Five years ago I was inspired by a blogpost from Italian investor Stefano Bernardi. The title was “Reflections and learnings as I turn 30”. When I read it, I wondered what my beliefs were going to be when I was going to finish my 30th round around the sun. I’m turning 30 today, so I’m ready to share my own reflections. I hope these will inspire someone like Stefano inspired me....
Last week both Facebook and Twitter banned Donald Trump from their platforms. I’ve read tens of people outraged by this novel display of political power from private organisations. I agree with whoever says that tech platforms have political power. Arguably, the algorithms in the hands of Facebook, Twitter or Youtube can shape our political landscape more than lawmakers can. However, I question whether tech giants’ CEOs actually care about it....
“Google’s AI succeeds in predicting protein’s 3D structures from their amino-acid sequence”. This was the headline on every tech blog, publication or forum I followed last week. And I had no freaking idea what that meant. I invited a biologist friend over for dinner and asked him to explain to me why that’s a big deal. “If this AI thing works, it’s a 10, 100, or maybe even 1000x improvement on the way we’ve been doing research until now”....
Med students take an oath after they graduate. They read a 2000 year old document called the Hippocratic oath, swearing to uphold certain ethical standards in their profession. And it makes sense. Imagine you’re sick and that your health depends on a young human you call “doctor”. You’d like to know that this human will keep your best interests in mind, and will use her knowledge to heal you, rather than killing you or selling you drugs you don’t need....
You’re driving a car, and suddenly someone walks in front of you. You have two choices: You hit the person You steer towards a wall and potentially kill you and your friend in the passenger’s seat. Which one do you pick? I’ll spare you the discomfort of the decision and tell you the truth: you won’t choose either. You’ll be driven by your instincts, do whatever they make you do in that split second you have, and deal with the consequences....
Join my subscribers to get weekly curated emails with my posts. No spam, no marketing bullshit. Opt-out at anytime. You have my word I won't not spam your inbox or share your email with any third parties.