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Fred Stutzman is the Founder and CEO of Freedom, software that helps you be more focused and productive by blocking distractions. Stutzman holds a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master’s degree in Information Science, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the same institution.

What we talked about…

• Freedom is a company that was never intended to be a company.
• He was studying and noticed how much time people spent on social media, so he created a free Mac app to lock the internet for 45 minutes. It went viral.
• In 2015 they created the first iteration of Freedom. 
• They have grown to over 25 employees. 
• He gets excited about human-computer interface problems. 
• When companies shelf the best ideas. 
• His study, “In Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities” (2006) – This paper examines the motivations behind users’ decisions to share personal information on social networking sites and how this behavior affects their privacy.
• The Internet Identity Workshops. 
• ClaimID.
• The Wild West of the early days of the internet.
• Early concerns and thoughts about online privacy.
• How to work with social media and avoid falling down rabbit holes.
• Artificial intelligence and our future with AI. 
• How social media can be helpful during life transitions.
• The future of social media, search, and voice interfaces.
• Sensemaking in research and use of artificial intelligence like GPT.
• Stopping doom scrolling and getting sleep. 
• Running Remote Conference.
• Read The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande.
• Try Freedom for free.
• Connect with Fred on Twitter @fstutzman and LinkedIn.

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🎸 Theme song is “Little Jane May,” and the end song is “Funny Feeling” by AlistairChristl.ca.

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