Unbundled

How the breaking apart of traditional, rigid structures is creating a personalized, on-demand future and changing the everyday interactions of people, politics, and profit.

About this post

This post is based on a theory and a book outline I’ve been chipping away at since 2010. Since I’m probably going to be too busy to ever finish the full thing, I figured I would massively truncate and post it here so that it’s finally out in the world in some form. In the six years I’ve been thinking about this subject, it’s only become clearer with the advent of the on-demand economy, 3D printing etc. Please excuse the length!

Introduction

In Silicon Valley we’ve used the term “Unbundling” to describe the phenomena of mobile apps breaking apart into multiple separate apps, each essentially providing more focused, single purpose features. Think of the Facebook app being separated into Facebook + Messenger.

I believe this Unbundling phenomena is happening almost universally across all aspects of life. It’s a meta-trend that has been happening for decades (or more) and will continue for decades to come. It’s a common process affecting many of the things happening in the world today. In fact most of the major disruptions we see (loss of traditional jobs, failing record companies, terrorism, divorce rates, the rise of fringe/underdog political candidates etc) are all, in at least some way, connected to this fundamental transition.

See the full post on Medium

Declare your Interdependence

I just discovered this. It's a crime that it has so few views. Like the US Declaration of Independence, it is a manifesto for a new era. And this new material supersedes it.

I am a citizen of the world. Not of any country, dogma or outdated institution. We are interdependent and our common goals must now be broader than just life, liberty and happiness.

Watch it, share it, live it.

Thoughts on Tron: We're living in a recycled generation

We're living in a recycled generation. Think about it. Much of what we do in the 21st century is recycling what has gone before. Sure there are the obvious examples - positive examples - such as recycling paper and plastic. But I am talking about the recycling of ideas and culture.

There is now far more emphasis on people recycling (Retweeting, Reposting, Repeating) news than creating it. Social media makes us each story tellers, but a large percentage of the story we're telling is someone else's.

Movies are also being recycled. I'm going to go see Tron today. A recycled idea from 1982. In fact many of the movies that come out these days are adaptions, remakes, sequels or prequels. Recycled ideas.

Why?

I suspect that much of it has to do with information overload. In a world where there is so much information, two of the most powerful and interrelated mechanisms for getting Attention is social proximity and nostalgia.

Social networks use both to encourage us to read and share each other's status updates by feeding off our social bonds and our ego driven need to participate in a form of real-time nostalgia. How many of us have thought 'this is going to be awesome when I go back and read it in the future'.

The same is true for Movies. Movie studios have realized the surest way to get an audience into the theater is to bet on the older generation's nostalgic memory of the past and the younger generation's cult like respect for it.

I am not necessarily judging this as a negative phenomenon. I am just observing that it is one.

I worry though, will this generation be remembered for anything great of its own - especially when it comes to movies? Can you think of the last great original movie you saw that would last the test of time?

Share it with me...

My New Years Resolutions

Be even more true to myself and others

There are too many times when there are people in our ecosystem, and in our world, who bully or bluster their way through things. This is corrosive to us all and blocks innovation and real discourse. I plan to be true to myself and others when dealing with these kinds of people.

We need to remember that those who have a voice are not necessarily right. And those who are right are not necessarily being heard.

Forget the numbers - Make a connection

All too often our community turns into a game of numbers and influence instead of real friendships. Sure having an audience is important for some of the things we do, but I'd rather have a group of 5 real friends, than 5000 'friends' on facebook.

This will include less parties and more private dinners or gatherings with people I love and respect.

Remember to pay attention

All too often we are too busy looking up to others, trying to get on the next big level, and we forget that there are really valuable people and projects right here next to us. I want to meet more people who have less voice, but have equal (or better) ideas, projects or companies.

I want to help those people succeed.

Maintain optimism

I don't want to become jaded or complacent about where I live and the opportunities I have. I've lived in Silicon Valley going on a year now (+ all the time I spent there before that) - it could be easy to forget just how lucky I am.

I will continue to try my best to avoid that this year.

Wisdom of the individual - Playing the Game

I've spent a great deal of my life in the last 10 years trying to understand crowds, trends, patterns - things on a broad scale over broader periods of time. I've been mildly successful at it. Observe a pattern here, define a trend there. It's all been quite fun and fascinating.

What I've fallen behind on, however, is understanding individuals. Understanding details.

In one on one interactions from the professional to the romantic there is a clear gap in my understanding that I've started, in the last 6 months, to try to rectify.

Some people I've encountered have suggested it's a game. Some of those are referring to an implicit thing that all people play with each other - most without even noticing. Some are actually talking about a real, concrete game that they study and learn.

I've struggled with this. While I am perfectly happy to play a game with a crowd, observe trends and try to shape or leverage them, I find myself vacillating between exhaustion and guilt at even the prospect of playing individual people like a game.

I feel exhaustion at the realization that I'm just no good at this, and I have a long way to go to learn and become natural at it. Somewhere along the line I seem to have miss-learned some signals and the prospect of unlearning and re-learning new things is daunting for me right now. It's clear though that, from the reactions I sometimes get, and the suggestions I'm afforded, there's something I'm actively doing wrong.

I also feel exhausted because it seems like much of these games, explicit or otherwise, involve a whole host of preamble and pretense that adds such complexity and conscious effort to a conversation.

I feel guilt because I like to think of myself as honest and genuine. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Or at least that's what I intend to strive for. Often the advice I get feels at best petty or at most manipulative.

I'm probably wrong about all of this though. Maybe the real answer is that people just need simple things from each other. They need a framework for discussion. They need to feel wanted. They need to feel acknowledged and accepted. They are also attracted to those who are interesting and exciting and communicating that (through words and actions) is usually done in a very particular way. A way that is either instinctual (for most) or learned (for people like me).

I'm not sure yet exactly how microcosms fit into this, but I think they do. I believe a great deal in the truth of microcosms. For me they suggest that the way you behave in the smallest incident reveals how you think and behave in all incidents - large or small.

Do you let people out of a car park before you drive by them? Then you will always let people in front of you in lines, in conversation, in thoughts and feelings.

Do you have a clean house but a messy basement? Then you are probably more interested in your outward appearance than your internal mental health.

These are observations that might be useful and prove predictive, I think, but I don't make them in day-to-day interactions. Once again I am oblivious.

So for now, I continue to listen and learn and take from these lessons the parts that I can map to my own personality without corrupting my core.

Right now I feel like I am failing at these life lessons - I have so long to go. I'm not even clear on the path right now. But as usual, writing a blog post about it makes me feel better and helps to parse out some of my thoughts.

How do you feel about 'the game'? Is it a natural talent or a learned skill? Is it ordinary human behavior - are we all playing games or is it manipulative and deceitful? Is it both? Perhaps it's advantageous to abandon the game and find others like you who have abandoned it too? Is abandonment giving up on the path of least resistance or is standing up for some moral standard? Is the perception that it's immoral itself a misconception?

As you can see - too many questions yet to answer...

Wisdom of the individual - Playing the Game

I've spent a great deal of my life in the last 10 years trying to understand crowds, trends, patterns - things on a broad scale over broader periods of time. I've been mildly successful at it. Observe a pattern here, define a trend there. It's all been quite fun and fascinating.

What I've fallen behind on, however, is understanding individuals. Understanding details.

In one on one interactions from the professional to the romantic there is a clear gap in my understanding that I've started, in the last 6 months, to try to rectify.

Some people I've encountered have suggested it's a game. Some of those are referring to an implicit thing that all people play with each other - most without even noticing. Some are actually talking about a real, concrete game that they study and learn.

I've struggled with this. While I am perfectly happy to play a game with a crowd, observe trends and try to shape or leverage them, I find myself vacillating between exhaustion and guilt at even the prospect of playing individual people like a game.

I feel exhaustion at the realization that I'm just no good at this, and I have a long way to go to learn and become natural at it. Somewhere along the line I seem to have miss-learned some signals and the prospect of unlearning and re-learning new things is daunting for me right now. It's clear though that, from the reactions I sometimes get, and the suggestions I'm afforded, there's something I'm actively doing wrong.

I also feel exhausted because it seems like much of these games, explicit or otherwise, involve a whole host of preamble and pretense that adds such complexity and conscious effort to a conversation.

I feel guilt because I like to think of myself as honest and genuine. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Or at least that's what I intend to strive for. Often the advice I get feels at best petty or at most manipulative.

I'm probably wrong about all of this though. Maybe the real answer is that people just need simple things from each other. They need a framework for discussion. They need to feel wanted. They need to feel acknowledged and accepted. They are also attracted to those who are interesting and exciting and communicating that (through words and actions) is usually done in a very particular way. A way that is either instinctual (for most) or learned (for people like me).

I'm not sure yet exactly how microcosms fit into this, but I think they do. I believe a great deal in the truth of microcosms. For me they suggest that the way you behave in the smallest incident reveals how you think and behave in all incidents - large or small.

Do you let people out of a car park before you drive by them? Then you will always let people in front of you in lines, in conversation, in thoughts and feelings.

Do you have a clean house but a messy basement? Then you are probably more interested in your outward appearance than your internal mental health.

These are observations that might be useful and prove predictive, I think, but I don't make them in day-to-day interactions. Once again I am oblivious.

So for now, I continue to listen and learn and take from these lessons the parts that I can map to my own personality without corrupting my core.

Right now I feel like I am failing at these life lessons - I have so long to go. I'm not even clear on the path right now. But as usual, writing a blog post about it makes me feel better and helps to parse out some of my thoughts.

How do you feel about 'the game'? Is it a natural talent or a learned skill? Is it ordinary human behavior - are we all playing games or is it manipulative and deceitful? Is it both? Perhaps it's advantageous to abandon the game and find others like you who have abandoned it too? Is abandonment giving up on the path of least resistance or is standing up for some moral standard? Is the perception that it's immoral itself a misconception?

As you can see - too many questions yet to answer...