Silicon Valley's boom; Creativity and AI; Google's strategy
💡Think
Hey everybody!
I was a guest at an event this week (link further down) and for the first time* experienced someone subtweeting my words – quoting me on social media in a negative way without mentioning my name.
This was a weird feeling, and I wasn't sure what to do, but decided to try and act with tact. I didn't engage immediately, and waited until the next day to reach out.
I messaged them and asked if they would appreciate some clarity, which they did! After explaining, they apologised a lot, but the words still live on Twitter. The increase in private respect was enough for me in this instance.
I suppose a learning here is that not everyone will understand your nuance, but we can't please everyone.
Have a great week 🎤
*it's almost certainly happened before, I just haven't seen it
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ The end of Silicon Valley's 20 year boom
I bet that most if not all of you have only ever known Silicon Valley as a hub of wealth and tech innovation. Over the past few months though, we've seen a surprising turn – mass layoffs. What happened to the constant search for growth, and why is this part of the world laying people off despite job growth elsewhere?
❷ Your creativity won’t save your job from AI
Okay, that's a dramatic headline, but the article is really good. There's such an incredible buzz about AI at the moment, whether it's from art, to code, to writing, and we seem to be entering some sort of "golden age". What's worth considering though is that there's no mass rollout of any of this yet, meaning the use cases are still experimental and known by a few. Either way, there's some great example in this article of real-world practical solutions being worked on.
❸ Google has a company strategy, not a product strategy
This is a personal blog, but useful nonetheless. It's from someone who has worked in product for both Microsoft and Google, and contrasts both approaches to product development. To maybe no one's surprise, Microsoft was all about the longterm strategy, trickled down many levels. Google on the other hand seems to be more like "have an idea, ship the idea", which is wild considering the scale of the business!
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Bonus round
Create a festival lineup based on your Spotify Wrapped results
London design systems meetup recording (I did an AMA at the end for an hour)
🎧 Listen
Freedom of speech
This is a lecture by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who talks about the differences between freedom of speech across cultures and nations, the impact of the recent Salman Rushdie attack, and how context plays a huge part in the understanding of our words. It's a long one, but I really enjoyed it. And the intro is done by a woman with the most impeccable British accent I've ever heard.
Listen to this podcast (1 hour 9 minutes)