Episode #93. Hey Sunday reader 👋🏼

This Sunday, The Timestamp comes again with your weekly dose of summaries from the articles, books, or podcasts you may have missed in tech & culture.

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#1. 2023 Predictions in tech

Rex Woodbury asked the following questions to 40 inspiring leaders in tech: Heading into 2023, what's one thing that not enough people are paying attention to? I am sharing here my top4 pick hoping this will lead you to read the full post published on Dec 16 2022 in Digital Native HERE.

2023 = Survival

2023 will be the year of survival. Good and not-so-good companies raised a lot of capital in 2020/21. In 2022, private companies were able to withstand the downturn and generally keep operating on a common, growth-oriented trajectory. In 2023, private companies will find a year of reckoning and have to adjust valuations and operations.

— Mike Volpi, Partner at Index Ventures

Innovation will not stop

People don’t realize that innovation is a steady drumbeat that isn’t a function of the capital markets. When times are good, people start great companies. When times are bad, people start great companies. It’s easy to get lost in that recoil during a year like 2022, but it’s important to remember that innovation waits for no one.

— Chris Paik, Co-Founder and General Partner at Pace Capital

Let’s not be binary in our thinking

That we are falling into binary thinking. In 2021, companies were told to walk into Fort Knox to raise as much as they want because everything went up; in 2022 we were told to become profitable by next month at the latest. Both mindsets are wrong but also contain some truths. Perhaps that is a paradox, which is more difficult to live in than black-and-white philosophy. But I worry tech will lose its spirit if we are all susceptible to the same binary thinking.

— Eli Wachs, Co-Founder and CEO of Footprint

Gen Z looking for independence at work

Every generation needs to look to the next for changes. Gen Z is just starting to hit the work force, and their expectations for work are paradigm shift different—they want impact and flexibility, and they’re entrepreneurial. Full-time, part-time, side hustle, business—it all blurs together. The next 20 years is for the independent solopreneur, not the employee.

— Sima Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Creative Juice

#2. Révolution hospitalière with Hublo 🏥

Antoine Loron, cofounder @Hublo, works daily on one of the most concerning issues France faces as a nation: the deterioration of healthcare in hospitals. Antoine just published a book ‘Le Grand Epuisement’ which helps us realize the human nature of the problem and the solutions. Here are a few highlights from this book which is more positive than its title.

Le Grand Epuisement Nov 2022 (Ed. Débats Publics) / Click on photo above to buy

Les hopitaux sont également touchés par un sujet qui concerne notre société entière: l’évolution de notre rapport au travail. Pour ceux qui cherchent un sens au travail (sachant que tous ne cherchent pas le sens dans tout), et particulièrement dans des métiers difficiles comme ceux des personnels soignants, ce sens du travail repose communément sur 3 piliers:

L’impact de votre travail ou entreprise sur la société, sur le monde,
L’impact du travail de chaque collaborateur dans l’entreprise qui l’emploie,
La possibilité de progresser, de développer des compétences, de devenir une meilleure version de soi-même.

Face à l’essor des algorithmes et de l’intelligence artificielle, il est réaliste de penser que l’humanité et l’empathie resteront des singularités de l’Homme. Il est important de valoriser des soft skills comme l’empathie, la capacité à former et encadrer des équipes sensibles, pédagogues, empathiques ( en plus d’être de bons techniciens).

Bien avoir à l’esprit que près de 80% des 18-24ans n’accepteraient pas un métier qui n’a pas de sens pour eux.

L'exemple de gestion humaine chez Netflix: « Notre but, c'est d'inspirer les gens plutôt que de les manager. Nous souhaitons que nos équipes fassent ce qui est le mieux pour Netflix. Cela génère un sens des responsabilités, de l'imputabilité et de l'autodiscipline qui nous motive pour faire de l'excellent travail. La liberté en elle-même n'est pas l'objectif. L'objectif est de créer un attachement fort à Netflix de sorte que le personnel agisse pour le bien de l'entreprise. »
Cela se traduit par une absence de règle précise qui met en lumière un niveau de confiance dans les employés rarement atteint: « Notre politique concernant les voyages, les invitations, les cadeaux et autres dépenses tient en quelques mots seulement: "Agissez dans le meilleur intérêt de Netflix". Quant à notre politique sur les congés, elle se résume à "Prenez des vacances".»

#3. Lessons from monkeys

Patrick Kervern shares with us some key takeaways from an article published on Nov 27 2022 in Digital Tonto ‘3 important lessons that monkeys can teach us about business and life’. Lessons from Patrick:

Three things monkeys can teach us about business and life

1. Build The #MonkeyFirst

Eliminate obstacles to building ideas. Start with the hard part. At Google X, the tech giant’s “moonshot factory,” the mantra is #MonkeyFirst. The idea is that if you want to get a monkey to recite Shakespeare on a pedestal, you start by training the monkey, not building the pedestal, because training the monkey is the hard part. Anyone can build a pedestal.

2- Don’t Get Taken In By Coin Flipping Monkeys

Put a million monkeys in a coin-flipping contest. The winners in each round win a dollar and the losers drop out. After twenty rounds, there will only be two monkeys left, each winning $262,144. The vast majority of the other monkeys leave with merely pocket change.
But how much would you pay the winning monkeys to speak at your corporate event? Don’t be fooled by chance. The truth is that chance and luck play a much bigger part in success than we like to admit. Next time you judge someone, either by their success or lack thereof, ask yourself whether you are judging actual accomplishment or telltale signs of successful coin flipping. It’s harder to tell the difference than you’d think.

3- The Infinite Monkey Theorem

There is an old thought experiment called the Infinite Monkey Theorem, which is really disturbing. The basic idea is that if there were an infinite amount of monkeys pecking away on an infinite amount of keyboards they would, in time, produce the complete works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and every other literary masterpiece. But what do we value and why? What is the difference between things human produced and identical works that are computer generated?

Are Tolstoy’s words what give his stories meaning?
Or is it the intent of the author and the fact that a human was trying to say something important?

Think deeply about what you value and why.

#4. La Fayette ce héros

Probably the most famous character from a piece of green land in France that is known as l’Auvergne. I am sharing my key learnings from this book from Gonzague Saint Bris about this hero of 2 continents. I take the opportunity to thank my mother for giving me this book which I recommend.

La Fayette, published in 2006 (Ed. Gallimard) / Click on the picture above to buy

La Fayette est cet homme que Charles X saura reconnaître aux Tuileries avec ces mots: « Je hais la Révolution française et ses auteurs »; et d’ajouter: « Monsieur de La Fayette et moi avons ceci de commun que nous n'avons jamais changé d'opinion. »

“La Fayette mourra vieux, ayant connu Napoléon, son ascension et sa chute, et ayant placé Louis-Philippe sur le trône de France, au balcon de l'Hôtel de Ville, enveloppé dans les plis du drapeau tricolore, au moment même où l'opinion le réclamait, lui, le marquis libertaire, en personne, comme le premier président de la République de France. Ainsi fut la vie de ce chérubin impétueux, qui mourut, en mai 1834, à la fois éternel dans sa renommée et toujours libre, son vieux front sans lauriers avancé dans les âges nouveaux.”

Cet homme que les américains n’oublieront jamais : « Nous vous regarderons toujours comme nous appartenant », déclare John Quincy Adams, futur président des États-Unis, en 1824.

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The Timestamp

2023 Predictions in tech 🎢- La révolution…