The (Algorithm’s) Kids Are Alright
Teaching budding young architects to build with Minecraft, how a “crisis of abundance” will affect the way we work, and a new app to track all your SaaS subscriptions
BLUEPRINT // the future of work // ISSUE #5 SEPTEMBER 16, 2016
Co-workers,
Welcome to Friday — the end of the work week and, for the downtime-challenged, the beginning of the work weekend. Not a healthy way to live, friend. We suggest reading Live Asynchronously, an excellent article from Quincy Larson over at Free Code Camp. It’ll change your POV on being plugged in 24/7.
This week, Uber launched their first self-driving taxis in Pittsburgh. Frankly, the spinning LIDARs on the cars’ roofs look like demonically-possessed blenders. Undaunted, WIRED went for a ride. And over in Blueprint, Ian Frisch asked a related question: So, Do Self-Driving Cars Mean We’ll Work During Our Commutes?
With that said, have a safe self-driven commute home, and a wonderfully unplugged weekend!
Looking Forward,
Dept. of Future Possibilities
What we’re reading
The must-have skill of the future is “computational thinking”. That, according to scientist Stephen Wolfram, who argues that the future belongs to people who can “formulate things with enough clarity, and in a systematic enough way, that one can tell a computer how to do them.” The key now: educating the children. Includes some fascinating insights into Wolfram’s teaching methods. An incredible long read for the weekend (you’re turning off your notifications, remember?).
- Pair with: Forget Blueprints — for the Young Architects of Tomorrow, It’s All About Minecraft [Fast Company]
- And also: Five Career Tips From a CEO to His Millennial Children [World Economic Forum]
We have a “crisis of abundance”. So says Economist columnist Ryan Avent, whose new book, The Wealth of Humans, is about how technology is changing the nature of work. Avent’s basic point: Machine learning → abundance of labor → societal negotiation of what to do with extra workers. A fascinating interview. We’re looking forward to reading the book.
- Pair with: The ‘elephant curve’: A much more complicated story than you might think [World Economic Forum]
- And: The Paradox of Free Time in America [The Atlantic]
The Robots Are Coming for Wall Street. That’s the lesson in this excellent piece from The New York Times about the end of financial analysts. And BTW: the robots are coming for dairy farms, too.
- Pair with: How Do We Fix Job-Stealing Robots? We Don’t. [Medium]
- And: There’s now a marketplace for selling AI [WIRED]
Dept. of New Tools
New software we’re excited about
Cardlife: All your business (SaaS) subscriptions in one place.
Dept. of Who to Follow on Twitter
Future of work thought leaders we’re keen on this week
- Belinda Parmar: CEO of the Empathy Business. Author and activist in the expansion of women’s involvement in tech.
- Justin Hendrix: Executive Director of the NYC Media Lab.
- Dion Hinchcliffe: Chief Strategy Officer, 7Summits, driving change with emerging digital methods.
Dept. of Future Graphs
What we’re sharing
Dept. of Goodbyes
Toodles, you. As always, be a dear and follow Blueprint on twitter. We’re more fun than free cupcakes at the office, and less fattening.
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