Today, during morning coffee, as we were talking, Amy mentioned that she had already heard “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, which is in heavy rotation on our Amy’s Faves playlist. Just a drop of water in an endless sea All we do Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

The Kindle version of Give First: The Power of Mentorship launched today and is available for 50% of the regular Kindle price. Brad the Book Salesman says, “Please still buy the regular version also, but if you want an early look, buy the Kindle version today to help my Amazon ranking. And to get an early read of the book.” Amazon Reviews and Goodreads Reviews are now live. If you’ve read an early version and are willing, please share your thoughts with a review.

“The human obsession with purpose is merely a distraction from the absurdity of existence.” … Nikolai Gogol (unverified) Let’s start with existentialism. For a long time, I’ve believed that you create your meaning during your existence on this planet. You get one life, and when it’s over, it’s over. I’ve never embraced the idea of a legacy, as I care more about what I do while I’m alive than what people say about me after I’m dead. And, I’ve always been deeply intrinsically motivated by learning, so the extrinsic rewards of life, while nice, aren’t a core motivation for me.

From a friend I’ve known and worked with for 35 years. Brad – like you, in the 7th decade of our lives, there seems to be three truths: 1. Every generation has thought the end is near (ice age, nuclear threat, etc.) – always in the next 8 – 10 years, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 2. Every generation thinks the younger generation is being ruined by the latest technology – radio, television, internet, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 3. Every technology has been predicted to end employment for masses of people – electricity, machinery, computers, blah, blah, blah – has never happened I responded with the following…

In my car on the way back and forth between Denver and Boulder the past few days, I listened to The Steve Ballmer Interview on the Acquired podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. If you aren’t a subscriber, it’s in the category of a “must-listen to podcast.” I’ve known Ben and David for many years from their time at PSL and Madrona, and they’ve created an outstanding new media property with Acquired.

My morning started early with a 6:30 a.m. drive to Denver to give a talk about Give First: The Power of Mentorship, which Erik Mitisek had organized for a group of Denver-area founders. In it, one of Erik’s questions caused me to go off on a riff about authenticity, which led me to one of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto items titled Be Authentic—Practice: What You Preach and a section in the book titled Nonsense Phrases Such as “I’m Value Added”. I gave the example in the section Being Full of Value‑Added Shit and explained that when I hear someone say “I’m an (adjective) (noun)” I insert (in my brain) the word “not” after the word “I’m.” From the book:

Wow did I need that this morning! I was feeling tired and a little down before our call. I slept until the last possible minute before starting a Techstars Managing Director Alumni Network. While that cheered me up somewhat and gave me some energy, I followed it with another call with a CEO/investor/long-time friend where we spent some of the time wrestling with things going on in the US right now. My energy coming out of this was low and my mood was “meh.”

I’m so confused. I suppose that’s what you get when you hibernate from all things public for two years, then pick your head up and try to figure out the best way to engage with the world again. When life was simpler, I just posted to my blog at feld.com. You could subscribe by RSS or email (via MailChimp). It automatically tweeted a link to the post. When Medium became a thing, I used a WordPress plugin to cross-post there until it stopped working. Eventually, I grew tired of having the same context appear on Google twice – once under my blog and once under Medium, so I deleted my Medium account since I wasn’t using it for anything else.

For your Sunday morning (or daytime) reading, take a look at Tyler Austin Harper’s article in The Atlantic titled What Happens When People Don’t Understand How AI Works. Since coming out of hibernation, I’ve had many bizarre conversations with non-tech people who misunderstand entirely what “AI”, as the tech industry currently calls it, actually is. This doesn’t surprise me, as the tech hype cycle around AI is extreme. However, several of these conversations, especially with political leaders, have highlighted the issue this article addresses.