In this always-connected world where anyone is just a click of a button away, too many of us are concentrating on the button instead of the customer. We can email anything to anyone, so we do. We can send sales pitches via SMS or Facebook, and forget that face to face may be more successful. When we do get face to face, there is still a technology barrier between us. At conferences the audience is more likely to be Tweeting or checking emails than really concentrating on the speaker.

The objective of this book is to heighten awareness about the necessity to take into account the impact of innovation, not only its economic and social repercussions but also those on natural ecosystems. We wish to popularize the use of artificial intelligence approaches and techniques in order to conceive friendly and useful applications that aid humans in their work instead of replacing them and rendering their minds obsolete. Learning from nature and applying this knowledge to innovation may reduce its impact and risks, as well as encouraging sustainable innovation dynamics.

In the mind of IDC analyst Jonathan Gaw, replacing a wireless router is kind of like getting a root canal.

Even if there was a way to make the procedure more tolerable, you’re probably not going to volunteer unless you really need it. "Until I have some serious dental issues, I'm not going back, even if you promised me it's painless," Gaw says

If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation.

It was a nerve racking morning.

According to the new United Nations World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, the population of the world is projected to rise from 7.3 billion in 2015 to 11.2 billion in 2100. This represents a 53 percent increase. However, over the period, population growth will moderate substantially. This is indicated by the annual growth rate the first year (2015 to 2016), at 1.1 percent, compared to the last year (2099 to 2100) at 0.1 percent. Annual population growth is projected to decline 90 percent from the beginning of the period to the end (Figure 1).

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

Work hard and persevere in spite of what is thrown at you. Stay focused and win in spite of a hundred pros chasing you.

In a comprehensive survey of startup entrepreneurs conducted by ET along with startup industry analyst fi rm Tracxn!, entrepreneurs said they prefer raising seed capital from institutional or angel investors as they seek deeper associations with their early backers.

When done well, daily and weekly planning rituals can help you travel gracefully through life in a peaceful, intentional manner. But sometimes, overplanning your day-to-day activities can make you a neurotic, stressed-out person who feels like you would have been better off if you hadn’t planned anything in the first place.

Leadership development often focuses on doing — the mastering and use of certain desirable skills and behaviors that concretely show someone to be leading. Competency-based models can provide lists of such skills, as well as attributes of their practice. But where leadership effectiveness really starts is with thinking — adopting a mental model that makes it possible to acquire those skills and demonstrate those behaviors in the first place. Mastering leadership thinking can be challenging, but it is absolutely essential. I may adopt the exact stance and handgrip of Jordan Spieth, but I’m unlikely to win the Masters — while there may be a (wide) gap in our athletic abilities, there is an even larger one in our mental capacity for the game of golf.

Silicon Valley is recognized globally as the birthplace of some of today’s most popular and iconic technologies. Many of its startups have a particular dynamic to thank for their success: the formation of clusters, or groups of companies and organizations that congregate in a region around a particular field.

Image: Photograph courtesy of Brett Gilbert

I sit on the governor’s Science and Technology Council, which was reinstated by Gov. Mary Fallin to help move the state forward in areas of science and technology.

Many council members are successful entrepreneurs. We also have scientists, educators, investors, and economic development leaders. Together we pretty much cover every aspect of the innovation economy in Oklahoma.

TED Talks, YouTube videos, and even new platforms like Periscope are all changing the ways we transmit and receive messages. Powerful communication is no longer the formalized ritual it used to be, with a speaker addressing an audience for an extended period of time with prepared remarks. Instead, we're embracing a more casual, direct, interactive form of public speaking. And the most effective communicators will be those who can embrace these methods strategically—bridging tried and true techniques with some of the new rules of the game. Here are seven things to keep in mind as you do just that.

Intel is moving to empower makers of all types with its tools, and with funding for things like the America's Greatest Makers TV show. There is a realization that Intel was created by some of the greatest makers who ever lived, and that there's a revolution pushing innovation into homes and garages all over the world. At its heart, IDF this year was all about that. Makers rule!!

Creativity, innovation and adaptability are the hallmarks of today’s best leaders. Not CEOs mind you, leaders. Don’t confuse a title like CEO with the reality that most of us will lead from the back of the pack, or somewhere in the middle. Creativity is a calling. Innovation is a burning desire. Adaptability is a personal trait. CEO, COO, president and general manager are just job titles.

There are so many different ways to communicate short messages with people these days: texting, Twitter, Snapchat, email. And now you can add another method to that list — mailing a potato. Yes, thanks to Alex Craig, an entrepreneur in Texas, you can now mail potatoes to your close friends (or enemies) with anonymous messages written on them.

Mention you're about to start a business and you'll get plenty of advice. Everyone you know will suddenly turn into an expert on financing, marketing and sales strategies, and technology and innovation.

But what you won't hear is what it's like to be a CEO, even if you're the CEO of no one but yourself. Knowing the buck truly does stop with you is a subject leaders and bosses rarely talk about.

Creating a successful startup is all about marketing these days, no matter how compelling your solution. Technologists have long believed that marketing is only required when selling the next pet rock, but in this age of information overload, even the most exciting solutions will be lost from view or assumed to have no value unless they are surrounded by hype.

Last April, the LA Dodgers and advertising agency R/GA announced the creation of a sports accelerator—an opportunity for emerging sports startups to access $120,000, mentors and contacts within the sports industry.

Well, after 600 applications from the 34 countries, the Dodgers program has chosen its 10 inductees, who will benefit from the sum of money above and 80 mentors to counsel them over the course of three months. There will be an invite-only demo day in November at Dodger Stadium to showcase all of these companies, and their progress since being initiated by the Dodgers Accelerator.

U.S. venture capital firms had a knockout second quarter this year, raising a collective $10.3 billion for 74 funds, according to a report released Wednesday.

The amount of money raised increased was almost 40 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2015, according to the Fundraising Report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. The number of funds increased ten percent during the period.

In conversation with Stanford Engineering Professor Tom Byers, Ben Horowitz points out that entrepreneurs must be able to build a great product before they can build a great company. Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also talks about management being a learned skill.