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267 David Sacks: All In Podcast “Rain Man” & Top Tech VC on Ukraine/Russia, Biden, The Coming “Red” GOP Wave, The Economy, California Politics, Venture Capital & What Startups Should Do Now

FYD - Episode 267 David Sacks

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we continue our focus on the current situation in the world and in the United States. Because in times of great change and great uncertainty, we turn to great, though in some cases, counterintuitive minds. Today, we talk to one of the great minds of today, David Sacks.

David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category, and company builder – and now, venture capitalist. He is the founder of Craft Ventures. In Silicon Valley, David is a living legend. You see, he was the co-founding CEO of Paypal, founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor and advisor to companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and so much more. He’s also co-hosting an amazing podcast called All In, which has become one of the most popular dialogue podcasts in the world.

So if you want to listen to the thoughts of this legendary individual, stay tuned to this episode. If you want to check out our past dialogues with David Sacks, you can check them out here.

This episode was recorded on March 29th, 2022

David Sacks Goes All In

The conversation starts off with what’s new with David, particularly, his relatively-new podcast. David explains that it started out as a conversation pod with his “besties”. It was something they did to pass the time during COVID. Little did they know, it would grow into what it is today.

“It’s been kind of a surprise. We started doing it at the beginning of COVID when we were all trapped in our houses and had nothing else to do. So it’s me and three friends, the four besties as we ironically say, and yeah, we’ve been doing this weekly pod. Amazingly, it’s climbed the charts. I think the new episodes tend to be in the top 30 or 40 podcasts. And it’s done really well.” – David Sacks

David shares that at first, they tried to focus on talking business and markets, as well as private investing in VC. But there was only so much you could talk about that without circling back on itself. So they eventually started talking about current events, politics and world affairs, and how it can affect the world of business.

Having a Healthy Conversation

David muses that what makes them different from other business and marketing podcasts, except for their discussion on current affairs, is that they get to have a healthy conversation. Unlike your typical podcast that has the host and maybe one or two guests to discuss a certain topic, the four of them talk it out amongst themselves, and sometimes even lead to heated discussions. Because it’s not simply an echo chamber, it’s a place where ideas are presented, and confirmed or challenged by the other hosts.

“One of the things people say they like about it is the fact that we can get into debates, vigorous debates about politics, and yet we’re all still friends. There’s that vibe to it. But there’s also people on the show breaking each other’s balls, that kind of stuff. And they like that vibe, too.” – David Sacks

Since it’s the same four people having the conversation each week, each episode feels like a continuation of the last. Which makes you want to listen to it and look forward to the next.

David Sacks on the War in Ukraine

When asked about his thoughts on the current situation in Ukraine, David responds that it can be difficult to say what exactly is happening at a particular time. Despite technology giving us easier access to information, there is just too much conflicting information being touted around.

That said, he felt that some US media is escalating the current situation to the point that as if we are already at the brink of World War III. As a man who preaches for peace rather than an escalation of conflict, David hopes that our politicians and leaders steer clear of the war and help pursue for peace in the region.

To hear more on David Sacks and his thoughts on the current affairs of the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

David Sacks is co-founder and general partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. He has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish.

David is also co-host of the popular “All-In Podcast” with Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis.

David first got involved in the technology industry in 1999 when he joined early-stage startup Confinity, later renamed PayPal. Serving as the company’s first product leader and then as COO, David built and ran many of the company’s key teams, including product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and HR. He pivoted the product from beaming money on Palm Pilots to emailing money on the web, and introduced the business model. When the company IPO’d on the Nasdaq in 2002, David was 29 — the median age of the “PayPal Mafia” executives listed on the S-1. PayPal was later acquired by eBay and eventually spun back out into a publicly traded company (under ticker symbol PYPL).

In 2008, David founded enterprise collaboration company Yammer, which was one of the first SaaS startups to apply consumer growth tactics to enterprise software. Yammer’s viral approach made it one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in history, exceeding eight million enterprise users in just four years. As Founder/CEO of Yammer, David grew the company to roughly $60 million in sales and 500 employees. In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion. It remains one of the fastest unicorn exits in SaaS.

Since Yammer, David has continued to be involved in the SaaS world, with an emphasis on “Bottom Up SaaS,” the strategy he pioneered at Yammer by combining product-led growth with B2B sales. Bottom-up SaaS companies combine the growth potential of B2C with the enterprise budgets of B2B, leading to explosive outcomes when ARR goes viral.

David is well known in Silicon Valley for his product acumen. AngelList’s Naval Ravikant has called David “the world’s best product strategist.” David likes to begin pitch meetings by seeing a product demo.

Links

Connect with David Sacks

Website | Bottom Up | All In Podcast | Twitter | LinkedIn

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

266 David Gergen, Adviser to 4 US Presidents, On The War in Ukraine, Zelenskyy, Putin, Biden, & The Path Forward

FYD - Episode 266 David Gergen

This is an extraordinary time in history COVID recession, radical social change. The shift from native analogues to native Digital’s increased internal violence in the US and in many other democracies. In times of great crisis, we turn to great minds for deeper understanding and perspective. So, on this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask David Gergen: what’s really going on here in the world?

David Gergen has served as an adviser to four United States President Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and most recently, Clinton. He is the rare political leader to serve his country from both Republican and Democratic vantage points. Professor Gergen also teaches public service, and as the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the winner of two Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting.

So when it comes to the world of politics, there is no other better suited to make sense of everything that is going on. So if you are interested, stay tuned to this episode.

David Gergen on the State of World

The conversation starts off with David getting asked about what he thought about the current situation of the world today.

David says that it’s looking pretty grim at the moment.

“We’ve just had a cascade of crises over the last 20 years and it is sort of bewildering. How many have hit us? And you know, some have come and gone and some would remain with us. The latest one? Ukraine. I it’s just really hard to see a good outcome in this.” – David Gergen

A lot has happened over the past weeks in the development of the Russian Invasion of the Ukraine, and David shares that it may last for a while until both sides have exhausted their arsenal, like two punch- drunk fighters. But he still hopes that Putin sees reason at cuts his losses, and start accepting peace talks sincerely. Because as it is, their current situation doesn’t only affect them, but the rest of the world as well.

Choosing Sides

When asked about the weird rise of support for Putin from some politicians and celebrities, David agrees that the trend is not mainstream, but it is visible now. He also comments that this line of thought is dangerous, and could only serve to prolong the war, as Putin might continue thinking that he is justified for doing so.

“I think the degree to which people move over to Putin’s hog(wash) will only prolong this war, and very, very likely would politicize it. We will pay a price for that for a long time to come, because we’ll never settle down. We’ll never get back to a smoothly running democracy again, if we keep playing games.” – David Gergen

He adds that we should all double down with our original stance and that is one of morality. Putin is being a tyrant, and we must support Ukraine in any way we can.

On Bush and Biden’s Responses to Crises

David was then asked how he compares Bush’s actions right after 9-11 and Biden’s response in the current Ukraine crisis. He first makes a point that both took a stateman’s approach, which is to protect the United States first and foremost. In Bush’s case, he protected the people of Islamic faith that reside in the US, while simultaneously planning a precision strike on the people responsible for the attack.

As for Biden, he did his best to keep us out of war. He prevented us from being directly being involved by not deploying troops to Ukraine. Now, whether that turns out to be the right decision as a policy, I think is still uncertain. Whether it proves to be the right thing or not will remain to be seen in the coming days.

To hear more from David Gergen and his thoughts on the current state of the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders.

In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

In the 1980s, he began a career in journalism. Starting with the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 30 years. Twice he has been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams.

In the late 1980s, he was chief editor of U.S. News & World Report, working with publisher Mort Zuckerman to achieve record gains in circulation and advertising.

Over the years, he has been active on many non-profit boards, serving in the past on the boards of both Yale and Duke Universities. Among his current boards are Teach for America, The Mission Continues, The Trilateral Commission, and Elon University’s School of Law.

David Gergen’s Work

David’s work as director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School has enabled him to work closely with a rising generation of younger leaders, especially social entrepreneurs, military veterans and Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum.

Through the generosity of outside donors, the Center helps to provide scholarships to over 100 students a year, preparing them to serve as leaders for the common good. The Center also promotes scholarship at the frontiers of leadership studies.

A native of North Carolina, David is a member of the D.C. Bar, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. executive committee for the Trilateral Commission. He is an honors graduate of Yale and the Harvard Law School. He has been awarded 27 honorary degrees.

David has been married since 1967 to Anne Elizabeth Gergen of England, a family therapist. They have two children and five grand-children.

His son, Christopher is a social entrepreneur in North Carolina as well as an author and member of the Duke faculty. His daughter, Katherine is a family doctor, working with the underserved population at the Boston Medical Center.

Links

Connect with David Gergen

Website | Twitter | Harvard | CNN | WSB

Check out his new book: Hearts Touch with Fire

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram and subscribe on iTunes!

265 How To Design The Future, The Power Of Communities, What We Can Learn About Native Digital Marketing From President Zelenskyy with Gina Bianchini, Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks

FYD - Episode 265 gina bianchini

We live in a time of radical acceleration in the creation of very different futures with marketing category after marketing category. That goes the same for the world overall as well, which also adds a threat and challenge to most businesses. But at the same time, it can also be a great opportunity. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we make sense of it all with our guest, Gina Bianchini.

Gina Bianchini is the founder and CEO of Mighty Networks. She is in the business of creating different futures. She has raised over $67 million in top tier Venture Capital, and a pioneer in the digital and social space on creating a platform for businesses and creators to build communities.

Gina has also been a guest before. You can check out what she has said on The Power of Niche Networks in FYD episode 65. So if you want to hear more from her about the power of communities, stay tuned to this episode.

The Importance of Knowing Category Design

Gina starts off the conversation by stating that she loved what they were doing with Category Pirates, and how it being a collaboration means ideas are more fleshed out and multi-POV than just having one person do it.

That said, she mentions being in a conference recently that was showing a product that she immediately recognized as someone who took category design and ran with it.

“I was at this conference yesterday, I saw one of the best category design presentations in like, eight minutes. It was it was it was a masterclass in category design. It’s a company called Coalition. And they do cyber insurance. And their category that they have is active insurance.” – Gina Bianchini

Gina could tell that the company was not going to compete in the cybersecurity market, it was creating a new market for itself with a new category. So if all things go well, Coalition could find themselves the Category Kings in this new market they are trying to create.

Overdone Languaging is Bad Languaging

They then talk about how languaging seems to be going to a bad trend nowadays. While languaging in business itself is not bad, it is bad when done to an excess. We call it Technobabble, and it’s when you just spout out jargons and techspeak just to make yourself sound competent in the tech field and to potential clients.

While smooth-talkers who sell snake oil are not new in the business world, it screams lazy and incompetent when you just take a bunch of technobabble and dump it in your company’s mission statement, in hopes of sounding smart.

Languaging is supposed to help you differentiate yourself from the rest, not to obscure and hide your business’ lack of ingenuity.

The Big Brand Lie

Gina brings up one of the articles and minibooks that Category Pirates has created, which was the Big Brand Lie.

I share with her the story on what happened after we released that article on Category Pirates. Because a lot of marketing people were upset, some as a knee-jerk reaction, others because it challenged their prior knowledge and ideas in marketing.

But at the end of it all, whether it changed someone’s ideas on marketing or not, it did start a conversation on how to approach marketing. If nothing else, that spark alone is rewarding in and of itself.

Gina agrees and also echoes the sentiment that product alone is not enough to dominate a market. And if you want to create different futures, you need to look at how you can drag that future into the present.

To hear more from Gina Bianchini and her thoughts on Category Design and the power of building a community, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Gina Bianchini is an American entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks. Before Mighty Networks, she was CEO of Ning, which she co-founded with Marc Andreessen.

In addition to Mighty Networks, Gina serves as a board director of TEGNA, a $3 billion broadcast and digital media company, and served as a board director of Scripps Networks, a $12 billion public company which owns HGTV, The Food Network, and The Travel Channel that merged with Discovery Communications in 2018.

Links

Connect with Gina Bianchini!

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram and subscribe on iTunes!

264 Why Startups Should Slow Down, Why Hospitals Are Like Airlines, What’s Next with Covid19, Theranos, & The War In Europe with #1 HealthTech Investor Bryan Roberts

FYD - Episode 264 Bryan Roberts

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a conversation about a wide range of topics. From why startups should slow down, the current state of Covid19 and how it has affected our healthcare systems, to Silicon Valley’s response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Who better to have this conversation than with one of the smartest minds I know, Bryan Roberts.

Bryan Roberts is a Senior Partner at legendary venture capital firm Venrock in Silicon Valley. He is the man that many people consider the number one healthcare tech VC on the planet.

So if you want to know our thoughts and be part of the dialogue, stay tuned to this episode. Also, pay special attention to what Bryan thinks CEOs should be thinking about and doing to survive and thrive over the next 12 months.

Bryan Roberts on the Growth of Startups

We open up the conversation about the state of startups over the past 6 months. According to Bryan, the have been some noticeable changes on how the public and markets interact recently. Before, when the public markets go down, it usually takes 6-12 months before the private markets also start going down. This is because those two markets are working on different capitals. But recently, there has been a crossing over of public to private and vice-versa, which has made the shifts in the market almost simultaneous due to these crossovers.

Bryan Roberts then talks about how he wishes startups would slow down a bit. He knows that this is contrary to the current popular belief that blitz-scaling and creating value quickly for your product is better, but he has this to say on the matter:

“I think there’s something to be said for, for getting your stuff right. Like, it takes 10 years to build a good product, and probably takes 5 years to build a functional product that you’re embarrassed about.” – Bryan Roberts

For Bryan, rushing growth might look good in the short term, but it might not translate the same long term. In 2-4 years, all your customers will figure out that the products are not delivering the value you are selling them for, and you are left with a declining product and scrambling for the next short-term fix.

Covid19 and Its Effects on Healthcare

On the topic of the pandemic, Bryan thinks that it has pushed changes in behavior towards healthcare forward for a decade or two in the span of a year. People suddenly have to learn things about healthcare they never bothered about before. They might get pissy or annoyed about it, but they still did it because it was an essential knowledge now. Virtual Primary Care and telemedicine are some of the examples of the things even older people had to learn and have access to.

Of course, it won’t replace the brick-and-mortar / traditional way we have access to medicine and healthcare. There are still some things that cannot be handled virtually or over the phone. But it is good that services that can transition over to remote access are doing so, and is reaching more people than ever.

Bryan Roberts on Covid Deniers

Despite all the evidence and news that has been going on, it seems that there are still people who downplay the severity of Covid19. While it has been tempered to lower numbers nowadays due to vaccines and weaker strains, it still doesn’t deny the fact that we got our collective asses kicked by this pandemic this past two years.

For Bryan, it would be a disservice to the countless healthcare workers and their efforts for the past couple of years if people continue to say that this pandemic was some government ploy or a way for healthcare to make more money.

He also stresses that it’s a dangerous line of thought, given how this particular virus operates. While past viruses like Ebola had such a high mortality rate that it eventually dies out when contained, Covid does not. Which means it has more time to spread. It can even spread before the person spreading it shows symptoms, so it’s really hard to say if a public space is safe or not, unless everyone follows protocols and whatnot.

To hear more from Bryan Roberts and his thoughts on different current events and developments in healthcare, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Bryan Roberts joined Venrock in 1997.

He is based in Palo Alto and seeks to partner with early-stage entrepreneurs innovating across the healthcare and life sciences industries.

Bryan is currently involved with several companies across therapeutics, genomics, and HCIT, including 10X Genomics, Devoted Health, Element Biosciences, Encoded Therapeutics, Included Health (formerly portfolio companies Grand Rounds & Doctor on Demand), and Lyra Health. Past investments include Ariosa Diagnostics (acquired by Roche), athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt), Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IRWD), Sirna Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), and Zeltiq (acquired by Allergan).

Immediately prior to joining Venrock, Bryan received his Ph.D. in Chemistry & Chemical Biology from Harvard University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Links

Find out more about Bryan Roberts

Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram and subscribe on iTunes!

263 What’s the Role of Business, Beyond Business?

FYD - Episode 263 The role of business beyond business

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, let’s ask what is the role of business, beyond just business.

Today marks the 5th day into the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the first attack of its kind since Sept. 1, 1939 – the start of World War 2. So let’s talk about how this affects businesses, and how businesses can affect it.

Roll Call for Companies

According to the Wall Street Journal, the US is still buying 8% of its oil from Russia. On the commercial side, there has been no announcements by companies such as McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, and Papa John’s to name a few, on closure of their branches in Russia, temporary or otherwise.

On the tech side of things, there have also been no word from Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, nor from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as well as CISCO CEO Chuck Robbins and Oracle CEO Safra Catz on their stance and plans as things progress in Russia.

I’m disheartened, somewhat defeated, and absolutely fucking royally mad about the silence from Silicon Valley on this topic.

There are some exceptions, of course. Criticize the man all you like, but Elon Musk made a commitment to keep the Ukraine connected to the internet via his Starlink satellite internet. Less than 48 hours after he made that promise, a shipment of Starlink terminals arrived in the Ukraine.

Businesses Getting Involved in War

There are those on the web that criticize people who celebrate when big corporations do something in the situation. My response to them is this:

“Anyone who supports in any way, a free democratic society, who is being invaded, attacked, and mass murdered is a hero.” – Christopher Lochhead

Now, if you wish to join me in making a financial contribution, we took a list of charities helping in the Ukraine(published by NBC News). You can check out that list of charities and I encourage you to crack open your wallet and see if you can make a difference for the people of Ukraine. You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders as they mobilize to help Ukraine and nearby countries that were affected.

The Role of Businesses beyond Business

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you might be asking – how exactly can businesses help in this situation?

Well, imagine what would happen if all the tech security companies pulled the plug on the Russian government and on major Russian enterprise. Imagine if all tech infrastructure companies pulled the plug on Russia. Imagine if all of the SAS application companies, the database companies, the gaming companies, the IT operations companies shut down Russia’s digital world, the digital world is as important today as the analog world. if they manage to shut down the Russians government’s ability to do things in the digital world, we’re going to shut down a lot.

Of course, there are certain companies and certain situations where it makes sense to keep doing business. In Russia, for example, communication, and social platforms is critical for Russian citizens to be able to see and hear what their government is doing in the Ukraine.

So what leaders do in times of crisis matters, what you and I do in times of crisis matters. If the US federal government will not stop buying Russian blood oil, will we stop doing business with Russia? Will our CEOs put peace before profits? Or will businesses do whatever they want to do?

It’s easy to be great when everything’s great. But what defines our lives is who we choose to be in times of crisis.

Bio

Christopher Lochhead 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram and subscribe on iTunes!

262 The $21.7T Metaverse Economy, Web 3.0, & The “Great Refactoring”, with #1 Tech Analyst R. Ray Wang, Founder of Constellation Research

FYD - Episode 262 Ray Wang

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, Ray Wang is back. Like always, we are in for a treat as we go deep into a whole bunch of topics.

Ray Wang is the world’s number one Tech Analyst, and the founds of Constellation Research. He is the author of the bestselling book; Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Ray also hosts his own very popular podcast, called DisrupTV.

So sit back and join us as we have a deep dialogue about Metaverse, the current status of Web 3.0, and the recent major events that are still affecting everyone to this day.

Ray Wang on the Metaverse Economy

The conversation starts off about the Metaverse and the Metaverse Economy. Ray explains that people’s concept of the Metaverse are still in the infancy stages right now. When they hear metaverse, they think AR, VR, or maybe gaming. Simply put, it’s 2D becoming 3D.

Yet according to Ray, there are bigger implications, particularly in the market it will bring in the future.

“The metaverse economy is something that we’re seeing as a $21.7 trillion market by 2030.” – Ray Wang

That sounds like a big number, because it is. Right now, publicly traded tech companies are valued at around $24 trillion. But if you look at it closely, these companies are gradually shifting into the digital space, which is what we now call as “metaverse”. Slowly but surely, the big companies have been positioning themselves in a strategic spot for when the technology catches up to the concept.

Ray Wang on Web 3.0

All of these changes have been possible by the advent of Web 3.0, which is powered by the blockchain and cryptocurrency. But what exactly is Web 3.0?

In order to explain it, you have to understand what the previous iterations were. Web 1.0 is basically a “Read” aspect of the internet. You can have access to websites, but there aren’t a lot of ways to interact with them. Web 2.0 changed that, moving into the “Read/Write” era of the internet. Now there are more services and functions that we can use over the net, but it comes at the exchange of data and information about the users.

Web 3.0 aims to give the users control over their data, like how blockchains can track every step of the transaction made, or how some can limit the amount of data or even restrict outgoing data from their device and browsers, much like what Apple did to Facebook and other social media platforms.

Or at least that’s the idea scenario. But according to Ray, it all depends on who’s holding the reins to the operation.

“These Metaverse economies by design are hopefully going to favor privacy and anonymity of the user, right? It’s gonna be about creating transparency of the seller and protecting your privacy in a transaction. That’s the intent, right? But like all good technology, it’s really about the people behind the intent.” – Ray Wang

Transparency vs Privacy

Speaking of data control, Ray mentions the recent move by Apple to give users the option to turn off data tracking from various apps has got Facebook bothered. Likely because that’s how Facebook gets most of its revenue by using said data to do targeted advertising and such. Moreover, showing that it could be done could open the floodgates to other tech companies to add such a feature in the future.

It seems Apple is taking it a step further, allowing its users to encrypt emails and essential use the iCloud as their own personal VPN when doing their business over the internet.

On the other hand, as FANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) seems to be reaching their saturation point (particularly Facebook and Netflix), Facebook moved to launch the Metaverse and rebranded the company to Meta.

Though the metaverse itself seems like a mega category waiting to happen, the issue lies on the fact that it doesn’t seem to be well-defined yet as to what its goals are. People have a vague idea, and some ideas that support the concept already exist. But it all seems like a premature move by Facebook, spurred by the flagging subscriber count and to clear their bad reputation & start from scratch.

In the end, it’s interesting how companies will approach both Transparency and securing the Privacy of its users in this era of Web 3.0.

Bio

R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and authors a business strategy and technology blog that has received millions of page views per month.  Wang also serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center.

Since 2003, Ray has delivered thousands of live and virtual keynotes around the world that are inspiring and legendary. Wang has spoken at almost every major tech conference. His ground-breaking bestselling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015.  Ray’s new book about Digital Giants and the future of business titled, Everybody Wants to Rule the World will be released July 2021 by Harper Collins Leadership.

Wang is well quoted and frequently interviewed in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business News, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, CGTN America, Bloomberg, Tech Crunch, ZDNet, Forbes, and Fortune.  He is one of the top technology analysts in the world.

Links

Follow Ray Wang today!

Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Constellation Research | DisrupTV

Check out Ray Wang’s latest Book: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

261 The Future of School with Ted Dintersmith, Bestselling Author of “What School Could Be”

FYD - Episode 261 Ted Dintersmith

We are currently at the start of a radical change in education of all levels. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, Ted Dintersmith explains what the future of school will be like as the new category of humans begin to shape it anew.

Ted Dintersmith had a career in venture capitalism, but has now dedicated himself in the field of education and improving it. He is the author of a bestselling book, What School Could Be. It is quite an interesting read, and I would recommend you picking it up to learn more about the current state of education.

On this dialogue, we discuss how school can be reimagined, redesigned, and recreated to become legendary. We also discuss what parents, students, and education leaders can do now to develop young people to thrive in the new world.

Also, to hear about my thoughts and position on Spotify and the recent Joe Rogan scandal, please listen to the intro of this episode.

 

The Current School Systems are Outdated

The dialogue starts as Ted points out how relevant the difference is between Native Digitals and Native Analogs are. If you are not aware what a Native Digital is, check out one of our previous episodes (FYD 250) that talks extensively on the matter.

It is important to recognize the difference, because then you’ll realize that the current school systems are still being run by Native Analogs that prepare students for a world that’s Native Analog. With the rapid growth of technology and the birth of Native Digitals and services that cater to them and them alone, a Native Analog school system will and is slowly becoming obsolete.

 

The First Step is Recognizing the Problem

The other issue according to Ted, is that when you talk to Native Analogs, they don’t think there’s a profound difference on the matter. Whereas Native Digitals can easily spot the difference.

“You realize that, when you live in a digital world, you have control over what you do. You’re able to go deep on what you’re interested in, the content is either really compelling, or you just switch to something else.

Plop that same kid over into school, and oftentimes, it’s programmed, scripted, boring content that the student has no interest in or voice in, that the teacher really is not that interested in either. But some state legislator, some College Board, or some curriculum writer says, “This is what you got to learn.” And the kids just check out, because I think kids find school boring. They don’t feel they have any real sense of purpose in it. And they know there’s an alternative universe that’s much more compelling.” – Ted Dintersmith

 

Ted Dintersmith on What School Could Be

The conversation steers to the topic on what the future of school should look like. Ted was then asked this question:

“Besides the baseline subjects such as history, math, science, etc., should the student have the agency to say, “I really want to focus on this or that”?”

Ted shares that he has seen schools that have employed these types of learning system. What he saw was that students were very engaged, and they were easily retaining what they were learning. Also, both student and educator were really excited to be in the classroom every day.

Unfortunately, these school systems were quite rare across classrooms in America.

One issue was the disconnect between what students find enjoyable and engaging, to what the current system thinks the student needs to have a good career when they finish their education. Add to that the rift that growing between Native Analog frameworks and curriculum, and the gap grows bigger.

 

To hear more from Ted Dintersmith and how we can bring the current school systems to a new era, download and listen to this episode.

 

Bio

About Ted

 

Links

Connect with Ted Dintersmith today!

Website | What School Could Be | LinkedIn

 

Other Related Links:

Category Pirates: The Digital Education Crisis

NPR: More than 1 Million fewer students are in college

CNBC: More Colleges face bankruptcy but top schools experience record wealth

 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

260 The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People, and the Fight for Our Future with NY Times Bestselling Author Alec Ross

FYD - Episode 260 Alec Ross

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask the question: Will the future of the United States of America look more like Star Trek or Road Warrior? With us to answer that question is Alec Ross.

Alec Ross is the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Industries of the Future. And he has a brand-new bestseller out called The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People and the Fight for our Future. Alec is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Bologna business school, and he’s a venture capitalist at Amplo, a global VC firm.

If you have listened to our recent episode with Dr. Cedric Alexander, this dialogue will serve as a great continuation on the State of America (FYD 259), albeit from a different perspective. If you haven’t, why not give it a listen as well?

Alec Ross on Channeling Your Rage

The conversation starts on the topic of Alec Ross’ new book, The Raging 2020s. While the term “raging” often has the connotation of being good, it also can have a bad meaning. While it can denote people having a rolling good time, it can also mean anger, on the verge of violence.

Which is not to say that we should always suppress our anger. For Alec, powerful emotions like that can be a huge part of the creative progress.

“Figuring out how you can harness emotion, anger, volatility, and produce beautiful words, beautiful music, (and/or) beautiful oil on canvas. Also, the greatest athletes are those who know how to focus their rage.” – Alec Ross

For Alec, it’s all about focusing and channeling those powerful emotions into something creative or productive, rather than letting it take over your life.

The Raging 2020s

Exploring further into the book, Alec explains that he wrote The Raging 2020s to show in part why everybody seems so angry right now. As discussed earlier, anger and rage could be channeled into ways that it could be productive. But when the rage becomes more collective, and entire segments of society are angry, what you get is violence.

“I do feel like a lot, there is rage coming right now in America, both from the parts of America that have nothing to lose, as well of those parts of America that have something to protect, and believe that they can’t necessarily grow what they have.” – Alec Ross

Oftentimes, this is what happens when the when there isn’t a shared sense of what we can get together. For Alec, it is something both interesting yet terrifying to observe.

Star Trek or Mad Max?

Alec then talks about the question that is in the heart of his new book. Which is, will our future look more like Mad Max, or Star Trek?

If you aren’t familiar, Star Trek is set on a future where humanity has reached for the stars and enjoys continued progress and abundance. Whereas in Mad Max, we get a dystopian future with scarce resources and chaos all around.

Alec says the future is entirely up to us.

“The degree to which the future does look more like Star Trek or more like Mad Max, is entirely up to us. And I do think that if you have a mindset and an approach that’s rooted in production and creation, as opposed to destruction, that’s the beginning of any sort of progress.” – Alec Ross

To hear more from Alec Ross and how the United States of America will end up in the future, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Alec Ross is a New York Times best-selling author and Distinguished Visiting Professor at l’Universitá di Bologna Business School.

He is the author of the recently published The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People and the Fight for Our Future.

His prior book The Industries of the Future has been translated into 24 languages and been a best-seller on 5 continents.

He is a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm and sits on the board of directors or advisors for companies in the fields of technology, finance, education, human capital and cybersecurity.

He is also an adviser to investors, start-ups and government leaders to help them understand the implication of macro factors emerging at the intersection of geopolitics, markets and increasingly disruptive network technologies.

Specialties include: international market development, executive coaching, cybersecurity, consumer Internet, and board governance.

Recognitions include:

  • Named one of Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
  • S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
  • Oxford University Internet & Society Award
  • Huffington Post’s 10 Game Changers in Politics
  • Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award honoree

Links

Connect with Alec Ross!

Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Amazon Books

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

259 The State of America with Dr. Cedric Alexander, Former Police Chief & President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives

FYD - Episode 259 Dr Cedric Alexander

On today’s special episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a deep conversation about the State of America. The United States of America is facing some meaningful challenges right now, and who better to help us unravel everything than Dr. Cedric Alexander.

Dr. Cedric Alexander had a 40-year career in policing, public service, and mental health. He is the former police chief and Public Safety Director in DeKalb County, Georgia. He is also the former police chief of Rochester, New York, where he served as the federal security director in the TSA. Dr. Alexander also served on President Obama’s Task Force on 21st century policing. He is also the author of the hit book, The New Guardians: Policing in America’s Communities for the 21st century.

Now, you often see Dr. Alexander on TV, or even up on a stage giving a speech. But unlike the TV where you only get a few minutes with him, today we go deep in an incredibly thoughtful conversation in a way that you only can on a real dialogue podcast.

 

Dr. Cedric Alexander on the Upcoming Elections

The conversation started off on the topic of the upcoming midterms on 2022, and the subsequent presidential election on 2024. Particularly, on whether people could expect violence during these times, with regards to the events that unfolded last election.

Being a former lawman himself, Dr. Cedric Alexander can’t help but think about it as well. With regards to what happened in the 6th of January in 2021, it has certainly created a great deal of pause and concern for the country.

As for his perspective, Dr. Alexander thinks that there is too much politics and taking sides involved that the Right and the Left are so divided. He finds it difficult to take sides with one or the other, because his concern and ideas require both sides to work together to fix the nation.

“It’s very difficult to me for me to take sides with one over the other, because I think politics get played all the way around. What I’m concerned about is not their politics, but this nation as we know it.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander

 

Sit Down and Talk

When asked if there is a chance for both sides to have a more civil dialogue as opposed to inciting violence whenever they don’t get the desired results, Dr. Alexander has this to say:

“My thought is that both sides of the aisle, in my humble opinion, struggle for good leadership. Leadership that is not grounded in the party you belong to. Leadership that is grounded in the fact that we have to work together to find a way, or we’re going to continue to be in this very risky posture that we are in right now. “  – Dr. Cedric Alexander

In order to avoid a repeat of what happened on January 6, it’s going to take leadership coming from both sides of the aisle. Not political leadership, but humanistic leadership. A leadership with proper morals, and one that comes from the heart.

 

The Perpetuation of the Election Fraud Claims

They then talk briefly about the continuous perpetuation that the election was stolen, despite numerous proofs and actual recounts done in some states.

Dr. Alexander says that this is a dangerous precedent.

“We’re almost at a point where even if I show you that clear evidence of anything, is still not believed. That is dangerous, brother.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander

According to him, this also all boils down to leadership problems, as some of the leaders themselves are perpetuating this belief, in order to curry favor or not be ostracized by their party.

 

To hear more from Dr. Cedric Alexander and the State of America, download and listen to this episode.

 

Bio

Dr. Cedric L. Alexander

A visionary leader who has served over four decades in law enforcement and public service, there’s few more qualified to speak on the growing strife between race, communities, and the police.

In his frequent, high profile commentary on CNN’s Amanpour, NBC News, and MSNBC, he poses the hard questions about systemic racism in our country and the need for police reform.

Dr. Alexander remains front and center on these issues that have inflamed our nation.

He speaks out on the violence while providing concrete solutions about how to navigate these troubled waters to address the problems plaguing law enforcement and the communities of color they serve.

Dr. Alexander brings to the conversation lengthy experience as the former Chief of Police in DeKalb County, GA, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Throughout his career, he has been pivotal in reforming troubled police departments and restoring trust between them and their communities.

He is also the author of In Defense of Public Service: How 22 Million Government Workers Will Save Our Republic that features endorsements from the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks, and attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project.

His insight into the non-elected “fourth branch” of government—our nation’s public servants, civil servants, and first responders—as those who will save the nation by helping bring our greatly divided society together is uncanny during today’s times.

Cedric has testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Facial Recognition Technology, as well as on the pros and cons of using body cameras, drones, and crime mapping in law enforcement.

He sits on the board of the Innocence Project, working to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

He is also consulting with companies such as AT&T FirstNet, the first nationwide network dedicated to public safety to help law enforcement, fire service, and EMS do their jobs safely and effectively.

With a doctorate in clinical psychology from Wright State University, Cedric is equipped to address the prevailing issues nationwide. In every situation, he conveys a sharp understanding of human nature, the breadth of issues facing our communities, and how to break through to create a solution everyone can unite behind. Widely respected for his ability to lead thoughtfully and respectfully, he transcends both public and private sectors in an effort to foster positive change.

 

Links

About Dr. Cedric Alexander

Linkedin: in/CedricLAlexanderPsyD

Twitter: @CAlexLaw

Amazon Books: The New Guardians

 

Other information about Dr. Cedric Alexander:

What the Plan Now America

This is a Job for Cedric Alexander

Dr. Cedric Alexander on Capitol Security

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!