World #AnthroDay

#AnthroDay, an initiative of the American Anthropological Association is “a day for anthropologists to celebrate our discipline while sharing it with the world around us. Help us celebrate what anthropology is and what it can achieve by hosting an event in your community, on your campus, or in your workplace” .

Some less shared, fresher and more comprehensive, even aspirational ideas and explanations for what anthropology is:

“Anthropology is a speculative and comparative inquiry into life’s conditions and possibilities.” (Tim Ingold)

“Let us summon up a field of study that would take upon itself to learn from as wide a range of approaches as it can; one that would seek to bring to bear, on this problem of how to live, the wisdom and experience of all the world’s inhabitants, whatever their backgrounds, livelihoods, circumstances and places of abode.” (Tim Ingold, Why Anthropology Matters 2018)

“For anthropology, the world is our university. We listen to what people are telling us: we engage with them, argue with them; perhaps we even disagree with them. But whether we agree with them or not, we have to take them seriously. You cannot have a proper conversation unless you take seriously what the other is saying. But this means listening to what they have to say, not for what it has to say about them. That’s the way we learn. We learn from them, not just about them. This is what it means to undergo an anthropological education.” (Tim Ingold)

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.” (Margaret Mead)

Human intelligence as future product differentiator

I came across this today which made me wonder what future product experiences will make the fact that a human is involved in the process a key part of the value proposition.

Source: Social Enterprise Institute https://socialenterpriseinstitute.co/

It is interesting that this is already being positioned as a service differentiator. Already it’s enough of a recognised frustration/pain point to customers that it’s neatly packaged in a short sentence. Perhaps a glimpse into (not so distant?) future service experiences.

Apple v Facebook on privacy, algorithms of amplification and surveillance capitalism

Tim Cook’s comments at the CPDP conference never mentioned Facebook, but did talk of business models and advertising approaches that make users the product and aim for increasing levels of attention at any cost (e.g. misinformation, addictive design features). I’ve heard portions of his speech quoted across several places and each quote has sounded powerful, direct and standing for something. So I thought I’d look it up in its entirety.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This brief Inc article summarises some of the powerful parts and you can read it with a bit of commentary and background to the relationship between the two companies here

In 2018 Cook was warning about personal information being “weaponized against us with military efficiency.”

“Every day, billions of dollars change hands, and countless decisions are made, on the basis of our likes and dislikes, our friends and families, our relationships and conversations. Our wishes and fears, our hopes and dreams. These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded, and sold. Your profile is then run through algorithms that can serve up increasingly extreme content, pounding our harmless preferences into hardened convictions.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/apples-tim-cook-warns-silicon-valley-it-would-be-destructive-to-block-strong-privacy-laws.html

And in January this year:

Technology does not need vast troves of personal data, stitched together across dozens of websites and apps, in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it. And we’re here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom. If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.

At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement — the longer the better — and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible.

Too many are still asking the question, “how much can we get away with?,” when they need to be asking, “what are the consequences?”

Source: https://www.engadget.com/tim-cook-privacy-cpdp-2021-slams-facebook-184333398.html

The full speech can be found here

Is ambition a unique human quality, and if so is it serving us well?

I’m interested in how people and disciplines try to define what makes humans unique. In this article by Rosie Spinks ambition is identified as one of those traits unique to our species. Yet, it also suggests that we need to move away from it (not abandon completely though) and move towards adaptation.

Some key points (direct quotes from the article because I’m not feeling particularly ambitious writing this):

• “Our career-focused ambition has allowed for a sense of removal from our actual survival and a denial of the humanity of a huge subset of people who help us stay alive.”

• We need to face this disconnect head-on: “Our individualized, highly specialized career ambition is no longer a suitable match for the world we’re living in”

• We need to move away from personal ambition, goals and achievements to community and climate action (“The pandemic and climate crises make working ourselves to the bone in service of our own ambition seem a little silly”)

• “Embracing adaptation as an alternative is not saying that we can’t be creative or innovative or willing to work hard — on the contrary, we must be all those things. But it calls us to shift those skills elsewhere, beyond our personal interests and egos to communal and societal challenges that are collective. It also calls us to redefine what it means to live a “successful” life.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Human collaboration: 1

I’ve been thinking about human collaboration recently. Or lack of it. Or possibly a lack of broadcasting about it which makes us think it happens less often than it actually does. So I’m trying to share examples when I come across it, which I have today.

Authors, podcasters and journalists Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman created the phrase Shine Theory, which is explained in their best selling book Big Friendship: How We Keep Eachother Close.

According to Sow and Friedman Shine Theory is intentional, accountable and personal.

It is a practice of mutual investment in each other.

Shine Theory is an investment, over the long term, in helping someone be their best self—and relying on their help in return. It is a conscious decision to bring your full self to your friendships, and to not let insecurity or envy ravage them. Shine Theory is a commitment to asking, “Would we be better as collaborators than as competitors?” The answer is almost always yes.

You can find out more information here