Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

–Mark Twain

Life is Short — Fill Your Bucket Today

We fuel our bodies with food, our minds with education, and our hearts with love, but new experiences and dreams can nourish our spirit in ways that nothing else can. Whatever your goals or dreams are, there are benefits to turning them into a bucket list, a well-crafted one can push you to lead your version of an ideal life. The process of writing a bucket list forces you to take a close look at what it is you truly desire, to analyze where you are versus where you want to be.

What is a Bucket List?

[noun, informal. a list of the things you want to do before you reach a certain age, or before you die. It originates from the term ‘to kick the bucket’, itself a 17th-century term meaning ‘to die’.]

Simply put, it is a collection of goals, dreams, and aspirations that you would like to accomplish within your lifetime. The basic meaning of a bucket list is to keep track of your goals and to take steps to achieve those goals in order to maximize the incredible experiences in your life. Adults may call it a bucket list — kids may look upon it as a “wish list”, both simply a matter of perspective.

It’s About Your Personal Journey

https://youtu.be/O8U8Pkod2n4

There is no right or wrong way of designing your bucket list because it’s a personal journey between you and your aspirations. It’s really about living life to the fullest with all the hours you have left on Earth, starting today. Everyone’s list should be different because it is meant to reflect what you most desire in your own life. The important part is to come up with items that are meaningful to you; ones that will inspire you to wake up each morning with a fire in your belly. How would you like to be remembered? What example do you want to set for future generations — one of a life full of passion, following dreams, and having meaningful adventures or one of regrets?

SEE PRESS RELEASE: 360° NATION ISSUES CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

It’s Time to Look Forward

Times have been tough around the world and challenges are seemingly never-ending. But the time has come to step back for a moment — and then look forward to crafting your Bucket List, adding it to the many lists from around the world to be featured in BUCKETFEST 360°, the next “for good” production by 360° Nation Studios. Our inaugural “for good” production — HOPEFEST 360° attracted over 30,000 YouTube views across 100+ countries.

Create Your Legacy — by Sharing Your Bucket

All we need is a video (target 3 minutes or less) featuring YOU sharing your answer to the following question: What’s on Your Bucket List and Why?

Perhaps it’s changed over the past year given global events? — include that in your message if you wish. Your list can be as near-term or as far down the road as you wish — “before the day, the week, the month, the year, my life, is over — I want to …” Or perhaps your list is more of a “wish list” for humanity. In either case, here’s your opportunity to join our global community as together, we reimagine the possibilities. And please remember, everything we do is done “for good” vs for-profit, as we’re driven solely by our mission to rediscover humanity at its very best.

IMPORTANT: NEXT STEPS: Send your video directly to us via bizmastersglobal@gmail.com OR free via wetransfer.com no later than June 15th. Please include your Name & Country in the Message box. Videos will be sequenced in the order received within our final production, so don’t delay! No promotional content please (including promotional backgrounds) and no name overlays (we will add your name & location).

Don’t stop there. Anyone & everyone is welcome. Please share this Article/Invite your friends, family & business colleagues so they too can submit their List. Children of all ages are invited to submit their “wish list”. And please remember, all of our productions are “for good” vs. for-profit, with zero advertising and free access to each event so let’s work together to bring together as many voices as possible!

Reserve Your Seat for the Worldwide Premier

Don’t forget to Register today to reserve your seat now so you don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy this epic production premiering worldwide in August 2021 ⤵︎

RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW!

Looking Forward: What’s In Your Bucket? was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Being human is given. But keeping our humanity is a choice. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about US. It’s about serving others and finding ourselves along the way. It’s about stepping back before we charge forward with whatever comes next — taking a momentary breath to stop, reset, and focus on how we can experience a more positively connected universe. Historians will look back on this pause and this pivot with a critical perspective.

Success for humanity will be linked to whether we were able to be more empathetic, more effective communicators and more willing collaborators. How we choose to operate and cooperate.

Success will be measured by whether we have done significantly more good and a whole lot less harm to the world we depend on and each other. Perhaps it all begins and ends by reclaiming our humanity?

Permission Granted | Notice Given

The world didn’t give you permission to be here — but you didn’t ask for permission, either. Some of us are still asking for permission when we should just be giving the world notice. Notice that we are at a crossroads of a whole new chapter for humanity. A marker in history where the opportunity exists to come together and reimagine how to to build a better future. An opportunity to be a part of creating a brighter future for those who follow, where the connected human experience is well-balanced between the best of humanity combined with the power of technology and science to transform how we live for the better. It’s time for the word, deed, and spirit behind 360° nation.

It’s Time for More

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

~Charles Chaplin

Right now, it feels like a moment in history where choices made will have a ripple effect for generations to come. Whether you’re a partner, friend, parent, leader, teacher, politician, or a combination thereof, we are called to show up and do more good to help fuel a better version of the world we live in. At the same time, we need to ask for more from each person in our lives and in our relationships to make the world spin more smoothly. We need more from everyone who leads and is in a position of influence. Understand that it’s not about you, it’s about caring for the people you serve and more responsibly stewarding the precious resources in our care.

More Authenticity To be authentic, we must cultivate the courage to be imperfect — and vulnerable. We must believe that we are worthy of love and acceptance, just as we are. We must be open, honest, and direct in the here-and-now.

More Acceptance Diversity is humanity’s greatest defense against extinction. It represents one of our greatest opportunities to address the biggest challenges facing the world today. Let’s work together and embrace the strengths of our differences to build a fairer, safer, more prosperous future.

More Activism A connected, purpose-driven community on a mission focused on positive change, no matter the issue, has proven time and time again that when passionate people work together they bring back the light where darkness temporarily has taken hold, and together they bend the arc of history back toward the good.

More Citizenship As citizens, history just doesn’t happen to us, we make history together. Our shared values guide our actions and our choices, and they in turn shape our character, which in turn shapes history. It’s time to dust off our founding principles and celebrate, elevate or refresh them. Imagine if we all use the power of our voice by voting and the value of our time volunteering devoted to a cause for good.

More Compassion As we are bombarded with the sensationalism of every slight eventuality, the spew of pontificating pundits, and the celebration of violence as entertainment, we must show and demonstrate more care and concern for the suffering and misfortunes of those who are impacted by crisis.

More Emotional Intelligence We must be deeply and sincerely emotionally intelligent, starting with an ongoing commitment to developing self-knowledge. Have the bravery and strength to take a good, hard look at yourself and understand more about the roots of your core thoughts, mindsets, values, and behaviors. And examine in a much more intimate way than ever before just how your past has shaped you. When you commit to growing in your self-knowledge, with eyes wide open, your entire approach to your life and relationships will transform.

More Empathy Let’s develop the ability for humans to understand, share, and acknowledge how others are feeling and understand how our words and actions impact others and let’s open the door wide and build more togetherness. Let’s design a class for empathy that’s taught in every classroom, every academy, every corporate and government training agenda.

More Gratitude Cultivating gratitude matters. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts, and benefits we’ve received. When we look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life. We recognize the sources of this goodness as being outside of ourselves. We can appreciate positive traits in ourselves, but I true gratitude involves a humble dependence on others: We acknowledge that other people — or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset — gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.

More Humility Imagine if we all put the needs of others first, talked about ourselves and our needs less. A keen sense of humility is vital to great because it authenticates a person’s humanity. We are all human, and therefore, all flawed and vulnerable in our own unique ways. Great leaders have a depth of understanding, garnered from their experience, as to where their inherent strengths and weakness lie. This type of self-awareness is paramount to the development of humility. Being self-revealing is what brings people into connection. It is what makes people feel safe and accepted, and it is the part of each person that is open to guidance, coaching, and self-improvement.

More Love (Understanding) Imagine a world where more people chose understanding and truth rather than reaction and conflict. But ultimately imagining it is not enough; it’s a good start, but we need to act. We need to live and engage in life from our hearts. Understanding creates a mental shift enabling us to replace reactive emotions and disconnection with compassion and connection. Understanding at its deepest level is just like love — an unconditional understanding of another’s humanness. We don’t have to know their story, but we can appreciate they’re going through the human experience, just like us.

More Respect Ask yourself, “How am I showing up today, and do I like who I am and what I’m modeling as my core values and behaviors? Eliminating active disrespect — such as rude, insulting, or devaluing words or behaviors — doesn’t create respect. Respect is an action: we show respect, we act respectfully, we speak with respect. The absence of disrespect doesn’t have the same positive impact in resolving disagreement, conflict, or tension as does the presence of respect.

More Trust Trustworthiness has two components­–doing the right things and doing things right. It’s the foundation of respect. Tell the truth, be open and thoughtful, and have the courage to do the right thing even when it’s not easy.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

~Mahatma Gandhi

What More Can We Do?

Help us help you build the foundation for a better version of humanity. What more “bricks” would you put in place as together we craft our road together?

In Search of Humanity: A 360° Perspective was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over every mountain, there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

Theodore Roethke

Everything you see in your life at this moment is the result of choices you have made. The door in the photo is clearly open, but you can’t really see the steps through it or what lies beyond it. Some of the choices we have made in life, lead us in directions that we didn’t even know where there.

Sometimes behind the waterfall, there is a path into a valley that no one has discovered.

Sometimes we fall through a hole in the ground and discover a buried city.

Sometimes we have a flat tire on a desert road, with no spare tire to change it — and we find a dusty path that leads to a hidden cache of gold.

There is always a choice of following a paved road with lots of signs or walking down a dirt path. To stay safe on the paved road or taking on the risk of the unknown dirt path, and seeing for yourself the genius of the universal design for your life.

Of never trying to see what is behind the waterfall in the first place (it is dangerous and you might fall down and hurt yourself); to climb out of that hole you fell into (it’s probably full of spiders, snakes, and rats) and ignoring the possibilities of discovery all around you; to stay beside that car on the hot desert road and wait for someone to rescue you (so much more sensible than striking out on your own).

Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.

Erol Ozan

So stop being so worried about the million and one things that can go wrong. Start instead dreaming about, and getting excited about, what is around the next corner. Whatever we chose to be the next destination, we should always aim just a little higher. If we are aiming for the lower mountain, we won’t know if we could have climbed the higher one instead. Don’t put off the higher mountain as your goal, thinking that you need to be realistic, that you need to go in small definable steps. As the saying goes, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land on the stars”. Don’t be afraid to get lost. Even landing among the stars, changes you, your world, and maybe even the whole world.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Buddha

Friends loved ones, mentors, teachers — they can all set us on what they think is the right path for us. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong, and sometimes they are “almost” right. It is up to us to decide what the correct life path is for us, at this point in our lives. No matter what path we take in life, no matter where we go or end up, we take a little bit of everyone we know with us. Haven’t you heard those voices in your head? Your parents, your favorite aunt or uncle, your grandparents, those special friends from school — those voices that make insane comments about what is taking place in front of you? Mine are these comedian’s talking commentary during a boring office meeting. My son Sam’s voice comes into play during movies when they are doing anything military, telling me they are doing it wrong.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

Dolly Parton

I believe that we have at least three careers in our life and that they can be completely different. We shouldn’t confuse the path we are walking with the destination that we are going to. Once I have mastered something, I get bored. When I get bored, I know it is time to start exploring something new to learn, to have a new destination. I am still walking my life path, the path of learning more about the world, about me, and what new sights are on the horizon. There are times that the path can be a little blurry because I haven’t yet discovered where the path is taking me. So I keep walking and I get curious. I know that when the path gets crystal clear, I have a new destination and new life experiences coming into focus.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

Paulo Coelho

This doesn’t mean that I am just sitting on the path waiting for it to define itself. When I sit, it is like stepping off the deep end of the river and just sinking to the bottom. If I sit, the world tries to define me. To make me fit someone else’s mold, to do the things that they want me to do and be. Then I lose myself, sitting submerged and wondering why I can’t breathe. I have to take the time, the effort and the work to define the path so that each step brings the focus sharper and more defined. I have to swim back up to the surface of the river and determine which shoreline I want to step onto.

If you could have seen the end from the beginning, would you have chosen a different path?

-M 2013

Sometimes when we are walking down the path we have chosen everything goes wrong. A forest fire races through the valley and destroys all of the vegetation. The river overflows its banks and takes out the bridge we were walking across. A 40 car pile-up in the fog totals our car. Sometimes what seems like a life ending event, is actually the first step on a new path. We had developed expectations of where the path should be taking us, and so we were actually sleepwalking down the side path. Because of our expectations, that path might have led us to the correct destination, but without the right experiences. Have you ever seen someone famous implode right after they achieved critical acclaim for their talents? Hollywood, Politics, Musicians — we’ve all seen them reach a pinnacle of success, then drugs, alcohol, sexual exploitation — and down they tumble into scandal.

Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau

This is due to not having strong enough roots to support their growth. Somewhere along the path to finding themselves, they didn’t get lost. They missed valuable life experiences that would have grounded their roots. That would have forced them to grow deeper and discover more about who they were. Because they didn’t have these valuable experiences, they allowed others even with the best intentions, to rescue them from falling on their face. They covered things up. They didn’t let them experience the results of bad choices when they were small failures. So they just kept being rescued and didn’t learn the life skills of what failure really means.

Remember when life’s path is steep, to keep your mind even.

Horace

What we discover from failure is that sometimes it is the best thing that ever happened to us. We see new ways to do something, which we would have never seen if everything went according to plan. We discover wonderful character traits that were only exposed because we felt we had no other choice than to force ourselves to up our game. My favorite movie scene is from “Facing The Giants” in the death crawl scene. The player goes all of the way down the entire length of the football field, thinking that he is only trying to make it to the 50-yard line. He couldn’t see where he was, and he was crawling with another player on his back. At first, the coach is only trying to get him to the 50-yard line, then he realizes the player has more in him than either of them knew. We are all like that player, capable of so much more. It is the difficult parts of life that open up the possibilities of our tasting some of that greatness we have buried deep inside. So remember “to keep the mind even” — not letting doubts or over-confidence tilt us.

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

W.B. Yeats

Each day is a new adventure in walking our chosen life path. Each day we can walk it in wonder, looking to see what is going to cross our path today. We can be curious. We can slow down and actually see what is on our right side, our left side, and directly in front of us. Don’t miss the flowers that you’ve never seen in that color or shape before. Look for the squirrels, bunnies, little lizards laying on the warm rock and enjoying the heat of the day. Rest when you are tired. Walk in the moonlight or lay back and count the stars.

I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds for something extraordinary to happen to us.

Khaled Hosseini

This is your life path, your journey. The world is full of friends, lovers, and new brothers and sisters waiting to get to know us. The destinations are fun to get to, to master some aspect of your life. But really, life is lived on the path, during the step by step walking, dancing, singing, along the road to the newest destination. So don’t forget to enjoy it. The journey is — Your Happiness.

Go Where There Is No Path, And Leave A Trail

Go Where There Is No Path, And Leave A Trail was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As traffic grew on the London Underground in the 1960s, it became impractical for the limited number of platform attendants to warn all passengers about the danger of larger-than-expected gaps between the train and the platform. The danger was especially concerning in stations where the platforms were slightly curved — a passenger expecting a curved platform to align with a straight train carriage was at risk of an experience that posed a threat to life and limb. To solve this, the London Underground implemented an automated announcement giving people early warning to “mind the gap,” — and subway systems around the world adopted the practice. Even today, in places like Singapore where trains and platforms align with precision, announcements to “please mind the platform gap” play in various languages (locally, you can hear “berhati-hati di ruang platform”). While few corporate teams face the kind of physical danger that might befall an unaware train passenger, minding the gaps within and across teams is no less important.

Gaps Everywhere

Technology is enabling and accelerating the globalization and virtualization of organizations, and a new generation of employees are reshaping the present and future of work. Those mega-trends are driving a shift away from the 20th century organizational model of hero-led hierarchies toward organizations built upon knowledge workers and shared leadership, distributed across local and virtual teams. For organizations born flat, global, and virtual, the future of work is already here. However, for many companies, the gaps caused by the shift to the 21st-century world of work can feel like volcanic fissures, delivering flows of lava that can quickly damage a team or organization. Over the past few years, I’ve talked with dozens of leaders that found themselves dealing with the effect of unexpected gaps that posed a threat to the performance of their team, and I’ve encountered them myself…

It is because we are human that gaps develop between what people expect of each other and what they experience.

A few weeks ago, a friend messaged me with the good news that he is being promoted to head the Asia-Pacific organization of a ten-year-old European software company. Over a congratulatory glass of wine, Peter described the challenges the organization faces as it expands into Asia. Our discussion uncovered issues typical of a company entering new multicultural markets with different needs and expectations, sitting many time zones away. The key gaps — such as poor communications across departments in Europe leaving his teams lacking timely product information and an inside-out view of product development that isn’t actively seeking customer voice in Asia — were becoming burning issues. Those gaps started slowing sales cycles and revenue generation while increasing processes and time spent in meetings.

Falling closer to the “volcanic fissure” level of gaps, about 18 months ago I began working with a new team made up of people from several different business groups. Everyone came from businesses with very different cultures and track records, and those differences quickly led to eruptions as a lack of role clarity caused inefficiencies and animosity. More significantly, while the leadership clearly defined the desired team norms, they failed to use them to guide the team and assess whether or not people were living up to those values. The resulting rifts between people led to both poor team performance and diminished well-being.

After the year-end conversations, I asked the team for feedback on the quality of their career discussions. Much to my surprise, a couple of team members indicated that there was a significant gap between what they had expected and their experience during our conversation.

My own experience with unexpected gaps occurred several years ago. I was leading a team within a fast-growing business unit at a company that required a formal end-of-year performance and career conversation. Although I made a habit of continuous feedback and conversations with my team, I still completed the formal process. After the year-end conversations, I asked the team for feedback on the quality of their career discussions. Much to my surprise, a couple of team members indicated that there was a significant gap between what they had expected and their experience during our conversation. Since the feedback was anonymous and I didn’t know which team members had lacking experiences, I quickly set up another round of career conversations with everyone. I then asked for feedback again to ensure that I closed any gaps. While the impact was small and quickly addressed, it was humbling to realize that, no matter the level of preparation and anticipation, gaps can happen anywhere.

While each of those examples differs in context, they highlight the fact that gaps in people’s expectations of each other, versus what they experience, occur across every organizational context. Like the game ‘Whack-A-Mole’ they can pop-up anywhere, anytime. The important question is not how we as leaders can eliminate all the gaps within and across our teams, but how can we better manage them as they inevitably occur?

Minding the Gaps

No matter the level of preparation and anticipation, gaps can happen anywhere. While the verb ‘to mind’ isn’t used as often as it once was (many would say that the world would benefit from a little more ‘mind your manners’), the need to consistently identify and close expectation gaps is more pressing than ever. Closing gaps requires getting to their essence, understanding what the gap is, why is there a gap, and how to close the gap. For team leaders that means:

• Regularly gather feedback on team member expectations of each other, of themselves, and of the other teams that support achieving their goals versus their actual experience.
• Openly discuss the feedback and acknowledge the existing gaps, then prioritize them.
• Identify specific actions to close those gaps.
• Track progress, and repeat the cycle.

A powerful way to develop the habit of closing gaps is to build it into the discipline of regular team and one-to-one conversations that should include:

• Weekly Individual Check-ins — Holding a weekly, short one-on-one is critical to keeping people energized. It is an opportunity to touch base on goals and progress, and to learn what you can do to support achieving them. The conversations should be biased towards asking questions versus giving direction and should support versus asking for a report. Team leaders should be sure to mention any existing gaps and the progress on closing them.
• Monthly Team Reviews — These team meetings should focus on your team’s progress against existing goals, including closing gaps, ensuring alignment of purpose, processes, and priorities, and reviewing the latest feedback for new gaps. Most importantly, these reviews should be action oriented with clear ownership and follow-up on prior actions.
• Quarterly 1-to-1 Reviews — This once-per-quarter discussion around effort, performance, and career offers team leaders an opportunity to ensure clear alignment between each team member’s role and purpose with that of the team and organization. It is also an opportunity to reinforce team norms as well as the part each team member plays in upholding those values. And, as always, to maintain a focus on the progress to close existing gaps.

It’s All About Relationships

It is because we are human that gaps develop between what people expect of each other and what they experience. We don’t engage with one another via finely tuned algorithms, but through a messy mix of rational thought, emotions, preconceived ideas, and expectations — all viewed through the lens of our individual personality and experiences. As Dale Carnegie, the 20th Century writer and leadership trainer, summarized in the simple, straightforward style that made him famous, “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.”

As organizations become more team-based, the importance of managing relationships — particularly, team member’s experiences versus their expectations with one another, their leader, and across other teams that share the same goals — becomes critical to the success of the team and the people on it. At the heart of managing those team, relationships is the algorithm, or more accurately the simple heuristic, of experience versus expectation. When you develop the habit of proactively identifying and minding the gaps between what we expect of our key relationships and what we experience, you tap into the essence of the human experience that powers people’s energy and engagement at work.

Mind The Gaps

Mind The Gaps was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

~ Leo Buscaglia

In the midst of worldwide self-quarantine, shutdowns, lockdowns, and fear-mongering headlines, how do we find hope and connection?

While people everywhere are practicing social distancing and staying inside because of the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re encouraged by increasing signs of a “kindness’ outbreak across the globe. Surfacing amidst the fear, isolation, and uncertainty are acts of community, support, and hope. People are coming together to sing on balconies in Italy, others are setting up groups to offer support to the elderly or vulnerable — like collecting groceries or calling them for a chat (see article below).

We’ve heard stories of people having virtual movie nights and creating choreographed dances over video chat to share with the world. Every act of love, patience, and compassion, no matter how small can make a world of difference to so many.

Along Comes Arthur “Looking for Good”

Isn’t it about time for some good news? Is kindness becoming contagious? We believe a kinder world is possible in good times and bad, and we believe that the time is now to challenge the gloom & doom headlines by using our virtual podium to showcase the power of compassion. And this is where Arthur, our long-time, unheralded member of Team 360° and “Editor-at-Large” comes in. Showing his true colors, he’s volunteered to travel the world amidst the chaos in search of random acts of kindness. Starting today, Arthur’s dispatches from the frontlines of humanity will be shared with you within our Comments section below.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

– Mark Twain

But Arthur Can’t Do It Alone

While his tireless efforts are commendable, Arthur needs your help. He’s asking you — our loyal global audience — to step up and share your stories of random acts of kindness witnessed, learned about, conjured up or participated in, no matter how small. There’s no shortage of reasons to be stressed and afraid nowadays, but equally, there are many glimmers of hope and positivity worth savoring and sharing. Won’t you now join Arthur as we work together to rediscover humanity at its very best?

PLEASE SHARE your kindness stories below as we join forces with Arthur to rise by lifting others ⤵︎

Where’s Arthur? — In Search of Kindness was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ted Florence is ready for his family trip to Botswana. He has looked up his hotel on Google Maps and downloaded a digital map of the country to his phone. He has also packed a large paper map. “I travel all over the world,” says Florence, the president of the international board of the International Map Industry Association and Avenza, a digital map software company. “Everywhere I go, my routine is the same: I get a paper map, and I keep it in my back pocket.”

With the proliferation of smartphones, it’s easy to assume that the era of the paper map is over. That attitude, that digital is better than print, is what I call “technochauvinism.” In my book, “Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World,” I look at how technochauvinism has been used to create an unnecessary, occasionally harmful bias for digital over print or any other kind of interface. A glance at the research reveals that the paper map still thrives in the digital era, and there are distinct advantages to using print maps.

Your brain on maps

Cognitive researchers generally make a distinction between surface knowledge and deep knowledge. Experts have deep knowledge of a subject or a geography; amateurs have surface knowledge.

Digital interfaces are good for acquiring surface knowledge. Answering the question, “How do I get from the airport to my hotel in a new-to-me city?” is a pragmatic problem that requires only shallow information to answer. If you’re traveling to a city for only 24 hours for a business meeting, there’s usually no need to learn much about a city’s layout.

When you live in a place, or you want to travel meaningfully, deep knowledge of the geography will help you to navigate it and to understand its culture and history. Print maps help you acquire deep knowledge faster and more efficiently. In experiments, people who read on paper consistently demonstrate better reading comprehension than people who read the same material on a screen. A 2013 study showed that, as a person’s geographic skill increases, so does their preference for paper maps.

For me, the difference between deep knowledge and surface knowledge is the difference between what I know about New York City, where I have lived for years, and San Francisco, which I have visited only a handful of times. In New York, I can tell you where all the neighborhoods are and which train lines to take and speculate about whether the prevalence of Manhattan schist in the geological substrate influenced the heights of the buildings that are in Greenwich Village versus Midtown. I’ve invested a lot of time in looking at both paper and digital maps of New York. In San Francisco, I’ve only ever used digital maps to navigate from point to point. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know where anything is in the Bay Area.

Our brains encode knowledge as what scientists call a cognitive map. In psychology-speak, I lack a cognitive map of San Francisco.

“When the human brain gathers visual information about an object, it also gathers information about its surroundings, and associates the two,” wrote communication researchers Jinghui Hou, Justin Rashid and Kwan Min Lee in a 2017 study. “In a similar manner to how people construct a mental map of a physical environment (e.g., a desk in the center of an office facing the door), readers form a ‘cognitive map’ of the physical location of a text and its spatial relationship to the text as a whole.”

Reading in print makes it easier for the brain to encode knowledge and to remember things. Sensory cues, like unfolding the complicated folds of a paper map, help create that cognitive map in the brain and help the brain to retain the knowledge.

The same is true for a simple practice like tracing out a hiking route on a paper map with your finger. The physical act of moving your arm and feeling the paper under your finger gives your brain haptic and sensorimotor cues that contribute to the formation and retention of the cognitive map.

Map mistakes

Another factor in the paper versus digital debate is accuracy. Obviously, a good digital map is better than a bad paper map, just like a good paper map is better than a bad digital map.

Technochauvinists may believe that all digital maps are good, but just as in the paper world, the accuracy of digital maps depends entirely on the level of detail and fact-checking invested by the company making the map.

For example, a 2012 survey by the crowdsourcing company Crowdflower found that Google Maps accurately located 89 percent of businesses, while Apple Maps correctly found 74 percent. This isn’t surprising, as Google invests millions in sending people around the world to map terrain for Google StreetView. Google Maps are good because the company invests time, money and human effort in making its maps good — not because digital maps are inherently better.

Fanatical attention to detail is necessary to keep digital maps up to date, as conditions in the real world change constantly. Companies like Google are constantly updating their maps, and will have to do so regularly for as long as they continue to publish. The maintenance required for digital content is substantial — a cost that technochauvinists often ignore.

In my view, it’s easier to forgive the errors in a paper map. Physical maps usually include an easily visible publication date so users can see when the map was published. (When was the last time you noticed the date-of-last-update on your car navigation system?) When you are passively following the spoken GPS directions of a navigation system, and there is, say, an unmarked exit, it confuses the GPS system and causes chaos among the people in the car. (Especially the backseat drivers.)

The best map for the job

Some of the deeper flaws of digital maps are not readily apparent to the public. Digital systems, including cartographic ones, are more interconnected than most people realize. Mistakes, which are inevitable, can go viral and create more trouble than anyone anticipates.

For example: Reporter Kashmir Hill has written about a Kansas farm in the geographic center of the U.S. that has been plagued by legal trouble and physical harassment, because a digital cartography database mistakenly uses the farm’s location as a default every time the database can’t identify the real answer.

“As a result, for the last 14 years, every time MaxMind’s database has been queried about the location of an IP address in the U.S. it can’t identify, it has spit out the default location of a spot two hours away from the geographic center of the country,” Hill wrote. “This happens a lot: 5,000 companies rely on MaxMind’s IP mapping information, and in all, there are now over 600 million IP addresses associated with that default coordinate.”

A technochauvinist mindset assumes everything in the future will be digital. But what happens if a major company like Google stops offering its maps? What happens when a government shutdown means that satellite data powering smartphone GPS systems isn’t transmitted? Right now, ambulances and fire trucks can keep a road atlas in the front seat in case electronic navigation fails. If society doesn’t maintain physical maps, first responders won’t be able to get to addresses when there is a fire or someone is critically ill.

Interrupting a country’s GPS signals is also a realistic cyberwarfare tactic. The U.S. Navy has resumed training new recruits in celestial navigation, a technique that dates back to ancient Greece, as a guard against when the digital grid gets hacked.

Ultimately, I don’t think it should be a competition between physical and digital. In the future, people will continue to need both kinds of maps. Instead of arguing whether paper or digital is a better map interface, people should consider what map is the right tool for the task.

Meredith Broussard is the author of:

Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World

MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

Meredith Broussard, Assistant Professor of Journalism, New York University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Why Do Paper Maps Still Matter In The Digital Age?

Why Do Paper Maps Still Matter In The Digital Age? was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At the beginning of the year, the escape room world was shaken with the shocking news of the tragic death of 5 teenage girls in a room in Poland. Caught in a fire, they were not able to escape. The incident has encouraged the Polish authorities to implement fire safety inspections and individual evacuation plans in all escape rooms in the country. Nevertheless, for business owners, the news highlights the challenges they need to tackle.

At the heart of the event and experience business

An escape room business joins the event industry in the sense that the venue is set to welcome guests and encourage them to enjoy their experience. Contrary to a tourist attraction, the site doesn’t need to deal with crowds as each room has a maximum number of players. Consequently, the focus should be on creating a space that brings people together and helps to build human connections. The experience of the room reflects on the cooperation between players, their togetherness, and the ability to develop interactive activities that challenge without frustrating. For business owners, it’s about mastering the perfect event experience strategy, several times a day for each single room.

You’re responsible for your guests

Building a memorable experience is crucial to maximizing guest engagement. But it is pointless if you don’t add business insurance cover to protect yourself from unforeseen injuries and accidents. Indeed, business owners are responsible for the health of the players in the room. If someone gets hurt as the result of malfunctioning devices, the business is liable to pay for damages. However, business owners need to educate their guests as well; indeed players are unable to complain if the accident happened as a consequence of intentional misuse on their part, such as someone climbing on furniture and falling, for instance.

You are part of the game too

Game masters and moderators are in charge of the room. Their role is to keep players entertained and communicate when required. Unfortunately, small businesses try to cut costs by assigned one game master to multiple rooms at the same time, which can affect the players’ experience. Inattentive moderators can inadvertently lead to damages and frustration, which reflect on the business reputation.

Escape room players have high expectations from the rooms. They want to be entertained; they want to be safe; they want to be supported. Your decisions will affect the experience of your players, their safety and the image of your brand. It’s more than a room with a few padlocks. It’s a promise of regulated escapism that business owners need to keep.

The Challenges Of Your Escape Room Business

The Challenges Of Your Escape Room Business was originally published in BIZCATALYST 360° on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.