Spencer Yen

“Do you know the biggest mistake most musicians make?” he said. “Their first album comes from love, heartbreak, passion, or depression. They have no expectation of how the world will respond. They write it from the heart, and if it catches on, they’re validated by the world. But then they start writing their second album, and they don’t necessarily... See more

The common theme in the development of each major platform (electricity, cars, planes, the web, mobile, etc.) is that we build what we can given the tools available to us at the moment. In Where Do Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson refers to this as The Adjacent Possible. In other words, you can open the door to the next room, but you can’t... See more

Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful. Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices.

Your future self calls to you in the present through what you're interested in."

While I respect, and am even jealous of France’s relaxed culture, a life pointed to the accumulation of simple pleasures, I miss England’s (and the US’s) dynamism, the tinkering entrepreneurial-ism, which might result in less outward contentment, but does accomplish big, important, and long lasting things.

If I lived in France I would get either

... See more

It's about setting myself up to be able to notice or be surprised. A lot of people don't realize how much they're cutting themselves off from serendipity and opportunity.

People talk a lot about making your own luck or serendipity in careers. It starts to sound like an aphorism or warmed-over career advice, but people don't take it seriously enough.... See more

Similarly, the push notifications of social media platforms periodically tease you with what you’re missing out on, and the only way for you to find out more is to re-enter the maze. The result of having your day punctuated by these notifications is that your attention is constantly intercutting between the real world and the virtual one, so that... See more