Scott Adams and Wise Advice About Not Staying in Your Lane.

A New 2020 Book with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

“AI is the ‘runtime’ that is going to shape all of what we do.” –Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani show how reinventing the firm around data, analytics, and AI removes traditional constraints on scale, scope, and learning that have restricted business growth for hundreds of years. From Airbnb to Ant Financial, Microsoft to Amazon, research shows how AI-driven processes are vastly more scalable than traditional processes, allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries, and create powerful opportunities for learning–to drive ever more accurate, complex, and sophisticated predictions.

When traditional operating constraints are removed, strategy becomes a whole new game, one whose rules and likely outcomes this book will make clear. Iansiti and Lakhani:

• Present a framework for rethinking business and operating models.

• Explain how “collisions” between AI-driven/digital and traditional/analog firms are reshaping competition, altering the structure of our economy, and forcing traditional companies to rearchitect their operating models.

• Explain the opportunities and risks created by digital firms.

• Describe the new challenges and responsibilities for the leaders of both digital and traditional firms.

This is an essential guide for rethinking how your firm competes and operates in the era of AI.

Marco Iansiti, the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, also heads the school’s Technology and Operations Management Unit and the Digital Initiative. Iansiti is an expert on digital innovation, with a special focus on strategy and business and operating model transformation. He advises Global 1000 companies on digital strategy and transformation and has conducted research on a variety of organizations, including Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, Amazon, Alibaba, and Google, among many others.

Karim R. Lakhani is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Fellow at Harvard Business School. He is the founder and codirector of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, the principal investigator of the NASA Tournament Laboratory at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the faculty cofounder of the Digital Initiative at HBS. He is also Chair of the Harvard Business Analytics Program. He specializes in technology management and innovation.

“In the age of fake news, understanding who we trust and why is essential in explaining everything from leadership to power to our daily relationships.”

We live in a world where proven facts and verifiable data are freely and widely available. Why, then, are self-confident ignoramuses so often believed over thoughtful experts? And why do seemingly irrelevant details such as a person’s appearance or financial status influence whether or not we trust what they are saying, regardless of their wisdom or foolishness?

Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks compellingly explain how in our uncertain and ambiguous world, the messenger is increasingly the message. We frequently fail, they argue, to separate the idea being communicated from the person conveying it, explaining why the status or connectedness of the messenger has become more important than the message itself.

Messengers influence business, politics, local communities, and our broader society. And Martin and Marks reveal the forces behind the most infuriating phenomena of our modern era, such as belief in fake news and how presidents can hawk misinformation and flagrant lies yet remain.

Stephen Martin, the CEO of the consulting and training company Influence at Work, works with companies around the world. He is the co-author of Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, which has sold over a million copies internationally and been translated into 26 languages. Steve’s work has been featured in broadcast and print media across the world, including BBC TV and Radio, MSNBC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, The London Times, Sunday Telegraph, and the Guardian. Joseph Marks is an associate consultant with Influence at Work and a doctoral candidate working jointly at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University College London. His research and studies have been published in both academic journals and The New York Times, Bloomberg and the Harvard Business Review.

The Daily Stoic Meets The Trend Attitude with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Award-winning Carleton University neuroscientist Kim Hellemans and cognitive scientist Jim Davies created an audio show called “Minding the Brain.” Michael, Kim and Jim jump into all that is the mind!

Jim Davies is an award-winning American/Canadian cognitive scientist, playwright, artist, and author. He is a professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science and the School of Computer Science at Carleton University, where he is the director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory. His research focuses on visual reasoning, analogy, and imagination. Kim Hellemans is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University, where her research focused on understanding the biological basis of drug addiction.

Roll into 2020 with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur based in Pescadero, California.

Blank is recognized for developing the customer development method that launched the lean startup movement, a methodology which recognized that startups are not smaller versions of large companies, but require their own set of processes and tools to be successful. His Lean Launchpad class (taught as the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps) has become the standard for commercialization for all federal research.

Blank writes and teaches about customer development and the lean startup method. He is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford; lectures at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and is a senior fellow at Columbia University. He has written four books: The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, The Startup Owner’s Manual and Holding a Cat by the Tail.

And I am lucky to have Steve on today!

Michael answers TurtleTrader questions. A new interview.

The New York Times bestselling coauthor of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which “progress” has perverted the way we live: how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die. That author, Chris Ryan, joins Michael for his second appearance on Trend Following Radio.

Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending—balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You’re lucky to be alive here and now. Well, maybe we are and maybe we aren’t. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the “progress” defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease.

Prehistoric life, of course, was not without serious dangers and disadvantages. Many babies died in infancy. A broken bone, infected wound, snakebite, or difficult pregnancy could be life-threatening. But ultimately, Ryan argues, were these pre-civilized dangers more murderous than modern scourges, such as car accidents, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and a technologically prolonged dying process? At a time when our ecology, our society, and our own sense of selves feels increasingly imperiled, an accurate understanding of our species’ long prelude to civilization is vital to a clear sense of the ultimate value of civilization—and its costs. In Civilized to Death, Ryan makes the claim that we should start looking backwards to find our way into a better future.

A 2019 Christmas Deep Dive with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

In Elevate, Robert Glazer reveals four life-changing principles ― or capacities ― that will allow you to overcome self-limiting beliefs, establish positive habits, and find your “why.” As we look to elevate ourselves, we mean so much more than beating the competition. After all, our greatest competition is ourselves! We need to find ways to consistently outperform ourselves and our own expectations.

Robert Glazer has built a career on accelerating productivity and careers. ELEVATE is based on his five foundational elements necessary for increasing our capacity: Finding Your Why, Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs, Setting Goals and Creating Accountability, Maintaining Health and Wellness, and Establishing Routine and Positive Habits.

The key is elevating yourself beyond the edge of your current abilities. Challenge yourself, and the result will inspire others to rise along with you. It’s time to break free of your limits.

Former CEO and Chairman of Nasdaq, Robert Greifeld shares stories, insights, and lessons learned from one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, detailing his transformation of Nasdaq from a fledgling U.S. equities market to a global financial technology company.

During 2003, the U.S. economy was described by one economist as “nervous, anxious, and waiting.” In December the Dow had topped 10,000 for the first time in a year and a half, and at year’s end the markets were up for the first time since 1999. But in the same year, American troops had moved into Iraq, and corporate boards were cutting CEOs at the slightest signs of trouble.

Amidst this turmoil Robert Greifeld, a former tech entrepreneur from outside the Wall Street bubble, became CEO of Nasdaq, a position he would hold for the next thirteen years. He saw the company through one of the most mercurial economic periods in history: the Bernie Madoff mega-scandal; Facebook’s tumultuous and disastrous IPO; Hurricane Sandy’s disruption of the world’s financial hub; the implosion of America’s housing market and the global economic crash that followed.

Robert, who stepped aside as Nasdaq’s CEO at the end of 2016, looks back at more than a decade of transformational change that occurred on his watch in order to share his insights and lessons.

Time is limited. Attention is scarce. Are you engaging your customers?

Apple Stores, Disney, LEGO, Starbucks. Do these names conjure up images of mere goods and services, or do they evoke something more–something visceral?

Welcome to the Experience Economy, where businesses must form unique connections in order to secure their customers’ affections–and ensure their own economic vitality.

This seminal book on experience innovation by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore explores how savvy companies excel by offering compelling experiences for their customers, resulting not only in increased customer allegiance but also in a more profitable bottom line. Translated into thirteen languages, The Experience Economy has become a must-read for leaders of enterprises large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, global and local.

Now with a brand-new preface, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore make an even stronger case for experiences as the critical link between a company and its customers in an increasingly distractible and time-starved world. Filled with detailed examples and actionable advice, The Experience Economy helps companies create personal, dramatic, and even transformative experiences, offering the script from which managers can generate value in ways aligned with a strong customer-centric strategy.

You Are Supposed to Think Like the Mob with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Responsible for brokering some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in finance, Chris Varelas was listed among the top 100 dealmakers by the New York Times and was named top technology rainmaker by DealMakers Monthly magazine. After working as Citi’s head of technology, media, and telecommunications during the first dot-com boom and then leading the company’s national investment bank and regional offices, Varelas left Citi in 2008 to cofound Riverwood Capital, a premier private equity firm in Silicon Valley.

Chris brings a provocative and entertaining voyage into the turbulent heart of modern money that sheds new light on the rise of our threatening and complicated financial system, how money became our adversary, and why finding a new course is crucial to a healthy society.

In the not too distant past, money was simple. You might have had a bank account and a mortgage, perhaps some basic investments. Wall Street didn’t have a reputation for greed and recklessness. That all started to change in the eighties, as our financial systems became increasingly complex, moving beyond the understanding of the general public while impacting our lives in innumerable ways. The financial world began to feel like an enigma—a rogue force working against us, seemingly controlled by no one.

From an industry veteran who’s had firsthand involvement in the events that shaped modern money, How Money Became Dangerous journeys from the crime-ridden LA jewelry district to the cutthroat Salomon Brothers trading floor, from the high-stakes world of investment banking to the center of the technology boom, capturing the key deals, developments, and players that made the financial world what it is today. The book illuminates the dark, hidden forces of Wall Street and how it has dehumanized and left behind everyday Americans. A fresh and enlightening take on how we reached this point, How Money Became Dangerous also makes the case for why Wall Street needs to be saved, if only to save ourselves.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know? Well, Scott Galloway, Brian Christian, Matthew Walker and Jeffrey Tucker do just that on this post holiday mega episode.

This is a new conversation with Paul Gulino and Michael. Think of it as Part II. Here is part I.

Paul Gulino believes in Hitchcock’s adage that “films are made on paper.” Although students may obsess about a film’s look, all of the visual elements, he says, function to enhance the story. And that, ultimately, comes from the mind of the screenwriter.

In spite of the fact that there seems to be a screenwriter behind every corner (in California, at least), screenwriting is something of a lost art, Gulino maintains, having seen hundreds of flat screenplays as a story analyst for Showtime Entertainment.

Honing his own skills through writing for the theater and practicing the craft as taught by Frank Daniel and Milos Forman, Gulino secured an agent with William Morris on the basis of his thesis script. With that “real world” confirmation in hand, Gulino went on to write and see produced features, plays and comedy sketches.

Screenwriting, he says, isn’t a craft you can learn from a book. “The best way is to learn from someone who knows the craft, so you can see how theories can be applied to your own work.” There must be something to that.

The Act of Thinking Can Feel Nice with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.

Have you ever walked away from an argument and suddenly thought of all the brilliant things you wish you’d said? Do you avoid certain family members and colleagues because of bitter, festering tension that you can’t figure out how to address?

Now, finally, there’s a solution: a new framework that frees you from the trap of unproductive conflict and pointless arguing forever.

If the threat of raised voices, emotional outbursts, and public discord makes you want to hide under the conference room table, you’re not alone. Conflict, or the fear of it, can be exhausting. But as this powerful book argues, conflict doesn’t have to be unpleasant. In fact, properly channeled, conflict can be the most valuable tool we have at our disposal for deepening relationships, solving problems, and coming up with new ideas.

As the mastermind behind some of the highest-performing teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades facilitating hard conversations in stressful environments. In this book, Buster reveals the psychological underpinnings of awkward, unproductive conflict and the critical habits anyone can learn to avoid it. Armed with a deeper understanding of how arguments, you’ll be able to:

• Remain confident when you’re put on the spot
• Diffuse tense moments with a few strategic questions
• Facilitate creative solutions even when your team has radically different perspectives

Why Are We Yelling will shatter your assumptions about what makes arguments productive. You’ll find yourself having fewer repetitive, predictable fights once you’re empowered to identify your biases, listen with an open mind, and communicate well.

Buster Benson is an entrepreneur and a former product leader at Amazon, Twitter, Slack, and Patreon. He’s now CEO of 750words.com and writes for Medium.

A Trading Primer with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio. Michael digs into the archive to remind us all about great trading.

Mark Minervini shares his time-tested approach for bringing your personal best to everything you do. Whether you are in business, stock trading, sports, or even training for the Olympics, Mindset Secrets for Winning reveals everything you need to know to perform at the highest level, and succeed at realizing your dreams. Mark shares his “secret” Empowerment Principles that propelled him from a junior-high school dropout to a multimillionaire Wall Street sensation. His incredible journey is one of the most amazing success stories in America. Inside this book, Mark reveals the technology and tools that you can use immediately to CREATE YOUR OWN SUCCESS and ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS. Transform your thinking with strategies used by world-class athletes and coaches, elite performers in business, and exceptional winners from all around the world. Develop a winning mindset and ACE EVERY CHALLENGE! Inspiration, knowledge and real-life experience – everything is here in the ultimate personal empowerment guide to human excellence. Mark Minervini is one of America’s most successful stock traders. He’s a former U.S. Investing Champion and the author of the international best-sellers Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard and Think and Trade Like a Champion. Mark’s journey from rags-to-riches is a remarkable and inspiring success story. His success, books and performance coaching have become legendary around the world.

Jim Simons is the greatest money maker in modern financial history. No other investor–Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, or George Soros–can touch his record. Since 1988, Renaissance’s signature Medallion fund has generated average annual returns of 66 percent. The firm has earned profits of more than $100 billion; Simons is worth twenty-three billion dollars.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Simons and dozens of current and former employees, Zuckerman, a veteran Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, tells the gripping story of how a world-class mathematician and former code breaker mastered the market. Simons pioneered a data-driven, algorithmic approach that’s sweeping the world.

As Renaissance became a market force, its executives began influencing the world beyond finance. Simons became a major figure in scientific research, education, and liberal politics. Senior executive Robert Mercer is more responsible than anyone else for the Trump presidency, placing Steve Bannon in the campaign and funding Trump’s victorious 2016 effort. Mercer also impacted the campaign behind Brexit.

The Man Who Solved the Market is a portrait of a modern-day Midas who remade markets in his own image, but failed to anticipate how his success would impact his firm and his country. It’s also a story of what Simons’s revolution means for the rest of us.

Gregory Zuckerman is the author of The Greatest Trade Ever and The Frackers, and is a Special Writer at the Wall Street Journal. At the Journal, Zuckerman writes about financial firms, personalities and trades, as well as hedge funds and other investing and business topics. He’s a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, the highest honor in business journalism. Zuckerman also appears regularly on CNBC, Fox Business and other networks and radio stations around the globe.

Around the world, populist movements are gaining traction among the white working class. Meanwhile, members of the professional elite―journalists, managers, and establishment politicians–are on the outside looking in, left to argue over the reasons. In White Working Class, Joan C. Williams, described as having “something approaching rock star status” by the New York Times, explains why so much of the elite’s analysis of the white working class is misguided, rooted in class cluelessness.

Williams explains that many people have conflated “working class” with “poor”–but the working class is, in fact, the elusive, purportedly disappearing middle class. They often resent the poor and the professionals alike. But they don’t resent the truly rich, nor are they particularly bothered by income inequality. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, with its different culture, but to stay true to their own values in their own communities–just with more money. While white working-class motivations are often dismissed as racist or xenophobic, Williams shows that they have their own class consciousness.

White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers–and voters.

Joan C. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law and Hastings Foundation Chair at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

The Art of Not Thinking with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio.