What do you need to become a successful leader? George Kohlrieser, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD, explained during an event some years ago.

Yes! The research shows that happiness stems not merely from our circumstances or our genetics, but more from our behaviors. If we learn the right practices, we can improve our well-being. 

There is a genetic component to happiness, just like there's a genetic component to our body weight. But just like body weight there's a lot we can do with our behavior to positively work with whatever genetic predisposition we were given. 

A lot of us are probably feeling a lack of hope during the Covid-19 pandemics. Many things that give us meaning like work and connections with friends and family have been disrupted recently. People have lost their jobs and businesses. All of this brings uncertainty, despair and a lot of stress. Research shows that the best reaction for the moment is called hope. It helps both our mental and physical health. 

"If you are not inspiring you are not leading. Never confuse good management with good leadership. Leadership is about inspiring. If you are not developing talent, you are not leading. Management is about getting the job done. Leadership is about developing the talents around you, finding them and then developing them to become part. what leader also has to do is drive teams. We need others, we need teams and we need to build those teams. Leaders are driving change. How many of you are dealing with change?  Grow means change. You are either changing and growing or you're dying".

What is the Human Nature according to The REAL Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort?
He shared his view and experience during an event some years ago.
What have you learned about people til now, about human nature?
People by nature, the average let's say, I can't give you an exact percentage, but I'd say the overwhelming percentage of human beings believe in redemption, they believe in forgiveness. And they love a great redemption story, they love it when they see someone like myself.
I can't tell you how many emails I get every single day from people aged 14 or even younger sometimes to 60 years old who liked to say: "Your story inspires me, with or without the learnings of the straight line system and the actual tactics, just the story". The ability to come back from failure and not to say die, when the odds were so stacked against you, when you made the sort of mistakes that I made, the fact that I didn't give up, that I was able to put one foot in front of the other and keep going on, that's inspiring to people.
So I think 90% of the population loves a great redemption story. And they're so happy to see it happen. Then there's the other 10% who believe that you should die in a fire after you make mistakes. And the thing is they yell the loudest, so sometimes you hear them. Yell: "O,h he's so terrible, he's awful". And I respect them too. I have nothing against those people. That makes the world go round. There's the yin and the yang, and the haters serve a purpose too, they keep the story current and exciting. They make up rumors I moved to this country or that country, or didn't do this or that, and it keeps the story going. So I mean you have to take the good with the bad.
But I think in general people really love redemption, they respect it when they see it happen and it inspires them.

Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker, author and motivational speaker. He gained notoriety in the 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The Martin Scorcese-directed film was based on Belfort’s memoir, which detailed his life. 
In this talk he gave some years ago Belfort revealed the 3 top traits of highly successful people.      
So much of being successful in life not just as a business person but in life in general is is the ability to get yourself to do the things that you know you have to do even when you don't feel like doing them day in and day out. Because so much of success is sort of you have to just do things and you know you might not be in the mood, you might not feel great about it, you might have not slept that well tonight or it just might be boring to you, but someone that truly wants to succeed has the ability to get themselves to do what they have to do even when they don't want to day in and day out. That's number one for sure.
The second quality which is a absolute must is the ability to influence and persuade and this is not something that I say - and obviously I'm well known as being someone who teaches people how to become more effective persuaders, more effective sales people. If you look at Warren Buffett, any of Warren Buffett's interviews, he will always say that in his own life what really changed him, what allowed him to to get where he wanted to go, was learning how to become an effective influencer and persuader. He was not a natural salesperson and when he was going out into the business world, he was aware of that and because of that awareness he actually went out and took a course in persuasion. And it changed his life. I have a little slide, a video I play of Warren Buffett being interviewed and he says that he has all these diplomas from college and graduate school but the only diploma he keeps on his wall is from some little persuasion course he took when he was 22 years old. Because it changed his life. So that's the second thing.
And the third thing I would say for all people wanted to succeed is beliefs. A certain set of beliefs in yourself, about money and success. See there are certain sets of beliefs that lead people to - this is inner game stuff that lead people to succeed in life, beliefs like: I am the master of my own destiny, I control my life, I am not a creature of circumstances. Some people have beliefs like: money is the root of all evil - not a very good belief to have if you want to get rich. Or if I get rich I'll lose my friends. If I get rich I'll become greedy. Those are beliefs that stop people. Another example of beliefs that help people are for instance that: if I become rich I can give back and I can help the world, that I can essentially secure my future through hard work and essentially create the world that I want. So without empowering beliefs it's very difficult to succeed. Because what happens is - we're defined by our beliefs, if we don't believe we can do something, we don't even try it, so if you have negative beliefs about money and success, you simply shy away from it. I'm not really sure about Bulgaria', what your beliefs are, but in some parts of the world, the country has actually lots of limiting beliefs. In Australia for instance, where I do a lot of work, there's a belief that if I stick out and make too much money, people will dislike me. And it's not a good thing. They call it "the tall poppy syndrome". You don't want to be the tall pop, you want to sort of blend in with the crowd. And the fact of the matter is when it comes to wealth and success, it's very hard to blend in, you have to be a leader, you have to be able to put yourself out there. So if you have a belief that if I do that, it's bad in some way, you typically won't take the actions that you should take.

Image: Shaolin Temple Europe

The Shaolin master Shi Heng Yi demonstrated the healing potential of something simple as clapping during an interview we had some years ago.
To treat basics symptoms or problems the easiest practice that you can try implement in your life looks like this: You have to clap the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist. The hip, the knees. And this is a method coming from traditional Chinese medicine. You don't need anybody else to do it for you. It's totally up to your responsibility to try it. I can encourage people to just try out clapping those places for one week. In the morning one time, in the evening one time. Just clap it. And after one week, see how you feel.
It must not be complicated - putting needles, making pressure. There are a lot of healing capabilities by your own. In the moment you care about yourself, in the moment you understand - this is my capital, without this, nothing is working. The moment you care about yourself, this is where the healing starts.

Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker, author and motivational speaker. He gained notoriety in the 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The Martin Scorcese-directed film was based on Belfort’s memoir, which detailed his life. In this talk  he gave some years ago Belfort uncovers his 3 secrets to success.  

 
In terms of monetary success I think there are three steps to it or three requirements.
Number 1 is - you have to know where you really want to go in life. To have a vision for your future. Most people don't have that. Most people move through life either without a clear vision and without any goals. They don't even have goals or at the most they'll set goals. And in the United States and many parts of the world I go to, you hear so much about goals and how I should be a goal-driven person. And while goals are important and I believe in setting goals, I do set goals for myself, I always have a vision above my goals. My goals are sort of steps to my vision. And that vision means where do I see myself in five years from now and why. And so it's a very visceral thing. It's not just about I want to make X amount of money or have my business in X pot, it's about how do I see my life, how does that impact the people around me, who else am i serving and how do I affect not just my friend, but everybody. How do I see myself moving, acting, living through my own life in five years from now. And then as far as my WHY goes, it's WHY does it matter to me. I think a lot of people don't ever focus on the fact that WHY you want to succeed is just as important is any process you have to succeed. People say I want to be rich, but no money really equals freedom. Money into itself is not enough to motivate someone to get rich. We think, yeah, we want to be rich and that's enough. But it's not. When we really break it down and get to that next level up, it's usually about someone that we love - our children, our family, our parents, or our spouse, even our community, it could be a religious belief. Human beings, the way we're built, will always do more, for someone that we love and care about, than we'll do for ourselves. In my lowest points for instance, when I was in jail and trying to write the book, the first book, and I had these really dark moments, what I did is, I closed my eyes and I see the faces of my children, and imagined myself coming back from this disaster and earning back their respect. I always had their love, but I want to have their respect so that I could one day be a force in their life. And that powerful WHY was enough to get me through anything. So that's the first step.
The second step is having the ability to share that vision, to communicate through the power of persuasion and influence, to have other people get involved with you, to want to sign on to help you achieve your vision. You could have the greatest idea in the world, the greatest business plan, but it's gonna require the work and support of others. And you might have a great vision, but if you can't share it, verbalize that vision in a way that inspires other people to want to become part of it, then you're a one-person army and it's very difficult to succeed. A great example that's I use - Nelson Mandela - not even on the business, just in life. Nelson Mandela had this great vision for South Africa - yet it's powerful and as grand as that vision was, he also had the ability to to move others, to verbalize that. That's a really powerful combination. So that's the second step - the ability to influence, persuade and feel the share of the vision in a way that empowers people, that moves them to take action. But also gets you what you want to. That's what ethical persuasion is all about.
And the third step, which is on some level is the most important step of all, is having the actual strategies to make it real. In other words - business has rules, entrepreneurship has rules, and if you don't follow those rules, if you don't know those rules, you end up feeling a lot of pain. I learned the hard way when I transition at the age of 21- It's my first real business, that there's certain rules of the game. And if you don't know those rules, you end up feeling massive pain, you make mistakes, you grow too fast, you build up your overhead, you are under-capitalized, you don't know how to raise money. So what happens is this - if you have the vision for your future, its compelling and it drive you, that's it of your mindset, then you have this ability to share that to mobilize others, to buy into your vision, and the third step is understanding the real world business strategies. One example is how do you fail elegantly, how do you go into business and be wrong. Most people, they don't ever consider, that most of the time as entrepreneurs we're wrong, our plans are not exactly right and we try something, and it doesn't work. We are forced to change our approach. That's a healthy part of being an entrepreneur, in starting a business. So you need to learn how to do - what I call, fail elegantly, be wrong, maximise on the lessons, minimize on the financial payment, and on the flip side of that is called succeeding wildly. What do you do when you start a business and it's small? How do you turn it into a big business and there's rule for that as well.
So those three steps really are the core of, in my opinion, of what allows any human being to take a thought, a constant idea that have, and turn it into reality.

How the principles of Shaolin could be applied into the business world?
Shaolin master Shi HengYi on how a philosophy that is more than 1,500 years old can help you build a sustainable business. Part of our talk some years ago.

"In Shaolin we say "You as a whole body can only be healthy if all aspects that you're consisting of are also healthy. So the human being - the body must be healthy, which means the organs must be healthy. Your bones, your muscles, your attendance, all body liquids, everything must be healthy. Than also your mind must be healthy, your emotions must be healthy.
So we start by separating the body in all small aspects where we say: OK, the organs need training. The knees need training. And the more clear you see what is your body consisting of, the better you can make the training.
If you look at the organisation, you see there is department A, department B, department C. In every department you've again employees who are making the department. You have teams below it. And the main idea is that a successful business can only be really sustainable if everybody who is involved inside this business is also successful. That means you cannot run a successful business on exploiting the employees. It's not gonna work like this.You cannot have a healthy body, when you only stress the body".

Image by Irina Kuzmina from Pixabay

Shaolin master Shi Heng Yi on how to learn to let go of the ego and enjoy life.
"There is something that we are referring to as ego. And it is exactly this ego which normally doesn't want to lose if he has something. It is this ego who is the one who wants to achieve the things because he likes success. And in this discussion there was a very nice statement actually - that in the moment when you take over for example really a responsible position, it is very helpful if you are concentrating on your function, and not concentrating on your ego,on what your ego wants. And in the moment where you are not listening to your inner voices but your guidelines are three things: everything what you think, everything what you say, and everything that you do. These are the three aspects that are shaping your life. And the Shaolin principle is very easy: whatever you think, whatever you say, and whatever you do, do wholesome things. So whatever your inner voice is telling you, just control it - what I am thinking at the moment about my colleague, is it wholesome or is it unwholesome? What I am saying now to my colleague, is it wholesome or unwholesome? Do the wholesome and whatever action you are doing, it's the same. And these are very easy guidelines. Because we say "What you seed, is what you get". And by seeding a lot of wholesome things, chances are high wholesome things will come".

His discovery settles a 100-year-long heated debate between Bohr, Schrodinger, and Einstein - the chief architects of quantum physics. It has the potential to reshape our core understanding of quantum physics, could shape research and impact our view of nature for decades ahead. Thanks to his work the future quantum computers could solve problems that classical ones could never, not in a million years. He was included in the MIT Technology Review’s global list of 35 Under 35 Innovators. One British media outlet described his experiment as a "scientific earthquake". His work was selected as the top Math and Physical Sciences discovery of the year 2019 by Discover Magazine. He is only 30 years old but has achieved enviable accomplishments and received many awards. His name is Zlatko Minev.
Last year, Minev published the results from his Ph.D. dissertation at Yale in an article in Nature magazine, "To Catch and Reverse a Quantum Jump Mid-Flight." Minev proved not only that we can predict quantum leaps but also control it. His discovery is opening the door to radically new advances to correct the errors bedeviling quantum computers. Quantum errors are likely the biggest hurdle to practical quantum computers.
Minev recieved his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Yale University, working in the Devoret Quantum Lab. His B.A. in Physics is from UC Berkeley. At the moments he holds a permanent research position at IBM Quantum, at TJ Watson.
Minev is the founder and chairman of the nationwide science outreach organization Open Labs, a recipient of the Yale-Jefferson Award for public service, a Member of the Executive Board of the Yale Graduate Alumni, the host of the IBM Qiskit Quantum Seminar Series on YouTube.

What's the feeling to be compared to Einstein, what is the path to great discoveries and finding answers to unsolvable problems, when can we see mass introduction of quantum computers, will quantum computers make classical ones unnecessary - I discussed these questions with Zlatko Minev. 


Zlatko, MIT compared you to Einstein. What does this recognition mean to you?
For me, it is particularly special because it was Einstein that elevated the quantum jump—the center of my research—from a mere idea (conceived by Niels Bohr) to the very first rule in quantum physics for quantitative dynamics.
Yet, Einstein later opposed precisely what quantum jumps came to epitomize—fundamental, inescapable randomness and unpredictability in quantum physics.
It is reputed that no one can predict the time when an atom will “jump” from one of its discrete energy levels to another—the quantum jump. Einstein went against this as far as to famously write, “God does not play dice with the Universe.”
Quantum jumps precisely epitomize the opposite—fundamental unpredictability and fundamental discreteness. These are two core pillars that set quantum apart from our classical world, that of our everyday life experience.
Another chief architect of quantum, Schrödinger, also famously opposed the character of quantum jumps. He refused to believe such abrupt and truly discrete physical phenomena could exist in the quantum world. He became quite upset about it and even wrote in a publication “If all this damned quantum jumping were really here to stay, I should be sorry I ever got involved with quantum theory.”
Yet, quantum jumps are now routinely observed in the character often attributed to Bohr, not Einstein and Schrödinger. Jumps have not only stayed with us for more than 100 years, they have become a mainstay ingredient of quantum technologies, such as quantum error correction for quantum computers.
However, now, as Nature, the scientific journal that published my paper “To catch and reverse a quantum jump mid-flight,” based on my dissertation results, wrote that my research overturns the purported view of the instantaneous and unpredictable nature of quantum jumps—to show that, instead, they have a real underlying trajectory and level of predictability that allows them to be controlled.

Nature Headquarters, London

What does your dissertation achieve? What is its meaning for society?
As mentioned above, Nature, where my dissertation results are published, summarizes the scientific significance “[The] Experiment overturns Bohr’s view of quantum jumps, demonstrating that they possess a degree of predictability and when completed are continuous, coherent and even deterministic.”
The experiment I proposed and carried out at Yale University shows that we can now zoom in on the dynamics of the jump in a way that until now has been impossible.
The jump from the ground state to an excited state of an atom can be tracked as it follows what essentially is a predictable, continuous, smooth ‘flight’.
I like to give the analogy that quantum jumps of an atom are somewhat analogous to the eruption of a volcano. They are completely unpredictable in the long term. Nonetheless, with the correct monitoring we can with certainty detect an advance warning of an imminent disaster and act on it before it has occurred.
While quantum jumps appear unpredictable and discrete (as Bohr thought) on long timescales, they are in fact continuous (as Schrodinger suggested) and can possess a degree of predictability (somewhat in the spirit of Einstein) on a short time scale.
Their seemingly opposed viewpoints coexist.
Scientifically, my work in predicting and reversing a quantum jump settles a hundred-year-long heated debate between Bohr, Schrodinger, and Einstein—the chief architects of quantum physics.
A surprising conclusion emerges: They all were both right and wrong at the same time.
Predicting the jumps could reshape our core understanding of the quantum realm and could shape research and impact our view of nature for decades ahead.

Yale, Q-Lab

How can your discovery contribute to the mass introduction of quantum computers? 
Technologically, my discovery led to the most sensitive and time-resolved quantum measurements and feedback to date, which helps pave the way to greatly improved quantum sensing technology.
Exploiting this, we can now anticipate a jump near-perfectly before it even occurs—opening the door to radically new advances to correct the errors bedeviling quantum computers.
Quantum errors are likely the biggest hurdle to practical quantum computers. The special character that makes quantum devices able to perform feats unattainable by their classical counterparts, coherence and entanglement, are very precarious. Errors inevitably, randomly, and unpredictably occur. These errors quickly corrupt the delicate quantum state of a quantum bit (qubit)—the basic building block of quantum computer. These errors derail the quantum calculation.
The errors are generally some type of a quantum jump. If we can anticipate the occurrence of an error (a quantum jump) before it does occur and propagates to corrupt the entire quantum computation, then we could potentially innerve to reverse it before its detrimental impact, just as demonstrated in my experiment for a single qubit.

IBM Q System One

You are a researcher at IBM Quantum. Earlier this year, IBM introduced the first quantum computer for business. In which industries do you see the greatest opportunities for application?
Perhaps I can give a little bit of background.
The first-ever quantum computing device to be accessible outside a lab and over the cloud to people worldwide came online in 2016. This first five-qubit chip and online quantum experience was developed by IBM. Rather quickly, since 2017, IBM has offered commercial-ready quantum computers over the cloud. The network of users of these quantum devices has grown since then. It is now called the IBM Q Network. It includes more than 100 organizations, Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, research labs, and startups from all over the world.
This month, we announced the expansion of the IBM Quantum Computation Center, with 20 systems available over the cloud to our users, including eight with Quantum Volume of 32, and a 53-qubit system – the largest commercially available system. The IBM Q Network organizations collaborate with us – as well as one another – very closely on use cases important to their respective industries. For example, Daimler is working with us on battery chemistry. JPMorgan is working with us on financial portfolio optimization. And last year, IBM and one of Europe's leading organization for applied research, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft announced an agreement to partner in the area of quantum computing with the goal of advancing the research and experimentation in Germany. The cooperation aims to drive the creation of a new community for industry and application-oriented quantum computation strategies. An IBM Q System One will be located in an IBM facility in Germany. It will be the first installation of its kind in Europe. The goal of all of this research is to develop applications with a quantum advantage for science and business.

What are the biggest challenges facing the mass penetration of quantum computers at the moment?As described above, I think the main technical challenge is probably due to quantum errors.
More broadly, I think training the future generation of quantum physicist, developer, and information scientists is a very important and a key ingredient to the success of quantum computers. This is where I spend a lot of my time too. At Yale, I started Open Labs, a nation-wide science outreach organization, and now at IBM I host the publicly-open quantum live seminar series on YouTube, and will teach at a two-week-long summer school at the end of the month—Qiskit Global Summer School.
The summer school, which begins on July 20, is free and open to anyone to attend. It is the first digital, global summer school in quantum computing, and the biggest I have ever heard of. I think we have already crossed more than 5,000 signups before the application deadline of July 10.

At Yale, Zlatko Minev started Open Labs, a nation-wide science outreach organization

According to some experts, quantum computers will make classical ones unnecessary. Are these comments justified? 
Rather, I think quantum computers will revolutionize and compliment classical ones. A future quantum computer will solve the problems that classical computers could never, not in a million years, hope to solve. We call these problems intractable. A prime example is that of factoring in cryptography or full-simulation of atoms in quantum chemistry, material, and other quantum physical phenomena.


Has your personal "quantum leap" on your path from Berkeley, Stanford, Yale and IBM Research to these outstanding discoveries been controlled?
No, rather there is a very curious story to the origin of my dissertation work on quantum jumps.
It all starts unplanned in Scotland. As a graduate student, I decided to attend a summer school there. A famous theoretical physicist, H. Carmichael, presented a thought experiment that could in theory test some of these ideas about the nature of quantum jumps. However, he ended his talk with the unfortunate conclusion that this is all very nice, but it’s all just theory. We don’t actually know what really happens. Worse, we won’t be able to know since testing this question continues to remain far beyond the reach of experimental physics for the foreseeable future.
I was very excited and inspired by this talk, because based on some recent work I had done during my PhD, I thought that maybe there is a way to design an experiment to test this key question and find out what really happens. I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up all night, developing my ideas. After the Summer School I arrived in Sofia to visit my grandparents, and spent ten days in vigorous calculations, stimulations, and so on … The results of these supported my initial ideas.
When I came back to the Yale University, I excitedly presented my ideas. But they were rejected, and I was told it’s is too hard, we shouldn’t do this, it’s impossible, won’t work, etc. Still, over the next 6 months I was able to convince my colleagues that yes, it can work, it should work, and we should do this. Of course, I am glad today to report that it did work and this brings us here today.
I recall the very first time I presented the talk at our lab group meeting. One of my very good colleagues stood up in the middle of my talk, front and center, and started shouting at me: “If this is true, then quantum physics is broken!!!”
When he finished whipping his patently pointed index finger at me, I knew I was either onto a total disaster or something very important.

You say that you like to get involved and solve problems that seemed unsolvable. Does this motivate you to move forward - the desire to discover first? 
No, I think discovering things first is more a byproduct.
I am rather drawn by doing something that can help the community. That’s why I find it fulfilling to focus on a problem that is considered roadblock or seems impossible. It’s challenging and can potentially have a tremendous unlocking potential by gaining deep knowledge about it to unlock a way to get through it.
My grandfather used to say, “There are no unsolvable problems, there are only paths along which they cannot be solved.”

Tell us a little more about yourself - were you born in Bulgaria, how did you get to the USA?
I was born in Sofia, and studied there until 6th grade. I recall that outside of school, I attended extra math classes at the Sofia Math High-School (SMG); great fun.
I came to the US about 20 years ago, landing in California. My mother studies the human brain, as a neuroscientist. She was invited for a great collaboration in San Francisco.
To start school in California, I was tested for grade placement. They moved me up from 6th into 7th grade, skipping a year. When I showed up to school, kids were confused because I was already very tall. At first sight, they thought I got held back a grade instead, but was younger than them. I continued with science in this new environment, and the next year I won first place in the nationwide HP and Scholastic Create a Calculator contest, and in the following few years I won first place at the San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair, a silver medal at the California State Science Fair, etc.
While still in high school, I was accepted at a Summer College at Stanford University, where I made my professional choice - physics, as I realized it is the most fundamental of the sciences. Thus, for college, I went to UC Berkeley, in San Francisco Bay Area, majoring in physics. It was here that I got excited by the unique synergy of computing and quantum physics, my big two passions. I started work in a quantum computing laboratory my freshman summer. I spent most of the summer in and around the lab. Quantum and I have stayed in love since.

Yale University Graduation, Ph.D. 2018

For my doctorate, I choose Yale University. It is perhaps a birthplace of superconducting quantum computing and has some of the leading university labs in my field. Outside of lab, I started the Open Labs organization, was the longest serving senator on the Yale Gradate & Professional Student Senate, was elected to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, the third oldest learned institution in the United States, received the Yale-Jefferson Award for public service, etc.
After my quantum jump dissertation I joined IBM Quantum. Here I continue in this path, devising new ways toward full realization of quantum computing; scientific research that can help the growth of this new industry. At the same, the new technology we develop provides new ways to explore quantum on a deeper level. At IBM Quantum, in addition to the core research I do, and leading larger-scale projects, I continue teaching (see upcoming summer school lectures), science outreach, hosting live academic quantum information seminars on Qiskit YouTube, and building the quantum community.

Yale-Jefferson Public Service Award

Do you know the scientific and technological circles in Bulgaria?
The quantum community in particular is rather geographically distributed. The papers I read and the people I stay connected with come from all parts of the world. I stay connected with the folks that are part of this quantum community.
I would also like to invite young developers and scientists from Bulgaria interested in quantum computing to engage in the community online. The Qiskit Global Summer School I mentioned earlier, where I’ll lecture on quantum computers, will be made freely available online on YouTube. The lectures will stay online for viewing and discussion. To follow up on the lectures, at IBM, I also contributed to creating the open-source Qiskit Textbook on quantum computing, which provides many hands-on experiments people can run on real quantum chips, from their home.

Most young people consider science boring. How can it be made attractive to them?

Yale Senate

This landscape is shifting.
Science and technology aren’t distant, remote things anymore. You can now easily engage in a youthful science community, even from your home. You can be part of the fast-changing world of science.
Let me give you two examples.
First, quantum computing. A superconducting quantum computing setup costs millions. Nevertheless, you can go right now and use one from your home, almost as if you are sitting in a lab, and its free. I know that at IBM Quantum these devices have already been accessed by 250,000+ registered users. What’s even more important is that a young student can join the very dynamic, youthful, and growing community. The community provides access to free education, career pathways, and many social events, such as Qiskit hackathons, and other challenges. You can go skiing in Aspen with all these other young interested people, or help organize a local meetup.
There are many such fun, social, educational activates that also inherently build professional skills, open career pathways, and connect beginners with professionals. These opportunities can help showcase how dynamic and exciting life in science and quantum in particular can be.
Second, I can share my experience with a science outreach organization like Open Labs, which I founded in 2012 and continue to chair today. Open Labs aims to make science education and career paths open and accessible to young kids and families from difficult and underserved backgrounds, showing young kids what it’s like to step into the shoes of young scientist. Open Labs helps show young kids why science is cool, why it matters, how it will change the world of tomorrow, but more importantly, how it can be a viable career and life trajectory for them. Our events started small and soon grew up to large numbers, so we had to start wait-listing for kids and families, guaranteeing open acceptance to future events. I think this is a positive testament to the efforts of young scientists volunteering to communicate their passion to the broader public. Open Labs spread from Yale University to Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and has reached over 5,000 kids and parents across the North-East. It is just one example in a larger trend that increases education access, excitement with and career pathways to science.

Most people check their phones 150 times a day. About 80% of smartphone users check their mobile devices within 15 minutes of waking up each morning. How digital companies are building so addictive products? Nir Eyal, an investor and entrepreneur has spend 3 years of his life crystallizing an answer. The result is his best-selling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. It gives an overview of one of the most interesting battles in modern business: the intense competition to create new digital products that monopolise people’s attention, writes The Economist. 



In this talk we had some years ago Nir revealed the patterns that explain why some products are incredibly sticky and others - not so much, and how companies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram became masters of engagement.

Nir, which are the masters of "habit-forming" products?
Email, Apple products, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Slack.


If you think about email it's a great example of what I would call the the "mother of habit forming technology". Email incorporates these four steps: a trigger, action, reward,  investment. And through successive cycles through these hooks, this is how consumer habits get formed.
Why email is so addictive? The email's hook starts with an internal trigger.

The external trigger of email is when you get some kind of notification that tells you: "Hey you just received an email from somebody". The action phase - the next step of the hook, is opening the app.

The reward - the third step of the hook, is all around these social rewards or who wrote to me. "The reward of the hunt" is what's actually in the message. And then there's also this "reward of the self" around clearing your inbox, this keeps us engaged time and time again. And then finally the investment phase is replying. So every time you send someone email response you're loading the next trigger for you to receive an external trigger in the future. And you're also creating a mental association with an internal trigger for that every time you have a few minutes and you're bored or you're feeling unproductive, the first thing you do is check email time and time again.


Why do some products engage us more than others? You said that better products are not necessarily the successful ones. Why is that?
The reason is habits. The products that can keep us continue using them with little or no conscious thought, are the ones that win. Sometimes it's not the best product, it's just the product that's the stickiest,  the ones that created the mental association for us to use them without thinking.




Are the negative emotions the strongest triggers?

Negative emotions are the most frequent internal triggers. And these internal triggers are that prompt us into actions. So when we're feeling bored, we check YouTube. When we're lonely, we're on Facebook. When we are uncertain, we google. And so these negative emotions, these are pain points. These are things that the user doesn't want to experience in their life and so they're looking for a solution. They're looking for something to take away that pain. And that's why they're such frequent internal triggers.

Do these companies really offer us solutions to our problems or just distract us from them? Because if we go to Facebook, when we feel lonely, don't we feel lonelier after that?

Photo by Justin Lim on Unsplash

We increasingly identify happiness with having more things, said George Kohlrieser, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD.
In this talk some years ago we discussed why external motivation won't make us happy.
"The best motivation is intrinsic motivation - where you do it because you're challenged, you want to learn something, you want to be a part of a team, so it comes from inside. Unfortunately the research shows that the majority of people are motivated by externals - bonuses, money, a promotion, something external. And we're growing into a culture of consumerism in which we identify happiness with having more things. We have to help people understand that high performance is about how you go inside".

Part of our talk with George Kohlrieser on Why you could be a hostage without a weapon, you could find here, and on Why secure bases are fundamental for success, you could find here, and on Why we feel more connected to things and technology than people, you could find here 

Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash

Economic crises constitute a shock to societies with potentially harmful effects to the mental health status of the population, including depressive symptoms. According to the World Health Organisation, depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide. A report by the London School of Economics and Political Science and King’s College London in 2014, revealed that although 30 million people in Europe – and 350 million people worldwide – struggle with depression, many workplaces seriously underestimate its impact. Lead researcher Dr Sara Evans-Lacko says the enormous costs of depression due to absence and loss of productivity are set to increase unless governments and employers make it a priority. 

I talked to Dr Sara Evans-Lacko years ago to discuss if the economic crises increase the depression rates in societies and what's the economic cost of depression. 

Dr. Evans-Lacko, what are the symptoms of depression?
The symptoms of depression are complex and may differ between different people. In general, people with depression may feel sad, hopeless and lose interest in things they used to enjoy. It is important to note that to be considered depression, the symptoms must persist for several weeks or months and are significant in that they interfere with your work, social and family life functioning. There is also a range of severity from mild depression to severe depression.

Is there a difference between depression and normal sadness?
Yes. We should not confuse the two as sadness or even grief are normal emotions which we should feel and are important in everyday life. Sadness can come and go and there are still things that people might look forward. Depression is relentless and persistent and people with depression don’t enjoy things they used to and may feel quite pessimistic about the future.

Is there a real correlation between creativity and mental illness?
Some people may use creative tasks / art as a way to deal with their mental illness and externalize and overcome their pain. We know that many artists did have a mental illness and that the prevalence may be higher than in the general population; however, there are also many artists who do not have mental illness.

Is the sense of failure the most common trigger of depression?
There is no single cause of depression. It can develop for different reasons, sometimes a stressful life event or trauma can trigger depression. Some people also carry a genetic predisposition to depression which may make it more likely that they could develop depression. Usually these different factors can work together to trigger depression.

Is there a correlation between depression and suicide?
Suicide has a strong relationship with mental illness, particularly depression. Still there are many people with depression who do not attempt suicide.

Could you give any recommendations how to overcome depression?
The important thing to remember is that we have effective treatments for depression and people with depression make full recoveries. Stigma and lack of access to care can prevent people from accessing treatment. Many people with depression face stigma and discrimination which may make it difficult to get treatment and recover. As a society, we need to be more supportive and inclusive of people with depression, to provide good mental health care and not to be afraid to talk with people with mental illness and support them so that they can feel supported and recover.

Do you have any data how many people in Europe struggle with depression?
Depression affects around 30 million EU citizens.

Does the economic crisis increase the depression rate?
Risks for mental health problems may increase during the economic crisis. Much research shows that unemployment and poverty is associated with greater mental health problems such as depression and suicide. Thus, support for people with mental health problems and for mental health services is important during this time and also we need to make sure that people don’t feel stigmatized or excluded.

What are the characteristics (socio-demographic) of employees who are more likely to suffer from depression?
Our study showed that employees who were female, divorced and working part time were more likely to have depression. University-educated professionals are less likely to take time off work when depressed and, if they do, are reluctant to tell their employer the reason why.

What’s the best strategy managers could use to deal with depressed workers?
Despite a lot of publicity surrounding mental illness, it is worrying to see that there is still a major stigma associated with depression and many employers are not dealing with it adequately. Some managers may avoid the issue and avoiding discussing an employee’s depression is only adding to the general ignorance of mental illness and not helping either the company or the staff member. Being offered flexible working hours and time off can be helpful, but is not necessarily the best strategy in isolation because it doesn’t promote social inclusion, which is what a depressed person needs. A better option to tackle mental illness in the workplace is for managers to offer direct help to depressed employees. Managers have an important role to play by creating supportive working environments that promote social acceptance. By doing so, their employees will feel more secure discussing any potential mental health issues.