One Job, Three Perspectives

“I am laying bricks.”

“I am finishing a wall.”

“I am building a cathedral.”

Read those statements again, and reflect for a moment: what’s the difference between them?

It’s the same job, but what’s different is what the individual has chosen to focus on and how they have chosen to give meaning to what they do.

As a friend shared with me recently, each perspective is usually associated with the following attributes:

• Chore or project orientation: a focus on material benefits; the job is a means toward a financial end to enjoy time away from work. This person’s desires are…

Co-author: Zach Kagin | Originally drafted July 27

🔮 Predictions

Two months ago, after producing my first 🌍🌏🌎 virtual education unconference, I drafted 10 Education Predictions For The Next 10 Years. I want to highlight the first three:

1. Education gets the macro event needed to actually significantly shift its modus operandi toward being flexible and virtual. Shifting to virtual does not mean edtech is the end-all, be-all, but rather that many things once considered sacred (physical presence, attendance, days of school, curriculum coverage, the ‘grammar of school’) get revisited and reconfigured. (The longer COVID-19 goes on for, the more likely this is to happen.)
2. The roles of education and the…

If you’ve experienced the privilege and struggle of trying to figure out your purpose, your meaning, your why, then you know that this is both a surprisingly simple and devilishly difficult question to answer.

One of the best ways to (re)discover or (re)define an answer, is to ask this question of ourselves through reflection:

When have I felt most aligned in my life with what I am doing?

In other words, when have I felt energized, excited, meaningful, purposeful, creative — a sense of deep pride in my work or life?

Then, some beautiful corollary questions:

What did it feel…

What can go wrong when platforms don’t fully appreciate how bad actors can manipulate or leverage their technology for harm. And how ridesharing platforms have responsibility to build features to prioritize safety not just for passengers, but for drivers as well.

EDIT 5 Aug 2020: Thanks 🙏🏼 to the 6 generous souls who have donated $900 to help my friend get back on his feet. $1,100 more will make him completely whole for car repairs, lost income, medical bills and replacement tools (e.g., phone). You can contribute via Venmo.

He’s gotten back to work thanks to all your support!

O n Saturday, 30 May 2020, I organized my first 🌍🌎🌏 global virtual education unconference. It exceeded my wildest expectations as 30 participants joined from Johannesburg, Mauritius, Accra, Nairobi, Mochudi (Botswana), Medellín, London, Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston and DC. But don’t just take my word for it:

Articles I’ve published from the last couple months include:

• a vision for transformational learning,
• a letter to Marc Andreessen,
• a reflection on innovation in education and at Streetlight using an IDEO framework,
• a primer on CRISPR-Cas9 prime editing with broader commentary on ideation, innovation, iteration (complete with part 2 and part 3), and
• a growing list of emerging communities of entrepreneurs globally.

I’ve decided to tackle a new industry and topic this week: financial services and fintech.

Saison Capital was looking for Scouts to help their fund source deal flow and get smarter on markets around the world. Although they…

Originally published 19 May 2020. Anything without a date was added then. As I add more or more context, will tag with a date.

A s an entrepreneur beginning to contemplate what’s next, I’ve been exploring numerous new communities since the beginning of this year. I’d like to share some emerging communities, networks and opportunities that I’ve found powerful and some I still hope to explore.

The silver lining of COVID is that it’s shown how strong team our team at Streetlight is and allowed a deepening relationship with my partner. …

Contents

1. Introducing to the World: Prime Editing (pt. 1)
2. DNA and RNA: A Refresher (pt. 1)
3. Editing The Genome: Enter CRISPR-Cas9 (pt. 1)
4. A Complementary Technique to CRISPR-Cas9: Base Editing (pt. 2)
5. An Evolved Version of Base Editing: Prime Editing (pt. 2)
6. Why This Is Groundbreaking: Word Processors (pt. 3)
7. A Final Word On Ideation, Iteration and Innovation (pt. 3)
8. 🔑 Takeaways (pt. 3)

Return to pt. 1 or pt. 2.

6. Why This Is Groundbreaking: Word Processors