#2 APICON 2021, the future of money, and more

I'll be "speaking at" API Connect Conference on April 13th. It's free, you should register if APIs are one of your things.

You can follow along with my perspective on the event, get access to my materials, and more on a post I created to memorialize the event for me. I've already written two posts about the event. One with four tips on becoming a better speaker, the other on why the NY Covid Passport is insecure. I have more in mind, but this week the kids were in zoom "school" and I'm not in the most creative headspace.

How will the routine of 'no routine' manifest later in our kids' lives?

That said, I'm fascinated by watching the next generation and thinking about the impact this pandemic will have on them. Being out of school for three weeks as a six year old... when you go back, it might as well be a new school year. All the old habits are broken (and new ones don't get time to form when they do go back). How will the routine of 'no routine' manifest later in their lives?

The kids also have to take on more responsibility for their own education and growth. Just like we've had to do in corporate America. They're no longer learning from just their teachers – yesterday I was explaining how to quickly multiply by 9's, talking about sharks, and answering questions about gravity on Mars (my youngest is sharp!).

I've always thought their future is going to be less like a corporate "ladder" and more like a painter's pallette, or a portfolio. How you put together various projects and who you work with is going to create your opportunity.

On the future of money

That's one of the reasons I'm so fascinated by cryptocurrencies. It's math. It's money. It's tech. It redefines some fundamental assumptions about the world we live in. We've been blindly following along with this way of life, with a certain value system, and bitcoin et al are going to change all of that. We really are building the internet all over again, this time with trust and disintermediation. Fascinating times. Some will lead, some will follow, and some will be too dumb to get out of the way.

You should be participating in the bitcoin economy by holding some bitcoin or ethereum at a minimum. The very future of money is on the line.

Some of you are parents. Many of you grew up when a computer was simply a computer, and computers were a big calculator/typewriter meant to help make "real activities" easier. Now, the digital world is where so much of our economy, our society, our professions take place.

We've got to prepare our kids to work, think, and live very differently than we did. And, with the pace of change, our challenge is greater than the generations prior. It's like we're trying to raise some kids from the future, not the next generation.

Randomness that caught my attention this week

• We've all hit a wall. This is interesting, and it reminds me of depression. Sometimes people have profound bouts of depression, and sometimes it's a low-level hum in the background of their life. I think we've all had a background level of burnout for some time, probably dating back to the layoffs from the 2008-ish timeframe.
• Going to work to do the same thing you could do at home is a bizzare concept. For much of my career I've been part of a virtual team, working all over the world. It hasn't made sense for me to go in, just to sit on the phone with the peopel I work with. The world is starting to catch up. If you want to see what collaboration in the next generation of employees looks like, watch Genera+ion on HBO Max.
• My 8 year old explained to me about the meteor that killed the dinosaurs when I was telling him that sharks are as old as dinosaurs. If you have an inquisitive 8 year old in your patch of the world, make sure to read this new Harvard research discussing a new theory about where the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs came from.
• A drone that captures 3D models of the real-world. Augmented reality is coming in a big way. Get ready. Take a minute to let your mind wonder and wander the opportunities that derive from this one simple innovation.