Think: This is a longer article, Living in the Future, but it contains some wonderful insights from an experienced Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Here’s just one insight: Want to know why many start-ups fail? The answer is that they are working on solutions to problems that don’t exist.
Think Faster: Many hurdles and barriers remain but the world of self-driving cars may be reaching an inflection point. Alphabet announced this week that it intends to invest $5 billion in autonomous vehicles.
Think Different: It might be easy to believe that the vast majority of farmers are opposed to “alternative” meats yet this isn’t necessarily true as this article, “Lab-raised meat ‘not the enemy’ say farmers” suggests.
Think Hard: For centuries, happiness across all of the world’s many cultures has followed a similar arc–people are happy when they are young, not so happy during the middle of their lives (due to work and raising children), and turn happy again as they approach their Golden Years. This familiar “U” pattern has changed and young people are now unhappy. This trend–and its causes and its implications–is something all of us should be thinking about how we might help reverse.
Think Harder: There are two kinds of problems–clock problems and cloud problems. As you might guess, cloud problems are harder to solve. This article, Learning from Catastrophe, is a good read and may offer some clues into how we might think better about many of the complex problems facing society today.
Afterthought: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and righting, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” –Rumi
