Out of Africa

I spent some time recently at a Collaborate event for inventors, makers, and investors. It featured many fascinating speakers from across the spectrum of innovative talent. 

Among the speakers was Josh Mandell from the Commerce Dept. who was evangelizing on how start-ups need to think globally from their beginnings, when they are nascent inventors figuring out where they want to go. 

A woman stood up to raise some points on going global. She wanted to talk about diversity among innovators. 

After a morning of diversity discussions focused on making women feel more welcome in tech land by calling in them first in meetings. (Really!)  I was preparing to pack up and leave when this woman raised a fascinating point. How about geographic diversity in immigration programs focused on bringing engineers and scientists to the US. She asked why there wasn't more diversity in the Visas so more talented people from Africa could come to the US. 

This was the best diversity question asked all day. We need more innovators and inventors out of Africa. 

Steve Jobs - American Inventor

Today is the first anniversary of Steve Job's death.  I'm writing this on my MacBook Air with my giant Cinema Display while listening to a course on economics being streamed via iTunes.  I'm sure there will be many remembrances today but I thought a more personal one might be in order.

Thank you Steve Jobs for making the whole thing possible.  For making music accessible and interesting again, for making me not want to smash my cellphone to bits when I want to send a text message, thanks for making information expressive and accessible, and well, beautiful to look at.  Thanks for the MacBook Air that saved my shoulder and my back and that looks really cool when slipped into my padfolio when I go into a meeting.  Thanks for making the iPad so that my 82 year old Mother-In-Law can play Words with Friends with her 23 year old grandson and routinely kick his butt.  Thanks for Facetime so I can talk to my kids without it costing a fortune.  Thanks for making things the platforms that make apps like Pinterest and Zite a reality so I can customize my experience beyond picking a font.  Thanks for making a platform where you can explore things in a visual way.  Thanks for all the attention to detail that you and your team put into your products.

And for the three people left in the world who haven't read the book and who would like insight into what Steve Jobs was really all about, complete with Bill Gates dropping in his Silicon Valley home through the back door, here is a link to Walter Isaacson's biography.


Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson — Inventor, genius, agent of change.