The Profile: The billionaire who lived a double life & the news giant cracking from within

Technology is changing one of the most powerful forces in shaping society: ambition. What the most ambitious people choose to do with their lives has a profound impact on society, the economy and culture. It’s changing, fast.First, that digital technology is the most recent in a series of ‘technologies of ambition’ that have enabled ambitious peopl... See more

This is the most profound shift of all. Moving from the J.P. Morgan model of ambition to the Mark Zuckerberg model shifts the balance of power from capital to talent. Ambitious people have gone from writing cheques to writing code. Today the most ambitious individuals don’t own the means of production, if they can write code they are their own mean... See more

starting in the late 1980s, with the explosion of the knowledge economy, people who were broader—who had worked across numerous technological domains—started making the biggest impacts. That's continuing today.

Increased need for individual identity

In 1820, if you wanted to discover a new idea, you’d probably sail to a new continent

Another example: Ben Thompson, creator of the Stratechery newsletter