Book Review: Homo Deus

Homo Deus – A brief history of tomorrow shows us where mankind is headed in an absolutely clear-sighted and accessible manner. The book starts with “The Human Agenda” where humanity is personified as a human being waking up in the third millennium from a long sleep and observing today’s agenda. Here, Yuval Noah Harari starts the story of Human civilization, the problems it used to face, and future promises.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is “Homo Sapiens Conquers the World”. Here he questions Human superiority over all species of animals. He questions certain human beliefs and explains their logic. He also proves that there is no such thing as Emotion. In fact, there are all algorithms that help us in making a decision.

Even Nobel Laureates in economics make only a tiny fraction of their decisions using pen, paper, and calculator; 99 percent of our decisions- including the most important life choices concerning spouses, careers, and habitats – are made by the highly refined algorithms we call sensations, emotions, and desires.

The second part is “Homo Sapiens Gives Meaning to the World “. Here he argues how Humans have given meaning to this world through their self-created stories. Stories that made them believe in gods or Kings in the past and various Brands in present. The influence of these stories is so much so that they have given meanings to our reality, our struggles, and even our existence. The invention of writing revolutionized the entire Human society by preserving the stories, saving records (and manipulating) and most significantly, the Holy Scriptures that proclaim to contain “the answers to all our questions”

The third and the last part, “Homo sapiens loses control. Here he questions the directions of technology and where will it lead us? Technology is continuously giving meaning to our lives. But the question arises, is this meaning beneficial or harmful? We are stepping into a society where electronic gadgets know us better than our own parents. So, maybe these gadgets will one day surpass us and take hold of the world. This evolution will be the same as that of vehicles where we replaced horses with engines. Similarly, soon there will be a time when machines will replace humans.

The book ends with thought-provoking advice. Harari says, “Today having power means knowing what to ignore.” Today, when we are facing the problems of the pandemic, power imbalance, terrorism, disharmony, inequality, and many more issues, the need of the hour is to focus on the “immediate problems.”

This book is a must-read in these days where times are changing fast and we are stepping into an age of digital revolution. The world is becoming more and more digital. Harari provides significant insights into the way technology works and how the world is changing.

Book Review: You can Heal Your Life

You Can Heal Your Life offers a message of non-judgmental love and support that has endangered it to people everywhere. The author attributes the book’s success simply to her ability to help people change without laying guilt on them and in fact the book has the calmness of a person who has gone through the worst and survived. This is a survivor narrative, and the title only really makes sense when we read the final chapter, a plain-speaking record of Louise Hay’s difficult personal history.

The book teaches love of the self and evaporation of guilt, which makes us mentally free and physically healthy, as the study of psycho-immunology attests. Affirmations are vital in becoming the person we wish to be, and the book contains many to choose from. All the familiar self-help messages are given attention, including breaking free of limiting thoughts, replacing fear with faith, forgiveness, and understanding that thoughts really do create experiences.

The main idea or can say the key idea of this book is “if we are ready to do our mental work, then almost anything can be healed”. The issues about which Louise talk about in this book is related to relationship, money, body and all of these issues starts with the belief that we are not good enough, and we just can’t do anything and this is our belief which creates and forms our lives, and the fact is the moment we start loving ourselves is the moment we have the ability or can say have the key to heal ourselves.

With proper and right mental work, we can heal almost every aspect of our lives and can bring a positive outcome in any area we desire. Hay has written this book the same way she would have taken the client through sessions or a workshop. Each chapter starts with an affirmation and includes one or more exercises and treatments.

Some of the main points are: -

Disease (or ‘dis–ease’) is the product of states and mind. The inability to forgive is the cause of the illness.

Prosperity: Whatever we concentrate on increases, so don’t concentrate on your bills. You will only create more of them. Gratefulness for what you do have makes it more abundant. Become aware of the limitless supply of the universe – observe nature! Your income is only a channel of prosperity, not its source.

Security: Your security is not your job or your bank account, or your investments or your parents or your spouse. Your security is your ability to connect with the cosmic power that creates all things. If you have the ability to still your mind and invoke feelings of peace by realizing you are not alone, you can never really feel insecure again.

Self – love: One of the first things Hay will say to people who come to see her stops criticizing yourself! We may have spent a lifetime doing this, but the beginning of real self-love which is one of the main ingredients in healing your life happens when we decide to give ourselves a break.

This book will not be for everyone. It is quite New Agey, fitting into the journey to wholeness mold of writing that is now so common, but remember that Hay was a pioneer of it. For those who have read a number of self-development books, it may seem a bit simplistic and contain nothing new – it is certainly no intellectual undertaking to read it. On the other hand, it has a directness and enthusiasm that makes it stay in the mind, and intuitively makes sense.

Book Review: Jugaad 3.0

Jugaad 3.0 gives an eye-opening overview and insightful guidance on how to enable intrapreneurship, leveraging new ways for collaboration and enabling creativity that leads to meaningful and sustainable innovation. It’s a book on how to get a corporation running based on innovation which comes not from outside but within.

The shelf life of well-established companies keeps shrinking as new entrants replace old ones in rapid succession. Even brands that seemed invincible only a few years ago are in danger of being disrupted by fast-moving startups. In this unprecedented environment, how can any business stay ahead of the market? Companies can no longer assume innovation will ‘just happen’ – it must be seeded, grown and successfully harvested. They must disrupt themselves.

In Jugaad 3.0, innovation expert and bestselling author Simone Bhan Ahuja guides readers through the DIY (Disrupt-It-Yourself) system that will sustain innovation and retain DIYers, the employees or intrapreneurs – most committed to solving the problems of the future, even if it means moving far beyond ‘business as usual’. Using DIY approach, organizations can build their ability to innovate and create an approach for growth that harnesses the creativity and knowledge of employees at every level.

 

The book convincingly makes the case for the mobilization of ‘Intrapreneur’: the change agents that reside within the organizations. Intrapreneurs are entrepreneurs, technically, who give shape to their plans from within the walls of an organization. Simone proposes 8 key principles that can lend strongly to frugal ingenuity within organizations. These principles combined from the backbone of the book are Keep it Frugal, make it permissionless, Let Customers Lead, make it Fluid, maximize return on Intelligence, Create the Commons, engage passion and purpose, and add discipline to disruption. In one of the chapters, Simone analogizes Intrapreneurship with Avengers-style ensemble cast. She envisages an ecosystem where individuals with complementary skills could join forces from far corners of the organizations to crack big goals.

As the title suggests, there are three factors working here that have to be put together – fast, fluid and frugal. When we talk of Jugaad being ‘fast’, it is actually asking for the impossible in most companies where the hierarchy has to be sidestepped and the bureaucratic processes dodged. The second factor spoken of is being ‘frugal’, which is an easier hurdle as when there is a limited cost involved, it is easier to accept from above. The third clue provided is that the exercise must be ‘fluid’, which is interesting. This actually involves people from across the organization coming together and not being restricted to just one set of employees in, say, the product innovation department.

In a clear, concise style with expert advice and real-world examples, this book provides a new lens to help companies become faster and more fluid offers easy options to tailor the system to each company’s unique circumstances, and presents strategic lessons that open up the full spectrum of innovation and make it sustainable.

Book Review: Detox your Ego

Detox your Ego takes you on a journey of self-discovery, a process that enables you to master your own ego in order to increase your health, happiness, and purpose. Psychologist Steven Sylvester inspiring, and ground-breaking approach focuses on a brand-new approach to winning. He shares for the very first time the seven steps to be freer, happier and more successful in your life.

Steven is a former professional cricketer who is now a leading Chartered Psychologist providing a new approach to human performance. He helps a range of individuals and teams in professional sport, business, and life by shifting their motivation in life from an ego-based orientation built on the fear of win/lose, to a freedom-based orientation built on mastery of a skill/task, and craft and so on. When our motivation is ego-based our ability to perform at our peak is limited because the ego is fear-based and defensive but also significantly increases the likelihood that we will be selfish in the pursuit of our goals and leaving our self-esteem at the mercy of our win/lose achievements.

Although this approach is counter-intuitive, it is based on empirical research and Steven’s own work with many world-class athletes – enabling them to perform without the limitations of fear. He calls this the world champion contradiction! It is not just for elite athletes, the principles can be applied by all, as living ego-based lives is an automatic default for the vast majority of people when it comes to performance and life.

 

To lead without ego is to move from a selfish, self-centered approach to life which is all about winning and comparisons with others, to a selfless mastery and team or community-based motivation.

The first step is to look at one’s self and establish what our motivation is: winning or mastery? This noticing and self-awareness is a form of applied and natural mindfulness, an open, curious, noticing of what our hidden and automatic motivations are. Steven enables us to examine our ego through a model with three components, inner ego, outer ego, and transformational ego. The inner ego is hidden from others, the outer ego is what we reveal to others – and the goal is to reach the transformational ego which works selflessly for mastery, team, and community.

There are a number of other steps which build on this central foundation – and which enable us to examine the gravitational pull of our ego, both in terms of motivations, behaviors, and actions.

How we respond or react to our mistakes is the next step that reveals the deep roots of ego-driven selfishness within us. The ego is fear-based and triggers our natural defenses, making change difficult and inhibiting performance and the exercise of skills. Our deepest unconscious fears that control much of how we react are that we believe we are not good enough and that others will reject us – especially if we do not perform as others would want.

Each step enables a progressive revelation about the ego. The next question that triggers revelation is, ‘Do you take time finding out what you avoid?’ Avoiding reality and truth is something that an ego-based orientation moves us towards. When we are mastery-focused we are able to face our mistakes, difficulties, limitations with open curiosity and in an undefended way. There are other key steps that build on the foundational ones. Our emotions give us important clues to our ego: can we smile at our mistakes, have fun, perform with joy?

One of the key problems in sport, but also many other areas of life is achieving consistency in performance. The mastery orientation is the answer to that as well. In order to achieve consistency, we also need to be able to remember to apply the principles and sustain the levels of self-examination and self-awareness necessary for transformation at the moment.

The final steps include asking the questions, ‘do you give to others?’, and ‘what is your purpose?’ These help us find that selfless place within that transforms the lives of others. I am going to work through this book and these principles. I believe I will discover the joy of selfless teamwork and mastery of the skills God calls us to exercise on His behalf.

TikTok: A Primer for Brands

Boasting more than 500 Million active users, TikTok is a mobile video-sharing app that stepped on the scene in 2018. Users can create and post short, looping videos set to music or sound bites – often with humor as the focal point. Like the other social platforms, TikTok features a personalized discover page, a home feed, user profiles and a built-in suite of video editing tools. Because TikTok posts have a max length of 60 seconds, the end result is typically a quirky, highly concentrated form of entertainment that’s equal parts confusing and captivating.

To understand TikTok, you have to look at it in the context of its forerunners, Musical.ly and Vine. Vine, the viral short-form video-sharing app launched in 2013, can be thought of as the originator of snack-sized viral video content. Vine put the wheels in motion for short videos to take off as a standard video format where creators could leverage the vertical orientation native to smartphones.

In 2014, Muscial.ly launched as a follow-up to the success of Vine, which Twitter acquired in 2016. Users could create short videos with the added layer of lip-syncing. This approach, coupled with low production requirements, made it easy for just anyone to create engaging content. Fast forward to 2017, when Chinese tech giant ByteDance saw an opportunity in Musical.ly’s content model. ByteDance acquired Muscial.ly in 2017 and in 2018 rolled out to the international market with the name TikTok. By October 2018, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the U.S. and reached a record 1.5 Billion downloads globally at the end of 2019.

TikTok trends move fast. Blink and you might miss them. The platform doesn’t have the visual aesthetic of a curated Instagram grid – nor is it the place for serious issues. TikTok has managed to create a distinctive social experience that values spontaneity, humor, and relatability above all else. It’s turned social media into pure social entertainment.

Here’s how users are getting the most out of the app:

Video Editing - TikTok has provided an entire generation of users with a crash course in video editing. The platform’s easy-to-use tools add a unique creative impact that doesn’t require the learning curve of an advanced video editing platform. Creators can choose from dozens of overlays, transition effects, filters, playback speeds, text options, and sounds. It gives just about anyone the ability to create an engaging video with just a few taps.

Playing with sound - The platform’s editing tools and advanced filters enable creativity by default, but a unique edge is an ability to add a sound from a massive library of both licensed music and user-created recordings. After a video is posted, any user can rip the audio, re-create the parody, and throw it back into the TikTok ecosystem until the joke is dead. Similar to the way hashtags work to discover content, users can search for a song or sound to see the original content and all other videos it appears in. Sound on the platform inspires music video spoofs, funny lip-dubs, dance routines, and more.

Hashtag challenges - Viral trends start in the hashtags on TikTok. Hashtag challenges encourage users to attempt and share their own unique takes on challenges posed by different creators or brands – like Guess’s #InMyDenim challenge or Jimmy Fallon’s #tumbleweedchallenge. Challenge have proven to be an engaging way for users to easily create appealing content, while brands can use it as an opportunity to build awareness with consumers.

React Videos - Users on TikTok have taken the concept of a reaction to a hilarious new level. With the ‘React’ feature, users can record their own reactions (with audio and video) to an existing TikTok video. The reaction video can appear side-by-side with the original.

Cringe-worthy content - Like a train wreck you can’t look away from, cringe videos feature awkward performances aimed at getting a laugh. It’s a format made famous on YouTube, and TikTok-ers are playing it on their own terms with injections of youth commentary and social satire.

TikTok Users - Gen Z runs the show. Younger audiences (ages 13-22) make up the majority share of TikTok users. As of September 2019, 42% of internet users in the U.S. aged 13-16 are on TikTok according to eMarketer. Among the ages 17-21, the percentage falls to 32%.

Older generations (Boomer, Gen X, Millennial) have used social as a mode of staying up-to-date with friends, exploring interests in groups, and communicating through messaging. Gen Z, on the other hand, is carving out its own value in social as an unbridled medium for entertainment, confessionals – and, well, dark humor. It’s part of the reason why brands have to think differently about their content approach on a platform that embraces weird, ephemeral, off-the-cuff entertainment.

TikTok For Brands – Now that TikTok has taken off in the U.S. and looks likely to continue growing – brands are itching to get their messages seen. Before jumping into the memetic platform, businesses need to ask whether or not they should be joining in the first place. For brands setting out to reach younger audiences with fun, challenging or unusual content, TikTok might be the place. But it’s worth it to note that image-based ads and Instagram style product endorsements won’t cut it on TikTok. Here are some ways brands are dipping into TikTok.

Advertising – TikTok’s advertising business is still in its infancy. The platform introduced a self-serve ad offering in beta last year, garnering enthusiasm from the brands who were first to test it out. The platform is still in beta testing and lacks some of the more robust targeting options and programmatic features that enable advertisers to automatically buy and measure ads.

For now, advertising on TikTok is only offered on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions). To get started, advertisers will need to create a TikTok ad account, after which a representative will grant access to the beta self-serve ad platform. Once in, the process for creating an ad is similar to other social platforms. Advertisers can define the campaign objective and select targeting rules based on age, gender, location, interests, etc. There is also an option to define the ad placement (TikTok, its affiliated apps – or both), as well as an option for automated placement (in beta).

Creative formats include: In-feed native video ads, Brand takeovers (a full-screen ad that appears when a user first opens the app), Hashtag challenges, Branded filters, Topview Ads (similar to brand takeovers but uses in-feed content), Influencer brand partnership.

Social Commerce - In November, TikTok began testing shoppable video posts, making it possible for creators to place social commerce links in their posts. Users can then complete a purchase without leaving the app. For now, the option is still in beta with no current word on when it will roll out more broadly.

Sponsored hashtag challenges - Despite TikTok’s lack of a solid ad offering, brands are still finding ways to make their products known by leveraging the community at large (and we all know the TikTok community loves a good challenge). Sponsored hashtag challenges give brands the ability to create a video effect and pose a prompt to the community, which users can then play into with their own spin.

Perhaps the most valuable facet of TikTok is its audience. They’re young, sure but they want a digital experience that’s authentic, homegrown and downright entertaining. It’s part of the reason why reactions and challenges have taken off at warp speed. Instead of standing by and watching social play out from a distance, TikTok users are diving in head-first to leave their mark in near real-time.