From AI Pioneer to Community Building Top Voice: Piyush's Journey

Episode Transcript
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Tonya J. Long (00:05):
We are broadcasting live here on KPCR
92.9 FM for Reset with Tonya.
It's another beautiful day.
I know you're tired of hearingme talk about how beautiful it
is in Los Gatos, but it is anamazingly gorgeous day in the
Bay Area.
Summer is finally here, it'sgetting warm and it's wonderful

(00:28):
to be in community with you guys.
Speaking of community is on mymind because I'm speaking today.
I'm bringing to you Piyush Malik.
Piyush and I were introduced bya Pomeranian dog and we might
talk about that at some point,but Piyush is a major community

(00:49):
player here in the Bay Area andhis history is so varied, so
broad.
He's the founder of PiyushVentures.
He also leads a podcast and amedia I'll call it a media
empire called the Digital Agenda.
He's a LinkedIn top voice.
He's at so many events offeringhis wisdom and guidance and

(01:11):
that led him to be the presidentof the American Society of
Engineers for Indian Origin andhe puts on events to optimize
the community and theperformance and work of those
important communities of peoplehere in the Bay Area and
actually beyond.
Piyush, it is such a pleasureto talk with you today, Such a

(01:33):
pleasure to have you here.
Welcome to Reset with Tonya.

Piyush Malik (01:37):
Thank you, Tonya.
This is an amazing setup.
This is my first time in aradio station like this, but I'm
really enjoying it.
And, of course, I've enjoyedour friendship over the last
year, plus that we met throughthat cute little puppy called
Sushi.

Sushi, a dog named after protein treats A
vegetarian Myself.
She was quite delightful.
She makes the rounds at some ofour events.
So I if frankie is listening bigshout out to frankie for being
a super connector in this world,because through sushi he
connected us and and now we getto share with others, build

(02:17):
community and bring family tothe bay area.
Good, good, good.
So tell me, as lead PiyushVentures and you have your
digital empire what have thosethings brought to you in the
last few years?
We're going to talk about yourhistory, but what you're
currently working on, how dothose things impact what you

(02:38):
bring to others?

First of all, Tonya, it's not an empire.
It's something that came out ofmy desire to capture the wisdom
of my mentors over these years.
That was the first idea I hadthat many of my mentors from my
previous jobs or the industry.
I've been fairly active in theindustry bodies when I was a lot

(03:02):
younger.
I would go to conferences andvolunteer to be on the standards
committee, and I used to be anengineer at one point, and we
will talk about resets and howthat has gone through.
But as I was volunteering, Iwas coming across a lot of
accomplished individuals andworking with them in industry

(03:22):
bodies gave me an opportunity tounderstand how things work
beyond somebody's job and howthings are made to happen.
And connected, and connected,yeah, and one thing leads to
another, and that's exactly whatI never intended the digital
agenda to go beyond a podcastand then it became like a

(03:43):
Substack and so forth.
Again, nothing major.
All about being able tocommunicate, capture and
communicate the wisdom that Ihave generated, I've captured
over these years through mymentors, to the next generation.
Next generation happens to bevery important to me because
this is a calling I had long,long time back, that we need to

(04:08):
leave a legacy for the nextgeneration, who may or may not
have guidance.
At home, and especially comingto the US from India, I found
that both mom and dad work andthe kids are typically left
alone, and how stressful theAmerican life can be.

(04:29):
Kids don't get quality timewith adults.
Teachers, yes, they spend sometime, but these kids need some
guidance for their career, someguidance, some adult to talk to.
And so I started doing thatback encouraged by IBM's
corporate social responsibilityprojects many years back, I

(04:49):
think at least two decades ago,and I loved it.
And since then I've been goingto schools, I've been going to
universities and giving talksFrom one talk a year that I used
to give to now, I'm at leastdoing one talk a week.

Not counting your walk-in talks.

Walk-in talks are separate.

That's on the weekends.
That's on the weekends so thoseare for the entrepreneurs.

Yes, this, I'm talking about students.

Yeah, yeah, and I would add to what you just said
because this was my situation.
My parents desperately wantedto help, but they didn't know
what I was doing.
They hadn't done that, so theyreally couldn't offer help.
It's, yes, parents are busy,but I think also parents aren't
familiar.

(05:33):
Like for my situation, myparents didn't go to college, so
they couldn't be any help to mein navigating what college to
choose, how to choose what myfocus areas were.
That just wasn't something theyknew about, and so I sought out
mentors in those environmentsto help fill that gap.

(05:54):
So I don't think it's just thatthey're busy.
I think that the world ismoving so fast it's very
different from lots of us, fromwhat our parents experienced.

Yeah, and as young folks.
Not every young person is asambitious as Steve Jobs.
Who wouldn't call it Packardand say I need this component
and land an internship?
Most of the youngsters,including myself, were so afraid
to talk to adults and so afraideven to talk to parents they
were.
You wouldn't believe.

(06:23):
There's a sense of fear in kidsto raise their voice, even look
at their parents.
Again, it's a generationalthing and cultural thing that we
are taught to always keep oureyes down when talking to adults
.
But those things are changingand they have evolved over these
last 50 years of my existence.
So at that time I found it verytough to be able to find

(06:47):
somebody outside my immediatecircle to call them as a mentor
and seek out mentorship.
So it was always there in mymind to be able to create a
platform, create an environmentand create an ecosystem where
students and the next generationof leaders and technologists
could be benefited.

But at one point you were one of those young
people and you mentioned aminute ago IBM and that was part
of what I think reallyconnected us, at least on a
professional level.
You and I are connected beyondthat now as friends and
spiritual travelers and allkinds of good things as friends
and spiritual travelers and allkinds of good things.
But IBM was one of the thingsthat locked us in because I'd

(07:30):
just written my book.

AI and the New.

Oz, and that was fresh and new.
And you, as it turns out, youwere and you don't like me
saying this, but you were one ofthe original pioneers for AI,
because you worked on IBM'sWatson teams.

Absolutely, and I'll clarify there.
I was not a researcher per se.
I've always been an appliedpractitioner and I always count
myself as somebody who's tryingto do things for the industry.
One of my jobs at IBM was tolook at the research portfolio
patent portfolio that we had,believe it or not, for 39 plus

(08:09):
years, ibm used to rank thecompany with the highest number
of patents granted every year,so that was the DNA of the
company.
Yes, Innovators.
Innovators, absolutely.
And if it wasn't for this kindof innovation that they did,
they wouldn't have survivedthese 114 years, right they?
From a slicer bread slicingcompany to time clock punching

(08:31):
company, to a computer mainframecompany, to now they're into
quantum and AI, of course.
Let's move back to the.
My introduction to IBM wastwofold One where which, and one
which you do not know as well.

Oh, something new , yes, exciting, tell me.

So the one which you know about let's talk about
is when I was working for PwCConsulting Management Consulting
Division and we got acquired byIBM for a good amount, and so
once you get in, to navigate thebig blue, you need a lot of
skills beyond your professionaltechnical skills.

(09:10):
So all of that, soft skills,managing up those are the kind
of things that I talk tostudents about as well these
days.
So all of that came to play andone thing led to another.
I never intended to stickaround, but the job was so
interesting.
Every year I was being givennew, more expanded
responsibilities and new clientsand new challenges

(09:33):
Transformational problems forbig banks, global banks,
brazilian bank, pharmaceuticalcompanies here, cbg companies in
the US, a tire manufacturingcompany out in Europe, and so on
and so forth.
These are interesting problemsand the underlying layer was
they were all trying to dosomething with transforming

(09:55):
their business results and, as Isay, I always look at the
problem from a businessperspective and then bring the
technology problem in.
It's an intrafactor of people,technology processes to be
balanced in such a manner youare getting to an optimized
output.
So, with that said, opportunitycame along to lead IBM's big

(10:18):
data analytics practiceworldwide.
And doing all of that.
And then IBM had a researchdivision which was working on
something that had defeatedhumans in chess in the year 1999
.
And we were acquired in theyear 2002.
And very soon I was alsoinvolved in a couple of other

(10:41):
acquisitions in the data andanalytics space.
That said, one thing led toanother, and IBM Watson was
something that IBM Research did.
This big show in the game ofJeopardy, where they won against
humans, that's pretty famous intech circles, yeah, but
youngsters still don't knowabout it, because youngsters

(11:03):
today think that they inventedtech.
So I have to remind them thatthe first commercialized version
was IBM Watson.
That led us to understandingwhat our clients want, and that
natural language understandingand NLP professionals that I was
given these science scientistsand how to get them to work, how

(11:25):
to optimize revenue or whetherwe are trying to get to the
right segment of customer.
So there's so many problemsthat this technology could have
solved, but IBM took a moonshoton health.

Was moonshot a word back then?
It wasn't.

I say back then.

I think I was running India during those years
Asia for a company, so it's notlike I wasn't in the work
process.
I guess I'm thinking likeyounger people because they
think that Google owns the termmoonshot.

Yeah right, but I remember seeing the headlines on
the newspapers right after theJeopardy game.
And then the Watson divisionwas officially launched and I
was talking to venturecapitalists here at Silicon
Valley and on the panels and onething which said IBM takes a
moonshot at cancer and through.

Watson division.

So that was the first kind of thing, but yeah,
that's history.

All that history and it feels so similar to mine.
I'm a little younger than you,but it feels.
We were involved in bigtransformations.
We got to do things that taughtus to see around corners.
Now a lot of your time is withentrepreneurs, founders, even
college age ambitious youngpeople.
So what is it that is mostimportant that you bring from

(12:47):
those days in Pricewaterhouse,ibm, watson, some of the other
big projects you did?
What's the thing you bringforward most consistently when
you're mentoring?

I having been in situations which I could not
have predicted when I took onany assignment, and being able
to navigate the environment ofthe client, environment of my
own company, balancing with theteams that I was working with
and getting to the outcome thatis optimum for the client as

(13:20):
well as for the company that hasgiven certain muscle memory.
I got trained in that by doingand that's something which I
talk about all the time beingflexible, being adaptable and
being ready for any kind ofchallenge that comes, not to
look at that as a problem but asan opportunity.
The worst come if you say youfailed at a project.

(13:43):
No, that's a learningopportunity, and with that you
would go much further.
I'll give you an example.
We all use smartphones.
Right, I'm an Android guy, youare an iPhone person.
But long before that there wasa company which made a device
called Newton.
Do you know which company thatwas?

(14:04):
It was Apple, apple, and theycalled it.
Do you know which company thatwas?

It was Apple, apple and they called it.
We haven't thought about thatin years.

Yeah, yeah and I.
It comes up in many of mydiscussions because this is
something people forget.
You learn from all thesesituations and see jobs.
Family said it taught themcertain things.
The hardware was not ready.
The hardware was not ready.
The environment was not ready.
Then came the 2007-2008timeframe, when he announced

(14:32):
iPhone, and they learnedsomething from that.
Similarly, Jeff Bezos talkedabout the Fire Phone, which many
people would not have knownabout, and he still that device
didn't flourish in the market.

But it didn't tank Jeff Bezos or Amazon, it
didn't tank.
It didn't tank them.
It didn't tank them.
It was a calculated risk.

Right.
It brought certain skills whichthey are learning from.
Having learned from that Loveit.
Next problem.
All I'm saying is treatfailures as a stepping stone to
the next big thing.

Oh, that's huge.
Treat failures as a steppingstone to the next big success.
That's perfect.
I'm going to take just a minuteand do a quick station break.
The Signal Society that we'vebeen talking about on this show
for maybe a month now and it'sour way to join and be part of
community radio.
We want to thank KPCR, wants tothank the San Jose Earthquakes

(15:35):
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Members of the Signal Societyreceive limited time match
offers so you can join up onkpcrorg slash.
Join and learn more about whatthe San Jose earthquakes and
many other local businesses aredoing to support community radio
and to give you opportunitiesto be part of what's happening

(15:56):
here in the Bay Area.
So back to you, pu Schmalek, I'mjust enamored that you were
part of the early what's anddays.
But when did you realize thatyour purpose was shifting?
Because you're still verytechnical and you lead lots of
data for good.
That's a programmatic approachto looking at what we're putting

(16:16):
out into the worldtechnologically.
But I see you as more of aperson out there putting good
into humanity by all thementorship that you do and the
advising you do, and I thinkI've referred to you on one of
my posts as my chief encourager,but it's true.
So when did you first realizeyour purpose was shifting from

(16:38):
building systems to buildingpeople?

Interestingly Tonya.
The first time I was asked tomanage people that was before I
came to the US.

I failed miserably and I realized and it
was a stepping stone to futuresuccess and we're calling back
what you said two minutes ago.
Good, and I'm good, that's Jory.

Yes, and it was an opportunity, an eye-opener for
me, because I assumed I love mywork.
You've seen my work ethic, whatI do for community at my
professional jobs or endeavors.
I have put in whatever 100%.
I have.
And so once I'm immersed, Idon't leave that.

(17:25):
Failure comes, Blockage comes.
I have to overcome that,whether it is the weekend or
whether it is Saturday or Sunday, and I assumed that I am so
much engrossed in the work inthe project my team members
would automatically follow me.

Oh, that's interesting.
I did not factor in and Iunderstand that People have
families.

People have personal life.
Young folks have other funthings to do.
I was young too I was hardly 27when I preferred people to
manage, and I didn't realizethat it was my blind spot, not
until it was pointed out bysomebody senior to me in the
company that people arecomplaining that you make them

(18:10):
work hard too much.
So that was my failure, and sofrom then onwards I became
conscious, asked for feedback,asked for and look out for
signals if I'm making somebodyuncomfortable.
Ask for and look out forsignals if I'm making somebody
uncomfortable.
I know even today a lot ofpeople are very uncomfortable
with certain things that I sayor do, and I can't make

(18:33):
everybody happy.
I know that.

I don't accept that.
You said this to me before andI don't see it.
And we have partnered on somethings.
We think alike, yeah.

But there are people who don't match up with
our mindset and they would wantto do things different.
So they will do thingsdifferent, Right?
It's always good to have somekind of opposition, so that
different kind of mindset isthere.
Diversity of opinions enrichesthe overall solution.

That's Google's model.
Google's decision-making modelis to put, I would say,
adversaries into theconversation so that they can
build the best decisions,because it hasn't just been
groupthink, it hasn't been allpeople who are aligned the same
way putting something intomarket that only serves a
fraction of the market.

(19:24):
So they intentionally bringdissenters into the
conversations.
So I think you and I aren'tintimidated by that.
You want people to Absolutely.

You've seen me use the term encouraging.
This is the first time everwhen I read that somebody has
used that, but I appreciate youobserving that.
Why I do that is because I'vegrown up in environments both
personal and professionalenvironments, where diversity
was not encouraged Again.

(19:57):
Going back to the AmericanSociety of Engineers of Indian
origin, when I got on board ofthe national organization, I
found zero person diversity allmen except one person who was
you know, and she would alsothink that anything that a man
says she's got to againprofessionally execute without

(20:20):
pushing back.
I encourage anybody on my teamto give me opposing views
because I feel I can't be rightall the time.
The overall solution for thecompany or the client will get
better.
So when that happened at ASCI,I made it a mandate that we've
got to go from this situation toat least 30% and then 50% and,

(20:42):
proud to say, in some chapterswe have more than 50% women on
the board.
That's it Took me 10 plus years.

Took you 10 years to get there.
I love it.

But I didn't stop.
I got pushed back.
There were folks who would say,no, they're not qualified.
No, give them a chance andthey'll prove you wrong.
Young people, give them achance.

I've met some of your board members that are
women and they are veryimpressive.
They are doing big things inreally enormous companies.

Many of them are written like you, and hey, they
still talk to me.

Multiple books, multiple master's degrees.
It would be easy to beintimidated, but they're not
intimidating people, not at all.
They love it, they have PhDsand, in fact, the, but they're
not intimidating people, not atall.

I love it and, in fact, the very first time I was
asked to manage a team of PhDsand recruit PhDs, what, if I?
How will I lead?
There's always something insideyou.
There's always doubt Almost.

for most of us, there's always doubt, but that
just forces us for for me, toevaluate what needs to be done
so that I can step up to do it.

that's reset comes in.
You got to reset your mind tothink differently, do
differently.
You would have seen from mycareer I started off as an
engineer, then into productmanagement and stuff engineering
.
So I have shifted industriesand reset myself a number of
times Telecom industry tosoftware industry, one location

(22:11):
to another location one countryto another country.
You're not an immigrant, butall the immigrants listening on
this show.
It's the immigrants' resiliencethat has made United States of
America that it is, and I say itvery proudly.

This is the only country where you can come
freely that word doesn't feelquite right today but where we
have a country that's been builton the backs of people wanting
to be here from elsewhere.

And wanting to work hard.
Yes.

Oh, absolutely.

Immigrants are not freeloaded as much as some
media segments would want us tobelieve may make us believe the
immigrant resilience I have seenfrom all, whether it is Chinese
, whether it is Mexican, whetherit is Indians.
You look around, things haveshifted and how the society
responds to it, how thecommunity responds to it as well

(23:05):
.
I'm proud to be an Indian fromthe Indian community and I work
towards the Indo-US relationsthrough my nonprofits.
The reason heart still beatsfor the motherland, but loyalty
stays with what we say.
This is our karmabhoomi.

Say that word again.

So jarmabhoomi is motherland.

Okay.

Karmabhoomi is where you work, where you put
your efforts toward.

I love it.
That's a new word for me.
Yes, two new words.

And to bridge the gap between those.
That's how I got intovolunteering for Indo-US
organization like TAI or ASCI orsome of the others.

Yeah, I'm going to put some of my influence
under this thread.
I'm not an immigrant, but Igrew up on a farm in Tennessee a
tobacco farm, no less and Ithink we all have a story.
We all have a story that led toour resilience, that led to our

(24:17):
tenacity, our never saying no,and I think it's important.
I've got to find a way to saythis better and to say this more
, but I'm ready for us to moveaway from othering ourselves.
I'm an immigrant, I'm a singlemom, I'm and instead look at

(24:41):
everybody as everybody's got astory and the more curious we
are about finding that story, wewill find commonality.
But I've been to India 20 times.
But sometimes when I'll ask,I'll meet people, like at
yesterday's conference, at theGen AI Summit, and I didn't have
this happen yesterday but I'llask people where are you from?

(25:02):
They'll say India and of coursethis is a trick question I do
with people because they justsay India and I'm like where?
And many times, if it'sBangalore, I can get down to the
like what neighborhood, howclose are you to Leelamal, how
you know?
But people sometimes getdefensive because they expect

(25:22):
that I'm trying to judge them.
They expect this happens.
I'll just say that sometimespeople they think that it was
enough to tell you I'm fromIndia or I'm from whatever other
place, and they don't expectthat you're trying to find the
common thread, that you'retrying to find the conversation

(25:45):
point.
I'm trying to get to the pointto tell them my favorite shops
on MG Road and I think we allneed to realize we all have a
story and we should beinterested in other people's
stories, regardless of wherethey're from or how they live.
Everybody has things you don'tknow.

And it's the genuine curiosity and listening
to the other person that yourmind expands.
Serendipity happens Serendipity.

Love.
Go to the example how we met Adog laid on my nicest coat.
She did.
She was quite comfortable.
And then we found out I share aname with your daughter.
I share a birth date withsomeone else Very influential in
your life.
We both have early ties into AI, so serendipity is all around

(26:34):
you.
Sometimes I ask myself whatI've missed.
Yeah, moving too fast and notpaying enough attention.

That's why being out there in the community,
saying yes to opportunities thatmay or may not have commercial
influence, but there is a biggerforce in the universe that's
wanting you to be out there.
That being open openness tonewer things, newer experiences,

(27:03):
of course, within the legallimits that creates pathways
that are hidden, opens doorsthat you can't imagine.
There's a higher power up there.
I don't know if you believe init or not.
I am very spiritual, as youhave found out of the listeners.
Many of the listeners may ormay not agree with my views, but
that's okay.

Let's talk about that in just a minute.
Right now it's the bottom ofthe hour and I'm going to do a
quick station ID.
There you go.
You are listening to PUSchmalick and Tonya Long having
a lovely conversation aboutresets on KPCR 92.9 FM in
beautiful sunny Los Gatos.
We're also broadcasting outfrom K215GA 90.9 FM and KMRT

(27:47):
101.9 FM in Santa Cruz, and Iwonder what the beach is like
today, because it is beautifulout here.
So back to Piyushu opened upthe spiritual Pandora's box for
us.
That night that I met you atthe event at the JPMorgan Chase
Center, you shared a story withme about Deepak Chopra.
You had seen him at a conferenceand he had dumped all Deepak

(28:12):
Chopra.
How would you describe whoDeepak Chopra is for anyone
who's listening that?

might not.
My first introduction to DeepakChopra was watching the movie
Three Wise Men, and one of themfeatured was my spiritual guru,
sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and theother one was Dalai Lama, who
also I have a story to tellabout.
But anyways, deepak Chopra wasthe other person, and then I
said, let me Google.
And I found out that he'sfairly influential in the US.

(28:39):
He was the spiritual slashmedical doctor.
I don't know what of MichaelJackson Danielle.

Pletka, I didn't know that.
I didn't know what of MichaelJackson.

I didn't know that I didn't know that history, you
didn't know.
Yeah, when the Coronas reportcame after Michael Jackson
passed, deepak Chopra and hisfamily were named there.
But Michael Jackson used to bethat black guy and idol for
teens like me when I was a child.
Grammy nominations and hisvictories.

(29:12):
I would stay up all nightwatching that on TV.

Mesmerized by his talent.

His talent and the adversities that he had to face
as a black person in the US andwe all know how much atrocities
have been committed and he roseto famedom, to richness and and
also doing things for thecommunity.
So, anyways.

(29:38):
So that was when I heard LalitBaro and Deepak Chopra.
But, coming to the forwardpoint, during COVID, one
conference hosted by Wall StreetJournal, deepak Chopra was
keynoting and he was talkingabout the digital avatar he was
making of himself so that hisgrandkids could interact.

(30:03):
And this was before OpenAI cameup with Java, gpt, before all of
that, a couple of years beforethat, and at that time I used to
be working with the AI, ml inthe Google ecosystem and I
because, when the reporterprobed deeper and it was related
to certain technologies, neuralnetworks and whatnot he talked

(30:28):
in a very layman's term, but Iknew what technologies he was
leveraging.
It became a used case Digitalavatar and it takes us back to
certain things that we may haveseen on shows like Silicon
Valley, shows like Star Trek,all of that.
What used to be science fictionis now becoming real, and with

(30:51):
the robotics and AI, I've alwaysbeen enamored by these things.
My inner child comes out when Ihear about these things so I
was very excited.
Immediately I convened ameeting in my company, told all
the youngsters my CEO as wellthat this is what's happening
with the technology and let'swatch this space closely and if
we can do something commerciallywith it, it'll be great.

That was my so he was a prolific author
absolutely prolific, I shouldknow, but I don't know how many
books he's written.
He was a thought leader beforeit was a coined term, and he was
able to put all that richcontent into technology in order

(31:38):
to preserve his legacy for hisgrandchildren.
As you said, and as I recall,there was also a hologram being
developed, and as I recall therewas also a hologram being
developed so that it wouldn'tjust be text-based responses to
his words, but it would be animage in his likeness and, of
course, interactive.
I think that and that washappening six, seven years ago.

Yeah, I believe it was the early versions of GPT
they may have been using,because it's right around the
time of 2017 when that famouspaper attention is all you need
google came.
Then experiments were happening.
We hadn't leveraged that.
We were using something calledbird again google technology for
our clients and, as I saw, thattechnology evolved as our

(32:23):
solutions got here, always usedto make me how can we make
things like what Deepak Choprais using?
And now everything is common.
So many applications are there,so many common people can
leverage the technology.
It's amazing.
What used to be science fictionis now reality.

I still have people in my life who are afraid
of the way the world istrending with AI.
They well yeah, it's fair theyonly see the potential for bad.
They only see the loss of humanconnection.
So their concerns are genuine.
I don't agree that theirconcerns are going to be a

(33:02):
negative thing for society.
I think we will use these tools, but looking at what he did six
or seven years ago and I'm surehas greatly refined I see that
as one of the best use cases forhumanity to preserve knowledge
and wisdom and make wisdominteractive.
You and I can spin up a digitaltwin pretty easily now.

(33:24):
A year ago it was harder, butnow it's lots of tools where we
don't even have to code to builda digital twin because you and
I both have a lot of content.
We can do something verysimilar to what Deepak Chopra
spent, I'm sure, a lot ofresources building, but the
important thing is thepreservation of that legacy
wisdom and giving people achance to interact with it.

(33:45):
That would not have that.
You espouse a lot of wisdom whenyou are on panels and when you
talk with people, but imagine ifa young college student in
India was able to plug into thatand pick your brain digitally.
And that's where I think we'regoing to have so much good that
comes of AI.

(34:06):
That doesn't get talked aboutbecause these aren't the big
moneymakers.
These aren't the big resettingentire companies' views.
These are a mama leaving alegacy for her kids so that they
will always have her in someform.

Doesn't that say that the human connection is
tightened with this technology?

I believe that's what I see.

So as much as they could be negative on the
technology, you could always puta bad actor anywhere and
they'll figure out a way to doharm.

You can do harm with a case knife.
A case knife for me is like thelittle cheap, little non-sharp
knife that's in your drawer thatyou basically cut butter with.
But you can do harm with a caseknife.
Yeah, so yeah, but swingingback.
I do want to swing back tospirituality for just a minute,

(35:02):
in a way that's not too deep ortoo much.
That's not too deep or too much, but as I think about it,
you're probably one of the firstpeople that I noticed
mindfulness around, and then Inoticed the words you were
choosing to use.
Promoting is not the right word, but we're very positive about

(35:22):
the effect of mindfulness andconsciousness on who you are.
Now I've learned and you'veposted about it publicly.
That's been a 15-year journeyfor you.

With this guru.
With the fair.
It's a lifetime.
Even before that, as I saw mygrandparents and my parents get
involved in spiritual practicesof meditation and I wouldn't
know what my grandmom is doing,sitting in a corner close to her
eyes, sitting in a lotusposition yeah and I would, as a
three-year-old, ask my parentswhat happened to her.

(35:55):
Leave her, she's meditatingyeah okay, yeah, and so.

I, that was an influence?

definitely yeah, the environment you grew up in
always impacts the child.
We need to create thosepositive vibes for our next
generation.
And so visiting religiousplaces, visiting spiritual
places, and not only one.
I'm not espousing anyparticular religion.

(36:23):
I go to many differentreligious places.
I'm a seeker.
I'm a seeker of knowledge frommy childhood.

Yes and curious.
I will never be complete.

I will never be complete.
I'll never have enoughknowledge.
I'll always be a seeker, so I'mon a spiritual path.
When I meet somebody, I see thegoodness in their soul.
Yes, their words can hurt me.
Sometimes people are harsh,whether it is commercially.

Sometimes we are more delicate than people
realize.
Yeah.

So you've got to harden your skin in commercial
life to know that the otherperson may be doing first for
the monetary gain or for theirpositions.
But then, if you are a littlebit able to connect with them at
the spiritual level, withoutmentioning religion, you will

(37:15):
realize that the souls talk toeach other the way you and I
when first connected.
It was the soul connection.

There were lots of signs for us.

Yes, In the last conference that we were together
in San Francisco.
I heard a term for the firsttime Soul Tech and I was
enamored.
Enamored is a good word.

Yeah, that was an interesting conference.

My goodness, it's a whole new thing.
And then I found out there wereother friends of mine who were
really investing in this space.
So I'm still at a very earlystage, in only two or three
weeks that I've come across thisterm.
But yes, it is something.
People are building products inthis space.

So, if I go up to a 200,000-foot level, people
who build products whatever ifit's digital or if it's
construction, they buildproducts the market needs and I,
or wants the market is seekingand I think more of the market
is coming into maturity aroundspirituality.

(38:18):
So soul tech is a result of somany of us being on this journey
, recognizing that we're on ajourney that is parallel path
but a little different from whatwe've been doing, and it
influences so much the quotework path and, of course, it

(38:39):
makes sense that creators andbuilders want to find a way to
aid that journey.

Now that the way you put it, now it lights up a.

Okay, you did look lit up, I didn't know why.

Yes, because back when I got reintroduced to
mindfulness practices, theSudarshan Kriya in the US 15
years back, it was easy for meto go back to my childhood
because I tried to imitate myparents closing eyes and
grandparents and doing things.
No idols, no any kind of thingexcept that being within

(39:18):
yourself, being present withyourself.
look inwards, call that as amanifestation of inner
engineering, because unless youput your mind to focus, you
can't get things done, and yourmind needs rest during sleep
time.
And, believe it or not, a lotof bright individuals, a lot of

(39:42):
great inventions have come topeople in their sleep.
Oh yes inventions have come topeople in their sleep?
Oh, yes, because their mindgets to that state.
It is focused and not impactedby the distractions outside.
So the mindfulness practicethat I learned 15 years back was
no matter how much commotion isgoing on, you just stay, still
focus on your breath, and youwill realize that your mind is a

(40:05):
very powerful source of makingthings happen for you.
And you come out of that 10minute rest phase as if you have
slept for six to seven hours.
I'm not saying that you shouldforego your sleep, but, yes,
that has something.
And then fast forward 10 years.
I found some friends of minebuilding products in the

(40:28):
mindfulness space.
Headspace is one app.
People have talked about Calmis another one.
I'm not a regular user but I'vetried all of these.
Those are external aids to helpyou get to meditation.

Tools to help you on your journey.

The experience we had at the last conference.
They put eye mask and somecertain frequencies passed
through your ear and stereophone.
I literally got into thatmeditation within five minutes
or less and then the persontapped.
You were supposed to do it foreight minutes and you've been
doing it for more than 20minutes now.
Didn't realize it was in such adeep state of relaxation.

(41:08):
All I was doing was going backto something that I believe
everybody needs.
Yes, there's so muchdisturbances happening around us
, so much tensions people have.
People have life, work, family,but you need to find time for
yourself, and this mindfulnesspractice is now being packaged

(41:31):
as soul tech Totally new.

As I said, I don't know anything about it
Right, right, you don't need toVery recent.
Yeah, yeah.

So I will be very curious to learn more as we go
forward and see what my friendswill be building.

But I think what's happening we are.
Many people are very scienceoriented and the interesting
thing that, the way I see things, I think that science and
spirituality are blending rightand these tools employ the best
of both.
Where you are going, I wouldsay, leans on the spirituality

(42:08):
side, but how you get there usesscience to do things that we
didn't know or didn'tcommercially have available 10
or 15 years ago.
A good example is hearingfrequencies.
I couldn't focus on Tuesday.
I was just my mind waseverywhere and I put my
headphones on at my home officeand put on some binaural beats

(42:31):
out of YouTube and it's amazinghow and to me that's science,
that's new science.
That is new science taking allthe chaos out of my monkey mind
and allowing me to just bepresent with what I was doing.
I wasn't even meditating ortrying to be restful.
I was trying to focus to getsomething done, and I couldn't

(42:54):
because I had too many otherthings interrupting my thoughts.
And so that's scienceinfluencing our journey.

Absolutely.
You may have heard of Neuralink, of course yes, and they employ
a lot of neuroscientists andthey study brain.
These are real doctors who arenow implanting chips in the
human brain.
They've been testing with a pigand monkeys and other animals
and they have had positiveresults.

Now I wrote about this on LinkedIn about eight
months ago.
I'm going to say there's awoman who hasn't spoken in 15
years and she's been aquadriplegic and hasn't been
able to speak, and her firstwords with her husband in the
room were I love you.
And her first words with herhusband in the room were I love
you.
And it was, her body couldn'tphysically produce the words,

(43:45):
but they had.
It was a neural link chip intoa computer avatar of her.
And her first words were I loveyou.
And he hadn't heard her speakin 15, 16 years, isn't it?

beautiful how science can lead to better
outcomes for a relationship.
Absolutely.
Absolutely and that's acontribution to humanity.
It is it is.
I hate Elon and the kind ofthings that he does
distractingly.
I have to give a hat to theentrepreneur in him and the

(44:13):
first principle thinker that heis in disrupting so many
industries.
First principle thinker that heis in disrupting so many
industries enabling the spaceindustry, automotive industry,
energy industry and thisNeuralink thing is mind-boggling
.

People have their opinions.
I appreciate the courage thathe had to do what he knew
technology could do because ofcourse, there's going to be it's
disruptive and it's concerningabout the bad actor element.
So it takes courage to createthese things that technology can
do, because you're willing todraw a line in the sand about

(44:48):
the good things it can do,outweigh the bad that could
happen and will manage the otherside.

Yes, and since I got to know about Neuralink, I
met two such neuroscientists,one at Neuralink and one at
another company, a very smallstartup, reid Hoffman.
I just invested in these guys.
Young folks are inventing suchbeautiful technologies.
I'm amazed and I'm lookingforward to what other things

(45:15):
that these guys will do.
The faith in humanity isrestored by science and
technology.

Love it.

Yes, you can tell I'm a STEM geek and I always
promote that.

But you're wrapping your affinity for
technology around doing good forthe world on a path to
deepening spirituality, howeveryou define that.
So to me, your enthusiasm isbecause you are seeing a
culmination of the things thatmatter most to you all coming

(45:47):
together.
You should be excited and thinkabout it.

You and I are of a generation maybe I'm more there
.
There used to be a certaindegree of longevity expectations
on life.
Those are changing because ofscience and technology.
We are going to be a certaindegree of longevity expectations
on life.
Those are changing because ofscience and technology.
We are going to be livinglonger, but society hasn't, the
job market hasn't taken thatinto account.
They still think that peoplewill retire at a certain age,

(46:12):
but I feel 50s is the new 20s,because you are going to be
living beyond 20.
And so you have a lot more togive.
Yeah, and I consider people ofour age now to be the Gen W, the
wisdom generation.
Yeah, and that is what I'vebeen speaking on stages about

(46:33):
the wisdom economy.

You were actually .
You were at one of those talks.

Yes, and your next book will be on that too.

Yes, I got to get some traction on that, but yes,
yeah, I think people areleaning into wisdom.
I'll do a quick stationidentifier for KPCR 92.9 FM and
KMRT 101.9 FM.
And we have a giveaway.
Paul Thorne will be performingon July 23rd, just around the
corner.

(46:59):
He's a folk pop storyteller.
So if you join the SignalSociety at kpcrorg slash join,
you'll havea chance to wintickets, and we will announce
winners on July 21st.
So go sign up at the SignalSociety site, kpcrorg slash join
and have a chance to wintickets to see Paul Thorne on

(47:20):
July 23rd.
Ooh, so what?
I want to move to storytelling.
We could talk about that forhours, but I want to move to a
segment of the show that I'vestarted, ending with a lightning
round of questions.
Lightning rounds are just verybrief answers, just first thing,
top of mind.
So complete this sentence forme, the biggest misconception

(47:41):
about AI is that it will endhumanity.
Oh good, Okay, next.
I want to talk about all ofthese, but I can't Perfect.
So what's one spiritualpractice that has most
transformed your leadershipstyle?
Focusing meditation andfocusing on my mind.

(48:04):
Love it Okay.

Okay, it's focusing on the mind breath.
That's a distinction.
It is a systematic way ofcalculated breaths that you take
and what makes your practicedeeper.

Yes.

More on that some other time.
Yeah, yeah, good Name oneperson who isn't famous but
should be on everyone's radarInteresting.
I haven't thought about that.
There are some unnamed artisansI have seen work their

(48:41):
traditional handicrafts back inRajasthan.
When, again, it takes me back30 plus years ago, before I came
here, crafting such integrate,detailed designs.
I believe they should berecognized and their art form
should reach the world.
And, believe it or not, certainfolks recently have been in

(49:04):
India.
No named people have beengetting these Padma awards,
which are like civilian awardsthat the prime minister gives
out, president gives out.
That practice is changing.
But that artisan when you justmade me think about them when
they were they don't earn much.
They maybe earn less than adollar a day, yeah, and they are

(49:25):
so good at their craft.
They keep working on it forages, for generations, and they
love it and I think we should bepromoting those kind of books.

I hope that AI elevates our ability to see
beauty in art and have more artin our lives.

That's a hope for me.

I would love that , yes, mentoring what's the most
important quality you look forwhen you're mentoring someone?

Somebody who's receptive to it, somebody who
will take action and somebodywho is not there just to make a
connection and lever, and youcan make out.
There have been some folks whohave just wanted to connect so
that I could connect them withsomebody else for immediate
benefit.
Mentoring somebody for theirlong-term sustainability in the

(50:16):
industry is what I believe is mymantra.

All right, fill in the blank.
The future of work will be morewhat.

Human-centric.

Than people expect.

It will be more human-centric.
Why I say that is you canautomate a lot of things, you
can make a lot of things, youcan make a lot of technology,
but the human intuition, thehuman ingenuity, if that's not
amplified, we will all lose ourpurpose ahead of delivering

(50:56):
tasks.

We've all gotten so embedded in the grind and,
with the help of AI and thetechnologies we're deploying, I
hope that the grind goes awayand true humanity comes back,
because performance is not aboutthe grind.
Performance is about theuniquely human qualities you
mentioned intuition.

Absolutely, and I really hope there's peace in the
world and these conflicts goaway.

Yeah, yeah, and let's all work toward that too.
What's one technology trendthat excites you and one that
worries you?

Whatever I'm seeing with AI and is definitely
exciting, but cybersecurity,and on the other spectrum is the
advancements in quantum whichcan break the existing
cybersecurity protocols.
So that definitely is worrying,worrisome.
Not sure I can personally doanything about it except being

(51:55):
curious, learning more and findan opportunity to take the
benefit to other people.

I like that Complete this thought.
The world would be better ifmore people understood that.

If more people understood each other.
Yeah, any conflict, whether itis geopolitical, whether it is
the negotiations that you do incommercial, all of that is
because you don't see theintentions of the other person.
And yeah, Good.

So, piyush, if you weren't in tech, what would
you do?

I would be an artist, I would be painting.

Oh, that came so easily for you, that answer.
So what kind of medium?

You mentioned painting.
All these are things that Ihave experimented from childhood
whether it is playing a musicalinstrument and being bad at it.
Leaving that and trying anotherthing?
Yes, I've done that, being badat it, leaving that and trying
another thing yes, I've donethat.
I believe drawing and paintingor doodling is something which I

(53:10):
have been doing since I don'tdraw and paint anymore, but as a
child, my parents and teachersused to think that I'm gifted
that and I should use toparticipate in a lot of contests
as a child.
Childhood innocence gives wayto the needs of career and
college education and whatnot,when you don't have time for any

(53:30):
of that.
So that's been on my mind as Iretire as I do, things find more
time for my hobbies.
Believe it or not, I joined adrum circle last year.

Oh, very cool.
I didn't know you had done that.

And saw the healing power, because there
were people of all skill levelin that drum circle and the
beats were tempering, and peoplebeginners as well as pros.
So who knows what I'll end updoing but you need to find at
least one hour a month to dothings of that nature that takes

(54:10):
you away from, and if you dothat on the side of a river, a
beach even- better, and I'msplitting hairs here, but it's
not fine.

The time to prioritize it, it has to be done
.
It has to be done for thejourney, whatever journey of
growth you are on, and I want tobelieve that the majority of
the people that we know, thepeople who listen to this show,
they are on that journey, but ithas to be a priority for
feeding your soul, yes, and wedon't talk about these things in

(54:42):
commercial settings or inprofessional settings, but when
we are building a community,when we are talking to
youngsters, I think we shouldprioritize to talk about these
things, because a complete humanbeing is much beyond worth.

Human being is much beyond worth, the multiple
dimensions of an individual.
That, and I would say, if atall a message needs to be sent
out to the next generation, it'sabout embrace your wholeness,
bring your whole self to workand make sure people know that

(55:16):
you are unique and take pride inyour uniqueness.
I don't speak English properly.
I don't know it.
That's not my mother tongue.
Uniqueness I don't speakEnglish properly.
I don't know the tongue.
Does that make me any less thanthe other person?
It comes after a lot ofrealization that somebody whose
accent is not perfect,gentlemanly or English-like
accent can still have greatideas, can be respected.
Many of the Nobel Prize winnerscouldn't speak English properly

(55:40):
and yet they were recognized.

I've always been an admirer of the gestalt theory
.
Gestalt is the whole is greaterthan the sum of its parts.
And when I look at your partsPricewaterhouse, ibm, nonprofits
and boards Cadence is on here.
I didn't remember you had astint in Cadence.
You've been engineering productmanagement and now wrap the

(56:04):
spiritual wrapper around thatand the leadership and
mentorship wrapper and the doinggood for society wrapper Any of
your parts are remarkable, butthe whole is so much more
interesting and impactful,moving from enterprise into
impact.
And so the whole is greaterthan the sum of its parts, and I

(56:27):
love the piece of art that youhave built for what makes your
life matter.

Thank you so much, stoney.
I really feel grateful for thefriendships in my life, for all
the people that we meet in thecommunity, and I feel we have a
duty to leave an impact onothers.

Yes, we do.

And we should not take anything for granted.
We should not take time forgranted.
We should not take people forgranted Agreed, take people for
granted Agreed, and that's why Icherish every interaction I've
had with you and some of theother community members that,
even though we may have met onlya year or two ago, feel like
family.

I'm honored, blessed and look forward to
growing in our journeys togetheras we wrap up.
No doubt people have heard thisor will watch the podcast that
we put out in a couple of daysand they'll think he's very
interesting and I want to see orbe part of witnessing his
journey.
How can people see what you'reworking on?

I'm fairly transparent on what I'm working
on both in the community as wellas professionally, linkedin,
Whatever.
I'm not as active on X anymore,but LinkedIn for sure.

Good.

Yeah, follow me around, send me a DM.

And via LinkedIn they'll see your digital agenda
announcements when you do thosepodcasts.
That's right, Excellent,Wonderful.
It has been an absolute joytoday to have Piyush Malik on
Reset with Tonya, so we'll givea little love to our audience.
So Reset with Tonya here onKPCR 92.9 FM, K215GA 909.9 FM

(58:15):
and KMRT 101.9 FM in Santa Cruz.
Everyone have a beautiful dayand we hope that some of today's
conversation it has been aconversation between two friends
and I believe that there arecues for each of you in this
conversation to step into yourhighest and best use.

(58:35):
So have a Haboo day, thehighest and best use day
everyone.

Awesome, thank you .

Thank you so much .
Everyone take care.
Thank you, goodbye.

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Episode Transcript

Host

Tonya J. Long

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From AI Pioneer to Community Building Top Voice: Piyush's Journey