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Nuances for Engineering Social Change

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.

Mahmoud Hashemi

July 31, 2019
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  1. NATEG Days 2019
    1

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  2. Once Upon A Time...
    2

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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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  5. 5

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  6. 6

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  7. 7

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  8. 8

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  9. Be Careful What You Wish For...
    9

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  10. 10

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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.
    13

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  14. Nuances
    to Engineer
    Social Change
    Mahmoud Hashemi
    NATEG Days 2019

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  15. Why Social Change?
    15

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  16. 16

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  17. 17

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  18. 18

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  19. 19

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  20. Present-Day Values
    20

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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
    26

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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.
    28

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  29. 29
    ?

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  30. 30

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  31. 31

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  32. 32

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

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  34. 34

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  35. Antipatterns of The Future

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  36. Economies of Scale
    We’re focusing too much on efficiency.
    36

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  39. (USA)

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  40. Value Creation
    At all scales, down to the individual level.
    40

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  41. Uniformity
    We’re missing opportunities for local
    optimization.
    41

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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.
    45

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  46. Concentration
    Wealth and power centralization isn’t giving
    us the leverage we need.
    46

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  49. Distribute & Decentralize
    Investing in local actors seeds the most
    opportunities for growth.
    49

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  50. Vulnerability
    Commoditizing workers and citizens harms
    both consumption and creation.
    50

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  53. Build Resilience & Robustness
    Optimize for creation and creator quality of life.
    53

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  54. Environmental Exploitation
    We’re long overdue on the mortgage we’ve
    taken out on our environment.
    54

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  55. Live Sustainably
    Solar, clean nuclear, carbon negative, whatever.
    Short-term price < long-term cost.
    55

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  56. New Values
    ■ Create Value
    ■ Promote Diversity
    ■ Distribute and Decentralize
    ■ Build Resilience
    ■ Establish Sustainability
    56

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  57. New Values, New Metrics
    If you treasure it, measure it.
    57

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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
    59

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  60. Engineer Social Change
    Better technology can lead to a better society*
    * If done carefully
    60

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  61. But How?
    61

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  64. “Specialize, then generalize.”
    - Hany Moustapha
    64

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  65. +

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  66. Be the Best You Can Be
    Focus on:
    ■ Solid fundamentals
    ■ Growth and longevity
    ■ Opportunities around you
    66

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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
    68
    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
    70
    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
    72

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  73. I
    I
    Vs.
    Schoolwork
    73
    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
    75
    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
    76
    Development
    ■ Unpredictable vs. Predictable
    ■ Definitely Unmanageable vs.
    Probably Unmanageable
    ■ Art vs. Craft

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  77. I
    I
    Vs.
    Systems
    77
    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
    78
    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
    [email protected]
    sedimental.org
    80

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