Uncategorized

Apple vision pro – as transformative as the iphone

| Aditya Sehgal

On Jan 9 2007, when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone at Macworld, he changed the world. Sixteen years later, on Jun 5, 2023, when Tim Cook said ‘one more thing’ to introduce the Apple Vision Pro and spatial computing, he changed the world again.

I got my hands on the Vision Pro soon after it launched, and I’ve been using it for a few weeks now.

I’ve been blown away by the killer feature – Presence.

Apple has built a machine that transports your presence into another environment or someone else’s presence into yours. And it’s incredible how well this works.

To demonstrate this, Apple has created new ‘immersive video’ content. It’s beyond 3D – it’s as if you are there. I gasped as I watched Faith Dickey fall off a high line 3000 feet over the fjords of Norway – it was as if she was three meters away in real life. I experienced the ‘real’ presence of Alicia Keys in a recording studio. It wasn’t just about seeing her on a screen; it was about feeling her energy and passion as if I were standing beside her. I couldn’t help smiling in wonder as the virtual butterfly fluttered and parked itself on my finger.

My favourite workplace has been on the Moon for the past three weeks.

Yes, you heard that right – the Moon.

The Vision Pro has an immersive lunar environment, which is now my go-to place when I want to work in peace. Of course, it helps that I can set up a 100 ft tall, immersive screen there to watch my favourite Netflix show.

I recently went to watch Dune 2 in an IMAX theatre in London. The screen felt small, and the experience was underwhelming compared to my theatre on the Moon.

Movies, concerts, and tourism will be changed forever with Vision Pro. We will go from being passive observers to fully immersed in the experience. I’ve already felt the excitement of a live concert and explored far-off destinations from my home; Vision Pro has opened up a world of possibilities.

But Vision Pro isn’t just about entertainment. It’s also already transforming the way I work and collaborate.

As I work on developing Asgard.world, I’ve overlaid digital tokens in the real world through AR on my phone and Vision Pro. It’s been wonderful to experience firsthand how Vision Pro can bring digital tokens to life and give them a real presence in human perception.
Adding a real presence while collaborating with coworkers in the same virtual space, regardless of physical location, will make telecommuting more efficient and connected.

And the personalized experiences that Vision Pro offers are truly remarkable. Whether trying on clothes virtually or exploring architectural designs in 3D, Vision Pro will allow us to interact with digital content in ways that were never possible.

Screenshot

We know that technologies evolve along an S Curve, starting slow, then experiencing rapid growth, and finally plateauing as they reach maturity. The current version of the Vision Pro is just at the start of its journey along the S Curve. As it continues to develop, it will become more accessible and convenient to use, reaching a point where it becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones are today. A decade from now, I can fully see a world where a more efficient, slimmed-down version of the Vision Pro (perhaps 2X the weight of a pair of goggles) and Android variants will be attached to every face like smartphones are attached to every hand today.

The intersection of Vision Pro with VR/XR and AI represents the convergence of presence and prediction. VR/XR technologies serve as presence machines, allowing users to bring their presence to other places or bring others’ presence to them.

On the other hand, AI acts as a prediction machine, enabling better predictions and actions.

When combined with tokenization, which allows physical objects, content and services to become tangible and tradable, we enter a world where prediction and personalization engines operate within an environment where everything can be tokenized and traded at scale.

In this future world, Vision Pro, AI, and tokenization are driving forces that will transform our reality. With Vision Pro (and its successors) enhancing our perception of the world, AI providing insights and predictions, and tokenization enabling the exchange of tangible and intangible assets, we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will redefine how we interact with technology and each other.

Spatial computing, AI, and tokenization are all general-purpose technologies – they can have far-reaching consequences, and we often don’t see the possibilities. Very few people thought that the result of the iPhone launch would be the demise of traditional taxi services.

I advise readers that now is the time to lean forward into these technologies. Those who find use cases for them now have a good chance of being the disruptors rather than the disrupted over the next decade.

Job satisfaction model

| Aditya Sehgal

IMG_1372

Rate yourself on the 4 parameters of this model.

IMG_1366

Significance : does your work make a difference ? To yourself, to the world, to anyone ?
Passion : do you love what you do ?
Value creation : are you creating value (monetary and non monetary) for yourself and for your organisation ?
Family : do you have a happy family life ?

Ideally you want a balanced model and high scores on all 4 elements. Plot where you stand today on the grid below.

If the model is unsymmetrical or you score yourself lower than 7 on any attribute, consider what you need to change.

IMG_1368-0.JPG

If you are looking to change jobs, plot both the old and new job on the grid. On what attributes is the new job better ? The answers may surprise !

Plants vs buildings

| Aditya Sehgal

plants vs buildings 3

Business leaders talk about the the need to ‘build capabilities’ – especially around new challenges like evolving into the digital world, or market entry into complex new markets.

To ‘build’ capabilities, their mindset is often the same as constructing a building.

The first phase of the ‘building’ process is planning and designing. An architect creates a design according to the purpose and aesthetics needed. This design is then translated into a cost estimate and resources are allocated. A civil engineer is found and various contractors engaged. Machinery is moved. Foundations are dug. Concrete is poured. Steel is embedded in the cement so the building is strong and earthquake proof.  A manager is placed on the construction site to oversee progress against the detailed time and work schedule. Once in a while the owner of the site comes to inspect progress. After a year or two, a shiny new building is in place.

By nature building designs are rigid and the designer must know exactly what to create before the workers create it – the process is not flexible mid-way if the needs change while the building is being constructed.

If you apply the building analogy to a complex new task like taking a legacy business into the digital world or entering a complex new market like China or India,  this approach may have challenges.

For a complex task in a world changing at an accelerating rate, we may just not know enough to create a rigid design that will be optimal at the point when the building is fully constructed.

Leaders who build capabilities using this model, run the risk to have the illusion of a ‘perfect plan’.  The project may be fully staffed up with smart managers and detailed KPIs/metrics, yet still fail because they may do things right, but not the right things !

Another approach, sometimes used by more ‘local’ companies and also by small, fast moving companies in rapidly evolving technology areas is more organic.

Rather than ‘building’ structures, treat capabilities like ‘growing’ plants.

In this approach, it is important to choose the right seed. These need to be planted in fertile ground. Once planted they need sunshine, water, fertiliser and patience. As the seed turns into a small plant and grows further into a young tree, it needs protection from pests and needs correction while young, if it is not growing straight. Eventually it grows into a beautiful tree.

The plant is predictable in a broad sense (the type of tree depends on the type of seed, the growth depends on the conditions) but it is unpredictable in a narrow sense (impossible to predict each twig, leaf or root). Each tree may look different depending on how it evolves to best thrive in its environment. On the other hand, the building is predictable – it looks exactly like its designers planned.

The approach allows a single gardener to sow multiple seeds to reduce the risk of failure and cover more possible eventualities. As plants grow, they create additional seeds which evolve in darwinian ways over generations to best ensure future growth of the species.

Both approaches require thoughtfulness at the start – but unlike the detailed, resource constrained, KPI driven building planner, the gardener needs to consider fewer details – just the seed and the conditions. It requires more patience and faith but less resource and no micromanagement.

Companies and managers may get locked into one of these two modes and are often convinced that their way is the ‘best way’.

I believe that there is room for both approaches – the ‘build’ approach should be used in stable, relatively slowly changing conditions where the designer is very sure of deliverables and the duration of the project. The ‘grow’ approach should be more used in fast evolving situations or when the designers knowledge is imperfect.

Depending on the approach needed in the role, companies need to decide whether they want gardeners or builders.

Both roles have different mindsets – putting a gardener mindset into a builder role can be very risky and putting a builder mindset into a gardener role can be very frustrating. KPIs for builders need to be very time-bound, precise and input driven, while gardeners need more holistic and output driven KPIs with more relaxed time scales.