InfoCompanions » Amazon

Moving from Information Age to Conceptual Age

Himanshu Sharma — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:19:31 +0000

Daniel Pink is a well known and best-selling author about the changing shape of talent. His provocative works include “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need”, which interestingly is the first American book in the Japanese comic format known as manga. But you might know him from another one of his very interesting books, “A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age”. The book is a long-running New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller that has been translated into 18 languages. I just got a copy from Amazon – look out for my next blog post . Dan has also worked in the White House, where he served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. You’ll notice the same witty flavor to his engaging presentation in the video below.

As per Daniel, latest brain research suggests that our brain is divided into 2 major hemispheres – the LEFT brain and the RIGHT brain, both of which have clearly delineated tasks. LEFT brain focuses on the tasks that are linear, logical, analytical and/or sequential, while the RIGHT hemisphere processes tasks that are “contextual” and synthesis vs. analysis.

Dan argues that we see clear evidence of this concept in today’s global economy – till early in the century, the LEFT brain mattered the most, and got us here. However the scales are tilting – and (in particular US economy), will leverage the RIGHT hemisphere of the brain much more. He points to 3 main factors – Abundance, Asia and Automation – that points to the generalization, that any and all “routine” tasks… are “commodities” and can be easily outsourced… replacing the white/blue collar workforce. Economies of the advanced nations are/should increasingly becoming economies about “significance”, “aesthetics” and other RIGHT brain things.

I agree with his summary that we have moved from Agriculture Age (the age of farmers) > Industrial Age (the age of the factory workers) > Information Age (the age of Knowledge Workers)… and now are increasingly moving towards the “Conceptual Age” (the age of creators and empathizers). Great idea… couldn’t agree more. The problem is… our education system is way out of sync with this vision. We still rely on SAT, LSAT, GMAT and other such ridiculous scores that measure the volume of your LEFT brain. Maybe this is the right time to confess that back in school… I did my part to ensure a bigger bell curve Kinda reminds me of Malcom Gladwell’s presentation from NewYorker conference about how our talent development and acquisition strategies are still 18th century old and haven’t evolved a bit… while on the other hand… the kind of work we do has undergone dramatic changes. Obama’s pick for secretary of Education, Chicago schools Supt. Arne Duncan, is a reformer respected by traditionalists and innovators alike. Let’s hope his appointment is a positive step in this direction.

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Dangers of Blogging… for Men

Himanshu Sharma — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a careful lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, for men.

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About Yossi Vardi:
Joseph “Yossi” Vardi has helped more than 40 startups see the light of day, among them Mirabilis (makers of ICQ) and the video companies Scopus and BrightCove. He’s a strategic advisor to Amazon and AOL, and a venture partner of Pitango, one of Israel’s largest VC funds.

He’s a lively presence in the world of tech startups, with an absurd sense of humor and a refreshing set of values (restated in a much-commented-on TechCrunch post in October) that drive his approach to new investments. The takeaways: Judge the individual over the business plan; and don’t shy away from an entrepreneur who has failed before: “It makes them want to win even more,” he said.

Technology’s Long Tail

Himanshu Sharma — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous. To demonstrate this trajectory, Anderson explores the evolution of the DVD player as it passes through each of these four tipping points, then offers specific examples of current trends in technology — ranging from DNA sequencing to the hybrid — to illustrate each stage of the game.

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About Chris Anderson:
Before Chris Anderson took over as editor of WIRED, he spent seven years at The Economist, where he worked as editor of both the technology and business sections. Anderson holds a degree in physics and has conducted research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and has done stints at the leading journals Nature and Science.

He’s perhaps most famous for coining the term “the long tail,” a whiteboard favorite that describes the business strategy of pursuing many little fish (versus a few big fish), as typified by both Amazon and Netflix. Anderson first introduced the term in an article written for WIRED in 2004; the book-length version, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, became a bestseller. He maintains a blog, The Long Tail, which he updates with impressive regularly.

There’s Innovation Ahead

Himanshu Sharma — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:00:00 +0000

The dot-com boom-and-bust is often compared to the 1849 Gold Rush, and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos offers historical evidence showing how similar they were: from the riches made by pioneers to the media hype that attracted luckless speculators. But a better analogy can be found in the early days of the electric industry, he says. In the late 1800s, the U.S. was first wired to support lightbulbs; the following century saw a long procession of new appliances, life-changing advances, and of course some amusing failures. His conclusion in 2003: “I believe there’s more innovation ahead of us than behind us.”

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About Jeff Bezos:
Jeff Bezos didn’t invent online shopping, but he almost single-handedly turned it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. His Amazon.com began as a bookstore in 1994, and quickly expanded into dozens of product categories, forcing the world’s biggest retailers to rethink their business models, and ultimately changing the way people shop.

But Amazon.com isn’t just an internet success story. It’s the standard by which all web businesses are now judged — if not by their shareholders, then by their customers. Amazon set a high bar for reliability and customer service, and also introduced a wide range of online retail conventions — from user reviews and one-click shopping to the tab interface and shopping cart icon — so commonplace we no longer think of them as once having been innovations.

When the Internet bubble burst, Amazon.com took a hit with the other e-commerce pioneers, but the fundamentally sound company hung tough. It now sells more than $8 billion a year of goods, profitably, and its technology will influence the changes to business and media that will come next. Bezos, meanwhile, is one of the few early Web CEOs who still run the companies they founded. Outside of his work with Amazon, he recently founded Blue Origin, a space-flight startup.