Monthly Archives: January 2020

Human Behavior

2020: The year of seeing clearly on AI and machine learning – ZDNet

Tom Foremski

Late last year, I complained toRichard Socher, chief scientist at Salesforce and head of its AI projects, about the term "artificial intelligence" and that we should use more accurate terms such as machine learning or smart machine systems, because "AI" creates unreasonably high expectations when the vast majority of applications are essentially extremely specialized machine learning systems that do specific tasks -- such as image analysis -- very well but do nothing else.

Socher said that when he was a post-graduate it rankled him also, and he preferred other descriptions such as statistical machine learning. He agrees that the "AI" systems that we talk about today are very limited in scope and misidentified, but these days he thinks of AI as being "Aspirational Intelligence." He likes the potential for the technology even if it isn't true today.

I like Socher's designation of AI as Aspirational Intelligence but I'd prefer not to further confuse the public, politicians and even philosophers about what AI is today: It is nothing more than software in a box -- a smart machine system that has no human qualities or understanding of what it does. It's a specialized machine that is nothing to do with systems that these days are called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Before ML systems co-opted it, the term AI was used to describe what AGI is used to describe today: computer systems that try to mimic humans, their rational and logical thinking, and their understanding of language and cultural meanings to eventually become some sort of digital superhuman, which is incredibly wise and always able to make the right decisions.

There has been a lot of progress in developing ML systems but very little progress on AGI. Yet the advances in ML are being attributed to advances in AGI. And that leads to confusion and misunderstanding of these technologies.

Machine learning systems unlike AGI, do not try to mimic human thinking -- they use very different methods to train themselves on large amounts of specialist data and then apply their training to the task at hand. In many cases, ML systems make decisions without any explanation and it's difficult to determine the value of their black box decisions. But if those results are presented as artificial intelligence then they get far higher respect from people than they likely deserve.

For example, when ML systems are being used in applications such as recommending prison sentences but are described as artificial intelligence systems -- they gain higher regard from the people using them. It implies that the system is smarter than any judge. But if the term machine learning is used it would underline that these are fallible machines and allow people to treat the results with some skepticism in key applications.

Even if we do develop future advanced AGI systems we should continue to encourage skepticism and we should lower our expectations for their abilities to augment human decision making. It is difficult enough to find and apply human intelligence effectively -- how will artificial intelligence be any easier to identify and apply? Dumb and dumber do not add up to a genius. You cannot aggregate IQ.

As things stand today, the mislabeled AI systems are being discussed as if they were well on their way of jumping from highly specialized non-human tasks to becoming full AGI systems that can mimic human thinking and logic. This has resulted in warnings from billionaires and philosophers that those future AI systems will likely kill us all -- as if a sentient AI would conclude that genocide is rational and logical. It certainly might appear to be a winning strategy if the AI system was trained on human behavior across recorded history but that would never happen.

There is no rational logic for genocide. Future AI systems would be designed to love humanity and be programmed to protect and avoid human injury. They would likely operate very much in the vein of Richard Brautigan's 1967 poemAll Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace--the last stanza:

I like to think(it has to be!)of a cybernetic ecologywhere we are free of our laborsand joined back to nature,returned to our mammalbrothers and sisters,and all watched overby machines of loving grace.

Let us not fear AI systems and in 2020, let's be clear and call them machine learning systems -- because words matter.

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2020: The year of seeing clearly on AI and machine learning - ZDNet

Human Behavior

Tackling todays violence requires Dr. Kings philosophy of love – WHYY

This essay is part of a series of reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s lesser-known speech, Keep Moving From This Mountain. The April 10, 1960, address to students at Spelman College will be the focus of a Community Conversation at WHYY on Friday, Jan. 17 from 6 8 p.m. Click here to RSVP.

While standing in Sisters Chapel at Spelman College the private, womens liberal arts institution in Atlanta Dr. King identified and addressed four symbolic mountains that America must move away from if civilization is to survive and reach a state of justice, peace, respect and honor.

His speech, Keep Moving From This Mountain, is eerily relevant to 2020.

The first mountain identified by the southern minister was moral and ethical relativism. On this point, Dr. King called upon us to acknowledge that the right and honorable thing is not a point of negotiation and that the view of morality as a matter of group consensus is incorrect.

Said another way: We must always choose the side of right and just.

Practical materialism, which Dr. King explained as living as if there were nothing else that had reality but fame and material objects, was the second mountain. The reverend called for us to stop seeking out work that improves our lives and adds to our personal wealth, and instead pursue a life of purpose and concern for humanity.

Upon the third mountain, racial segregation was a call for universal freedom and human dignity for all of Gods children.

Segregation is wrong because it assumes that God made a mistake, Dr. King declared.

The fourth and final mountain is, to me, the most important of all: violence.

America must move from this mountain with, as Dr. King once put it, a fierce urgency of now.

Rumors of war. Police brutality. The deaths of immigrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border. The sustained oppression of people of color. This moment in history should compel us to follow Dr. Kings mandate of love, if we are to survive and combat the violence that permeates our society.

Dr. King suggested fighting violence with an attitude of shared humanity and the strength that comes with love.

The Atlanta-born minister, then in his early 30s, said he lives every day amidst the threat of death. But Dr. King chose love in the face of hate.

Battered by the winds of adversity, Dr. King kept moving.

He had faith in the future that existed on the other side of the mountain. But more importantly, Dr. King had risen to a level where he could look in the eyes of an opponent and love him in spite of his evil deeds.

The people who resort to violence and hate are in need of love.

Author Marianne Williamson once wrote, The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a call for love.

To fight with love requires two things: a long stare at the good in humanity, and the understanding that nothing and no one can move you towards weapons of hate and violence.

On April 10, 1960, Dr. King described his audience, the Spelman women, as the heirs of a legacy of goodwill and sacrifice.

In 2020, my question to you is: What will the future generations inherit through your legacy?

As a Spelman woman, I am reminded that my life must be aligned with the legacy of the institution that nurtured me to womanhood.

As an American citizen, and an inhabitant of this planet, I seek to unite with principled people to create a legacy of love, hope and dogged determination. My vision is the same one Dr. King had: to create a just world for all of Gods children.

When reflecting on Dr. Kings nearly sixty-year-old speech, the biblical story of Queen Esther comes to mind. Queen Esther was challenged with understanding that she might have become royalty because she was needed as a voice for the voiceless.

What if you and I are alive now, at this moment in history, to show love and strength during a time such as this?

In 2020, showing up with love and strength means transforming our corner of the universe with visions of a loving and humane world. Our thoughts and actions should align with the vision of the world we wish to create.

This could mean buying a meal for someone in need, joining a community advocacy group, writing a letter to your legislator or organizing rallies.

In addition to showing the world love, its important that we, particularly those of us who identify with traditionally oppressed groups, show ourselves love every day and in every moment.

The incomparable Audre Lorde, a Black feminist and civil rights activist, once said, Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

In a country where violence against women, children, and people of color are normal occurrences, show up with so much love for yourself that even when external forces seek to tear you down, youll have the power to rise

Imani Hester is a 2014 alumna of Spelman College. Hester went on to earn a masters in teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education and a masters in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently uses her skills in the education field and will be publishing a childrens book in August 2020. She plans to pursue a career in writing and public speaking and to continue her education work.

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Tackling todays violence requires Dr. Kings philosophy of love - WHYY

Human Behavior

Creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick Working on Thirtysomething Sequel – InsideHook

The "thirtysomething" cast at the 1988 Emmy Awards.

Alan Light/Creative Commons

Creating followups to beloved television shows is a tricky business. For every Twin Peaks: The Return, which sparks an array of acclaim and discussion, theres been a Mad About You revival, where the reaction has been significantly more meh. This week brings with it the news that thirtysomething creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick are working on a sequel to that acclaimed television series, which aired from 1987 to 1991.

Town & Country reports that the new series will focus on the children of the original seriess characters, with a number of cast members slated to reprise their roles in the new series, including Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig and Timothy Busfield. No premiere date has been announced as of yet. Town & Country expects it to debut during the 2020-21 season.

In a 2009 review of the seriess first season, Emily VanDerWerff concisely summarized thirtysomethings appeal and how the years since it aired have left it something of an underrated and influential work.

These days, watching thirtysomething means seeing a program that somehow pioneered a huge number of things we accept as vital to our current sense of good TV drama. But its also a program thats mostly been forgotten, perhaps because it never got the universal critical praise the similarly influential Hill Street Blues did, simply because the conflicts are so small.

Zwick and Herskovitz also worked on several other acclaimed ensemble television shows including, most notably, My So-Called Life. But both men have also worked extensively in film and the contrast between their film work and their television work bears noting.

Zwicks credits as a director include ambitious period pieces like Legends of the Fall, Glory and The Last Samurai. That said, his directorial debut hewed more closely to thirtysomethings themes and settings: in 1986, he adapted David Mamets play Sexual Perversity in Chicago as About Last Night.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes in 2009, Zwick discussed the seeming gulf between his film work and his television work.

That TV stuff has given me an opportunity to give voice to a much more nuanced appreciation of human behavior and a kind of more comedic view, and these movies are 70 ft. across and 30 ft. high, and somehow the stories feel better when they can fill the screen.

Like his frequent collaborator, Herskovitz has also made work for screens both small and large. Both men worked on the screenplay for the 2017 thriller American Assassin, and they both have story credits on The Great Wall. Does this mean the thirtysomething revival will feature car chases or a large-scale battle scene? Probably not, but weirder things have happened when tv shows make a comeback.

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Creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick Working on Thirtysomething Sequel - InsideHook

Human Behavior

The Parasite That Infects Mouse Brains and Makes Them More Curious – Discover Magazine

If you're a mouse, you're afraid of cats. That's just biology.

But, if you're a mouse infected with the parasite Toxoplasmosis gondii it's a different story. These mice will march right up to a cat, the very picture of foolish bravado. Of course, this usually doesn't go well for the mouse.

But that's the point. T. gondii needs to enter a cat's intestine to reproduce. The easiest way to do that is by riding a carrier straight to the source, and the parasite has a sneaky way of doing it. In a chilling display of mind-control, T. gondii is able to insinuate itself into the brain and turn off a mouse's reflexive aversion to cats, scientists say.

But new research in the journal Cell Reports says that's not quite the case. Rather than only losing their innate fear of felines, infected mice are instead markedly less anxious overall, making the parasite something like a courage booster for the small rodents.

I think the story of having a parasite hijacking the behavior of a mammal is fascinating, says study co-author Ivan Rodriguez, a neurogeneticist at the University of Geneva. It is rare for parasites to influence mammal behavior let alone for the effects to be this strong, Rodriguez says.

From the parasites perspective, making a mouse less afraid of cats makes sense: That increases the likelihood that a feline will catch, digest and breed the organism. T. gondii relies on cat intestines to reproduce, so eating infected prey is key to its survival. But researchers werent sure what T. gondii does in mouse brains to alter their behavior so radically. Rodriguez partnered with a medical researcher at his university, Dominique Soldati-Favre, to investigate.

Behavior tests showed that infected mice were not only less afraid, they were actually more willing to interact with all kinds of things cats and otherwise. They explored the perimeter of an open field for longer than uninfected mice and prodded a human hand in their cage, something their healthy and more naturally wary relatives wouldn't do. Infected mice were also just as willing to sniff guinea pig (a non-predator) odors as they were odors from a fox (a predator, and obvious source of fear.)

So while the parasite makes mice more comfortable with cats, it might be that the disease isnt rerouting mice brains as specifically as people thought. They could be attracted to crocodiles, Rodriguez says. T. gondii doesnt care.

Rodriguez thinks researchers might need to rethink their search for the exact brain structures the parasite impacts. The network of neurons that only controls a mouse's fear of cats is smaller than the set of neurons controlling overall anxiety, he says. Now that we know its something more general, were not looking for such [a] specific and minute change of circuitry.

The study also has more direct implications for human healthcare. Humans can contract toxoplasmosis as well, and while the effects are slightly different (there's no sudden love of cats, of course), some studies suggest the infection could lead to mental health issues.

In the study, blood tests and assessments of messenger DNA, called RNA, in infected mice brains showed that those with the most severe behavioral changes also showed higher levels of inflammation-related molecules.This relationship indicates that degree of inflammation in mice could serve as a stand-in for how bad their T. gondii infection is.

Human symptoms of the disease are rarely as obvious and severe as the changes mice undergo, and theres no way to tap into patient brains while theyre alive and possibly sick. And of course, this research was in mice not people. But the finding indicates that blood tests could help indicate the severity of a human T. gondii infection.

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The Parasite That Infects Mouse Brains and Makes Them More Curious - Discover Magazine

Human Behavior

‘You’ fans think Joe is a psychopath, but mental health experts say they’re wrong – INSIDER

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for the television show "You."

When season 1 of "You" aired, fans took to Twitter to discuss Goldberg's mental health, though he's never diagnosed with a particular condition in either season. Still, many viewers seemed to believe he is a psychopath.

On December 26, Netflix released the highly-anticipated second season of its original thriller series "You," which centers around narrator Joe Goldberg, a young man who has a pattern of becoming obsessed with certain women, stalking them, winning them over, and killing anyone around them he believes has wronged his lover.

The release reignited Twitter speculations about Goldberg's mental health that have been swirling since season 1. While Goldberg never receives an explicit diagnosis in either season of "You," many viewers seem to believe he is a psychopath.

But according to mental health experts, Goldberg's mental health is more complicated, especially since the term "psychopath" doesn't hold much meaning, medically speaking.

"People use the word 'psychopath' colloquially to describe a person whose behavior defies social norms and conventional understandings of right and wrong," Kelly Scott, a therapist at Tribeca Therapy in Manhattan, told Insider. "From a clinical perspective, the word 'psychopath' doesn't mean anything."

Scott did say, though, that the closest clinical diagnosis to a "psychopath" or "sociopath" is antisocial personality disorder, and that Goldberg does indeed show some hallmark traits of the disorder. He also demonstrates characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder, experts say.

At the same time, more information offered in "You" season 2 suggests Goldberg may not have antisocial personality disorder, but an attachment disorder related to childhood trauma.

One reason it's difficult to pinpoint a single mental health condition for Goldberg is the simple fact "You" was created for television, according to Pamela Rutledge, a social scientist who researches the intersection of media, human behavior, and neuroscience.

Goldberg "seems to be an amalgam of personality traits at abnormal levels that are constructed to make a good story and create a character that elicits a certain amount of empathy" in viewers, despite the fact he murders people, Rutledge told Insider. In reality, very few people with mental illness behave like this in real life.

The fact that Goldberg comes off as extremely charming from the first time viewers are introduced to him also suggests he could be a narcissist. Netflix

Rutledge added that in her expert opinion, Goldberg's actions suggest he has symptoms of certain mental illnesses like antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.

According to the National Institutes of Health, people with antisocial personality disorder lack empathy, and as a result, may act in ways that society considers morally unsound, like manipulating others to get what they want or violating another's privacy.

People with narcissistic personality disorder havean inflated sense of self-importanceand lack of empathy for others, which are typically mechanisms used to mask their low self-esteem, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In some ways, Goldberg embodies both conditions because he's constantly violent when he believes a person has wronged him, a common justification people with both illnesses make for their behavior.

For example, in season 1 of "You," Goldberg hit a man named Benji, his love interest Beck's boyfriend, over the head with a mallet, locked him in a glass box, and killed Benji a few days later. Later in the season, Goldberg also killed Beck's best friend Peach because he didn't like how Beck and Peach's relationship interfered with his and Beck's relationship.

Goldberg committed all of these heinous and unlawful acts without showing remorse and did so for his own benefit in this case, being closer to Beck which suggests he could be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, Scott said.

Indeed, people with antisocial personality disorder are more inclined to break the law than those with narcissistic personality disorder, psychologist Stanton Samenow wrote on Psychology Today.

The fact that Goldberg comes off as extremely charming from the first time viewers are introduced to him is another reason he could be a narcissist, something that ranges from the full-blown disorder to a personality trait.

Often narcissists fly under the radar because they use their charm and wit to seem normal and unsuspecting. In fact, Ramani Durvasula, a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and a licensed clinical psychologist, previously told Insider that extreme charisma is a common red flag that someone could be a narcissist.

"I always tell people: Pay attention when there's too much on the front end," Durvasula said. "I know it seems fun and romantic, but it's probably a trainwreck waiting to happen."

Goldberg's penchant for harming or killing those close to his love interest and obsession Beck also suggest he's morbidly codependent, according to Rutledge. People who are severely codependent tend to control their partner or the person they're codependent towards and define themselves primarily in relationship to their partner rather than having their own identity, Insider previously reported.

Season 2 of "You" gets deeper into Goldberg's past and uncovers clues that suggest he actually has an attachment disorder, according to Scott.

Attachment disorders typically develop in early childhood when a child has unhealthy or difficult relationships with family due to emotional or physical abuse or neglect, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Symptoms include difficulty managing their emotions, being overly friendly, irritability, and refusing to engage in social situations. Not all people with antisocial personality disorder or an attachment disorder will act violently like Goldberg did. Netflix

"Joe [Goldberg] would be a good example of misdiagnosis," Scott said. "If he was my patient in season 1, sure, he could be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, but upon further excavation, his behavior reveals itself as a trauma symptom versus antisocial personality disorder."

According to Scott, this shift in understanding his diagnosismakes "You" feel like a more realistic portrayal of mental health.

"Mental health relies on nuance because it is nuance," Scott said. "A diagnosis is almost never clean-cut and disorders overlap. It's not like a strep test with 'yes, you have strep,' or 'no, you don't.'"

At the same time, Scott said it's important to note that not all people with antisocial personality disorder or an attachment disorder will act violently.

"You don't have to kill someone to get that diagnosis," Scott said. "You can do it in a non-physical way. It can come out in parenting and using your child to meet your own needs in a way that is massively detrimental to your child's needs," like Goldberg's mother is seen doing in flashbacks during season 2.

These flashbacks help viewers better understand the root cause of Goldberg's behavior and, according to Scott, these scenes led her to believe Goldberg acts how he does not because he lacks empathy and has antisocial personality disorder, but because his violent and turbulent childhood caused him to develop an attachment disorder.

"[Goldberg] was attached to someone, his mom, who was unresponsive to his needs, inconsistent, and not a safe person to him," Scott said. "He's positioned as alone in the world, abused and neglected by his mom."

That's why later in life Goldberg becomes obsessively attached to women he believes can give him what he needs and is motivated to get the love, or idea of love, he craves by any means necessary while still showing glimpses of empathy.

According to Scott, a season 2 scene when Goldberg looks distraught after he learns his landlord Delilah has been killed proves that Goldberg does indeed have empathy and therefore doesn't have antisocial personality disorder. Another season 2 scene, when Goldberg says he won't kill Forty even though he hates him because he means so much to Love, further suggests Goldberg has empathy, to an extent.

Season 3 of "You" is slated to debut in 2021.

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'You' fans think Joe is a psychopath, but mental health experts say they're wrong - INSIDER

Human Behavior

CX Predictions for 2020: Is Your Brand Ready? – Forbes

We see four critical changes coming to the world of customer experience (CX) in 2020. Your brand will want to take note of these changes because one simple fact wont change: Customer experience is the main battleground on which brands compete for customers.

Customer experience matters. Nearly three-quarters of consumers say they have no problem abandoning brands even those theyre loyal to after a bad experience. At the same time, only 10% of customers say that most brands are meeting their expectations for a good customer experience. In other words, the stakes are high, and most brands are falling short.

That being said, what are the critical ways that CX will change in 2020?

1. Brands will move away from trying to measure customer experience.

While it may sound strange to claim that CX matters but brands will stop measuring it, many are beginning to recognize the futility of traditional CX measurement. NPS scores, churn, time on site, loyalty and even customer satisfaction only tend to get at CX inferentially. Such metrics are also frequently subjective and seldom directly actionable. As a result, as Forrester points out, CX and marketing professionals often struggle to determine whether their CX initiatives add value, either for the customer or the company.

In 2020 and beyond, brands will focus on measuring behaviors, particularly those associated with customer journeys, and analyzing what customers actually did, what they did next and what most influenced these actions. Accordingly, well see greater adoption of measurement frameworks built around journey steps, allowing organizations to visualize relationships between disparate touch points and analyze the effectiveness of entire journey sequences. Who wins and who loses on the CX front will be determined by the ability of brands to measure and respond to, ideally in real time, customer journey activity.

2. New channels will provide even more opportunities for personalization.

The number of channels through which companies and customers can interact continues to proliferate without a foreseeable end. For companies unable to stitch together experiences across these channels, such proliferation will pose ever greater challenges, particularly because, like it or not, customers expect a consistent experience wherever they encounter your brand.

Companies, on the other hand, that have the ability to collect data and orchestrate experiences across channels, will reap the rewards. Whats more, companies able to harness the power of AI and machine learning to anticipate customer needs and create more personalized, valuable interactions with customers, regardless of channel, will end up setting the CX bar that every other brand will struggle to meet.

3. Well see the limits of AI and a return to the human touch where machines fail.

By 2021, 15% of all customer service interactions are going to be handled by artificial intelligence, according to Gartner, a fourfold increase over 2017. As powerful as AI will show itself to be in the CX arena, however, theres an upper limit to what AI can accomplish in customer service. Artificial intelligence is limited by the datasets it has been trained on. It can still be surprised by human behavior in a way that humans cant, and it can still make mistakes.

Take the example of regulated industries, where a black box analytics solution or AI algorithm could mismatch a product with a customer, potentially resulting in a hefty fine. Although the responsibilities of human agents will continue to evolve, the critical need for human-to-human interaction wont ever go away. While humans may always be better than machines at managing complex or nuanced interactions with customers, we will also see their abilities increasingly augmented by AI-enabled tools, providing real-time insights into customer behavior and recommending next best actions.

4. Voice technology will play a more critical role in CX strategy.

From voice-activated virtual assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, and voice-driven menus on customer support lines to sentiment analysis for call center routing, voice technology already plays multiple roles as a customer service proxy, user interface and valuable source of CX data. In 2020, well see an increasing emphasis on voice as a core part of CX strategy. Brands will begin to overcome the challenges of working with voice data, still an untapped source of customer insight, and pay greater attention to refining and improving voice-centered steps in the customer journey.

To prepare your brand for the next stage of competition around CX, as well as the next level of customer expectations regarding great experiences, consider how you stack up against these predictions. Have you begun focusing on the measurement of, and real-time responses to, customer journey steps? Can you effectively replicate your brand experience across multiple channels? Do you have a clear strategy regarding where to use automation and AI and when you need to ensure that your customers are getting the human touch they require? Finally, have you begun effectively leveraging voice technologies to meet customers where they are and expand the ways you interact with them?

If you arent sure how to answer these questions, you and your brand have a lot of work ahead of you in the coming year. If, on the other hand, you answered these questions quickly and with confidence, then the future might be quite bright for your brand.

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CX Predictions for 2020: Is Your Brand Ready? - Forbes

Human Behavior

‘Everything’s Gonna Be Okay’: Josh Thomas is ready for Freeform – Los Angeles Times

Josh Thomas has to see about a dog.

No, not John, his constant companion and former Please Like Me costar, the part-spaniel, part-poodle whose snoring during the sound mix for Thomas new Freeform series, Everythings Gonna Be Okay, repeatedly sends the room into fits of laughter. Its another canine in his charge that has Thomas in distress to the point that, as we await dinner later in the evening, I offer to cut short our interview so he can check on the pup in person.

My friends mum died and now I have her dog for a bit, he whispers while fielding a call about the separation anxiety-fueled baying hes hearing on the phone. Thomas hems and haws a moment What am I going to do with this dog? and then decides on a course of action: Hell be OK. Hes just going to have to tough it out for a while. But when I remark that it was kind of him to take the dog in, Thomas deflects the compliment like an old pro.

It is, really, he deadpans. Its one of the most noble things Ive ever done.

Josh Thomas and his dog, John, during post-production on Everythings Gonna Be Okay.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

This is Thomas modus operandi. At 32, the stand-up comedian and creator/writer/star of the acclaimed dramedy Please Like Me has been a stalwart pop cultural presence in his homeland since winning the RAW open-mike competition in Melbourne at 17, appearing as a panelist and contestant on talk, game and reality shows from the heady Q&A to the more prosaic Celebrity Masterchef. Hes honed a clear, distinctive voice in a business that rewards sameness. (He knows what he wants is his colleagues most common description of him.) And he landed the highly anticipated Everythings Gonna Be Okay, his first American TV series, at Disneys cable outlet for young, progressive audiences.

Even so, the most frequent target of Thomas wicked sense of humor part shield, part shiv is Thomas himself.

Im so numb to my own face, you know? he says of his lack of self-consciousness, describing the experience of mixing sound on a series in which hes the central character. I sit in that room for 10 to 12 hours a day. Literally, Ill sit there and theyll play me saying the same sentence eight times in a row and Ill pick the one thats the most charming. Its deranged.

Though it feels, at times, like a protective shell, the patter of a semi-autobiographical humorist who hides his vulnerabilities in plain sight, Thomas carries off his rat-a-tat of embarrassing anecdotes and mordant quips with disarming gusto.

When another call comes in, this one from his mother, he puts her on speakerphone, then annotates her comments with his own. (Great. Thatll be the pull-out quote, he says dryly after she calls him a mummys boy.) In other stretches of this late-August evening in Glendale, where hell finish Season 1 of Everythings Gonna Be Okay before embarking on a stand-up tour in Australia, Thomas gleefully riffs on the sex noises hes recorded for the series and points out a pimple on his screen-projected face.

But self-deprecation, Thomas keenest instinct, is one he appears ready to temper, if not abandon entirely and with Everythings Gonna Be Okay, which premieres Thursday, he may have his chance.

From left, Maeve Press, Kayla Cromer and Josh Thomas in a scene from the pilot episode of Everythings Gonna Be Okay.

(Tony Rivetti / Freeform)

The half-hour series, which premieres Thursday, stars Thomas as Nicholas, a young man who assumes care of his teenage half-sisters when their father dies of cancer. The extraordinarily poised Maeve Press is pint-sized, sharp-tongued Genevieve; Matilda, eager for independence after being treated with kid gloves because shes on the autism spectrum, is played by Kayla Cromer, who is on the spectrum herself.

Idiosyncratic and colorful, treating adult and adolescent love, sex, pain and grief with remarkably funny candor, Everythings Gonna Be Okay is very much in the vein of Thomas previous work, except here his character is older and (mostly) wiser, with responsibilities at which the earlier series hero would have blanched.

Perhaps its a function of age: In your early 20s, youre hopeful things are going to change, Thomas says. And then in your 30s youre like, This is it ... This is how Im going to be for the next 50 years.

More likely, its one of experience. Thomas was an exceptional talent from the absolute get-go, according to his Australian manager and executive producer, Kevin Whyte, noting that most stand-ups dont come into their own until their 20s. In one routine, he made wonderfully matter-of-fact observations about his parents divorce, lamenting that he was too old for them to buy his love; in another, titled Surprise, he detailed coming out as gay.

He didnt leave anything on the floor, Whyte remembers.

This aptitude for hiding pithy, precise insights about human behavior inside a sweet and innocent bonbon wrapper attracted the interest of the Australian Broadcasting Corp., according to the networks head of comedy, Rick Kalowski, who served as an executive producer on the series that came out of the partnership: the puckish, heartfelt Please Like Me, which made its creator a critics darling at just 26.

For Thomas, who says the series was dead after its first season, it was also a trial by fire.

Please Like Me, which starred Thomas as an aimless 20-something who comes out as gay in the pilot episode and cares for his mother after she tries to take her own life, was originally slated to air on the ABCs main network, ABC1, but was shifted to its digital outlet, ABC2, six months before its premiere in February 2013. The move provoked criticism from Thomas and the Australian press, who questioned whether the ABC had deemed the series too gay.

At the time, the ABC denied that this was the case. But Kalowski, who was not involved in the decision, suggests that the criticism was not entirely off base. I personally think theres probably something to that, he says. I dont think it had everything to do with that. But it probably didnt have nothing to do with that.

They told me they moved it because it was so good that they wanted it to be the launch thing of their [secondary] channel. Which is a lie, Thomas says, still chagrined by the ABCs handling of the series. And it did really well. Really well-reviewed. And it did big numbers for them by the standards of this ... channel, which is, like, 16 people versus 12. And we were like, Lets do a Season 2' and they were like, Well, no, because this channel cant afford it.

Josh Thomas, creator of Everythings Gonna Be Okay

What saved Please Like Me, and perhaps Thomas television career, was a serendipitous confluence of events. First, Participant Media acquired the series for U.S. distribution on its since-shuttered network for millennials, Pivot, and joined on as a producer earning the series a reprieve, Thomas says, because the ABC used the money earned in the deal to pay for its share of Season 2. (For his part, Kalowski believes that the show would still have gone forward without foreign investment, but not on the same terms: After the Pivot pact was struck, Please Like Me was promoted to ABC1 and granted an expanded episode count. Kalowski credits the series with putting the ABCs comedy slate on the map, estimating that nearly 20 seasons of TV on the network have been co-produced with foreign investment since.)

Then the reviews started pouring in. Though Please Like Me had previously found favor with critics in Australia, it was virtually unheard of in the U.S. until it was championed by critics like The Times own Robert Lloyd, who called it mostly lovely, a little wistful and doubtfully life-affirming. In particular, the New Yorkers Emily Nussbaum, singling out the sweetly melancholic series and Thomas diffident charisma in a September 2013 column on the launch of Pivot, assuaged Thomas admittedly bitter feelings toward the ABC.

Being written about in the New Yorker was the most-wanted compliment you could ever imagine a person wanting, Thomas says. The show had been so mistreated, to the point where I went on a celebrity diving show. (Thomas was in dire enough financial straits at the time to appear on the reality show Celebrity Splash!, in which Australian stars competed against each other for prize money. He was eliminated in the first round: Im probably the highest-paid professional diver there is, on a per-dive basis, he jokes.)

If the process of bringing Please Like Me to the public taught Thomas the television industrys sometimes-unpleasant ins and outs, its four seasons, the last of which aired in the States on Hulu, taught him the trade.

Id never been on a film set, he says. We did pre-production on Please Like Me and Id talk to the first [assistant director] and I didnt know what her job was. When I wanted to ask for something, I didnt really know who to ask. I would sit in meetings and insist we had certain things, and I didnt really know what I was talking about.

Now hes an old hand, one Stephanie Swedlove, a former Pivot executive and an executive producer on Everythings Gonna Be Okay, praises for his clarity of vision, particularly his series collision of the naturalistic and the absurd.

Working with Josh is like a dream, she says during a break in the action at the Everythings Gonna Be Okay sound mix in Glendale. The way that hes able to present real life through a comedic lens, I think its very unique.

Josh Thomas, left, at the 2014 Television Critics Assn. summer press tour with Tiffany Threadgould and Tom Szaky, executives of the recycling company TerraCycle, the subject of the Pivot show Human Resources.

(John Shearer / Invision for Pivot)

This sense of Thomas as an atypical creative force also won over Freeform President Tom Ascheim, who recalls meeting this quirky man at the networks annual summit after our development team kept talking about Josh, Josh, Josh, Josh. Ascheim isnt fazed by Thomas interest in potentially controversial subject matter, including mental illness, suicide, abortion and, in the new series, an adolescent girl with autism who has sex and gets drunk. He welcomes it as an antidote to the anodyne and the bland.

I think we should be really nervous, as network executives, he says, if our talent has nothing to say.

For all his love of cracking wise, Thomas does indeed know what he wants, and he musters a veterans authority to achieve it. When Nathan Muller, Freeforms director of development, offers a note on a music cue during the sound mix, Thomas convincingly explains his logic, and Muller relents; later, over dinner, Thomas tells me that one of the series three autism consultants raised concerns about Matildas depiction that he swiftly quashed.

We had one consultant who really didnt like sex who felt like Matilda shouldnt be dealing with sex, he says, an edge in his voice, adding that the other consultants were thrilled with the plot line. Which is not her job, actually. Her job is to tell us if its authentic autism. We dont really need her moralizing about [Matildas] sex life, actually.

If anything, Thomas admits, the challenge of Everythings Gonna Be Okay has been maintaining that clarity of vision, that distinctive voice, while working on a much larger scale than Please Like Me. Whyte describes it as moving from the cottage industry of Australian television to something much more monolithic: The Freeform series budget is larger. Its filming is done largely in studio. Its crew is two or three times the size. Even the conference calls involve more points of view, always at the risk of Thomas own.

Its just this very big, kind of clumsy unit that youre trying to zoom in on a delicate moment of chemistry, Thomas says. Youve got to get 150 people in a weird warehouse with no natural light to come all together to create this little moment where someone does a convincing kiss. ... Trying to keep things authentic and textured and not feeling fake when everything is so fake, thats been the hardest thing.

As the creator/writer/star of Please Like Me and now Everythings Gonna Be Okay, Josh Thomas is no longer self-conscious about seeing himself on screen: Im so numb to my own face, you know?

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Thomas hopes Everythings Gonna Be Okay can replicate Please Like Mes fortuitous arc from cult hit to one of TVs best comedies, this time for a larger audience. But hes unlikely to pull punches to achieve high ratings. (Plus, as Ascheim says, There isnt a number anymore. The worlds gone weird.) Near the end of our conversation, asked about returning to the art form, stand-up, that made his name, Thomas grows reflective, explaining that he found his success embarrassing not by dint of any anecdote he related or quip he made, but because he felt himself an impostor.

I started when I was 17, he says. And at 17 youre not really thinking things through. So when I was 27, one day I was like, These people think I think they should be here. And I dont. I dont think they should be here. So I quit. Because Id go onstage thinking like that, and its not a good show. Watching somebody unravel like that, its not that fun.

Six years and two TV series later, hes changed his tune. Or at least hes beginning to. After all, old habits die hard.

By the time this goes to print, I mightve quit again, he hedges. But now, Im like, if somebodys willing to book you a theater, and people are willing to pay to come, you should just ... do it. Stop being such a little bitch.

More:
'Everything's Gonna Be Okay': Josh Thomas is ready for Freeform - Los Angeles Times

Human Behavior

UGI Utilities named ‘Customer Champion’ in survey | Business Weekly – Reading Eagle

UGI Utilities Inc. was among 40 utility companies nationwide that were named a 2019 Customer Champion based on the Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement Residential study from Escalent, a human behavior and analytics firm.

The best utilities are those that are emerging as great product marketers, Chris Oberle, senior vice president at Escalent, said in a statement. The future belongs to utilities that innovate to move from service providers to value-added partners in the eyes of their customers.

The Utility Trusted Brand and Customer Engagement: Residential study benchmarks and trends performance on a composite index of service satisfaction, brand trust, and product experience performance.

Robert Stoyko, vice president of customer relations of UGI Utilities Inc. said: We are very pleased to be named a Customer Champion. UGI strives to be the energy provider of choice to our customers and to the many communities we serve.

Escalent surveyed more than 67,000 residential electric, natural gas and combination utility customers of the 140 largest U.S. utility companies.

See the rest here:
UGI Utilities named 'Customer Champion' in survey | Business Weekly - Reading Eagle

Human Behavior

Zed by Joanna Kavenna Book Review – Book and Film Globe

Joanna Kavennas latest novel Zed takes place in a not-too-far-off future where the tech company Beetle registers the smallest decisions made by individuals through wearable devices called BeetleBands. With this data, Beetle adjusts the predictive algorithms of individuals lives. If a woman orders a fresh squeezed orange juice, her algorithm alters accordingly. If she smokes a cigarette, another adjustment. Through such minute accumulation, Beetle has developed a predictive method that knows what shes going to do before she does it. Its the most accurate Magic 8 Ball you can imagine.

Or is it? In Zed, a man murders his wife and children, upending Kavennas hyper-efficient world. Its the kind of story that horrifies people for all the right reasons, but its doubly disturbing because the algorithm didnt predict it. Beetle engineer and company man Dan Varley struggles with the effects of a technology so tantalizingly close to perfect:

[T]he predictive algorithms were behaving very oddly. Or, people were behaving very oddly and not remotely as they should. Suddenly, the precious and beautiful bond between predictive algorithm and human behaviora bond on which Varleys entire career, life, payment in BeetleBits, and continued survival in the world was foundedseemed tenuous. At that moment, an alarm went off on Varleys BeetleBand, indicating that his heart was under extreme strain and he must take urgent action.

What kind of savage world counts on technology to determine what its people need and when they need it? If youre noting some parallels to our world, youre getting Kavennas drift. But she doesnt rely solely on dear God, what have we done? fear to keep you turning pages. She also uses humor, which acts as a kind of soft filter to her more harrowing implications. At one point, Beetle CEO Guy Matthias and his journalistic tool Dan Strachey engage in whats ostensibly a business meeting but what Strachey becomes convinced is something more portentous:

[Strachey] was about to pick up his glass again but then he wondered suddenly if it was poisoned. But that was absurd! Guy would never poison him. It would simply be too analog.

The humor of Zed helps separate the novel from similar efforts such as Dave Eggerss The Circle, which focuses on a world more on the cusp of the battle between digital and analog and therefore doesnt crack much of a smile. In Kavennas version of our future, this battle is largely over, with the vast majority giving themselves over to the idea that Beetle equals better. The only holdouts are those of the resistance group LOTUS, which operates largely from the credo that not participating in such data accumulation means youre not guilty of anything.

Such a tenet is anathema to Matthias and others in the straight world of this dystopian milieu. Like the episode of Black Mirror starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Matthias is very locked in to digital ratings as measurements of success and fulfillment, but he also has his eye on using his companys digital access to shape human behavior:

Beetle were not only watching everyone, which everyone already knew and no longer seemed to care about, but also inspiring them to act in certain ways, best ways as defined by Beetle.

Its not hard to find the idea of such an imposition offensive. Then again, how is this different from Facebook advertising? Thats the kind of connection Kavenna exploits throughout Zed. The novel serves as its own kind of efficient algorithm reflecting something close to our current condition back at us and asking, Do you care? Unfortunately, all signs do not point to yes.

(Doubleday, January 14, 2020)

Continued here:
Zed by Joanna Kavenna Book Review - Book and Film Globe

Human Behavior

14 Key Considerations When Choosing The Right Team Incentives – Forbes

Incentives are one of the best ways to keep employees motivated. It plays into the value-based concept of a businessif you bring added value to the company, then you can expect value invested back into you.

Determining what incentives to offer to a team, however, requires dissecting the things that the group considers vital. It's a little bit more nuanced than merely giving them monetary benefits. Sometimes, it's not about the money, but rather respect and a sense of accomplishment.

To help, 14 members of Forbes Coaches Council look at the things team leaders should be mindful of when planning the incentives they intend to offer to their group.

Forbes Coaches Council members discuss what employers should think about when choosing incentives for their teams.

1. Understand What Drives Them

As a leader, I created a "How I Like To Be Coached" form that uncovers the drivers of each of my direct reports, as well as how they communicate. When getting a new team or while conducting a one-on-one chat, I use this document as a blueprint to see what keeps each employee motivated. Having this data will help you customize how and what will keep your team on task and successful. - Joyel Crawford, Crawford Leadership Strategies, LLC.

2. Be Aware Of Their Differences And Needs

Managers must be aware that incentives are a great motivator to influence their employees' behaviors. Also, be aware that individuals' differences and needs contribute to the type of incentives managers may provide. First, engage your employees by understanding what their needs are before providing any incentive. For example, an employee whose need is "recognition" may not be motivated by a monetary bonus. - Abraham Khoureis, Dr. Abraham Khoureis

3. Tie Incentives To Profit

It may seem intuitive to reward employees based on reaching a specific target such as sales or billing, but you may be disappointed with the results. My manufacturing company started a bonus based on production goals, prorating it by hours actually worked per employee. However, production at any cost was not our goal, so we revised the system to include profit goals. Reward what matters. - Lisa Kaiser Hickey, Spark Consultancy Group

4. Tailor The Incentive To The Individual

Incentives are what motivates human behavior. Different things motivate different individuals. It may be recognition (awards, public praise), money (raises, gift cards), time off, professional development, bonuses, promotions, access to senior leadership, ability to work on innovative projects, etc. One size does not fit all, and your employee will appreciate you seeing them as an individual. - Tim Ressmeyer, Ressmeyer Partners

5. Make Your Incentives Meaningful To Everyone

A myth about incentives is that employees are only motivated by compensation. Although money is a main motivator, offering it as the sole incentive will lead people to only work for short-term, financial gains. Include intrinsic rewards as well to motivate everyone and for the longer term. Thank yous, certificates of achievement, event tickets, vacation days, charitable donations will round it out. - Loren Margolis, Training & Leadership Success LLC

6. Make Them Feel Appreciated

Incentives can be a great way to motivate employees. A better strategy is to express gratitude. In fact, there is a growing body of research that suggests that people seek work elsewhere because they feel unappreciated or underrecognized. So, while a bonus may be welcome, if you're truly interested in motivating your team, you also need to think of ways to say thanks on a regular basis. - Camille Preston, PhD, PCC, AIM Leadership, LLC

7. Give Them A Sense Of Purpose

Pay raises, ping pong tables, bonusesall are great, but are only short-term fixes if an employee doesnt have a sense of purpose in their job. Team members want to feel like they are contributing to the greater good of an organization. - Aaron Levy, Raise The Bar

8. Create Smart Incentives

Attracting top talent and retaining it seems very challenging in big companies. Smart incentives might be methods to keep employees motivated to do their best work. Good examples? Regular paid time off. Everything connected with keeping employees healthywellness coaching, fitness, psychological support. Tuition reimbursement. They not only benefit employees, but organizations as well. - Inga Bieliska, Inga Arianna Bielinska Coaching Consulting Mentoring

9. Build A Culture Of Gratitude

Creating positive and lasting employee motivation requires a culture of gratitude and a supporting program that enables peer-to-peer recognition supported by management oversight and leadership championship. Shaping a culture of gratitude requires intentional leadership and commitment to develop incentive strategies that result in keeping positive employee energies sustained over time. - Lori Harris, Harris Whitesell Consulting

10. Include Them In A Broader Engagement Strategy

While incentives can be effective, they should be part of a broader employee engagement strategy. Business leaders should take a proactive and personalized approach to keeping employees motivated by getting to know their teams, learning their strengths and skills and helping them advance their careers. - Rick Gibbs, Insperity

11. Make Sure They Feel Engaged

Incentives are a great place to start. However, in today's business climate, they are only half the answer. Employees want to know their company cares about more than just profits. Employees want to know they have a voicethey want to be engaged in solving the problem. They want to be given the opportunity to stretch and do interesting work. And they want to work for inspiring leaders. - Felicia Lyon, Women Moving Mountains

12. Create Weekly Incentive Contests

Keeping teams motivated for ultimate productivity every single week to drive continued performance momentum can be daunting. Focus on weekly gift card incentive contests and launch them during Monday morning team huddles to conclude on Friday afternoon for short-term wins. This tactic will keep your team inspired to compete on a weekly basis and push for a chance at extra cash to spend on the weekend. - Lourdes Mestre, Marketing Muses

13. Offer A Variety Of Incentive Choices

Incentives can be a good tool when used properly to promote engagement and reward success. However, some employees may prefer a reward outside the traditional cash incentive. For example, floating vacation day(s), flex day(s), gym membership or spa service. Allowing an individual to choose the reward may produce an additional desire for accomplishment. - Deborah Hightower, Deborah Hightower, Inc.

14. Create The Culture That Becomes The Incentive

Incentives are good, but what incentive you focus on is critical. Are you providing external commission and gift rewards for certain people and behaviors? Thats a problem, not an incentive. Create a culture that recognizes contributions. Think living-system models, not Pavlov's dog. Building a culture that people want to be a part of is the attraction that motivates people. - Thomas Larkin, Communico, Westport CT

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14 Key Considerations When Choosing The Right Team Incentives - Forbes