Sunday, January 11, 2015

No PowerPoint in Amazon

Jeff Bezos’ PowerPoint prohibition | Philanthropy Daily
"More than a decade ago, it was estimated that 30 million PowerPoint presentations were given each day—the number must be much higher today. Just think of how many millions of hours are spent every day sitting through truly terrible PowerPoint presentations.

So it’s noteworthy that Amazon founder—and new Washington Post owner­­—Jeff Bezos’ proscribes PowerPoint presentations at Amazon.

Bezos instead requires that employees compose 6-page narrative memos, and he starts meetings with quiet reading periods—“study halls”—in which everyone reads the memo from beginning to end."

As Bezos put it in a 2012 interview:

When you have to write your ideas out in complete sentences and complete paragraphs, it forces a deeper clarity of thinking.

“We have study hall at the beginning of our meetings.” says Jeff Bezos.“The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a powerpoint presentation, some type of slide show. In our view you get very little information, you get bullet points. This is easy for the presenter, but difficult for the audience. And so instead, all of our meetings are structured around a 6 page narrative memo.”

"There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking."
[The six-page narratives are structured] like a dissertation defense:
  1. the context or question.
  2. approaches to answer the question – by whom, by which method, and their conclusions
  3. how is your attempt at answering the question different or the same from previous approaches
  4. now what? – that is, what’s in it for the customer, the company, and how does the answer to the question enable innovation on behalf of the customer?
"And then the meeting operates in flipped mode: people are working together in real time on the issue, not spending 45 minutes listening, while checking email and day dreaming."
Screenshot 2013-10-18 09.10.06

Big Think: Predicting Future

Vivek Wadhwa: Get Ready for The Next Wave of Tech Disruptions | Big Think
"Futurist Vivek Wadhwa predicts change "at a scale which is unimaginable before," thanks to advances in technologies like robotics and 3D printing. "New trillion dollar industries will wipe out out existing trillion dollar industries," he says. "This is the future we’re headed into, for better or for worse." 

How to Find Certainty in an Uncertain World | Big Think
"Daniel Burrus says there are clear ways to predict the future in an uncertain world. You need to unplug yourself from the present and look at examples of linear change -- things that will not go backward and will definitely happen in the future."

Forget Lean and Agile – It’s Time to be Anticipatory | Big Think by Daniel Burrus
"We are all good at reacting and responding, putting out fires, and crisis management. In addition, organizations large and small have learned how to be lean and agile, and how to best execute a strategy at a high level."


25 Game-Changing Hard Trends That Will Create Both Disruption and Opportunity on a Global Level | Big Think by Daniel Burrus

From Web 3.0 to Web 4.0 | Big Think by Daniel Burrus
New definition of Web 3.0: "3D immersion VR"
Web 4.0 is about "Intelligent Agents"

"Disruptive technology is only disruptive if you didn’t look and see it coming,
and it is all there for you to see."


Peter Thiel: What Happened to Innovation? | Big Think
"Peter Thiel delivers the keynote address at the 2012 Nantucket Project, arguing that the U.S, is resting on its laurels, and no longer innovating."

Progress in already advanced nations will be based on innovation, not on copying existing solutions.

IoT: ConnectTheDots.io

Connect the Tiny Devices and IoT to Azure Dots with ConnectTheDots.io | Coding4Fun Blog | Channel 9
ConnectTheDots.io is an open source project by Microsoft Open Technologies created to help you get tiny devices connected to Microsoft Azure and implement great IoT solutions taking advantage of Microsoft Azure services such as Azure Stream Analytics, Machine Learning or HD Insight.
imageMSOpenTech/connectthedots @ GitHub