Posts from the 'opinion' Category

What Use Humans?

In a world With Ultra Smart AI Based Bots, Are Humans Useful?

Not a day goes by that there isn’t yet another story discussing how an AI has bested a human in something – typically a game, which we all know are microcosms of the real world.

First chess, then Go a few months ago. Now the AI developers have set their sights on MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, with much more complex rules engines. Just the other day, a bot from OpenAI bested the best players in Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle area, where players, team up in teams of 5 to destroy the other teams Ancient (the center of the enemy base), a loose tower defense game – a bit like capture the flag. read more

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Feel Uncreative? Kill Your Feed.

It’s Called A Feed Because You Are Being Fed. Up That Is. 

Ever wonder why when you have a spare moment, no matter where you are, whether it’s waiting in line, at a stoplight at an intersection, or at the coffee shop, you pull out your phone and check your feed. For our purposes, it doesn’t matter if it’s a Facebook feed, a Twitter feed, a Snapchat feed, or News feed that you are subscribed to. read more

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Servicing Your Future Hypermobile & Hyperconnected Customers & Workers

Welcome To The World Of Hyperconnected Just-In-Time-And-Place

The concept of just-in-time appears in only three spaces according to Wikipedia – just-in-time manufacturing, a production strategy where things are built as they are demanded, computer programming, where just-in-time compilation can compile code just before use to improve run-time performance, and a recent addition, just-in-time teaching, a strategy to improve learning outcomes. read more

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Focus on Your Core Vision

Have You Strayed From Your Focus?

I’ve read Wired magazine for over 20 years – I remember seeing my very first issue in a very eclectic bookstore in Toronto (now sadly gone) called “This Ain’t The Rosedale Library”. Like City Lights in San Francisco, it specialized in carrying both mainstream and subversive books, magazines, and zines. I used to go there during high school with my friend Matthew, patrolling the stacks of interesting stuff looking for the new and different. read more

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How To Conquer The Future: Embrace Uncertainty

Doctor: “I’m afraid the patient is terminal. There is a cure, however, it has some serious side effects”

Patient: “I’ll take it! What are the side effects?”

Doctor: “Well, mainly cultural change. All of those really well-formed hierarchies and communications channels might break down. People might actually talk to each other and there might be cross-functional communication. People may decide to spend some of their time thinking about the future of the company instead of doing their immediate jobs and may come up with creative new ways of doing business or new products. You might change so much that you’ll be a completely new company” read more

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Are We Seeing The End Of Employees?

What does the employee of the future look like?

There’s been a recent article in The Wall Street Journal which I tweeted out to my followers the other day about the future of employees.

I thought was an interesting article because I’ve said since 2002 that the nature of employment is changing from the old industrial complex of working for these medium to large corporations as employees, providing us with a basket of benefits, such as health insurance, stock options, etc. read more

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What Comes First, The Problem or the Innovation?

Do we get more innovation from addressing a specific problem, or just imagining new things and letting the market decide if they are useful?

This is a question many seasoned business executives and entrepreneurs have been asking for decades. The truth is that it is really a combination of both as in the end; especially with consumer products, the market does eventually decide the usefulness even to the point of dictating the lifespan of the product. read more

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Is Digital Blowback Deadly To The Future?

What Is Digital Blowback and Is It Real?

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about an interesting phenomenon that I have seen over the last little while which I’m calling Digital Blowback. It occurs when people start actively turning away from digital representations of things and prefer reality. read more

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Is There Opportunity in the Fake News Problem?

Need A New Opportunity to build a Billion Dollar Business? Deal with the Fake News Problem

We’re going to talk a little bit about something that recently been covered in the news right around the time of the election and want to talk about it as it may be an interesting opportunity for those of you out there who are looking for some new type of startup opportunity to really dig into. I am not sure how much of a problem this is (IMHO, it seems to depend a lot on which side of the “aisle” you are on) but let’s talk about it anyway and see if we can deconstruct some opportunities in this space. read more

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How To Deal With Trump Disruption

Trump’s Election And How To Deal With The Disruption

Over the last few days, I’ve spent a lot of time “talking down” people who seem freaked out, standing on a virtual “ledge” ready to jump off because the Donald was just elected the 45th President of the United States. While his stance on innovation is still up in the air, as I mentioned in a previous post, this is a perfect example of what some may call a Black Swan event, a totally unexpected major outcome. read more

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