Podcast appearances and mentions of Steven Sinofsky

Two words have caught the Internet by storm. DeepSeek. The Chinese reasoning model r1 is rivaling others at the frontier with an open-source MIT license, methods that some claim may be 45x more efficient, an alleged $5.6m cost, the release of reasoning traces, a follow-on image model, and the fact that all of this was released by a hedge fund China.Many are already referring to this as a Sputnik moment. If that's true, how should we – whether founder, researcher, policy maker – not just react, but act? Joining us to tease out the signal from the noise are a16z General Partner Martin Casado and a16z board partner, Steven Sinofsky. Both Martin and Steven have been on the frontlines of prior computing cycles, from the switching wars to the fiber buildout, and have witnessed the trajectories of companies like Cisco to AOL to ATT – even Worldcom.So what really drove this DeepSeek frenzy and more importantly what should we take away? Today, we answer that question through the lens of Internet history. Resources:Steven's article: DeepSeek Has Been Inevitable and Here's Why (History Tells Us)Martin & Ion Stoica's Economist op-ed: Keep the code behind AI open Alex Rampell's article: Why DeepSeek Is a Gift to the American People Stay Updated: Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16zFind a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16zFind a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zSubscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithioPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

In this episode of Breaking Changes, Postman Head of Product-Observability Jean Yang interviews Steven Sinofsky, former Microsoft executive, diving into his journey in engineering leadership and the hurdles faced during the Windows 8 rewrite. Gain valuable insights on team dynamics, the essence of shipping software collectively, and Microsoft's adaptability in the ever-evolving tech landscape. For more on Steven Sinofsky, check out the following: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinofsky/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevesi Personal Website: https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/ Company Website: https://a16z.com/ Follow Jean on Twitter/X @jeanqasaur. And remember, never miss an episode by subscribing to the Breaking Changes Podcast on your favorite streaming platform or Postman's YouTube Channel—just hit that bell for notifications. #BreakingChanges3 #apis #podcast #Postman #Microsoft #TechLeadership #EntrepreneurialJourney #ProfessionalGrowth #TechInnovation #StartupSuccess #BusinessInsights #EntrepreneurMindset #careersuccess #PersonalGrowthJourney #Windows   Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and Background 03:12 - Getting into Engineering Leadership 11:29 - Windows 8 Rewrite and Challenges 24:46 - Team Formation and Building 42:43 - Adaptability of Microsoft 43:43 - Resistance to Software as a Service 44:58 - Product Market Fit and Innovation 46:22 - The Importance of Product Market Fit 47:32 - Underrated Breaking Changes in the Industry 50:02 - Breaking Changes Introduced by AI 52:26 - Exciting Changes in the Next Year 53:39 - Where to Find Steven Sinofsky

In this archive episode from 2015, a16z's Sonal Chokshi, Frank Chen, and Steven Sinofsky discuss DeepMind's breakthrough AlphaGo system, which mastered the ancient Chinese game Go and introduced the public to reinforcement learning. Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.

A reminder for new readers. That Was The Week collects the best writing on critical issues in tech, startups, and venture capital. I selected the articles because they are of interest. The selections often include things I entirely disagree with. But they express common opinions, or they provoke me to think. The articles are only snippets. Click on the headline to go to the original. I express my point of view in the editorial and the weekly video below.This Week's Audio:Thanks To This Week's Contributors: @jeffbeckervc, @eshap, @stevesi, @gruber, @daringfireball, @SamuelStolton, @leah_nylen, @mattmday, @chrisheuer, @JoannaStern, @Om, @sarahpereztc, @GeorgeNHammond, @Tabby_Kinder, @NicholasMegaw, @PeterJ_Walker, @SteveAbbott415, @adamlashinskyContents* Editorial: * Essays of the Week* Changing the Customer of Venture Capital (Jeff Becker)* What A Drag It Is (Evan Shapiro)* Building Under Regulation (Steven Sinovsky)* Apple's Plans for the DMA in the European Union (John Gruber)* Amazon Drops iRobot Deal; Roomba Maker Cuts 31% of Staff (By Samuel Stolton, Leah Nylen, and Matt Day)* Envisioning the Future of Human Work in the Age of AI: The 2024 Forecast (Chris Heuer)* Video of the Week* Joanna Stern Wears a Vision Pro for 24 Hours* Product of the Week* The Vision Pro (Daring Fireball)* Apple's Vision Pro -The Meta-Review. (Om Malik)* My 4 magic moments with Vision Pro (Om Malik)* Apple Vision Pro Review: The Best Headset Yet Is Just a Glimpse of the Future (Joanna Stern)* News Of the Week* Spotify calls Apple's DMA compliance plan ‘extortion' and a ‘complete and total farce' (Sarah Perez)* Investors raise billions to buy discounted stakes in start-ups (George Hammond, Tabby Kinder, Nicholas Megaw)* Founders: getting to the next venture stage may take longer than you expect (Peter Walker)* The State of the SaaS Capital Markets: A Look Back at 2023 and Look Forward to 2024 (STEVE ABBOTT Partner, Capital Markets, KEVIN BURKE Partner, Strategy)* PayPal is laying off 2,500 employees (Pranav Dixit)* Startup of the Week* Zum Raises $140M At $1.3B Valuation To Help Kids Get to School Faster With AI (Chris Metinko)* X of the Week* For a moment, I almost felt sorry for Mark Zuckerberg. (Adam Lashinsky)EditorialYou didn't hear it here first but Apple's Vision Pro is a hit.Some wonderful essays in this week's newsletter. I lead with Jeff Becker's look at venture capital, focusing on who the customer is. The question “Who is the customer?” is crucial for any product. The answer is easy when the product is an asset class - the customer is the person investing money. Yet most of the venture world pretends that the customer is the entrepreneur. In reality, the entrepreneur is a supplier. She or He supplies opportunity, commitment, and execution; the goal is to grow value by investing customer cash into that supply.Now it is easy to understand why venture investors sometimes describe the recipient of funding as the customer. It is important that the company feels served by the VC. But serving an investee company is clearly a mission carried out for the VC fund investors, the real customer.Jeff is addressing a real problem - how to best invest in the supply. I will leave you to read his essay and ponder it, but he proposes a radical re-think of how to do early-stage investing, and for the most part, it argues for a more liberal spread of cash, in larger numbers, to far more founders. It's interesting, to say the least.Evan Shapiro focuses on the rapid aging of the US population. He makes a strong case:Since 2019, America's population has grown by 7.8 million. Yet, the US now has 2.7 million fewer kids under 15 than it did in 2019. Meanwhile, there are now 7.1 million more Americans 65-80 than five years ago. America now has half a million fewer people under 40 than it did in 2019 and almost 8.4 million more people over 40.At a time when politicians from both sides are falling over themselves to point a finger at immigration as a major problem, it is refreshing to see analysis demonstrating that the US needs more immigrants. And in a context where there is virtual full employment this needs to be across all skill levels and needs to trend young. The essay is great.Part of the anti-immigrant narrative has focused on DACA - Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Ron Conway is part of a group of over 50 businesses signing an amicus brief to support DACA. Bravo to him.Hostility to immigrants is never OK. It is even less OK when the economy is desperate for skilled and unskilled willing hands.Politically inspired propaganda dominated elsewhere this week. Amazon was prevented from closing the acquisition of iRobot due to EU objections based on competitive concerns. Well done, EU. Amazon dropped the deal, and iRobot may well be in trouble as a result. Thirty percent of staff were laid off. And more EU interference when Apple was ordered to allow alternative app stores on the iPhone. Steven Sinofsky's wonderful essay, “Building Under Regulation,” leverages his vast experience at Microsoft. It seems every day it becomes more obvious that the EU is against innovation, especially when it produces successful big companies.The Congress got in on the act too (see X of the Week), calling social media leaders to DC to be accused, show-trial-like, of being responsible for teen suicides. Sadly, the Meta CEO apologized as if admitting culpability.Teen suicide and causality is a non-trivial issue, but it is fair to say that Social Media does not cause it. Teens (I have one and another two recently in their post-teen phase). All have had growing up challenges. As I recall, I did also. The world can be harsh in the face of those challenges. But to see social media as the only factor, or even a major one, seems superficial and plain wrong. I wish one of the executives had the nerve to push back against the accusations. Adam Lashinsky's piece is interesting.Finally, Chris Heuer has a research piece on AI and the Future of Work. Well done, Chris, this is such an important issue. My PoV is that work, defined as paid labor, will inevitably decline and the average working day will decline. I believe this is a fundamental good for humanity. I also believe it poses enormous global questions about how the abundance made possible will be distributed to improve life for everybody. I do. not think this is the end of human effort. Just the beginning of the end of the need to do paid labor in order to live.Essays of the WeekChanging the Customer of Venture CapitalThe gift of technologyJEFF BECKERJAN 29, 2024TLDR: We need to change the customer of early-stage venture capital so that we can fund the future of technology and build global prosperity for decades to come.Recently, I hosted a group of students from Wharton at Antler's offices and we talked about the future of early-stage VC.I alluded to this a couple weeks ago when I said:…for $5B per year, you could seed the vast majority of meaningful tech companies for 8 years with the amount of money Elon Musk spent on Twitter. (Link here)The reality is, $5B per year just isn't that much money in the grand scheme of private equities—roughly .5-1% depending how you slice it.As a former salesperson, that fact often leaves me wondering, “what if you changed the customer of venture capital?”Could you attract more money, create more impact, and actually produce more returns?Classically, putting your name on building was a way to not only have a fairly durable legacy, but let's be honest, that gift is outdated.And it hardly does any good in the world.Instead, legacies and the world's most important problems alike would be better served by a consolidation of brilliant minds and capital, combined with the speed and leverage of startups.I think there are two interesting solutions, and both should be built.The first is something I'd call the 501-VC, and the second would be to fund all of venture capital for a decade or more through a new kind of Giving Pledge.I'm going to talk about the second one today.Famously,The Giving Pledge is a promise by the world's wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.The problem is, charitable foundations and organizations aren't historically the most efficient way to solve the world's problems. They exist for good reason, but most operate like old corporates rather than savvy startups.However, what if we thought of economic opportunity and global prosperity as a more ubiquitous problem to solve, and instead of funding mission-driven work, we fund the entirety of the tech sector?What if instead of the average high net worth individual trying to get a 3-5X return over 10 years, you focused on the ultra high net worth population, the economic development groups, and the sovereign funds who are both trying to achieve these returns and trying to improve the world?What if you focused on their shared goals and values as customers, like creating economic opportunity and building a durable legacy?What if you could do it in every corner of the planet through access to entrepreneurship?What if instead of one PayPal Mafia, you had thousands?What if you had an investor who could actually deploy $5B per year at the formation stage?That has simply never existed before, and yet it is a defining opportunity for the human race and our evolution as a society.Currently, high potential employees are stuck in their corporate jobs.Our brightest minds handcuffed to benefits and addicted to a salary, never realizing their true potential or having a real impact on the world.Many go get their MBA where they spend money to learn new skills and acquire a network, rather than receive money for becoming a more productive citizen of the world.Many job hop looking for a low-risk way to get on a rocket ship.Some try to build their own, but quickly run out of runway and mental fortitude.It's a broken system, and we need to rebuild it.First it requires a product.The product needs to be for two groups—the founders and the investors.It starts with the infrastructure required to reduce the risk of being a founder which in turn attracts more of the brightest minds to the job itself. At the same time, the product also has to be an investment vehicle that attracts a new type of customer to early-stage VC.… Lots MoreWhat A Drag It IsAmerica Feels OldEVAN SHAPIROJAN 29, 2024Since 2019, America's population has grown by 7.8 million. Yet, the US now has 2.7 million fewer kids under 15 than it did in 2019. Meanwhile, there are now 7.1 million more Americans 65-80 than five years ago. America now has half a million fewer people under 40 than it did in 2019 and almost 8.4 million more people over 40.Because of the sheer size of the Baby Boomer Generation and the fact that younger Americans have pulled out on having kids, in the last five years, America has gotten old - not just compared to itself, but also compared to the rest of the world.In 2019, 63% of the world's population was under 40. Now, 64% of the people of the planet are 39 or younger. In short:Over the last half-decade the world has gotten one percent younger and America has gotten one percent older.One percent may seem small. However, the consequences of this demographic shift are consequential. For countries like the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, with aging populations where the number of people over 60 is growing faster than the number of people under 15, the coming years will be filled with challenges brought on by their age: Workforce shortages, inverted dependency ratios where a diminishing tax-base struggles to fund a widening social safety net, health care infrastructures ill-equipped to deal with increased demand. As the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations continue to age faster than they reproduce, expect these issues to get increased and more urgent attention.After decades of aging down, the US population is now aging up quickly. In 2000, 58% of the US population was under 40 years old. Now just a slim majority of 51% is under 40. The impacts of this rapid maturation can be felt throughout our culture, but perhaps nowhere as dramatically as in America's Media and Tech industries.Over the last half century (but for some intermittent challenges from Japan and China), the US has led the world in entertainment and technology, setting the standard for the world's consumption of Media. While many TVs and phones are manufactured in other countries, most of the systems, software, and vision for these products has come from America - and the entertainment consumed on these devices has been, for many decades, the United States' most notable export.Now, America's Media Industrial Complex finds itself amidst a widely-reported bloodbath of its own making. Recently, this meltdown has been joined by America's leading Tech firms. Some of this is cyclical, driven by innovation cycles, advertising recessions, and even the aftermath of the worldwide pandemic. But muchof the current Media Apocalypse was as predictable as the upside-down aging ratio of our population.The first decade of the 21st Century was marked by an almost inconceivable level of innovation in American Media and Tech. The internet invaded all aspects of our lives. Broadband grew across the country like a high-speed weed, bringing the universe to our desktops, making all our worlds, at once, much bigger and infinitely smaller. By 2012, tiny supercomputers known as smartphones had reached a critical mass in the US and TV was streaming into our homes.Then, right around that time, America's Media C-Suite inhabitants seemingly started a shared mid-life crisis, through which we are all still living.Bob Iger took over Disney in 2005, when he was 53 years old. Through some of the most masterful deal-making in Media history, and (seemingly) a true vision of the future, Iger took a troubled company and turned it into the greatest proprietor of intellectual property the world has ever known. He bought Pixar in 2006, revitalizing Disney Animation. He bought Marvel in 2009, jump stating the most successful film and TV franchise in history. He bought Lucasfilm in 2012, completing what many see as bar-setting hat-trick of entertainment, bringing the most valuable collection of titles in entertainment all under one roof.… Lots MoreBuilding Under RegulationAn essay on the EU Digital Markets Act and Apple's "Update on apps distributed in the European Union" (and some personal history)STEVEN SINOFSKYJAN 27, 2024Readers note: This is a long post. There are enough hot takes on this super important issue. I welcome corrections as always.This week Apple detailed the software changes that will appear in an upcoming release of iOS to comply with the European Union Digital Markets Act (DMA).  As I read the over 60 pages of the DMA when it was passed (and in drafts before that, little of which changed in the process) my heart sank over the complexity of a regulation so poorly constructed yet so clearly aimed at specific (American) companies and products. As I read through many of the hundreds of pages of Apple documents detailing their compliance implementation my heart sank again. This time was because I so thoroughly could feel the pain and struggle product teams felt in clinging to at best or unwinding at worst the most substantial improvement in computing ever introduced—the promise behind the iPhone since its introduction. The reason the iPhone became so successful was not a fluke. Consumers and customers voted that the value proposition of the product was something they preferred, and they acted by purchasing iPhone and developers responded by building applications for iOS. The regulators have a different view of that promise, so here we are.To be clear, DMA covers a wide range of products and services all deemed to be critical infrastructure in the digital world. It is both an incredibly broad and sometimes oddly specific regulation. As written the regulation covers at least online intermediation services [commercial internet sites/markets], online search engines, web browsers, advertising services, social network services, video sharing platforms, number-independent interpersonal communications services [messaging], operating systems, virtual assistants, and cloud computing.If you're well-versed in online you can map each one of those to precisely who the target might be, or sometimes targets. It is all big tech, almost exclusively US-based companies. There are no EU companies that meet the criteria to be covered—hardcoded revenue of EUR 7.5 billion for three years, EUR 7.5 billion market cap, or 45 million MAU—with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, and Samsung acknowledging the criteria apply to various units in addition to the following other “very large online platforms”: Alibaba AliExpress, Booking.com, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Wikipedia, Zalando [German fashion retailer]. Those thresholds seem strangely not round.I am going to focus on the Apple and primarily their App Store response because I think it is the most important and time critical and because iPhone is the most unique, innovative, and singular product in market. I can easily replace search, a browser, an ad network, a social network, a video site. Even cloud computing is not so sticky, and we all use multiple messaging services. What iPhone delivers is irreplaceable. At least for many of the subset of smartphone users that chose Apple.The thing is, as impressive as Apple has been it is not *that* successful by the measures that count for dominance. Worldwide Apple is clearly the number two smartphone to Google Android which has over 70% share. In the Europe (excluding Russia) Apple iPhone has about a 33% share (I won't debate exact numbers, units sold v in use, revenue v. profit v. units, etc. as all those do is attempt to tell a story that isn't obvious, which is Android is more popular). That's hardly a monopoly share by any standard. In some European countries Apple has a higher share, some data providers would say as high as 50% or nearly 60%, which by most legal standards is still not quite at a monopoly level especially in a dynamic market. Apple has not been fined, sued, or otherwise convicted of having a dominant share let alone abusing the market position it has. No consumer harm has been demonstrated. In Epic v. Applespecifically on the store, Apple prevailed in 9 of 10 claims of damages to Epic due to the store's costs. Of note, the same claims in Epic v. Google resulted in liability from Google and is being appealed. Many of most vocal competitors didn't even exist before the iPhone. They have become huge companies and don't appear to be struggling, and in fact benefit from being part of the iPhone ecosystem. Counter to the text of the DMA, innovation seems to be thriving as measured by the number of new companies and distinct new services.Yet, the EU DMA has declared that Apple is a “gatekeeper”—an ominous term applied to Apple among the others.… Lots MoreApple's Plans for the DMA in the European UnionFriday, 26 January 2024Apple yesterday announced a broad, wide-ranging, and complex set of new policies establishing their intended compliance with the European Union's Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect March 7. There is a lot to remark upon and numerous remaining questions, but my favorite take was from Sebastiaan de With on Twitter/X, the day before any of this was announced.After quipping “Oh god please no” to a screenshot of the phrase “Spotify also wants to roll out alternate app stores”, de With had this conversation:de With:The EU is once again solving absolutely no problems and making everything worse in tech. I gotta say, they are if anything highly consistent.“Anton”:Overly powerful, rent-seeking gatekeepers seem like a problem.de With:I love that I can't tell if you are talking about the EU or Apple in this case.My second-favorite take, from that same thread, was this from Max Rovensky:DMA is not pro-consumer.It's anti-big-business.Those tend to coincide sometimes, which makes it an easy sell for the general public, but do actually read the DMA, it's quite interesting.I'd go slightly further and describe the DMA as anti-U.S.-big-business, because as far as I can tell, nothing in the DMA adversely affects or even annoys any European tech companies. There are aspects of it that seem written specifically for Spotify, in fact.But Rovensky's framing captures the dichotomy. Anti-big-business regulation and pro-consumer results often do go hand-in-hand, but the DMA exposes the fissures. I do not think the DMA is going to change much, if anything at all, for the better for iOS users in the E.U. (Or for non-iOS users in the EU, for that matter.) And much like the GDPR's website cookie regulations, I think if it has any practical effect, it'll be to make things worse for users. Whether these options are better for developers seems less clear.I've often said that Apple's priorities are consistent: Apple's own needs first, users second, developers third. The European Commission's priorities put developers first, users second, and “gatekeepers” a distant third. The DMA prescribes not a win-win-win framework, but a win-win-lose one.Apple is proud, stubborn, arrogant, controlling, and convinced it has the best interests of its customers in mind.The European Commission is proud, stubborn, arrogant, controlling, and convinced it has the best interests of its citizens in mind.Ever since this collision over the DMA seemed inevitable, starting about two years ago, I've been trying to imagine how it would turn out. And each time, I start by asking: Which side is smarter? My money has been on Apple. Yesterday's announcements, I think, show why.APPLE'S PROPOSED CHANGESIt's really hard to summarize everything Apple announced yesterday, but I'll try. Start with the main Apple Newsroom press release, “Apple Announces Changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union”:“The changes we're announcing today comply with the Digital Markets Act's requirements in the European Union, while helping to protect EU users from the unavoidable increased privacy and security threats this regulation brings. Our priority remains creating the best, most secure possible experience for our users in the EU and around the world,” said Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow. “Developers can now learn about the new tools and terms available for alternative app distribution and alternative payment processing, new capabilities for alternative browser engines and contactless payments, and more. Importantly, developers can choose to remain on the same business terms in place today if they prefer.”Schiller is the only Apple executive quoted in the press release, and to my ear, his writing hand is all over the entire announcement. Apple was quite clear before the DMA was put into law that they considered mandatory sideloading on iOS a bad idea for users, and their announcement yesterday doesn't back down an inch from still declaring it a bad idea.Apple has also argued, consistently, that they seek to monetize third-party development for the iOS platform, and that being forced to change from their current system — (a) all apps must come from the App Store; (b) developers never pay anything for the distribution of free apps; (c) paid apps and in-app-purchases for digital content consumed in-app must go through Apple's In-App Payments system that automates Apple's 30/15 percent commissions — would greatly complicate how they monetize the platform. And now Apple has revealed a greatly complicated set of rules and policies for iPhone apps in the EU.MG Siegler has a great — and fun — post dissecting Apple's press release line-by-line. Siegler concludes:I'm honestly not sure I can recall a press release dripping with such disdain. Apple may even have a point in many of the points above, but the framing of it would just seem to ensure that Apple is going to continue to be at war with the EU over all of this and now undoubtedly more. Typically, if you're going to make some changes and consider the matter closed, you don't do so while emphatically shoving your middle fingers in the air.Some of these changes do seem good and useful, but most simply seem like convoluted changes to ensure the status quo actually doesn't change much, if at all. Just remember that, “importantly, developers can choose to remain on the same business terms in place today if they prefer.” What do you think Apple prefers?The puzzle Apple attempted to solve was creating a framework of new policies — and over 600 new developer APIs to enable those policies — to comply with the DMA, while keeping the path of least resistance and risk for developers the status quo: Apple's own App Store as it is.….Lots MoreAmazon Drops iRobot Deal; Roomba Maker Cuts 31% of Staff* IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31%* Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal terminationBy Samuel Stolton, Leah Nylen, and Matt DayJanuary 29, 2024 at 5:33 AM PSTAmazon.com Inc. has abandoned its planned $1.4 billion acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot Corp. after clashing with European Union regulators who had threatened to block the deal.The fallout came quickly. IRobot, which has been struggling recently, said Chief Executive Officer Colin Angle has stepped downas the company embarks on a restructuring plan that will result in about 350 job cuts, or 31% of the workforce. The vacuum maker's shares tumbled 19% in New York to $13.80, their lowest level since 2009. Amazon's shares were up less than 1% at $160.07.The decision is a sign of the intense pressure Amazon is facing to prove its actions don't harm competition as its influence grows in retail, cloud-computing and entertainment. Antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have been keen to ensure that the biggest US tech companies don't snap up innovative startups before they have a chance to become formidable competitors on their own.Amazon met with the FTC's senior antitrust staff last week, who informed the company they were recommending a suit over the deal, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Executives and lawyers from the tech giant were scheduled to meet with the FTC's three commissioners this week to make a final push for the acquisition, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing the confidential probe.… Lots MoreEnvisioning the Future of Human Work in the Age of AI: The 2024 ForecastResearch Fellowship ProgramIntroductionAs technological change and the adoption of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) accelerate, the future of human work will be characterized by disruption, uncertainty, and opportunity. As 2024 approached, the Team Flow Institute Research Fellows gathered for a roundtable to discuss their visions for the future of human-focused work in the age of AI. As described by the institute's co-founder and Managing Director, Chris Heuer, “The Team Flow Institute is an organization dedicated to shaping a human-centric future of work as we face the choice of augmentation or automation in every industry and every function. This transformational decision will reshape what we call work and society itself, requiring us to abandon business as usual and finally design business as possible.” The Team Flow Institute Research Fellows' roundtable discussion delved into the potential opportunities and challenges of this technology revolution driven by the institute's “mission to gather like-minded individuals and organizations to steer our collective destiny toward a more sustainable future, where the essence of humanity and human work is valued and preserved as we increasingly adopt AI tools and technologies, explained Jennifer McClure, Senior Research Fellow, and Advisory Board member. This article analyzes key insights from the discussion, offering a glimpse into the work landscape of 2024 and beyond. As the Team Flow Institute embarks on its inaugural fellowship program, this analysis holds particular significance as it seeks to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in the evolving landscape of AI-enabled work. Through this program, the Team Flow Institute aims to foster a community of leaders who can guide organizations and individuals toward a future where humans and technology collaborate to create a more sustainable and fulfilling work environment.Part I: AI Progress and PromiseNo longer relegated to science fiction, AI has infiltrated our lives, transforming industries with its vast potential. From automating tedious tasks to streamlining complex decision-making processes, its applications are far-reaching. In the realm of design, AI-powered software is revolutionizing industries like architecture and fashion, enabling rapid prototyping and personalized creations. Team Flow Institute co-founder Jaime Schwarz says, “Imagine being able to prototype a new building or clothing line in minutes instead of weeks. This remarkable advancement accelerates design cycles and fosters increased customization, ultimately leading to more innovative and personalized consumer products.”The creative landscape is also poised for disruption with the emergence of generative AI. Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Shel Holtz describes its transformative potential: “Generative AI is blurring the lines between human and machine creativity. We're seeing machines create realistic text, images, and even music that is nearly indistinguishable from human-generated work.” This democratization of creativity opens doors for individuals with diverse backgrounds and abilities to express themselves in new and exciting ways. But it also opens up philosophical questions and debates about the nature of art and creativity, adds Jen McClure. Amidst these exciting advancements, Chris Heuer reminds us that “AI is not just a science fiction concept anymore; it's here, and it's changing the way we do everything.” This necessitates a thoughtful approach to the future of work, a need to ensure the value of human skills and their role in work, proactive workforce development initiatives to ensure that individuals are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in the evolving job market, and an elevation of the need for constant communications within organizations, reminds Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Sharon McIntosh.As AI continues to permeate our lives, it is crucial to acknowledge its remarkable potential and challenges. By navigating this dynamic landscape with careful consideration and proactive planning, we can ensure that AI serves as a force for progress, innovation, and a brighter future for all. As Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Gina Debogovich reminds us, it will undoubtedly unlock economic growth. “The 20th century began with a global GDP of $3 trillion and, largely due to technological advancement, ended with a GDP of $33.8 trillion. AI is poised to boost the economy to unseen heights.”AI will be a catalyst for creating new jobs, just as the web did in the mid-1990s. Businesses must integrate these jobs and activities into existing workflows and business models and develop new ones. Indeed, innovative organizations are already experimenting with, if not embracing, the role of prompt engineers. The Team Flow Institute advocates for a Team Flow Facilitator to serve as a coach, a collaboration facilitator, and an AI pilot to support high-performing teams.Part II: The Risks and DownsidesWhile AI offers many benefits, possibilities, and opportunities, its advancements are not without potential pitfalls. AI and automation technologies bring both promise and peril to the workforce. While they offer the potential to augment human capabilities and business efficiencies significantly, understandable concerns persist surrounding job losses and the general impact on workers. Organizations must chart a thoughtful course that fully harnesses technical capabilities without losing sight of the humans at the heart of work.… Lots MoreVideo of the WeekProduct of the WeekThe Vision ProTuesday, 30 January 2024For the last six days, I've been simultaneously testing three entirely new products from Apple. The first is a VR/AR headset with eye-tracking controls. The second is a revolutionary spatial computing productivity platform. The third is a breakthrough personal entertainment device.A headset, a spatial productivity platform, and a personal entertainment device.I'm sure you're already getting it. These are not three separate devices. They're one: Apple Vision Pro. But if you'll pardon the shameless homage to Steve Jobs's famous iPhone introduction, I think these three perspectives are the best way to consider it.THE HARDWAREVision Pro comes in a surprisingly big box. I was expecting a package roughly the dimensions of a HomePod box; instead, a Vision Pro retail box is quite a bit larger than two HomePod boxes stacked atop each other. (I own more HomePods than most people.)There's a lot inside. The top half of the package contains the Vision Pro headset itself, with the light seal, a light seal cushion, and the default Solo Knit Band already attached. The lower half contains the battery, the charger (30W), the cables, the Dual Loop Band, the Getting Started book (which is beautifully printed in full color, on excellent paper — it feels like a keepsake), the polishing cloth1, and an extra light seal cushion.To turn Vision Pro on, you connect the external battery pack's power cable to the Vision Pro's power connector, and rotate it a quarter turn to lock it into place. There are small dots on the headset's dime-sized power socket showing how to align the cable connector's small LED. The LED pulses when Vision Pro turns on. (I miss Apple's glowing power indicator LEDs — this is a really delightful touch.) When Vision Pro has finished booting and is ready to use, it makes a pleasant welcoming sound.Then you put Vision Pro on. If you're using the Solo Knit Band, you tighten and loosen it using a dial on the band behind your right ear. VisionOS directs you to raise or lower the headset appropriately to position it at just the right height on your face relative to your eyes. If Vision Pro thinks your eyes are too close to the displays, it will suggest you switch to the “+” size light seal cushion. You get two light seal cushions, but they're not the same: mine are labeled “W” and “W+”. The “+” is the same width, to match your light seal, but adds a wee bit more space between your eyes and the displays inside Vision Pro. For me the default (non-“+”) one fits fine.The software then guides you through a series of screens to calibrate the eye tracking. It's all very obvious, and kind of fun. It's almost like a simple game: you stare at a series of dots in a circle, and pinch your index finger and thumb as you stare at each one. You go through this three times, in three different artificial lighting conditions: dark, medium, and bright. Near the end of the first-run experience, you're prompted to bring your iPhone or iPad nearby, just like when setting up a new iPhone or iPad. This allows your Vision Pro to get your Apple ID credentials and Wi-Fi password without entering any of that manually. It's a very smooth onboarding process. And then that's it, you're in and using Vision Pro.There's no getting around some fundamental problems with the Vision Pro hardware.First is the fact that it uses an external battery pack connected via a power cable. The battery itself is about the width and height of an iPhone 15/15 Pro, but thicker. And the battery is heavy: about 325g, compared to 187g for an iPhone 15 Pro, and 221g for a 15 Pro Max. It's closer in thickness and weight to two iPhone 15's than it is to one. And the tethered power cable can be an annoyance. Vision Pro has no built-in reserve battery — disconnect the power cable from the headset and it immediately shuts off. It clicks firmly into place, so there's no risk of accidentally disconnecting it. But if you buy an extra Vision Pro Battery for $200, you can't hot-swap them — you need to shut down first.… Lots MoreApple's Vision Pro -The Meta-Review.Apple Vision Pro reviews have started to roll in — and depending on who you read, the consensus vacillates between amazing and work in progress. In most cases, they reflect some version of reality. If one is looking for faults with Apple's face computer, then one will find them. And if you are looking at what it represents, you are going to be excited. I am in the ‘camp' of the amazed, though I am not blinded by the challenges that await Vision Pro in the real world.The Verge's Nilay Patel sums up the challenge of Vision Pro, writing:The technology to build a true optical AR display that works well enough to replace an everyday computer just isn't there yet. The Magic Leap 2 is an optical AR headset that's cheaper and smaller than the Vision Pro, but it's plagued by compromises in field of view and image quality that most people would never accept. So Apple's settled for building a headset with real-time video passthrough — it is the defining tradeoff of the Vision Pro. It is a VR headset masquerading as an AR headset. And let me tell you: the video passthrough on the Vision Pro is really good. It works! It's convincing. You put the headset on, the display comes on, and you're right back where you were, only with a bunch of visionOS windows floating around.Let's get on with the cons: The Verge points out problems like ‘motion blur,' ‘blurriness,' ‘color fringing,' ‘limited field of view,' and ‘vignetting.' I have not personally experienced any of these because, well, I don't have the device.The device is sometimes laggy. It's heavy, and the wired battery is limited to just over 2 hours. You can plug it into a ‘wall charger' with a USB-C cable, or daisy-chain it to another USB-C battery pack. And it does get a tad warm. You need to use the ‘dorky' headband to use the device without feeling the weight (or in some cases, a headache).None of this surprises me! Vision Pro is, after all, a full-blown computer. It's made from magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum. It has two high-resolution front-facing cameras (video pass-through), two cameras that face down to track your hands and gestures, a LiDAR, TrueDepth cameras, and some kind of infrared lights. The device has two tiny MicroOLED displays packed with a total of 23 million pixels. (As I noted in an earlier piece, these displays are the magic and the primary reason why Vision Pro is so expensive.)All these sensors, cameras, and displays are powered by an M2 chip and an R1 spatial coprocessor, and fans. Apple has packed this in an enclosure that is about three times the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and is still lighter than the iPad 12.9. Paint me impressed purely from a technological standpoint.…. Lots MoreMy 4 magic moments with Vision ProNo, not again! Not another Vision Pro Review! I feel you — after all the reviews yesterday, I am pretty sure you don't want to read another review. Here's the good news — it's not a review. Instead, I will share my quick impressions from a deep dive at Apple Park, and my four magic moments with the Vision Pro.Unlike the reviewers who published their reviews, my access to the device has come in dribs and drabs. It has been a carefully managed experience — an early demo, exposure to the photos app, and the spatial video capabilities. A few days ago, I got to use the device for less than two hours.This was a highly curated experience — so this doesn't and won't qualify as a review. I am skipping all the stuff that has been covered by the deep dive that professional reviewers have already published. WSJ's Joanna Stern's review is amazing — especially the video version. It is best to consider these as my considered impressions.First, can I wax eloquent about the technological achievement of Vision Pro? As a chip and hardware nerd, I think Vision Pro is a witches' brew of the latest of all types of technologies. Let me quote my post from yesterday:Vision Pro is, after all, a full-blown computer. It's made from magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum. It has two high-resolution front-facing cameras (video pass-through), two cameras that face down to track your hands and gestures, a LiDAR, TrueDepth cameras, and some kind of infrared lights. The device has two tiny MicroOLED displays packed with a total of 23 million pixels. (As I noted in an earlier piece, these displays are the magic and the primary reason why Vision Pro is so expensive.)All these sensors, cameras, and displays are powered by an M2 chip and an R1 spatial coprocessor, and fans. Apple has packed this in an enclosure that is about three times the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and is still lighter than the iPad 12.9. Paint me impressed purely from a technological standpoint.What's even more impressive is the sound — Apple is using beamforming to direct the sound into your ears. And unless you are really blasting it out loud — you could get away with wearing it in a public place — though people in Business Class will notice the slight din from the seat next to them. Apple is hoping you will splurge on AirPods Pro.No matter how you see the device — love it or hate it, you can't deny that it is yet another amazing computer built by a company that knows how to build great consumer computers.… Lots MoreApple Vision Pro Review: The Best Headset Yet Is Just a Glimpse of the FutureWorking, cooking, skiing, kicking back—our columnist wore Apple's new mixed-reality headset for a week to see what it's forBy Joanna Stern at the WSJJan. 30, 2024 at 9:00 am ETA few things surprised me after wearing the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset for nearly 24 hours straight:* I didn't puke. * I got a lot of work done.  * I cooked a delicious meal.Also, my Persona—the headset's animated video-call avatar—will haunt your dreams.For the last week, I have been testing Apple's boldest bet yet on the post-smartphone future. Strap on the 1.4-pound goggles and you see apps floating right in your living room. Living room a stress-inducing mess? Go full virtual reality and watch a 3-D movie on a giant screen perched on the mouth of a Hawaiian volcano.Let's get this out of the way: You're probably not going to buy the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro. Unless you're an app developer or an Apple die-hard, you're more likely to spend that kind of money on an actual trip to a Hawaiian volcano.And that's OK. Reviewing the Vision Pro, I wanted to understand the potential of the device, and the technical constraints that keep it from being a must-have, at least for now. Most importantly, I wanted to answer one question: In a world full of screens, what's the benefit of strapping one to your eyes?… Lots MoreNews Of the WeekSpotify calls Apple's DMA compliance plan ‘extortion' and a ‘complete and total farce'Sarah Perez @sarahpereztc / 2:41 PM PST•January 26, 2024Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto (opens in a new window)/ Getty ImagesCount Spotify among those not thrilled with how Apple has chosen to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets the stage for sideloading apps, alternative app stores, browser choice, and more. On Friday, the streaming music company issued its response to Apple's new DMA rules, calling the new fees imposed on developers “extortion” and Apple's compliance plan “a complete and total farce,” that demonstrated the tech giant believes that the rules don't apply to them.Apple earlier this week announced a host of changes that comply with the letter of the EU law, if not the spirit. The company said that app developers in the EU will receive reduced commissions, but it also introduced a new “core technology fee” that requires developers to pay €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold, regardless of their distribution channel. It will also charge a 3% payment processing fee when developers use Apple's in-app payments instead of their own.Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company sued Apple over antitrust concerns, already condemned Apple's plan, saying it was a case of “malicious compliance” and full of “junk fees,” and now Spotify is essentially saying the same.…. Lots MoreInvestors raise billions to buy discounted stakes in start-upsBuyers return after secondary market for private shares was hit by higher interest ratesGeorge Hammond and Tabby Kinder in San Francisco and Nicholas Megaw in New YorkJANUARY 16 2024Investment firms are raising billions of dollars to buy stakes in venture capital-backed technology start-ups, as a long drought in acquisitions and initial public offerings forces early investors to offload their stock at discounts. The start-up secondary market, where investors and employees buy and sell tens of billions of dollars' worth of shares in privately held companies, is becoming an increasingly important trading venue, in the absence of traditional ways of cashing out and given a slowdown in start-up funding. Venture secondaries buyers are primed for a busy year as start-up employees look for a way to sell their stock and investors look to return capital to their own backers or reallocate it elsewhere. Secondary market specialist Lexington Partners last week announced a new $23bn fund to buy up stakes from “large-scale investors”. Lexington had originally aimed to raise $15bn, but upped its target on the back of high demand, and said it was “in the early stages of a generational secondary buying opportunity” that could last years.The fund will predominantly buy shares from private equity funds but also expects to invest as much as $5bn into venture capital secondaries, said a spokesperson.“We are seeing crazy amounts of [limited partner investors] that are distressed and need to lighten their venture load,” said the head of a $2bn venture capital firm. The latest Lexington fund “speaks to the sheer demand” from LPs that feel “over-allocated” to private capital including to start-ups, they said. Other specialist firms such as Pinegrove Capital Partners, a joint vehicle created by Brookfield Asset Management and Sequoia Heritage, and StepStone have also been raising multibillion-dollar funds to target venture secondaries.…. Lots MoreFounders: getting to the next venture stage may take longer than you expectPeter WalkerHead of Insights @ Carta | Data StorytellerThe median number of days between a priced seed and Series A round hit 679 in 2023, a new peak.Median for Series A to B was 744 days (over 2 years). Very similar for Series B to C (739 days, also over 2 years).Fascinating to watch the 25th percentile (green) and the 75th percentile (blue) trends as well. It looks as though the 25th pct has pulled closer to the median for the middle venture rounds - suggesting there are very few companies speed-running through venture fundraising right now. Some of that could be company choice, as founders have cut spend and become more capital-efficient over the prior 12 months. However, I'm certain a lot of the increase in time is due to VCs being far more choosy about where to invest.So what are founders doing if primary rounds are not on the menu? Getting creative.Founders are raising bridge rounds at record rates, usually from insiders already on the cap table. They are turning to SAFEs and Convertible Notes, even between named venture stages. Some are turning to non-dilutive financing and loans.And many are trying to make customer revenue their primary fundraising channel. But switching from growth at all costs to profitability in a short period of time is no easy track change. My bet is that the time between rounds plateaus in 2024 (or maybe even declines just a touch). Maybe that's wishful thinking

In today's episode, our host, Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, is joined by technologist and author of Hardcore Software Steven Sinofsky to talk about the recurring lessons of standing up new platforms, as well as writing and how AI may benefit the craft. Together, Sinofsky and Bosworth cover a range of topics, from the massive effort needed to build a new computing platform to the difficulty of building novel technologies in an era where everything “just works.” They look at how we're once again at an exciting time in computing, where new form factors, like smart glasses with integrated AI features, begin to reveal technologies that could become increasingly ubiquitous in the near future.You can follow Bosworth on Instagram, Twitter/X, and Threads @boztank. Follow Steven Sinofsky on Twitter/X, and get the e-book of Hardcore Software here.

Hello Interactors,It's been a great year hear at Interplace with subscriptions hitting (and hovering) around 1000 subscribers! Thank you! And thanks to Substack's recommendation engine, the vast majority of those came from Steven Sinofsky's Hardcore Software newsletter. Thank you!Sadly, the utility of this recommendation engine also means those Nazi newsletters Substack chooses to sponsor will also spread. It's their choice of free speech as a publisher and seller. Just like this 1930s Aryan bookstore who was fine attracting Nazi customers because, like Substack, they believed select, uncensored ‘truth brings liberation'.I'm not thrilled to be sorted alongside such publications, but I'm also not thrilled to be embedded among local and national right wing extremists in a country that has yet to fully come to terms with it's own racial ideology. An ideology that intermingles jingoism and militarism propped up with related economic policies. Yes, I have the choice (and privilege) to move, but finding places void of right-wing extremism and zombie neoliberalism is getting harder and harder these days.2024 is a big election year in the U.S. One that will surely influence this course and our nation's discourse. Abusive forms of AI is sure to play a role in it. So, I was curious what would happen if I took my top five most viewed posts of 2023 and ask ChatGPT to provide connections between them and summarize a conclusion. I'm impressed. Not only with the how Large Language Models (LLMs) emulate perceived human intelligence, but with the consistency with which my own convictions and intentions emerge throughout these five posts. ChatGPT, like a good LLM, is providing an illusion of consistency and coherency in my writing! It's a reflection of external linguistic patterns arranged in a literary image of my internal goals for Interplace — an emulation of perceived intelligence! Be careful out there.I hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2024. Please remember this interpretation of my own intention as you set your new year's resolutions: “our collective actions contribute to the fabric of our environments, and through awareness and choice, we have the power to reshape them for the better.”And now, ChatGPT's Interplace summary of 2023.The five blocks of text you provided seem to be excerpts from different discussions or articles that, although varied in focus, share common themes about the intersection of human behavior, spatial cognition, and the environment, whether it be through the lens of a television show, research in geography, urban planning, psychological studies, or societal needs.* Clarkson's Farm: The Grand Tour of the Rural-Urban Divide: This text illustrates how a TV show can provide a microcosm of the broader societal issues, including the divide between rural and urban life, environmental impact, and social stratification. It suggests that the antics of the show's host, Jeremy Clarkson, inadvertently reveal the interconnectedness of society and the environment.* A Geography Revolution: Complexity and Connection in Successor Evolution: This section discusses the advancement in cognitive geography, moving away from traditional, rigid spatial models to those that account for the complex, iterative interactions between people and their environments. It challenges conventional Euclidean views and advocates for a more dynamic, holistic approach to spatial cognition.* The Universal Uniformity of Urban Mobility: Here, the focus is on urban mobility and how patterns of movement within cities are universally similar, as demonstrated by visitation power laws. The text raises concerns about equity and inclusivity in urban planning, suggesting that current models serve those with resources while potentially neglecting others. It also touches on how legislative changes can influence urban structure and the potential for creating more walkable neighborhoods.* Will Work for Food. A Quirk or Accrued?: This text compares human behavior with that of rats in a study about driving and satisfaction. It draws parallels between the cognitive benefits of novel experiences and the laborious nature of maintaining a car, suggesting that there may be more rewarding alternatives to driving, such as walking, which provide more cognitive stimulation and a sense of agency.* Hierarchy of Needs or Just More Greed?: The final text reflects on the individual's power to enact change within large-scale systems, as evidenced by shifts in behavior during the pandemic. It questions whether adherence to traditional socio-economic constructs serves our needs and posits that conscious, alternative choices could lead to significant societal transformations.Summary:The amalgamation of these texts presents a nuanced examination of human-environment interactions. At the core is an understanding that our spaces, whether physical like farms and cities or conceptual like cognitive maps, are not static but are shaped by our interactions, decisions, and movements. From Clarkson's representation of rural life to the universal patterns of urban mobility, we see a pattern of uniformity in our behaviors that transcends geography and culture.The discussion on cognitive geography suggests that embracing complexity in our understanding of space can lead to more equitable and representative models of human-environment interaction. This is echoed in the exploration of urban mobility, where data reflects not just how we move, but also the socio-economic hierarchies that dictate our movement. The potential for change is highlighted by the example of legislation affecting urban density, indicating a path towards more sustainable and equitable urban living.The comparison of human behavior to that of rats reveals a deeper commentary on our choices and their psychological impacts. The reward system driving both rats and humans to undertake certain tasks like driving is complex and influenced by our environment. This complexity is further unpacked in the final text, which suggests that individual choices can lead to macro-scale changes in society. This ties back to the first text, where a television show, through its portrayal of the rural-urban divide, unintentionally showcases the interconnectivity of our choices and their impact on the world.In essence, these texts argue for a more conscious and nuanced approach to how we view and shape our environments. They call for a departure from reductionist thinking, advocating for a recognition of the complex, interconnected nature of our world, and a reevaluation of our choices and their ramifications. Whether through the lens of a TV show, urban planning, geography, psychology, or societal behavior, the message is clear: our collective actions contribute to the fabric of our environments, and through awareness and choice, we have the power to reshape them for the better.Thank you for reading Interplace. Feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

A year-end compilation of some of the best nuggets on all things AI from the Aarthi and Sriram Show._Show notes:(00:00) The state of AI's progress ft. Alex Wang(02:00) Advice for AI founders ft. Marc Andreessen(03:00) Ethics of AI ft. Emad Mostaque(06:10) Society's model of computing ft. Steven Sinofsky(07:50) How smart Can AI Get? ft. Marc Andreessen(08:55) What if AI takes 'control'? ft. Stephen Wolfram(11:08) AI in the Metaverse ft. Emad Mostaque(13:26) What if AI goes rogue? ft. Marc Andreessen—Other episodes you might enjoy:Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And StartupsEP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon ValleyEP 61 - The Reality of Raising Kids in the Tech IndustryEP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBAEP 55 - When To Quit Your Job: Advice From Silicon Valley VCs

Many people are shackled by their own deeply-entrenched perfectionisms that are unattainable…and, frankly, unfruitful! So, do you take thoughtful action even if the action might fail—and do that in order to still create better processes and results? What can we learn from the famous inventor Thomas Edison…and from Japanese manufacturers…and from Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky? What we're looking for is ever-fruitful high standards without falling prey to debilitating perfectionism—for us and for our enterprises! Join Kevin as we dive into the truth that action is research!  // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

In this episode, we speak with Steven Sinofsky, currently a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz and previously of Microsoft. We discuss what it was like shipping code at Microsoft in the early days, what he learned from Bill Gates, how it applies to software development today, what the big Windows 8 rewrite was like, and why the Copilot AI naysayers are completely wrong. Although the software landscape has changed dramatically since Steven's early days at Microsoft in the 80s, he shares some of the lessons he learned along the way which are still as relevant today as they were back then. Hosted by David Mytton (Console) and Jean Yang (Akita Software).Things mentioned:MicrosoftWindows 8Copilot Cornell UniversityIBMHalt and Catch FireAppleJon DeVaanWebflowMythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software EngineeringBill Gates“A Hard Line on Software” (Video)Jensen HarrisHardcore SoftwareChatGPTBingChatGPT on 60 MinutesM2 Mac MiniMacBook AirOne Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision MakingSubstackABOUT STEVEN SINOFSKYSteven Sinofsky is an investor, a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a general advisor, and a self-described “person-about-town” in Silicon Valley. Shortly after he graduated from Cornell University, he became a software design engineer at Microsoft back in 1989. In his time at the company, he oversaw six major releases of the full range of Office apps and servers in his role as a senior executive. He also worked on Windows 7 and the Windows 8 rewrite as the president of the Windows division. He is a co-author of the book One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making, as well as the writer of Hardcore Software, a Substack newsletter about the rise and fall of the PC revolution.Highlights:Steven Sinofsky: Bill was super interesting. He was, in a sense, this very interesting combination of business strategy, product strategy, and technology strategy. And whenever he would really push it, he was most comfortable trying to be a technology strategist. And to him, that was all about architecture. And so architecture, if you read a book like Fred Brooks, Mythical Man-Month, architecture is everything. Architecture in software is like this Nirvana.— [0:22:37 - 0:23:08]Steven Sinofsky: And the beauty of how Apple managed their operating system was they just didn't add a lot of features. But we had a team five times as big, adding features every release, and it was just not getting— My measure of success is not “Did we get the release done?” but “Was it making people do new things with the product?” And Windows had long stopped doing that. The ecosystem of software and hardware had probably died around 2000. And so when it came time to do Windows 8 — and obviously Hardcore Software has the whole timeline and all this stuff — but the thing we really wanted to do was take the product and build on it and all the things that were great about it, but bring it into a new era of computing from top to bottom or what we said was “from the chipset to the experience".— [0:28:43 - 0:29:34]Let us know what you think on Twitter:https://twitter.com/consoledotdevhttps://twitter.com/davidmyttonhttps://twitter.com/jeanqasaurOr by email: hello@console.dev

Une des choses les plus difficiles, lorsqu'un nouveau dirigeant prend les rênes d'une organisation, est d'en déterminer une vue d'ensemble de l'activité. Dans cet épisode, je relate l'action de Steven Sinofsky lors de son arrivée à la tête du développement de Microsoft Windows en 2006, un projet alors en grande difficulté.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways The recent breakthroughs with ChatGPT break the world into two groups: those who can understand exponential growth, and those that sit around and deny itAI hallucinations are evidence that we have apparently solved the problem of computer creativityThe real breakthroughs are going to happen when entrepreneurs discard all current assumptions and purely start from scratch“This may be the single biggest financial explosion in the history of the industry.” – Marc Andreessen “It may only be the case that new companies can actually do anything interesting in AI.” – Marc Andreessen  Much of the current concern over AI is not about the Skynet doomsday scenario, but about how AI will abide by approved woke-speechAI is replacing jobs in the opposite order in which people expected it to We are in the midst of another high-octane Luddism fallacy where people panic and believe new technology is going to replace all the jobsPeople always underestimate the degree to which new technology creates new jobsVirtually every white-collar job that exists today is the result of technological advancement that occurred in the last 300 years or even 50 years “Our biggest problem for the next decade is not going to be AI having too much effect, it's going to be AI having too little effect.” – Marc Andreessen We must accept that the most amazing technological breakthrough of all time – replicating human consciousness – is just going to happen accidentallyQuestioning AI sentience reveals more about human values and how humans perceive the world than they reveal about the technical components of a machineAI science fiction is largely based on the assumption that humans and machines will inevitably go to war with one another, but people are experiencing the exact opposite reaction when interacting with ChatGPT  Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim : Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- In this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways The recent breakthroughs with ChatGPT break the world into two groups: those who can understand exponential growth, and those that sit around and deny itAI hallucinations are evidence that we have apparently solved the problem of computer creativityThe real breakthroughs are going to happen when entrepreneurs discard all current assumptions and purely start from scratch“This may be the single biggest financial explosion in the history of the industry.” – Marc Andreessen “It may only be the case that new companies can actually do anything interesting in AI.” – Marc Andreessen  Much of the current concern over AI is not about the Skynet doomsday scenario, but about how AI will abide by approved woke-speechAI is replacing jobs in the opposite order in which people expected it to We are in the midst of another high-octane Luddism fallacy where people panic and believe new technology is going to replace all the jobsPeople always underestimate the degree to which new technology creates new jobsVirtually every white-collar job that exists today is the result of technological advancement that occurred in the last 300 years or even 50 years “Our biggest problem for the next decade is not going to be AI having too much effect, it's going to be AI having too little effect.” – Marc Andreessen We must accept that the most amazing technological breakthrough of all time – replicating human consciousness – is just going to happen accidentallyQuestioning AI sentience reveals more about human values and how humans perceive the world than they reveal about the technical components of a machineAI science fiction is largely based on the assumption that humans and machines will inevitably go to war with one another, but people are experiencing the exact opposite reaction when interacting with ChatGPT  Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.

In this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim : Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram cover the current economic conditions and what it means for technology startups and founders, as well as what it could mean for the future of Web3. We interviewed some of the best people in the business - Marc Andreessen and David George from a16z, former Microsoft exec and author Steven Sinofsky, veteran founder and investor Elad Gil, as well as Coinbase exec turned startup founder Dan Romero.

On this episode of the Good Time Show, we have our special guests - Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky - joining us. We covered memes and meme culture, Marc's latest set of tweets on The Current Thing, on not eating bugs/living in pods, and on the current economy and what it means for all of us.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, we interviewed Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO of Coinbase, along with our usual guests, Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky. We covered the current crypto market, the economic downturn and what it means for web3, on building a mission driven organization and whether it was ok to bring politics to the workplace, and advice for founders building companies and fundraising in this current economic climate.

The Good Time Show with special guests Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky. In this episode we cover the current macro economic landscape and uncertainty, advice for founders, we discuss Marc Andreessen's tweets on the 'current thing', web3 and crypto, memes and so much more.

In this re-run from September 2018, Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky talk all about Tesla — and more broadly, the nature of disruption overall. How disruptive is Tesla really, and what exactly are they disrupting — from the dashboard to car makers to vendors to energy source to autonomy overall?The tech industry is littered with leading innovators... who nonetheless failed to be the dominant leader in the end. So the question should be, is this new thing fundamentally difficult for the incumbent to do, and how does it relate to market dominance? Which of these things are important in order for Tesla to be the new BMW or the new GM? Looking back at other examples historically (Microsoft, GM's Saturn Brand, and of course the iPhone), what kind of disruption matters most for market dominance? And what is the long view of how software is eating transportation?

The Agenda

Recorded 14th April 2019 This week there didn't seem to be a great deal of Apple news, not so much a “quiet week that wasn't” as a “quiet week that was”... So expecting a relatively short show Nick and I sallied forth, only to go down a rabbit hole or two and end up with a show so long it had to be cut back (and still ended up extra long - and it could have been longer believe me...) Anyway - it's Easter next week so we will be taking a break for a week... and thus this somewhat longer than usual edition is now officially dubbed “Bumper Easter Edition” GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount! Get Photolemur 2 free by helping this YouTube video to 100,000 views. Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter! We can now also be found on RadioPublic (https://radiopublic.com/the-essential-apple-podcast-6rROkd), PlayerFM (https://player.fm/series/the-essential-apple-show) and TuneIn (https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-News/Rampant-Mumblings-p726252/) as well as all the other places previously available. On this week's show: NICK RILEY @spligosh (https://twitter.com/spligosh) on Twitter very occasionally. Sometimes appears on Bart Busschots' Let's Talk Apple APPLE Apple now offering data migrations for free with new Mac purchases and repairs – 9to5 Mac Apple adds new 'Confirm Subscription' step for in-app subscription signups on iOS – 9to5 Mac How AirPods and Shortcuts shifted Apple's Siri story and blunted Amazon's Alexa Echo threat – Apple Insider An Apple Podcasts+ service could be a hit with listeners and creators – 9to5 mac Cardbox for iOS reimagines contact management with social features, more – 9to5 Mac TECHNOLOGY Space X Falcon Heavy Launch and booster landing – YouTube UK's Sabre space plane engine tech in new milestone – BBC News World's biggest airplane takes flight for the first time ever – The Verge Flickr Teams Up with Pixsy for the First End-to-End Photo Theft Solution – PetaPixel Flickr Blog UK train passengers offered smart tickets – BBC News SECURITY & PRIVACY Firefox expands anti-tracking features with browser fingerprint blocking – The Verge Fingerprinting Links from @dougee on the Cyber Security Special (EAP 124) So, how much information are you giving away right now? These two sites will show you: AmIUnique.org (https://amiunique.org/fp) and Panopticlick.eff.org (https://panopticlick.eff.org/) – I think you'll be surprised. Browser Audit (https://browseraudit.com/) Device Info Me (https://www.deviceinfo.me/) Detect My Browser (https://detectmybrowser.com/) DNS Leak Detector (http://dnsleak.com/) Email Privacy Tester (http://emailprivacytester.com/) Amazon's Alexa isn't just AI - thousands of humans are listening – The Verge Security Flaws in WPA3 Protocol Let Attackers Hack WiFi Password – Hacker News Internet Explorer zero-day exploit makes files vulnerable to hacks on Windows PCs – [Digital Trends](Internet Explorer zero-day exploit makes files vulnerable to hacks on Windows PCs - Digital Trends Microsoft webmail services breached by hackers with support agent's credentials – Digital Trends It's Time to Panic About Privacy – NY Times WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS Byte Magazine July 1989 – Vintage Apple 360 pages of Byte Magazine - from the days when half the page count was adverts... and a lot of those double page spreads to boot (via Steven Sinofsky on Twitter) If you're young enough to have missed it first time, find out what it used to be like, and if you are not then revel in the nostalgia Nemo's Hardware Store (1:12:33) AudioEngine A2+BT Amazon – $269 US Audio Engine 512 Portable Amazon – $169 US It is in the UK store but at the extortionate rate of _**£599 UK - save your money and buy from the US (circa $50 US shipping and customs depost) - yes there may be extra UK customs & excise duties... but they sure as hell won't be £300 UK!!!!!! Essential Apple Recommended Services: Ghostery - protect yourself from trackers, scripts and ads while browsing. 33mail.com – Never give out your real email address online again. Sudo – Get up to 9 “avatars” with email addresses, phone numbers and more to mask your online identity. Free for the first year and priced from $0.99 US / £2.50 UK per month thereafter... ProtonMail – End to end encrypted, open source, based in Switzerland. Prices start from FREE... what more can you ask? ProtonVPN – a VPN to go with it perhaps? Prices also starting from nothing! Fake Name Generator – So much more than names! Create whole identities (for free) with all the information you could ever need. Wire – Free for personal use, open source and end to end encryted messenger and VoIP. Pinecast – a fabulous podcast hosting service with costs that start from nothing. Essential Apple is not affiliated with or paid to promote any of these services... We recommend services that we use ourselves and feel are either unique or outstanding in their field, or in some cases are just the best value for money in our opinion. Social Media and Slack You can follow us on: Twitter / Slack / EssentialApple.com / Spotify / Soundcloud / YouTube / Facebook / Pinecast Also a big SHOUT OUT to the members of the Slack room without whom we wouldn't have half the stories we actually do – we thank you all for your contributions and engagement. You can always help us out with a few pennies by using our Amazon Affiliate Link so we get a tiny kickback on anything you buy after using it. If you really like the show that much and would like to make a regular donation then please consider joining our Patreon or using the Pinecast Tips Jar (which accepts one off or regular donations) And a HUGE thank you to the patrons who already do. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In this hallway conversation of the a16z Podcast, Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky discuss CES 2018 and share insight on what they took from this year's show. How much can you discern each company's "big picture" strategy out of the slew of new products, press releases, and announcements that flood the floor? How do you sort the wheat from the chaff? And beyond the event of CES itself, Evans and Sinofsky analyze the experimentation we're beginning to see in connected consumer electronics for the home. When it comes to the smart home, it seems as though more is better -- more devices, more connectivity, and a single network to rule them all -- but that isn't the case. How (and when) will these devices and appliances -- some of which you only buy new every 10-20 years -- all connect into one system, and what will that platform look like? Which devices will we actually need to be "smart", and what will be today's equivalent of the electric carving knife? Where will new kinds of UI come in; when will a simple GO button be the better option? All this and more in this episode.

What capabilities do enterprise companies really want from their computers? Twenty years ago, those capabilities might've been bundled into a mainframe. Ten years ago, it might've been the PC. Today, as more and more businesses rely on devices that need only browsers/ internet connectivity, what will the "$200 box" sitting at an employee workstation look like? In this hallway-style episode of the a16z Podcast, Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky discuss how tech devices evolve for the enterprise -- and more broadly, what happens when the S-curve levels out??

with Frank Chen, Steven Sinofsky, and Sonal Chokshi There are many reasons why we're in an “A.I. spring” after multiple “A.I. winters” — but how then do we tease apart what's real vs. what's hype when it comes to the (legitimate!) excitement about artificial intelligence and machine learning? Especially when it comes to the latest results of computers beating games, which not only captures our imaginations but has always played a critical role in advancing machine intelligence (whether it's AI winning Texas Hold'em poker or beating the world human champ in the ancient Chinese game of Go). But on learning that Google DeepMind's AlphaGo can master the game of Go without human knowledge — or more precisely: “based solely on reinforcement learning, without human data, guidance, or domain knowledge beyond game rules” — some people leap too far towards claims of artificial generalized intelligence. So where can we then generalize the findings of such work — unsupervised learning, self-play, etc. — to other specific domains? What does it mean for entrepreneurs building companies (and what investors look for)? And what does it mean for how we, as humans, learn… or rather, how computers can also learn from how we learn? Deal and research operating team head Frank Chen and a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky ponder all this and more, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi, in this episode of the a16z Podcast. We ended last time with the triumph of data over algorithms and begin this time with the triumph of algorithms over data … is this the end of big data?

What happens when companies grow exponentially in a short amount of time -- to their organization, their product planning, their behavior towards change itself? In this "hallway conversation", a16z partners Steven Sinofsky and Benedict Evans discuss the business tactics and strategies behind four of the largest tech companies -- Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon -- and how they work from an org perspective.  From the outside, these giants can seem composed of disparate entities literally strewn around the globe; it can be hard (sometimes purposefully so) to understand or detect the strategy that knits them all together. But in fact each of these large companies have very specific approaches to organization and strategy, and what's good for Google isn't necessarily right for Amazon or Apple. Evans and Sinofsky discuss the rationale behind each company's org, looking at the tactics and strategies that are best for the underlying platform, how each thinks of its varied product entities, and how their organizations are all designed differently around their core capabilities and products. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

with Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman, and Steven Sinofsky Modern technology owes much to the introduction of the binary digit or "bit", first proposed by Claude Shannon in "A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, a paper published in 1948. The bit would go on to transform analog to digital, making Shannon the father of the information age. His contemporaries (and collaborators) included Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, and other architects of the digital era.   In this podcast, moderated by a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky, the authors of the new book about Shannon, A Mind at Play -- Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman -- discuss the life and mind of the mathematician, engineer, and cryptographer from his roots as a precocious tinkerer in Gaylord, Michigan to the halls of MIT and Bell Labs. But this conversation is also, more broadly, about how genius and innovation happens... beginning with play.

I spoke with Steven Sinofsky, a board partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where he serves as an advisor to various companies, including as a board member of the e-discovery software provider, Everlaw. We discussed why law-related software is so attractive right now, whether a VC firm calculates the valuation of an e-discovery company differently from a prospect in any other industry, how long it takes to evaluate a company for an investment, ways that a board member supports the strategy of a portfolio company, and what the appeal of legal technology says about where the market is headed.

A lot of machine learning startups initially feel a bit of “impostor syndrome” around competing with big companies, because (the argument goes), those companies have all the data; surely we can't beat that! Yet there are many ways startups can, and do, successfully compete with big companies. You can actually achieve great results in a lot of areas even with a relatively small data set, argue the guests on this podcast, if you build the right product on top of it. So how do you go about building the right product (beyond machine-learning algorithms in academic papers)? It's about the whole system, the user experience, transparency, domain expertise, choosing the right tools. But what do you build, what do you buy, and do you bother to customize? Jensen Harris, CTO and co-founder of Textio, and AJ Shankar, CEO and co-founder of Everlaw, share their lessons learned here in this episode of the a16z Podcast — including what they wish they'd known early on. Because, observes moderator (and a16z board partner) Steven Sinofsky, “To achieve product market fit, there's a whole bunch of stuff beyond a giant corpus of data, and the latest deep learning algorithm.” Machine learning is an ingredient, part of a modern software-as-a-service company; going beyond the hype, it's really about figuring out the problem you're trying to solve… and then figuring out where machine learning fits in (as opposed to the other way around). Customers are paying you to help solve a problem for them, after all. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

There have been a number of new device announcements this past month -- from Google's new Pixel phone (the first time they made their own phone on the hardware side as well) to more recently, Apple's announcements around a new Macbook Pro and innovations in touch (including a Touchbar that replaces function keys and bringing TouchID to Macs); and then Microsoft, which among other things announced a new Surface Studio -- an all-in-one touchscreen desktop PC. How do these change the future of work? Turns out, even seemingly small interface improvements could have significant consequences for user behavior. Just look at touch. More broadly, though, what happens when a software maker becomes a hardware maker? Or when we're in the middle of an architecture shift, as we are right now with x86 to ARM processors in mobile (and beyond)? It's all about where you're at on the "S-curve" of innovation (a concept first coined by Gabriel Tarde and expanded on Everett Rogers in his theory of innovation diffusion). And sometimes, the best is the last... But how can we tell where something is on that curve? The right comparisons matter here, and a16z's Benedict Evans and board partner Steven Sinofsky try to make them in this episode of the podcast!

"Apple isn't just a tech company; it's a tastemaker." Remember the iconic ads of dancing silhouettes in black, with only the headphone wires visible in white? They were a critical part of the larger buy-Apple innovation narrative. So what happens now when those wires -- an emblematic and enduring image -- are no longer visible, as is the case with the removal of the traditional headphone jack in iPhone 7? It's part of a broader story, both about how product narratives are shared/told and about how innovation happens: "amazingly", subtly, and sometimes, invisibly. Some innovations, like preventing "battery anxiety" or building a platform ecosystem or even laying the tracks for a train that hasn't arrived yet ("ear computers" or "audible computing"? VR/AR? car?) take time. And a direction we may not be able to anticipate from the outside looking in. ...Or so argue the a16zers on this episode of the a16z Podcast featuring in-house analyst Benedict Evans and board partner Steven Sinofsky with Kyle Russell.

For better or worse, most of the computing systems that run much of our lives (whether invisibly or visibly) have become increasingly complex -- they're not fully engineered; they're almost grown. And with that we enter a brave new world of "biological" (as opposed to a more "physics") mindset applied to computing. It's more like evolution, horns and all. This isn't just abstract or backend-only stuff. Complex system design affects everything from datacenters and SaaS to word processors and cars, touching human lives in very tangible ways. So how do you solve problems in such systems? How do you even begin to understand "the system" in the first place? And is there anything out there yet that lets us test and verify the output of these systems? (Inquiring minds want to know!) All this and more in this episode of the a16z Podcast, a riff on the theme of "complicated" with complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman and author of the new book Overcomplicated. Also joining the conversation (with Sonal Chokshi) are a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky and research and deal team head Frank Chen. image: brewbooks / Flickr

Innovation or invention? Platform or app? Vertical or horizontal? Strategy or tactic? Does the smartphone eat VR? And (not to get all existential about it or anything but), what is an app, really? a16z partners Benedict Evans, Connie Chan, Kyle Russell, and board partner Steven Sinofsky explore these tensions in this episode of the podcast as they share some quick reactions to Google I/O, Google's annual developer conference, where the company announced a number of new platform products -- for VR to messaging to the smart home. Maybe most new things are really old things, but maybe those distinctions don't matter as artificial intelligence leaps into how we live our lives, automating (and anticipating) things in a new way...

When the iPad first came out in 2010 there was chatter that went in two directions: It's just a big iPhone I'll never carry a laptop again Both were wrong. The big iPhone comment was quickly dispelled as people (and their kids) fell under the consumption thrall of iPads. But iPads never could meet the needs of most laptop users –- until now. Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky offer their reasons why the iPad Pro hits the mark as a machine for all kinds of things, and why it may have shoved their own laptops aside for almost everything. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

Why are people so fired up about a computer winning yet another game? Whether it's checkers, chess, Jeopardy, or the ancient Chinese game of Go, we get excited about the potential for more when we see computers beat humans. But then nothing "big" -- in terms of generalized artificial intelligence -- seems to happen after that burst of excitement. Now, with the excitement (and other emotions) around Google DeepMind's "AlphaGo" using machine learning and other techniques to beat one of the world's top Go players, Lee Sodol, in Korea ... it's like the dream of the 1990s (and 1980s, and 1970s, and 1960s) is alive in Seoul right now. Is this time different? How do we know? a16z's head of research and deal team Frank Chen and board partner Steven Sinofsky -- who both suffered through the last “AI winter” -- share how everything old is new again; the triumph of data over algorithms; and the evergreen battle between purist vs. "practical" approaches. Ultimately, it's about how innovation in general plays out, at a scale both grand (cycles and gestation periods) and mundane (sometimes, the only way to make a product work is to hack together the old, the new, and everything in between). NOTE: The Super Mario World video referenced in this podcast is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6UVOQ0F44

Smartphone components have become a kind of Lego kit for all kinds of consumer technology. Cameras, sensors, and batteries all get mixed and matched in different permutations to create different gadgets. It might be something that enables your connected home, offers a video capture system for cops, or powers a remote video chat/treat machine for your dog (I know, we all need that). But since practically every component is now available to everyone -- and the manufacturing expertise to tie it all together as well -- it becomes very hard to distinguish via hardware alone. Software is the key to breaking from the pack, say Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky in this post-2016 CES podcast. What Benedict and Steven saw and learned from this year's gathering of the consumer electronics industry in this segment of the a16z Podcast.

In this, world of massive cloud-based applications and services, rolling out software has moved from an episodic event to an almost continuous release cycle. In that environment, software products aren't as “done” as they used to be -- they can't be -- so the focus has shifted to reversibility. Building a development organization with the design tools and processes that can aggressively iterate while also creating safety nets. So if things do get screwy they can be fixed before customers even notice. Call it DevOps or application operations, Steven Sinofsky leads a discussion with Karthik Rau from SignalFx and Alex Solomon from PagerDuty about the evolution of I.T. operations – and the requirements and challenges that modern distributed applications pose for a development organization. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

Every organization these days is clear about the need to get its data act together. But that doesn't mean the path toward data bliss is clear. Data has gravity. It resides in different places at different organizations -- on premise, in the cloud, and flowing from external sources. And the rate of change within organizations is always different. So an approach towards handling data that works for one company may be the exact wrong thing for yours. Steven Sinofsky leads a conversation with three founders -- Prat Moghe, from Cazena; Gaurav Dhillon from SnapLogic, and Roman Stanek from GoodData – about the opportunity and variety of ways forward for companies looking to make the most of the data that matters. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

As software becomes core to every industry, there is a need for more and more software development across practically every department in a company. But as anyone who has tried to get quality software developed knows, that has given rise to a supply and demand problem. Leveraging open source software is a big part of the solution to that problem, but venturing into the open source world raises all sorts of questions for most companies. For example, how do you engage as a company in the open source community; what are your obligations to the project; and if you are hiring a development team what clues ought you to be looking for to get the best developers? And what are the developers looking for? And in the end, who's responsible and accountable for the all this code flowing around? In a discussion from the firm's 2015 Tech Summit, Steven Sinofsky digs into all those questions with a panel that includes Roger Dickey, founder and CEO of Gigster, Slack CMO Bill Macaitis, GitHub Director of Field Services Matthew McCullough, and Joel Spolsky, co-founder and CEO of StackOverflow. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

Technology is a progression of new ideas and new platforms gobbling up the one that came before. In the world of computers we went from mainframes to mini computers to PCs. And then came the mobile phone, which, in the form of the smartphone, has dwarfed them all. But what does that to mobile? When you have already gotten to everybody on earth, what comes along that is 10X the size? a16z's Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky offer their thoughts on where technology is today, why the perfection of the current crop of PCs signals the category's collapse, and what happens after the smartphone.

You've heard the story: Slack began as a game. But almost exactly 1 year ago today, the internal tool the team built for its own use became a team communication app that anyone (and especially enterprises) can use -- and is now one of the fastest growing ones at that. It seems like collaboration is "something software should be helping us with” Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield observes, yet it typically isn't. So what can an app like Slack tell us about how we work today, and how the nature of work will change (fewer meetings? less emails)? Butterfield is joined in this edition of the a16z podcast by a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky and a16z's Benedict Evans. The trio examines the origins of messaging and task management tools (many of which Sinofsky worked on at Microsoft) -- and how the advent of cloud-based services and mobile in particular have changed the requirements for modern workplace tools and information management. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

What does an operating system for today's datacenter look like? Why do we even need one, and how does it function? Mesosphere's Benjamin Hindman, the co-creator of Apache Mesos, joins Steven Sinofsky for an all-OS discussion. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

It's always hard to predict how a generational shift in technology will impact the wider world, especially when you are in the trenches building that new technology. It happened with the mainframe computer, mini-computer, and the PC. These were all technologies that fundamentally changed how industries functioned and culture evolved (especially the PC plus internet), and in ways that were hard to predict. With mobile and the smartphone, a16z's Benedict Evans argues, the impact will be even greater. a16z Board Partner Steven Sinofsky joins Evans in a conversation examining the massive scale and monstrous leverage of mobile devices and the software running on them and how -- unpredictably as always -- this technological shift is changing the world. As Sinofsky puts it, “Mobile is everything.” The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

Jim Barksdale in the run-up to the Netscape IPO told potential investors that you can make money in software in two ways: bundling and unbundling. Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky revisit that thesis in the context of a mobile app world -- how Facebook for example, is unbundling itself, while at the same time Baidu is bundling everything together as fast as it can. How and why Barksdale's thesis is very much alive and well in the mobile world. All that, and the proper use of "fissiparousness" in a sentence.

Managing enterprise networks with thousands of users and endpoints has been hard enough. Now that large enterprise networks routinely include hundreds of thousands of nodes it's amazingly difficult and time-consuming (we're talking days often) to get definitive answers to seemingly simple questions like, how many PCs do I have running? Never mind, how many PCs do I have that could be at risk of the Heartbleed virus? Tanium, the most recent company to join the a16z portfolio, offers a systems management and security tool that allows administrators to ask virtually any question about the configuration, performance, and complexion of an enterprise network and get an answer in seconds. Tanium CTO and Co-founder Orion Hindawi and a16z Board Partner Steven Sinofsky discuss the origins of Tanium; the invention of the “linear peer-to-peer communications” architecture that turbo-charges the Tanium solution; and with Internet of Things coming online fast, the prospect of networks quickly going to millions and billions of nodes.

a16z Board Partner Steven Sinofsky and Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie discuss findings from a study of the information economy that has been built on cloud and mobile. The findings were based on workflow data collected anonymously from a subset of 25 million users, 225,000 businesses, and five industries (you can see the report here: http://blog.box.com/2014/06/mapping-the-information-economy-a-tale-of-five-industries/). It all amounts to big shifts in enterprise IT. But what are the implications of these findings for everyone's business ... beyond Silicon Valley and the software industry? And finally -- shared in a live brainstorm at the end -- what's the future of the cloud?