Thank you. Thank you very much indeed and for fear that I get fired tomorrow. I am the chief executive, not the chairman. That would be a bad mistake. Mr president, thank you so much for inviting me to speak here today in what is my first CBI conference. I am Virgo CBI. And I thought it was particularly thoughtful and kind and generous of you to provide, not just a cabinet minister but a prime minister to be a warm-up act. As anybody knows who goes riding having a couple of experienced horses to lead one day with the fences is always welcome. Now, Greco is a rental business which provides power and temperature control to businesses and even to whole countries who need it either in a hurry or for a short period of time. This means sometimes, as in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy or the Japanese tsunami, restoring power after a natural disaster, or in the case of the London Olympics powering major events, or in the case of our revered customer BAE systems providing power to assist ship repair. Or, as we have indeed announced this very morning, delivering a 100 megawatt temporary power plant to Cote d'Ivoire. Now, a Greco's relevance to today's conference is that over the last ten years we've built a global business and in the process revenues have gone from £300 million to £1.4 billion. We've served customers in over 100 countries and 65% of our revenues come from emerging markets. Only 5% of our revenues come from the UK. But 10% of our employees work here, 20% of our employment costs are paid in the UK, and 30% of the £86 million we paid in corporation tax last year went to the HMRC. And all of our power fleet is manufactured in our factory in Scotland. So I suppose a Greco is an example of how companies can transform themselves by focusing on being global and in so doing create wealth in our home country. Now it's often said that the world has changed massively over the last 20 years, but this change I submit has been uneven. I suggest that for those of us who live in rich countries, change has not actually been very great. They have focused on two aspects of our lives, gadgets and death. Now coming in on the train this morning I reflected that the most noticeable differences between my fellow travellers and their predecessors of 20 years ago are that we now all have iPads, iPhones and Blackberries and that we are all going to live about five years longer. Our lives have I think become more rewarding, more convenient, more interesting, but actually not vastly different. For people who live in developing countries on the other hand, the experience of the last 20 years has been one of revolutionary change. The average person living in a non-AECD country is now three times better off than they were 20 years ago. Population has increased by 1.5 billion and 17% of those people who used to live in the countryside have now moved to cities. There are over 180 million more cars on the roads in developing countries than there were 20 years ago and in sub-Saharan Africa alone there are now more mobile phone subscribers than in the whole of the EU. This theme of massive relative increases in income and consumption for six billion relatively poor people and little change for one billion relatively rich is in all likelihood going to continue for the next 20 years. For most businesses, most of the time, what this means is that the task in rich countries is like the battle of the Somme, a grinding struggle from fixed positions to gain market share yard by yard. But in emerging markets, war is much more fluid and replete with opportunity to advance. For every door that is closed, there are three that are a jar. So what are the rules of engagement in this two-speed world? Now, naturally every business is different and I would not presume to tell you what will work for your business, but I can tell you what works for a Greco. The first thing that's worked for us is focusing on building scale. In our business, bigger is much better because it allows us to drive down unit costs. But it is a common fallacy that operating in lots of countries brings either scale or efficiency. The benefits of global scale only come from doing things the same everywhere.  But roughly the same does not buy lower costs. Exactly the same does. So in a Greco, we focus on keeping things simple and doing them well. In every market, we offer the same products, use the same IT platform, the same processes and procedures, the same training, the same health and safety regime, an organisational structure, and yes, the same nuts, bolts, batteries and spanners. And if we keep everything the same, we can invest in reducing costs. If we keep everything the same, we can move fast because our people know what to do. Now, there's an old adage, military adage that says that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. In our business, time is wasted by observing and is gained by doing. We have a model, we know works, and last year we opened or acquired 19 new service centres in 10 countries and started selling immediately. Within weeks of deciding to enter a new country, we can be renting generators, and this allows us to grow our global scale much faster than most businesses could. The other thing I would say that if you're going to venture into the vast world that is emerging markets, you have to be absolutely certain that you have something that they want and need. Me, too, does not work. Better, faster, cheaper does. If, when you critically analyse your product or service, you are not absolutely certain that not only are you better, faster, cheaper, but that you can sustain that advantage for many years, you're better off not making the investment, which will certainly be large and take a long time to pay back. The broad, sunlit uplands of global scale do exist, but you have to traverse many rocky gorges and cliffs to get that. Now, finally, I'd like to say a few words about the role of government in helping businesses in emerging markets. Now, criticising government is an integral part of our democratic process, and my son's approach to girlfriends of treat and mean and keep them keen is probably not a bad approach. But in businesses interaction with government, it is wise to give credit where credit is due if we want to encourage government to listen to us attentively and to take our interests seriously. And in this vein, I want to say that in my experience which spans some 30 years of exporting, the current administration is by far the most affected for a trade promotion that I have ever seen. UK trade and investment has been transformed under the leadership of Stephen Green and Nick Baird. The foreign office has put a rocket up the backsides of our ambassadors who are now falling over themselves to help promote trade. And I have to say now he's gone that the Prime Minister himself is an impressively energetic salesman for British business, and he has personally helped a Greco win over contracts worth over £200 million. In the last three years, I've been with him on trade delegations to Japan, Indonesia, South Africa and most recently to Brazil. And in all of them, we have leveraged his and Stephen Green's presence to organise meetings that we otherwise would not have got. And I would urge fellow members to take advantage of the fact that for the first time in many years we have a government that really has got its act together in terms of supporting British business overseas and has ministers who are investing considerable personal effort and energy in helping us. So we should recognise this and say thank you in the expectation that in other areas where our views may differ, they will listen attentively to our constructive suggestions. Thank you for your attention, and I'm now going to hand over to my fellow panellists, all of whom run businesses much bigger and much more important than a Greco. With a parting commercial shot that should ever view any of you find yourself sadly without power or temperature control, my email address is rupert.sames at greco.com. Thank you.


I was a communist for the FBI. An exciting tale of danger and espionage. I was a communist for the FBI. I was a masochist. How many of the incidents in this unusual story? Here is our star, Dana Andrews, as masochist. Who, for nine fantastic years, lives as a communist for the FBI. Nine years of solitary confinement. For nine years, crowds jostled me. Waiters took my orders. Conductors punched my transfers. Operators got me telephone numbers. I was free and at large. But I was in prison. I walked in crowds when I was alone. I had comrades, but I didn't have friends. And that's only part of what it meant to be a communist for the FBI. Massive addicts under cover man. The chief and the communist party take stock of you. You don't know what you're talking to me in private.  Comrade Syletik, you have lived in this town most of your life. That's right, comrade Ruffchenko. You went to Uptown Senior High School. That's right. Then you know the principal there, Mr. Dexter Delancey. I never heard of Mr. Dexter Delancey. He may have been after your time. Dexter Delancey has a very ingenious and realistic approach to the problem of influencing American youth. He's certainly in a position. He sympathizes with our cause. But so far he's been reluctant to join the party officially. Now, however, he has agreed to discuss the idea broadly. You ought to meet him at his office at four o'clock for a general chat. Once he joins the party, you will instruct him in your duties. You mean not to gloom this high about to replace me? We need him. Youth is like play in hands like his. Oh, I understand American kids pretty well myself. Or does comrade Syletik, what happens to me? You will be sent to neglected strategic areas. Found out to the miners, you mean? Sent to strategic areas. Comrade Syletik, I'm useful here and I'm at home here. I see no reason. Comrade Syletik, four o'clock. Principal Delancey's office. Cultivate him carefully. Found that somehow shrunken college is in my old high school. Same old bulletin board. Same old corner student cartoon, to be honest. Same graduation dance notice. The same decent hope for you, dear kids. But to the architects of communism, play. Red clay to be molded into totalitarian payments. That would still mean two minutes to the final bell. I'll stop in front of a familiar door. Room 10. Miss Hunter. Miss Hunter with a massive blonde hair. And the electric green eyes. Miss Hunter, my English teacher with whom I once imagined myself deathlessly in love. I reach for the door now. I was down on the doorway, dating. I've been here two looking boys reciting earnestly. But I hear him been there. It's his teacher, I'll give that. Miss Hunter. Younger and more beautiful than ever. The thick blonde hair, the green eyes. The faintly and presently feckled nose. I just stand there in an open doorway. Spellbound all over again. All right, gentlemen. Robin can show his base-wise with witness used to put them in dismay. Mixed with accurate pride and death-bad hate. Very good, Charles. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Hunter. Won't you come in, sir? For me? Oh, yes. And close the door? Oh. Are there one of our students here? What? Oh, no. No. Don't be so inquisitive about it. These are the most advanced seniors in school. Oh, yes, Miss Hunter. But the fact is, the state is not like great. The young man who'd been recycling when I came in was soaking in the sun. I feel a bond of sympathy with him. I know just how he feels. I was in love with my teacher once, too. He knew he was looking at me curiously, and then a beautiful sense of approach with me. Place out of the gold and light up yesterday. Come on. Miss Hunter, you could be my teacher, that's it. My mother. She's taking the buffalo now.  That's use of that color. And not just the people. I would say the most sick people. I think I understand. I'm having so much similar problem with one of my students. Well, he's a good old man. I hope so. I'm not seeing your daughter between years from now. I'm so sorry we can't see mother. That's all right. Your appointment with Mr. DeLancy. Uh-huh. Where is he taking me now? Can we move him? Come down someplace. I'll give you a telephone number. I'll call you in pellet for you. Okay? Conduct a business in my life, then superior, foresee-toothed principal Dexter DeLancy gets under my skin. Get his theory for the reconditioning of young minds to the communist idea. And what is my method? It's simply this, Mr. Kubelik. So that's it. C-V-E-T-I-C. I am in a position to point out in my own history classes that our American forebears would have been communist sympathizers today. Oh, that's a good trick if you can do it. Oh, I can do it. After all, the Declaration of Independence was a document endorsed by the 13 states for the overthrow of government by force of arms. Yeah, but it was a tyrannical government. The government overthrown by the Russian Revolution was even more tyrannical. Mm, yeah. Rebellion to violence is obedience to God. That was Thomas Jefferson's personal motto. Nothing wrong with that. Wrong, it's marvelous. In his own words, the writer of the Declaration of Independence admits that revolution has the approval of heaven. Then how can the capitalist world accuse Russia of being godless? You see, et cetera. Go on, Mr. Delante. Call me Dexter. Now, look at the French for them. I'm getting tired, sick, and scared. There's danger in this smirking idiotist, so vain about his learning. In this man lies infinite danger to America, thus walking, talking, decaying, so close to our youth. I listen to him so I can remember what he says, because I've got to find the answer someplace. When I finally get out into the clean air, I dial Cheney 3211 and invite myself over to call on this merry hunter. Even if I didn't have a plan, I'd want to see her anyhow. And look at her. Just sit and look at her. Mr. Servetic, you're right on time. Come in. I walk in, stumbling stupidly on the floor, and walk into the living room and the presence of that other schoolboy admirer of Miss Hunter, the student named Charles. Mr. Master Servetic, Mr. Charles Weber. Hello, Matt. What? I've been helping Charles compose his valedictory speech for graduation. Oh, I didn't want to interrupt anything. No, I'd rather talk. I've seen him debate it, it's Charles Weber. Tom will find something to debate about, I'm sure. In less than an hour, by easy logical steps, I've managed to twist the conversation to politics. World affairs, the American Revolution. It's like a nice cold plunge. I don't want to take it, but I've got to. I don't plunge any there, I stumble in. Involuntarily, it seems, I'm repeating the slick, sick, insidious mouthings of Principal Dexter DeLancy and making Mary supply the answers I need. Well, isn't it true, Mary, that bourgeois minds considered the American Revolution radical? Isn't bourgeois a strange word coming from human? Well, I mean, conservative. Sure, it was considered radical by many. It was radical. It was nothing of the sort, Charles. It was overthrow of government by force. And if the Russian Revolution was radical, so was ours. Oh, putting it the other way, if our revolution was justifiable, so was the Russian. Our revolution was political. The Russian Revolution was social revolution by bloodshed and terror class against class. Well, what's the difference? The Russian Revolution differed from ours in its great, great respect. It substituted one form of tyranny for another. Jefferson would be sickened by the turn of events in the Russian Revolution. I challenged that, Miss Hunter. Do you, Charles? I didn't realize you were so well informed on the subject. I've had several serious discussions on the subject with Principal DeLancy, whom I respect and admire very much. In class and after class. And he maintains. But it's getting pretty late. I think I'd better be on my way. I've got the family Jalopy. Let me drop you someplace. I'd like to speak to you for a moment, Matt, privately. Oh, well, I'll take a taxi, Charles. Oh, well, thanks, anyhow. Good night, Charles. Good night, Miss Hunter. Matt. Good night, Charles. Mr. Sevedic. Oh, Matt. You haven't asked me why mother has to teach in Buffalo when she'd much rather be here with me. Well, it did occur to me to ask. She left here rather than be gagged by people like Dexter DeLancy. Gagged? How? DeLancy didn't force her out of here. She was a very powerful and persuasive man. You mean you could lose your job here, talking up to me as you just did? If you reported it to the principal, as Charles did, it's just possible, yes, Mr. Sevedic. I see. It's very late, Mr. Sevedic. I didn't mean to keep you. Uh-huh. Well, good night, Mary. Good night, Mr. Sevedic. Having to be cautious of a man like Dexter DeLancy. I have a knot in my stomach thinking about young Chuck Webber, honor student, parroting the red line right out of the horsey mouth of Dexter DeLancy. But that note of jealousy at the very end of the evening gives me the big idea. Turn Chuck against me because of Mary. And he might lump DeLancy with me and turn against him, too, maybe. I'd have to keep on supporting DeLancy's views. I'd have to keep going to Mary into fighting me on them. Because if it comes to either Mary losing her job or my losing mind, she'll have to go. It's like that sometimes, being a communist for the FBI and it hurts. It hurts bad. Sooner or later, I managed to drag in the line of old radicals today. And I hate to talk about giving Mary Hunter pain. But it works, and there's important respect. When Mary asks again to talk to me alone, Chuck Webber pounds out of this what's slamming that door. He's very jealous. I'm sorry. He has no car to be in. Then I'm sorry. I asked you to stay, to ask you a very direct question. Maybe I know what it is. I know you were seeing Principal DeLancy the day you wandered into my classroom. I didn't just wander in. I made a point of it. I'm asking you, are you a communist? Mary, Mary Hunter, you're most devoted people. Funny you should say that. All I know is what Dexter DeLancy tells me, and you wouldn't call him a red, would you? Are you going to keep away from Mary?  And I haven't pulled back in many a year. But the answer is no. All right. Beautiful teacher in the whole solar system. There she is. And I feel awful. Thanks for coming down. I'll ask you what happened. And I won't tell you, it's no reason. It gives me a sort of an idea of what happened. Teachers are just too smart. The custody of Mr. Stabetic into a taxi. We don't see a word until we get to his office. He sits down and high stands. He looks at me with contempt. That's OK, though. I don't admire him either. In the future, comrade Stabetic, save your street brawling for party purposes. Was it in the paper? And I came down just in time to relieve that woman of you. Who is she? Well, then. She is not in the party, I would know her. She's not in the party. Stay away from her. All right.  Keep away. I heard you. Remember. Or you will regret it. Don't worry. She's a waitress, but she takes a few minutes at lunch to sit on a bus stop bench with me, five blocks from the school. Neither one of us is very happy, though. After the other evening, when you denied being a communist, I thought things might work out, sir. I still say I'm not a communist, Mary. What about that dreadful man who came for you in jail? Were you toadied to him if he owned you? Why? Because he does own you, body, and mind, and soul, and you don't have to tell me why. Mary, please, don't cry. I'm not. You are, though.  Holding in love with your daughter? Don't take it so hard, then, Mary. I'm not in love with you. It was a bit of nostalgia and sentimentality. You're supposed to do it that way. That's how it is. Please, please, please. Defending. Rev Chinko, I might have known it. Get in. No. You'd never understand. Defending. Don't take long. I'll stand, Rev Chinko. Very well. You did not want to be sent to some hinterland when Dexter Delancey joins us. For a while, I considered your plea. Now, however, you will go where we send you and without complaint. That is all. Don't call Mary again. I've got to see her. I just want to sit and look at her. And the place would have to be the graduation hall of uptown senior high schools. As you lump in my throat and fog in my eyes, as I watch the proudest kids in the world get their diplomas and become the greatest young men and women in the world. Then, Principal Dexter Delancey, flashing his magnificent teeth, makes a brief introduction. On a student, athletically, scholastically, and in citizenship, Charles Welles. Senior high school, English department of this high school, I have prepared a valid history, but I have decided not to give it. Instead, I should like to debate this question. Who is the most informative in that debate? Mr. Delancey? No, brother. Mr. Most Irregular Charles, give your prepared speech. Since Mr. Delancey is not prepared to debate this question publicly, I myself shall take both sides of the question and answer the un-America and subversive charges that have been made against our greatest... ...and against our founding fathers. Turk weather breaks down, cold and methodically, magnificently. Dexter Delancey gets up in the middle of it and stalks out. And when it's all over and Chuck Webber sits down, they all stand up and cheer. I stand up in my chair. I want to look at Mary Hunter. I see her. I just want to look at her. That's all. In fact, I'm prepared to undertake a full tour of beauty at once. You mean you're prepared to give the party a full and undivided time? Precisely. What about your duties at school and on the board? Well, you'll be pleased to hear that I tendered my resignation this morning as a consequence of last night's embarrassing event. Well, uh, under the circumstances of Chanku, I couldn't face a board action. You resigned. What with? Fool. What?  I don't understand. Get out. I don't understand. Explain it to him, comrade Sevetik. You're my functionary in this district function. I have worked with the one. I don't understand. This way, Dexter. As principal, Dexter Delancey, of a metropolitan high school and a member of the board, you'd have been invaluably situated for the service of the party. But I... You could have worked behind the scenes.  Incredible. I'm ruined. Sorry, Dexter. This tumbles out in a daze. Then I walk out on air. He goes his way, and I go mine. Delancey is out, and I stay in. As undercover man working hand and glove with the FBI, the work goes on. I win. But when I win, I lose too, always. No more homework, no more books, no more teacher-sorcery looks. No more any kind of looks from my teacher. To Mary Hunter, I'm a red. It's always that way. I'm a Communist for the FBI. I walk unknown. The profession has always been outstanding in preserving our American ideals. In this story, as in all others, names, dates, and places are fictitious to protect innocent persons. Many of these stories are based on incidents in the lives of Matt Stezetic, who works undercover for the FBI. Next week, another fantastic adventure. Join us, won't you?


Thanks for waiting, everyone. We got our final speech here with Pongo. She's a system analyst and a web developer from Seattle, Washington, and she's a champion strategist and team organizer for the augmented reality game of Ingress. Her theme is swarm intelligence and augmented reality gaming. Pongo. How's it going, everybody? Games have been part of our culture for millennia. The thing I love about games is that they provide unique opportunities to recreate systems that may or may not exist in the real world, and we can actually use them to solve problems that do. So in this world, IRL, the world you and I are currently interacting in, my name's Nancy Eckert. I am a systems analyst, that is to say I build and occasionally break systems for fun and profit. I'm also a big fan of intelligent systems, artificial and natural. I love machine learning. I also love to play games. So the game that I'm going to talk about today is an augmented reality game. It's called Ingress, where I'm known as Agent Pongolin, or just Pongo for short. Anybody else play games? Everybody plays games. Anybody play ARGs? All right. Any Ingress players? Awesome. Enlightened. Resistance? Would you tell me if you were? All right. Cool. This is going to be good. Okay. So in this game, I'm a strategist and raid leader. In non-game terms, you might call me a community organizer. I have an area of influence that covers roughly the Northwestern United States from British Columbia down to Northern California, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. And this comprises, depending on who you ask, somewhere between a few hundred to over a thousand active players. My team wins a lot. Our global winning streak dates back about two and a half years. So just a quick warning, I'm going to briefly describe the game and its history, and then I'm going to return to our broader point in a moment. So stay with me. Ingress was created a little over five years ago by a company called Niantic, the same company that would later go on to create the immensely popular Pokemon Go. Ingress players like to refer to it as that other game. So Ingress differs from Pokemon Go in one very important aspect, and that is its player versus player. Actually, it's team-based player versus player. It's adversarial, and additionally, it has a surveillance component. It allows you to track certain player actions on a map of the real world. So it has a very cyberpunk flavor that tends to attract a lot of hackers and tech early adopters, which is more or less by design. So Ingress is both a collaborative and a competitive game. We can think of it as a lot like Capture the Flag. It's played a lot the same. There are two teams. There's a green team and a blue team, the Enlightened and the Resistance. The rules of the game stay one account per player, and it's fairly rare for people to ever change sides. The object of the game is to capture these portals, which are basically sites of interest, generally civic art or public gathering places. When you see the game happening in physical space, it usually looks a lot like this picture on the right.  So in the game, the way you score points is by first capturing and then connecting these three portals of your color to make a triangular field as we have on the left. The bigger the field, the more points. But here's the catch. You can only make a field if there are no crossing links of either color obstructing them. To take down links, you have to successfully capture one of the linked portals. And additionally, friendly links, ones made by your own team, require a special item. So here's an example of what the game board looks like in Las Vegas a couple days ago. You can see a lot of these fields on the map. Most of these fields are put up by solo players or very small teams just in the course of daily play.  The point is, though, this game is played in physical space. This is the augmented reality component. Small operations can be done solo. Scoring big points, on the other hand, require teamwork and organization, just like raids in any other game. So these operations, which are sometimes called mega fields, they require anywhere from 20 to 100 people to put up. And that's basically players in the field clearing these links, as well as operators who watch the map and relay information to players in the field. This field on the right covered the city of Seattle. And one thing to remember, one thing to keep in mind is that there is another team that is actively trying to undo your efforts at all times. And as you've probably already guessed, if you happen to know about your enemy's plan, it becomes much easier and in some cases trivial to block it. So I'm going to ask you to keep this in mind as we move ahead. Here's what we can say about the operation. It's difficult. That means, well, it has a chance of failure. It might be adversarial. It requires strategic movement in physical space. It also requires cooperation, precision and secrecy. One more thing. A lot of these portals are actually pretty difficult to access. There are portals on islands, on top of mountains, inside secure facilities. There are some inside military bases. And additionally, there are portals that exist where there is weak or even no cell signal. Sometimes you have to bring your own cell signal. We have a lot of operations where people totes satellite modems back and forth. Sometimes you have to social engineer your access to a place. And again, all of these things are done in real time, in meat space, competitively. So this field on the left connects a marine research facility in Baja to a volcanic crater currently under lava in Hawaii to the most remote location in the lower 48 states, the thoroughfare ranger station. This actually required a four person team to hike for two days through Yellowstone with a satellite modem. The operation probably took about 200 people to run. And yes, there were grizzly bears. Not in Hawaii. So fields of this size require a lot of people power, in addition to a very diverse skill set to pull off. They demand that every player in the region act in perfect cooperation, precision and secrecy. Which means if you're trying to organize one of these things, you need to figure out how to get 200 people to behave in a very specific way. And that is ultimately an exercise of social engineering at scale. So I want to talk about a very basic problem observed in gaming, which is how do you get people to act as a team? Any gamer who has ever played a multiplayer game is familiar with the Leroy Jenkins problem. Maybe some of us are Leroy Jenkins. It's not surprising that this problem happens in the real world as well, because of course it does.  If you don't, chances are it's because of that one person who can't cooperate. Or in some cases, it's all of them. In games, though, as in life, the best rewards tend to happen when people cooperate. And difficult tasks require cooperation. Sometimes they need organization. DefCon is a great example. Large scale product, much infrastructure, run by volunteers. So how do we do this? Generally in a game, when you start getting to this scale, you start seeing enter the cat herders or the organizers or executors, as we sometimes call them, the people who get stuff done. If you're here today, chances are you're probably one of them. And you're facing a pretty hard problem, which is how do you get intelligent, free willed people to cooperate? So they get things done, people. This is usually the first system they try to build. It's a pyramid. This is a very intuitive structure. You have your your founders at the top calling the shots. You have your middle management in the middle. And in the game, these are usually the veteran players. They serve as gatekeepers for the people above them and mentors for the people below them. They assume sort of some of the management duties that the executors don't have the bandwidth to address themselves. They delegate, but mostly still maintain their authority. And at the bottom of this pyramid, we have the so called rank and file. In gaming, these are a lot of times new players. Sometimes they're casual players. In non game terms, they could be entry level employees, volunteers. But if you're thinking of the people at the top as the strategist figuring out what needs to be done, the people on the bottom tend to be the people who actually get the work done. And information flows from the top down. Additionally, there is sort of a sense that if you're at the bottom of this pyramid, you actually want to be at the top. So when you're doing this operation, there is a sense that you are devoting a certain amount of your energy to rising up in the pyramid. So this approach has some strengths. It's very easy to understand. And in certain ad hoc situations, particularly emergency situations is incredibly useful for us to know who's in charge. Let's take a moment to think about this model from a security perspective, though. Since most of us are hackers, and we're used to approaching things from unorthodox points of view. One of the things that I like to do here is inject a little bit of metaphorical systems thinking, that is to say, when we're thinking about attack vectors, and we're thinking about how a system might be compromised. This is one of the things that an attacker might do to approach the situation. Totally work. There we go. So we haven't actually changed anything here about the system. We're just flipping our perspective. And here we can see that the entire structure rents on a single point of failure. Furthermore, it also lacks flexibility. It lacks the ability to adapt to changing needs. When a model like this encounters challenges outside its wheelhouse, it breaks. And this problem tends to get more pronounced at scale. Systems analysts refer to this kind of system as a brittle system. And what we know about brittle systems is that they are vulnerable to attack. So let's carry this metaphor a little bit further. In fact, let's just make it explicit. So yeah, an attacker might actually see this system with a giant target painted on it that says attack here, and the whole system comes crashing down.  It's very convenient. Bring the whole system down, attack the choke point. This is a basic gaming strategy that we have been using for, well, millennia. And again, there are many, many social engineering strategies that are built around this concept. Spear fishing, where one part of the system is directly targeted.  It forces us to think a little bit more creatively about how we organize things. So what if we could do something like this? So this is a group of starlings, they're exhibiting flocking behaviors. This is a swarm. At first glance, this looks like an unintelligent mob. But in actuality, there's some crazy teamwork going on here. This is swarm intelligence. And this is not a new concept. It's used widely in programming. And it's based on the natural world. This is not accidental as well. Just as artificial neural networks are patterned on our understanding of how the brain works in the natural world, artificial swarm intelligence in computing is patterned on observed behaviors in the natural world as well. And it's not just birds either. Fish and insects do it as well. But what exactly are they doing? So to use a programming and analogy, they're following a set of very simple instructions. And they are processing information from their nearest neighbors. So from a security standpoint, this is pretty interesting because attacking one part of the system doesn't really do a whole lot. Since a swarm doesn't really need information or instructions from the leader or the entire swarm, removing any one node here merely establishes a new nearest neighbor. It's practically self healing. All right. So what is swarm intelligence?  So there are still leaders in this dynamic structure and organization as well. However, it tends to look a lot different from that traditional pyramid we just saw a moment ago. It is a decentralized approach, which means it sort of breaks down that triangle in favor of a more dynamic structure. So I just want to be clear here. I'm not actually declaring triangles obsolete. This is a strategy. It is not the only strategy and it can be applied to several different scenarios. In fact, it integrates quite well with more traditional hierarchies. Its key quality is adaptability, flexibility. And as it happens, it offers solutions for many of the vulnerabilities we just talked about. It's flexible. It's robust. And when it's done, well, it's incredibly efficient. There are examples in the real world as well. Maybe the simplest example is a flash mob, such as the pillow fight that we see in the background here. A lot of these flash mobs appear very spontaneous and disorganized when in actuality they're following some very specific rules that allow these individuals to function as a sort of a hive mind. Other examples. The Swedish pirate party founded by Rick Falkvinge describes itself as a swarm. Video games have successful examples of swarms as well. And if anybody is familiar with the game Eve Online, there was a group called the Goom Swarm, which is a famous, some say infamous, for steamrolling their opposition with essentially an army of noobs. There's also the group or anti-group anonymous. Specifically, its quality of undefinability shares many qualities with a swarm as well. So these systems all leverage swarms and they all have one thing in common. They tend to crush their competition through numbers and enthusiasm. Many successful social media campaigns have been driven by swarms as well. So let's reiterate the qualities of a swarm here and why we'd want to use one. Well, flexible. Flexible in that it reduces reaction time by eliminating bureaucratic overhead. Information doesn't have to travel up and down the pyramid. It's much faster. It's robust. It reduces service area for potential attacks. It enables self repair. It overwhelms competition with greater resources, whether that's time, money, or interest. It's efficient. It leverages the skill set of the entire swarm, not just the people at the top. So I want to go back to the game for a moment for an example of this decentralized advantage. So this image is from a global tournament, an Ingress tournament in 2017 in Portland, Oregon.  The object of this particular game was to create as many small fields in downtown Portland as possible. So here's a snapshot of what the game board looked like a few minutes before the score was taken. My team, which is the green team, used a swarming strategy for this particular game. And that's what it looked like 90 seconds later. So using swarm intelligence, we were able to steamroll the competition in record time. We ended up replicating this several times at other tournaments and they all ended up this way. So now you're probably wondering how do we do it? So the strategy I want to share with you today was developed in the game, but you'll probably recognize elements of social engineering, game theory and plain old project management as well. It may seem very obvious to a lot of you once we broken it down. The first thing you need to do is establish your wing condition. This is sometimes called a vision or a purpose. This is basically the reason your swarm exists. When we did this in Portland, our wing condition was make small triangles. The second thing you need to do is break it down. So you have to break your skills down as far as possible to first principles that can be mastered and this is important autonomously. You don't want to be wasting time telling your swarm what to do. They need to be able to do it autonomously. So this particular game is not a hard game. It more or less amounts to showing up on time and pressing buttons on your phone. So what we did here was we basically broke it down to easily digestible portions instructions which says if the portal is blue make it green. If the portal is green make it linkable. If the portal is linkable link it move on. So the third thing you need to do is establish communication with the nearest neighbors in the swarm. So again it's not enough to make sure you get them all of the information you need or they need. If you're the leader or the manager you have to get people speaking to each other and this is where the real efficiency of the swarm comes in. It's fairly common to have instructions for this events like this relayed by an operator or dispatcher. Here in the tournament we remove that entirely. That's how we did it in 90 seconds. So by the time the tournament day rolled around we had instilled three things in our swarm. Purpose, mastery and communication. This is what we said. Our operators and dispatchers aren't going to be micromanaging you here. You already know what to do. So this is the swarm a hypothesis here. Make it even more universal. To catalyze swarm intelligence in a game setting. When a swarm has strong purpose mastery and communication with its neighbors collective intelligent behaviors will emerge. And in fact we can break it down even further into a sort of general equation. It goes like this. Play the game talk to each other. So again play the game break skills down as far as possible to principles that can be mastered autonomously. Unconscious competence is sort of the minimum condition necessary to unlock swarm intelligence. To talk to each other. Communication needs to be fast and efficient and it needs to support the team. It's not enough to tell the swarm everything. You have to get them talking to each other. Now this doesn't mean that we can't or don't have leadership or shouldn't have leadership. However the role of leadership in a swarm is pretty clear. Leadership reinforces win conditions. Maintains the vision. Leadership also motivates skills mastery. Basically teaching people how to play the game whether that's Ingress or some other game. And the last thing is that a leadership should be removing obstacles and to communication and facilitating it as much as possible. And this basically just goes back to talk to each other. Not just you talking to them.  So the thing is if you're striving to be successful at these things what are you really doing? You're building trust. And this is of course what social engineering is all about isn't it? Building trust whether that's to persuade people to act for or against their own self interests. So there are many good resources for how to establish this trust. I'm going to show you a framework that has been used by tribal structures for centuries. That's right if you want to lead a swarm you have to be a party cat. The lifeblood of a swarm is recruiting and retention. And the best way to do that is to deliver a worthwhile experience to everyone. This is where the party metaphor comes in. And again party is a metaphor. All it is it could be a literal party or it could be some other kind of worthwhile experience. How you deliver that will be different with every swarm. And part of the social engineering challenge is becoming fluent in your swarms goals and definitions of a good time. That is to say you have to do research. You have to do recon if you want to establish trust. So your goals are basically to build trust and identify the reward. This is the fuel for the party machine. And you have to keep the party machine rolling. So when we're chasing trust and reward there are two main chemicals in the brain we're seeking to activate. The first one is oxytocin which is fundamental to trust and bonding. This is where the party comes in. The other is dopamine which controls our reward centers and defines what we think of as worthwhile experiences. So as human beings we've discovered a few very effective very reliable ways to activate dopamine reward centers in the brain. So can anybody guess what the most reliable one is? It's not sex. It's not money either. Booze is a good guess but it's not booze. It's actually gaming. So games have a built-in win condition. That's what games are. Games remove obstacles for communication by providing opportunities to take risks and show vulnerabilities. Anybody out here play hack their badges this weekend? Did you have to talk to somebody to do it? Did that maybe bring you a little bit out of your comfort zone? Exactly. You did it for a game. So games have been shown in many maybe most cases to be more reliable than money or sex to get people to act for or against their own self-interest. So when we create games that promote mastery of these skills we're also reinforcing the swarms win conditions and we're promoting communication by establishing meaningful connections between people. We're having that teaching them to take small risks and in doing so we're building trust. So when we're successful at doing these in group situations what we're actually doing is building tribe. So what makes a good game? Remember what we said at the beginning? There's a chance of failure. It might be adversarial. It requires strategic movement in physical space. I mean we're hackers, we live on the internet, but physical proximity is what makes us human. And again it requires cooperation, precision and secrecy. So we often refer to tournament play as planning a wedding as well as a war. That is you have to take care of the strategy, that's the war. But your first job in that is to make sure your army shows up. That's the wedding. So in Congress tournaments are largely run by the players. They don't get paid, mostly they do it because they want to win. There's a very valuable lesson here about crowd sourcing. So hotels, after parties, emergent gameplay, this is all organization done for the purpose of getting people to the place to do the thing. So here's where we start to see how we can use games in a way not just to teach skills mastery, but to cultivate and validate trust. We can start small with small projects and small numbers. As we deliver worthwhile experiences and we keep that party machine rolling, we gain trust. And that trust can kind of become a form of social capital that we can then reinvest into larger ventures. As you continue reinforcing your win conditions, building skills mastery, and helping people create meaningful connections with each other, this is how you turn a swarm into a tribe. So by now you may already be thinking about how to apply swarm intelligence to your own projects. Any sort of team-based venture can be thought of as a game with a win condition, skills to be mastered, and methods of communication throughout among the team. Does anybody have any questions? It's a really good question. So the question was people swapping accounts, maybe changing teams, is that what you're referring to? Oh, I'd have to say that culture still exists within the game and it's very strong. There are definitely still people who do multi-accounts, but one thing that both teams have developed is sort of a face-to-face verification system. In local communities a lot of times you won't be allowed into any sort of secure chats until somebody has met you face-to-face. I don't know that necessarily meeting somebody face-to-face makes somebody less inclined to switch teams, however it makes it more difficult for them to infiltrate another team if their face is known to others. This is a really good question. So how do we combat the Leroy Jenkins problem? If you have a Leroy Jenkins on your team, how do you how do you minimize the harm that they can do? The swarm intelligence model is basically seeks to eliminate Leroy Jenkins from happening by building trust within the swarm. In general, Leroy Jenkins types will make themselves known very early on. Sometimes they sometimes you can align your goals with theirs or vice versa and sort of bring them on on board to the team. You know sometimes you you can't. Yes. Oh yes. Who is Leroy Jenkins? This is an internet trope that predates Ingress by several years. Leroy Jenkins was a infamous example contrived, but an infamous example in an MMO of a player that went off the rails basically. There was a gigantic raid where everybody was trying to do do something very carefully in an accorded manner and Leroy Jenkins was not paying attention and wiped the whole raid. Screaming his name in the process, Leroy. Yes. How do you design a good win condition that is easy to understand? Yes. Actually, Falka Vinga, the Swedish pirate party, talks a little bit about this in one of his books. It needs to be specific. It needs to be easy to understand and it needs to be achievable. Beyond that it doesn't really need to be too detailed. Very much, Pongo.


This video brought to you by ribtea.com where their focus is to help men look better and feel better so they can be at their best all day, every day. Bond and massacred and shot their way around the world committing appalling atrocities against people in Paris, in Nice, in London, killing kids going to pop concerts, running people over on the promenade in Nice. Let's not forget what this guy was. So yesterday should have been a great day for America and a great day for the world. Instead the narrative is, let's try and find where something went wrong in the way he spoke about it. Welcome back everyone and thank you to all my PayPal, Patreon and Subscribe Star supporters. I really appreciate it. We're just a few days out from the successful ending of Elbag Daddy and yet we still have supposedly objective news sources who are doing their best to frame the terrorist leader in the most positive light imaginable. On Sunday and Monday several of these sources became PR firms for the ISIS leader with Washington Post calling him an Islamic scholar and other sources portraying him as a great leader. One thing I noticed right away is that they're talking way more positively about this ISIS leader than they do about their own president. It's just another sign of the increasing insanity brought on by Trump derangement syndrome. You might think that the Washington Post and other sources might exercise a little editorial caution given the past few days but instead what we see is them continually dilavish the former Islamic warlord with praise. Ever since Donald Trump described back Daddy as a coward, hate-filled demagogues pretending to be journalists apparently feel the need to defend him against that charge. These most recent outrageous claims come from unhinged never-trumpers and regular CNN analysts Max Boot and Phillip Mudd. In case you forgot who these lunatics are, let me give you a refresher. Clearly these are men in full control of their mental faculties. First we have Max Boot who would say the sky is red if Trump said it's blue. Claims the ISIS leader wasn't a coward and his reasoning for this is as follows. The assertion that back Daddy died as a coward was in any case contradicted by the fact that rather than be captured, he blew himself up. Right. I mean, according to Max Boot, running away into a cave, blowing yourself up and your family after committing monstrous acts on thousands of innocent people is not an act of cowardice. This shows you plainly the kind of people we're dealing with over at CNN. We're also dealing with people like Phillip Mudd, a man who constantly looks like he's clinging to sanity. According to him, we shouldn't celebrate the death of an ISIS leader because he's just a human being. Don't use that language which will echo around the Middle East about things like dogs and whimpering. A human being is died, we don't celebrate that. A human being is died, we don't celebrate that. I'm not even sure what to say to that. I mean, how do you respond to such brazen, cognitive dissonance? Yes, he was technically a human being, but he was a human being who brought death, pain, suffering, and misery upon thousands of innocent people. Who wouldn't be happy that he could no longer do that? Just… wow. Somehow, it still surprises me that we're now on day 3 of this topic because the media keeps putting out these glowing, almost affectionate eulogies of this very, very bad man. National Public Radio, which gets some of its funds from taxpayer dollars, praise the terrorists calling him a real leader who led a movement that we've never seen before. Technically, this is true, but couldn't you report this without making it sound so positive? They continued, describing ISIS in terms that you might expect to hear them talking about the birth of a new country, marveling at how he administered the cities and collected taxes. I've been saying it for a long, long time now, but we must pull all public funding from NPR. At this point though, they've managed to get their funding from a lot of different sources, and it's only actually a small amount that comes from taxpayer dollars, but it should be zero coming from taxpayer dollars. Thanks for watching everybody. Please make sure to hit that like button, share, and subscribe. While you're at it, hit that notification bell so you'll be alerted about all my new content. Since YouTube demonetizes just about everything I upload, I depend on you, the community, to support this channel and keep it going. If you enjoy my content, please consider subscribing to me on Patreon or Subscribe Star. You can also send a donation on PayPal and I deeply appreciate it. Without all of you, I wouldn't be able to continue doing this. Thank you and keep coming back.


Hey guys, so I'm here with you to bring you another little watercolor postcard We are doing hashtag love summer art I hope you're enjoying all the different videos that you're watching and you're having a lot of fun If you don't know about hashtag love summer art go up to your YouTube search box Type hashtag love summer art in there and a whole bunch of videos are going to show up So we did a floral last time this time. I thought we would do one more and we would do a little seascape I do lots of seascapes if you haven't seen my channel before and you're new I do lots of little watercolor seascapes. I thought we would do another one. I Actually have an inspiration photo that my daughter took in here somewhere Find it Okay, she's taken a couple of them these these two and they're both from La Selva Beach, California Which is near Santa Cruz for those of you don't know So I'm going to prop this up over here and I'm going to use these two photos as inspiration I think I'm going to try to do the one with the peace sign written in the sand Which I think would be cute So and which is really just water and sand so let's give that a shot It's gonna be a little bit challenging and if I can do it. I think it would make a cute postcard. All right What am I gonna start with I think I'm gonna start with as always the water I am going to use I like my water to be a little bit more turquoise-y. Although it's kind of a cool color in these photos I'm going to start. I think with the cerulean blue Yeah, I think I'm gonna start with cerulean blue Maybe a little bit of ultramarine thrown in there. That was a lot of ultramarine It's okay. We'll make it work So I'm gonna start up here at the top with my Watercolor, which is a little dark, but that's okay I'm intentionally skipping over some parts of the paper and Because I want to leave them white There's a lot of seafoam in the picture and with watercolor You you could go back over it and paint in the white with some white acrylic or the Chinese white but it's a little more challenging to try to leave the white space and Have that sort of work for you and indicate the The seafoam it's hard to paint and talk at the same time. Do you guys have that problem? All right, I'm gonna darken up a few that because it paints wet When I add this other this darker shade of the blue It's going to go ahead and bloom and blend in with what's already on there It's gonna take the easier road and it's going not gonna spread necessarily to the dry paper But it's going to follow the water and bloom and blend with what's already there Okay, I kind of like that. So I'm gonna let's give it a quick drive before I do anything else So I want to add some really dark colors into the ocean It looks like there's some dark sandy gray tones where sort of I think the sand is washing up into the water in the photo I'm going to rewet some of these dark tones. I have on my blending palette this color in particular I think will work well So I'm gonna follow along these areas Where there's already sort of a dark line and that will Work for me and I can change that into that spot like in the photo where there's that darkness And I can sort of follow along That goes my phone again. What's with my phone when I turn turned a watercolor with you guys? Now keep in mind we can go back and add some Chinese white, but we want to be able to do that at a minimum, right? I like that Okay, so now we're gonna take some of that same color or close to that same color and We are going to start with our sand We're going to run it across the edge around the edge of where we have this blue watery color But we're not gonna quite meet the the blue color We're gonna leave a white space again because we're trying to indicate some of that seafoam Come in here with some water right behind So that that paint hopefully will start to bloom and blend try to add more color down here I'm going to try to mix more of a similar color I'm going to take some Pains gray a little burnt umber. It's pretty good Remember when you're watercoloring that you are paint will always dry Lighter than it shows. I'm sorry you guys about the telephone. I'm gonna take this dark paint I'm going to put first. I'm gonna dry this I was gonna do something else, but let's put some more of this on here. Let's make our sand a little darker So now we are gonna try to put our peace sign in here I didn't want it to bloom and spread too much into this surrounding color Perspective that I see it in in the photo Again, it doesn't have to be exact and I'm gonna go in with just some water Next to the paint. I just put on I like that. Let's try again. We are gonna go in with some Chinese white in a minute First I want to go in with something a little darker there, and I have got this color on here Pallet, so I'm gonna use what I have on here a few spots on the peace sign It's nice. I like that. I Want to Bring some turquoise color back into my ocean a little bit So this is cerulean blue Heat to dry it here with some white Some water colorists will tell you that it's cheating to go in with white I don't feel that way and this is gonna really help you don't alternate between pushing down hard on your brush and Lifting it up and just painting with the tip so that you get an uneven line Because your seafoam as you if you can see in the picture Is not even It's got some thin bits and some thick bits That's the way you want it to be and I've got my watercolor rinse water I've got a dark side and a light side, so when I'm going in here with the white I'm trying to keep the brush in the white side So it's mostly clean water that's touching the Chinese white So I get as white a color as possible And like I said if you feel like it's not white now if you could definitely you know go in here with White acrylic paint you could even go in here with a white gel pen a white paint pen You're just on vacation.  There you have it. I actually like that. I'm gonna leave it. I think Normally I add green grass or something to my Seascapes, but I don't think I want to I like the way that looks so I'm gonna leave it I am going to pop it off the block And you'll notice because I got it I was heating it with the heat tool that it loosened the glue up here in the corner if you use a heat tool or a Hair dryer on these watercolor blocks. That's that can happen. So there you have it There's another watercolor postcard. I hope it gives you some idea of what you can do With your summer art creates a little postcard so you can definitely this is on watercolor paper So you can just write a message right on the back and put their name and address on there Put a stamp on there and stick it in the mail.  Just explore and have some fun Don't forget to go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later


Hello everyone, do another Narcissist Live video. Just out here at the pool tonight, gonna talk about how Narcissists play games and I'm sure this is something that we are all familiar with. From the moment you meet them, they are playing a game with you. They are manipulating you, they are lowering you in, we are trying to understand where they come in from and they exploit that, they use us, they use you to lure us into the relationship because we don't realise that it is all a game, we are not aware of that in the beginning. Then things start to go wrong, we start to see flaws and imperfections, they start to make mistakes but they just don't want to accept that it's them, they don't want to take accountability for their actions because they don't intend on changing for you anyway and that is why they soon start to play another game. They start devaluing and degrading you, putting you down, making you feel small, making you feel like you are not good enough, making you feel like something is wrong with you but that's just another game that they play because they know all too well that you are okay, they are quite happy with what you are doing for them that's why they stick around even while they are devaluing you because you got to ask the question if you are that bad why are they there for that long but then you start to catch on, you start to figure them out, you start to realise that it isn't you, you start questioning and confronting them, you are no longer willing to tolerate their behaviour and when they know that you are on to them then they play another game, they ramp it up and say that you are so bad and wrong that they have to leave you and up until this point they may have been smearing your name to their family and friends and maybe even to your family and friends who may now be their flying monkeys, they are turning all of these people against you, they are making them think that something is wrong with you, they are making them think that you are not doing enough to make them happy and they are doing everything they can to help you because they care about you but they just can't do it anymore because you are not willing to do what they want, you are not willing to change and this is just another part of the game, it's another part of the game so that they can avoid accountability, they are quite happy with the way they are, why would they ever decide to change, it's not going to make things better for them because they are the ones who want about anything, because they are the ones who want about anything, they are the ones who haven't got anything to give to you, die, jet, blameshit, gaslight, that's the name of the game for them, that's what they always do, it's always the same story, it doesn't matter what part of the world you are from, it's like they are all the same, they all do the same things, they all deny, reject, blameshit and gaslight, you'll always see those same tactics again and again and it's something that we all experience with them because they refuse to take accountability for their actions, they refuse to accept that they know exactly what they are doing, they know that their actions are harmful to you, the problem is they just don't care as long as they get the result that they want, they don't care about what happens to you, they will gladly throw you under the bus and forget about you, as long as they get what they want, we are not alike, we're very different, you may be well into jumping in front of a bullet for them, you may be willing to do anything to help them, to make things better for them, especially when you see that they're going through something, you want to help, you want to make a difference, you're willing to do whatever they want, whenever they want you to do it, but it's never enough for them, it's never enough to make them change, to make them happy, to make them satisfied with you and anyway they're not willing to do the same for you, they're not willing to go out of their way to make you happy, to make you comfortable in the relationship, they're not willing to do that, because if they did that then it would make you look at everything you're doing for them, that's how they're not really doing anything for you in return, if anything they're just a hindrance to your progress, they're setting you back in life, but they don't want you to see that and that is why they play this game of making you feel like that you're bad or something is wrong with you or you're not doing enough, you're not making them happy when you should be there, they put that on you because it keeps you looking at yourself, it keeps you trying to change or improve, instead of looking at them and realizing that they're not good for you, but many of us when they walk out the door, we feel like we have lost something, something valuable, something that was helping us, when if you look back they never did anything for you, they never improved your life in any way, so when they walk out the door you should realize that all you've lost is the problem, all you've lost is someone who is using up all of your time, energy, money and resources, that's the only thing that you've lost and that is why many of you when they do leave you will notice that your life starts to get a lot better, things start to improve for you, you will begin to notice that, maybe not straight away but with the time you will see that things do start to improve and of course when that happens i've won with it, they want to tell you you're not deserving of it because it's all about them having to be right, this black malice they have won and for them to make someone has to lose is the game that they play with the closest people to them, because many of you who watch my videos, you were the closest person to the narcissist and how did they treat you, they abused you, they treated you like their own personal punching bag that they could use so that they could feel better about themselves and that's really all it is, that's what the game is about, that's where they play these games, it's just so that they can feel better at your expense, gone a bit deep on this one but i hope you like it, i hope it vibes with you, i know many of you are going through this right now and i feel for you i really do, i know this stuff messes with your head but you just have to look back sometimes and remember all of the things you did for them, everything you sacrificed, i mean i've said it before and i'm gonna say it again right now, the true victims nine times out of ten, we leave with a lot less than what we came in with but as for the abusers, the manipulators, the people who exploit, they leave with a lot more than what they came in with because most of the time they didn't come in with nothing anyway, you have to help them out, i know some of you were with some who were homeless, they didn't have any money, they didn't have a job, they didn't have any friends or family who were supporting them, it was just you and only you who was helping them out and then when they used up everything you had and things got bad for you, they weren't there for you, no one was there for you and that's just how it always is with the victim, we are the ones who lose out, that's what makes us victims, it's like we've been robbed but they walk away, they ride off into the sunset with their new life after they've robbed everything from you, it's the same story again and again but these idiots think that they can play the victim when it's like hold on a minute, you came in with nothing, you had all of these experiences, you had all of these material gifts, this money, you had a place to stay, you had food, you had all of your bills paid for and you're the one who wants to complain and act like you're the victim, it doesn't make any sense but sadly a lot of us who are naive, we want to help so a lot of us fall for it but let's not fall for that anymore, it's time to wake up and realize that you're being played, you're being taken for a fool, it's time to wake up and realize that yeah I'm just out here at the swimming pool area, I can't do it here, coming to your life as always I'd just like to thank you for joining me on another NARC survivor life video, do appreciate your war, if you'd like to support our community please give the video a thumbs up down below, share your thoughts in the comment section, share this video with anyone who you believe in the help and click that subscribe button down below so you can receive the notifications for my future videos, if you'd like to book a 1-1 with me you can do that from my website, it's NARC survivor at Cuddy UK and check out my Instagram as well, it's NARC survivor YouTube and Instagram, all right that's all I've got for today, thank you all for watching and you all have a great day


The adaptation to the current environment produces innovations that are long lasting online interaction is definitely one of the things that will remain with us. People who have regularly scheduled more frequent interaction with distant friends and relatives, something they didn't use to do. They're doing it to compensate for the lack of things like travel and other social interaction in town and bars and restaurants, but they're incorporating people who are far away. And now they're going to want to keep doing that and keep being in touch with those people in a more interactive way than they have been in the past. I think the positives, the people who are doing really well in this situation are probably the people who are doing really well already. I don't think there are a lot of people who are having trouble or difficult or terrible relationships in life at home are now finding themselves suddenly doing better.  One thing that is certainly happening that families and relationships is that a lot of things are on hold. Some of it is sort of technical or the practical things like marriage and divorces weddings are canceled and divorces are difficult to process. You see a reduction in those things in real time. Some things are just not happening because you can't get them done, but other things are not happening because the drivers of family change are just being impaired. People are meeting new people less casual interaction is not happening as much people are putting a stop to plans that they would have had before. I think it's very likely that we're going to see a substantial drop in birth rates people are holding off at least temporarily from their decisions to have children. We have seen millions of young adults living with their parents that would not have been in previous years those people are not getting married maybe not meeting people, and probably not having children are getting pregnant this year that that might have otherwise, both from the opportunities for things being impaired by isolation and also the change decision making that is being affected by the massive uncertainty that people are experiencing. It means everything is ground to a halt in family life. It's a slight exaggeration, but a lot of things have ground to a halt or slowed down substantially. Successful families are a lot of bad security and comfortable interdependence and being able to rely on each other that especially the case for children, but it's also the case for people in intimate relationships, adults. So the people who were secure in the emotional as well as material sense are probably the people who are doing better now and in a lot of ways. The downside is we can't measure this but the terrible and abusive situations that are being experienced in many homes and families are going undetected. Both are formal ability to detect and route those out like school social workers and nurses and hospitals, and all the people that all the ways that people interact to prevent abuse, but also just the informal interactions and connections that people have that are buffers against trouble at home. So the people who are socially isolated now are not having them don't have the ability to to have those support systems. One thing that has happened is with men working at home is that there's been an opportunity for men to do more childcare and housework. On the one hand, people are spending more time at home, which is a gender and equal space. And so women are doing more parenting homeschooling and all that. On the other hand, in, because men are home more they're also doing more so they're maybe not doing so much a greater short share but they're doing a greater quantity of housework and childcare and care work generally. The people who are able to negotiate those changes are going to do better in this situation. So if you had the capacity to communicate discuss negotiate things like the division of labor and responsibilities and care work at home, the people who already had the relationship infrastructure in place to have those conversations successfully are probably also doing better at handling that flexibility now people who don't talk about those things, or couldn't talk about those things or couldn't come to agreement because of conflict. I'm not sure how they're able to work out the changes that they have to do now to adapt. One thing about low stakes informal unplanned interactions, we count on so much is that we don't realize we count on them so much and we often don't do a lot to make them intentional and that's part of the point. A lot of that is suddenly gone in professional workplaces. In sociology, we're very aware of what we call the strength of weak ties, which are the people that you know a little that those are the people you really need when it's time to get a job. The people who you know enough to ask for help, but they're distant enough from you that they know a lot of people that you don't. Your best friend isn't the one who's going to help you get a job because you know all the same people. If that person you just know a little, who's going to be most helpful, and that applies to a lot of things that we have to get done practically those weak ties turn out to be very important. When we cultivate them is a big question. Part of it is technological. The communication companies are working on this to do this. The simplest form is like the breakout room on zoom or things you can do in your online meetings, but we know that's going to be a problem. Because the rules of that kind of interaction are not explicit so remaking it is complicated or difficult, and the norms are sort of up for grabs and in those in a space where we're there we haven't developed before. If you don't know what's appropriate. In my case, I have students who might drop into my office to ask me a question but they might be reluctant to schedule an appointment for an online chat to get themselves to get them on the calendar. And then we get to the essence of those kinds of relationships and interactions to get the benefits from them that we have come to count on. And this requires us to really think through the sociology of this to sit down and take apart and try to rebuild the things about relationships that might not have even realized were so important going back to normal is a myth. For one thing, normal is how we got here. So we don't really want to go back to normal being unprepared and having all the, all the things that have made this worse, or the seeds for that we're already there so we don't want to go back to something like normal which is not possible anyway, people will have some sort of rebound. I think a rebound will be will there be a baby boom of people who are so excited they just start having children again, where we have a golden age of roaring 20s, which is what we had after the last great pandemic, exuberance and outward looking excitement. That's possible. Partly depends on whether the victory over the virus in the end is real and sudden and observable or gradual and into moralizing war of attrition is really to be determined and some of that is dependent on the science, but it's also a question of how we will react to the pandemic as it unfolds still, 6, 8, 10, 12 months from now we might be able to move about like we did something like in the old days, maybe with some masks and distancing. But the things that don't come back could be very big. For example, if we don't have cruises and movies anymore well those are giant industries. What about Broadway, if that doesn't come back, you know, that's a big change. So that last 10% of getting back to normal makes a very big difference. The people who are spending a lot of time together without other people around are they going to continue wanting to do that. Those healthy good relationships of people who are coping well are probably going to want to transition towards being more outward facing. I'm afraid it's the people who are less social or less pro social that are going to remain turned inward and keep those barriers up around them and their families in their homes. And I'm afraid that that will have a corrosive impact on society and social life. I think it's a story of divergence where people who are doing better or who are better prepared will be able to integrate their new selves into the new reality much better. It's about being psychologically prepared as well as socially and economically in the big sense and in the outside world. One of the things that is dislocating for people is the overall narrative of history. How is society going? That has a lot to do with social mobility. Do we think our kids are going to do better than ourselves and that sort of thing. And if we do, if we're safer than that assumption, then we feel ourselves the masters of our universe and we're comfortable making long term plans. Banana bread is a short term response, redesigning your home, planning to have more children, making long term career investments that you don't expect to have short term rewards. These are things that people do when they're confident about the future for family life. That means the lack of confidence in the future means fewer children, less marriage. I'm pretty confident that we're going to see those trends that were already happening continue as the data comes in from this year and into next year. The difference between inside world and outside world is being heightened. The negative side of that is the sense of danger and distrust. We were told that we should wear masks to protect others. I don't think that's the way most people are built psychologically. If you look at the way people are wearing their masks, I think they're thinking about protecting themselves. I also see that they are much less careful in their social distancing in their social people are much less careful when they're around people who they see as like them. So around their own neighborhood they're less likely to wear a mask and if they leave the neighborhood or interact people who are more different from themselves. I hear that the downside of that is building our walls higher and our distrust of others increasing. So that is the downside of reshaping our home lives in ways that seem positive. We're going to do great things at home, but it's partly because we're afraid of and we distrust the outside world. So that's a real challenge for social cohesion in the future. Who are we going to be after this. It's an important question to ask ourselves if we can make that intentional. I think that would be an important question who do we want to be after this. If we can ask that question in a positive way. I think it could be powerful. Some of that could be altruistic and outward thinking I can't wait to get out there again and help people and and meet new people and be friendly toward them. I think we can encourage that attitude towards that big question. I think that'll be a positive development.


The National Outstanding Young Farmer Award for Congress that we just attended is put on by the Outstanding Farmer of America fraternity. The award started as a national award in 1951. You go through, you're nominated, you fill out an application, then if you're top 25 you fill out another application, much like the achievement award is for young farmers and ranchers at Farm Bureau.  From that you're top four of the nation for the top four finalists. I mean you had dairymen from Wisconsin, you had potato farmers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, you had greenhouses in Alabama, cotton in Georgia, you had rice in California and I'm sure I forgot a commodity or a state but it's just the whole organization is so diverse. Like our reaction, like I was stunned that we were actually a finalist for it after being with the other finalists for I think it was three days at that point, like we were together almost every minute of the day getting to know them and then as we got home and actually had time to decompress it's humbling because I think this could be said for the group any one of us is just trying to make our operation the best that it can be. At one thing that was neat, one of the older gentlemen that had been part of the program, he was actually the one that scheduled our flights. He had won in 1970. He was a finalist in 1970. He'd been coming for years and years to it and Mr. Jerry had said at the end they had the forum where what class you were in like people were standing up from classes in the 60s until this year's class. I mean it was just an honor to be chosen as a top four finalist and not only for our operation but for the state. Like Arkansas has been represented in the past but we're not a top contender usually in the organization so I think from now on we're going to try to bring this to the forefront because our young farmers and ranchers are doing the same principles. I mean every one of us are whether but it's specific to their operation whether they're row crop or livestock so it's nothing that I think that's set us apart in the state but because I mean it's common practices but in the nation it's different than what other areas are doing.


When will you know you've made it? I've already made it. I'm here. Ilir Sela, founder of the Pizza App Slice.  I am. Let's do it. Okay. You raised a Series B for $15 million. Can we hear your investor pitch? The pizza industry is $46 billion. Two thirds of that is small businesses, which represents about $28 billion in payments and transactions. 95 plus percent of that is offline. You look at Domino's and Pizza Hut and Papa John's, only a fraction of their businesses is offline. And so we're bridging that gap. What's one of the craziest data points that you could share with us that we'd be like, wow, that's interesting? 94 percent of Americans have pizza every single month. 68 percent have it every week. Blue states tend to be more independent. Red states are more chain pizzas. What part of the business surprised you the most? The part of the business that surprised me the most, just how many people misunderstand the massive nature of the pizza industry. A lot of people think of Slice as a niche category-focused business when, in fact, our TAM, our Total Adjustable Market, is much bigger than most companies out there. Who do you compete with? We compete with ourselves. What was the hardest thing you had to learn on the job? The hardest thing I had to learn was how to evolve from being a founder to a CEO. When did that happen? Still happening. Who's career do you model your own after? I don't. I just, I think it's important that we stay authentic. Important that I focus on our business and innovate around our industry. You know, maybe hopefully one day somebody models their career around me. You're wearing a Yankees hat in your LinkedIn profile. Why are you not playing up the whole New York thing more as a brand? It's a good question. We definitely are all about New York, but pizza is a national staple. And we're just trying to make sure that we're, you know, servicing to all the consumers in every single city. But New York is such a big market and I see the ads and I saw them on the subway and it's a great place for brands to really have fun. Yours are kind of safe. Are they working? They definitely are working, but I do agree with you and we're going to start being a little bit more provocative here in the coming months. How has being from Staten Island shaped you? Being from Staten Island has shaped me in two or three ways. One, it is definitely the pizza capital of the world. So I was born in a pizza industry. My family's third generation in the pizza industry, but Staten Island has 120 small business pizza locations in a very small island. Two, it gives me access to mainstream rather than, I think the bubbles that are in Manhattan and San Francisco. And I think three, it is very much an enclosed geographic location. And so to break out, you really have to hustle. And I think that's where I kind of got that from. If you had one marketing dollar to spend, we would just spend it. Building community. Community is critical. In fact, it is everything, especially in the way that we build our business. The reason why we're focused on one industry is because we believe that you can then create a community around that where people can share very like-minded challenges and opportunities and wins and losses. And all we talk about is really just how we can provide a platform that ultimately helps people be in business for themselves, not by themselves. What is one feature you've seen on another, completely app-based business that you went, that's awesome. We got to do something like that. Uber rideshare is a what I call marketplace selects model, where a lot of the decision making is removed from the consumer side. So they choose your price, your driver, the ETA, and you just simply give them a preference. That's magic. What's the most exciting thing that's coming to Slice? Most exciting thing that's coming to Slice are recommendations by Slice. The biggest question we always get asked is what is the pizza that I should be ordering from? And instead of us being more hands-off about that, we're going to make really the right recommendations. What have you learned from Seamless and Grubhub that's critical for your success? To be a lot more focused and servicing the merchant rather than just a consumer. I think balancing both sides is critical. What part of your brand still needs work? The part of our brand that still needs a lot of work is the consumer side. I think we've focused a lot into a lot of great work with our merchants, with our partners, but we really need to tell a better story and our brand needs to really connect more with our consumers. What is the best consumer feedback you've ever gotten? The best consumer feedback I have ever received is that when somebody uses Slice, then it is Slice's problem to solve. Very often, a pizzeria would mess up an order or the food quality wasn't good. And so when a customer complained or left a review on Slice, the natural reaction was, well, we don't make the food. And that is just the totally wrong approach. If they place an order on Slice, it is our problem. Does PR sell products? PR tells stories and stories and visions sell products. What specific element of marketing is your strength? I would say authenticity and telling a very personal story. Slice doesn't tell that story, though, does it? Slice does tell my story. I don't know that it's told to the consumer. It's more facing on the restaurant side. So I would say that my focus and specialty is how to speak to the restaurants, not necessarily to the consumer. Do the seamlesses of the world work with the local mom and pops? Some do. So some restaurants work with them, but it's a much different offering and proposition. We are very much about being a platform that empowers them and Seamless and Grubhub partner with them simply to serve the consumer. What part of the brand are you most proud of? I'm most proud of the part of our brand that champions the stories of local pizza restaurants, owners in their history. What media, marketing, PR, influencers thing has had the most impact on your business since the beginning? The biggest impact for me has been the value. I've learned that the value of storytelling, the power of storytelling is the only superpower humans have. And some people use it and some people don't. And so for me it's all about improving my own storytelling abilities, but also our brand should be able to do the same thing. Interesting you say that because I don't think your brand from what I can see tells much of a story at all, but you are loaded with them. Okay. So when you say our human superpower, is that another kind of term for great sales? The sales and storytelling are inextricably tied together. Oh, storytelling is for me, I define it as our vision and why we belong, why we're here, and what is the problem that Slice is solving in the marketplace. You know, that's our story and it's not necessarily telling someone a direct story, but it's about telling a vision and inspiring people with what we're trying to do. And that's ultimately what gets people to buy in is because people want to be a part of that vision and ultimately, you know, play a role in that movie. It's always be selling, always be storytelling essentially, correct? Always be storytelling. Always be storytelling. You should say that should be yours. Sounds good. I'll take it. Ilya Sela, founder of Slice. Thank you so much for coming on here and answering some questions. Thank you for having me. I'm Ian Wishengrad and we'll see you next time on I'm With The Brand.