Monthly Archives: September 2014

Jason Silva is hard to put a label on hes been called a futurist, an idea DJ and a performance philosopher. His popular video series Shots of Awe is a cinematic exploration of science and philosophy, and he also hosts the National Geographic Channels BrainGames.

Theres no doubt Jason has eclectic ideals and aspirations and a unique career path; how has he gone about achieving his diverse accomplishments? We caught up with Jason to learn about his background, his methodology and how he works.

Location: NYC / SF / London / Amsterdam and sometimes Miami. Current Gig: Host of BrainGames TV series on Nat Geo and creator/narrator of Shots of Awe web series / global keynote speaker / futurist One word that best describes how you work: Cognitive ecstasy Current mobile device: iPhone Current computer: MacBook Pro

People started calling me a futurist because I make a lot of content about the idea of the technological singularity where I echo people like Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Kellys ideas about technology and innovation and self organisation. I sort of describe my work as digital DJing because I recombine existing ideas into new modalities of expression, hopefully introducing new audiences to this mind bending stuff.

iTunes for musical inspiration, YouTube and Vimeo for video content and Twitter for serendipitous idea finding.

YouTube is ubiquitous, so a presence there is a must. Vimeo is a more curated audience of artists and designers, so you reach like minds easier. Its nice to be on both platforms when possible.

Carefully considering who to follow is a kind of anticipated serendipity. Using other minds as content filters means that your Twitter stream becomes a digital trail of where these peoples minds have been. You get a glimpse into their wanderings. You also benefit from the shared cognitive bandwidth of many brilliant minds sharing the labour of filtering the endless stream of media for you. And you take the leap of faith that if these people have impressed you with their thinking before, they will do so again through their choice of tweets.

Laptop / music / ultra mobile / hotel rooms. I work out of wherever I am.

Mediocre hotel Wi-Fi can definitely be an issue. I have a laptop connect card just in case that can connect via AT&Ts LTE signal. When travelling internationally you can always depend on the cafe culture to provide ample spaces to sit and people watch and let the wind wander between flurries of email. When shooting Shots of Awe we usually book a place that offers a sense of being somewhere else. My favourite place to shoot Shots of Awe is Amsterdam. The Dutch seem to really have a work/life balance and I love their bicycle universe. AirBNB has transformed travel as well, and those apartments always have great Wi-Fi.

Get enough sleep! You function much better and more efficiently if youre rested.

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I'm Jason Silva, Host Of BrainGames, And This Is How I Work