October's Wonderful Five.

5 Absorbing Videos and Podcasts that Improved My October.

Author

Gabriel Botsie
November 01, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Sydney Harbour Bridge in October

I was lucky enough to attend SXSW Sydney for its 2nd event during October.

One of the Sydney talks was hosted by Nicole Velik of the Ideas Bodega. It’s Nicole’s podcast - Creativity Unpacked, which starts this month's list - a discussion with Damon Stapleton on Keeping Ideas Alive. John Cleese continues the creativity focus with a short video - the key to creativity.

Bloomberg Originals have a range of tech videos on their YouTube page. I've picked out Professor Hannah Fry's talk on "A Billion More People Are About to Transform the Internet". Another Professor - Talitha Williams, talks about the importance of data literacy and to see data as more than just numbers.

Lastly, appropriate with this month's travel, ever wondered what happens to your suitcase after check-in?

Damon Stapleton - Keeping Ideas Alive, The Key to Nurturing a Thriving Creative Culture and the Importance of Being Stupid Brave.

Podcast Episode · Creativity Unpacked · 29/01/2024 · 1h 7m

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/damon-stapleton-keeping-ideas-alive-the-key-to/id1589012250?i=1000643420085

Keeping Ideas Alive, 1 hour 7 minutes 

There was a packed SXSW ballroom for Nicole's talk - The Power of Stupid Ideas- How to Unlock Creative Brilliance.

The audience very quickly bought into the two way participation / feedback that Nicole wanted for the session.

I can trace many of the elements of October's talk back to this January podcast with Damon, such as the baby giraffe analogy - an idea is like a new born baby giraffe, give it the time to stand!

At over an hour long, this is an engaging conversation with Damon Stapleton.

This is the key to creativity, 2 minutes

The section that resonates is where Cleese talks about the facility to get yourself into a particular mood to enable creativity and the importance of play.

Once you've digested Cleese's words, check out the more link on the You Tube page and enjoy some nostalgic comedy.

A Billion more people are about to transform the Internet, 24 minutes

Within the next 5 years an additional 1 billion users will come online across the developing world.

The central questions that this video poses are:

  • How will it unfold?

  • Who will benefit - big tech or users?

To answer these questions, there's conversations with Google on how to get the Internet to remote connections - the last mile challenge.

There's an overview of past (Internet balloons) and current solutions such as Taara that uses light to transmit data.

Local entrepreneurs, companies and institutions in Kenya are also interviewed for their viewpoints, aspirations, goals and concerns.

Professor Fry's concerns were of exploitation, big tech companies such as Google offering solutions, opportunities and pay detrimental to the local market.

Towards the end, the exploitation concerns were still prevalent, but the opportunities - new solutions / markets, economic growth, confidence were also visible.

You need data literacy now more than ever, 6 minutes

As AI and statistical models continue to play a bigger role in our lives. Professor Talithia Williams makes the case that we all need to be data literate, urging us to ask ourselves the following questions when analysing data:

  • What does it have the power to tell you?

  • What does it not have the power to tell you?

The danger if we don't? - Loss of agency, Corruption, AI Manipulation.

This is what happens to your suitcase after check-in, 7 minutes

Set in Dubai, the video walks us through the baggage process post check-in.

It describes the scale of the problem - processing 50,000 baggage items during a 3 hour rush, the investment in technology and infrastructure (£500 million), all underpinned by a physical bag tag and a 10 digit code.

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