Podcasts about IBM

Linda Hill, Jason Wild, and Emily C. Tedards join the show to discuss what it actually takes to build organizations that innovate consistently—not just once, but over and over again. Linda Hill is a Harvard Business School professor and one of the world's leading experts on leadership and innovation, ranked among the top management thinkers globally. Jason Wild brings the practitioner perspective, having led innovation initiatives at companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM. Emily C. Tedards is a graduate researcher in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School and a doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Together, they co-authored Genius at Scale, a book exploring how modern leaders create environments where innovation can thrive across teams, generations, and organizations. On this episode we talk about: Why many great ideas never get launched—and how leaders can change that The difference between leading change and leading innovation Why successful innovation requires co-creation instead of top-down leadership The power of “creative abrasion” and diverse perspectives in problem-solving How organizations can better integrate younger generations into leadership and innovation Top 3 Takeaways The best leaders don't simply drive innovation—they build environments where people collaborate to create innovation together. Innovation leadership is about co-creation, not followership. Teams are more engaged when they feel they're helping shape the future rather than executing someone else's vision. Diversity of thought—including generational diversity—is a powerful advantage when solving complex problems and navigating uncertainty. Notable Quotes "Great leaders drive innovation—but they don't drive alone." "If you want to innovate repeatedly at scale, you must create an environment where people can co-create the future together." "Innovation doesn't happen because one person has the answer—it happens when many people bring their perspectives to the problem." Connect with the Guests: Linda Hill LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-hill-hbs/ Jason Wild LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwild Emily C. Tedards LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-tedards/ Book: Genius at Scale https://www.geniusatscale.com  Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level – the All-In-One Sales & Marketing Platform built for agencies, by an agency.  Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.  Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyndsay Dowd is a speaker, two-time bestselling author, leadership expert, and founder of Heartbeat for Hire. After spending 23 years in corporate leadership at IBM, she now helps organizations dismantle toxic leadership and build cultures where both people and performance thrive.In today's episode, Lyndsay joins us to share the story of her unexpected career relaunch from corporate work to entrepreneurship.We dive into the pivotal moment of being fired that changed everything in Lyndsay's life, the identity crisis that followed, and the three powerful questions that helped her rebuild and eventually start her own company.Lyndsay also explains the evolution of leadership and the importance of soft skills in driving performance and loyalty. She shares practical leadership strategies that anyone can use to create stronger teams and healthier workplaces.Our discussion also covers the importance of career security rather than job security, why everyone should consider starting a side hustle, how to use AI as a tool rather than a crutch, and how to surround yourself with the right community to accelerate your success.Join us as we explore rebuilding after failure, becoming the leader you wish you had, creating cultures that drive performance, navigating career transitions, and building meaningful professional communities.—If this episode lit something inside you, that quiet knowing that you're meant for more, then I want to personally invite you into the most powerful room of the year.ReLaunch To A Rich Life LIVE is a transformative, neuroscience-backed 3-day experience happening September 17–19, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's designed for women who are done playing small and ready to step into clarity, confidence, and next-level success, not just in business, but in health, wealth, relationships, and life.This isn't another event, it's a quantum upgrade into the life you're meant to live. Join women who are ready to rewire their identity, elevate their frequency, and claim a Rich Life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.Learn more and join us in September: relaunchtoarichlife.com—Visit Lyndsay Dowd's Website: https://heartbeatforhire.com/about-us/Connect with Lyndsay onFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LyndsayDowdH4H/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyndsaydowdh4h/?hl=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndsaydowdh4h/Spotify: https://podcasts.apple.com/YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC9asGvE8Ks4XjR2UNwNmKDw—Connect with Hilary:Website: https://therelaunch.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hilarydecesare/FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReLaunchCoInterested in being a guest on the ReLaunch Podcast or booking Hilary as a guest? Email us at hello@therelaunch.comFind Us on Your Favorite Podcast App - https://the-silver-lined-relaunch.captivate.fm/listen

Today, on Notable Leaders' Radio, I speak with Stephanie Baker, Chief Experience Officer and artist. She highlights her journey of moving beyond achievement, sharing how embracing vulnerability, creativity, and leading with empathy has redefined what true success means, for herself, her teams, and those she mentors. In today's episode, we discuss: Reimagine your definition of success. Step back from titles and checkboxes. Ask yourself whether your work aligns with your core values and your true impact. When your work is a reflection of who you are, fulfillment finds you, not the other way around. Lead with empathy and inclusion. Performance isn't just about KPIs; it's about how people feel in your presence. When you foster empathy, inclusion, and psychological safety, you build teams that are resilient, innovative, and engaged at every level. Make becoming a lifelong pursuit. You don't have to have it all figured out. The most effective, impactful leaders are those who stay open to growth and keep redefining who they are—at work and in life. Protect your energy unapologetically. Learn to say "no"—and realize that it's a complete sentence. Being deliberate with your time and focus allows you to say "yes" to what truly matters and show up at your best. Give yourself permission to explore new interests. Try picking up something new—painting, mentoring, creating. You never know which hidden strengths or sources of joy are waiting for you. (Check out her paintings in the show notes. She is GIFTED!)   RESOURCES: Guest Bio: Stephanie Baker is a Senior operations executive with 20+ years of experience driving enterprise performance and operational excellence. A trusted partner to CEOs and Boards, I specialize in aligning people, processes, and technology to deliver exceptional outcomes for customers and employees. Recognized for building inclusive, engaged teams and leading transformational change with clarity and purpose. Website/Social Links www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-baker-5833b78 slbaker28@gmail.com Belinda's Bio: Belinda is a sought-after Leadership Advisor, Coach, Consultant and Keynote speaker and a leading authority in guiding global executives, professionals and small business owners to become today's highly respected leaders. As the Founder of BelindaPruyne.com, Belinda works with such organizations as IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, BBDO, The BAM Connection, Hilton, Leidos, Yale School of Medicine, Landis, and the Discovery Channel. Most recently, she redesigned two global internal advertising agencies for Cella, a leader in creative staffing and consulting. She is a founding C-suite and executive management coach for Chief, the fastest-growing executive women's network. Since 2020, Belinda has delivered more than 72 interviews with top-level executives and business leaders who share their inner journey to success; letting you know the truth of what it took to achieve their success in her Notable Leaders Radio podcast. She gained a wealth of expertise in the client services industry as Executive Vice President, Global Director of Creative Management at Grey Advertising, managing 500 people around the globe. With over 20+ years of leadership development experience, she brings industry-wide recognition to the executives and companies she works with. Whether a startup, turnaround, acquisition, or global corporation, executives and companies continue to turn to Pruyne for strategic and impactful solutions in a rapidly shifting economy and marketplace. Website: Belindapruyne.com Email Address: hello@belindapruyne.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindapruyne  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NotableLeadersNetwork.BelindaPruyne/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/belindapruyne?lang=en  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belindapruyne/ 

Send a textFirst Aired Apr 23, 2025If you've been following the AI space lately, this episode hits differently the second time around.When Al sat down with Ruchir Puri — Chief Scientist of IBM Research, IBM Fellow, and the architect behind Watson and watsonx — the conversation covered ground that's only gotten more relevant since: the death of prompt engineering, the rise of agentic AI, and why 2025 was always going to be the year agents broke through in the enterprise.Ruchir doesn't deal in hype. He deals in systems — real ones, running at scale, in industries where a hallucinated number has consequences. In this masterclass, he walks through inference scaling, memory in AI systems, and what it actually means to build AI that's useful rather than just impressive.If you're new to the show, this is the episode to start with. If you've heard it before — trust us, it lands differently now.Key moments:12:21 — Why prompt engineering is already fading (and what replaces it)13:39 — Inference scaling: the frontier that's not about training anymore16:26 — Why AI systems that "forget" are failing us17:56 — The full agentic loop: Think, Plan, Act, Execute, Observe, Reflect23:45 — Why enterprise AI agents are no longer a future stateMaking Data Simple is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM.Ruchir's LinkedinAl's LinkedInExplore IBM's WatsonxWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple?  Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next.  The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun. 

Jason Wild, an author, strategist, and former leader at Salesforce, IBM, and Microsoft, addresses misconceptions around what innovation is and isn't and the way leadership can help or hinder it, creating culture, the as-of-yet unmet promise of AI, the ABC's inside of organizations, how a creative intern at the Waldorf Astoria saved a ton of money and time with a creative solution to an abstract problem, identifying who the customer REALLY is and what you're REALLY selling, and the strangely important lessons he learned from being a child actor.

In this episode: Martin has created tailor: Ready-to-wear project templates for GitHub repositories

In this episode of EY Sustainability Matters, David Rae, EY Global Lead for Technology, AI and Innovation at EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services, explores the complex intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and nature. The host poses the question: Can technology solve the nature loss crisis, or will its resource-heavy footprint only accelerate the problem? Hear industry voices and activists debate whether AI is a necessary tool for nature's survival and offer holistic views on the risks and opportunities ahead, drawing on a hypothetical debate from The EY AI x Sustainability Exchange: from big questions to real solutions, where activists were asked to take opposing sides of the argument.  Gilad Goren of the Nature Tech Collective argues that reversing nature loss is impossible without AI, which is essential for de-risking private sector investment and closing the nature finance gap. We also hear how companies, such as SAP, IBM, Treefera and others, are leveraging real-time data to track deforestation and optimize crop yields in hard-to-abate sectors. Conversely, activists Livia Pagoto and Fred Werner highlight the "shadow effect" — the skyrocketing energy and water demands of massive data centers. The conversation also explores ethical governance, questioning whether potentially biased algorithms can ever replicate human care required to protect the environment. AI is already accelerating nature protection, from monitoring deforestation and biodiversity to improving climate risk assessment, supply‑chain transparency and renewable energy optimization. However, AI's rapid growth is resource‑intensive, driving significant increases in energy and water use, and raising concerns about scalability, equity and environmental impact. Progress requires collective action, combining human wisdom, inclusive governance, Indigenous knowledge and responsible innovation, to ensure that AI strengthens — rather than replaces — our relationship with nature. @2026 Ernst & Young LLP

Jessica Inskip (@jessicainskip) is all about tech on today's Big 3. She sees Nvidia's (NVDA) GTC 2026 conference as a catalyst this week, IBM Corp. (IBM) holding enterprise software and blockchain opportunities, and Apple (AAPL) positioned to become a leader in consumer AI. Rick Ducat backs Jessica's analysis with a look at key levels in the stock charts. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – / schwabnetwork Follow us on Facebook – / schwabnetwork Follow us on LinkedIn - / schwab-network About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

A kid builds a website for Game Boy Advance tips. Then another one. Then a racing game with a contact form he didn't think twice about. Until, someone hit it with a SQL injection. That moment cracked open a door he never planned to walk through. Years later, he's still walking. Past classical computing, past the ones and zeros we all know and into a space where a bit doesn't have to choose. One where particles hold their breath until someone measures them. This is the story of someone who cut their teeth building websites about gaming tips and a comedy sketch audio site that hit number one on G4TV. Now he's volunteering at DEF CON's Quantum Village, building browser-based quantum simulations, and trying to make the most complex frontier in computing feel a little less sci-fi.TIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction to Robert Covington and His Journey00:51 From Web Projects to Security Awareness03:51 Diving into Quantum Computing06:22 Understanding Quantum Concepts08:31 Making Quantum Accessible with Qubitide.dev11:13 Quantum in Enterprise: Use Cases and Costs13:14 Involvement with Quantum Village and Community Initiatives15:17 Emerging Job Opportunities in Quantum Computing17:27 Learning Resources for Quantum Computing19:31 Understanding Q Day and Its Implications23:16 The Role of Quantum Random Number Generators25:38 Unique Bar Experiences and Quantum ThemesSYMLINKS[Robert Covington – LinkedIn] – https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-covington-2693a914b[A LinkedIn profile where Robert Covington shares posts about quantum computing, security conferences, and experiments with quantum simulations and QPU workflows.][QubitIDE] - https://qubitide.dev[A quantum computing learning and experimentation platform created by Robert Covington. It aims to make quantum computing more accessible by allowing developers to explore simulations in the browser and eventually integrate quantum processing workflows.][Amazon Braket] - https://aws.amazon.com/braket/[A cloud-based quantum computing service from Amazon Web Services that allows developers and researchers to run quantum algorithms on simulators and real quantum hardware without needing to own physical quantum machines.][PennyLane] - https://pennylane.ai/[An open-source Python library developed by Xanadu for quantum computing and quantum machine learning. It enables users to build and run quantum programs on simulators or real quantum hardware.][Qiskit] - https://qiskit.org/[An open-source quantum computing software development kit created by IBM. It provides tools for building quantum circuits, running simulations, and executing programs on IBM quantum computers.][D-Wave Systems] - https://www.dwavesys.com/[A quantum computing company specializing in quantum annealing hardware and optimization systems. Their machines are used by research institutions and organizations exploring practical quantum applications.][IBM Quantum Learning] - https://quantum.ibm.com/learn[IBM's official learning platform that provides tutorials, documentation, and educational resources for beginners and developers who want to learn quantum computing and use IBM quantum tools.][Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C)] - https://quantumconsortium.org/[An industry consortium focused on strengthening the quantum technology ecosystem through collaboration, workforce development, and industry initiatives.][Barcode Security Podcast] - https://barcodesecurity.com/[The official website of the Barcode podcast hosted by Chris Glanden, featuring discussions on cybersecurity, emerging technologies, and interviews with experts in the field.]

Quantum computing isn't just 10 years away, it's happening now. In this deep dive, I sit down with Ramana Kompella, Head of Research at Cisco Outshift, to separate the sci-fi vaporware from the engineering reality. We discuss the immediate threat of "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" attacks, where bad actors steal your encrypted data today to unlock it with quantum computers tomorrow. Ramana breaks down exactly how Cisco is building the "Quantum Network" to counter this, leveraging the "No Cloning Theorem" to create unhackable communication channels. If you are in cybersecurity, networking, or studying computer science, this is your roadmap to the future. We cover the math you need to learn (Linear Algebra), the timeline for real-world adoption (it's closer than you think), and how Quantum Teleportation actually works at a packet level. Topics Covered: • The 5-Year Timeline: Why the "decade away" myth is wrong. • Quantum Networking vs. Computing: Why we need to interconnect quantum processors. • The Physics of Security: How Entanglement and Teleportation prevent eavesdropping. • Career Advice: Why Linear Algebra is the most critical skill for AI and Quantum jobs. • Cisco x IBM: The partnership building the future internet. Big thanks to Cisco for sponsoring this video and sponsoring my trip to Cisco Live Amsterdam 2026. // Ramana Kompella's SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / rkompella / David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming Up 0:43 - Introduction 02:36 - The Exciting Part about OutShift 04:12 - The Promise of Quantum Computing 07:09 - The Importance of Partnership between IBM & Cisco 07:55 - The Difference between Classical Computing & Quantum Computing 11:25 - Why It is Important to study Maths 12:31 - Technical Details About Quantum Computing 19:19 - When Will Quantum Computing Become a Reality? 20:00 - Will Quantum Computing Break Encryption? 25:36 - Outro & Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #quantumnetworking #ciscooutshift #cybersecurity

George Tsilis turns to "Big Blue" in the latest Tech Corner deep dive for IBM (IBM). In the wake of extreme selling pressures to start 2026, George goes under the hood on why Anthropic's AI could pose a threat to some of IBM's business. From the fundamentals to the technicals, don't miss George's breakdown of all things IBM.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

Visit Mixture of Experts podcast page to get more AI content → https://www.ibm.com/think/podcasts/mixture-of-experts Can your AI agent hack its own evaluation? This week on Mixture of Experts, Tim Hwang is joined by Ambhi Ganesan, Kaoutar El Maghraoui, and Sandi Besen to analyze OpenAI's Codex Security launch. Next, we explore eval awareness as Anthropic revealed Opus 4.6 figured out it was being tested, located the answer key and decrypted it.. Then, Meta acquires Moltbook, the social network for AI agents, and we discuss the strategic play for agentic commerce infrastructure. Finally, Alibaba reports that an agent broke containment and started mining crypto. Are agents trying too hard to maximize rewards? All that and more on todays Mixture of Experts. 00:00 – Introduction 1:02 – OpenAI Codex Security launch 12:44 – Meta acquires Moltbook 25:21 – Anthropic's eval awareness research 38:06 – Alibaba agents mining crypto The opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM or any other organization or entity. Subscribe for AI updates → https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/us-en/signup?formid=news-urx-52120

In this special 400th episode, the Rational Reminder hosts reflect on 50 years of index investing and the profound impact it has had on financial markets, investor behavior, and the cost of investing. The episode features a panel moderated by Ben Felix at the New York Stock Exchange—hosted by Vanguard and S&P Dow Jones Indices—bringing together leading voices in the indexing world to explore how passive investing evolved and what it means for the future of capital markets. Ben is joined on the panel by Tim Edwards (S&P Dow Jones Indices), Jim Rowley (Vanguard), and Shelly Antoniewicz (Investment Company Institute) to discuss the mechanics of indexing, the myths surrounding passive investing, and the evidence on how index funds affect markets. They unpack questions about market concentration, price discovery, and whether indexing is changing the structure of capital markets. Key Points From This Episode: (0:00:04) Introduction to the Rational Reminder podcast and the hosts from PWL Capital. (0:00:24) Celebrating the 400th episode and reflecting on nearly eight years of podcasting. (0:01:09) Dan Bortolotti discusses the early days of podcasting and the transition from the Couch Potato podcast. (0:02:11) The rise of podcasts and YouTube as major sources of financial education for investors. (0:02:49) How Rational Reminder grew after Dan ended his previous podcast and the demand for Canadian investing content. (0:03:47) The podcast reaches a record audience with over 384,000 views and downloads in January 2026. (0:04:19) Institutional investors—foundations, endowments, and unions—show increasing interest in PWL's low-cost index approach. (0:06:20) Why indexing can still be a difficult sell for institutional investment committees. (0:08:25) Peer effects in institutional investing: committees often hesitate to adopt strategies that seem unconventional. (0:09:11) 2026 marks 50 years since Vanguard launched the first retail index fund in 1976. (0:10:08) Ben moderates a panel at the New York Stock Exchange on the future of index investing. (0:11:55) Overview of the panel participants from Vanguard, S&P Dow Jones Indices, and the Investment Company Institute. (0:13:07) Discussion of research papers presented at the event examining index investing's market impact. (0:14:32) Historical context: the S&P 500 is currently as concentrated as it was in the mid-1960s. (0:15:36) The largest companies in 1965—AT&T, Kodak, GM, IBM—eventually faded from dominance. (0:17:43) A hidden advantage of cap-weighted indexing: investors automatically own future winners. (0:20:59) Debate about whether today's tech-heavy market concentration differs from past cycles. (0:23:30) The explosion of index funds and ETFs has created thousands of ways to implement passive strategies. (0:26:42) Technical improvements in ETF implementation, including lower tracking error and better hedging. (0:29:02) The "Vanguard Effect": index investing has driven massive reductions in investment fees. (0:29:38) Index funds account for about 23% of total U.S. market capitalization, not the commonly cited 50%. (0:32:48) Evidence suggesting index funds have not increased large-cap concentration in markets. (0:34:25) Passive funds represent only about 1–2% of daily trading activity. (0:36:16) Dispersion in stock returns remains high, meaning opportunities for active management still exist. (0:38:12) Panel begins: defining passive investing and why the term is more complex than it seems. (0:42:13) Who invests in index funds? Millions of households using them primarily for retirement savings. (0:45:22) How advisors and institutions use ETFs to build diversified long-term portfolios. (0:46:19) The surprising role of ETFs in trading and market liquidity. (0:48:30) The proliferation of niche ETFs raises questions about whether indexing has strayed from Bogle's vision. (0:49:49) Academic research offers conflicting views on indexing's effect on market efficiency. (0:52:27) Evidence suggests index fund growth has not increased market volatility. (0:54:25) Dispersion data shows indexing does not eliminate opportunities for stock picking. (0:57:15) Index funds own only about 30% of the U.S. stock market, leaving the majority in active hands. (0:59:42) Historical perspective: high market concentration has occurred before and eventually declined. (1:02:14) Research remains inconclusive about whether indexing harms markets. (1:05:25) Over 20 years, 94% of actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds underperformed the S&P 500. (1:06:20) Post-panel reflections and discussion with the Rational Reminder hosts. Links From Today's Episode: Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/ Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore   Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

In a world flooded with content and incremental business strategies, standing out is more than a competitive advantage, it’s a necessity. Legendary Category Designers Kevin Maney and Mike Damphousse joined Christopher Lochhead on this week’s episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different to dive into their latest thinking on category creation formula and the evolving marketplace. Having helped shape the category design movement with their previous work on “Play Bigger,” Kevin Maney and Mike Damphousse now bring ten years of new insights, tools, and experiences to the table. Their journey reveals the potential for entrepreneurs and established leaders to move from simply competing in existing markets to creating new market categories entirely. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go.   The Category Creation Formula: Context, Missing, Innovation A central development in Kevin Maney and Mike Damphousse's new book, “The Category Creation Formula,” is a straightforward equation: context plus missing plus innovation equals a new market category. This reframing shifts the conversation away from finding conventional “problems” and instead asks, “Given the changing context, what's missing for your target audience?” This subtle change is game-changing. By looking at how context—like technology shifts, societal changes, or policy moves—creates new gaps, innovators can identify true market opportunities. The missing is not just a problem, but an unmet need that, when matched with the right innovation, creates something genuinely new.   From Incremental Competition to Defining New Possibilities Traditional business thinking focuses on being better than the competition. Maney and Damphousse challenge this status quo with their method, which helps companies discover and fill what’s missing in the marketplace, rather than simply outperform existing players. Through hundreds of client projects, they have observed that when teams deeply engage with the formula, they often experience breakthrough clarity. This clarity leads to designing not only new products but building entirely new categories—transforming strategy meetings into the birthplace of the next Uber or LinkedIn Sales Solutions. The emotional impact on entrepreneurs is real, often marking a visionary moment that aligns teams, sharpens belief, and sets the trajectory toward category leadership.   AI and the Future: Accelerating Category Creation Artificial Intelligence is not just the latest innovation but a foundational change in context, similar to electricity's impact more than a century ago. For category designers, AI accelerates both the identification of what's missing and the speed at which innovations reach the market. As AI makes knowledge and execution close to free, what now matters is human insight: judgment about what new needs are emerging and how to fill those with breakthrough solutions. With the adjacent possible expanding, individuals and small teams can create billion-dollar outcomes, making category design skills more critical than ever. Maney and Damphousse's formula provides a framework to navigate this shift, empowering creators to define the future rather than react to it. To hear more from Kevin Maney and Mike Damphousse on their thoughts about the Category Creation Formula and how it can help your business, download and listen to this episode. Bio Kevin Maney Kevin Maney is a bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He's also the co-founder of Category Design Advisors where he helps companies create and dominate new market categories. He has been writing about technology for 30 years, has interviewed most of the tech pioneers you can name, and brings broad and deep context to Category Design conversations. He is co-author of the book Play Bigger, and has been an A-list writer and thinker about technology for 25 years. His other books include The Two-Second Advantage (a 2011 New York Times best seller), Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don't, and The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM. Kevin wrote a regular column for Newsweek, and has been a contributor to Fortune, The Atlantic, Fast Company and ABC News, among other media outlets. He was a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio and for 22 years, Kevin was a columnist, editor and reporter at USA Today. Mike Damphousse Mike Damphousse is a Category Designer, Investor, and Founder/Partner at Category Design Advisors. He brings over three decades of experience as a company founder, CEO, CMO, and startup advisor, with a track record in building and scaling B2B software companies. Mike was the founder and CEO/CMO of Green Leads, which was acquired by Next 15 (LON:NFC), and served as CMO of Asteria, which IPO'd on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:3853).He is also a limited partner at Stage 2 Capital, a VC firm focused on early-stage B2B software startups, and has participated in ten exits through acquisition and IPO via Category Design Advisors. Mike is a co-author of Play Bigger, the foundational book on category design, and leads workshops and keynotes at major tech conferences like Dreamforce and Inbound. He is also a co-founder of Category Thinkers, a global community for category designers, and a regular speaker on strategic category creation and market leadership. Links Connect with Kevin Maney! Category Design Advisors | LinkedIn | Twitter Connect with Mike Damphousse!Category Design Advisors | LinkedIn | Twitter Check out their new book, The Category Creation Formula!    We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast / Spotify!

The morning after last week's show, Apple confirmed our thoughts, and the rumors, announcing the all-new MacBook Neo. Starting at $599, this laptop packs a punch. We discuss who it's for (spoiler, a lot of people) and what it means for Windows Laptops. Plus, we have plenty of other tech news to get caught up on and all our usual segments, to help you get out there and tech better! Watch on YouTube! - Notnerd.com and Notpicks.com INTRO (00:00) Asteroid 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon (03:45) MAIN TOPIC: MacBook Neo (06:05) Say hello to MacBook Neo I can't believe it: Apple's $599 MacBook Neo just lit a monstrous fire under the Windows laptop market — Microsoft better be panicking Apple's strange TikTok videos capturing Gen Z's attention DAVE'S PRO-TIP OF THE WEEK: Set a timer to finish at… (19:20) JUST THE HEADLINES: (24:45) United Airlines can now boot passengers who refuse to use headphones with their devices Seagate just unleashed 44TB hard drives Walgreens testing body-worn cameras for employees Robotic surgery performed remotely on patient 1,500 miles away Hacked Tehran traffic cameras fed Israeli intelligence before strike on Khamenei Florida woman given major jail sentence for illegally selling Microsoft product keys IBM scientists unveil first-ever 'half-mobius' molecule WITHIN REACH! Tied 1-1, this is round 3 (28:10) TAKES: Meta's AI display glasses reportedly share intimate videos with human moderators - A new app alerts you if someone nearby is wearing smart glasses (35:10) Grammarly is using generative AI to provide 'expert' reviews from famous authors and academics (40:20) Anthropic finds 22 Firefox vulnerabilities using Claude Opus 4.6 AI model (42:40) BONUS ODD TAKE: Walkmanland (44:35) PICKS OF THE WEEK:  Dave: Small Cream Cheese Spreader Knives Set,Wooden 5in,Stainless Steel Butter Knife Spreader for Cocktail, Condimets, Dips, Appetizers, Jam, Pastry, Sandwich, Toast, Bagel, Charcuterie Board Serving Party Supplies (49:55) Nate: Veken Coffee Canister, Airtight Stainless Steel Kitchen Food Storage Container with Date Tracker and Scoop for Beans, Grounds, Tea, Flour, Cereal, Sugar, 16OZ, Gray (54:05) RAMAZON PURCHASE OF THE WEEK (56:35)

Today, on Notable Leaders' Radio, I speak with Elizabeth Haggerty,  EVP Customer Solutions, America's Division, CRH. She highlights how navigating life's and career pivots, unexpected business challenges, and a life-changing health diagnosis led her to discover untapped reserves of courage and resilience, offering real-life strategies to thrive through uncertainty and continual growth. In today's episode, we discuss: Adopt the "one foot in, one foot out" approach. When considering a new role or industry, bring core skills you already have while stretching into new territory, so you're growing without completely untethering yourself. Let your setbacks refine, not define, you. When a business is sold, or a role ends abruptly, even through being fired, treat it as a painful but powerful pivot point, not a verdict on your worth or future potential. Integrate joy and self-care into your life. Make space for passions, hobbies, and relationships outside of work. These experiences not only enhance your overall well-being but also give you energy and perspective to face professional challenges with renewed spirit. Redefine your identity beyond job titles. Reflect on how external achievements and positions have shaped your sense of self. Shift your focus from titles to your skill sets, values, and unique contributions. This empowers you to navigate transitions and derive fulfillment from multiple aspects of life. Release the need to do everything alone. Accept that asking for help is a sign of wisdom, not weakness. Rely on your team's expertise and focus on asking insightful questions. This collaborative approach strengthens outcomes and develops your leadership. Guest Bio: Elizabeth Haggerty is a high-impact executive with over a 35-year history of driving growth and profitability in the building products industry.   Starting in the HVAC industry leading global product and channel P&Ls before transitioning to the industrial material products space where she has led large P&L businesses and key customer growth strategies.   Liz has experience in green fielding businesses as well as leading turn arounds and corporate carve-outs.   All of this done through building and developing high performing teams and investing in leadership development.  She has a bachelor's and master's degree in metallurgical engineering and an MBA.  Elizabeth has been recognized by:  Glass Magazine as one of the industry's Most Influential People,  Engineered Systems Magazine as 20 Women to Watch  HVAC and by Industry Week for women in manufacturing.   She was also recognized by the Manufacturing Institute a Women in Manufacturing Step Ahead Honoree in 2021. Website/Social Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-haggerty-81885115/  Belinda's Bio: Belinda is a sought-after Leadership Advisor, Coach, Consultant and Keynote speaker and a leading authority in guiding global executives, professionals and small business owners to become today's highly respected leaders. As the Founder of BelindaPruyne.com, Belinda works with such organizations as IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, BBDO, The BAM Connection, Hilton, Leidos, Yale School of Medicine, Landis, and the Discovery Channel. Most recently, she redesigned two global internal advertising agencies for Cella, a leader in creative staffing and consulting. She is a founding C-suite and executive management coach for Chief, the fastest-growing executive women's network. Since 2020, Belinda has delivered more than 72 interviews with top-level executives and business leaders who share their inner journey to success; letting you know the truth of what it took to achieve their success in her Notable Leaders Radio podcast. She gained a wealth of expertise in the client services industry as Executive Vice President, Global Director of Creative Management at Grey Advertising, managing 500 people around the globe. With over 20+ years of leadership development experience, she brings industry-wide recognition to the executives and companies she works with. Whether a startup, turnaround, acquisition, or global corporation, executives and companies continue to turn to Pruyne for strategic and impactful solutions in a rapidly shifting economy and marketplace. Website: Belindapruyne.com Email Address: hello@belindapruyne.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindapruyne  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NotableLeadersNetwork.BelindaPruyne/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/belindapruyne?lang=en  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belindapruyne/ 

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the exciting world of synthetic data with Adam Kamor, Co-Founder & Head of Engineering at Tonic.ai — a company building a synthetic data platform to power AI and software development. Adam unpacks how synthetic data is revolutionizing the way we build smarter, safer AI systems.01:31 Meet Adam Kamor 08:43 The Road to Software Engineering 11:10 Defining Synthetic Data 13:46 The Need for Synthetic Data 15:17 Synthetic Data with AI 17:59 Tonic.ai 18:57 Pros & Cons of Synthetic Data 25:40 Tonic.ai's Differentiation 27:58 The Tech 30:16 Biggest Competitor 32:34 The Use Case 33:37 Where Synthetic Data Fails 37:59 For FunLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkamor Website: https://www.tonic.ai/Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the exciting world of synthetic data with Adam Kamor, Co-Founder & Head of Engineering at Tonic.ai — a company building a synthetic data platform to power AI and software development. Adam unpacks how synthetic data is revolutionizing the way we build smarter, safer AI systems.01:31 Meet Adam Kamor 08:43 The Road to Software Engineering 11:10 Defining Synthetic Data 13:46 The Need for Synthetic Data 15:17 Synthetic Data with AI 17:59 Tonic.ai 18:57 Pros & Cons of Synthetic Data 25:40 Tonic.ai's Differentiation 27:58 The Tech 30:16 Biggest Competitor 32:34 The Use Case 33:37 Where Synthetic Data Fails 37:59 For FunLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkamor Website: https://www.tonic.ai/Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

In this episode of Biz/Dev, we talk with David Watkins, founder of PlanMyKids, about the realities of building products that actually solve everyday problems.We get into the intersection of product strategy and entrepreneurship from leading enterprise product teams at companies like IBM and AT&T to launching a startup focused on simplifying how parents plan activities for their kids. David shares how years in product management shaped the way he approaches building, validating, and evolving ideas in the real world.Along the way, we talk about what it takes to move from strategy to execution, how customer insight should drive product decisions, and why the best founders stay curious while solving problems that matter.Plan My Kids WebsitePromo Code: bigpixel25 for 25% off a plan___________________________________ Submit Your Questions to: hello@thebigpixel.net OR comment on our YouTube videos! - Big Pixel, LLC - YouTube Our Hosts David Baxter - CEO of Big Pixel Gary Voigt - Creative Director at Big Pixel The Podcast David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start. In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture. Contact Us hello@thebigpixel.net 919-275-0646 www.thebigpixel.net FB | IG | LI | TW | TT : @bigpixelNC Big Pixel 1772 Heritage Center Dr Suite 201 Wake Forest, NC 27587 Music by: BLXRR

Andrew founded his Social Enterprise, SaluteMyJob, in 2015. He and his team are on a mission to better connect transitioning and former Service men and women, and their families, with ‘Forces Friendly' organisations and the wide variety of opportunities they offer. This has led to the recent launch of a new platform, Troopr, to use technology to transform the experience for both organisations and individual members of the Armed Forces community. His former employer, IBM, is an important partner in this venture. Andrew joined Kenexa, a US provider of HR science, technology and services, In 2009, after a full career in the British Army. He was responsible for starting up the company's government business, achieving $25m in sales and $12m in revenue in 3 years. For his last 4 years in the Army, Andrew was Director of Army Recruiting, responsible for the recruitment of 17,000 officers and soldiers annually into the Regular and Reserve Army. As part of this work, he led a project to identify how commercial best practices, capabilities, and expertise could help to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Army recruiting. Earlier Army appointments included command of an Army brigade in Scotland; Responsibility for the Army's UK Training Estate, and 3 years on the Commitments (Operations) Staff in the Ministry of Defence at the height of the Kosovo crisis. In 1996, he achieved his lifelong ambition to command 1st Battalion, The King's Scottish Borderers. He sits on the board of a US Not-For-Profit, Corporate America Supports You. He is a volunteer mentor for SSAFA and an active supporter of Combat Stress. In 2023, he established and now leads a #JoiningForces initiative to foster and enable collaboration between ‘Forces Friendly organisations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dominant structural shift identified centers on liability allocation and governance in the context of agentic AI deployment across IT and managed services. The episode underscores how automation is moving beyond content generation to direct operational and security actions, referencing technology from OpenAI (GPT-5.3 Instant), Anthropic (Claude Marketplace), Google Workspace CLI, Microsoft's SharePoint AI features, and Hexnode's Genie AI. Vendors are embedding AI deeper into productivity and endpoint infrastructure, increasing both operational efficiency and the risk footprint—making governance, reliability, and accountability the new competitive differentiators. The most consequential development highlighted is the industry-wide disconnect between rapid AI remediation adoption and lagging governance. According to Omdia, 88% of organizations are using AI-driven remediation, but only 44% have implemented it for most exposure types, and nearly half (49%) of security teams lack trust in these systems. IBM data shows that 63% of organizations lack formal AI incident response policies, meaning deployment often outpaces the development of auditability and risk management. This creates a landscape where automated decisions are taken at scale without clear accountability structures or incident protocols. Supporting developments reinforce these governance and risk concerns. Reports of cognitive fatigue—termed “AI brain fry”—affecting over 14% of users (Boston Consulting Group/UC Riverside) and a 39% increase in error rates among those affected, point to compounding human and system risk when automation outpaces oversight. Market analysis from Accenture, Wharton, and the Dallas Fed notes that AI has shifted skill demand, displaced younger tech workers, and pressured traditional fixed-fee business models. Meanwhile, vendors are migrating from predictable per-seat pricing to variable token-based consumption, passing operational uncertainty onto MSPs and their clients. For MSPs, IT service providers, and technology leaders, the practical implications are clear. Failure to implement explicit governance, contract clauses, and incident protocols exposes providers to unpredictable liability. Passing through ungoverned consumption costs under fixed-contracts damages margins as AI use expands. The increasing cognitive load on staff supervising partially trusted automation further compounds operational risk. As the pricing model shifts, providers must negotiate new contract terms, institute AI incident playbooks, audit tool autonomy, and manage the blast radius of AI with the same rigor as legacy security controls. 00:00 Platform Land Grab 03:56 Who Owns Failure 07:27 Skills Over Titles 09:52 Why Do We Care?  Supported by: JumpCloud  

An airhacks.fm conversation with Daniel Terhorst-North (@tastapod.com) about: first computer experience with the ZX81 and its 1K memory, the 1K chess game on ZX81, the ZX Spectrum with 16K and later 48K memory, the Amstrad 128K, typing in game listings from computer magazines, Dan's brother John hacking ZX spectrum games using a hardware freeze device and memory peeking/poking, cracking game encryption and copy protection on 8-bit tape cassette games, the arms race between game publishers and hackers, cracking the Star Wars game security before its release, ZX Spectrum fan sites and retro gaming communities, classic games including 3D Monster Maze and Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, sprite graphics innovation on the Z80 chip, first internship at Domark publishing Empire Strikes Back on ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, second internship at IBM Hursley Park working on CICS in PL/1 and Rexx, the contrast between casual game studio culture and IBM corporate culture in the 1980s, IBM's role as a founding partner of J2EE Enterprise Java, JMS wrapping MQ Series, the reliability of MQ Series compared to later messaging technologies, finding and reporting a concurrency bug in MQ Series with JUnit tests and IBM's rapid response with an emergency patch, IBM alphaWorks portal and experimental technologies, IBM Aglets mobile Java agent framework compared to modern A2A agent protocols, Jini and JavaSpaces from Sun Microsystems with leasing and self-healing, JXTA peer-to-peer technology, IBM Jikes Compiler performance compared to javac, IBM's own JVM, JVM running on Palm Pilot around 1999, VisualAge for Java as a port of VisualAge for SmallTalk with its image-based architecture and no file system exposure, Java's coupling of class and package names to files and directories as a design weakness, the difficulty of refactoring without IDE support, Eclipse as the first IDE with proper refactoring, NetBeans IDE performance compared to Visual Studio Code, third internship writing X-ray machine control software in Turbo Pascal doing digital image processing, the pace of technological innovation slowing from kaikaku (abrupt change) to kaizen (continuous improvement), Douglas Adams quote about technology perception by age, DEC Alpha 64-bit Unix performance, commodity Linux hardware replacing exotic RISC machines, Apple M series chips rediscovering RISC Architecture and system-on-chip design, innovation fatigue and signal-to-noise ratio in modern tech, LLMs and the trillion-dollar bet on the wrong technology, electric cars as an example of ongoing innovation, Tailwind CSS shutting down due to AI-generated code replacing paid expertise, Stack Overflow in trouble due to AI summarization, open source innovation continuing with tools like Astral's uv replacing the python toolchain, cross-community collaboration between rust and Python and Ruby ecosystems, first graduate job at Crossfield (Fuji/DuPont joint venture) doing electronic pre-press and color transformation through 4D CMYK color cubes, writing a TIFF decoder from scratch in C, Raster Image Processor technology and its connection to Adobe, transition from C++ to Java feeling quirky, joining ThoughtWorks in 2002 for enterprise Java work Daniel Terhorst-North on twitter: @tastapod.com

Great marketing does not start with your product. It starts with your customer. In this conversation, I speak with marketing strategist Scott Hornstein about why storytelling, customer research, and trust are the real drivers behind successful brands. Scott shares lessons from decades in marketing, including his work with IBM and major technology launches, and explains how companies often fail when they focus on themselves instead of the people they serve. You will hear how listening to the voice of the customer can reshape messaging, build trust, and unlock growth. Scott also reflects on entrepreneurship, resilience, family, and the mindset required to get back up after setbacks. I believe you will find this conversation both practical and encouraging as you think about how relationships and trust shape business success. Highlights: · Creativity in Queens – Scott reflects on how music and culture shaped his early creativity.04:10 · From Literature to Marketing – His love of books leads him toward storytelling and marketing.12:57 · Learning to Experiment – A mentor teaches the value of trying ideas and learning from failure.20:46 · The Customer as the Hero – Scott explains why marketing must center on the customer.31:48 · Customer Insight Drives Messaging – Research helps reshape a company's message and market entry.41:23 · Resilience Through Setbacks – Scott reflects on perseverance in life and business.50:59 Top of Form Bottom of Form About the Guest: I currently live in Reston VA, my wife and I having moved there to be close to our 2 daughters and our 2 granddaughters. I am an independent business consultant specializing in storytelling – which embraces marketing, research, and content. Family is the most important thing in my life and it has taught me that lasting relationships, business and personal, are steeped in empathy and commitment. I was born in Manhattan on July 25, 1950. My parents soon moved the family to the up-and-coming borough of Queens. I attended the public schools in and around Forest Hills.  Writing was always my goal. I graduated NYU as an English major.  Upon graduation I traveled, then pursued my (naïve) dream of living as an artist – as a writer, an actor, and a musician. I wrote plays for the brand-new cable industry, wrote for a movie-making magazine, was in several off-off Broadway plays, worked as a pick-up musician. I helped in the office for a former professor to earn subway money. Got tired of starving to death. Took a job with CBS in the Broadcast Center, pulling together the Daily Log for the local station. Then, got hired to answer Bill Paley's mail. Then, I was hired as a marketing manager for Columbia House where I got some of the best advice – keep going. I met this guy from my neighborhood while commuting to my job in Manhattan. Turns our he worked for Y&R and said they were looking for someone. I interviewed and jumped over to agency-side work as an Account Executive, then Account Supervisor, then, going back to my roots, copywriter and eventually Creative Director. The entrepreneurial life has been a roller coaster, but I have been blessed to work with some brilliant people in marketing and sales, and some great companies. It allowed me to understand how I can really help my customers become successful in the long-term. Ways to connect with Scott**:** LinkedIn Medium www.hornsteinassociates.com About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Well, hi everyone, and welcome once again to another episode of unstoppable mindset today. Our guest is Scott Hornstein, although when he came into the Zoom Room, I said, is it Hornstein or Hornstein? And of course, he also understood, because we're both of the same age, and are both fans of Young Frankenstein, who always said that his name was really pronounced Frankenstein. But you know, you have to have to know Gene Wilder for that. But anyway, if you haven't seen that movie, you got to see it. Mel Brooks at his best, but Scott is a marketing person and specializes a lot in storytelling, which fascinates me a lot, because I am a firm believer in storytelling, and I know we're going to have a lot of fun talking about that today. So Scott, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Scott Hornstein  02:20 Thank you so much, Michael. I have to start by saying I have great respect for your work, and this is really quite a privilege for me. Thank you very much. Michael Hingson  02:32 Well, thank you. You're a long way from where you were born, in New York, in Manhattan. Now you're in Reston, Virginia, but that's okay. Well, you're not that far. It's just a short train ride, a few hours. Scott Hornstein  02:41 I That's true. That's true, although with that particular train, you can never be sure exactly how long it's going to be good Michael Hingson  02:52 point, yeah, yeah, good point. It is one of the things one has to deal with. But that's okay. But, you know, I've taken that train many times, and I've taken the the Metro liner as well, and also just the regular train. And I like the trains. I enjoy the train. I wish we had more of them out here. Scott Hornstein  03:15 I do too. I when it a long time ago in business, when I had a client here in DC, and I was living in Connecticut, I started taking the train, and it was so superior to flying. Oh yeah. And then recently I was, as I was mentioning to you, I was in Germany and taking the trains there is just wonderful. It's so superior. Michael Hingson  03:47 Yeah, I wish we would have more of them out here. If I, for example, want to take a train to San Francisco from where I live in Victorville, the only way I can do it is to take a train at roughly four in the morning to Los Angeles and then transfer on a train to go to San Francisco, which is no fun. I'll fly because it's it's kind of crazy, but I like the trains, and wish we wish we had more of them all over, and wish more people would use them. It's a lot better than driving, and it's a lot more pleasant. When I lived in the east, there were any number of times that I knew people who would travel from like Bucks County in Pennsylvania to New York Wall Street people, and they would go two, two and a half hours on the train every day and back again. And they formed discussion groups or other sorts of things. They they made it a part of their regular day, and it was there was nothing to them to do that. Scott Hornstein  04:54 And to them, I say, God bless. I am not in love with commuting, right? Yeah. Michael Hingson  05:00 Well, I understand that. I appreciate that, but they, they did well with it, and so good for them, or, as I would say in Australia, good on them. But you know, well, why don't we start tell us a little bit about you, maybe growing up in the early Scott and all that stuff. Let's start with that, sure. Scott Hornstein  05:21 First one brief aside about Young Frankenstein when I was living in Connecticut, I would go to the theater in Stanford, and for one performance, my tickets were at the will call, so I went up to the ticket booth, gave them my name, and the woman be on the other side of the iron bars keeps throwing her head to the side, wanting me to look over to my left, and I finally look over to my left, and there's Gene Wilder. Oh my gosh. What an enormously tall individual, very gracious, very nice. In any case, yes, Michael Hingson  06:06 with him, did you? Did you talk with Scott Hornstein  06:09 him just for a moment, just for a moment, you know, just Mr. Wilder, how nice to meet you. And he said a couple of nice things. And that was about it. Still, we all went to see the to see the show. Still, it was quite a thrill for me. What show I do not. Oh, that was, oh, no, excuse me. That was the the madness of King Charles, madness of King George. King George. But he was quite mad, and the play is excellent, excellent. Well, anyway, in any case, I grew I was born in Manhattan. I spent the first couple of years of life on the west side. I don't remember much of that. But my parents quickly moved us out to Queens, which at that point was rather undeveloped. You could get a lot more for your money, and we have lived in an apartment building. And around our apartment building was nothing but empty lots. It was just not developed yet. But it was a great place to grow up because the there was so much going on in those years and so much so much music that was going on. The first recollection I have, in light of all the talk about vaccines and healthcare and all of this is I really remember that polio was a real thing there, and I remember kids with the braces on their legs. And I remember that when one of my friends got chicken pox, that the mothers would get us all together and have a play date so that we got chicken pox too. Okay, but it was, Michael Hingson  08:20 I'm sorry, remember, I remember getting the polio vaccinations, even starting in kindergarten, Scott Hornstein  08:24 yes, yes. And it was such a remarkable thing at that time. We all thought it was like a miracle. And, and Jonas Salk, I mean, he was like, such a hero, yeah. The other thing, so I, we were out in Queens, in an area that's the larger area is called Forest Hills, and it was, it was a great place, because the the whole museum, whole music scene was just exploding. So I'm moving on until my junior high school and high school years, and it was just all over the place. Yes, we were playing in bands, but also there were these wonderful venues to go to. And there was the subway. If my parents only knew where I really was, we would get on the subway, go down in the village, go to all the cafe bar Gertie spoke city, all these places to hear the this wonderful mind changing music. And by mind changing, I don't mean drugs. I mean mind changing that it was, it was just everything in life. Michael Hingson  09:57 And there's nothing like hearing a lot. Music, Scott Hornstein  10:01 even to this day, it's my very, very favorite thing to do. Yeah, and so many musicians and artists came out of that area. I not being one of them. But it was so exciting. Michael Hingson  10:27 I remember when we lived in New Jersey, and I would commute into New York. I heard, for example, even then, and it was in like 96 to beginning of 2002 Woody Allen on Monday night would play his clarinet somewhere. And less, less, Paul was still doing music and playing music at the meridian ballroom. And you can even take your guitar in and he would sign it for you Scott Hornstein  10:55 the it was Joe's Pub. Woody Allen would right. And I went there a couple of times to see him. Of course, it was so pricey that we had to kind of sneak in have one beer, yeah, Michael Hingson  11:16 but still, it was worth doing. Scott Hornstein  11:19 And then they Yeah, and they were great clubs. I think that was, there's certainly the blue note for jazz that I went to a lot. And then there in Times Square, there was iridium, which was where I was able to see Les Paul, right? And many of those greats. Michael Hingson  11:42 Yeah, I never did get to go and get my guitar signed, and now it's too late. But oh, well, do you play? I play at it more than anything else. My father, I think, even before the war, before World War Two, or somewhere around there anyway, he traded something and got a Martin grand concert guitar. Oh, still, I still have it. That's wonderful. What a wonderful sound it is. Scott Hornstein  12:15 What a wonderful story. Yes, I play as well. I And growing up very early on, I decided I wanted to be Ricky Nelson. Oh, there you go. But I quickly learned that I was not going to be Ricky Nelson. However, the guy that was standing behind him playing guitar, now that might be something that I could do. So yes, so I picked it up, and I played in all the bands and then, which quickly taught me that I was not cut out for rock and roll, that I wasn't very good at it, but it led me into many other avenues of music, certainly listening, certainly being part of that scene, I'd go see friends of mine who could play well rock and roll and And that was so exciting for me. And then I, I played in pickup bands through college. So on a weekend night there would be a wedding, Bar Mitzvah, and this guy, I forget his name, piano player, he he got all the gigs and Howie was the first choice for guitar, and if Howie wasn't available, they'd call me. Michael Hingson  13:47 There you go, hey. So second choice is better than no choice. Absolutely. Scott Hornstein  13:54 I i enjoyed it thoroughly and that they paid me money to do this. There you go, right, inconceivable to me. Michael Hingson  14:05 So what did you major in in college? Scott Hornstein  14:10 Well, I started off majoring in biology, and there you go. And why I chose biology is is a mystery to this day, it didn't last long. I cycled through a number of things, and I graduated with a degree in literature, in English, particularly American literature, which is not quite the same as learning a trade. But you know it, it was consistent with with who I was at that time. I was the guy who, if he went out the door, would have two books with him, just in case I finished one. I didn't want to be left at sea, so a voracious reader couldn't stay away from the theater. So it was very consistent with who I was and and it was good for me, because I think through things like like literature and fiction and biography, you learn so much about the world, about how different people are confronted with challenges, how they process their lives, how they overcome these challenges or not or not, it just exposes you to so much. Michael Hingson  15:49 Yeah, and so I'll bet you had some challenges finding some sort of real, permanent job after getting a degree in English? Scott Hornstein  16:03 Yes, I did. But when I got out the idea of it didn't cross my mind that people actually would not earn a great living by being just an artist. What did I want to do? I wanted to write. I wanted to be involved in music. I wanted to act. I did all these things until the point when I got thoroughly fed up with being poor, with not having a dime in my pocket. Ever starving to death is, is sort of what you would call it. Yeah, yeah. You know, I did. I have modest success. Yes, I was able to keep myself off the streets, but no, it was no way for a career. It was no way to even be able to afford your own apartment, for gosh sakes. So I from there i i had done a lot of promotion for the different things that I was involved in, trying to get audiences, trying to get awareness of what I was doing, and that led me to have some contacts inside of CBS. And when I started looking for a job, I started talking to these folks, and they offered me a job. So here I was, and actually gainfully employed. Michael Hingson  17:44 What was the job? Well, I Scott Hornstein  17:47 was sort of a gopher for my first job. Mostly what I did was type, but I do have one good story for you. So I was down in the depths of the CBS Broadcast Center, which is all the way on the west side of 5017 and it's an old milk factory, so which they had converted to broadcast purposes. And so there were long holes, and the halls would always slope down. And there was one day where I was late for a meeting, and I came running down the halls, and there are always these swinging doors, I guess, for in case there's a fire or something, and I'm bursting through the doors, and I go running, and I burst through the next set of doors, and I'm running, and I burst through the next set of doors, and I knock this guy right on his bum. I pick him up, I dust him off. I say, I am so sorry. He says, Don't worry about a thing. It's all fine. I continue running. A friend of mine grabs me and says, Did you see Paul Newman? Michael Hingson  19:10 There you are. Scott Hornstein  19:12 So I have the unique entry on my resume of knocking Paul Newman to the ground. Michael Hingson  19:22 I Well, at least he was civil and nice about it. Scott Hornstein  19:26 He was very nice about it, though. Yeah, so I worked there and then through my writing, because I was writing for a film magazine at night, which, of course, didn't pay a cent, not a cent, but I got to go to all the premiers, and I got to meet all the people and interview all the people so whatever. So through that, I was able to go over to the main building and answer letters for Bill Paley, who was the. Michael Hingson  20:00 Chairman, Chairman, I said, Yes, right, Scott Hornstein  20:02 and it was my job to explain to everybody why Mr. Paley, I never called him, Bill, never, nobody, no, no, why he was right and they were wrong. That was my job, and that I did that for a little while, I can honestly say that I enjoyed having money in my pocket, but that was not the most fulfilling of jobs, and from there, I was able to go over and get my first marketing position, working for the Columbia record and tape Club, which was part of CBS Records at that time. And when I Ben or Dover was the president of Columbia House at that time, and when he made me the offer, he gave me one of the great life lessons that I've I've ever had. And he said, Scott, if you sit in your office and you do exactly what I ask you to do, and you do it on time, and you do it perfectly, we are not going to get along. But if you are out there and you're trying this and you're trying that, and this works, and that doesn't work, but you get up and you keep trying, we're going to be fast friends. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. That's something that has stayed with me my whole life. One of the great pieces of advice that I've ever gotten, Michael Hingson  21:57 well the for me, what's fascinating about it is thinking about how many people would really do that and allow that to happen, but it's really what more people should be doing. I've I've always maintained that the biggest problem with bosses is that they boss people around too much, rather than encouraging them and helping them and using their own talents to help people be more creative. When I hire sales people, the first thing I always told them was, well, the second thing because the first thing I always told them was, you need to understand right up front if you're going to sell here, you have to learn to turn perceived liabilities into assets. And that's got a story behind it. But the second thing that I always talked about was my job isn't to boss you around. I hired you because you convinced me that you're supposed to be able to do the job, and we'll see how that goes. But you should be able to but my job is to work with you to figure out how I can use my talents to help you and to enhance what you do to make you more successful. And the people who got that did really well, because we usually did things differently, and we both learned how to figure out and actually figure out how to work with each other and be very successful. But the people who didn't get it and wouldn't try that, generally, weren't all that successful. Scott Hornstein  23:26 Not terribly surprised, sir. You know, I think that people miss the the humanity of all this. And that if we bring our respective strengths and work together, that it's going to be a more complete and more successful whole than if I try and dominate you and tell you what to do, right, just that hasn't been a successful formula for me. I have never done well with people who tried to tell me exactly what to do, which is probably why I went out on my own. Probably why, in the greater scheme of things that I I did well, working for people from Columbia House. I met this guy on the train, and we got friendly, and he said he worked for an advertising agency, and they were looking for somebody would I be interested in interviewing? And this was with the young and Rubicon. And I did get the job, and I did work my way up to an account supervisor. And then i i said, i. Hate this, and I went back to be a copywriter and worked my way up to be a creative director. But, you know, I went on my own on January 1 of 86 and it was like a liberation for me, because at that point there was a new a new president of the division that I worked for, and he was not a nurturing individual. He was more of the dominant kind of you'll do what I tell you to do. Didn't sit well with me at all, and I had the opportunity to go on my own. So I I packed up my dolls and dishes, and I walked in on January 2, and I said, Bill, I quit. Michael Hingson  26:02 There you go. Was it hard for you to do that? Scott Hornstein  26:11 You know, at that point? So I here I am. I'm a creative director. I got the office on Madison Avenue, and I'm doing freelance all over the place, not only because it was extra money, but because it was it was fueling my creativity. It was giving me something back. It was fun. And I really like to have fun. I have so much fun working with people and that interaction that that humanity, the spark of humanity. So I was doing a lot of freelance, and I wrote this proposal for this one design group who was near where I was living at that time, and it got sold. So they said, Do you want to you want to work on it? And at that point in my life, I didn't have any responsibilities. I had a studio apartment there that was real cheap. And I said, If I don't try this now, yeah, I don't think I'll ever try it. So that's what I did. I quit, and I walked out the door into the great unknown, Michael Hingson  27:39 and the entrepreneurial spirit took over. Scott Hornstein  27:43 It did, and it worked well for about six, seven months, and then we got to the summertime, and I couldn't get arrested for a while. But you know, you have to take it one day at a time. And I figured, all right, well, let's just be open and network and see what's going on. It's not the time to quit. It's not the time to go back and get a job. And I was fortunate in that I was sitting at the desk one day, and this one guy called me, and I had met him before his folks ran one of the biggest, or actually the biggest, telemarketing agency in New York at that time, and I had met, met this fellow, and he said, I got this project. I've been asking around for creative source, and three people gave me your name. So I figured, well, let's go talk. And that turned into a very, very good situation for me, it gave me a lot of responsibility and a lot of leeway to take all the things that I had learned and put them in service of my client and I had a ball. I loved it. The only thing I didn't love was the and I did love this for a while was the constant travel. Now, everybody doesn't travel, and they're all sitting in their rooms at home, looking at screens. But that was that was a great opportunity for me to to spread my wings and to take and I learned so much one of the. Initial assignments I had was for IBM and IBM at that time was, was Mount Olympus. Oh my gosh, working for IBM, and I worked in tandem with this research group. We were all working on the introduction of the IBM ThinkPad and what these folks, they had a methodology they called voice of customer research, which was a qualitative research we're talking to decision makers from a carefully prepared Interview Guide to come up with the attitudes, the insights that we could put together to to come up with a solution. And I was fascinated by this of how to tap into what what the customer really wants by talking to the customer. How unusual. Michael Hingson  31:16 What a concept. Oh yeah. I mean Scott Hornstein  31:19 then and now, it's still the operative phrase of this would be a wonderful business, business, if it wasn't for all those annoying customers and and this just turned that on its head. That's another thing that I learned that has stayed with me through my entire career, is that for the the storytelling, and what I mean by storytelling is, is two things. Is, first, you know all your stories are going to come from what you consider to be your brand, but if you're not developing your brand according to the wants, the needs, the desires, the expressed future state that your Customers want, then then you're wide of the mark. So I was able to bring this in, and I think do a much better job for my customers. Now, the way that relates into storytelling is that you're you're able to take what you do and put it into the story of how your customer succeeds with the hero in the hero's journey, is Michael Hingson  32:55 your customer, your customer? Why do you think that is such a successful tactic to use, Scott Hornstein  33:02 because everybody else is completely enamored of themselves. When other companies craft their their brand, it's mostly because why they think they are special and what their vision tells them is their future. And quite frankly, most customers really don't care when, when a new customer first confronts you and your brand. They ask three questions, who are you? Why should I care? And what's in it for me? And if you can't answer those, if the story that you tell whether complete or in fragments or in in different parts according to where they are on their consideration journey. It doesn't resonate. It doesn't resonate. Hey, I have the best technology out there. I have brilliant people working on this technology. And guess what? Your technology? Somebody will eat your technology in 18 months, and I don't care, I want to know. What does it do for me? Michael Hingson  34:28 Yeah, as opposed to saying, After asking enough questions, I have technology that will solve this problem that you have identified. Let me tell you about it. Is that okay? Exactly? Scott Hornstein  34:44 Yeah, exactly. And as odd as it sounds, that helps you to stand out in the field, in a crowded Michael Hingson  34:55 field, it does, but it's also all about the. Relating to the customer and getting the customer to establish a rapport and relating to you. And when you, as you pointed out, make it about the customer, and you talk in such a way that clearly, you're demonstrating you're interested in the customer and what they want they're going to relate to you. Scott Hornstein  35:24 There's two, two things in there that, well, there's a million things in there that are particularly true. And the first is not only recognizing and and internalizing the goals of your client, but also opening yourself up and saying, these are people. These are humans. And the other real distinguishing fact that a lot of people don't either realize or embrace is that in business to business, and I've spent most of my life in business to business, it's all personal. It's all about personal connections. It's all about trust. And call me crazy, but I am not going to trust a machine. I will have confidence in technology, but my trust is going to be placed in the human through this, one anecdote that that is has really impressed me is that I was doing one of these interviews once, and I was talking to the CEO of of this company. And I said, Well, you know, I of course, I'm working for company A and you've been a client for a long time. What's, what's the greatest benefit that you get from this company? And without hesitation, he said, our salesman. Our salesman is part of our team. He understands who we are, he knows what we need, and he goes and he gets it. So that kind of that, to me, has always been a touchstone on things. Michael Hingson  37:43 Well, the fact that the salesman earned that reputation, and the President was willing to acknowledge it is really important and crucial. Scott Hornstein  37:56 And within that, I would say the very important word that you used is earn. You need to earn that trust. Sure it doesn't come just because you have brilliant technology. It's all people. It's all personal, all people. Michael Hingson  38:20 And that's success, the successful sales people are people who understand and work to earn trust. Scott Hornstein  38:32 Well said, and I think that particularly in this age of accelerating remoteness, that this concept of earning the trust and the person to person becomes a compelling competitive differentiator. And I think that that telling the story of of how you make your customers successful, of the role you play, of where you're going, this allows you to bridge some of those troubled waters to people who are sitting remote. It helps you to open your ears you know where you're going, so you can listen, yeah, Michael Hingson  39:40 well, and that's an extremely important thing to to keep in mind and to continue to hone, because bottom line is, it's all about, as I said, trust, and it certainly is about earning, and that isn't something you. First, it's something that you understand. Scott Hornstein  40:04 It's a gift that can only be bestowed on your customer. You can want it, but they're the only ones who can give you. Your brand is the meal you prepare. You but your reputation is the review, right? So, yeah, you gotta earn that trust. Michael Hingson  40:32 So how long so you you own your own company? How long has the company been in existence? Scott Hornstein  40:40 I Well, let's see. I went on my own on January 1 in 1986 and I am still without visible means of support. Michael Hingson  40:58 Well, there you go, same company all along, huh? Scott Hornstein  41:03 I Yeah, you know, do different work with different people, sure, but yes, it's still me. Michael Hingson  41:13 It's still, do you actually have a company and a name or anything like that? Scott Hornstein  41:17 I did. I did for a long time. I operated under Hornstein associates, okay, and recently I have dropped that and I just work as myself. I think that I had employees, then I had expandable, retractable resources then, and I'm not so interested in doing that right now. I am interested in working as and I love working as part of a team. Collaboration is my middle name. I might not have put that on my resume, but yeah, and I'm just, I'm really just interested in being me these days. Michael Hingson  42:13 That's fair. There's nothing wrong with that. No, well, in your current role, what do you think is the greatest contribution you've made to your clients, and I'd love an example, a story about that. Scott Hornstein  42:28 I would love to tell you a story. Oh, good. So one of my clients is a manufacturer. And they manufacture of all things, barcode scanners, as you would use in a warehouse and in a warehouse, absolutely everything, including the employees, has a barcode. Theirs is different than the the ones that you would normally see, the ones that like have a pistol grip. These are, these are new. It's new technology. They're ergonomically designed. They sit on the back of your hand. They're lightweight. They have more capabilities. They're faster and more accurate. Well, that sounds like sliced bread. However, they had a big problem in that all the scanners in all the warehouses come from the titans of the universe, the Motorola's, the great big names and these great, you know the old saying of Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. Well, you know, if they need more scanners. Why would they go elsewhere? They just go back and get the same thing. So the the big problem is, is how to penetrate this market? And we did it. I worked with them in a number of ways. The first way was to conduct interviews, qualitative interviews, with the executive team, to come up with their their brand. What did they think? What did they think that was most important? And they said, clearly, the productivity gains, not only is this faster, not only can we prove that this is faster, but the the technology is so advanced that now we can also give you. Information from the shop floor. Well, then we talked to their their partners, who were already selling things into these warehouses. And we talked to a number of companies that were within their ICP, their ideal customer profile, I think that's very important to be prospecting with the folks who can make best use of your products and services. And what we found is that it wasn't just the productivity, it was that we solved other problems as well, and without going heavily into it, we solved the a big safety problem. We made the shop floor more secure and safer for the workers. So we changed the message from Warehouse productivity to the warehouse floor of making each employee safer, able to contribute more and able to have a better satisfaction, and that we were able to roll out into a into great messaging. The initial campaign was solely focused on the workers, and our offer was We challenge you to a scan off our scanners, against yours, your employees, your products, your warehouse. Let's have a head to head competition, because we then knew from these interviews, from working with the partners, that once these employees got the ergonomic the lightweight, ergonomic scanners on their hands, and realized how much faster They were, and how much safer that they were, that they would be our champions. And in fact, that's what, what happened. I can go deeper into the story, but it it became a story. Instead of coming in and just saying, boost your productivity, it's the scanners work for your your overall productivity. It helps you to keep your customers satisfied, your workers, one of the big problems that they're having is maintaining a stable and experienced workforce, this changed the characteristic of the shop floor, and it changed the character, how the employees themselves described their work environment. So we were able to take that and weave a story that went from one end of the warehouse to the other with benefits for everybody in between. So you said, What is the the one you said, the greatest benefit, I would say the contribution that I'm most proud of, it's that it's to recast the brand, the messaging, in the form, in the shape of the customer, of what they need, of helping them to achieve the future state that they want. And I'm sorry for a long winded answer, Michael Hingson  49:10 yes, that's okay. Not a not a problem. So let me what would you say are the two or three major accomplishments or achievements in your career, and what did they teach you? Scott Hornstein  49:26 Well, you know, I think the the achievements in my career, well, the first one I would mention was incorporating that, that voice of customer research, bringing the customer to the planning table, letting the executives, the sales people, the marketers, unite around, how does the customer express their hopes, their dreams, their challenges? I would say the second. Uh, is this idea of taking all of the content of all of the messaging and and unifying it? Some people call it a pillar view. I call it storytelling, of relaying these things so that you are giving your prospects and your customers the information that they need when they need it, at the specific point in their consideration journey, when this is most important, and it might be that a research report for a prospect that talks about some of the challenges in the marketplace and what's being done, it might be as simple for a customer as a as a video on how do you do this? You know, how do you screw in a light bulb? Oh, here it is. Everybody's used to that. The the third thing, and, and this is something, forgive me, for which I am, I am very proud, is that now I take this experience and this expertise, and through the organization called score, I'm able to give this back to people who are are trying to make their way as entrepreneurs Michael Hingson  51:35 through the Small Business Administration. And score, yes, Scott Hornstein  51:40 very proud of that. I get so much for from that. Michael Hingson  51:46 Well, what would you say are maybe the two or three major achievements for you in life, and what did you learn? Or what did they teach you? Or are they the same Scott Hornstein  51:57 I did? Well, I would say they're they're the same, and yet they're a little bit different. The first one is, is that it's only very few people who lead the charmed life where they are never knocked down. I'm not one of those people, and I've been knocked down several times, both professionally and personally, and to get back up, I to have that, and you will forgive me if I borrow a phrase that indomitable spirit that says, no, sorry, I'm getting back up again. And I can do this. And it may not be comfortable and it may not be easy, but I can do this. So there was that I think that having kids and then grandkids has taught me an awful lot about about interpersonal relationships, about the fact that there isn't anything more important than family, not by a long shot, and from these different things. I mean, certainly, as you I was, I didn't have the same experience, but 911 affected me deeply, deeply and and then it quite frankly, there was 2008 when I saw my my business and my finances sort of twirl up into the sky like like the Wizard of Oz, like that house in the beginning, Michael Hingson  54:09 but still, Scott Hornstein  54:16 And I persevere, yeah. So I think that that perseverance, that that focus on on family, on humanity. And I would say there's one other thing in there, is that. And this is a hard one. Observation is that I can't do anything about yesterday, and tomorrow is beyond my reach, so I I have to take Michael Hingson  54:56 today, but you can certainly use yesterday. As a learning experience, Scott Hornstein  55:01 I am the sum of all my parts, absolutely, but my focus isn't today, and using everything that I've learned certainly. You know, I got tongue tied there for just a minute. Michael Hingson  55:19 I hear you, though, when did you get married? Scott Hornstein  55:25 I got married in 87 I I met my wife commuting on the train to New York. Michael Hingson  55:35 So you had actually made the decision to could to quit and so on, before you met and married her. Scott Hornstein  55:43 No, no, I was, I was I met her while I still had a job in advertising. That's why I was commuting to New York. And you know, in the morning there was a bunch of us. We'd hold seats for each other and just camaraderie, yeah, you know, have our coffee. Did she? Did she work? She did she did she was she joined the group because she knew she had just gotten a job in New York. And of course, for those who don't know New York? When I say New York, I mean Manhattan, the city. Nobody thinks of any of the boroughs Michael Hingson  56:27 as part of New York. Scott Hornstein  56:31 And yeah, I and one day gone in, she fell asleep on my shoulder, and the rest is history. There you go. Michael Hingson  56:41 What So, what did she think when you quit and went completely out on your own? Scott Hornstein  56:48 I you know, I never specifically asked her, but I would think that she would have thought that maybe I was not as solid, maybe not as much marriage material, maybe a little bit of a risk taker. I did not see it as as taking a risk, though, at that time, but it was actually great for us, just great for us. And yeah, met there, and then I quit. Shortly thereafter, she was still commuting. And then things started to just take off, yeah, yeah, both for my career and for the relationship, yeah. Michael Hingson  57:51 And again, the rest of course, as they say, is history. Scott Hornstein  57:56 It is. And here I am now in Reston, Virginia, and we moved to Reston because both daughters are in close proximity, and my two grandchildren. And you know, am I still confronted with the knock downs and the and the get up again. Yeah, the marketplace is very crazy today. The big companies are doing great, the mid size companies, which is my Market, and it's by choice, because I like dealing with senior management. I like dealing with the people who make the decisions, who if we decide something's going to happen, it happens and and you can see the impact on the culture, on on the finances, on the customer base. These guys are it's tough out there right now. Let me say that it's it's tough to know which way to go. This doesn't seem to be anything that's sure at the moment. Michael Hingson  59:11 Yeah, it's definitely a challenging world and and then the government isn't necessarily helping that a lot either. But again, resilience is an important thing, and the fact is that we all need to learn that we can survive and surmount whatever comes along. Scott Hornstein  59:33 And let me just throw in AI that is a big disruptor at the moment that nobody actually knows Michael Hingson  59:43 what to do with it. I think people have various ideas there. There are a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas. And AI can be a very powerful tool to help but it is a tool. It is not an end all. Um. Yeah, and well said, I think that, you know, even I, when I first heard about AI, I heard people complaining about how students were writing their papers using AI, and you couldn't tell and almost immediately I realized, and thought, so what the trick is, what are you going to do about it. And what I've what I've said many times to teachers, is let students use AI if that's what they're going to use to write their papers, and then they turn them in. And what you do is you take one period, and you call each student up and you say, All right, I've read your paper. I have it here. I want you now to defend your paper, and you have one minute, you're going to find out very quickly who really knows what they're talking about. Scott Hornstein  1:00:47 That, in fact, is brilliant. Michael Hingson  1:00:49 I think it's a very I think it's a very powerful tool. I use AI in writing, but I use it in that. I will use it, I will I will ask it questions and get ideas, and I'll ask other questions and get other ideas, and then I will put them together, however, because I know that I can write better than AI can write, and maybe the time will come when it'll mimic me pretty well, but still, I can write better than AI can write, but AI's got a lot more resources to come up with ideas. Scott Hornstein  1:01:21 It does. It does. And with that, it's a fantastic tool. The differentiator, as I see it, for most of my stuff, is that AI has read about all this stuff, but I've lived it, so I'm going to trust me at the end, Michael Hingson  1:01:45 and when I talk about surviving the World Trade Center and teaching people what I learned that helped me in the World Trade Center, I point out most people, if there's an emergency, read signs and they're told go this way to escape or to get out or do this or do that, but there's still signs, and they don't know anything. I don't read signs, needless to say, and what I did was spent a fair amount of time truly learning all I could about the World Trade Center where things were, what the emergency evacuation procedures were what would happen in an emergency and so on. And so for me, it was knowledge and not just relying on a sign. And so when September 11 happened, a mindset kicked in, and we talked about that in my my latest book, live like a guide dog. But that's what it's about, is it's all about knowledge and truly having that information, and that's what you can trust. Scott Hornstein  1:02:48 I'll give you a big amen on that one. Michael Hingson  1:02:52 Well, this has been a lot of fun to do. We've been Can you believe we've been doing this an hour? My gosh, time, I know having fun. Scott Hornstein  1:03:03 It's fun. And I would say again, in closing, I just have enormous respect for what you've accomplished, what you've done. This is been a great privilege for me. I thank you very much. Michael Hingson  1:03:19 Well, it's been an honor for me, and I really value all the comments, the advice, the thoughts that you've shared, and hopefully people will take them to heart. And I would say to all of you out there, if you'd like to reach out to Scott, how do they do that? Well, there you go. See, just, just type, well, right? Scott Hornstein  1:03:42 That's it. If you, if you sent an email to Scott dot Hornstein at Gmail, you'll get me. Michael Hingson  1:03:56 And Hornstein is spelled Scott Hornstein  1:03:58 H, O, R, N, S, T, E, I, Michael Hingson  1:04:03 N, and again, it's scott.hornstein@gmail.com Scott Hornstein  1:04:09 that's that's the deal. There you go. Well, find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on medium. I'm all over the place. Michael Hingson  1:04:18 There you are. Well, I hope people will reach out, because I think you will enhance anything that they're doing, and certainly trust is a big part of it, and you earn it, which is great. So thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching us wherever you are. Please give us a five star review and a rating and but definitely give us a review as well. We appreciate that. If you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, Scott, you as well. We're always looking for more people to have on, so please introduce us and Scott. If you want to come on again, we can talk about that too. That'd be kind of fun. But I want to thank what I want to thank you again for being here. This has been fun, and I appreciate you being here with us today and and so thank you very much for doing it. Scott Hornstein  1:05:07 My all the pleasure is all mine. Michael Hingson  1:05:14 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Visit Mixture of Experts podcast page to get more AI content → https://www.ibm.com/think/podcasts/mixture-of-experts Is Perplexity still focused on search? This week on Mixture of Experts, Host Tim Hwang is joined by Gabe Goodhart, Chris Hay and Aaron Baughman to break down what Perplexity Computer really offers—and whether closed systems can compete with open alternatives like OpenClaw, LangGraph and AutoGPT. Next, Anthropic introduces memory import for Claude. Is memory still a competitive moat, or can users now seamlessly switch between AI providers? Then, meet NullClaw, a minimalist agent framework that runs on just 678 kilobytes. Our experts debate whether edge-based agent swarms are the future—or just clever marketing. Finally, Particle6 unveils Tilly Norwood, the world's first AI actor. Would you give an Oscar to an algorithm? All that and more on this week's Mixture of Experts. 00:00 -- Introduction 1:07 -- Perplexity Computer 11:23 -- Claude Import Memory 24:14 -- NullClaw 35:14 -- Tilly Norwood The opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM or any other organization or entity. Subscribe for AI updates → https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/us-en/signup?formid=news-urx-52120

Successful… Until You're Not (Career Wake-Up Call) With guest expert, Lyndsay Dowd  Have you ever felt successful on the surface but quietly uncertain underneath? You can do everything right — perform at the top, stay loyal, build an impressive legacy — and still find your career suddenly disrupted. Organizational shifts, new leadership, and evolving expectations are creating career volatility even for the most decorated professionals. Many high performers are being caught off guard by shifts they never saw coming. In this episode, Blake sits down with leadership expert, speaker, and unapologetic disruptor Lyndsay Dowd to unpack why even the highest performers get blindsided, and what it actually takes to build real career security in uncertain times. Lyndsay spent 23 years climbing the ranks at IBM, then got fired just six months into her next role. That shove out of the nest, as she calls it, became the catalyst for everything that followed. Together, Blake and Lyndsay explore the critical difference between job security and true career security, why proactive visibility matters more than ever, and how to navigate career reinvention, whether you saw it coming or not. If you've been waiting until you "need" to take control of your career trajectory, this conversation is your wake-up call.   Episode Highlights Why Even Top Performers Get Blindsided  [06:29] – The hidden assumptions leaders make about career stability  [08:10] – How strong performance can create a false sense of security  [09:31] – Why there's no such thing as job security — only career security    Career Security vs. Job Security  [09:31] – The structural shift happening across today's workforce  [10:45] – Why traditional loyalty no longer guarantees protection  [11:30] – What career ownership actually looks like in practice   Building Visibility Before You Need It  [13:03] – Why LinkedIn is now a platform for expertise, not just resumes  [17:36] – Small, practical ways to start strengthening your professional presence  [21:00] – How to build authentic connection even when you're starting from scratch   The Emotional Side of Career Disruption  [22:27] – Why hustle culture conditioning makes it harder to change  [26:20] – What makes unexpected career change so destabilizing for high performers  [31:29] – How sharing your story creates psychological safety for you and your team   Future-Proofing Your Career [45:20] – The pros and cons list every leader should make before their next move  [48:36] – How building your brand now attracts the right aligned opportunities  [49:50] – Why starting a side hustle is one of the smartest career moves you can make   Powerful Quotes "There's no such thing as job security. There's only career security and you have to build that for yourself." –Lyndsay Dowd "As much as you think your company is loyal to you, they'll move you out in a heartbeat. So stop giving them your life, your health, your mental well-being. Only you can take care of that." –Lyndsay Dowd "Your page doesn't have to be perfect. Your website doesn't have to be built. You do not have to have an LLC or a mission — but you should start talking about what's important to you." –Lyndsay Dowd "When you don't communicate what is unique about who you are, how you create results, what you value — you create a huge burden for someone to figure it out. You're literally leaving them with hundreds of cameras and the hope that they pick you." –Blake Schofield "I got the shove out of the nest at 50. You are not too old, you are not too tired — you have plenty still to say, and you have wisdom the younger generations could really learn from." –Lyndsay Dowd   Resources Mentioned Drained at the end of the day & want more presence in your life? In just 5 minutes, learn your unique burnout type™ & how to restore your energy, fulfillment & peace at www.impactwithease.com/burnout-type   The Fastest Path to Clarity, Confidence & Your Next Level of Success:  executive coaching for leaders navigating layered challenges. Whether you're burned out, standing at a crossroads, or simply know you're meant for more—you don't have to figure it out alone.  Go to impactwithease.com/coaching to apply! Ready to Future-Proof Your Leadership?  Let's explore what's possible for your team.  Whether you're navigating rapid growth, culture change, or quiet disengagement…we can help with our high-touch, root-cause focused solutions that are designed to help grow resilient, aligned & empowered leaders who navigate uncertainty with confidence and create impact without burning out,  go to https://impactwithease.com/corporate-training-consulting/

Tune in for a conversation with Andrew Bercich, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB), as he shares his vision for the future of the workforce system and the leadership needed to navigate a rapidly changing economy. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in talent operations with companies like Amazon and IBM, Andrew discusses how workforce boards can adapt to accelerating technological change, including the growing impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and skills. He also reflects on stepping into his new national leadership role, the priorities shaping NAWB's next chapter, and how workforce leaders can build more responsive, innovative systems that support both employers and job seekers in the years ahead.

Steve Taplin is the CEO of Sonatafy Technology, author of "Fail Hard, Win Big: 30 Ventures | 20 Failures | 10 Wins," and host of the Software Leaders Uncensored podcast. In this conversation, Steve reveals the partnership that almost destroyed him but vindicated him five years later; why he walked out of a meeting with a Fortune 500 CIO; and the discipline that saved his sanity. Steve also shares the 24-hour rule for processing failure to help his teams fail without breaking trust or morale. Steve breaks down the practice that taught him when to fight and when to quit. If you've ever been paralyzed by the fear of failure—or worse, burned by a partnership you trusted—this episode will rewire how you think about risk, resilience, and what it actually takes to bounce back. Find episode 501 on The Leadership Podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! Watch this Episode on YouTube | Steve Taplin on Failure as Fuel: When to push through and when to quit https://bit.ly/TLP-501 Key Takeaways [04:16] Steve shares his most painful failure-turned-win: a $2 million deal his partner closed that he walked away from—five years later, both the partner and sponsor were indicted for fraud. [07:59] Steve drops the hard truth: "Nobody cares about your business. They care about the problem it solves." [09:43] Steve's philosophy on raising money: "Raising money is a responsibility—your business has to be ready for it." [11:15] Steve recalls his "oh sh*t" moment at IBM: he didn't know the difference between sales and marketing after starting his first company. [13:36] Steve credits journaling as his resilience tool and describes rehearsing failure scenarios with his team to build organizational resilience. [18:50] Steve defines earning potential: "Your ability to make money is your ability to solve more challenges than everybody else." [21:52] Steve recounts going back to IBM as VP of Sales and selling over $1 billion in contracts. [27:03] Steve explains when to quit and the discipline that made financial clarity possible. [32:00] Steve's message to young people: "You don't have a choice—the world is unforgiving. You either learn from failure or you don't survive." [35:04] And remember..."Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt Quotable Quotes "Integrity is not optional, especially when you're raising money—it's foundational." "Nobody cares about your business. They care about the problem it solves." "You get 24 hours to be upset. Then shake it off and figure out a solution." "Success is not just money—it's having the freedom to operate your business AND great relationships with your family." "Your ability to make money is your ability to solve more challenges than everybody else." "If you don't take risks, you can't keep accelerating your career." "Good, bad, or indifferent, you learn more from failures than you do successes." "You can't grow without failing." "Use your failures as fuel and learning experiences." "You got to know how to run businesses. You got to know how to sell if you want to take control of your life." These are the books mentioned in this episode Resources Mentioned The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by | www.darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com Steve Taplin LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/stevetaplin Sonatafy Technology Website | www.sonatafy.com Software Leaders Uncensored YouTube | www.youtube.com/@SoftwareLeadersUncensored Software Leaders Uncensored Podcast | softwareleadersuncensored.com

The new IBM business study is out and there are surprising stats involving AI. Bold bets are being made on AI's future, but not the kind you're thinking. Get the latest facts on our job future with this episode. Thank you Salima Lin.

As our governments, institutions, and the public become more aware of the increasing pressures on material and energy availability, we've simultaneously seen powerful ripple effects for industrial policy, economic planning, and geopolitical dynamics. Parallel to this story are evolving strategies unique to each nation as new lines of power emerge alongside the trends of artificial intelligence, competing demands for rare earth metals, and an increasingly unstable global power balance that underpins all of it. How have these seemingly disparate factors combined to influence recent international events – and how can understanding them help us forecast the future of global governance and power?  In this episode, Nate is joined by financial and economic analysts, Craig Tindale and Michael Every, to discuss the widespread implications of growing geopolitical tensions over scarce resources and the rapidly changing foreign policy and economic statecraft that countries are implementing in response. Importantly, Craig and Michael emphasize the centrality of China and the U.S. as the two superpowers reshaping global alliances, and how industrial capacity and material constraints underpin each move made in their pursuit for dominance. Ultimately, they emphasize the need for clarity and realignment of the goals for economic and industrial policy as we leave behind the era of growth and grapple with a simplifying world. What can the long overlooked story of rare earth metals, energy resources, and industrial capacity tell us about ongoing geopolitical events? How might continued AI development play a key role in the future of economic statecraft and the international balance of power? And finally, how should we re-think what economic growth actually serves in an era of resource constraints, geopolitical competition, and ecological crisis? In other words, what is GDP truly for? (And what is GPT really for?)   About Craig Tindale: Craig Tindale is a private investor who has spent nearly four decades working in software development, business strategy, and infrastructure planning, including in leadership positions at Telstra, Oracle, and IBM. Additionally, he has direct experience working in East-to-West supply chains, including as the CEO and Asia Regional Director for DataDirect Technologies.  He's now pivoted to investing in groundbreaking ideas such as drone reforestation through Air Seed Technologies, and uses his knowledge of Chinese industrial strategy and Western tech demand to identify the choke points in Critical Metals markets. Most recently he released the white paper, Critical Materials: A Strategic Analysis, which offers a systems synthesis on how the race for rare earths and the return of material constraints is shaping geopolitical relationships.    About Michael Every: Michael Every is Global Strategist at Rabobank Singapore analyzing major developments and key thematic trends, especially on the intersection of geopolitics, economics, and markets. He is frequently published and quoted in financial media, is a regular conference keynote speaker, and was invited to present to the 2022 G-20 on the current global crisis.  Michael has over two decades of experience working as an Economist and Strategist. Before Rabobank, he was a Director at Silk Road Associates in Bangkok, Senior Economist and Fixed Income Strategist at the Royal Bank of Canada in both London and Sydney, and an Economist for Dun & Bradstreet in London.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the world of data security with Josh Scott, CISO and VP of Security at Hydrolix — a real-time data platform built for massive scale. Josh unpacks critical challenges like AI adoption, cybersecurity priorities, and how organizations can harness data to stay ahead, all while keeping performance high and costs down.01:02 Investing 04:25 Meet Josh Scott 10:54 Adopting AI Safely 14:42 What IS a CISO? 17:14 What Keeps a CISO Up at Night? 19:11 Using AI for Security 20:47 Two Phones? 21:36 Password Sharing 23:03 CISO Prioritization 27:39 Signal From Noise 29:29 Leadership Style 32:27 The Crystal BallLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuascott/ Website: https://www.hydrolix.io/#MakingDataSimple #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #CISO #AIAdoption #AIAndSecurity #Hydrolix #RealTimeData #DataPlatform #InfoSec #CyberLeadership #TechPodcast #Leadership #BigData #AI #DataPrivacy #CloudSecurity #SignalVsNoiseWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the world of data security with Josh Scott, CISO and VP of Security at Hydrolix — a real-time data platform built for massive scale. Josh unpacks critical challenges like AI adoption, cybersecurity priorities, and how organizations can harness data to stay ahead, all while keeping performance high and costs down.01:02 Investing 04:25 Meet Josh Scott 10:54 Adopting AI Safely 14:42 What IS a CISO? 17:14 What Keeps a CISO Up at Night? 19:11 Using AI for Security 20:47 Two Phones? 21:36 Password Sharing 23:03 CISO Prioritization 27:39 Signal From Noise 29:29 Leadership Style 32:27 The Crystal BallLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuascott/ Website: https://www.hydrolix.io/#MakingDataSimple #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #CISO #AIAdoption #AIAndSecurity #Hydrolix #RealTimeData #DataPlatform #InfoSec #CyberLeadership #TechPodcast #Leadership #BigData #AI #DataPrivacy #CloudSecurity #SignalVsNoiseWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

What distinguishes organizations that capture real value from AI from those still experimenting?In this episode of AWS Executive Insights, Roger Premo, Global Head of Strategy at IBM, breaks down the practical lessons behind IBM's own AI transformation. From embedding generative AI into everyday workflows to codifying an agentic development lifecycle, IBM has paired leadership commitment with disciplined execution to drive measurable results.Premo discusses how hybrid cloud architecture enables agents to access data across heterogeneous environments, why data product management is now a business imperative, and how governance must be built into AI systems from the start. This essential discussion offers leaders a framework for moving beyond isolated pilots and building scalable, secure, and value-driven AI capabilities. Thank you to IBM for their partnership and participation in this discussion.

An airhacks.fm conversation with Thorsten Hoeger (@hoegertn) about: first computer experience with an IBM 8086 and learning programming by modifying the QBasic Gorilla game, early programming journey from QBasic to Visual Basic and the discovery of event-driven programming, building a password security script for autoexec.bat as a childhood project, transition from Visual Basic to Java around 2005 starting with Java 1.4.2, working at a small bank in Stuttgart building a core banking system, experience with Eclipse RCP rich client platform and the overhead of plugin architecture in business software, migration from Swing to Eclipse RCP frontend with JBoss application server backend, building a custom Spring-based microservice framework called Dwallin (Icelandic for dwarf) before Spring Boot existed, using Apache CXF for REST and RPC over messaging with ActiveMQ, comparison of Java development trajectories between annotation-based and XML-heavy approaches, discussion of the infamous Java and XML O'Reilly book that popularized XML configuration, xdoclet as a precursor to Java annotations, contrasting approaches of JBoss-based thin WAR deployments versus Spring-based embedded server microservices, university experience learning Ada programming language and its strict compiler as excellent for learning programming, PL/SQL's Ada-based origins, brief experience with OSGi and strong criticism of its complexity and poor developer experience, comparison of OSGi with Java Platform Module System (JPMS), founding Taimos consulting company 10 years ago originally building BlackBerry enterprise software, pivoting to AWS migration consulting for regulated industries including banks and insurance companies, strong preference for serverless architecture with lambda Step Functions API Gateway and DynamoDB, criticism of running kubernetes on AWS versus using native services like ECS Fargate, the distinction between running "in the cloud" versus "on the cloud", detailed discussion of why GraalVM native images are unnecessary on AWS Lambda due to compliance overhead and memory allocation model, quarkus and SnapStart as solutions for Lambda cold start problems, Java's cost efficiency on Lambda due to fast execution times, involvement with AWS CDK since 2018-2019 including building L2 constructs for EC2 and AppSync, shift from code contributions to community organizing and prioritization work with the CDK team, launching CDK Terrain as successor to CDK for Terraform, nuanced discussion of open source economics when the project primarily benefits a paid cloud provider, using GitHub as a personal index and dashboard for reusable project templates, consulting perspective on contributing to open source for code reuse across multiple clients, teaser for a future deep-dive episode on CDK internals and promoting Java usage with CDK Thorsten Hoeger on twitter: @hoegertn

“Not everything is an AI problem,” says IBM Software SVP and Chief Commercial Officer Rob Thomas. In this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Thomas and Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana discuss IBM's hybrid cloud and AI strategy, from Red Hat/OpenShift and containers for multicloud portability to why the mainframe remains the platform for real-time, high-availability transactions. Thomas outlines IBM's “new enterprise stack” and a layered, multimodel approach where orchestration and proprietary enterprise data matter more than any single frontier model — especially as sovereignty requirements rise. They also explore how system-of-record companies are best positioned to succeed in the AI era.

Is the stock market topping — or just catching its breath? This week, equity markets face a triple threat: an Iranian strike rattling geopolitical risk assets, an Anthropic AI capability announcement that hammered IBM, CrowdStrike, financials, and SaaS stocks, and a technical picture showing the S&P 500 slipping below both its 20- and 50-day moving averages. Lance Roberts breaks down the bull and bear case in full. Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer Rate us on Google: https://bit.ly/4b9JtEo 0:00 - INTRO 1:05 - Market Over Reaction to Iran Hits? 6:54 - The Potential for Building a Market Topping 13:27 - Impact of Oil Prices on Inflation 18:11 - The Energy Stocks Heat Map 20:40 - The Iran Situation 23:03 - Gauging the Risk 24:56 - The Bearish Scenario 29:23 - The Bullish Scenario 37:04 - What We're Doing Now 39:08 - Be Cautious With Positioning 42:12 - Coming Attractions ------- Watch Today's Full Video on our YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/live/m3M6saceH5g?feature=share ------- Watch our previous show, "Cut Your Medicare Bill in 2026 | IRMAA Appeal Secrets" here: https://youtube.com/live/dO3QPhf0rEs?feature=share -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "Will Markets Hold 100-DMA?" is here: https://youtu.be/h0iV2DpbEq4 ------- Download Lance's Latest e-book, "Laws of Money & Wealth:"https://realinvestmentadvice.com/ria-e-guide-library/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #PreMarket #StockMarketToday #MarketAnalysis #CrudeOil #BondMarket #StockMarket2026 #MarketTop #SP500Analysis #IranGeopolitics #AIStocks

Is the stock market topping — or just catching its breath? This week, equity markets face a triple threat: an Iranian strike rattling geopolitical risk assets, an Anthropic AI capability announcement that hammered IBM, CrowdStrike, financials, and SaaS stocks, and a technical picture showing the S&P 500 slipping below both its 20- and 50-day moving averages. Lance Roberts breaks down the bull and bear case in full. Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer Rate us on Google: https://bit.ly/4b9JtEo 0:00 - INTRO 1:05 - Market Over Reaction to Iran Hits? 6:54 - The Potential for Building a Market Topping 13:27 - Impact of Oil Prices on Inflation 18:11 - The Energy Stocks Heat Map 20:40 - The Iran Situation 23:03 - Gauging the Risk 24:56 - The Bearish Scenario 29:23 - The Bullish Scenario 37:04 - What We're Doing Now 39:08 - Be Cautious With Positioning 42:12 - Coming Attractions ------- Watch Today's Full Video on our YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/live/m3M6saceH5g?feature=share ------- Watch our previous show, "Cut Your Medicare Bill in 2026 | IRMAA Appeal Secrets" here: https://youtube.com/live/dO3QPhf0rEs?feature=share -------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "Will Markets Hold 100-DMA?" is here: https://youtu.be/h0iV2DpbEq4 ------- Download Lance's Latest e-book, "Laws of Money & Wealth:"https://realinvestmentadvice.com/ria-e-guide-library/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #PreMarket #StockMarketToday #MarketAnalysis #CrudeOil #BondMarket #StockMarket2026 #MarketTop #SP500Analysis #IranGeopolitics #AIStocks

AI, hybrid cloud, and quantum - three big shifts happening at IBM. Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner and Motley Fool contributor Matt Frankel recently talked with IBM CFO Jim Kavanaugh about the new IBM.   Host: Tom Gardner, Matt Frankel Guest: Jim Kavanaugh Producer: Bart Shannon, Mac Greer Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement.We're committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Markets not thrilled with tech Mortgage rates dip below 6% Feb ends with a dud Looking at the Fed's next move with our guest – Danielle DiMartino Booth – the “Fed watcher” NEW! DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE'S AI GENERATED SHOW NOTES (Guest Segment) As Founder & CEO of Quill Intelligence, Danielle DiMartino Booth set out to launch a #ResearchRevolution, redefining how markets intelligence is conceived and delivered. To build QI, she brought together a core team of investing veterans to analyze the trends and provide critical analysis on what is driving the markets – both in the United States and globally. A global thought leader on monetary policy, economics and finance, DiMartino Booth founded Quill Intelligence in 2018. She is the author of FED UP: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America (Portfolio, Feb 2017), has a column on Bloomberg View, is a business speaker, and a commentator frequently featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, Fox Business News, BNN Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance and other major media outlets. Prior to Quill, DiMartino Booth spent nine years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas where she served as Advisor to President Richard W. Fisher throughout the financial crisis. Her work at the Fed focused on financial stability and the efficacy of unconventional monetary policy. DiMartino Booth began her career in New York at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where she worked in the fixed income, public equity, and private equity markets. DiMartino Booth earned her BBA as a College of Business Scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio: she holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University. Follow @DiMartinoBooth Looking for style diversification? More information on the TDI Managed Growth Strategy https://thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog/tdi-strategy/ Stocks mentioned in this episode: (NVDA), (META), (ORCL), (GOOG), (AMZN), (MSFT), (IBM)

47e6GvjL4in5Zy5vVHMb9PQtGXQAcFvWSCQn2fuwDYZoZRk3oFjefr51WBNDGG9EjF1YDavg7pwGDFSAVWC5K42CBcLLv5U OR DONATE HERE: https://www.monerotalk.live/donate GUEST LINKS: www.uly.xyz TIMESTAMPS (00:00:00) Monerotopia Introduction. (00:45:38) Monerotopia Viewers on Stage Segment. (01:09:17) Monerotopia Price Report Segment w/ Bawdyanarchist. (02:06:16) Monerotopia News Segment w/ Bawdy and viewers. (02:09:34) Vik Sharma post. (02:10:57) XMR in 2025. (02:13:51) The Supreme Court of USA has ruled that Trump's tariff are illegal. (02:18:59) Sam Bent post. (02:20:30) IBM stock. (02:22:28) Alex Jones post. (02:25:19) Alex Prompter post. (02:29:53) A statement from Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei. (03:24:42) Monerotopia Finalization. NEWS SEGMENT LINKS: Cakewallet and lightning: https://x.com/vikrantnyc/status/2027717424963899783?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Xmr and emerging network-layer insights: https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/monero-in-2025-persistent-use-and-emerging-network-layer-insights Supreme Court ruled tarrifs to be illegal: https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2024862913761001477?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Dread writing contest with xmr prizes: https://x.com/doingfedtime/status/2027735549482619032?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Decred community respects xmr: https://x.com/utxostudios/status/2024922942866407445?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw IBM drops 10% because of Anthropic: https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2026018343833026834?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw CIA files reveal plans to brain damage Americans: https://x.com/realalexjones/status/2026443896943735144?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw LLMs can now unmask your anonymous accounts: https://x.com/alex_prompter/status/2026951395753213970?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Anthropic discussion with the department of war: https://x.com/anthropicai/status/2027150818575528261?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Trump orders to cease the use of Anthropic: https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2027487746344854016?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw FATF new report: https://x.com/theragetech/status/2027353025497415897?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Monerotopia playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfJ_JjSwYaa-dPiWAEraDH-wERjBi_BuI First purchase with xmr: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/s/3g2h8v0UwU Why your business should accept xmr: https://blog.xmrhub.org/why-your-business-should-start-accepting-monero-xmr-today/ Chatgpt and department of war: https://x.com/sama/status/2027578580159631610?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Israel launches attacks on Iran: https://x.com/adamemedia/status/2027639133196243446?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Bullish on the real world: https://x.com/jackmoses0/status/2027368561736564928?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw Dubai hit by Iran: https://x.com/cz_binance/status/2027782622181773791?s=46&t=mVZ0A2C1_bwwnAvgawJjlw SPONSORS: PRICE REPORT: https://exolix.com/ GUEST SEGMENT: https://cakewallet.com & https://monero.com NEWS SEGMENT: https://www.wizardswap.io XMR.BAR: https://xmr.bar Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! The more subscribers, the more we can help Monero grow! XMRtopia TELEGRAM: https://t.me/monerotopia XMRtopia MATRIX: https://matrix.to/#/%23monerotopia%3Amonero.social ODYSEE: https://bit.ly/3bMaFtE WEBSITE: monerotopia.com CONTACT: monerotopia@protonmail.com MASTADON: @Monerotopia@mastodon.social MONERO.TOWN https://monero.town/u/monerotopia Get Social with us: X: https://twitter.com/monerotopia INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/monerotopia DOUGLAS: https://twitter.com/douglastuman SUNITA: https://twitter.com/sunchakr TUX: https://twitter.com/tuxpizza

Hex Trust CEO Alessio Quaglini joins Consensus Hong Kong to discuss how stablecoins solve transparency issues in traditional banking and how Hex Trust simplifies cross-chain asset management for institutional partners. CEO and Co-Founder of Hex Trust, Alessio Quaglini, joins the desk at Consensus Hong Kong to explain how stablecoins are providing an upgrade to a trillion-dollar payments problem. Quaglini identifies the lack of transparency and efficiency in traditional banking as a massive hurdle that has been avoided for decades. He explains how Hex Trust acts as the conduit between the blockchain world and bank accounts, hiding the complexity of managing assets across 50 different blockchains for partners like IBM and Animoca. - This episode was hosted live by Jennifer Sanasie and Sam Ewen at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, presented by Hex Trust.

AI is happening so fast, Ransomware attacks increasing but payments going down, AI's ability to write Cobol tanks IBM stock, Bumper Music, My Network interface seems to have broken DNS,

OpenAI has closed a staggering $110 billion funding round, more than doubling its record-setting raise from just a year ago. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joins alongside Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to discuss the massive new capital infusion, the details behind OpenAI and Amazon's $50 billion strategic partnership, and what comes next for agentic AI. Then, IBM vice chairman and former Trump NEC director Gary Cohn reacts to news that Block is cutting 40% of its workforce, citing AI efficiencies. Cohn discusses what those cuts signal about the future of work, the broader economy, and the market's AI-fueled momentum. Plus, Paramount Skydance moves closer to a deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, and President Trump meets with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.   Gary Cohn                       18:23 Sam Altman & Andy Jassy          32:55   In this episode: Gary Cohn, @Gary_D_Cohn Sam Altman, @sama Andy Jassy, @ajassy Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Zach Vallese, @ZachVallese Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anthropic's refusal to remove safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons in its interactions with the Department of Defense establishes an explicit boundary on the use of AI in federal contracts. The company cited specific civic and legal risks, emphasizing that current AI systems are not reliable enough for autonomous weapon deployment and warning that government pressure on vendors to bypass statutory constraints poses broader accountability issues. This underscores a shift in liability for MSPs and IT providers—any weakening of safeguards under contract does not eliminate risk but instead transfers possible exposure down the technology supply chain. This position is reinforced by the lack of unconditional trust in military oversight, as highlighted by the Pentagon CTO's remarks, and by clear legal challenges, including violations of the Fourth Amendment and Department of Defense Directive 3000.09. Dave Sobel asserts that professional liability and cyber policies do not typically cover actions undertaken solely at government request where legal limits are breached. This increases the necessity for MSPs and IT leaders to verify that contract language explicitly defines acceptable AI use and to ensure written documentation before government or enterprise client demands arise. Additional analysis includes operational deployments of AI in service and workplace environments. Burger King's AI chatbot, Patty, and ServiceNow's autonomous request resolution underscore the friction between efficiency claims and trust gaps, as evidenced by a YouGov survey that found 68% of consumers lack confidence in AI customer service. Dave Sobel notes that MSP benchmarks tied to vendor ticket closure rates may not reflect real client satisfaction or risk, especially when legal requirements for monitoring and consent are not met. The episode further covers market reactions to speculative reports on AI-driven job displacement, studies demonstrating AI's failure to maintain human-like restraint in conflict scenarios, and IBM's valuation drop due to AI modernization tools. For MSPs and IT decision-makers, the practical takeaway is the need for documented governance, explicit contractual safeguards, and ongoing risk assessments when deploying or recommending AI solutions—particularly in environments where trust, human oversight, and insurability are not yet aligned with technical capability. Three things to know today: 00:00 Anthropic Refuses Pentagon Demands on Surveillance and Autonomous Weapons, Risks Contract 03:40 AI Hits the Human Layer — and Governance, Consent, and Trust Infrastructure Aren't Ready 07:37 AI Moves Markets, Escalates Wars, and Splits Partner Ecosystems — In One Week   This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  IT Service Provider University

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

Broadcast live from iConnections Global Alts in South Beach, Guy Adami and Dan Nathan are joined by Dan Greenhaus of Solus Alternative Asset Management and later Vincent Daniel to discuss a sharp, risk-off market move tied to the increasingly financialized AI buildout. They review weakness across private credit and alternative lenders after reports of difficulty placing debt to fund CoreWeave's data center, spilling over into names like Blue Owl and into large alternative managers, banks, and high-profile stocks like IBM, which suffers its worst day in decades. The group debates how a viral AI “thought experiment” amplified uncertainty about near-term industry disruption, the circular quid-pro-quo dynamics of AI financing and chip demand, and whether market valuations offer any cushion if the AI narrative falters. With Nvidia reporting the next day, they focus on expectations for growth and margins, the risk that competition could compress gross margins and re-rate the stock, and the broader question of whether AI success could drive major white-collar job losses, “ghost GDP,” and policy responses. The conversation closes with Vinnie describing investor “what if” fears around AI's impact on employment and fee-based industries. —FOLLOW USYouTube: @RiskReversalMediaInstagram: @riskreversalmediaTwitter: @RiskReversalLinkedIn: RiskReversal Media

DOD – Disrupter Disrupters China markets reopening after Lunar New Year Mexico Cartel Wars Refunds requested for the illegal tariffs PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - The CTP for Caterpillar announced - DOD - Disrupter Disrupters - China markets reopening after Lunar New Year - Mexico Cartel Wars (Jalisco) Markets - Mortgage Rates - looking good! - Tariffs found illegal - that is not stopping anything - Refunds requested for the illegal tariffs - Monday's big drop and AI taking a bite out of stock prices Tariffs - First, who actually knows what is going on. 100% chaos - Supreme court ruled illegal (6-3) - 10% flat across all countries immediately added - Wait a day and make that 15% - FedEx seeks refund for illegal IEEPA tariffs imposed by Trump after the Supreme Court ruled Trump's tariffs exceeded authority - Numerous lawsuits expected for IEEPA tariff refunds - Apple has spent more than $3 billion on tariffs since President Donald Trump enacted his trade policies. What about that? (HOW TO FIGURE OUT WHO GETS THE REFUND) --- Estimate that $175B tariffs have been collected alreay - A group of 22 U.S. Senate Democrats on Monday introduced legislation that would require President Donald Trump's administration to fully refund within 180 days all of the revenue, with interest, collected from tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. - The legislation would require the Customs and Border Protection agency, which collects tariffs at U.S. ports of entry, to prioritize small businesses. - The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said it will halt collections of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT) on Tuesday Stop The Presses - After years of JCD's rants....... - Apple will soon introduce MacBooks with touch screens - Apple Inc.'s initial touch Macs will have the Dynamic Island at the center top of the display and OLED screen technology. The new MacBook Pro models will have a refreshed, dynamic user interface that can shift between being optimized for touch or point-and-click input. Europe Reacts - "The current situation is not conducive to delivering 'fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial' transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed to by both sides" in the joint statement setting out the terms of last year's trade agreement, the Commission said. "A deal is a deal." - All active discussions are halted on any USA/Europe trade deal The Potential Winners - Brazil and China may be the winners here - Chinese President Xi Jinping has a boost in bargaining power after the US Supreme Court invalidated Donald Trump's broad emergency tariffs, a key point of leverage over China. - The removal of tariff threats will make it harder for Trump to press Xi for larger purchases of certain products and leaves him without a key weapon to strike back if Chinese negotiators make fresh demands. - Xi's team will likely push harder for access to advanced semiconductors, the removal of trade restrictions on Chinese companies, and reduced US support for self-ruled Taiwan, according to Wu Xinbo, director at Fudan University's Center for American Studies. NVDA Earnings - NVIDIA drops its fiscal Q4 2026 (ended Jan 2025) results tomorrow—another make-or-break moment for the AI trade. - The bar is sky-high after years of blowout beats, but whispers of "peak AI" and slowing growth momentum have investors on edge. --- Consensus Expectations : ----Revenue: ~$65.6–$66.1 billion (up ~67–68% YoY from last year's ~$39B; guided $65B ±2% in prior report) ------EPS (adjusted/non-GAAP): ~$1.50–$1.53 (up ~70–72% YoY from $0.89). --------Gross margins: Targeting ~75% non-GAAP (holding strong despite supply chain noise). -----------Key driver: Data Center segment expected to crush ~$58–$60B, fueled by Blackwell ramp and hyperscaler spend. Home Depot Earnings - The home-improvement retailer gained 2.7% after posting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.72 per share on revenues of $38.20 billion. - That exceeded the per-share earnings of $2.54 on revenues of $38.12 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG. AMD News - The semiconductor maker rose about 11% after it inked a multiyear deal with Meta to lend up to 6 gigawatts of its graphics processing units to artificial intelligence data centers. - The cost of the deal is unclear, but the companies' agreement includes a a performance-based warrant that could amount to up to 160 million of AMD shares, according to a statement dated Tuesday. - Meta has committed to deploying up to 6 gigawatts (GW) of AMD's Instinct GPUs (high-end graphics processing units optimized for AI workloads) to power its massive AI data centers. - Analysts estimate the GPU portion alone could be worth $60–$100+ billion over 5+ years Mortgage Rates - The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.99% on Monday, according to Mortgage News Daily, matching its lowest levels since 2022. - Last year at this time the rate was 6.89%. - A buyer putting 20% down on the median priced home, about $400,000 according to the National Association of Realtors, would have a monthly payment of $1,916 for the principal and interest. One year ago, that payment would have been $2,105, a difference of $189. Life Insurance Record - Manulife Financial Corp. sold a $300 million life insurance policy in Singapore, topping what Guinness World Records certified as the most valuable policy ever issued. - The policy surpasses the previous record of $250 million, set by HSBC Life in Hong Kong in 2024. Manulife said in a statement Tuesday that the deal reflects growing demand from ultra-wealthy clients to preserve their assets. - In Singapore over the past 12 months, Manulife has issued 25 individual policies each worth more than $50 million. Bitcoin Rout - Gemini said it was axing as much as a quarter of its staff and exiting the UK, European Union and Australia entirely. - This week, it parted with its chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief legal officer, all in a single day. - Its stock has fallen more than 80% from a post-listing high last year, collapsing its market value from a peak of almost $4 billion to under $700 million. Over the Greenland - USA sending a "hospital ship" over - Trump's post on the ship came hours after Denmark's Joint Arctic Command said it had evacuated a crew member who required urgent medical treatment from a U.S. submarine in Greenlandic waters, seven nautical miles outside of Greenland's capital, Nuuk. - Greenland said thanks but no thanks So Long! - U.S. investors are pulling money out of their own stock market at the fastest pace in at least 16 years as Big Tech returns fade and better-performing overseas markets look more attractive. - In the last six months, U.S.-domiciled investors have pulled some $75 billion from U.S. equity products, with $52 billion flowing out since the start of 2026 alone, the most in the first eight weeks of the year since at least 2010 AI Disruption - DOD (Disruption of Disrupters) - CrowdStrike -9.8% and other cybersecurity names under heavy pressure again as AI disruption fears build following Anthropic's Claude Code release - - Cybersecurity stocks are under broad pressure today, extending recent weakness following Friday's launch of Claude Code Security by Anthropic. Claude Code Security scans codebases for vulnerabilities and suggests software patches for human review, fueling a narrative that AI platforms may be moving more quickly into parts of the security workflow than investors had previously expected. For cybersecurity, that raises concern around the forward demand outlook and competitive positioning, particularly in areas tied to application security, cloud security, identity workflows, and security operations automation, where AI-native tools could start to narrow perceived differentiation. - The move suggests investors are still sorting through the implications for product overlap, pricing power, and competitive positioning as AI capabilities evolve quickly. - IBM shares dropping toward lows of the session; attributed to news that Claude can automate cobol modernization COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is a high-level, English-like programming language created in 1959 for business, finance, and administrative data processing. It is renowned for its verbosity, readability, and reliability, processing massive amounts of transactions on mainframe systems,, notes NetCom Learning and IBM. Despite being decades old, it remains critical in banking, insurance, and government sectors. - It is estimated that 70-80% of the world's business transactions are processed by COBOL Grok's Prediction about Future of OpenAi/ChatGPT Scenario Likelihood (My Estimate) Key Factors Outcome for OpenAI/ChatGPT Thriving Leader Medium (40%) Sustained breakthroughs, partnerships (e.g., Microsoft), regulatory wins OpenAI as AI giant; ChatGPT as ecosystem hub for agents/robots Evolved Survivor High (50%) Adaptation to agents/hardware; mergers Exists but rebranded; ChatGPT integrated into daily life tools Decline/Acquisition Low (10%) Overcompetition, funding collapse Absorbed or legacy; ChatGPT commoditized or obsolete Quick check on Europe Shares - European company earnings growth is picking up this reporting season against a tentatively improving economic backdrop, but wary investors are demanding more than solid results to justify sky-high valuations. - Companies representing 57% of Europe's market capitalization have reported so far, achieving average earnings growth of 3.9% in the fourth quarter, ahead of estimates for a final result of a contraction of 1.1% --- That is a big differential.... +3.9 vs -1.1 Iran Talks - News over the weekend that Iran will look to discuss a variety of items and potentially get a deal.... energy, mining and aircraft - Best guess: Iran will string us along like Russia is doing and we will say we have some kind of bogus deal. --- There is some talk of US "going in" as we are building military presence. Supposedly there are some saying it could be a multi-week incursion. - What is the plan - Regime change? What is this? - A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Americans can't sue the U.S. Postal Service, even when employees deliberately refuse to deliver mail. - By a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled against a Texas landlord, Lebene Konan, who alleges her mail was intentionally withheld for two years. Konan, who is Black, claims racial prejudice played a role in postal employees' actions. - Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a majority of five conservative justices, said the federal law that generally shields the Postal Service from lawsuits over missing, lost and undelivered mail includes “the intentional nondelivery of mail.” - So can ballots just be thrown in garbage for mail-ins for one party that will throw out another party's?     Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? HE CLOSEST TO THE PIN for CATERPILLAR Winners will be getting great stuff like the new "OFFICIAL" DHUnplugged Shirt!     FED AND CRYPTO LIMERICKS   See this week's stock picks HERE Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter

Most entrepreneurs think the hardest part of building a company is the product.For Jim McKelvey — co-founder of Square — the hardest part was the system around the product.Because Square wasn't just competing with other startups …It was competing with regulations, middlemen, entrenched networks, and monopolies designed to keep outsiders out.In this episode, Jim shares the mindset and tactics that helped Square go from a tiny card reader that processed credit card payments … to a company—now known as Block— that generates over $10 billion in gross profit.What You'll Learn:Why the market is often “locked” on purposeHow a simple hack can solve a seemingly complex problemHow candor can sway investors more than confidenceHow Square survived by building something Amazon couldn't copyTimestamps:00:12:26 – Engineering and art: Balancing an IBM job with glassblowing00:15:46 – The family trauma that rewired Jim00:36:26 – Losing a $2,000 sale — the moment Square was born00:43:06 – Breaking into the credit card club: “We were violating 17 rules”00:48:31 – The headphone jack hack that sidestepped Apple's control00:58:03 – The “140 reasons we might fail” pitch that won over investors01:06:26 – The taxi ride that convinced Jim he had product-market fit01:09:28 – Amazon attacks, and why copying doesn't always work01:13:18 – The founder's job after success: choosing hard problems***Hey—want to be a guest on HIBT?If you're building a business, why not get advice from some of the greatest entrepreneurs on Earth?Every Thursday on the HIBT Advice Line, a previous HIBT guest helps new entrepreneurs work through the challenges they're facing right now. Advice that's smart, actionable, and absolutely free.Just call 1-800-433-1298, leave a message, and you may soon get guidance from someone who started where you did, and went on to build something massive.So—give us a call. We can't wait to hear what you're working on.***This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Katherine Sypher. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Robert Rodriguez.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.