Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

The Art of Crap-Detection

Neil Postman delivered his speech, “Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection” at the National Convention for the Teachers of English [NCTE], November 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C. [This below is the full transcript with no additions or comments on my part. After having read Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology and other books by Postman and listened to surviving interviews, I wanted to have a reference to point to for his thinking.] With a title like this, I think I ought to dispense with the rhetorical amenities and come straight to the point. For those of you who do... Read more →

How do You Get to "Good Enough"?

It took Clare Trapasso nine months of scouring the market in three states, touring dozens of homes, losing multiple bidding wars, and rescinding another offer on a fixer-upper that would need more work than they could afford to put in, before she and her partner finally closed on a cute, renovated Cape Cod outside of New York City last year. Along the way, Trepasso, who is a writer for Realtor.com, learned a few things that no amount of writing about the housing market could teach. If you're on the hunt for a house, her article could be valuable to shortcut... Read more →

What's the People Version of "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" and "You Pay More for Higher Quality"?

Elizabeth Books is a bookshop in Western Australia. The self-proclaimed home of the blind date with a book. Blind tasting for books is the opposite of using differentiation in look to stand out. With the added benefit that you could discover an amazing writer you would have never considered otherwise. What happens if you take away differentiation in look? The idea of judging a book from its cover falls apart. See what peaks your curiosity from a short summary instead. You might pick up a topic or subject that could surprise and delight you. This is also marketing, only counter-cultural... Read more →

What's the Value of Cultural Range?

Some cultures are (up)tight, and some are l o o s e. Ten years ago, in a quest to explain human behavior's variance, psychologist Michele Gelfand studied 33 nations. As she explains in the abstract: Tightness-looseness is part of a complex, loosely integrated multilevel system that comprises distal ecological and historical threats (e.g., high population density, resource scarcity, a history of territorial conflict, and disease and environmental threats), broad versus narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g., autocracy, media regulations), the strength of everyday recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g., prevention self-guides, high regulatory strength, need for structure). Culture is... Read more →

The Difference Between Wanting to Read vs. Wanting to Have Read

I don't know what you've read or what you started to read but couldn't finish. My book recommendations may suit you in your current situation, or they may not. But I do know one thing that can help you: there's a difference between wanting to read and wanting to have read. If you're someone who wants to read, you'll find the time. You'll follow your instinct in picking titles. And you'll read for pleasure, out of curiosity. My reading is 'cage free'—I give myself permission to pick from a broad variety of topics, I scan books stopping to the chapters... Read more →

Community Gets Real

Nearly 11 years ago, I outlined a framework to calculate the costs of building a proprietary community. The conceptual and operational aspects (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) still hold. Good content at number 3 is the opportunity: to differentiate, weave a good narrative, and establish a path to value. But there are some fundamental questions I had missed. Do we build a net new community, or do we invite the existing community? Should the loci of human connection move from people's existing communities to yours? What's the cost to society of this shift to private clubs in human energy terms?... Read more →

Making Performance Meaningful

“An old fisherman offers a diver some advice. You can go underwater in two ways, he says, taking a bit of coral and tossing it into the sea. Then he cracks a coconut and pours its milk into the water. The coral is still coral but the milk is now sea, he says. Be not like the coral, but like the coconut.”* How are we going to adapt to the depths of thought and action we need to create a new narrative? With a conversation about the microscopic relationship between things. Because while it's far easier to work on prescriptions,... Read more →