Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia The Guardian
This is an important article that discusses how we are becoming more addicted to technology. The people interviewed in this Guardian article are those responsible for this addiction. A few ex-Google and ex-Facebook engineers that have left and are now raising the alarm for this dopamine induced addiction at scale. It’s a terrifying and extremely timely read.
Why Caisse’s Michael Sabia Isn’t Your Typical Pension Fund Chief Wall Street Journal
We do some work with the Caisse de Depot; I’m always impressed by the people and the approach to investing. This WSJ bio highlights the work of Michael Sabia, the fund’s chief and person responsible for the growth the fund has seen. The link above is to a version of the article beyond the paywall. Here’s the original article.
Google X and the Science of Radical Creativity The Atlantic
I had the chance to meet a few members of the Google X team when I worked there. I always saw that team as this quasi-mythical entity that creates magical products to the world. This Atlantic article dissects how they actually do it. “Moonshots don’t begin with brainstorming clever answers. They start with the hard work of finding the right questions.”
The Chinese Form of Innovation L2 Inc – Scott Galloway and Clay Shirky
I started reading Scott Galloway’s book (The Four) this week, it’s a great read so far. In this YouTube video, Scott interviews Clay Shirky on the topic of China. It’s immensely fascinating to understand the scale of internet in China. As a bonus, I interviewed a good friend, Jeremy Kopek on this week’s podcast and discussed how he used ecommerce to launch his startup in China.
The scale of tech winners Benedict Evans, a16z
If you want to understand the tech industry from a historical perspective, Benedict Evans explains it well in his latest blog post. He shows the scale that the big four players have achieved relative and how the smartphone market will continue to dominate.
