Where To Look

Where can we look to find what is next.

We can look at talent - where are smart people going to work. This was a case often made about machine learning 5 years ago and is a case VCs make today for why they spend their time on crypto, smart people they know are leaving their jobs to go work on crypto.

We can look at other countries that are ahead of the rest of the world in a certain domain. For example, if we want to see what may be next in gaming, we can look at what is happening in South Korea.

We can look at the human imagination. Fictional ideas that have been around for a while in myths and sci fi often indicate something that people want. Going to the moon, virtual reality, and video calling were all popular ideas in fiction for a long time before they were made realities. Even the roomba existed in The Jetsons before it was built for real.

We can look at the margins. Often new technologies are first adopted by people who are not serviced by the current system before those technologies are brought to the mainstream. Cannabis companies were often early to accept bitcoin, because they didn’t fit into the existing financial system. Often homeschoolers are those who have don’t fit into the existing public education system and need an alternative, the top secular reason for homeschooling is safety.

We can look at where there are needs. Because religion has a big need to spread knowledge, religions are often innovators in education and we can often look at religions to see what comes next in education. There was free youth education in madrassas before there were free public schools. There was a printed bible before there was a printed encyclopedia. The first universities were religious institutions. Today there are online churches that hold interactive live lessons with hundreds of people all over the world who join solo or in small groups over video call. So likewise, first there are live, online churches and next there will be live, online universities.

Where else?