Online or Offline: Which life is more real?

On the plane the other day I listened to a fantastic podcast [here]. Two of my favorite thinkiers were having a fast-paced and far ranging conversation. And Chris Dixon said something to Fred Wilson at this one point in their talk that's really stuck with me.

"I think that at some point the world may see a majority shift to people rating the online world - their digital lives and digital possessions - as important or maybe more important than their offline lives." [poorly paraphrased by me]

Based on what I'm seeing in the early days of NFTs and combined with how much of life *can* be carried out with just a screen and airpods, I think that moment may be closer than many think.

I think I'm gonna post a related question on Cent. The questions and phrasing aren't 100% set so ping me if you have any imput.

1. Which type of life is more important to you?
2. Which one do you think is more important to most people today? 
3. Do you think your response to question no.2 will change in the future? 
4. If you think it will change, please explain why you believe that will be the case.

The Evolutionary Value of Narrative

Listened to a fantastic new episode of the a16z podcast yesterday [here] about decision making - specifically concerning group or crowd-based decision making - and story telling. You all should check it out if you have time.

To give you a little taste, I'll leave you with my two favorite tidbits from the episode:

"Novels simulate alternative versions of our lives.

We spend an inordinate amount of time reading and watching fiction - things that we know are not true - because there is an incredible adaptive value in placing yourself into someone else's thought process in a given situation. In short, the evolutionary role of narrative of fiction is in expanding the individual ability to run parallel simulations of other peoples lives."

"Reading a good book makes the world feel larger."

Podcast of the Week No.10

Apologies for the late post - power cut off in the morning at our apartment complex due to an elevator inspection (but on a Sunday?!) so when I went to grab my phone and head out for the day it had 1% battery left. 

Anyways, on with todays post. 

For the best podcast of last week, I want to share a short but special podcast from a16z, the most generous show in tech. 

Their most recent episode was dedicated to all things compensation, which as far as I can tell was a first in the history of the show.

As an HR professional working in a relatively slow moving sector - construction - it was super interesting to listen how compensation is approached from a philosophical and strategic perspective by startups working in the hottest and most competitive sector on earth today.

Despite talking about compensation in an industry as different from mine as night and day, I was able to take a lot away, as will anyone who listens to it. Take a listen [here]. 

4 Steps to Revolutionize Culture

I was listening to an older episode of a16z with Ben Horowitz the other day where Ben offered up a few steps for how to revolutionize workplace culture.

Here they are complete with real, live examples:

1. Keep what works, just like Steve Jobs did upon his return to Apple.

2. Create strong rules, a la Zuck with Facebook's 'move fast & break things' motto.

3. Incorporate outside leadership as a way to bring in the culture you need.

4. Make decisions that demonstrate priority, like Reid Hastings did when he told  
    the DVD division not to come to executive meetings anymore (despite them  
    accounting  for 100% of revenue at the time).