Nuances for Engineering Social Change

A marathon 1-hour keynote for the folks at NATEG Days 2019. Slides can be a bit sparse, so we've got a Midas parable, then a tie-in to Society 5.0 (one of the conference's themes), then a bunch of lessons I've learned to stay productive and keep learning.

Transcript

1. NATEG Days 2019
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2. Once Upon A Time...
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3. 3
   Midas Face Reconstruction from Skull, 2016
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/66082566@N00/25383664534
   

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4. 4
   Midas Face Reconstruction from Skull, 2016
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/66082566@N00/25383664534
   

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9. Be Careful What You Wish For...
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11. 11
    The World’s First Coin
    White Gold (Electrum)
    Lydia, 600BC
    

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12. 12
    Was King Midas Responsible for the
    World’s First ICO?
    

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13. Wish Better.
    Build Better.
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14. Nuances
    to Engineer
    Social Change
    Mahmoud Hashemi
    NATEG Days 2019
    

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15. Why Social Change?
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20. Present-Day Values
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21. 21
    SCALE
    

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22. 22
    Consistency
    

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23. 23
    Concentration
    

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24. 24
    Workforce Flexibility
    

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25. 25
    Environmental
    extraction
    

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26. Current Values
    ■ Scale
    ■ Consistency
    ■ Concentration
    ■ Workforce Flexibility
    ■ Environmental Extraction
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27. Antipatterns of The Future
    

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28. We Can’t Take Anymore
    The values of the last two centuries have
    stretched beyond their limits.
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    ?
    

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33. https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/kihonkeikaku/5basicplan_en.pdf
    

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35. Antipatterns of The Future
    

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36. Economies of Scale
    We’re focusing too much on efficiency.
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39. (USA)
    

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40. Value Creation
    At all scales, down to the individual level.
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41. Uniformity
    We’re missing opportunities for local
    optimization.
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44. Monoculture
    &
    Gros Michel
    

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45. Celebrate Individuality
    Diversification at all levels makes for a more
    robust and more humane society.
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46. Concentration
    Wealth and power centralization isn’t giving
    us the leverage we need.
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49. Distribute & Decentralize
    Investing in local actors seeds the most
    opportunities for growth.
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50. Vulnerability
    Commoditizing workers and citizens harms
    both consumption and creation.
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53. Build Resilience & Robustness
    Optimize for creation and creator quality of life.
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54. Environmental Exploitation
    We’re long overdue on the mortgage we’ve
    taken out on our environment.
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55. Live Sustainably
    Solar, clean nuclear, carbon negative, whatever.
    Short-term price < long-term cost.
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56. New Values
    ■ Create Value
    ■ Promote Diversity
    ■ Distribute and Decentralize
    ■ Build Resilience
    ■ Establish Sustainability
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57. New Values, New Metrics
    If you treasure it, measure it.
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58. Metrics, Old & New
    ■ Old
    ○ GDP
    ○ Unemployment %
    ○ Stock market price
    ■ New
    ○ Labor force participation
    ○ Underemployment
    ○ Affordability
    ○ Wage growth
    ○ Stress levels
    ○ Life expectancy
    ○ Personal, professional, environmental health
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59. No Silver Bullet
    ■ Long-term
    ○ Find (or create) better institutions to serve
    ○ Help change the metrics in the public sphere
    ○ Hold industry accountable to its debt to society
    ■ Short-term
    ○ Take what creative work you can get
    ○ Just start and work hard
    ○ Build community
    ■ Right now
    ○ Learn to be the best you can be
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60. Engineer Social Change
    Better technology can lead to a better society*
    * If done carefully
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61. But How?
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64. “Specialize, then generalize.”
    - Hany Moustapha
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66. Be the Best You Can Be
    Focus on:
    ■ Solid fundamentals
    ■ Growth and longevity
    ■ Opportunities around you
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67. Strong Fundamentals
    ■ Don’t follow every fad
    ○ That’s a good way to get burned out
    ■ Look for tried-and-true technologies
    ○ C
    ○ SQL
    ○ POSIX
    ○ Python
    ■ Still waters run deep
    ○ Deep knowledge of mature technologies only
    grows more valuable.
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68. “Most people overestimate what they
    can do in one year and underestimate
    what they can do in ten years.”
    - Billy G
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    Long-Term Growth
    

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69. Watch for Opportunities
    ■ Big and small
    ■ PayPal
    ○ University talk
    ■ Wikipedia
    ○ Random hackathon
    ○ Old friend of a college roommate
    ■ Speaking
    ○ Started a local meetup
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70. The Creativity Gradient
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    How do you ensure you’re continuously creating?
    Consume
    Critique
    Curate
    (NB: look up Sisyphus)
    Create
    

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71. Managing Yourself
    Ask:
    ■ What are your strengths?
    ○ StrengthsQuest, YouMap
    ■ How do you learn?
    ○ Reading, writing, talking
    ■ What are your values?
    ○ Who do you respect and why?
    Answer these for yourself,
    then your collaborators,
    then find where you belong.
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72. Finding Where You Belong
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73. I
    I
    Vs.
    Schoolwork
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    Work-Work
    ■ No professors or TAs
    ■ Managers != teachers
    ■ No guarantee of possibility
    ■ No taking the B+
    

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74. 74
    “The first 90% of the project accounts for the first 90% of
    development time.
    The last 10% of the project accounts for the other 90% of
    development time.”
    — Tom Cargill, Bell Labs
    The
    Rule
    

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75. I
    I
    Vs.
    Business
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    Technology
    ■ Few technology businesses are
    driven by technology
    ■ How many big names rely on
    pushing the state of the art?
    ■ Instead, engineers are usually
    problem solvers
    ■ Just part of the larger business
    context
    

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76. I
    I
    Vs.
    Research
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    Development
    ■ Unpredictable vs. Predictable
    ■ Definitely Unmanageable vs.
    Probably Unmanageable
    ■ Art vs. Craft
    

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77. I
    I
    Vs.
    Systems
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    Applications
    ■ Low-level vs. High-level
    ■ Automation-facing vs.
    Human-facing
    ■ Primitives vs. Products
    ■ Technically rewarding vs.
    Materially rewarding
    ■ Slower-moving vs. Faster-moving
    ■ Consider also: enterprise vs
    consumer (B2B vs B2C)
    

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78. I
    I
    Vs.
    Money &
    Power
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    RESPECT
    ■ Money != Power
    ■ Power != Respect
    ■ Don’t forget your values
    

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79. Engineering Social Change
    ■ Know yourself (and your team)
    ○ What are your strengths?
    ○ How do you learn?
    ○ What are your values?
    ■ Work on yourself (and your team)
    ○ Fundamentals
    ○ Long-term growth
    ○ Watch for opportunities
    ○ Climb that Creativity Gradient
    ■ Find where you make the biggest impact
    ○ Business ↔ Technology
    ○ Research ↔ Development
    ○ Systems ↔ Applications
    ○ Enterprise ↔ Consumer
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80. Thanks!
    Find me at:
    github.com/mahmoud
    twitter.com/mhashemi
    yak.party
    mahmoud@hatnote.com
    sedimental.org
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