TMAI #207: Linkapalooza | Let's stretch our minds!

While you are working from home (I hope, and staying safe), enjoy this collection of delightful distractions to invest in mind-expansion.

Let's start with two things to infuse new thinking from me...

A Podcast.

Tess Vigeland, veteran journalist, Marketplace alum, hosts the Think with Google Podcast.

It was a ton of fun to participate in episode #4 which focused on Machine Learning. Our discussion focused on the role ML can play in the context of creative possibilities. The episode starts with dreams, and I had an opportunity to bring it to Marketing, :), and how we've powered creativity powered via AI...

Episode No. 4: Machine Dreams: Listen on Spotify | Google Podcasts | Apple | Stitcher | iHeartRadio | TuneIn

My ask of you regarding artificial intelligence: Don't get trapped in the crazy out there stuff, there are a whole lot of narrow applications where the algorithms already outstrip human capabilities. Find those use cases, apply, sit back with cold-brewed nitro-infused coffee and enjoy the result!

An Article.

What smart decisions can you make about the practice of analytics during a time of upheaval? Clearly you can't continue business as usual as your customers are not living or working lives that they used to (your company is not doing normal things either).

I had the opportunity to share how our team is adjusting, smartly. In the spirit of the WHO's do the five, the article shares a POV with five please do and five please don't do during this unique crisis.

Click: Inside Google Marketing: Measurement during a pandemic

To whet your appetite, here are the five things we are focusing our time and love on:

As to what we've stopped and are not focusing on... See link above.

And, do please share with me what your team's continuing to focus on in the context of analytics, and what you've stopped to reduce false signals.

Three things that infused new thinking for me, and I bet will do the same for you.

A Podcast.

Cixi, Mary Magdalene, Hatshepsut, among just a few of the unfairly maligned women in history. It is incredible to think that hundreds, thousands, of years after the truth has been clear, their reputations in broad culture are unrestored.

As a student of history, I have a particular affinity to learning about maligned women. I've been fascinated with Marie Antoinette since a visit to Versailles. Hence it was with some delight that I listened to the latest episode of You're Wrong About - a podcast that is in the business of setting things right.

Click: You're Wrong About: Marie Antoinette

Sarah and Mike have a unique style of storytelling. They weave delightful tale - with connections to Taylor Swift, reality TV, Rubik's cubes and Instagram Moms!

It is a heartbreaking tale, that'll make you rethink how you judge people.

A Podcast.

Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?

In an individual capacity, every life is priceless of course. Sincerely. Still. There are situations where someone, the government, has to compute the value of a human's life in aggregate to make some decisions (should the auto companies get to not install rear-view cameras because the cost of doing that is less than the value of lives lost?).

Planet Money tackled this subject in context of the CV-19 crisis. It started with computation of $300k per human life. That one was not surprising, primarily earning potential.

Obviously, it can't be that simple. Listen to the podcast to learn how simple the computation is that led to the current value of a human life in the US to be $10mil per.

Click: Episode 991: Lives Vs. The Economy

It can seem cold (and crazy) to even attempt this computation. But, one thing you'll come to appreciate during the 25 mins is that there is an invaluable need for this number.

The podcast also made me think of all the other elements we could add to make this computation more accurate. (Last week's newsletter on economics has some of those ideas.) I hope it makes you think.

A Documentary.

There is a mistaken belief that the rich history of the African continent did not have a tradition of writing. Timbuktu, in Mali, is a prime proof that reading and writing of books have been long as important to Africans as they were to Europeans. In fact, its university was founded around the same time as Oxford!

The BBC documentary Lost Libraries of Timbuktu tells the story of the thousands of scientific and religious texts that have been hidden for centuries. It is excellent, and eye-opening.

It is an eye-opening tale of how these fragile treasures have been guarded and preserved by families, and the insights they contain (most still not translated and accessible to us in the west).

It is fascinating to ponder how Africa would have developed if the libraries hadn't been forced underground by colonial interests there to pillage Africa.

Let me close with two cartoons that I bumped into, coincidentally, this week.

They made me smile and cringe at the same time.

The first one is from the inimitable Randall Munroe and xkcd.

The hover caption on the cartoon is:

'Garbage In, Garbage Out' should not be taken to imply any sort of conservation law limiting the amount of garbage produced.

: )

How real is that!

I'm sure you are cringing slightly realizing just how often your company has the Garbage variable in there.

It is ok. You have that in common with the rest of us!

The second carton is by @por_nerdism, and can be found on their website here.

It only hurts because of just how much truth it packs in...