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Sticky post Virtual Reality

Will Virtual Reality Take Over Our Lives?

June 21, 2022 /

Will Virtual Reality Take Over Our Lives?

Just like the personal computer in the 2000s and the smartphone did in the 2010s, I believe virtual reality technology (VR) will become an integral part of our lives in the coming decade.

Since the inception of the telegraph, a device that sent information long distances by altering electrical signals, communication through technology has become increasingly more immersive. After the telegraph, came the telephone and the ability for people to speak to one another over long distances, then the radio, the TV, and now we can have live face-to-face conversations from anywhere in the world at any time through our phones! If we look back in time and pay attention to the degree of immersion in technology, we can see that it increases as time moves forward. As this trend continues, I believe the next step to take in our quest for near-perfect immersion is to build and implement VR technology into our lives. 

Industry transformation 

VR technology will lead to change in a number of different industries and areas of our lives.

Entertainment

Every video game designer’s goal is to “suck the player into the game” and create the most immersive game they possibly can. As VR games get better in terms of performance and more people begin to play VR games, console makers and game designers will begin to build consoles and games that utilize VR. As VR technology improves, I see VR games becoming the new norm in the gaming industry.  This argument can apply to movies and tv shows as well.

Work

Remote work is going to stay, and VR is a no-brainer when it comes to improving productivity and enhancing collaboration in remote work environments. Horizon Workrooms, a VR workspace developed by Meta, helps workers connect and collaborate on projects. Some of Workroom’s features include the ability for coworkers to see each other’s avatars around a virtual conference tab, interact with coworkers, and share whiteboards to encourage collaborative planning and brainstorming.  VR will make employees more productive and make remote work seem more office-like. 

Horizon Workrooms

Economical

VR technology is a great investment for companies and institutions because it allows them to reduce expenses across all areas of their business.

There are countless examples where VR can save time and money, which leads to greater efficiency, productivity, and profitability for companies and institutions. 

By implementing VR into their curriculum, schools will save money on funding experiments, labs, field trips, or other kinds of hands-on projects. By incentivizing hands-on learning, VR will make learning safer and more fun for kids.

As VR becomes more immersive it makes less sense to meet in person, especially when traveling over great distances. VR technology will discourage commutes, save money that would otherwise be spent on transportation, and ultimately reduce climate change.

By spending less money per employee (space in the office, snacks, property upkeep, etc) businesses will have more money to reinvest back into their company. From a managerial standpoint, switching to remote work will lead to increased profitability. With VR remote work having little deviation from the real workplace, it’s a no-brainer that companies will look to implement this technology into their organizations in the near future.

Sticky post

How To Find Your Billion-Dollar Startup Idea…

June 14, 2022 /

How To Find Your Billion-Dollar Startup Idea…

One of the most difficult roadblocks in your journey to becoming an entrepreneur is coming up with your startup idea. In this article, I have noted three different maxims that have helped me overcome this roadblock in the past.

Start with the problem

Start with the problem, then think of an outside-the-box and innovative solution to address the problem. 

The subject of this problem shouldn’t be a trend other entrepreneurs are flocking to. The fundamental point here is that the problem should be something you’re passionate about solving. You should be intellectually curious about the subject of the problem you are trying to solve and have a genuine drive to solve it.

After finding the problem, brainstorm solutions that are within the realm of your skills and strengths

After finding the problem you want to work on, brainstorm innovative and outside-the-box solutions that address the problem and fall within the realm of your skillset

I don’t know anything about machine learning (yet). Unless I believe building a machine learning model is the optimal solution to my problem I’m not going to go out and take 4+ months learning machine learning when I can build an effective software solution to my problem without making that investment. If I really want to integrate machine learning into my idea, that’s when I can find people to help me fill those knowledge gaps.

Finding a solution that utilizes your strengths and skillset will only increase the likelihood of your startup succeeding. You will ultimately be more involved in the development and creation phase of your startup and having a greater role in your startup will only increase your drive to succeed. 

And finally, the most important rule of all …

Pursue an idea that even if you weren’t going to get paid for, you would still go after. An idea you would spend the rest of your life pursuing, even if it meant getting nothing in return

This is the kind of passion needed to build a successful startup. 90% of startups end up failing and the chances are you will fail too. The lifestyle of an entrepreneur pursuing a startup is extremely difficult and filled with sacrifices. You have absolutely no chance of succeeding in your entrepreneurial journey unless you are willing to work harder than 99.999% of people every single day for years.

The chance of failure is high but…

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor​​ – Elon Musk

Google’s secret weapon, X – The Moonshot Company.

June 12, 2022 /

Google’s secret weapon, X – The Moonshot Company.

In the world of startups, a moonshot company is defined as an ambitious, exploratory, and ground-breaking project undertook without any expectation of profitability or benefit and, perhaps, without a full investigation of potential risks and benefits.

A moonshot company doesn’t have any established markets. The founders of moonshot companies don’t start them to get rich, but rather explore and create solutions and products that are disruptive, monumentally difficult to create, or are years ahead of their time.

In 2010, Google decided to launch its own moonshot company, Google X, now called X, The Moonshot Factory. Since its inception, X’s mission has been to invent and launch “moonshot” technologies that aim to make the world a radically better place. 

It is extremely difficult not to look to Google as the best work environment of any tech company in the world, but Astro Teller, X’s CEO, has created a culture at X that is just as quintessential as Google’s.

X’s HQ

Life and Work at X

What I love about X is that they operate sort of like a research lab, except under a two trillion dollar company rather than a non-profit research establishment. There isn’t a single company in the world that celebrates and rewards their employees when projects fail, besides X.

 X’s approach to projects can be summarized by this process

  1. Bring together smart people from a number of different disciplines 
  2. Search for sci-fi-sounding ideas (it doesn’t matter how feasible they are)
  3. Turn them into something that can make a real-world impact as quickly as possible 

Ultimately, X has created a culture that facilitates the name “ The Moonshot Factory”. In their own words, it’s about designing a culture with the values and practices that can resist the pull towards the comfortable and conventional, and make radical, purpose-driven creativity the path of least resistance. This culture that X has created at their company has led to many interested and successful projects.

Projects at X

The self-driving car project

You might have heard of Waymo, a self-driving car company that was actually developed at X and spun off into a google subsidiary of its own. The self-driving car was one of X’s first projects and since then they have developed a number of interesting and creative products.

A Waymo self-driving car

Google Glass

The Google Glass is Google’s most infamous project to date. This product generated huge controversy and was ultimately determined to be a failure. Since then, the glass has managed to find new life in the manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare fields, where people use the glass to receive information and data about something while they work with their hands.

An engineer utilizing Google Glass

Google Brain

The Google Brain is X’s most financially successful product to date. The Google Brain is a deep learning system that is utilized in all aspects of Google’s business today. 

Loon

Loon is one of X’s most interesting and creative ventures. The goal of this project is to bring internet access to everyone by creating an internet network of balloons flying through the stratosphere. By using wireless routers in balloons that are above any kind of weather conditions, Loons planned to give internet to those who couldn’t reach it or were in need of help.  This project graduated from X in 2018

Project Loon

Dandelion

X’s dandelion project created a solution to help ease the energy crisis of the future. This project utilized geothermal energy, (thermal energy within the earth’s crust) to heat and cool homes. This project was spun out into its own company in 2017 and powers homes in the northeast part of the US today.

A Dandelion airconditioner

Is a moonshot subdivision a good investment?

So is X, the moonshot company, actually Google’s secret weapon? It is hard to find a convincing argument for this if you look at this question from only a financial standpoint. However, I believe that X and other moonshot subdivisions in big tech companies are worthwhile investments for the future.

It is extremely difficult to find markets for the radical and disruptive technologies that X creates.  These markets are often very small or non-existent in the present. Disruptive technologies are built for the markets that will exist in the future, but it is difficult to determine when these markets will emerge or if they will emerge at all. 

Despite this, innovation has advantages. Especially when markets for these innovations begin to emerge. Companies that develop radical and innovative technologies become the first movers in these markets. As these markets continue to grow, established companies don’t usually tend to invest in these emerging markets due to their small sizes. But as these markets grow, they slowly overtake and replace old and established technologies. By the time it makes sense for companies to invest in these radical technologies, it is too late.  A moonshot company is one of the best ways a company can protect itself from these kinds of scenarios. 

Going back to X, the company has created many profitable projects that have helped Google’s business tremendously such as the Google Brain and Waymo.

From a societal standpoint, moonshot companies are a force of good for the world that continue to push society forward through innovations that create positive change.  

 I believe moonshot companies such as X create much-needed value in the world by innovating and tackling big problems without a profit motive. If more companies followed X’s philosophy of creating radical new technologies to solve the world’s toughest problems we would live in a much better place.

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