Nowism - Edition 29
Saudi's Skyline Dreams, More Time for TikTok, Excel will outlive us all, and The Future of Work
Big One’s
Thoughts from Saudi Arabia
A lot of things hit you visiting Saudi Arabia, one is the huge degree of social change that’s happening at lightning speed, another is the palpable sense of youth (over 60% of the population is under 30) and, most strikingly, the overwhelming sense of ambition.
It’s my third visit this year, and this time I emceed (a horrible verb) the main stage of the world’s largest property show for four exhausting but brilliant days.
Saudi Arabia possesses something few other countries seem to have, but which we rarely notice when it’s missing: vision. It has drive, it has optimism. It’s not heaven on earth, nor is it without problems, but it’s moving forward with clarity and conviction.
Most companies or countries lack a vision, let alone one that is clearly articulated. What does the UK want to be? What direction is it heading? What is its role in the world? What does success look like? The same questions could be asked of Germany, the USA, and Japan. In fact, almost all countries have no clear or articulated sense of what they want to become.
After time in Riyadh, these places seem like gerontocracies with elderly leaders hanging on, not building. Everything seems to be nostalgic or frozen, as if dreaming let alone making a bolder future is something to feel guilty about. That being optimistic isn’t reading the room right.
A property show in Saudi Arabia shows images of a future I thought we’d given up on.
Floating Octagonal cities, beachfront communities that look from another planet (see below), subterranean habitats, organic splayed ski resorts, and of course, the rather infamous Line. There are also vast cubical city centers, and assumptions of what is impossible are challenged everywhere.
At times this stuff looks a bit like Bond Villain x DALL·E 3, and we wonder how much of it will ever get built and about environmental impacts, but generally speaking, I absolutely love seeing this. It’s hopeful, ambitious, imaginative, human-centered, future-focused and we need more of that.
And for all those who think this stuff is vapor and shrouded in mystery, they also featured webcams showing live views of ongoing contraction and the goal to have most elements (not the Line) finished by 2030, just in time for the UK to not build another runway or another bridge.
This show asked the question, If we had no idea, what a city should look like and the answers were spectacular.
Mindless Media is the New Fast Food
In the age of social media, the editor is quickly replaced by the algorithm; curation and distribution come from our friends, not newsstands; and our opinions are further reinforced and entrenched by bias and then software.
Entrenched ignorance becomes likely, not just possible when in a world of connected billions there will always be people and data to support any thesis. Read the rest of this piece I wrote 8 years ago here, it’s as true as ever. It’s really not hard to predict the future, only the timing.
Will AI eat our meals for us too?
AI is doing weird things with our relationship with time. What is now just life, and what is now something to speed up or automate?
Take for example this new idea YouTube is testing, it can “watch” and summarize a YouTube video in short form text. On the one hand, I loathe watching a slow 11min long video each time I need to clear an error on a dishwasher or descale my Nespresso, ‘don’t forget to subscribe to my channel” is the soundtrack of 2024, but at the same time, a nice 7 min video on the best way to cheer up a houseplant can be rather nice.
At some point we need to ask what in life deserves to be sped up, what deserves never to exist, what should be automatically viewed for us, and what are we actually saving time for? The way I see 2024 is lots of people buying crap food from Uber Eats, having AI wish people a Happy Birthday, auto-suggesting replies to your mum, so we can save time to moronically waste our life away on TikTok with our brains poked on the envy and outrage buttons.
What will we do with all our saved time becomes the most profound and quite scary question of 2025.
Podcast of the week.
Bruce Daisley and I had a brilliant chat about all things regarding the future of work.
Video of the week
This SNL clip about the Filter bubble looks as of the moment as ever.
Little ones.
A good deep dive on rethinking eCommerce returns/reverse logistics, especially loved how it talked about the psychological approaches to improve.
Desperate to chase unprofitable growth at all costs, especially to the planet, Amazon launched Haul, a site where nothing, even a sofa, will cost more than $20 or last more than 20 days. It’s mobile only, ‘cos that’s what the cool kids use.
The Rising Importance of Older Workers - some work from Bain
TV advertising is taking a long time to realize that ads can be inserted locally, The Trade Desk is building a CTV operating system to help do this (to compete with Roku/Google, etc). I am still not quite sure what problem this solves other than TTD’s
A Ridesharing startup decided Google’s maps were good enough, so made their own.
Techniques used to generate random gradient images are rather beautiful.
We probably don’t talk enough about the rise of gambling across the world and how our dopamine-fixed brains and mobile phones have come together to create problems across the world.
The CEO of KFC and Taco Bell China sat for hours and watched customers eat and then invented new meals, I don’t understand why this is considered unusual. I’m fascinated by what customers do.
A good read on why Excel won’t die. Adoption my dear Watson, Adoption.
I’ve been saying for a while that more automated driving isn’t really that helpful as 1) It’s more tiring than just driving yourself and 2) It leads to far more avoidable crashes. This piece backs me up.
My favorite business transformation tip, stop doing dumb stuff.
Huawei to launch its own phone software - a sign of the east/west future?
A link to every trend deck for 2025 you can imagine. One day I’ll get mine done. Thanks to Amy for compiling and sharing.
A big thought on AI and how we adopt technology, Sponsored by Intel
I've been thinking about how we embrace AI, we are making some mistakes.
It dawned on me that we were following the classic path of disruption and the three phases of technology, where we first apply how we've always done things, before an enormous pivot, and then the third phase where we rethink the world around new parameters.
Because the past always seems more logical, more calmer in retrospect than at the time, we forget how even the most incredible innovations are largely misunderstood, miss-applied, and fumbled.
For years many people thought that electricity was a fad. It took a long time to get people enthusiastic about computers. The steam engine was first used to lift water to drive waterwheels, The Internet for many seemed like something only for Geeks.
The pivot point happens when a couple of things come together
The installed base of the technology has to be large enough
People need to have used the technology enough to understand its meaning
We need new entrants, with new business models and new ideas to challenge the existing assumptions.
But the biggest shift becomes when people use the new tools to create a new future.
It turns out electricity didn’t mean better toasters, it meant the telegram, the radio, the TV set, the microwave, the TV dinner.
Computer chips didn’t mean the calculator, but the internet and connecting the entire planet with everything ever known.
It wasn’t the smartphone that changed the world but the app store.
It’s the turning point that matters most. What goes from impossible to imagine, becomes obvious in hindsight.
This turning point allows us to see a brand new future we couldn’t see before. New possibilities, new futures, new human potential.
AI is nearing its turning point. So far, we’ve used AI to enhance what we already know—adding features to software, improving User Experience, and automating tasks. But now is the time to reimagine everything: how we work, build, and create.
Intel is leading this transformation, building AI-powered PCs from the ground up—running locally, securely, and seamlessly. These AI PCs are more than tools—they’re gateways to new possibilities, designed to help individuals and businesses thrive.
Here’s how AI PCs unlock the future:
Productivity on Autopilot: AI takes on repetitive tasks—summarizing notes, drafting emails, or generating code—so you can focus on what matters. Real-time translation and enhanced video calls improve collaboration effortlessly.
Creative Power Unleashed: AI allows you to dive deeper into creativity, from instant video editing to on-the-fly image generation. AI works in the background, freeing time and energy to focus on the spark that matters.
Seamless, Secure Performance: From AI-powered video upscaling to voice-to-text transcription and document summarization, these PCs bring the power of AI directly to your device, ensuring your data stays private. Enjoy advanced AI capabilities without compromising on intellectual property security. With instant threat detection and Intel’s vPro technology, you can count on smarter, safer business decisions.
Effortless Collaboration Anywhere: Smart features like real-time translation and noise suppression enable smooth teamwork, with AI managing performance to maximize battery life on the go.
A Platform for Innovation: Just as the app store transformed the smartphone, Intel’s developer ecosystem opens the door for limitless possibilities. With hundreds of developers building on this new platform, the future is ripe for breakthroughs.
The AI PC isn’t just a glimpse of what’s possible—it’s already here, redefining how we live, work, and create. An era where imagination, not tools, sets the limits
To find out more https://intel.ly/3AncSvp
That’s it for now.
Thanks
Tom
