The Buzz 1: “What will be the most coveted skill of the future?…Creativity…A computer lacks imagination or creativity to dream up a vision for the future.…the emotional competence a human being has… We must embrace and develop our creativity, and then use technology creatively to solve problems of the world.” [forbes.com/sites/annapowers] The Buzz 2: “When you think about old masters of art such as Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, you can clearly understand why their paintings are valued at a...
Sep 14, 2022•54 min
The Buzz 1: “NFTs are not just for digital art—and their popularity is growing. Now The Economist is experimenting with an NFT, to raise money for a good cause. – One candidate for the Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” for 2021 will surely be “NFT”. Non-fungible tokens—cryptocurrency chits which represent digital images or videos—have been around since 2014, but took off in popularity in March [2021] when Christie’s, a British auction house, sold an NFT of “Everydays—The First 5,000...
Sep 07, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: “The science of social selling actually originated from academia. In a 2009 paper…'The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context,' researchers concluded that a purchase is more likely to take place when the buyer and seller happen to share things in common…sales practitioners began putting the science into practice and thus became the ‘social selling’ approach.” [Tony Restell, social-hire.com] The Buzz 2: “To stand out today, you...
Aug 31, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: In 1440 – 600 years after The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest printed book – Gutenberg invented the wooden mass-printing press. In 1845 Richard Hoe invented the rotary press and first paperback. In 1993, Peter James published the thriller Host on 2 floppy disks – the first electronic novel – and BiblioBooks launched a website to sell eBooks. Along came the 2gb Kindle, able to hold 1,100 books. Today, print books still make up 65+% of sales in the $113Bn annual book market. To be co...
Aug 24, 2022•55 min
The in-person experience of car buying has always been alluring, letting you inhale the new car scent, examine the shiny power under the hood, literally kick the tires, ask questions of a human salesperson, and feel the road in a test drive. Now online car sales are offering a new experience: click it, order it, pick it up, keep-or-return it – and the automotive industry mostly isn’t ready. The Buzz 1: Nearly 30% of U.S. new car sales in 2020 were completed online, compared to 2% of vehicles pre...
Aug 17, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: “Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.” [Margaret Cho, comedian] The Buzz 2: “Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society.” [staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week] The Buzz 3: “Digital freedom stops where that of users begins... Privacy is not for sale, it's a valuable asset to protect.” (Stephane Nappo, Société Générale ...
Aug 10, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: “There is such a thing as a glass ceiling…the invisible barrier which prevents women from advancement in their profession. Do we have an unacknowledged barrier that is an obstacle for women in Tech who are indeed skilled and experienced but can’t get a promotion?” [huddle.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com] The Buzz 2: “The label 'woman in tech' seems redundant these days – how many women would refer to themselves as ‘a female engineer’ or ‘the company’s female CTO’? However, there still ex...
Aug 03, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: While the majority of solo parents are single mothers, up to 2.6 million families in the US are headed by single dads…The research on single fathers is limited. [healthline dot com] The Buzz 2: As a single dad, keeping a strong relationship between you and your child after a divorce is essential for your child’s wellbeing.…children are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior if their father is actively engaged in their upbringing. [Licensed psychologist Robert Goldman, pittsburg...
Jul 27, 2022•54 min
The Buzz 1: “85% of the women I interviewed make money in ways that really aren’t any different from how women made money in 1980: a third have jobs that pay salaries and bonuses, perhaps with a bit of a twist; about a quarter make money off of direct drive sales (a business model I remember well from selling photocopiers for Xerox in 1986!) and another quarter provide some sort of fee for service. A mere 15% have the “many sources” model for money making.…” (Barbara Stewart, Rich Thinking® glob...
Jul 20, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: “Coming up with a great name for your characters is one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever complete as a fiction writer… going too ‘creative’ with your name choices can distract or even confuse your reader.” (nybookeditors.com) The Buzz 2: “Instead of calling the pizza delivery guy ‘Bob,’ if you give him an interesting ethnicity, a cowboy hat and a name like Galveston Ngyen, readers will remember him when he shows up dead 50 pages later. But beware. There can be pitfalls.” (Anne R. All...
Jul 13, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: ** “If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be.” [Eddie Van Halen, songwriter and musician] ** “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” [Maya Angelou, memoirist, poet, playwright] ** “Every song is like a painting.” (Dick Dale,...
Jun 29, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives… committing to sustainable practices is no longer a “nice to have” but a “must do”…. [forbes.com] The Buzz 2: Technologies shaping the sustainability agenda: Public electric transport. Electric trucks. Cheap energy storage. Plastic recycling. LED light efficiency. Accessible solar power. Carbon capture and storage. Hydrogen in the energy transition. [mcki...
Jun 22, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: There’s no telling what the futuristic inventions of the world hold, but we can start by taking a few wild and speculative guesses: Robot butlers – Fully immersive VR – Cryonics – Exo-skeletons – Flying Cars –Artificial gravity – Fusion power – Self-sustaining space colonies. [bigthink.com] The Buzz 2: The U.S. patent system is detailed in the Constitution. A patent’s assurance of the protection of inventions is a key reason why companies invest billions of dollars in research and de...
Jun 15, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: Headlines: Drones are helping to restore power in Puerto Rico. A drone attacked targeted the U.S. electrical grid. Google’s drone service will deliver library books. Submarine drone can swim for months and then fly away. Drone waiters will take your restaurant order. ESPN shot the X Games with drones. A bouncy search-and-rescue drone could save your life. The military wants a dancing drone that can fly through windows. [popularmechanics.com/the-future-of-drones] The Buzz 2: In the fi...
Jun 08, 2022•54 min
Remember the TV sitcom “Who’s The Boss?” (ABC TV 1984 – 1992) It’s time to ask the question again! The Buzz 1: Everyone will be a leader in the workplace in 2030. Work will thrive in teams, not with dictators. The Chief of Work will set the culture in the organization. All workers at all levels will use robotic helpers like Siri or Alexa, for incoming email, scheduling meetings, creating spreadsheets. [simplilearn.com, studies by CBRE and Genesis, WSJ report] The Buzz 2: Being a leader rather th...
Jun 01, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: Retailers expect 17.8% or $158 billion of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday season will be returned, according to National Retail Federation. [digitalcommerce360.com] The Buzz 2: Retail returns jumped to an average of 16.6% in 2021 versus 10.6% in 2020, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail. That adds up to more than $761 billion of merchandise…in unwanted purchases that come back to retailers’ stores and warehouses and become a headache fo...
May 25, 2022•55 min
We’re living 'on the edge', but in ways you might not be aware of: edge computing. The Buzz 1: Edge computing means putting processing power, software services, and data as close as possible to end users – like you – where the speed of light is still too slow for data packets traveling from server to server across thousands of miles of fiber. It's also less exposed to cyberattack and less prone to breaches. The Buzz 2: Edge computing is used to create smarter buildings, cities, work spaces, reta...
May 18, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: “In the 19th century, inventors were heroes … Their ideas helped drag humanity from agrarian poverty to manufactured plenty. These days, though, inventor-superstars, while not absent, are fewer and farther between.” [economist.com] The Buzz 2: “While we've had our fair share of inventive breakthroughs in the past that have changed the world, the dazzling and world-shaking inventions of the future will change the world in even stranger and greater ways.” [bigthink.com] The Buzz 3: “Th...
May 11, 2022•56 min
Looking ahead to 2030: How will we work? How will we get around? What will we eat? How will we dress? How safe will our privacy be? Will we all be space travelers? What old and new challenges will we face? The Buzz 1: The top seven emerging future technology booms that will redefine the future and the world we live in by 2030: More AI companies. Growth of self-driving cars. More robots doing manufacturing jobs. Smart clothing embedded with Bluetooth chips. Space elevators. Pervasive cloud comput...
May 04, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: Grateful people feel more optimistic and happy, better mitigate aversive experiences, and have stronger interpersonal bonds. Gratitude interventions have been shown to result in improved sleep, more frequent exercise, and stronger cardiovascular and immune systems. [psywb.springeropen.com] The Buzz 2: Children spend an average of 53 hours per week with digital media — video games, social media, reality TV, exposure to violence, virtual connections that replace face-to-face friendship...
Apr 27, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: Wine tourism —aka oenotourism, enotourism, vinitourism— lures wine lovers to vineyards, wineries, cellars, and museums dedicated to wine. The wine tourism global market size is expected to more than triple by 2030 to ~29.6B euros. (statista.com) The Buzz 2: According to a late-2020 www.statista.com survey, wine tourists are mainly casual wine tasters rather than wine geeks. The Buzz 3: People in Portugal consume more wine than any other country worldwide, with an annual per capita co...
Apr 20, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: “Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.” (Margaret Cho, stand-up comedian) The Buzz 2: Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society. Data Privacy Week aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take action. (staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week) The Buzz 3: “In the next three years, the value of data...
Apr 13, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: Drones are a transformative technology that, over the next decade, will change in ways you likely never imagined… Similar to Electronic Automobiles, drones offer another important option in fending off greenhouse gasses and becoming carbon neutral. (forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/06/30) The Buzz 2: Google announced on Oct 6, 2021 that it has started drone deliveries straight from a shopping mall directly to customers’ homes…The all-time record? Two minutes, 47 seconds.…Wing ...
Apr 06, 2022•56 min
The Buzz 1: It’s easier to write about a period you’ve lived through, but what do you do when everyone who lived during that time is long gone?…The obvious first place to start is with non-fiction books. (Kat Clay) The Buzz 2: Historical nonfiction is a broad category that depicts historical, real-life events…literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, creative nonfiction overlap with historical nonfiction. (Masterclass staff) The Buzz 3: Historical fiction can be a tricky genre to master. If you...
Mar 30, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives… committing to sustainable practices is no longer a “nice to have” but a “must do”…. (forbes.com) The Buzz 2: The fully circular shoe brand Thousand Fell launched in 2019 embracing the circular economy, but the linear ‘take-make-waste’ system continued to drive fashion. In 2020, France's new anti-waste law prevented the destruction of unsold items and in ...
Mar 23, 2022•54 min
The Buzz 1: Today’s female reader is pressed for time, demanding as hell, and both scared and excited about the future…Female detectives, athletes and presidential candidates were rule breakers simply for trying … Today’s heroine has declared herself her own authority. www.writersdigest.com The Buzz 2: The best literary heroines are worth imitating… (mostly) fictional, but they have a great deal to teach us about ourselves and the real-life stories we find ourselves in. teaandinksociety.com The ...
Mar 16, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: “Music is the shorthand of emotion” (Leo Tolstoy). “Hell is full of musical amateurs” (George Bernard Shaw). “The only truth is music” (Jack Kerouac). The Buzz 2: In 1930, Albert Einstein met with Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore in Caputh, Germany, to discuss the nature of music… Einstein served as the vice president of the Princeton Symphony from 1952 until he died in 1955… During a 1929 Saturday Evening Post interview, Einstein said that, had he not been a scientist, he would ...
Mar 09, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: The term 'Great Resignation' was likely coined by Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M, in May 2021. He told Business Insider that events like the pandemic make people step back and rethink their lives. In some cases, that can cause people to change up careers — and companies will have to adjust. The Buzz 2: Kerry Brown asks, Should We Resign Ourselves To The Great Resignation? and offers evidence for Yes. (www.forbes.com) The Buzz 3: Arianne Cohen wrote tips on h...
Mar 02, 2022•55 min
The Buzz 1: “Ten years ago, e-books made up less than 1 percent of the trade book market… traditional publishers have lost their former iron grip on the industry…Successful major authors are even choosing to self-publish.…” (izzardink.com) The Buzz 2: Recent research from Global English Editing and Written Word Media reveals … 66% of readers across the globe say print offers “a more fulfilling and unique reading experience * 1.5+M book titles were published in 2021, with printed book sales incre...
Feb 23, 2022•55 min
Algorithms are buzzing all around us, but exactly what and where are they – and how will they continue to impact each of us – for good or not so good? The Buzz 1: “Algorithm: Word used by programmers when they don’t want to explain what they did.” (Book title on amazon.com) The Buzz 2: “The algorithms that orchestrate our ads are starting to orchestrate our lives.” (Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org) The Buzz 3: An algorithm is a set of step-by-step procedures, or a set of rules to follow, for completing ...
Feb 16, 2022•54 min
