#6 - Innovators & Levitators

Written By Julian Dorey

The Documentary referenced at the beginning with the Eminem Story is called “The Defiant Ones” (HBO).

  • The future economy, Industry 4.0--and what the next phase of machines means for us as humans.

  • The Question:

    • What kinds of skills and abilities are going to be critical over the next several decades to be a valuable worker in the economy?

  • Potential Answer: Innovators & Levitators (h/t Eminem)

  • Venture Capitalist and founder of Sinovation Ventures (China)

    • Was talking about how technology will NET take Jobs

Potential Answer to Question

  • Innovators & Levitators

Kai-Fu Lee: Technology will NET take Jobs

  • Lee consulted on a study with McKinsey that concluded:

    • 48% of jobs could be lost NET over the next 10-20 years

    • Lee, however, asserted that  the number will most likely be 20-25% because of regulatory requirements, social frictions, and plain old inertia

      • This number is a reflection of the balance of replaced jobs and jobs created by machine technology

    • 38% of jobs could be automated away with one-to-one replacement

      • One-to-one examples include one-skill jobs like taxi driving or warehouse lifting and carrying

    • 10% from “ground up”

      • Ground-up is when a machine can satisfy the fundamental human need driving the industry

        • Think anything that pairs  routine optimization work with external marketing or customer service that includes everything from fast food drive through workers, Wall Street Traders, Radiologists, etc.

Brynnjolffson & McAfee

  • 3 Types of workers that will make sense moving out of THE GREAT RESTRUCTURING:

    • 1. High Skilled Workers

      • Those with tremendous abilities to work with and tease valuable results from increasingly complex machines

    • 2. Superstars

      • Remote connectivity has allowed talent to attract without regard for regions/location

      • Market can therefore seek out the best to get the best

        • I.E. no need to hire internals because you need them on site--just outsource it

        • Talent will rise to the top in this scenario

          • 5 mediocre workers does NOT equal one great worker when it comes to highly skilled work; it’s not a power of numbers

    • 3. Owners

      • Those with capital to invest in the new technologies that are driving the great restructuring

  • We can use these concepts to explain Brynjolfson & McAfee’s 3 groups in a simpler way.

    • Our Definition: Innovators 

      • Those who have the ability to make, create, or invent a unique product to fulfill their target customers’ needs.

      • They do this by leveraging trained craftsmanship in a specific area, by creating products, technology, or art from scratch--and by seeing creativity & innovation where others see blank space.

      • In the modern era, the big ones are tech guys who

      • CAN BE ARTISTS/Creatives/Performers too

        • Musicians, painters, content creators, athletes, etc

        • Entertainment’s changing but it’s not going anywhere

    • Our Definition: Levitators

      • Those who have a strong ability to imagine & strategize solutions for their customers in the most efficient, effective, and simple ways. 

      • They do this by leveraging soft skills like empathy, charisma, & relationship-building--as well as other skills like critical thinking, finding new angles and, of course, problem solving.

      • Quite simply--levitators are visionaries.

Note: The simplest form of levitators are the owners, who provide capital.

    • Rare ones have pure forms of both

  • Our examples are:

    • Charismatic LEVITATOR: Steve Jobs (needed Steve Wozniak)

    • Data-Driven LEVITATOR: Jeff Bezos

    • INNOVATORS: Page & Brin at Google (needed Eric Schmidt)

    • PURE BOTH Elon Musk

A) Jobs - Charismatic

  • Both of our Levitator types must have the ability to problem solve.

    • Arguably the single most important cognitive skill moving forward

  • Jobs was the ultimate Levitator (who could also visualize innovation and put together the guys who could do it). 

    • 1. Problem Solver

      • MP3 Players & the iPod

        • “1,000 songs in your pocket”

        • He also figured out that music needed a central space as the industry had no idea how to counteract the piracy disaster of the early 2000’s--and then he became the most important man in the music industry with iTunes

      • “Stylus pens are dumb when you have 5 on your hand”

        • iPad

      • Phones have too many models, hard buttons, & don’t work

        • Touchscreen phone with music & the internet

    • 2. Detail

      • Partnership with Jony Ive

        • The head of design for Apple

      • Product leading with design for the user to “feel something”

      • He was an “artist”

    • 3. Charisma for Bold vision

      • Steve Jobs defined Apple’s core purpose

B) Bezos - Data-Driven

  • Data Driven Levitator -- A Pure form of Brynjolfsson & McAfee’s “Highly Skilled Worker”

    • “Customer obsession” from beginning

      • Still tells investors to “sit down” today

      • Only since the tail end of 2017 have they been “consistently” profitable

      • Spent significant money improving and innovating a time-reducing, fanatical customer delivery schedule

      • Problem solved: people want products and they want them as soon as possible on demand.

    • Data & Trend Attention: 

      • Focus on one thing (books) and then build it out piece by piece via a website, cornering the market

        • He had a computing/coding background as an electrical  engineering & Computer Science from Princeton, designed early website and put a team together with 2 other coders to get it right

C) Google with the guys and Schmidt

  • Page & Brin were the coders and they needed a guy who could effectively manage people (running the company) & be the public face of the brand (the old school levitator):

    • So they found Eric Schmidt, CEO and Chairman of a software services company, Novell

D) Elon Musk -- Innovator & Levitator

  • Twitter, speeches, and world traveling to spread the word (CHARISMA)

  • Elon’s “Why’s”

    • Internet, Sustainability, Multi-Planetary Connectivity, Genetics, & Artificial Intelligence

  • Engineer

    • Concept-ing and building rockets

    • Engineering self-driving cars running off software

    • Neural Nets to leverage deep learning for Neuralink

    • Payment platforms for PayPal

  • STILL needs team of people who can do both

Apple, Amazon, Google, Tesla  

  • All of those companies employ tens of thousands of the following:

    • Engineers (Innovators) 

    • Designers (Innovators)...the closest things to pure artists. The great ones are often BOTH innovators and levitators

    • Product Strategists (Levitators) 

    • Consumer/Data Insights Scientists (Levitators)

    • HR (Levitators)

  • The very best (most talented hit both boxes)

    • Think Jony Ive or Anthony Fadell during their time at Apple

  • SMALLER BUSINESS EXAMPLE:

    • Service firms in the 1-20 employee range that fill gaps between business needs, specifically around technology will have ENORMOUS opportunities

      • Angellist.com Naval Ravikant talks about this and has quite a point

Julian Dorey
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