Techonomics

David Epstein

'Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World'

'The Sports Gene'

Author's note: This is the final segment of Techonomics. It's been three years of discovery and I'm so grateful for it. 

One of the silver threads of coverage for us has been gender diversity in tech companies. There is a ton of work left to do on that, unfortunately. But, I am proud to say that on this show, at least, we had gender parity when it comes to our guests. 

Almost an even split between men and women experts, authors and analysts. Again, it was not easy to do that in the bro-world of tech, but it's a proof of concept: it can be done.

By Jason Middleton

Turns out, being a late bloomer is actually healthier and wealthier than picking your pursuits earlier in life. 

That's not just anecdotal evidence, the data back it up, too.

This week we have author David Epstein on Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World and His New Book is titled RANGE.

Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. 

If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start, they say. 

But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

'Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level' 

Leander Khaney

CultOfMac.com

By Jason Middleton

First is a mea culpa. I was not a huge fan of Apple CEO and Steve Jobs' successor Tim Cook. He seems like a nice man, highly capable, et cetera - but he was a Chief Operating Office. Someone who counts beans, watches supply chains and fulfills orders from customers.

When Steve died and Tim took over, it was the end of an era, for sure, but Apple was still there. Could it still be Apple the way we were used to? 

Turns out, it could get better. I've had former and present employees tell me that though Steve Jobs was like a prophet, let alone genius marketer, the company kind of exhaled when Tim Cook took over. 

Not to relax - but to not live in fear, either. Tim Cook also brought some values to the company that were not there before. Steve Jobs? More of a hippie-style libertarian. Tim Cook ... different animal.

Leander Khaney's new biography of Tim Cook, 'Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level.' is the first of its kind, but is likely to stay best of breed for quite a while.

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Rich Karlgaard

LATE BLOOMERS: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement  

By Jason Middleton

This one is about early-career prodigies versus late bloomers. Let's review the bidding ...

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at age 19, Taylor Swift released her first album at 16, Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Prize at 17, and Time Magazine now releases an annual list of “Most Influential Teens.”

The stories of success in the media get younger and younger, and we’re pushing our kids harder and harder. So much so that the tutoring and test prep industry generates nearly $1 billion each year. 

Are our kids being pushed to the brink of breakdown? Is it right to discount any successes achieved after your “30 Under 30” expiration date?

Our mounting preoccupation with precocity has created a distorted if not downright dangerous narrative: if we, or our children, aren’t prodigies, we’ve failed?

Turns out, late blooming is where it's at. Here's the publisher of Forbes magazine and author of a new book on the late-bloomer theme. Here we go...

Here's Rich Karlgaard – publisher of Forbes magazine – who is a self-proclaimed late-bloomer – and his new book is 'LATE BLOOMERS: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement.'

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Jean Chatzky

'Women with Money'

Bankrate.comhttps://www.bankrate.com/retirement/

AARP's Social Security Resource Center

By Jason Middleton

Retirement planning - the two most boring words since Featuring Sting. 

OK, that's a John Oliver joke, but I honestly couldn't think of two more boring words.

Anyway, retirement planning is not America's forte, as it turns out.

According to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 48 percent of Americans 55 and older have no money in either an IRA or 401(k)-style account. Twenty-nine percent have no pension or retirement savings accounts.

Here's what's at stake: in retirement one has to live off of one's savings, investments and Social Security benefits.  

This week we have Jean Chatzky with us. Jean is an award-winning personal finance journalist, AARP’s personal finance ambassador, best-selling author and host of the podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky on iTunes. Jean is also the financial editor of NBC’s TODAY show.

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Prof. Cathy O'Neill: 'Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy'

Her company: ORCAA

Prof. Shoshanna Zuboff: 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism'

Prof. Scott Galloway: 'The Four'

Chuck Collins: 'Is Inequality in America Irreversible?'

By Jason Middleton

One interview we aired about 18 months ago was with a professor and provocateur, Cathy O'Neill. She had just published her book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.

Weapons of Math Destruction went on to win or be shortlisted for several awards. But that's almost beside the point. 

Professor O'Neill was once a quant on Wall Street. She was a big data engineer, tasked with helping big corporations make even bigger profits. 

She's what another professor, Scott Galloway, calls a 'traitor of her class' - sort of like a 1 percenter saying the rich should be less rich. (And we have a show about that too - the link is in the show notes).

We wanted to bring Professor O'Neill back on to check in on any potential progress when it comes to biases in algorithms, and how that algorithmic data is spun into predictive analytics.

O'Neill and I also discuss her new company that she built to help corporations analyze their own algorithms to see if they have biases, like race or gender, in them and if they are within legal compliance. 

Something referred to as corporate hygiene. Spoiler alert: not one health care company has contracted her team yet. 

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Professor Alex Garvin

'The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century'   

By Jason Middleton

Urban planning fascinates me, the ebb and flow of people, converted spaces and new construction, the range of commutes from nuisance to hellish and the technology needed for this dynamic growth. 

It ticks all the boxes. So the new book 'The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century' was a must-get interview. 

Professor Alex Garvin wrote The Heart of the City. He's a professor at Yale University, but his experience runs deep. 

Alex Garvin has combined a career in urban planning and real estate with teaching, architecture, and public service. He is now President and CEO of AGA Public Realm Strategists, Inc., a planning and design firm in New York City.

In the months after 9/11 he led the rebuild team. 

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

'Stop Doing that S***!' book

'Un (Eff) Yourself' book

Gary John Bishop, author

By Jason Middleton

Alexander Pope dropped An Essay on Criticism back in 1711, and in that essay a quote for the ages: To err is human, to forgive divine. All people commit sins and make mistakes.

And, I'd argue, that refers to self-sabotage, choices humans make over and over in a cycle of limiting potential and fomenting crises.

So we asked Gary John Bishop to join us. He's the author of the new book Stop Doing that Bleep or Stop Doing that S. -- A Real World Approach to Reducing Negative Behavior and “Waking the Heck Up” 

His prior book, a New York Times besteller, is titled Un Eff Yourself. 

It's a little off our usual script, but Gary's a great speaker and his approach can be helpful. We also veer into the novel and film Trainspotting toward the end. And he finds a few cautionary tales that translate beyond Scottish drug culture and relates to some of today's drug troubles. 

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Clive Thompson, Wired & New York Times

Clive's Twitter

'Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World'

By Jason Middleton

Software may well in fact eat the world, but somebody has to write it first. All that software code comes from fallible, flawed humans. 

We've talked about biases in coding and algorithms several times on this show. We use software nearly every instant we’re awake, and if we want to understand how today’s digital world works, we ought to understand something about the industry building it: computer programmers.

So this week we're hosting Clive Thompson, the author of 'Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World.'

Clive is a journalist at Wired and the New York Times whose new book Coders is already on digital and physical shelves.

We cover sexism in algorithms, basic bias in coding and what drives a computer programmer to do what they do. 

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Jessica Yellin on Instagram

'Savage News' novel

By Jason Middleton

The author we're talking with next has written a new novel titled Savage News. And boy she nailed that. 

She could have gone with News Onslaught, Tsunami News or Daily Shitshow. But Savage News definitely works. 

Jessica Yellin is the former chief White House correspondent for CNN and an Emmy and Gracie Award- winning political journalist for CNN, ABC News, and MSNBC.

And she's tied together her White House experience with her experience as a woman in the workplace.

The novel's protagonist Natalie Savage has transferred to Washington, D.C. on temporary assignment as White House correspondent for a news network. That's a basic setup.

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.

Erin Lowry'Broke Millennial Takes on Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money.'

By Jason Middleton

Retirement planning - it's the mantra of every financial advisor, planner and fiduciary you'll ever run into. And the sub mantra, and I may have just invented that phrase, the sub mantra is the earlier you start saving, the less you have to sock away later in life. 

So, our next guest, wrote the book 'Broke Millennial Takes on Investing:

A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money.' Her name is Erin Lowry. It's actually her second and sequential book on investing for younger people.

For the record, the oldest millennial is 37 years old this year, so let's disabuse ourselves of the 'young adult in the parent's basement' image. 

Side note: Gen X and Gen Z are just lost generations, right? People jump from Boomers to Millennials. 

Please click through on any of these links for more information, as well as our show page, Facebook page or follow me on the Twitter. The podcasts also live on iTunes and Stitcher.

Have great weeks, everybody.