In many facets of life people are fearful of and threatened by the new. This is often obvious in tech.
“we humans sure are insecure when it comes to technology” Matt Simon of WIRED
If you arrive at a new technology do your best to see it proactively as something to uncover, discover its usefulness, learn the risks too, use positive languaging to see its usefulness take off. When you see the media and others discounting or fearmongering a technology, dig deeper and find your own perspective and reasoning. Self-driving cars, blockchains and digital tokens/currency are a great example.
Would we already have safer driving conditions if more senior government and business leaders, the media and others proactively talked about and influenced the use of the technology? I imagine so, especially when taking into account the risks from the prevalence of phone use while driving. We’ve heard many times that the data shows self-driving cars are safer than human drivers yet the media focuses heavily on cars being hacked. The implications of being hacked are concerning though the conversation can be more constructive and uplifting.
From the new developments around you, what are the opportunities for you as an individual?
I had a sensational time recently learning how to make osaka-style okinomiyaki at a dinner party. Flipping them was good fun! I also learnt about the competitiveness around kids bento boxes at some schools in Japan. HAVE A LOOK AT THESE…. (I’m so impressed.)
Innovation.
As a new surfer I was rapt to hear about Kelly Slater’s wave pool. He and his teams have spent years innovating to create perfect, tailored waves and the results are thrilling – even if you’re not a surfer.
In September the world surfing league are holding a competition there which recognises that artificial waves offer a consistent wave for each competitor to show their prowess and personal style.
Enjoy the fun of these videos:
The intentions and when it all started working.
Drone view showing the technology. How’s the train on the side!?
The Art of Learning.
“The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance” by master Josh Waitzkin is a peaceful, kind offering of clever learning and high performance tools, including insightful stories from Josh’s life in uncovering top human performance. Towards the end the steps in creating a calming trigger for high stress situations is fascinating. Enjoy this one. [I know you will Pete Spence!]
This quick “five second” tool for getting stuff done and helping you out of procrastination / a lack of action on important things is great:When you have an instinct to do something or have a great idea, immediately countdown 5-4-3-2-1 while taking action. Try it out![Wend – your clients may enjoy this one.]
After my last email highlighting unroll.me to bulk-unsubscribe from newsletters a few people unsubscribed from this one. It’s fun to see people taking action. How’d your unsubscribing go?
Look out for the Falcon Heavy (and accoutrements) launch. It’s scheduled for 6th Feb.
Welcome to the 22nd edition of this email. Did you know you can read all past editions in our archive?
The subject this time round is Life Beyond Productivity.
It’s a slight change of format, inspired by what I’ve been researching. Let me know if you like it.
_____
Have you ever wondered what your life will be like in 10 years time?
I’ve written a story of a day in February 2027, complete with possible tech (robots, house help, passenger drones, health data and more). I’ve referred to it as “Life Beyond Productivity” as we’ll be integrating robots / AI / machine learning into our lives within the next 10 years and I imagine by 2027 we will have learnt a lot about how we best operate in life, work and any other aspect.
This story is a playful look on this subject and I wonder if it may be easier for people to understand what could be coming through this ‘a day in the life’ style. The first part of the day is below (click on the link to read the full story) and perhaps as you’re reading it wonder:
“What will my life be like in February 2027?”
A Day in February 2027
New tunes wake me. It’s 6am. The music is new to me and was chosen from analysing my body’s morning brainwaves. It has the desired effect: I’m feeling ultra-calm. A great way to start the day.
My partner is sleeping in today so the music is playing through my ear implant. I get out of our ultra-comfortable bed. It dynamically moulds to each of our bodies and is made from materials that aid sleep (we used tech that matches our health data and personal preferences). Plus the bedding regulates our temperatures. I daresay if I checked my overnight sleep data I’ve had a deep, high quality sleep which is a regular occurrence, on-par with others of similar DNA and age.
The blinds automatically open showing the view and I glance at the superimposed weather and surf forecast for today as I pad into our ensuite. The lights come on at the morning brightness setting. I brush my teeth with a comfortable toothbrush and floss – they’re both designed for my specific mouth conditions and their sensors take another reading on my health. On the mirror, I see there’s only one preventative health measure prescribed (tablets, food or exercise) – there’ll be a slow release Vitamin D supplement in my morning juice.
Being increasingly aware of my health data over the past 10 years has been a blessing and a curse. The past 3 years I’ve actively worked on improving my body’s nutrient absorption, gave up coffee and I’ve increased my bone strength. The blessing is all that comes from better health, the curse is the extra logistics to do what’s prescribed – this is part of the reason we invested in Marta (She’s our house help (robot)) and since then, things have been super easy, assisted by ultra-fast home-delivery of such a wide selection of specific foods that are good for our health – raw, pre-prepared or fully-cooked.
I change into workout gear that has the usually sensors and temperature-regulation and head downstairs, saying “Hi” to Marta – she’s preparing our breakfasts. I can hear the kitchen 3D printer creating my Vitamin D supplement.
Popping my slim headset on I see our spare room transform to a workout room with my (virtual) personal trainer. My implants and house sensors accurately track my vitals and workout results. As my workout finishes my favourite beach surrounds me as the environment changes for a guided meditation. The technology has worked out from my current brainwaves, recent moods and today’s schedule that the meditation length will be 9 minutes.
I head into the kitchen ready for Marta’s green juice. She’s just started making my cooked breakfast in our tiny kitchen with it’s few, multi-functional gadgets. Cooking from scratch these days is a novelty with so many accessible, delicious, healthy, quick options. Since the identification of so many health-affecting germs over the past 10 years and home help that can eradicate them real-time with sustainable products, everything on the food front is so easy.
Marta suggests I chat with my cousin who’s free. While I eat breakfast we chat generally then notice the suggested discussion topics on our hologram screens that then strengthen our conversation (recent birthdays, family activities, new health innovations and her recent virtual build of another use for their spare room). At the end of the call I see that my productivity tech picked up a couple of actions we talked about and is already making them happen (namely logistics for our next catch up and booking in time to try out my cousin’s new virtual room that could be useful in our home). It’s great to be in regular contact which is now easier owing to less work hours these days.
After the call, my mobile hologram switches to my fun, daily checks of today’s selections for travel (air/passenger drones and ground/self-driven capsules), clothing and meals. A quick scan has me aware and satisfied. There’s nothing to alter and I’m mindful that my (artificial) assistants are constantly learning and their suggested selections and automated choices are amazingly helpful now both as time savers, productivity enhancement and to free my mind of mundane decisions. I review Marta’s list of suggested actions to have our life running smoothly and agree to most and answer outstanding questions via verbal comment. Marta receives this information immediately and starts working on it while she’s sorting the washing.
I pad upstairs to our wardrobe and see today’s outfit suggested by my stylist. She’s had such a fast knack of finding great clothes that are ultra-comfortable, made of sustainable fabrics (my tech identified I’ve a sensitivity to certain dyes), and incorporate useful new tech. She’s cleverly integrated tech and data to complement her work skills and experience. She’s based in Tel Aviv.
Her process starts by her tech analysing (pretty much) the world’s outfits based on my measurements, my personal and health data (including my skin toning) as well as all of my data on the internet (much of this shows my preferences for style and lifestyle). It then gathers 1,000 outfits and as you skim through the first 20 many are discarded with respect to what you don’t like. – saying what you do and don’t like – it has worked out a wardrobe. I particularly like the colour pallets, the consistent geometric tailored necklines with a hint of femininity from the 20’s, and that every outfit has a pocket (I remember a time when women’s fashion didn’t). Over the following three weeks and then the following seasons, the stylist checks in with suggested tweaks. Now it constantly receives measurements via my sensors and fast communication connections and combines it with a vast database of new clothes and fabrics. She’s saved us time and money as my clothes and wardrobe is actually pretty small and much has been printed at home – including accessories from the library she has installed on our 3D printer.
My clothing style is quickly solidifying. It’s been an enlightening process as I was never that interested in clothes before though my style is now clear and we’ve co-designed unique pieces that work so well that they’re being sold and I gain a small commission. Who knew there were others who wanted similar pieces to me!
I head down to my office where there’s a standup desk with VR 3D sensors around it, and (old school style) a physical A3 sketch pad with a few colourful pens ready to go for jotting ideas. A tea (tailored for concentration) is atop my standup desk. I sip it while I look at today’s list aside my computer. There’s not much to do before my surf this afternoon.
I voice activate my virtual office and the team appears around me. We’re a specialised think tank that finds current and future opportunities for subscribed companies. It’s fast, focused, fascinating and exhilarating work. The team (from Madrid, Yemen, Paris, Boston, Argentina and Melbourne) is a lot of fun. Practical jokes are a regular occurrence. Today we’re scoping the impacts and the opportunities from a potential new piece of software to incorporate through an organisation. If it works for this organisation, we’ll include it as a quick-to-implement bonus report for other relevant customers. We do a quick brainstorm for 30 minutes, then 20 minutes to see how far we can implement / analyse on our own, onto a 20 minute focused debrief with next steps. Dynamic, fun and interesting.
We check in with each other and see what’s happened overnight on other projects and ideas. A new system we suggested for a client has worked well (all implemented by specialised robots). After a high five (that feels real!) and a check in about other plans we say bye, leaving our virtual assistant (robots) to sort out the details of our next meetings and some of the actions we agreed on. I write a few notes, send a few messages to gain more information on a few things, check in with my assistant to answer her questions.
Marta calls out that my transport is here to take me to a new cafe for lunch. It’s 15 minutes by passenger drone. I’ve heard it has the latest tech to integrate personal taste preferences and health data into their menu which is co-designed each day by a local chef, a coastal nutrition expert, and the latest health AI. Marta uploaded my health data and personal preferences this morning.
I hope you enjoyed the story and perhaps your reflection. What will your life be like? I’d love to hear your perspective. Shoot me a reply with ideas, challenging comments, or even questions to expand parts of this story. I’ll be fascinated.
Here are aspects I wanted to incorporate: – constant experimentation – feedback loops – shared collective data – it’s more interesting and useful to share data and experiences – consistent, startling innovation that reduces life friction – less work – an individual’s refinement of style, productivity and attention – smaller houses as VR transforms spaces
Deep Work, Self-Driving Cars, Automation & Great Online Presence
Hi,
Welcome to the 21st edition of this email. Did you know you can read all past editions in our archive?
The subject this time round is Deep Work.
Ready? Let’s focus…
_____
Deep Work
Hi from Torquay, overlooking the waves rolling in. I’m freshly inspired from listening to Cal Newport’s “Deep Work”. These words are interesting:
“In this new economy, three groups will have a particular advantage: those who can work well and creatively with intelligent machines, those who are the best at what they do, and those with access to capital.”
“To remain valuable in our economy, therefore, you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. This task requires deep work. If you don’t cultivate this ability, you’re likely to fall behind as technology advances.”
Cal’s book is fascinating with quickly actionable tips and this is a great list by Ryan Holiday on how he does deep work. Fascinating.
Things getting too heavy?
“Piaggio recently unveiled the company’s first product, a personal cargo robot named Gita. The bot can carry up to 40 pounds autonomously using maps, or by following a human operating the bot’s path… It’s fast enough to keep up with you on a bike (22MPH), and [has] the “human agility” needed to navigate sidewalks.” via Peter Diamandis
Gita and other helpful-to-humans technology excites me! You too?
Self-driving cars: coming sooner
Recently in conversations I’ve suggested we’ll use self-driving cars sooner than expected, for a couple of reasons:
With so many other things to do, see, read, watch, catch up on (including sleep), car driving will start to be less of interest compared to other things we could do.
As more images of newly designed car interiors (movie cinema, sleeping pod, working space / shared office) appear the idea of the car being a location to do other things than drive will grow on us… quickly.
“the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining.” Stephen Hawking
I’ve also recently heard the entrancing term the “post-work economy”. Universal Basic Income anyone? What do you think?
“In this new economy, three groups will have a particular advantage: those who can work well and creatively with intelligent machines, those who are the best at what they do, and those with access to capital.” 
