Brian Solis enters his Madonna Like a Virgin phase
The incredibly prolific, talented and sought after futurist and author Brian Solis joined us for a surprising and thought provoking conversation. Brian is a three time author and speaks around the world on topics such as digital transformation, the future of work, and innovation.
Innovation and disruption isn’t only true for companies, as individuals we also have to constantly reinvent ourselves, like Madonna… and like Madonna, Brian is entering a new phase, his Like a Virgin phase.
Brian’s passion today is studying the role of technology and innovation on humanity. Too often the mindset of tech innovators is to develop new technologies that disrupt the old ways, but without thinking through the impact of that disruption. Brian would like to see the focus shift from success being seen as a pure monetary game, to one that considers the impact on humanity. How can we use the same brain power we put to making profitable innovations to leveraging that power for good?
Brian feels that innovation should come with governance, and with good reason. Tristan Harris the architect behind many of the most addictive features of Facebook has recently revealed his “magician’s” secrets and the truth is these systems are designed to fuel addictions following the gambling industry’s dopamine juicing techniques of intermittent variable rewards and getting users addicted, like slot machines through systems of persuasive design.
The first step is acknowledging you have a problem
Guess what? If you’re on social media or carry a phone, the likelihood is... you are probably succumbing to this addiction. And the impact isn’t just to your health, but also to those around you, your relationship with your kids and even your ability to cognitively reason. It’s been proven that the more we consume the thinner our frontal cortex gets, the less creative we are, and we even start to lose our ability to empathize.
We’ve spoken with Amber Case on this very topic and Brian also points to the work of Genevieve Bell. The truth is we need a mom to oversee our behavior and Silicon Valley could take the lead in that role. Brian tracks his time on social media vs his time spent in creativity. Self diagnosing and self treating, and developing a strategy of moderation. Today, we have built our own echo chambers, we seek validation by others like us, but this is misleading and dangerous leading us to believe we are open when really we’re not. The key is to be a student of life, always to be learning and to build wisdom thru new uncomfortable situations.
Brian is one of the kindest people I know, a hopeless optimist and so humble. Let’s take his words to heed and leverage technologies to make us more open, let’s be aware of our own addictions and seek to curb them by understanding their scope and finding new ways of connecting even IRL.
Have a listen to this amazing conversation with one of best!
