The Year in Tech 2024: Thoughts You Need from Harvard Business Review
Various Contributors in Collaboration with HBR Editors
Harvard Business Review Press (January 2024)
How and why integrative technologies will determine performance results, for better or worse.
As I began to read this book, I was again reminded of a prediction that Alvin Toffler made in 1970: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
In the Introduction to The Year in Tech 2024, David DeCremer observes, “Perhaps the most important message of this year in tech is that with integrative technologies we have reached a level of technological sophistication that can effectively augment the abilities of employees in way that will make them [begin italics] more [end italics] instead of [begin italics] less [end italics] human. Our organizations and leaders can achieve such outcomes.”
De Cremer then suggests, “The key is to stay informed about what happens around us and reflect on the promising advancements that today’s era brings us. The chapters that follow will undoubtedly be helpful to you down the path.’
The Year in Tech 2024 is the latest volume in a series of anthologies of articles that provide cutting-edge thinking from Harvard Business Review. If all of the HBR articles were purchased separately as reprints, the total cost would be about $100 and the practical value of any one of them far exceeds that. Given the fact that Amazon US now sells a paperbound edition for only $20.58, that’s not a bargain. It’s a steal.
The same is true of volumes in other series such as HBR Guide to…, Harvard Business Review on…, and Harvard Business Essentials. I also think there is great benefit derived from the convenience of having a variety of perspectives and insights readily available in a single volume, one that is potable.
According to the HBR Editors, each book in the series “provides the foundational introduction and practical case studies your organization needs to compete today and collects the best research, interviews, and analysis to get it ready for tomorrow. You can’t afford to ignore how these issues will transform the landscape of business and society. The Insights You Need series will help you grasp these critical ideas — and prepare you and your company for the future.”
These are among articles of special interest and value to me:
o Ethan Mollick on how ChatGPT can help almost anyone to produce pretty good text and code on command that will transform work
o Suketu Gandhi on how tyools such as 3D printing, simulations, and AI are changing the calculation of labor costs
o Vladislav Boutenko, Richard Florida, and Julia Jacobson on how to craft a location strategy that bridges the digital and physical worlds
o Eric Anicich on how and why delivery drivers may be canaries in the coal mine of the new world of work
o Atif Ansar and Bent Flybjerg on how and why private companies treat rocket systems as platforms rather than bespoke one-off projects
o Andy Wu and Goran Cilic on how an examination of Elon Musk’s companies reveals his consistent vision, organizational skills, and ability to mobilize resources
o Mike Seymour, Dan Lovallo, Kai Riemer, Alan Dennis, and Lingyao [Ivy] Yuan make a case for — and against — digital employees
Toffler’s prediction — made in Future Shock (1970) –bears repeating: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” If you question the cost of education, try ignorance.
I offer two concluding suggestions: While reading The Year in Tech 2024, highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to the questions posed within the narrative. These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.