San Francisco residents sometimes say things along the lines of, “It’s too expensive here already. Tech companies should move somewhere else that’s cheaper. After all, it would be better for their bottom line.”

And it’s true, in some ways. It would be better, for example, for the tech startups of Silicon Valley to decamp for Silicon Hills or Silicon Lakes or Silicon Upstate or what have you. There’s no fundamental reason why a tech startup must be headquartered in the Bay Area, the way a mining operation really does need to be situated by a quarry. There’s no such thing as a landlocked fishery, but apps can be made anywhere. San Francisco’s proximity to Burning Man is a plus for the tech industry, but it’s not good for anybody.

Rock Health, a venture capital firm devoted exclusively to digital health funding, recently released its 2015 Year-In-Review report, which found venture capital funding in digital health companies surpassed $4.3 billion in 2015. This number is about equal to that of 2014, but the lack of growth is not at all cause for concern. Digital health funding broke major records in 2014, so the fact that the numbers even remained the same is a huge success. Beyond the amount of overall funding digital health companies received, the report found many other significant facts about the state of venture capital and digital health:

Snowflakes teach us many lessons when we're children. It teaches us about the fractal beauty that lies beneath all things; it teaches us about uniqueness, patterns, and infinity. But for some reason, we forget the secret beauty of the snowflake. When we look out the window on a snowy day, we stop seeing a scintillating sea of microscopic crystals too vast to count. We just see a cold, dreary slurry, dirtied by boots and melting in the sun.

Making IoT projects real turns out to be hard. Really, really hard.

Sure, all worthwhile product development takes time to perfect. But, as software developer Alan Cohen argues, the 80/20 rule for standard product development turns into 95/5 for IoT projects. That is, the first 95% of an IoT project takes 5% of the total development time.

In an ongoing global survey of senior executives, more than half of the respondents said they didn’t think their company had a winning strategy, and two-thirds said they didn’t think their organization had the right capabilities to execute its strategy. Baffled by these findings, we set out to find and study examples of extraordinary companies that close the gap between strategy and execution — companies such as Amazon, Apple, CEMEX, Danaher, Frito-Lay (the snacks enterprise within PepsiCo), and Haier. What we found surprised us: Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t follow the prevailing practices of their industries. Instead, leaders of these companies excel at five unconventional acts — management practices that contradict conventional wisdom.

A lot of people are worried about the career choices of today’s most talented science and engineering students. And not just their parents.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, policy makers, professors, politicians, and others have expressed concern over America’s best and brightest minds electing to work in finance instead of pursuing potentially more socially valuable careers in science, medicine, and engineering.

Today, the White House announced the latest recipients of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation—our Nation’s highest honors for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. The new awardees will receive their medals at a White House ceremony early next year.

Back in October, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a new set of rules that will allow entrepreneurs to use crowdfunding sites to raise capital. The kinds of crowdfunding campaigns that have become popular in the past decade—the cult-classic movies, the rare beers, the frivolous potato salads—have solicited what were essentially donations. Departing from those, these new rules will allow startups to distribute equity, not just perks, to just about anyone who wants to invest.

The transformational changes taking place across the HR technology landscape have the potential to provide CIOs with better tools for managing the people side of their IT organizations.

Imagine a human resources application that runs on employees’ smartphones, recommends nearby people with whom they can network, helps to boost their productivity by evaluating their time management, offers suggestions for improving work-life balance, and provides targeted, on-the-job training. It may even share exercise and healthy eating tips when and where employees need them.

There was no shortage of debate this past year over the ways we work today, and how we should work in the future.

By some accounts, the annual review is on its deathbed, the vestige of an earlier era of performance management. And when it comes to the expanded family leave and vacation policies some companies have rolled out, employees are now faced with determining how and whether to use them.

If you know how to implement a great idea for improving how cities work, a French nonprofit wants to help you make that idea scale globally. The New Cities Foundation is looking for founders of civic startups and social enterprises to join its network of urban innovators. The Paris-based organization is currently accepting applications from social entrepreneurs working on improving urban mobility, city services, health and wellness or the design of public spaces. Successful candidates will join New Cities' new Global Urban Innovators program, which launched in November.

Another year is drawing to a close — a time when most of us resolve to do things better in the coming year, whether its in our personal lives or at work.

Despite being an exemplar of strategic agility, the fearful emotional climate prevailing at Nokia during the rise of the iPhone froze coordination between top and middle managers terrified of losing status and resources from management. The company was wounded before the battle began.

The hype surrounding “Big Data” does businesses a disservice by making it all look much too easy.

Data analytics and “Big Data” promise to revolutionise marketing. Most companies are sitting on tonnes of data from various sources: financial data, mobile data, transactional data, customer research data, behavioural data, social media data, etc. The combination of new analytical techniques, amped-up computer power and instantaneous online resources has resulted in incredibly powerful tools that have changed the game forever. So powerful, in fact, that analytics can go beyond merely lending support to unlocking new opportunities and strategies, as well as opening up possibilities never before imagined.

To become more fulfilled and less vulnerable professionally, manage your career as you would an investment portfolio. Diversify a little time into your own special projects.

A career could be likened to a stock portfolio. Instead of money, you’re investing time and energy. A safe bet—i.e., a linear, conventional career path—might pay off handsomely in material terms. But in happiness terms, perhaps not so much. Putting all our eggs in the safe basket, today’s never-switched-off professionals face an increasingly difficult dilemma: how to achieve the much-vaunted work-life balance.

There were several key (and generally welcome) themes that emerged within the 2015 innovation development space. These are, in part, driven by the increasing value that corporate and business leadership place on this (still relatively) new competency, the sophistication of practitioners in the field, and the results of seeing what works or fails. It is truly an exciting time to be in this field and to see these changes form across the industry.

2016 is going to be a pivotal year for location- and proximity-based technology solutions. Companies across industries are testing the deployment of location aware infrastructures, opening up a world of possibilities. Location technology adoption will likely mirror that of social networks over the past 10 years. On balance, and with good direction, location-enabled experiences are going to make our world more efficient, more seamless, and more enjoyable.

An elegant weapon ... for a more civilized age.

Save 15% on the newest Star Wars gear! Use code: "SW15" Credit: Space.com StoreView full size image This is the how a lightsaber was introduced to viewers nearly 40 years ago. Trademark weapon of the semi-mystical Jedi, it is said that the glowing blade kept peace for millennia in the Galactic Republic. For those introduced to the weapon in 1977, when the first "Star Wars" movie came out, the characteristic hum of the lightsaber and the epic fight between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi is etched in those viewers' minds.

By the age of 30, Sophia Amoruso had gotten further in her career than many people who are much older—the community college dropout had turned her eBay clothing sales business into a bona fide successful fashion company, Nasty Gal, and published a bestselling career advice book, #Girlboss.

Special occasions can evoke a mild sense of panic for many gift givers who struggle with what to buy. Another trinket for grandma on her birthday or sweater for the husband on Christmas seems so been there, done that. Wharton marketing professor Cassie Mogilner has a better idea. Her research finds that while people enjoy receiving material things, such as an expensive watch or a scented candle, they really seem to relish gifts that give them an experience. Mogilner, who recently discussed the paper, “Experiential Gifts Are More Socially Connecting than Material Gifts,” on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM Channel 111, finds that experiential gifts resonate at a deeper level, forging a stronger emotional connection between the giver and recipient. The paper was co-authored with Cindy Chan, a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough.