On this week's show, Javi welcomes a true heavy hitter in the world of localization. Chris Dell found his way into localization through writing, publishing, and translation, and he spent the last 15 years building Booking.com into a corporation of over 15,000 people.

Freshly "retired," Chris is reconnecting with old passions and starting new projects. In the episode, he and Javi discuss:

- Chris's experience at Booking.com

- Starting out by studying art

- Non-linear careers

- Curiosity driving your career

- Over empathizing" as a new manager

- Giving space and giving support as a leader

- Building relationships with international teams

- The emotional toll of letting employees go

- Vulnerability in leadership

- Good bosses vs. bad bosses

- Top down culture and crowd-sourced values

- Cultivating Ownership

- Investing in machine translation since 2016

- The value of not burning employees out

- Making time for what matters

- Recognizing our autonomy

- Re-learning to read

- Coaching

- Writing about prophecies and omens

and more!

Click play to hear a great conversation between Chris and Javi!

You can learn more about Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-dell-69597550/

And feel free to reach out! He welcomes LinkedIn messages.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

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Can AI translate better than humans? Can I trust AI? Is my data safe?

Christopher Penn, co-founder of truthinsights.ai, answers all of these questions and more on this week's episode of Merging Minds. Gabriel and Chris discuss what is real vs. what is hype in terms of security, AI adoption, LLMs, and the changing landscape of knowledge work in the age of AI.

They discuss:

• LLAMA 3.1: Blowing the doors open on mass adoption
• Hype vs. actual usage
• Informal adoption vs. institutional adoption
• Internalized infrastructure vs. Cloud infrastructure
• The security of local files vs. cloud-based files
• Hybrid approach to data security
• Technological evolution
• Prompting LLMs for better translations
• Humans are still the best translators
• LLMs as "second opinions" for translators
• Sparsity and Risk in translation
• The emergent properties of language
• Language technology influencing the nature of reason
• Language is a symbolic compression
• "We and our machines are more similar than we think"
• Culture begets language- How can technology reflect this?
• Linguistic curators
• Reconstructing the Algonquin language with AI
• Coding in natural language for translators
• Translators are like farmers
• The supply chain of translation after automation

And more!

Click play to hear a great conversation between Christopher and Gabriel!

You can learn more about Christopher Penn here, and trustinsights.ai here.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen here on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

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This week, Javi welcomes his good friend Mirko Plitt to the show. Mirko is a computational linguist by trade, but has filled a vast number of roles across the localization industry and in NGOs.

Currently working for the WHO, Mirko is looking to fulfill the dream of localization: Bringing important and impactful content to global audiences in the most relevant way.

Tune in to hear him and Javi discuss:

• Working with the WHO
• Early Machine Translation Development
• The "dodgy business" of early MT
• The difficulty of working internationally
• Translators without borders
• "How Many Languages Do You Speak?"- The toxic question
• The growth of machine translation
• Big Data and Old Algorithms
• "We used to laugh at computational linguists"
• High Stakes Localization with the WHO
• The promise of the localization industry- not JUST translating
• Appreciating when people are better than you at something
• Fostering independence through support
• The cost of ignoring human value
• Replacing ambition with motivation

And much more!

Click play to hear a great conversation between Mirko and Javi!

You can learn more about Mirko Plitt here .

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-works/

Should we be polite to AI tools? After all, they aren't humans. Still, something feels wrong about being rude.

Merging Minds host Gabriel Fairman and Professor Ali Hasan discuss why this is on the latest episode of Merging Minds. They also discuss:

• Applications of philosophy in AI development
• How to know if something is true
• AI hijacking rational perspectives
• How to know that we have consciousness
• The risks of anthropomorphizing AI
• Does AI have consciousness? Will AI develop a consciousness?
• The danger of being passive readers
• The benefits and risks of being nice to AI
• Anthropomorphism vs. Personification
• The difficulty of separating human and machine interactions

And much more!

Listen to the great conversation between Professor Hasan and Gabriel!

You can learn more about Ali Hasan here, and check out his work with BABL.AI here .

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

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Ludmila Golovine has wanted to be a translator since she was 12, dreaming of having more stories to read from behind the Iron Curtain. Years later, she founded MasterWord services and facilitated the global spread of written material.

Over 30 years after founding her company, Ludmila sits down with Merging Minds host Javi Diaz and talks about her experiences turned her into the business powerhouse she is today.

Javi and Ludmila talk about:

• Wanting to being a literary translator from behind the iron curtain
• Going into finance because it was forbidden for women in the Soviet Union
• Translating as a way to pay for a finance degree, and then hating finance
• Translating for NASA
• Rejecting a full-time job
• Being empowered by your own breath
• Not being held back by gender
• "Entrepreneurship" not being a word in Russian in the Soviet Union
• Going back to her entrepreneurship professor even after 20 years
• The importance of mentors in Localization
• Gender equality as a constant work in progress
• Running a diverse organization
• Staying curious and keeping a balanced mind under stress
• Working in alignment with your values
• How AI will put our industry on steroids
• Change bringing challenge and challenge bringing growth
• Where the human touch matters
• Redefining failure

And much more!

Click play to hear a great conversation between Ludmila and Javi!

You can learn more about Jesse Ludmila Golovine here.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-works/

AI can make us feel like the opportunities to be creative are drying up. For those in creative professions, this is a double threat. With our identities and livelihoods being challenged by new tech, how can we escape the mindset of scarcity and use that tech to take our creativity and careers to the next level?

Jesse Showalter has some answers to these questions. Jesse is a UI/UX designer and educator who has built a successful business and Youtube channel over many years, and he is also a master adapter.

In this conversation with Merging Minds host Gabriel Fairman, Jesse shares his tips for adapting to challenging career situations and for escaping mentalities that hold us back.

Jesse and Gabriel discuss:

• Finding your niche
• The benefits of a slow career journey
• Saying no to clients
• The correlation between specificity and clarity
• The benefit of a small pool of clients
• Scarcity mindsets
• Reading boring business books
• The art of subtraction in business and life
• AI is trying to give you a promotion
• What jobs AI does threaten
• The importance of the "human touch" in business
• Clinging to the past in technological revolutions
• The lesson of Garth Brooks and technology
• What if John Henry worked with the steam engine?
• Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset to advance in your career
• Curiosity and resourcefulness as learnable traits
• Reverse engineering success
• The Dynamis of Experimentation
• Accountability as the amplifier of all actions

And much more!

Click play to hear a great conversation between Jesse and Gabriel!

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else podcasts are found!

You can learn more about Jesse Showalter here, and check out his Youtube channel here.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-works/

Today we have a legend on Merging Minds! He is perhaps the biggest name in the world of freelance translation and he is an idol to anyone making content in the localization industry. He is Adrian Probst, the man behind the Freelanceverse Youtube channel!

Adrian has been creating content on Youtube for 4 years now, and he has 250+ videos and over 32k followers. His videos cover everything from how to find translation jobs to how to specialize, negotiate, and use AI.

But Adrian doesn’t just make videos, he is a thriving translator himself and he specializes in sports translation. He and Merging Minds host Javi discuss his content creation journey, his translation business, and much more.

Tune in to hear about:

• The Freelanceverse Youtube channel
• Being freelance translator and content creator
• How to negotiate as a freelancer
• The importance of of consistency
• Specializing in sports translation
• Niching down for growth and sustainability
• Translating for the Euro Cup!
• Finding the way YOU can market YOU
• Content creation as personal development
• The importance of authenticity
• Storytelling
• Strengthening Community in the Freelanceverse
• Why you need connections within your niche
• How to stand out in a crowded market
• How to start “Passive Marketing”
• How to start off as a translator
• Moving away from job boards

And more!

Click play to hear Adrian and Javi talk all things freelancing!

You can learn more about Adrian Probst here, and visit the Freelanceverse here.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-works/

Economic models don't explain human generosity, but when you look around altruism is everywhere. Is that because generosity is a deviation from the model, or because the model is a deviation from reality? In a world of technology, models, formulas, and algorithms, what makes us truly human?

It makes sense that this week's Merging Minds covers economics, altruism, faith, and AI because this week's guest is a master of all of those fields. Dr. Nicoleta Acatrinei is a multi-disciplinary researcher whose career has taken her from banks to universities to religious organizations, and more!

Merging Minds host Gabriel Fairman and Dr. Acatrinei discuss a range of topics, including:

• Nicoleta's journey from Senior Executive to PhD student
• Is homo economicus an altruist? An egoist?
• The 4 natural laws of economics being incomplete
• Generosity not existing in economic models
• If reality is a deviation from "the model" or if the model is a deviation from reality?
• Theory forming behavior
• The value of volunteering in global GDP ($30 trillion!)
• Volunteering as proof of pro-social tendencies
• The "Blood Buying" experiment
• The mix of "Knight and Knave" in us all
• How ideology shapes institutions and institutions shape behavior, leading to reductionist definition of humans
• The Replacement Effect vs. Displacement Effect of Technology
• Finding what makes you uniquely human
• Being curious and unafraid
• Necessity being the best teacher and harnessing a survival attitude
• Losing our human vigor
• How 40 million jobs may be lost with AI, but 400 million will be created
• The importance of public policy in relation to AI
• Having balanced conversations about AI

And much more!

Tune in for the fascinating conversation!

You can learn more about Dr. Acatrinei and her work here

P.S. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to Merging Minds Podcast powered by Bureau Works for more thought-provoking podcast episodes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else podcasts are found!

Podcast powered by Bureau Works, a cloud localization platform that makes complex translation tasks simple and predictable.

www.bureauworks.com

Follow us on YouTube and X @bureau_works for more and don't miss the latest live sessions and offers on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-works/