3D Printing ... What does it really mean

I have been thinking for some time now about the nature of work. What will the future look like? What skills are needed to be successful 5, 10 and 15 years? I have 3 grandchildren and I realize the world they will enter at adulthood will be very different from the one they play in now. It's hard enough trying to forecast what may be in 5 years ... but 15 is nearly impossible. The one thing I'm pretty sure of is the skill of 'learning quickly' will be at the top of the list. You'll just need to master new knowledge in record time. Knowing what to learn, how to find and discern relevant information, and how to integrate with everything else you know is "the" skill.

Oh, 3D printing ... that's where I started. Here is a whole new industry poised to take off in the next 5 years. In 10 years, we will envision nearly everything capable of local manufacturing ... from wrenches to food to drugs to clothing ... you name it. After all, its all made from the same star stuff found on earth. In 15 years, it will simply be the way to get stuff. You may still go to Amazon to look for product, but when you hit the One-Click button you'll simply get the file that defines the product. Your local 3d printer will do the rest.

How does this impact work. Will the new jobs be in making 3d printers? Transporting them around the world? Fixing them as they break? The answer is ... these functions will require very few people. The jobs will be in design ... creating those files that define a product, drug, food, clothing ... and nearly anything else you can think of. New products will simply be new designs.

We will become a bit based world where bits move around the planet at the speed of light. Hard products will take on the economics of digital music, movies, social media, etc. Very little fixed cost with almost no variable cost (except at the consumer end in making a copy) ... yielding very low prices. The cost of a design will be a function of difficulty to develop and size of audience to consume. Hmm ... 99 cents sounds like a good price for a design if the potential market is in the millions.

With industries racing toward smart digitization, robotics, and automation the future of work will be in creative and collaborative skills that can leverage a world of plenty ... that is plenty of very low cost resources from which services can be created. No one quite knows exactly how it will all play out ... but we do know that it will be faster than most can imagine. Think exponentially ... become an exponologist ... commit to life long constant learning.

Startup Weekend

This past Saturday, I was asked to coach and mentor a number of entrepreneur teams that were competing in a "Startup Weekend" event at Fairleigh Dickinson University. It was a great event with over 50 competitors and more than 20 teams.

See the recent article in the Star Ledger about the event.

It was a real glimpse into how hard it is to chart out a space that has not been taken. Many teams came up with interesting ideas but quickly found out that others had already monetized them. Even if they thought their variant was unique and had significant value ...  getting the word out ... organizing around it ... and competing in a deflationary SAAS environment characterized by lots of 'free' services became a show stopper.

What's an Exponologist?

Quite simply, an Exponologist is someone who studies exponential growth and its impact on society.

What exactly does that mean?

With processing power doubling every 20 months or so, each 5 year period will experience an 8 fold increase. So, in 5 years one unit of processing power will grow to 8, in 10 years to 64 and in 15 years to 512. It is this exponential change which will drive changes in automation, robotics and nano technology ... all of which in turn impact work, prices and costs of virtually all products and services.