What is a Good Life? #3 - Celebrating its Simplicity & Challenge with Tom Goodwin

On the third episode of the “What is a Good Life?” podcast, I am joined by Tom Goodwin.

Tom is the author of Digital Darwinism, a keynote speaker, an advisor to Fortune 500 companies and start-ups, and a commentator on the future of advertising, marketing, technology and business. He also contributes to publications such as The Guardian, TechCrunch, Forbes, and the World Economic Forum, among many others.

In this episode:
- Observing the oddity of knowing what is good for us, even enjoying it, and rarely making it a habit
- Comparing social media and in-person communication
- Questioning where we spend all this time we save by using various apps?
- Exploring what Tom is both optimistic and pessimistic about regarding our use of technology
- Questioning the obsession we have with the optimising of and streamlining of human behaviour
- The importance of challenging our own views and not taking life so seriously

The point of this podcast, in general, is not to provide you with neat little Top 5 actionable takeaways, if life were simply about absorbing intellectual information, we’d all have 6 packs (if that was your thing) and live the most productive lives imaginable.

The point is to curiously observe what is going on for us as humans and to bring more of our behaviour into focus, which can lead to incremental, maintainable changes over the long-term (may not sound too sexy but I’m tired of the instant nonsense, and endless lists, people are promising elsewhere).

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel for daily clips and weekly reflections.

Show Notes

On the third episode of the “What is a Good Life?” podcast, I am joined by Tom Goodwin.
  
Tom is the author of Digital Darwinism, a keynote speaker, an advisor to Fortune 500 companies and start-ups, and a commentator on the future of advertising, marketing, technology and business. He also contributes to publications such as The Guardian, TechCrunch, Forbes, and the World Economic Forum, among many others.

In this episode:

- Observing the oddity of knowing what is good for us, even enjoying it, and rarely making it a habit

- Comparing social media and in-person communication

- Questioning where we spend all this time we save by using various apps?

- Exploring what Tom is both optimistic and pessimistic about regarding our use of technology

- Questioning the obsession we have with the optimising of and streamlining of human behaviour

- The importance of challenging our own views and not taking life so seriously

The point of this podcast, in general, is not to provide you with neat little Top 5 actionable takeaways, if life were simply about absorbing intellectual information, we’d all have 6 packs (if that was your thing) and live the most productive lives imaginable. 

The point is to curiously observe what is going on for us as humans and to bring more of our behaviour into focus, which can lead to incremental, maintainable changes over the long-term (may not sound too sexy but I’m tired of the instant nonsense, and endless lists, people are promising elsewhere).

Running Order:

00:00 Introduction

02:00 Exploring makes me, me, what I am about

04:20 We don’t get addicted to things that make us happy 

07:00 Surprising how hard it is to do the things you like

11:30 How Social Media and in-person communication compare

15:30 Levelling up or deepening our conversations from small talk

20:20 How authentic are we being in conversation and life (reading off a script)

25:30 What brings Tom happiness 

28:30 Seeking out different points of view

31:50 VCs investing in making life more efficient without making the world better

35:10 Stripping human connection out of life

38:20 What innovations make Tom optimistic and pessimistic about the future with regards to technology?

41:30 AI 

43:50 Technology is still a mirror or a lever of human behaviour

47:30 Try not to take life too seriously

52:10 Stop worrying about things we can’t control

54:30 Challenges to facing a good life – choosing the right thing is much harder than you think

55:50 The Loop first thing in the morning – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – 45 mins gone

58:15 What is a good life? for Tom

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel for daily clips and weekly reflections.

For further content and information check out the following: 
- For clips and video of the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

What is What is a Good Life??

Over the last three years I've interviewed over 200 people around the question of "what is a good life?". I am not trying to find or prescribe universal answers to this question, instead to prompt your own inquiry into what constitutes a good life for you. While I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience, beyond the masks that we wear.