Unscaled 8: The Best Time in the History of the Universe

Can it be that now is the best time in the history of the universe to build meaningful products? The final episode of the Unscaled series considers how access to APIs, broader sources of funding, and tools on the internet that weren’t available ten years ago allow creators to build innovative new products faster, cheaper, and more easily than ever before. Yet, at the same time, creators now have the ability to cause widespread harm. With great power comes great responsibility.   Show notes Hemant Taneja’s book Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts are Creating the Economy of the Future (referral fees will be donated to charity) Hemant Taneja, managing director at General Catalyst Ronda Scott, marketing partner at General Catalyst Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law (1:48) The significance of 2007: when Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law came together (3:09 The golden age of venture capital (4:21) It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times (6:25) It’s easier to focus on what can go wrong; it takes imagination to envision what could go wrong (6:38) Think hard about first principles (7:47) Power to eliminate diseases and solve climate change (8:20) AI is the new electricity (9:51) Cultural shift: being an entrepreneur is conceivable (10:22) This acceleration of progress can go really well or really terribly—what will determine the direction of the future? (10:52) The evolution of the business, technology and policy framework (11:23) Are we living in a shared reality? (12:22) The attention economy and the commodity of anger (13:35) What is the true cost of tribal outrage? (15:04) Companies like Apple and Amazon do not fracture our reality through tribal outrage; Facebook and Twitter do (16:47) Instagram-enabled mental health epidemic (19:16)   To binge-listen to all eight episodes, please visit the Unscaled Series.   We want to hear from you Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes. Season 2 is coming soon! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.