Bob Goodson On The “Like” Button (And How It Changed The World) – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #991 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to:

Bob Goodson is President and Founder of Quid, an AI-driven company whose models are used by a third of the Fortune 50. Before launching Quid, he was the first employee at Yelp, where he witnessed (and helped shape) the birth of the like button. Bob’s academic roots in language theory (Oxford) and his deep curiosity about patterns of innovation led him to co-author Like – The Button That Changed The World, an illuminating book about how a simple social media feature rewired global communication and commerce. In this episode, we dig into the origin story of the like button and its unintended consequences – from how it shaped the social graph into a tool of surveillance capitalism, to the unintended shifts it created in digital identity and culture. Bob shares insights into the “arms race” of social engagement, the design intentions behind digital signals, and the eerie power of such tiny UX decisions to shape massive behavioral patterns. We also discuss TikTok’s model of engagement, the overlooked nuance of the thumbs down, and the responsibility of technologists in shaping society. For marketers, platform builders and cultural observers, this conversation is a deep dive into how the smallest code fragments can shape our biggest societal shifts. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): #991 – Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.