#10: The Uncanny Valley

Humans respond to imperfectly humanlike creations with varying degrees of horror, with an "uncanny valley" of human acceptance (i.e. a low point) in the middle of the spectrum of humanness. Roboticists and game designers are well acquainted with the concept, but many leaders are not (as witnessed by their uncanny behavior in the workplace). Sri and Judge Rheinhold teach leaders to be more human and less robotic. Plus, lessons on keeping it real through Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise. *** show notes This episode follows from thoughts shared in show #6: Screenwriting. Must-see chart of the uncanny valley from a really great Medium post that explains the concept. (The chart is an updated version from Mori's original below.) Hilarious video: Everything Wrong With Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Youtube) (Is this the same narrator as the Martian audiobook? Audible: An incredible read btw) Masahiro Mori’s originally proposed graph depicting the uncanny valley (with illustrative examples): see Figure 1 in this NCBI paper On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck by Nick Riggle (Amazon) Gangsta's Paradise music video (Youtube) https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/tv/coolio-and-his-kids-put-the-real-in-reality-tv/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubulides#Paradoxes_of_Eubulides Mixed accents: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-have-mixed-accent-such-as-British-and-American-accents Not quite what I mean but related -- slightly different concept of being "bi-accented," using Gillian Anderson as example: http://dialectblog.com/2011/04/26/can-you-be-bi-accented/ Fills courtesy of YellowTree, CarlosCarty, and Xserra. Many thanks. 📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅ _____ Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: ➡️ LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar + @sri_actually Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧 Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.