In this video, I dive deep into explaining what Urbit is, why it exists, and how it works. I tackle the nagging issues with the current internet structure, tracing their root cause to the early decisions made in the creation of the internet, especially the use of IP addresses and servers. I explain how Urbit, a new operating system, offers a fresh approach, addressing these issues and providing promising solutions such as eradication of surveillance capitalism with the concept of a self-owned server.
In further detail, I discuss the two core elements of Urbit: its unique operating system and its identity layer, comparing it to current internet protocols and illustrating the advantages it offers. You’ll understand how Urbit is not just another social media platform but a new functioning internet model that facilitates direct, bespoke, and secure user interactions. Whether you’re a programmer or just a curious internet user, this video seeks to unravel the complexities of Urbit and the promise it holds for a better internet.
There’s an underground Mentalist who I have respected for years. He creates experiences that are direct, powerful, and professional. They’re perfect for me.
And he’s a reclusive cat.
He can disappear for years. No email. No website. Nothing.
Then he comes back with new material to share with the community before going off grid again.
Hardly anyone in the magic world even knows about this guy.
That’s why I was so surprised this week.
The Scene
I’m in the booth at the International Franchise Association doing my thing for one of the country’s largest digital marketing agencies.
I get done entertaining an older guy who says, “That’s fantastic, really is. It reminds me of a guy, UNDERGROUND MENTALIST. You ever heard of him?”
What?!
“Yeah, he’s great. We worked together a lot over the years. Love that guy. Hard to get ahold of, though. Haven’t heard from him in years. If you ever cross paths, let him know I say hi. In the meantime, though, give me a call. I think it’s time to start doing this stuff again.”
I take his card.
He’s a VP at Bank of America.
You could have pushed me over with a feather.
Isn’t that how it always happens? You’re doing one thing that leads to another and before you know it you’re living your wildest dreams.
That’s the power of connection & relationships.
Best thoughts, ~Jonathan
PS: Did you know I created the ZAVANT Sales System? It combines powerful mentalism principles, a tiny bit of showmanship, and a whole lot of good thinking into a foolproof process for landing small-to-enterprise level opportunities? I’m about to add even more insights, which means the price goes up too. More details soon!
The standard social narrative traps you in an escalator to an early grave. When you have the world’s most amazing technology at your fingertips, how would you go about building a life of control, freedom, and meaning?
These are the hard-won lessons I’ve learned from my own career, and I’m sharing for anyone & everyone who has dreams of creating their own life of adventure.
You know how you’re always asking me why I didn’t comment on your Facebook post about that one thing that your friend from high school shared?
I didn’t see it.
Seriously.
Facebook doesn’t show me everything that you post. It doesn’t even show me everything that Ashley posts.
In fact, Facebook doesn’t show me most of what my friends share.
Facebook, as a company & a project, centers around this question:
“How do we get people to want to use Facebook more?”
That’s the question that makes the shareholders happy. That’s the question that makes the guy who started Facebook happy. That’s the question that makes the people who sell stuff and want to advertise on Facebook happy.
How do they get you to spend more time on Facebook?
Facebook pays a lot of very smart people to keep track of what you respond to, and the stuff you pass right by.
Then they wonder, “What’s the common thread to all the stuff you responded to? What’s the common thread of all the stuff you ignored?”
Then they tell some fancy computer programs to show you more of the stuff you read, share, or comment on and show you less of the stuff you don’t respond to.
Notice this isn’t a question of what you like, or what makes you happy, or what makes your life a better place.
The question is: what makes you react, so we can do more of that.
What makes you react is probably stuff that makes you scared.
Or furious.
Making you upset makes the owner, the shareholders, the advertisers, and every employee very happy.
Why don’t they show me what you’re posting?
Facebook thinks they can keep me on the platform longer by showing me something else.
Facebook is not interested in keeping a son in touch with his mom.
They’re happy when their users are on the platform, and making them miserable seems to be the best way to do that.
Now I think you can see what the problem is.
I mean, part of it is that I don’t call often enough. I admit that, and you’re right, I should have written a thank you card to your cousin I met once a long time ago who sent $5.
Apart from that, though.
The real problem is that our relationship is directly affected by a service that wants us to do something other than stay in touch.
Since it’s Facebook’s house, it’s Facebook’s rules, right?
Facebook wants us to spend time there so advertisers can feel good that they just paid Facebook $5 to get you to click on their ad for healing crystals.
Basically, we’re both using a service that we think is designed to help us connect when really it has turned into a place where we can all freak out together to make the creators happy.
That’s demented.
And it’s not just Facebook.
This is exactly what’s happening on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and every other place where you’ve found yourself.
Every single one of those places literally makes money off keeping you coming back like an addict with drugs, or a gambler in Vegas.
They are palaces built off the good will and trust of their users.
And they sell us out.
Every day. All day long.
That’s the real reason I don’t see your posts. Facebook doesn’t show them to me.
And there’s another reason.
I’ve mostly stopped spending time there. Or on Instagram. Or anywhere else online.
The whole place is built with some weird priorities that aren’t lined up with what I know makes for the best life.
What do I do instead?
There is one place that makes sense. One place that is built the right way.
It solves a lot of problems I’ve talked about here, and a lot more I haven’t even gotten into yet.
And I don’t even really need to go into how it solves it.
I’ve spent nearly every day for the last year figuring it out for you.
At its heart it’s a server, but that doesn’t really explain anything so let me back up just a little bit.
You know how it’s awesome that we’re living in the future, and we can get in touch with anyone at any time?
That part is awesome.
And the thing that makes it all possible is called a server.
Basically it’s just a computer that “serves” information that it has to another computer that would like to have it too.
A server is really one of the most important possessions you can have in the 21st century.
With your own server we wouldn’t need Facebook to decide who gets to see what.
If I own my own server, and you have your own server they can talk to each other with nobody else involved in the process.
So that’s what I’ve been working on for the past year.
Ultimately it’s a lot more than just a server, and there’s a lot of cool stuff to like about it. What I like most is that it’s mine. It doesn’t work to make some shareholder happy.
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge.”
~Charles Darwin
How many people do you know who are absolutely, positively sure of themselves, yet are about as wrong as they could possibly be? Based purely on anecdotal evidence you could come to the conclusion that morons are the most confident in themselves, yet geniuses are often the most doubtful about their abilities.
On any plane, at any networking event, or any cocktail party I’m usually the most interesting person in the room.
I used to think it was because I travel the world, have great tour stories, worked on multiple TV projects, or have famous friends.
Nope.
Couldn’t be more wrong.
Here’s how it happens. Someone asks me what I do for a living, so I say, “I’m a mind reader.”
There’s a pause, and then 99% of the time the person says, “What am I thinking?!”
And that’s the secret. It was staring me in the face for years before I understood it.
They don’t care about my travels, they don’t care about my TV appearances, they don’t care about me. They care about what I can tell them. . . about THEM.
There it is. There’s the secret to being the most interesting person in any room.
I’ve spent 2 decades becoming an expert on their favorite subject: them.
Their first reaction isn’t to ask about how genuine mind reading would have on the field of physics. Or how cognitive scientists are just now digging into why this stuff works. Or how mentalism is part of a millennia-old tradition starting before the Oracles of Delphi.
No, it’s to demand I tell them about themselves.
They want to be seen. They want to be told they’re special.
We all do.
When we find someone who actually listens to what we say. Who isn’t constantly distracted by their phone. Who cares, we feel it.
That can be your superpower.
By completely focusing on learning as much about the person right in front of you, you instantly become one of the most important people in that person’s life.
That’s how I make indelible impressions on people who remember me for years after. It isn’t the trick. It isn’t the fact I can tell them what card they’re thinking about.
It’s that I show them they’re important enough to warrant my full attention.
So, for yourself, figure out how you can use your experience to dive into someone else’s experience, and you’ll finally have the secret to being the most interesting person in the room.
Be their mirror and they’ll love everything they see.
“Hi there! Great to meet you!” I said as I shook her hand.
“We met 6 months ago.”
Ouch.
Guess how well the rest of the meeting went?
It’s incredible what having a poor memory can cost you. The weird thing is, you rarely find out what forgetting something will cost you. In the example I just shared, though, it cost me thousands of dollars.
What has having a poor memory wound up costing you over the years? What would you stand to get from even a small improvement in your memory?
I want to share a couple techniques I’ve used to sharpen my memory that you can use right away.
Beliefs
It’s a myth that having a good memory is something you either have or don’t. Like most things, it’s a skill you can practice.
Most people, however, hold the belief that “I have a crappy memory.” And then they wonder why they can never remember anything. Your non-conscious part of your mind believes what you tell it, and if you tell it you have a subpar memory, then guess what? That’s what you’ll get.
The first step in improving your memory is simply telling yourself your memory is getting better.
Attention
How can you remember something you never noticed in the first place? You can’t.
Once you tell yourself your memory is getting better, you’ll start paying attention to details you want to remember.
Think about meeting someone for the first time. You’re worried about what you’re going to say, what they think of you, whether or not they’re going to invest in your company, etc. Everything but focusing on paying attention to what their name is.
No wonder you’re going to forget it as soon as you hear it; you never really heard it in the first place.
Stop that “in one ear and out the other” process by shutting down the mental chatter and really notice details.
Do this and you’ll be ahead of 90% of everyone else.
Systems
Want to take your memory to the level beyond paying attention? You’re going to need a system.
We tend to remember things that are in some way related to information we already know. That’s why it’s easy to remember someone’s name if it’s the same as our brother, for example. We learn things by associating them in relationship to what we know already.
If you have no way of relating to a new piece of information, there’s nothing for it to connect to, and you’re much more likely to forget it.
What you need is a system that allows you to establish associations with any kind of new information.
Here’s a system that works for me. There are many systems out there, but this is a great place to start.
Linking
This works best on lists of information, like a grocery list.
Our minds recall interesting imagery more easily than logical or bland images. Let’s use that to our advantage.
Look at the first & second item on the list, and then create a compelling image in your mind that includes both items. Go to the extremes. Either in terms of number, amount, size, violence, etc. The more unusual picture in your mind, the more likely you are to remember it later.
Once you have that image firmly in your mind, drop it completely. It’ll be there when you get back, I promise.
Now, look at the second & third item on the list. Do the same process of “linking” those two items.
Continue like this until you’ve associated all items on the list.
Now, when you think of the first thing, it will bring up the image with item 1 & 2. Then the second item will prompt the image with item 2 & 3. Third item prompts the link between 3 & 4, and so on until you’ve remembered the whole list.
It’s surprising at how simple it is, but it works.
Drawbacks
The main issue with this technique is if you forget one link in the chain, you’ll forget everything beyond it.
Also, it won’t let you recall details in non-sequential order. If you need item #19, you gotta start at the beginning.
Feedback
If you find success with linking, I’d love to know! Shoot me a message via our contact form, or drop me a note on Facebook. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Further Reading
If you’re interested in exploring memory techniques in more detail (or other systems that are best suited for your needs,) check out my book “Perfect Recall” available at Amazon.
I go into the history of memory techniques, advanced techniques, and more. It’s aimed at people who are looking to sharpen their memory without wasting hours and hours on archaic techniques that don’t work.
It starts of with the basics, and moves on from there.
Enjoy!
