Alex Salkever is an author, a speaker and a futurist. He has been a senior executive at a number of Silicon Valley startups and technology companies including Mozilla and Telefonica. He’s also been the technology editor of BusinessWeek and dozens of other major publications. He is co-author of: The Immigrant Exodus: Why America is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent”, which, by the way, was named by The Economist to the “Books of the Year List” in 2012. More recently he co-authored, The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future” which was named to a list of finalists for the Financial Times / McKinsey Book of the Year Award.
Episode Summary: How to be a Futurist with Alex Salkever
- What impact do electronics have in the education and reading process?
- Monotask v multitask- what is better?
- Focus in the moment
- Are there times and places for multitasking?
- Multitasking is not appropriate in all occasions
- Fragmentation of the work day is why people are so stressed out
- Create space for different tasks
- Futurist- you want to spend a lot of conscious time looking at what is happening and what is going to happen
- Futurists are often wrong- but it is the process of figuring out what the trends are
- Anyone can be a futurist – it is a mindset
- Futurists are observant and curious- familiar with their surroundings
- Immigrant entrepreneurs- Alex spent time researching how the US has become less friendly for starting a business as an immigrant
- Visa problems are hurting entrepreneurship
- Scaring away the risk takers
- Why are immigrants disproportionately more likely to be entrepreneurial?
- Have less to lose to begin with
- More willing to take risk
- Less likely to get other jobs, particularly white collar
- Risk appetite
- Do we control technology or does it control us?
- Is technology moving too quickly
- What is the purpose of a driver in the driverless car?
- What is pushing us towards innovation and how does that push determine our future?
- Technology is introducing interesting ethical conversations- specifically with genes
- Ethically and responsibly
- Self-regulate without regulating ourselves out of innovation
- Stay curious and read
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Learning From Leaders:
Current Book: Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Best Movie Ever: Blade Runner
Leadership Superpower: Take complex thoughts and communicate in crisp writing form
Motivational Mantra:
[shareable]It is never too late, never too dark[/shareable]
Leadership Trait to Pass to Next Generation:
Best Book Ever: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Additional Items Mentioned
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
The Emigrant Edge: How to Make It Big in America by Brian Buffini
Welcome to the Future by Brad Paisley