Controversy in Silicon Valley

Mark Z from Facebook is making waves again after blocking drag queens in SFO from using Facebook as they won't use their real names. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very thoughtful article on this titled Silicon Valley’s Empathy Problem by Ian P Beacock. The quote below taken from the article is illuminating:

Empathy doesn’t seem to be a very popular tool among Silicon Valley’s leading digital dreamers. To its great credit, the tech industry promises to improve the world. Yet it’s hard not to notice its passion for issues that look like problems only to people who look like Silicon Valley itself: overwhelmingly white, male, young, educated, and affluent.

Inequality soars, and the world unravels, but from Silicon Valley we’re presented with apps and services designed to save us from those most heinous of tasks: parking, doing laundry, and (gasp) buying groceries. If solipsism is the conceptual motor of the industry, it should be no surprise that we read with some regularity about tone-deaf Google Glass wearers or start-up whiz kids, unable to imagine why their actions could possibly alarm others.

To be fair, coding workshops and computer-science classes don’t ask budding developers to imagine the lives of others and see the world for the complex, uncertain place it really is. That’s what the humanities are for.

When I teach students about the First World War or Berlin’s Golden Twenties, I’m challenging them to suspend their assumptions and step outside themselves to make sense of a foreign world. Novels make similar demands. Art historians help us see that the world can be expressed and perceived in a million different ways. In other words, the humanities encourage the use of empathy as a way of thinking and solving problems.

The liberal arts get short shrift in Silicon Valley—why fill out your college degree when you could be dropping out and diving into programming languages on a Thiel Fellowship? The humanities don’t necessarily trump coding literacy. But the insights of both will be essential if this age of mobile technology is going to live up to its promise and create a world we all want to live in.

Technology without a human face is dangerous and when Silicon Valley is so skewed by the demographics of its innovators there is a real need for some balance. For myself a background in the humanities, science and technology has been very enlightening and beneficial.

Have a great day and a profitable week and read a good book :)

DK

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Creativity is so Disruptive

Creators and innovators build their own roads while they are traveling them. Creativity can be nurtured but not taught.

As Robinson points out in his famed TED talk, Schools Kill Creativity, the end product that universities produce is university professors. To get to be a professor you need to get A's on your academic journey. This means you have to parrot what you have been taught. Original thought rarely gets an A grade because it doesn't fit the norm.

There is reason that Jobs, Gates, Ellison and Zuckerburg left university before graduating, and that is that the university system rewards conformity, not creativity. They got frustrated by the sausage factory of conduit based education.

Being creative brings a newness that challenges the status quo. It's hard for professors when their students have thought patterns and ways of thinking different from the prevalent educational dogma. How do you mark the work of Jobs, Gates, Ellison and Zuckerburg when you don't understand what they are saying.

The world is a better place because these original thinkers bucked the trend and struck out on their own.

Check out this excellent TED Talk on Nowism

I listened to a very thought provoking video on TED Talks. John Ito, the Director of the MediaLabs at MIT. He basically explains the change in business model that the Internet has brought about. He shows the move from a publish or perish to a deploy or die mentality. I would be interested in your thoughts on the talk.

The content still has me thinking 3 days afterwards...

Here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjTVGIw4z8

ENJOY

DK

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I love my Samsung Tablet/Phablet

After being an iPad person for years I decided to buy the new Samsung Tablet the SM-T705. I have been very surprised how good it is. Light, thin and very easy to use. I feel that Apple is stagnating but Samsung is continually innovating.

I am writing right now using this device. The voice recognition is flawless and the Samsung apps superb. The Google range of Apps work seamlessly compared to the iPad.

I still plan to buy another iPad mini for the toolbox, but it may be some time away.

From a historical perspective the phone component is reminiscent of holding the first brick cell phones, big but much lighter at 42g.

Let's see if the euphoria continues...

A Tip from Napoleon Bonaparte

It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte had a habit of leaving his mail unopened for one month. That way it was very easy to see what was still important.

You need to ask yourself how many of your emails are really important? I have just returned from 3 weeks holiday and I had over 500 emails. The vast majority of them were no longer current.

The Power of Plus One (+1)

Have you heard of the power of one?

In business terms it means doing one thing everyday that will build your business. Often you realise that you have 10 must do activities. Then you feel overwhelmed and do nothing at all. If this is your situation just do one thing on the list every day. After 10 days your list will be complete!

But I will let you into a secret here. If you do one thing on your list often you will be motivated to do more. The secret is to act.

Action takers are winners.

Cut out the Meetings

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings.”
― Dave Barry

If you want to succeed in business cut out the meetings. They waste time, drain enthusiasm and demoralise people while having the illusion of being effective.

I avoid meetings at all costs so that I can get the necessary work done. If you must have a meeting then follow these three steps:

1. Have clear written meeting objective(s)

2. Provide no chairs or food - standing up prevents people sleeping, looking at lap tops and getting comfortable

3. Take minutes and give all attendees something to do - this will keep the time wasters away as they don't want to work.

To the Top

DK

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