Remarkable Reading # 23: THE SEVENTH SENSE: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks and INVISIBLES: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion

The aim of this section Remarkable Reading is pay a tribute to the books that taught, share trends & insights into where our world in the 21st century is heading in a technology enabled world, and ask the right questions.

Bolded and italics quotes and references do not belong to myself  and belong directly to the author.  The focus is to share valuable insights and teachings from the book to win business for the authors.

Carrying on further from here and amended on 10th December 2017.

Here are two other quick trends I found remarkable from THE SEVENTH SENSE: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks and INVISIBLES: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion .

First, the impact of connectivity and networks on terrorism and viruses.

Page 206 - “That Seventh Sense instinct present in hackers and terrorists and clever entrepreneurs, and one that senses how the powerful can become useless and the useless can become powerful, is earned first through a fluency with the impact of fate-changing topological shifts” To know that instant connection will demolish border security with drones or advertising with GPS-enabled messages or the role of a slow-thinking doctor with a database is to feel topological forces at work”

Page 219 - “There is something scary and thought muddling about the idea of intentionally authored computer viruses running wild, ever faster. But there is also something thought muddling about this whole world we’re entering.  Networks are pulling at every existing structure.  They hum with the most elemental and precious human data - our DNA, our wedding photos, our hopeful voice mails and most essential knowledge, our small savings against disaster.  In its speed and its depth, in its increasingly comprehensive grasp of each of us and our world, this new network order is at once the most amazing thing we’ve ever created and the most terrifying”

Secondly, a brief background into the context of business & history, and how far we have progressed.

Page 31 - “Several hundred years ago the forces of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution began working away at the roots of an ancient order.  The powerful ideas of liberty, freedom, and of thought, science, democracy and capitalism - these all layered one upon the other.  They washed like tides, across the institutions and invention, of destruction and creation, they put a period at the end of one era and began the very first lines of a new human story.  These forces produced what we know today as the modern world: Trains knit new markets, science tripled life spans, democracy liberated politics”

Page 35 - “Centuries from now, our great-great grandchildren will look back at our age and name it, as we have named the Enlightenment.  Perhaps they will call this era the “Great Connection” or the “Great Enmeshment” or some such.  They will spot the winners and losers of our time, as we do when we tell the story of the Age of Reason or the Renaissance.  That distant generation will surely identify a new “convergence club”: emerging amount us now, even if we can't quite name it’s members yet”  Already we can see lavish rewards accumulating to nations, companies, and people who have established a group on the new sensibility.  They understand connective power.  They know how to manipulate it and profit from it.”

And from INVISIBLES: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion, I thought the following the differences between Asian culture and rest of the world were fascinating in their approach as we progress further into the 21st Century:

Page 211 - “In American culture, the paper states, “individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by...expressing their unique inner attributes”

Page 212 - “In Asian cultures there’s often a subtle way to get what you want.  It’s not always aggressive, but it can  be very determined, very skilful. In the end, much is achieved because of it.  Aggressive power beats you up; soft power wins you over.” Being a successful Invisible is not about being meek and hoping for the best, or even necessarily introverted.  To achieve their goals, even as gregarious, social people, as some, like Jim Harding, the wayfinding expert and Elswit struck me, they employ soft power”

Page 214  - “At first the notion that these individualistic societies would highly value not standing out seems strange.  One might assume individualism is at the root of personal desire for recognition. And it likely does play a large role.  But while individualism versus collectivism is a useful frame, cultures of course are not binary constructs.  To parse the nuances further, geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher who is considered the pioneer in the field, has often viewed individualism/collectivism is just one of the five evaluative categories”

Page 216  - “He told me that unlike the Asian culture and business environment where teamwork and harmony are key, in the united States “people emphasize leadership and individualized mentoring since the individual is so visible.”  This is part of a culture of “hero worship”, he said, noting that everyone knows who Steve Jobs was, but it’s doubtful you could name the CEO of Samsung, Kim’s assertion of a culture of hero worship, with little question, explains part of what may drive so many in the United States toward wanting recognition”

As mentioned earlier, do not miss these two business books in 2017!!

You can follow Joshua Cooper Ramo's on Twitter here and purchase a copy of THE SEVENTH SENSE on Amazon here and visit his website here.

You can follow David Zweig on Twitter here and purchase a copy of INVISIBLES here and visit his website here and

Thank you,

Praz

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