Welcome to episode #1024 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

At a time when the digital infrastructure that underpins modern life feels increasingly hostile, few voices have been as prescient... or as relentless... as Cory Doctorow. A science fiction novelist, journalist and technology activist, Cory serves as Special Advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and has long stood at the intersection of storytelling, policy and power. Over the course of a prolific career (one that includes bestselling fiction, influential tech policy books like Chokepoint Capitalism and The Internet Con, and his widely read Pluralistic blog) Cory has chronicled how digital markets consolidate, calcify and ultimately betray their users. His latest nonfiction work, Enshittification - Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What To Do About It, gives a name to the slow degradation of online platforms: the predictable cycle in which services begin by delighting users, then exploit them, then squeeze the businesses that depend on them, until only monopoly power remains. Cory situates this decline not as technological inevitability but as the result of specific policy choices that empowered monopolies and weakened enforcement. At the same time, Cory challenges the fatalism that often surrounds technological decline. Anti-circumvention laws, regulatory capture and collective action problems may constrain consumers, but they are not immovable forces. Cultural norms can shift. Policy can be rewritten. Markets can be redesigned. Grounded in economic literacy and moral urgency, Cory's work calls for ethical leadership, regulatory courage and a reclamation of agency in the systems that shape our digital lives. Enjoy the conversation…

• Running time: 1:00:43.
• Hello from beautiful Montreal.
• Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.
• Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.
• Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.
• Check out ThinkersOne.
• Here is my conversation with Cory Doctorow.
• Enshittification - Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What To Do About It.
• Pluralistic.
• Chokepoint Capitalism.
• The Internet Con.
• Cory's books.
• Cory's newsletter.
• Follow Cory on X.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Cory Doctorow.
(03:07) - The AI Bubble: Understanding the Economics.
(06:08) - The Future of AI and Labor.
(08:56) - Open Source Models and Their Potential.
(11:50) - AI as a Tool: The Multiplier Effect.
(14:50) - The Reality of AI's Impact on Society.
(17:57) - Billionaire Perspectives and UBI.
(20:56) - The Disconnect Between Wealth and Labor.
(23:49) - The Future of Work in an AI-Driven World.
(30:15) - The Illusion of Value in Economic Activity.
(33:34) - The Crisis of Ethical Leadership.
(36:56) - The Role of Policymakers in Corporate Behavior.
(38:45) - Understanding Lock-In: Users and Businesses.
(40:40) - The Impact of Monopolies and Monopsonies.
(49:22) - The Need for Anti-Circumvention Law Repeal.
(54:24) - Cultural Norms vs. Regulation in Consumer Behavior.

Welcome to episode #1023 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

In an era where outrage travels faster than reflection, few accusations carry as much moral force as the charge of hypocrisy… and yet few concepts are as misunderstood. Michael Hallsworth is Chief Behavioral Scientist at the Behavioral Insights Team and a leading voice in behavioral economics, with academic appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and a career devoted to understanding how real people actually think and act in complex systems. His research spans public policy, organizational behavior and social judgment, examining how incentives, norms, and cognitive biases shape everything from government programs to corporate decision-making. In his new book, The Hypocrisy Trap - How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives, Michael challenges the conventional belief that hypocrisy is simply a moral failing to be stamped out. Instead, he reframes it as a process… an inconsistency we dislike because we believe someone is gaining an unjust benefit… and argues that relentless accusations can backfire, breeding cynicism, polarization, and institutional decay. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, behavioral science, and contemporary case studies, he distinguishes between common standards hypocrisy and the more corrosive double standards that undermine fairness itself. He explores how social media amplifies moralistic aggression, how public signaling can both distort and reshape behavior, and why tolerating certain forms of inconsistency may be necessary for leadership and democratic compromise. Rather than excusing deception, Michael calls for sharper discernment: identifying which inconsistencies cause real harm and which reflect the unavoidable trade-offs of human life. Grounded in rigorous scholarship yet strikingly practical, his work urges greater self-reflection, empathy and intellectual humility in a culture quick to condemn. Enjoy the conversation…

• Running time: 55:05.
• Hello from beautiful Montreal.
• Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.
• Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.
• Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.
• Check out ThinkersOne.
• Here is my conversation with Michael Hallsworth.
• The Hypocrisy Trap - How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives.
• Behavioral Insights Team.
• Michael's Substack, The Judgement Gap.
• Follow Michael on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Hypocrisy.
(02:46) - Understanding the Nature of Hypocrisy.
(05:49) - The Cultural and Historical Context of Hypocrisy.
(08:51) - The Evolutionary Roots of Hypocrisy.
(11:50) - The Role of Hypocrisy in Politics.
(14:43) - Hypocrisy in Business and Society.
(17:57) - The Hypocrisy Trap Explained.
(20:56) - The Balance of Hypocrisy and Honesty.
(23:41) - The Emotional Impact of Hypocrisy.
(26:36) - Empathy and Self-Reflection in Hypocrisy.
(31:32) - Understanding Hypocrisy and Its Implications.
(36:16) - The Role of Social Media in Hypocrisy.
(40:56) - Navigating Integrity and Leadership.
(47:09) - The Complexity of Accusations and Context.
(55:13) - Rethinking Hypocrisy and Forgiveness.

At a moment when organizational change is too often treated as a mandate rather than an experience people choose to embrace, Phil Gilbert has spent his career proving that transformation only sticks when it earns genuine buy-in. Phil is a design executive, transformation leader and former General Manager of Design at IBM, where he architected one of the largest cultural and operational shifts in corporate history, helping nearly 400,000 employees across 180 countries become more entrepreneurial, agile and customer-centered. Trained as both a designer and systems thinker, Phil brought design thinking out of studios and into the core of enterprise decision-making, reshaping how teams collaborated, how products were built, and how leaders understood their customers. His work at IBM addressed hard truths, including the company's struggles with usability and missed opportunities in the early cloud era, by treating change itself as a product worthy of rigor, investment, and care. That experience became the foundation for his book Irresistible Change - A Blueprint For Earning Buy-In And Breakout Success, which blends narrative and field guide to show how large organizations can scale transformation by focusing on people, practices, and environments rather than slogans or top-down directives. Phil's approach reframes culture as an outcome, not an initiative, arguing that lasting change emerges when employees see themselves in the future being designed. Beyond IBM, his work as an executive coach and advisor continues to focus on how leaders navigate complexity, align teams, and thoughtfully integrate technologies like AI into human systems without eroding trust or creativity. Grounded in real-world execution rather than theory, Phil's perspective challenges organizations to stop forcing change and start making it irresistible. Enjoy the conversation…

• Running time: 1:02:49.
• Hello from beautiful Montreal.
• Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.
• Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.
• Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.
• Check out ThinkersOne.
• Here is my conversation with Phil Gilbert.
• Irresistible Change - A Blueprint For Earning Buy-In And Breakout Success.
• Follow Phil on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Phil Gilbert and His Journey.
(01:26) - IBM's Transformation and Challenges.
(04:17) - The Shift from Technology to Product.
(10:55) - Implementing Design Thinking at IBM.
(16:30) - Cultural Change and Its Impact on Outcomes.
(22:53) - The Role of Teams in Transformation.
(26:40) - Branding the Change: Hallmark Program.
(32:22) - The Importance of Team Selection in Transformation.
(34:59) - Creating Demand for Change.
(37:23) - Agency and Team Resilience.
(38:06) - IBM's Market Position and Transformation.
(41:14) - The Shift in Work Dynamics.
(44:46) - Rethinking Office Spaces.
(48:58) - Irresistible Change and Transformation Failures.
(53:51) - AI Integration and Market Forces.
(59:38) - The Impact of Design Thinking on Business.