Issue 47: A Bulletin for Big Ideas and Better Business

OPINION/ TECHNOLOGY

Practices change: principles remain

💬 Sir John Hegarty

‘The world is at a moment of unprecedented technological change.’ Almost every conference keynote and white-paper seems to start with this phrase, or some variation of it. While AI and associated digital tools will alter the world in unimaginable ways, none of it is as out of the ordinary as the hype would have us believe. In fact, I would venture that the coming wave of disruption isn’t that unprecedented at all. A short history lesson shows exactly how precedented it all is.

The first information revolution happened long before digital. Johannes Gutenberg was a German inventor and craftsman living in Strasbourg from around 1434. He invented the world’s first movable type printing press – a means of spreading knowledge via affordable books and manuscripts. Gutenberg’s efforts fundamentally altered the society and helped give way to The Renaissance.

Every keynote and whitepaper seems to start with: ‘The world is at a moment of unprecedented technological change’

The story shows a curious number of parallels to how modern tech start-ups operate. First, Gutenberg needed the confidence of a small number of wealthy investors to bankroll his development phase. Then he built in total secrecy (today that’s called ‘stealth’). The first crowning achievement of ‘artificial writing ‘ was the ’42-Line Bible’. As well as this, the story includes debt defaults, lawsuits, co-founder spats, and – eventually – Gutenberg was ousted from the company he built.

So far, so familiar. Then public reception to the invention mirrors the anxiety we see about AI today, too. Scribes concerned for their livelihoods banded together and vandalised printing presses. The church proclaimed that the innovation was devilry, and Pope Alexander VI vowed to excommunicate anyone who printed without permission. Monks also pointed to poor spelling in print.

Those who view technology with suspicion in the present should examine its effect on the past. The fundamental goal of creativity doesn’t change. Great communication speaks to the human spirit, creates culture, and fights ignorance. The way in which we make these things happen shifts radically. But while practices change: principles remain.

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in: your agenda for the coming week

1.
Legendary Milanese theatre La Scala’s new season opens with a contemporary adaptation of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, the story of star-crossed lovers whose lives are fatefully torn apart by war.
10th December

2.
Beating Taylor Swift to lead the nominations at this year’s Billboard Music Awards is country singer Zach Bryan, a Navy veteran whose rise has been meteoric in the US but remains little-known abroad.
13th December

3.
World Human Rights Day is celebrated today, commemorating the date the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
10th December

4.
Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ will be announced on Thursday. Defined as a figure who has ‘done the most to influence the events of the year’, the 2024 shortlist includes the likes of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
12th December

5.
Reuters’ NEXT 2024 Conference takes place in New York, bringing together world-leading figures such as IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar to discuss the greatest challenges facing society, business, and the world more broadly.
10th – 11th December

UK / MEDIA

Breaking news
Contributor: UrbanImages / Alamy Stock Photo

Newspaper staff worry merger is wrong angle

Can a plucky start-up breathe new life into the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper? Those behind the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media will be hoping so. Staff at the paper are rallying against the decision, however. Over a hundred journalists have signed a letter complaining that the deal abandons the principles of the Scott Trust, which owns the legacy title. Critics point to the fact that Tortoise itself is a loss-making outfit. But the combined resources of the two brands might prove a winning combination. While daily print publications have slumped, weekly titles are faring better. So Tortoise’s talent for long form storytelling could be applied to revitalise the title. They’ll have to act quickly: with revolting staff and spiralling costs, there is little opportunity to be slow, nor steady.

ON CREATIVITY /

Contributor: Clo’e Floirat

US / ENTERTAINMENT

Born from The Black List
Contributor: Cinematic / Alamy Stock Photo

The Black List goes off script

Breaking Hollywood is among the most ambitious goals for an aspiring screenwriter. Inevitably, many great stories are passed over in the machinery of the entertainment industry. For two decades, The Black List has helped overlooked writers get attention from studios and producers. Published on the second Friday of December, it began as an annual survey of unproduced scripts, but has since evolved into an online match-making platform for creatives and executives. The formula works. More than 400 screenplays have been turned into productions – including Academy Award-winners such as Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech(pictured). This year offers an evolution: The Black List now includes novel manuscripts. It’s a smart way to democratise a system where traditionally, nepotism has carried more clout than talent.

NORWAY / DIPLOMACY

Nobel Peace Center in Oslo
Credit: Steffen Trumpf/dpa/Alamy Live News
Contributor: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Peace is the highest goal for creativity

A ceremony will be held in Oslo today to award the Nobel Peace Prize. The winner this year is Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese group founded by survivors of the US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The organisation has promoted the rights of all those who survived the tragedies, and campaigned against nuclear weapons ever being used again. With more conflicts igniting, it’s a fitting moment to recognise Nihon Hidankyo’s efforts, and underline its mission. Through witness testimony, it has awakened the international community to the realities of nuclear war. It’s a reminder of how personal experiences are an effective vehicle for change, and how storytelling is a way to make some sense of the inconceivable.

Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.

/David Lynch