I don’t often write immediate reactions to recent news. However, after reading an article published by The Information regarding sexual harassment allegations against venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital, I feel that the subject is so important that I must write immediately. In the article, journalist Reed Albergotti compiles first-hand accounts from six women, including three…
Soon, self-driving cars will turn Highway 101 into an office park, and we’ll all keep working right through rush hour. But where is the technology that will liberate us from a productivity killer that’s nearly as lethal as the morning commute? At thousands of conferences every year, millions of panel sessions consume billions of man-hours…
Recall Judge Aaron Persky Three months ago, former Stanford student Brock Turner was convicted on three counts of sexual felony assault, for crimes he committed against an intoxicated and unconscious woman next to a dumpster outside a frat party. Today, he is being released from Santa Clara County Jail after serving just half of his six-month sentence. While…
The Seventh Sense will help you develop a feel for the Networked Age As Joshua Cooper Ramo suggests in his important new book, The Seventh Sense, massively scaled, always-on connection changes the nature of objects and institutions. A heart-rate monitor that shares information with a million other heart-rate monitors functions differently than one that operates in standalone fashion. The…
This essay originally appeared on MIT Sloan Management Review as part of their Frontiers Essay Series. Each essay is a response to this question: “Within the next five years, how will technology change the practice of management in a way we have not yet witnessed?” Artificial Intelligence is about to transform management from an art…
Introducing the Berggruen Philosophy Prize and my nominee for it, Robert Wright “We need more welders and less philosophers,” Marco Rubio exclaimed during a presidential debate last fall. The larger point he was trying to make was about the virtues of vocational training, and the role it can play in helping young people develop relevant skills that…
A review of William MacAskill’s Doing Good Better No one donates money to try really hard to cure cancer, or deeply empathize with Siberian tigers. The goal is to eradicate cancer. The goal is to save Siberian tigers from extinction. And yet while philanthropy is oriented around specific outcomes, it’s often driven by emotion more than…
Our world is getting more and more virtualized – but ultimately the Networked Age runs on power strips, cargo ships, and Uber trips. And over the next decade and a half, as 2.5 billion people in China, India, and other developing countries come online and join the global middle class, the global demand for energy…
At least one global cryptocurrency will achieve mass-market adoption. That cryptocurrency will either be Bitcoin or a derivative inspired by it. The chance that it will be the former is so strong that in 2014 I invested in Bitcoin startups Xapo and Blockstream. And yet, perhaps surprisingly, when one of the very smart people I…
Bitcoin is often characterized in the media as a volatile virtual commodity that can optimize speculation even more efficiently than gold, securitized subprime mortgages, or tulips. That’s not how I think about it. For me, Bitcoin is a transformative addition to Internet communication protocols that will create new networks of trust, fuel massive economic ecosystems,…
How updating the communication device known as a “diploma” will help students acquire the right skills and help companies hire the right talent. Every year, millions of Americans embark on the quest to earn a four-year college degree. Many motives propel them. They go to acquire skills and knowledge from experts in their fields. They…
“Keep your identity small.” —Paul Graham “Identity” has become somewhat of a dirty word, especially in Silicon Valley circles. In many minds, the word “identity” goes hand in hand with the word “politics”; a divisive tool used by politicians to win voters by appealing to religious or ethnic affiliations. YCombinator founder Paul Graham even wrote…