Wtf?

We must keep asking: What will new technology let us do that was previously impossible? Will it help us build the kind of society we want to live in?

The question for me became one of how to maximize value creation for society, rather than simply value capture by an individual or a company.

Recognizing when you’re stuck in the words, looking at the map rather than looking at the road, is something that is surprisingly hard to learn. The key is to remember that this is an experiential practice. You can’t just read about it. You have to practice it.

This is my next lesson. If the future is here, but just not evenly distributed yet, find seeds of that future, study them, and ask yourself how things will be different when they are the new normal. What happens if this trend keeps going?

How can a business create more value for society than it captures for itself?

This ability to see the present with fresh eyes is central to the success of the greatest entrepreneurs. Their creativity lies in their ability to understand and apply ways that the world has changed, while everyone else is still following the old map.

who will win in self-driving cars, one has to ask not just who will have the best software, but who will have the most data. In a 2016 conversation with

To make the future economy better than the present, find new ways to augment workers, giving them new skills and access to new opportunities. As we automate something that humans used to do, how can we augment them so that they can do something newly valuable?

open source programs “evolve” as much as they are designed. And as I wrote in my 1998 paper, “Hardware, Software, and Infoware,” “Evolution breeds not a single winner, but diversity.”