34 min listen
CM 032: Doug Rushkoff on Redesigning the Economy
CM 032: Doug Rushkoff on Redesigning the Economy
ratings:
Length:
52 minutes
Released:
Apr 18, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Named one of ten most influential thinkers in the world by MIT, Doug Rushkoff asks some seriously big questions on this episode of Curious Minds.
The biggest one is: what if an economy predicated on growth is unsustainable? Growth at companies like General Electric (GE) used to mean jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. That same growth, at companies like Facebook and Google, yields, at most, tens of thousands of jobs. As growth-oriented tech companies absorb more jobs through smarter tech and automation, is this an opportunity to rethink the nature of work, jobs, and the overall economy?
Doug Rushkoff asks us to consider that topic in his latest bestselling book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity. Rushkoff is a professor of media theory and digital economics at Queens College, CUNY. He is the bestselling author of a dozen other books, including Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, and Life Inc.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why Doug sees growth as the culprit in our current economy
The unmet promise of technology and the long tail for artists and creatives
How big data analytics reduces unpredictability and, thereby, innovation
Ways more of us can take ownership of the platforms putting us out of work
How it is not the job we want but the meaning, purpose, and material benefits work gives
Money as a verb
How currency tools like blockchain can help us rethink power and authority
Twitter as a textbook case of tech success but growth company failure
How digital distributism can trump digital industrialism
The shift from tech as energizing to energy sucking
Ruskhoff also talks about how he thinks about technology use in his own life, including which tools he chooses to use and why.
Selected Links to Topics Mentioned
@rushkoff
www.rushkoff.com
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus by Doug Rushkoff
eBay
Etsy
Operating system
Bazaar
Crusades
Burning Man
Acquisition
IPO
Wired
Chris Anderson
Long Tail
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
Free by Chris Anderson
Mondo 2000
Boing Boing
Ponzi scheme
Alan Greenspan
Taylor Swift
Power law dynamics
Distributism
Venture capital
Capital gains tax
Blockchain
Bitcoin
PGP - pretty good privacy
Distributism
Marxism
Capitalism
Marshall McLuhan
Peer-to-peer economy
Lendingtree
Fintech
Faustian bargain
Private equity
Flip this house
Michael Dell
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
Thank you to Emmy-award-winning Creative Director Vanida Vae for designing the Curious Minds logo!
www.gayleallen.net
LinkedIn
@GAllenTC
The biggest one is: what if an economy predicated on growth is unsustainable? Growth at companies like General Electric (GE) used to mean jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. That same growth, at companies like Facebook and Google, yields, at most, tens of thousands of jobs. As growth-oriented tech companies absorb more jobs through smarter tech and automation, is this an opportunity to rethink the nature of work, jobs, and the overall economy?
Doug Rushkoff asks us to consider that topic in his latest bestselling book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity. Rushkoff is a professor of media theory and digital economics at Queens College, CUNY. He is the bestselling author of a dozen other books, including Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, and Life Inc.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why Doug sees growth as the culprit in our current economy
The unmet promise of technology and the long tail for artists and creatives
How big data analytics reduces unpredictability and, thereby, innovation
Ways more of us can take ownership of the platforms putting us out of work
How it is not the job we want but the meaning, purpose, and material benefits work gives
Money as a verb
How currency tools like blockchain can help us rethink power and authority
Twitter as a textbook case of tech success but growth company failure
How digital distributism can trump digital industrialism
The shift from tech as energizing to energy sucking
Ruskhoff also talks about how he thinks about technology use in his own life, including which tools he chooses to use and why.
Selected Links to Topics Mentioned
@rushkoff
www.rushkoff.com
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus by Doug Rushkoff
eBay
Etsy
Operating system
Bazaar
Crusades
Burning Man
Acquisition
IPO
Wired
Chris Anderson
Long Tail
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
Free by Chris Anderson
Mondo 2000
Boing Boing
Ponzi scheme
Alan Greenspan
Taylor Swift
Power law dynamics
Distributism
Venture capital
Capital gains tax
Blockchain
Bitcoin
PGP - pretty good privacy
Distributism
Marxism
Capitalism
Marshall McLuhan
Peer-to-peer economy
Lendingtree
Fintech
Faustian bargain
Private equity
Flip this house
Michael Dell
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
Thank you to Emmy-award-winning Creative Director Vanida Vae for designing the Curious Minds logo!
www.gayleallen.net
@GAllenTC
Released:
Apr 18, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
CM 019: Gillian Tett on Breaking Down Silos: When we operate in silos, we narrow our perspective in ways that can limit, and even destroy, innovation. So where have we seen silos before and what can we learn from them? In this fascinating conversation with Gillian Tett, by Curious Minds at Work