Pondering Emerging Tech

Whether you're working over the holiday season or not, January is generally a quieter time of year - less commuter traffic, less meetings and more time to reflect on the past year and the coming one. But with lockdowns and remote working, a lot of us have already had plenty time to reflect about our existing circumstances, on our jobs and what matters to us. So instead of thinking more about the short term, let's have some fun over our holiday break and learn about all the exciting technologies that seems be exploding all at once! Here are some recommendations from the Lookahead team to get you started:

JP, who likes listening to podcasts that oppose his views (and doesn't as yet own any crypto), recommends the Aussie Firebug podcast episode "Episode 49. Vijay Boyapati - The Bullish Case for Bitcoin". Vijay was an early employee at Google, has a PhD in Engineering and talks about the value of money, and how it's a trust system that has changed over time. It's a good intro to Bitcoin.

Debbie recommends The Next Big Idea podcast episode "Exponential Age: Everything is Accelerating. Who's at the Wheel?" Azeem Azhar talks about how developments in AI, 3D printing, synthetic biology and gene-editing are rapidly advancing and will create an era of radical change.

Kyle recommends the CBInsights Newsletter on startups to follow where VCs are spending their money - a great way to see how emerging tech is being used. In particular he recommends the article "The Digital Health 150: The Top Digital Health Companies Of 2021" which shows how healthcare is being transformed.

Steve recommends the Harvard Business Review post, "How Apple is Organized for Innovation" that outlines how their organisational design and leadership model help them create emerging tech.

Hope those links help with your summer reading/listening!