Categories: Articles

What Technology Will Bring (Hint: More Massive Disruption)

This is some big brain stuff to watch over the weekend.

It’s probably also some of the smartest and most important things for you (and your business) to be thinking about in the next five years. I have been looking at the area of robotics, drones and wearable technology in a very different light for the past few years (I’ve even started a Tumblr page on the topic, We, Robots, but it’s dire need of being updated with all of the new content that I have been hoarding on Pocket). In short, there is a major panic in industry that the digitization of work and the growing dominance of newer robotic technology is going to push us all out of work. My theory, is that robots should not replace humans, but rather augment our work experience. Let the droids handle the work that doesn’t inspire, so that human beings have more time to be creative, exploratory and connecting to one another (yes, I know, it’s a big dream). At this past year’s TED conference, I was fortunate enough to discuss this topic and other trends over a dinner one night with Erik Brynjolfsson. He is the Schussel Family Professor at the MIT Sloan School, the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Along with Andrew McAfee (a scientist at MIT), they have co-authored the amazing book, The Second Machine Age – Work, Progress, And Prosperity In A Time Of Brilliant Technology. It’s a staggering data-based read about work and the future of business. McAfee recently had a conversation with Walter Isaacson (who heads up The Aspen Institute and also authored many books – including the Steve Jobs biography) at the institute. It’s over an hour long (so, pack a lunch), but it is something that will get you thinking completely differently about work today, and what it’s all going to mean tomorrow.

The Second Machine Age conversation between Andrew McAfee and Walter Isaacson is right here…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.