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Education Reading Technology

Latest Read: The Attention Merchants

The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu. He holds an undergrad in biophysics from McGill University and a JD from Harvard Law School. He served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy. Today he teaches at Columbia Law School.

The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu

So, do you know how Madison avenue hijacked the web? Ever consider a time when you searched online for a product, a lawn mower for example. And before you realize that it was only minutes before your facebook feed started popping lawn mower ads into your feed?

Perhaps a Youtube channel is promoting a certain lawn mower vendor is a link pushed into your social media accounts? How many times have you noticed an online brand working into your internet life? In fact, have you even noticed that family, coworkers and friends are also falling victim to the attention merchants? Look deeper with your social media links to and from family and friends.

Tim is revealing for some the very idea that your internet life is under assault. He believes that American business actually depends on how much attention you pay to their messages. From advertising, branding, and even sponsored social media profiles.

Their focus is to gain your attention and put your eyes and mouse clicks on their internet sites. All to sell you that lawn mower.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: Invisible Walls

Invisible Walls: How to Create Deeper Connections Through the Purity of Experiences by Stephanie Zorn-Kasprzak. Stephanie holds a degree in Written Communication and Master’s Organizational Leadership from Lourdes University.

Invisible Walls: How to Create Deeper Connections Through the Purity of Experiences by Stephanie Zorn-Kasprzak

Today Stephanie is Executive Director of the Monroe County Opportunity Program in La Salle Township, Michigan. In addition, Stephanie is a part time professor at Eastern Michigan University. And most importantly Stephanie is my sister in law.

Stephanie is working to show readers how the pandemic shifted the world and not for the better. However the last two years have taught her that true, lasting bonds will be the key relationships and our own character.

The first Chapter starts boldly with a lesson one cannot forget. Stephanie shared the sudden passing of her older brother Tim. This included a passage how her Dad attempted to revive his son. This was so overwhelming for me to read. In fact, Mr. Zorn is a wonderful man that I have known for twenty years, so visualizing this event was very painful.

And yet, Stephanie makes this a powerful lesson: do not wait to live your dreams. This reminded me of Daniel Pink’s latest book The Power of Regret. In a later chapter in recalling a trip to Germany, Stephanie shares how visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp created a life long impression.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: The Coddling of the American Mind

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. This book is the result of their very popular article in The Atlantic magazine.

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff

Jonathan is a social psychologist and professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and he is focusing on the psychology of morality and moral emotions. Greg is an author and activist and is currently serving as President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Jonathan and Greg reveal how the following ideas became established after 2013: students’ feelings are always right, students should avoid pain and discomfort, and finally students should look for faults in others and not themselves.

They also address three specific untruths that are part of a larger philosophy in which students are certainly portrayed as fragile who must be protected and supervised by adults.

However, by setting aside all good intentions, they indicate untruths actually harm students by teaching them the opposite of the basic foundation of wisdom.

Admittedly, much of this is driven by social media. In fact, look at our recently finished mid term elections. In fact, candidates for public office actually campaigned stating students were identifying as cats and brining litter boxes to school.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Network Ransomware Technology

Harvard Cybersecurity

Harvard’s cybersecurity course is certainly a demanding slice of your life. However, I gained valuable insights from Eric Rosenbach and cybersecurity leaders from National Security Agency, Akamai, and Google. In addition, this offered me an opportunity to connect with cybersecurity leaders across wide ranging business and geographic locations.harvard cybersecurity2018 proved a challenge, looking beyond repeated megabreaches that dominated news headlines. Did you suffer from breach fatigue? It was like the movie Groundhog Day.

At some point (probably sooner than we think) all the data impacting all the users connected to the global internet will all be available on the dark web. All for a price…

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Blockchain Cloud Cyberinfrastructure Education Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: Blockchain Basics

The Blockchain Basics by Daniel Drescher. This is a very basic blockchain book. I would recommend this to someone completely unfamiliar with blockchain. Daniel hits his mark as he places a repeated template for each step. In this design, I felt the book had trouble flowing for anyone who has already read a blockchain textbook.
Blockchain BasicsDaniel pushes the elementary lessons through 25 steps.

There is a very basic outline to the security of the blockchain. Again this book has a specific target audience: Newbie.

I have to admit that I was bored reading the text. yet was impressed by the lessons and related topics that are presented.

Yet his lessons and related topics are simple to follow. For an overall tip of the iceberg, you can fly through this book and then move to Don Tapscott, William Mougayar and Melanie Swan.