InnerVentures

Two things/events lead me here, to this thinking and sense making. One is Marc Andreesen’s latest thinking, published on the 16th of October in his Techno-Optimist Manifesto. The other is the crisis unfolding in the middle East. Here are my thoughts, not so much on the thinking or the events themselves but our reaction to them and why it is imperative we embrace the approaches I am advocating for if we are to innovate and thrive.

Techno Optimism

I am one. That’s the first thing to say.

I’m not saying I’m a vehement supporter of everything Andreesen captured in his manifesto (with the help of a machine more than likely). Just that I’m a Techno Optimist.

It helps to work in the technology industry like I do. But that’s not a pre-requisite. It doesn’t matter either way.

Technology is going to progress whether you’re an optimist or luddite. Whether you embrace it or don’t.

What matters is how you react to the change that is inevitable.

Optimists will do it naturally, luddites will be forced to or die resisting. They wont die because of the technology and change it brings, they will just naturally die holding triumphantly or miserably onto their resistance.

For the most part they will be left woefully and inadequately behind.

That’s not to say we don’t have a responsibility to use and apply technology properly and make it work for us instead of itself (the alleged dangers of AI), which brings me to my next point.

positive Impact

Bleak events such as those occurring in the Middle East can get to you.

Events like these happening in succession can do serious damage to your mental health.

Current events are in addition to what has been happening in Ukraine and in the aftermath of the Pandemic too.

It’s hard to be an optimist in the face of such adversity so you have to work at it, think hard and change your mindset.

Yet faced with horrors and the worst of humanity or really challenging times should make it easier to think about what you are doing in the world and why.

It happened to a degree after the Pandemic where people realised that the mindless commuting they had been subjected to and blindly accepted for years had a viable alternative.

Despite moves to shift back to the status quo, the genie is out of the bottle and I don’t think we will ever be the same.

Many took the opportunity to think about the impact of the pandemic and focused on changing their lives once they learned how things could be and what was really important. Individuals realised there was more to life that extra time and proximity afforded.

Companies have also seen the real financial impact and savings working from home can bring.

When you realise that the world is full of bad actors, it also makes you realise where you want to be.

You could join them.

Or you could think about what you are truly doing and want to do and how that will make a net positive contribution to humanity and in the environment in which we currently exist, planet earth.

It should make you think about how you spend your time and with who and to what end.

What are you doing and what outcomes is it achieving and impact is it making? How is it overcoming the negativity and how can you light a candle rather than curse the darkness.

Happy with what you see? Great, keep going. If not, change what your doing.