From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
...adoption of random strategies diminishes the probability of extreme events (in this case large capital increases or great losses) but also ensures almost the same average wealth over a long time period, at variance with other technical strategies...
To put it in perspective, every hour spent sitting beyond four hours daily increases mortality risk by 10%. I tackle this with a walking desk, using a treadmill at a low speed throughout my workday.
Incumbents are not doomed, and disruptors are not ordained.
Much jitteriness in this recent crisis has come down to 'flying blind' – where investors and risk managers have been caught somewhat unaware, and do not have the visibility to make decisions with support.
Here was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates- two young guys, under the age of 30, talking about their noble cause of empowering knowledge workers with tools for the mind, making them incredibly productive, and helping them to change the way things were done in our world; creating entirely new industries in the process.
The fear of loss is real because it is based on perceptions of reality. It cannot be wished away by education. The idea that education can reduce resistance to innovation is often informed by the misguided view that people oppose new technologies because of ignorance. This is not the case.
Industry expertise can sometimes be a hindrance in innovation. Those deeply entrenched in an industry are often the least likely to disrupt it.
It's the ultimate invention—the last one we'll ever need to make—because once we have AI that is generally intelligent and then superintelligent, it will do the inventing far better than we can. In that sense, it's a handing over of the baton.
We adopted in Portugal a National Strategy for Entrepreneurship: Startup Portugal. A strategy that aims to make Portugal the ideal space to create, test, fail and try again.
If you're not doing this stuff already, just know that other companies are, and if you're not engaging in these activities, you can't keep up, you can't compete.
That is my courage – I see things thanks to young people around me, and go forward fast, implementing before others do.
I often tell students we work with that there will be moments when they, as newcomers, propose ideas or approaches that are innovative and correct simply because they bring a fresh perspective, uninfluenced by established norms or the supposed limits of what's possible.