Issue #10: Technology, Jazz, CRISPR & Accidents.
In ’All Our Wrong Todays’ (A Novel) Elan Mastai shares the idea of the “Accident”, suggesting that “when you invent a new technology, you also invent the accident of that technology”. When we invented the car, we also invented the car accident. Present day tech advancements (Artificial Intelligence, Biohacking, Cryptocurrencies etc), are inevitable. And so are the accidents. Not a new concept, just one that is very relevant today.
Being an optimistic realist, I’m constantly dealing with the tug and pull of technology/its accident: the optimist in me believes in and is super excited about the exponential nature of the technology and how beneficial all these advancements will be! But the realist in me recognizes that the accidents will also be exponential and mostly impact those least able to even benefit from the technologies. And that worries me.
Where I lie on that Optimist Realist spectrum partially depends on the prevailing narrative. Feels like time for a news/social media fast…
The links and books this week span tech advancement 101s, globalization, and jazz.
NB: reach out if you want some free PR your company/startup innovation strategy in my next blog post, it would be great to direct thousands of likes/10’s of thousands of views to a company other than Tesla for a change :).
Article: (Gene editing) is advancing at a scary good/bad pace and it’s all because of CRISPR. I’d suggest you get up to speed.
Research: Academics from my alma mater (Warwick University) dig deeper into what leaders can learn about the art of improvisation and entrepreneurial leadership/followership from jazz greats (PDF).
Report: (CX) What is the Future of Customer Experience? The good folk at Trendwatching share their views from global trend scouting.
Article: (Culture) I only ever see Monocle in airport bookstores (international) and on coffee tables at hipster creative agencies. This article, on the ethos and the founder of the magazine, explains why this is so.
Book: Electricity is all the rage these days. Electric cars, solar panels, Tesla etc. ‘Last Days of Night’ (Graham Moore) fictionalizes the powerful (pun intended) battle between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. Great read!
Article: (Blockchain) Only Artificial Intelligence gets more hype than Blockchain right now. Ignore the hype. I do believe Blockchain has value and this article by s+b is basically Blockchain 101.
Book: My younger brother suggested I reread Anti-Fragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb after a conversation about the ever-on news cycle. In our current state of media fueled neuroticism it makes sense to gather our own information and think for ourselves. Easier said than done but well worth a try.
Article: (User Experience) This article from the Y2K suggests that you get most of what you need to know about your product from testing only 5 users. What do you think?
Book: Austin Kleon’s book ’Show Your Work’ is one of the reasons I decided to start sharing my blog posts. That decision continues to yield professional results well beyond my expectations.
Article: You can almost predict the sort of press a technology company will get depending on where it is on the clock.
Thanks as always for the emails, comments, and recommendations. I’ll do my best to respond. Please continue to share, I truly appreciate it.
Best
Seyi