How many of us live our lives locked in the rat race? Despite the belief that money can’t buy happiness, we can’t deny that a surplus of income can give people the opportunity to live comfortable lives. It is this driving force for a stable future that has pushed many bright-eyed graduates into corporate positions, where they are gridlocked into a specific routine or career path. 

Younger generations are working on introducing exciting new alternatives, such as increased work-life balance, remote jobs, and the rise of the gig economy. Conversely, corporations are also looking into new ways to accommodate this change in priority; interesting new policies such as a liquor room are briefly touched upon in the podcast. 

In this episode, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby are joined by Tania Katan as they discuss issues adjacent to the meaning of work, the value of money, and the opportunity to enliven the monotony of day to day life. 

Alexander made interesting parallels between theater and office culture, in that everyone has a role they should play. One thought-provoking question he asked was whether people should sit within the confines of that role, or “add the nuances of you that makes you special.”

At this point, Tania shared her roots in theater and how she eventually diverged from the path. She was excited to use her training as a writer in theater, but found a disconnect between the work she trained for and the work she actually ended up doing. This prompted her to work odd jobs on the side, such as telemarketing and bagging groceries.

These diversions led to a big discovery: inadvertently, she had started inserting things she learned from theater into the routine of day to day life, to keep her and her colleagues entertained. 

According to Tania, the foundation of theater is the suspension of disbelief. Throughout the podcast, it’s a recurring motif as well: what if straight-laced professionals in rigid industries like business and finance learned to approach their work with the suspension of disbelief? 

It’s easy to slip into a certain persona when you dedicate yourself to a certain station and work routine eight hours a day, five days a week. The process can be comforting; but it can also be mind-numbing, and eventually restricting. This metaphorical carry-over between broadway and work is the same individuality that helped Tania find the inspiration to write her book and share her experiences.

She discovered that there is always an opportunity to transform the environment and make an audience out of anybody, anywhere; whether it’s racing to make the largest number of customers smile, paying it forward amongst your workmates with a cup of coffee, or just taking a ten-minute break to stretch with your crew. It’s this attempt at bridging a connection and breaking the routine that can help everybody feel more alive.

In the podcast, Tania revealed that her book was entitled “Creative Trespassing” because she wanted to encourage creatives to encroach in spaces they are not necessarily welcomed in—or at least, where they are not invited through the front door. 

One particular salient point in their discussion included the issue of toxic workplaces, and where there is still an opportunity for this to happen. A call for structure and order means that businesses may not handle creative people very well; as a result, plenty of innovative minds become “lost” in the woodwork.

To this, Tania explained that humans do have an innate ability to solve practical problems in new ways. Like any other skill, creativity requires active participation and engagement — it’s not just about companies finding ways to create comfort zones, but also about employees looking for ways to break out of that comfort zone. This means that there is definitely still a chance for creatives to flourish in high-pressure work spaces, and even be the reason for positive change within these areas.

Oftentimes, creativity can be paralyzing. It can be difficult to break out from the fear of failure. This traps people in a situation where they are afraid to move at all, and it can be a common problem amongst perfectionists in particular.

To break out of this mold, Tania suggests creatives try two methods: the first is two actively set out and make bad work; and the second is to break the task down into small, incremental actions that anybody can make on a regular basis.

It’s exciting to think of our capacity to come together in one community, to create large and beautiful new things, without having to sacrifice our individuality in the process. In fact, it’s the exact opposite: our unique collective of separate identities is precisely what allows us to innovate new solutions and inventions. www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

How many of us live our lives locked in the rat race? Despite the belief that money can’t buy happiness, we can’t deny that a surplus of income can give people the opportunity to live comfortable lives. It is this driving force for a stable future that has pushed many bright-eyed graduates into corporate positions, where they are gridlocked into a specific routine or career path. 

Younger generations are working on introducing exciting new alternatives, such as increased work-life balance, remote jobs, and the rise of the gig economy. Conversely, corporations are also looking into new ways to accommodate this change in priority; interesting new policies such as a liquor room are briefly touched upon in the podcast. 

In this episode, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby are joined by Tania Katan as they discuss issues adjacent to the meaning of work, the value of money, and the opportunity to enliven the monotony of day to day life. 

Alexander made interesting parallels between theater and office culture, in that everyone has a role they should play. One thought-provoking question he asked was whether people should sit within the confines of that role, or “add the nuances of you that makes you special.”

At this point, Tania shared her roots in theater and how she eventually diverged from the path. She was excited to use her training as a writer in theater, but found a disconnect between the work she trained for and the work she actually ended up doing. This prompted her to work odd jobs on the side, such as telemarketing and bagging groceries.

These diversions led to a big discovery: inadvertently, she had started inserting things she learned from theater into the routine of day to day life, to keep her and her colleagues entertained. 

According to Tania, the foundation of theater is the suspension of disbelief. Throughout the podcast, it’s a recurring motif as well: what if straight-laced professionals in rigid industries like business and finance learned to approach their work with the suspension of disbelief? 

It’s easy to slip into a certain persona when you dedicate yourself to a certain station and work routine eight hours a day, five days a week. The process can be comforting; but it can also be mind-numbing, and eventually restricting. This metaphorical carry-over between broadway and work is the same individuality that helped Tania find the inspiration to write her book and share her experiences.

She discovered that there is always an opportunity to transform the environment and make an audience out of anybody, anywhere; whether it’s racing to make the largest number of customers smile, paying it forward amongst your workmates with a cup of coffee, or just taking a ten-minute break to stretch with your crew. It’s this attempt at bridging a connection and breaking the routine that can help everybody feel more alive.

In the podcast, Tania revealed that her book was entitled “Creative Trespassing” because she wanted to encourage creatives to encroach in spaces they are not necessarily welcomed in—or at least, where they are not invited through the front door. 

One particular salient point in their discussion included the issue of toxic workplaces, and where there is still an opportunity for this to happen. A call for structure and order means that businesses may not handle creative people very well; as a result, plenty of innovative minds become “lost” in the woodwork.

To this, Tania explained that humans do have an innate ability to solve practical problems in new ways. Like any other skill, creativity requires active participation and engagement — it’s not just about companies finding ways to create comfort zones, but also about employees looking for ways to break out of that comfort zone. This means that there is definitely still a chance for creatives to flourish in high-pressure work spaces, and even be the reason for positive change within these areas.

Oftentimes, creativity can be paralyzing. It can be difficult to break out from the fear of failure. This traps people in a situation where they are afraid to move at all, and it can be a common problem amongst perfectionists in particular.

To break out of this mold, Tania suggests creatives try two methods: the first is two actively set out and make bad work; and the second is to break the task down into small, incremental actions that anybody can make on a regular basis.

It’s exciting to think of our capacity to come together in one community, to create large and beautiful new things, without having to sacrifice our individuality in the process. In fact, it’s the exact opposite: our unique collective of separate identities is precisely what allows us to innovate new solutions and inventions. www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

TARTLE is always trying to find ways to improve the experience for those who entrust us with protecting their data. As an example, we recently relaunched our website, making it much easier and more intuitive to navigate. We also try to be proactive about these kinds of things. We didn’t just put it out there and rely on you to figure it out. We did a whole series of podcasts and articles to help walk you through the new layout, from signup to confirmation, to filling out your first data packets, explaining the reasons behind each aspect along the way. 

One of the things we touched on briefly in that series was TARTLEcoin. TARTLEcoin is a new feature we have introduced to help reward you for sharing your information and participating in TARTLE’s mission of reclaiming data for everyone. Now of course is the obvious question, how does TARTLEcoin work?

Every time you share data, every time you share your experience on TARTLE, every data packet you fill out, the more you verify your identity, the more TARTLEcoins you get. Like most currency, you earn more of it based on the work you put into the system. One important way that TARTLEcoin is different is that its value increases based on the amount of work you put into it. Yes, you get more and the value increases at the same time. That might seem counterintuitive, however, TARTLEcoin isn’t currency in the sense that the dollar is currency. You don’t directly trade it for goods and services, you trade it for access. Access to what? To offer to buy your data. 

To clarify, this isn’t buying access to anything that others don’t get. This isn’t a tiered system like that. You just get it sooner. That is, when a buyer is looking for data that you have, you get notified first, or rather sooner based on the amount of TARTLEcoin you’ve earned. That of course is where the real value of the TARTLEcoin lies, in getting the first crack at selling your data.

That kind of reward can be very important, especially if there is a buyer with a limited budget who can only afford to purchase a relative handful of data packets. Instead of having to hop right on to sell your data, hoping to beat the 20,000 users who might also want to sell to a person who only wants 1000 packets. Since you’ll be notified ahead of time, you can actually finish driving home in order to respond instead of pulling off to take care of business. 

It’s obvious how TARTLEcoin can benefit a TARTLE user. However, it also benefits the buyer. Remember, a seller is rewarded based on how much work he is putting in. That means the buyer is purchasing data from a person who is dedicated to the TARTLE mission and is interested in sharing plenty of data and in being fully open and honest about it, leading to better data, better decisions and better outcomes for the companies the buyer might represent. TARTLEcoin is actually the economics of human interaction put into practice. It lets you get more and do more based entirely on your own interest level in a given data packet that you’ve filled out. 

To clear something up before we get ready to wrap up this announcement, in no way does TARTLEcoin replace our system for selling your data. You still get paid in crypto when you’ve sold data. The TARTLEcoin is totally in addition to everything we normally provide. So, you get TARTLEcoin for signing up with TARTLE, for watching a video, for sharing your TARTLE activity, and of course for actually selling your data and various other opportunities as well. 

So, what’s your data worth? More than it was, my friend, more than it was. www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

TARTLE is always trying to find ways to improve the experience for those who entrust us with protecting their data. As an example, we recently relaunched our website, making it much easier and more intuitive to navigate. We also try to be proactive about these kinds of things. We didn’t just put it out there and rely on you to figure it out. We did a whole series of podcasts and articles to help walk you through the new layout, from signup to confirmation, to filling out your first data packets, explaining the reasons behind each aspect along the way. 

One of the things we touched on briefly in that series was TARTLEcoin. TARTLEcoin is a new feature we have introduced to help reward you for sharing your information and participating in TARTLE’s mission of reclaiming data for everyone. Now of course is the obvious question, how does TARTLEcoin work?

Every time you share data, every time you share your experience on TARTLE, every data packet you fill out, the more you verify your identity, the more TARTLEcoins you get. Like most currency, you earn more of it based on the work you put into the system. One important way that TARTLEcoin is different is that its value increases based on the amount of work you put into it. Yes, you get more and the value increases at the same time. That might seem counterintuitive, however, TARTLEcoin isn’t currency in the sense that the dollar is currency. You don’t directly trade it for goods and services, you trade it for access. Access to what? To offer to buy your data. 

To clarify, this isn’t buying access to anything that others don’t get. This isn’t a tiered system like that. You just get it sooner. That is, when a buyer is looking for data that you have, you get notified first, or rather sooner based on the amount of TARTLEcoin you’ve earned. That of course is where the real value of the TARTLEcoin lies, in getting the first crack at selling your data.

That kind of reward can be very important, especially if there is a buyer with a limited budget who can only afford to purchase a relative handful of data packets. Instead of having to hop right on to sell your data, hoping to beat the 20,000 users who might also want to sell to a person who only wants 1000 packets. Since you’ll be notified ahead of time, you can actually finish driving home in order to respond instead of pulling off to take care of business. 

It’s obvious how TARTLEcoin can benefit a TARTLE user. However, it also benefits the buyer. Remember, a seller is rewarded based on how much work he is putting in. That means the buyer is purchasing data from a person who is dedicated to the TARTLE mission and is interested in sharing plenty of data and in being fully open and honest about it, leading to better data, better decisions and better outcomes for the companies the buyer might represent. TARTLEcoin is actually the economics of human interaction put into practice. It lets you get more and do more based entirely on your own interest level in a given data packet that you’ve filled out. 

To clear something up before we get ready to wrap up this announcement, in no way does TARTLEcoin replace our system for selling your data. You still get paid in crypto when you’ve sold data. The TARTLEcoin is totally in addition to everything we normally provide. So, you get TARTLEcoin for signing up with TARTLE, for watching a video, for sharing your TARTLE activity, and of course for actually selling your data and various other opportunities as well. 

So, what’s your data worth? More than it was, my friend, more than it was. www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

Every action that people make requires energy. From simple things like taking a walk, to more interesting things like forging a sword, to more modern things like building a digital data marketplace. But not just energy swirling around randomly. Energy wielded by people implies purpose, which in turn implies thought and desire. Energy becomes the middleman between thought and achieving the aim of that thought. 

Where do we typically direct our energy? We direct it to the alleviation of some kind of anxiety. When we take a walk, we might be going to the store for food. Or we might just need some quiet time to think. We make a sword, or any weapon to alleviate anxiety about security. TARTLE was made to alleviate anxiety about data privacy. Basically, if there is a worry that people have, they will expend their energy to find a solution, something to eliminate or at least reduce the worry in question. 

We are also frequently looking for ways to further decrease those worries. We went from just walking for transportation, to horses, to cars, to planes. War went from clubs, to swords, to bows, to guns, to cruise missiles. Data privacy has gone from passwords, to ad blockers, to VPNs. People are constantly working to improve whatever they are doing, often making additional tools that in turn have other uses. Your Google Maps works because of the military’s GPS system. WD-40 exists because of the early space program, as do a number of synthetic fabrics that are used by athletes today. We create tools to help us build our tools and those secondary tools often have secondary and tertiary benefits that their creators could not have foreseen. The result is a system of interactions that amplify a variety of work efforts, helping us to not only reach the original goals but several others we didn’t even intend to affect. Often, such developments will result in helping others reach goals without even knowing about it. 

That is a big part of why humanity is the dominant species on the planet. We are able to take our thoughts and desires and figure out how to use our energy to make them a reality. In a way, we are able to use our energy to impose our desires on space-time, taking them from the realm of thought to the world of the material. 

How does all of this relate to TARTLE and to you? You’ve been using social media as a tool, probably for years at this point. No doubt, you’ve used it to achieve certain goals. You wanted to connect with people, share thoughts, run a business, etc. All the work you’ve put into those tools has been to reach your goals, whatever they are. However, there is a lot of secondary benefit from all that work that you’ve put into these platforms, benefits that you rarely if ever see. All your work is going to amplify the work of others. This might be all right except often those secondary benefits are used against you. Your data is gathered and used to manipulate you to make more money from you without you even knowing about it. TARTLE exists as a tool to help you regain that energy and the ensuing secondary benefits for yourself. You reclaim it and decide when others will benefit from it while still benefiting from it yourself. That is, TARTLE exists to help you amplify your own efforts, to reach your goals. We have tens of thousands of members in nearly every country on earth. Each one is amplifying the energy of the others and the more there are the greater the amplification will be.

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

Every action that people make requires energy. From simple things like taking a walk, to more interesting things like forging a sword, to more modern things like building a digital data marketplace. But not just energy swirling around randomly. Energy wielded by people implies purpose, which in turn implies thought and desire. Energy becomes the middleman between thought and achieving the aim of that thought. 

Where do we typically direct our energy? We direct it to the alleviation of some kind of anxiety. When we take a walk, we might be going to the store for food. Or we might just need some quiet time to think. We make a sword, or any weapon to alleviate anxiety about security. TARTLE was made to alleviate anxiety about data privacy. Basically, if there is a worry that people have, they will expend their energy to find a solution, something to eliminate or at least reduce the worry in question. 

We are also frequently looking for ways to further decrease those worries. We went from just walking for transportation, to horses, to cars, to planes. War went from clubs, to swords, to bows, to guns, to cruise missiles. Data privacy has gone from passwords, to ad blockers, to VPNs. People are constantly working to improve whatever they are doing, often making additional tools that in turn have other uses. Your Google Maps works because of the military’s GPS system. WD-40 exists because of the early space program, as do a number of synthetic fabrics that are used by athletes today. We create tools to help us build our tools and those secondary tools often have secondary and tertiary benefits that their creators could not have foreseen. The result is a system of interactions that amplify a variety of work efforts, helping us to not only reach the original goals but several others we didn’t even intend to affect. Often, such developments will result in helping others reach goals without even knowing about it. 

That is a big part of why humanity is the dominant species on the planet. We are able to take our thoughts and desires and figure out how to use our energy to make them a reality. In a way, we are able to use our energy to impose our desires on space-time, taking them from the realm of thought to the world of the material. 

How does all of this relate to TARTLE and to you? You’ve been using social media as a tool, probably for years at this point. No doubt, you’ve used it to achieve certain goals. You wanted to connect with people, share thoughts, run a business, etc. All the work you’ve put into those tools has been to reach your goals, whatever they are. However, there is a lot of secondary benefit from all that work that you’ve put into these platforms, benefits that you rarely if ever see. All your work is going to amplify the work of others. This might be all right except often those secondary benefits are used against you. Your data is gathered and used to manipulate you to make more money from you without you even knowing about it. TARTLE exists as a tool to help you regain that energy and the ensuing secondary benefits for yourself. You reclaim it and decide when others will benefit from it while still benefiting from it yourself. That is, TARTLE exists to help you amplify your own efforts, to reach your goals. We have tens of thousands of members in nearly every country on earth. Each one is amplifying the energy of the others and the more there are the greater the amplification will be.

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

Critical thinking is hard. No, really. It takes patience, dedication, and a degree of humility that is hard to maintain. Some people think that if you think critically, you will automatically agree with them. Others think that critical thinking means uncritically rejecting whatever your parents and grandparents taught you. Neither will ever put it quite that way but if you pay close attention to what is said by some, those conclusions are hard to avoid. Not that you should take my word for it. If you were paying attention, you might have caught that I did a little bit of the first – assuming that people thinking critically will agree with me. See? It’s hard to avoid the traps even when you’re writing about them. 

So, what really is critical thinking and how does one do it? Thinking critically means being willing to take the time to understand something as thoroughly as possible before reaching a strong conclusion about it. To be willing to take a look at different points of view and weigh them against each other. It’s more complicated than hearing the two main sides of an issue and then assuming the truth is somewhere in the middle. It’s more complicated because the truth may be in between, but how far is one side or the other? Or one side might be completely wrong. Or the truth might be something neither side has even considered. I told you this is hard. 

How does one begin? As with a lot of things, mindset is everything. You need to realize that you will likely never know every single thing about any one thing. Aquinas once said humanity has yet to discern the essence of a single gnat. Nothing has changed in the eight centuries since he wrote that. We know more, but not everything. If that sounds depressing, it shouldn’t. It means there is always more to learn. 

Start small, with a subject that already interests you, and pick up a book that catches your eye. And yes, a real book if you can, something you can highlight and make notes in the margins. Don’t try to power through and crush out the page count. Save that kind of reading for fiction. Yes, there are different kinds of reading. That fact and much of the method I’m about to lay out are in How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.

In any case, take your time and read through it, making notes as you go. Pay attention to others the author cites and get their books, and do the same with them. With each book, take the time to learn the author’s voice, how he thinks, what his own presuppositions seem to be. Then be willing to correct your conclusions when you realize you got something wrong. Don’t forget to pick up one or more works that contradict the author, whether he cites them or not. Every now and then the lone voice crying in the wilderness is saying something you should be paying attention to. Remember, it was once the consensus in certain circles that no planets existed outside the solar system, or that eugenics makes total sense and you should totally cure people by cutting them so the evil humor could escape. It’s usually worth listening to the person challenging the consensus. Even if he proves to be off his rocker, just kicking the apple cart can get some new and productive thoughts going. 

Doing all of that will actually just get you started thinking truly critically. After taking in all that data, you need to sift and weigh it, looking up additional information to fill in holes you’ll find as you go along. 

All data analysis needs to be approached with a similar level of patience and humility. How many companies when they collect marketing data run it through different analytical models to see if they line up? Or have multiple people look at the data? How many organizations have people whose whole job is to check different analyses against each other to see if it all adds up? The answer is sadly few.

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

Critical thinking is hard. No, really. It takes patience, dedication, and a degree of humility that is hard to maintain. Some people think that if you think critically, you will automatically agree with them. Others think that critical thinking means uncritically rejecting whatever your parents and grandparents taught you. Neither will ever put it quite that way but if you pay close attention to what is said by some, those conclusions are hard to avoid. Not that you should take my word for it. If you were paying attention, you might have caught that I did a little bit of the first – assuming that people thinking critically will agree with me. See? It’s hard to avoid the traps even when you’re writing about them. 

So, what really is critical thinking and how does one do it? Thinking critically means being willing to take the time to understand something as thoroughly as possible before reaching a strong conclusion about it. To be willing to take a look at different points of view and weigh them against each other. It’s more complicated than hearing the two main sides of an issue and then assuming the truth is somewhere in the middle. It’s more complicated because the truth may be in between, but how far is one side or the other? Or one side might be completely wrong. Or the truth might be something neither side has even considered. I told you this is hard. 

How does one begin? As with a lot of things, mindset is everything. You need to realize that you will likely never know every single thing about any one thing. Aquinas once said humanity has yet to discern the essence of a single gnat. Nothing has changed in the eight centuries since he wrote that. We know more, but not everything. If that sounds depressing, it shouldn’t. It means there is always more to learn. 

Start small, with a subject that already interests you, and pick up a book that catches your eye. And yes, a real book if you can, something you can highlight and make notes in the margins. Don’t try to power through and crush out the page count. Save that kind of reading for fiction. Yes, there are different kinds of reading. That fact and much of the method I’m about to lay out are in How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.

In any case, take your time and read through it, making notes as you go. Pay attention to others the author cites and get their books, and do the same with them. With each book, take the time to learn the author’s voice, how he thinks, what his own presuppositions seem to be. Then be willing to correct your conclusions when you realize you got something wrong. Don’t forget to pick up one or more works that contradict the author, whether he cites them or not. Every now and then the lone voice crying in the wilderness is saying something you should be paying attention to. Remember, it was once the consensus in certain circles that no planets existed outside the solar system, or that eugenics makes total sense and you should totally cure people by cutting them so the evil humor could escape. It’s usually worth listening to the person challenging the consensus. Even if he proves to be off his rocker, just kicking the apple cart can get some new and productive thoughts going. 

Doing all of that will actually just get you started thinking truly critically. After taking in all that data, you need to sift and weigh it, looking up additional information to fill in holes you’ll find as you go along. 

All data analysis needs to be approached with a similar level of patience and humility. How many companies when they collect marketing data run it through different analytical models to see if they line up? Or have multiple people look at the data? How many organizations have people whose whole job is to check different analyses against each other to see if it all adds up? The answer is sadly few.

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

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People are amazing creatures. We are constantly developing new, exciting, and at times, worrying technology. Sometimes, they are the same thing. When the first person harnessed fire, figured out how to transport it and get it started, no doubt it was all of these things and for obvious reasons. Even something as benign as the wheel has led to technologies that it would be better if no one had. Yet, we continue to innovate, striving for the good and often stumbling along the way. Recently, the MIT Technology Review released its annual round up of breakthrough technologies. Let’s take a look at some of them and some positives and negatives. 

The first on the list is mRNA vaccines. While the recent deployment of covid vaccines has gotten a lot of attention for being the first vaccine of this kind, the base technology has existed since the 1990s. While many are skeptical of the covid vaccines, this type of medical application could have a hugely positive impact on our ability to fight a whole host of diseases such as HIV.

Next up is GPT-3 which is a language learning program. It actually has the capability to mimic what people write thanks to being trained on tons of books and of course the internet. The aim of this program is to help computers better understand the way people think and express those thoughts and thus take another step closer to artificial intelligence. On the negative end of this is the fact that some of the people working on it seem to think that they need to train it to not hold certain biases. On the surface, that might not get your attention. It would be a good thing if the AI didn’t have any biases wouldn’t it? Sure, but what about the biases of those who are training it? Since the AI is learning based on reading what people have written, those programmers training the AI are making determinations on biases not just for themselves, but for the AI by determining which human writings are biased. Even more, the AI is likely to be seen as completely unbiased and objective by the general public. There will be a lot of people who accept its conclusions without question, making the inevitable bias inherent in the system something that affects the opinions of potentially millions. 

Shifting gears a bit, TikTok has done some interesting things with its recommendation algorithms. It actually works not just off of likes but it cross-references the preferences of others who like the same video. That helps it recognize communities of people, niches with similar interests. You basically get recommendations if someone within this network likes the same video you did. 

Naturally, Lithium-Metal batteries are great. They can help store energy from lots of renewables for a long time. As always though there is a downside. Those batteries involve a lot of mining operations that are more than a little rough for the environment. Is it a net gain if we can better use renewables? Maybe, but that is going to take a lot more data to figure that out. 

The one we are going to leave off with today is data trusts. The idea is that some sort of entity will manage your data on your behalf. Why on earth do I need someone, anyone to manage my data? The answer is that I don’t. I and thousands of people on TARTLE from all around the world are perfectly capable of taking care of our data ourselves. All they have to do is sign up and then choose whether or not to share it. It’s very simple. When people talk about doing things on your behalf, it usually means they are looking for ways to get something from you. In this case, it is the data itself. This feels very much like an attempt to get more access to people’s data and use it to find ways to manipulate them. 

As we said, sometimes technological innovation is both exciting and concerning. There is almost always some kind of downside. One thing that doesn’t have a downside is TARTLE. All you do is sign up and protect or share your data at your own convenience and get rewarded for it. For once, there isn’t a downside. 

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!

People are amazing creatures. We are constantly developing new, exciting, and at times, worrying technology. Sometimes, they are the same thing. When the first person harnessed fire, figured out how to transport it and get it started, no doubt it was all of these things and for obvious reasons. Even something as benign as the wheel has led to technologies that it would be better if no one had. Yet, we continue to innovate, striving for the good and often stumbling along the way. Recently, the MIT Technology Review released its annual round up of breakthrough technologies. Let’s take a look at some of them and some positives and negatives. 

The first on the list is mRNA vaccines. While the recent deployment of covid vaccines has gotten a lot of attention for being the first vaccine of this kind, the base technology has existed since the 1990s. While many are skeptical of the covid vaccines, this type of medical application could have a hugely positive impact on our ability to fight a whole host of diseases such as HIV.

Next up is GPT-3 which is a language learning program. It actually has the capability to mimic what people write thanks to being trained on tons of books and of course the internet. The aim of this program is to help computers better understand the way people think and express those thoughts and thus take another step closer to artificial intelligence. On the negative end of this is the fact that some of the people working on it seem to think that they need to train it to not hold certain biases. On the surface, that might not get your attention. It would be a good thing if the AI didn’t have any biases wouldn’t it? Sure, but what about the biases of those who are training it? Since the AI is learning based on reading what people have written, those programmers training the AI are making determinations on biases not just for themselves, but for the AI by determining which human writings are biased. Even more, the AI is likely to be seen as completely unbiased and objective by the general public. There will be a lot of people who accept its conclusions without question, making the inevitable bias inherent in the system something that affects the opinions of potentially millions. 

Shifting gears a bit, TikTok has done some interesting things with its recommendation algorithms. It actually works not just off of likes but it cross-references the preferences of others who like the same video. That helps it recognize communities of people, niches with similar interests. You basically get recommendations if someone within this network likes the same video you did. 

Naturally, Lithium-Metal batteries are great. They can help store energy from lots of renewables for a long time. As always though there is a downside. Those batteries involve a lot of mining operations that are more than a little rough for the environment. Is it a net gain if we can better use renewables? Maybe, but that is going to take a lot more data to figure that out. 

The one we are going to leave off with today is data trusts. The idea is that some sort of entity will manage your data on your behalf. Why on earth do I need someone, anyone to manage my data? The answer is that I don’t. I and thousands of people on TARTLE from all around the world are perfectly capable of taking care of our data ourselves. All they have to do is sign up and then choose whether or not to share it. It’s very simple. When people talk about doing things on your behalf, it usually means they are looking for ways to get something from you. In this case, it is the data itself. This feels very much like an attempt to get more access to people’s data and use it to find ways to manipulate them. 

As we said, sometimes technological innovation is both exciting and concerning. There is almost always some kind of downside. One thing that doesn’t have a downside is TARTLE. All you do is sign up and protect or share your data at your own convenience and get rewarded for it. For once, there isn’t a downside. 

What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe.

The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby.

What's your data worth?

Find out at: https://tartle.co/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial

Spread the word!