Must-Read Weekend Reading

[I’ve been developing a Harvard Magazine article on the demise of 800 lb gorillas, and the new rules played by those that replace them, so not as much writing this week on Yes & Know. But I have still been reading a bit, and these are some gems to share.]

The Global Mind

In sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I believe there will be a positive ripple effect—sparks that will help turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about connection—connecting ideas, data, and cultures from millions of brains into a global thinking structure with infinite possibilities. Every text, hyperlink, and Tweet is like a neural synapse firing out to everyone we’re connected to. And with each connection, we get a surge of oxytocin, as if the Internet were creating a global network for oxytocin to flow. It will make us more empathetic, inclined to share, collaborate, and connect even more. The Internet is rewiring our brains to think interdependently, changing the way we connect to the world, online and offline.

(http://noetic.org/noetic/issue-fourteen-september/the-emerging-global-mind/) regarding the movie Connected that will open this fall in major cities nationwide this weekend). For more information, go to http://connectedthefilm.com, Connected the Film on Facebook, or @tiffanyshlain on Twitter

Breaking Old Tired Notions To Create Anew

“So yup, our town is going to make jeans again. I know it won’t be easy. I know in some ways we have chosen a more difficult path to tread. And I know I have to make the numbers add up too. But for me, the great brands of the world make a great product but also have a clear understanding of their purpose. They understand the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. I believe the notion that we can’t make in the UK and still be a successful business needs to be challenged. Here goes.”

by these good folks at Huit.

Cooperation vs. Capitalism.

The great mass of people are not capitalists; they are not hoarders; they are unwilling to ‘buy low and sell high’ when it harms their fellows. A capitalist is someone who has collected wealth sufficiently, most often from the work of others, to use that wealth to gather more wealth controlling the work of those others. This may be what we have become, but it is not where we began: The human animal is a cooperative species, the distribution of information, goods and services has been an essential survival behavior for the millions of years that our genus has been on earth. This is our context, this is who we are.

More here on job creation and the economy:

Enterprise 2.0 is really Entitlement 2.0

Hierarchy, process and automation are returning to their proper place – as tools that support human efficiency and capability. Rather than the 20th century model of people existing to keep the processes running, we are now flipping it around so that processes exist to support us. Processes and automation amplify human capability. Importantly, there is another profound amplifier of human capability – and that is other humans! The focus on collaboration fueled by radically improved communication and the internet that William Gibson deliciously described as our “increasingly efficient, communal, prosthetic memory” is dramatically changing how we think about organizational structure, efficiency, learning and innovation – even if most people have never heard of Complexity Theory.

By Deb Lavoy on her blog. More here.