Technology - innovation copilots (Page 3)

Beginner

Jaywalking: How a social norm was invented to push technology forward

A century ago, crossing the street was a straightforward task – just step across. But today, with traffic regulations in place, finding a crosswalk and waiting for that green signal is the norm if you want to obey the law. Jaywalking, or crossing outside designated areas, can now lead to hefty

Hot Takes

The acceleration fallacy

These last few days, there have been several comparisons about how fast ChatGDP reached 1 million users, and you probably caught a few of those. ChatGPT has crossed 1M+ users in just 5 days. To compare, it took Netflix 41 months, FB - 10 months, and Instagram - 2.5

Weak Signals

What will a new technology undo?

In March 1998, Neil Postman shared five key ideas about technological change with Denver University students. One of the key messages was that technology is always a trade-off, bringing something new and taking something else away simultaneously. You can read his wonderfully prescient talk and dive into the perspective he

Hot Takes

Digital? It's not only pizza-delivery!

Most of the tech and digital news this year has been depressing, if you ask me. Between Andreessen Horowitz investing upward of $350 million in the new Adam Neumann grift or Marc Zuckerberg gambling the future of Meta on us wearing cumbersome 3D helmets, the little world of digital tech

Hot Takes

Tardigrade vs. Zombie technologies

To end the week, I'd like to share an interesting find about a legacy technology that still survives against all odds. The mighty floppy disk! As much as I would like to think it's now a kind of exotic oddity used by hobbyists and retrogamers, it&

Does an AI have the right to produce art?

Two weeks ago, a composition won the first prize at the Colorado State Fair. This composition wasn't produced by an artist but by someone using Midjourney (a now notorious AI that generates images from text prompts). Scandal ensued. TL;DR — Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated

Technology

[ Looking back at ] technology, hype, and predictions

You were probably (hopefully?) off the internet for a few weeks. This gives me a fantastic opportunity to look back at what I wrote these last months and kick off September with a curated list of a few articles that you might have missed.

Technology

🟢 [ Dutch week ] Technology and the 'doe normaal' mindset

The 'doe noormal' Dutch mindset has had a lot of impact on the way this culture deals with technology and innovation. In many cases, this can be an interesting point of view for you too...

🟧 [ Dutch week ] ASML, the most strategic European giant you've never heard of

While most of you are probably returning to work this week, I've decided to share a few insights about the Netherlands' tech, design, and innovation. As a country which is only twice as big as London, it makes few headlines, so this might be an interesting exercise. Here goes...

Weak Signals

Why Soviet computers failed

To kick off the week, let me share an 18 min video by Asianometry on why Soviet computers failed (they have an excellent newsletter that I can only recommend too): This is clearly a story of adjacency and feedback loop between science, technology, and innovation. But past the obvious struggle

Hot Takes

Have we been thinking of VR horribly wrong?

I'm not going back on why virtual reality, promised for twenty years, is still not here (the technology is ready, but there's no scalable problem to solve). But lately, I've been thinking a lot about how slow infrastructure changes create fast-paced market transformations. Probing

Weak Signals

Every forecaster lives at the expense of the listener

While we are entering even more volatile times than two years ago – can you wrap your mind around this? I barely can at this point – it's worth remembering that our collective brain will seek reassuring perspectives. In the industry, the most reassuring ones are solid forecasts. How do

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