Ego Trap: NFTs

I guess technology changes, but people don’t. Or maybe the players change, the platforms change, and the playing field changes, but the game remains the same. In this case, the game is the classic ego trap: using people to promote your product/service for free. The best laid ego traps are Simple Scarce Personalized Quantified Appealing …

Shopping is fundamentally social

If there’s one lesson the world can agree on from the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that humans need face-to-face contact. Most people have tolerated lockdowns for the benefit of the greater good, but it’s clear that the world misses in-person interactions. The world has adapted – at least temporarily – to the current state of affairs, …

A Practical Life in the UK Test

You need to pass the Life in the UK test to become a citizen of the United Kingdom. Seems logical – except that most of the knowledge on the test is irrelevant to daily life. After living in London for the past 3 1/2 years, I’d like to offer a more practical assessment for whether …

Minority Report: Chapter 3, Part 3

This is the third instalment of my irregular Minority Report. Previous instalments include Chapter 3, Expatriates and the Patriots, and London, Part 2. I accepted a job offer on Wednesday 22 June 2016, which would take me from New York to London. On Thursday 23 June, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the …

I received my Tier 1 visa today

Most non-EEA professionals work in the United Kingdom under a Tier 2 visa, which is how I immigrated / expatriated from the US in 2016. In 2018 the UK issued over 50,000 Tier 2 general and inter-company transfer visas. It’s similar to the United States H1-B visa and South Korea E-7 visa. The Tier 1 …

Digital Transformation: easy to say, hard to do

WHERE WE’VE BEEN Ten years ago, I wrote the post coining the term “social business” to describe a growth opportunity for brands beyond social media strategies at that time. Dion Hinchcliffe and I eventually wrote a book to unpack the concepts, illustrated in this graphic: Today, “social business” has reverted back to its original meaning …

London, Part 2

This is the second installment of my irregular Minority Report. Part one was “Expatriates and the Patriots” and the full series contains dispatches from Seoul as well. I’ve lived in Central London for almost two years. During this time, I’ve experienced plenty of situations to dispel many of the preconceived notions I had about life in …