with Androids: ‘Love in the Time of Robots‘. It revolves around the research by Hiroshi Ishi­guro, a Japanese professor that uses beautiful replicas to research the human-to-robots interaction.

It is easy to emphasize with a robot: “As complex as we assume ourselves to be, our bonds with one another are often built on very ­little. Given all the time we now spend living through technology, not many of us would notice, at least at first, if the friend we were messaging were replaced by a bot. And humans do not require much to stir up feelings of empathy with another person or creature—even an object. In 2011 a University of Calgary test found that subjects were quick to assign emotions and intentions to a piece of balsa wood operated with a joystick. In other words, we are so hardwired for empathy that our brains are willing to make the leap to humanizing a piece of wood. It’s a level of animal instinct that’s slapstick-hilarious and a degree of vulnerability that’s terrifying.”

More importantly this research asks difficult questions about what makes us enter in a relationship and express our emotions. Are our feelings an illusion? Is a conversation an illusion of understanding what the other person thinks? What makes us believe we are interacting with another human? Would we be satisfied with an interaction with a robot? Fascinating questions for a not-to-far future…

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