Dealing With Techtopia
06.04.18
Hi Friend,
We’re in a funny space with big technology. While we find ourselves increasingly wary of the influence of big tech and cautious about the amount of time spent with our phone, its more integral than ever. Regularly I hear people ask aloud what we did before smartphones. I certainly feel that way. In my travels, using Google Maps to help find my way is a lifeline (don’t worry…I still get lost in side streets, though maybe it requires a bit more intent). We still are trying to figure out what it means…separating what’s good from what’s bad, and digging deeper than the artificial mission statements that these companies put out. Apple, today in its press conference, noted that it was trying to make the world better…meanwhile holding more cash on hand than almost any company in modern history. It’s a challenge that our modern political, regulatory, and economic theories are struggling to keep up with. But the confusion suggests something is changing and we’re beginning to realize that the techo-utopia we’ve been sold is quite hollow. These articles are examining what it all means, and how we can begin to reckon with our new reality.
So, here we go.
1. How Defaults Rule The World
Our world is controlled by so many default settings. Whether the sounds in our phone, the automatic tipping in a cab, or the fonts in Word (SO much Calibri). There’s a good reason for these defaults — they offload cognitive work, but in doing so, it means our experiences are not often optimized to our choices, they’re optimized to the designers. This little article looks at just a few of the defaults in the world around us and challenges us to think about their implication — whether those defaults are really serving us well and how we can make better choices going forward.
Read It
2. Bust Up Big Tech
Scott Galloway, founder of Red Envelope (which in its heyday was an amazing gifting site), provides a pretty convincing argument for breaking up big tech. As he shows, even when it doesn’t actually go all the way to breaking up a company, it can reap huge rewards for consumers, and, as history shows, shareholders. Remember how we tried to break up Microsoft? Well, arguably that allowed for Google, and, oh, by the way Microsoft recently surpassed the valuation of Google, which continues to dominate advertising and search.
Read It
3. When AIs Attack (Meetings)
Scheduling meetings is a pain. They get set, someone has a conflict, they get reset, and before you know it, we’re 2 months out. What if AI could help? A couple of companies have been working on this problem and the results are…dispiriting. The article shows the opportunity in AI but also the significant barriers we face in overcoming it. It turns out that understanding human emotions is not a rational process and that creates a ton of challenges, even for something as simple as scheduling a meeting.
