Have you ever achieved a personal best and then relaxed a bit afterwards, not pushing yourself further? If so, what are the implications of such behavior on your future performance? That’s the subject of a new study by Etan Green, a Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, and Ashton Anderson, an assistant professor in computer science at the University of Toronto.

I first met Xiaogang Peng in the summer of 1992 at Jilin University in Changchun, in the remote north-east of China, where he was a postgraduate student in the department of chemistry. He told me that his dream was to get a place at a top American lab. Now, Xiaogang was evidently smart and hard-working – but so, as far as I could see, were most Chinese science students. I wished him well, but couldn’t help thinking he’d set himself a massive challenge.

“Assessing your innovation district: A how-to guide,” is a tool for public and private leaders to audit the assets that comprise their local innovation ecosystem. The guide is designed to reveal how to best target resources toward innovative and inclusive economic development tailored to an area’s unique strengths and challenges.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency unarguably have the potential to alter the future of money, finance, transportation and national security. While an increasing number of blockchain plays wind their way through the investment community, Victory Square Technologies Inc. (CSE: VST) (OTC: VSQTF) (FRANKFURT: 6F6) (WKN: A2AKL8) (VSQTF Profile) is demonstrating a particular measure of blockchain innovation potential in a wide range of industries, including payment processing, mobile gaming, and more. Other companies seizing territory in the blockchain technology space include tech-giant IBM (NYSE: IBM), Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Visa (NYSE: V) and Hive BlockChain Technologies (TSX-V: HIVE) (OTC: HVBTF).

More than 500 startups from around the world applied to be part of MassChallenge Texas’ inaugural Austin class. 

Of those, 280 were invited to pitch their ideas before a panel of experts. Today, the Boston-based accelerator is unveiling the 84 companies that made the final cut.

The list includes startups from five continents, 11 countries and 12 states. A total of 45 companies are from Texas and 33 are Austin-based.

The startups will take part in a four-month program that includes access to mentors and investors, training and networking events and free coworking space at WeWork  locations across Austin.

Image: Giving City Austin - Mike Millard introduces new business accelerator MassChallenge Texas in October.

PwC and CB Insights published their Healthcare MoneyTree report providing an overview of U.S.-based venture capital funding in the healthcare industry for the fourth quarter of 2017.

Here are 10 statistics from the report:

1. Total U.S. healthcare investment increased 25 percent in 2017. A total of $14.4 billion was invested through 748 deals. Of that funding, 30 percent was raised in 20 megaterm deals.

2. The average venture capital investment increased from $10 million in 2012 to $19.3 million in 2017.

3. In the fourth quarter, approximately $4 billion was invested in the U.S. healthcare sector. There were a total of 182 deals, which was down from the 184 deals in the third quarter.

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Everyone on the startup team knows there is no buffer, and no personal isolation from impact based on your job description that can save you. Thus everyone has to make sure they are focusing on what is important, and making leadership decisions to save the business.

On any given day, there could be a half dozen autonomous cars mapping the same street corner in Silicon Valley. These cars, each from a different company, are all doing the same thing: building high-definition street maps, which may eventually serve as an on-board navigation guide for driverless vehicles.

These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming — or where they can get the most attention. For example, a flock of mapping vehicles congregates every year in the vicinity of the CES technology trade show, a hot spot for self-driving feats.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is one of the world’s most admired health systems, but it is frequently slow in adopting new drugs and technologies. The UK Government is launching a new scheme, which it believes can address this lag.

From April, five drugs or medical devices will be selected for a new fast-track process each year, ensuring their uptake on the NHS much sooner than would otherwise be possible. This accelerated pathway for new drugs and therapies could bring benefits for niche innovators, such as makers of digital health products.

The greatest learning often takes place when we step outside our comfort zones. For further insights, read “Two Simple Concepts to Free Up Innovation.”

Image: https://www.strategy-business.com

If you want to protect yourself from colds and flu, regular exercise may be the ultimate immunity-booster. Studies have shown that moderate aerobic exercise—around 30 to 45 minutes a day of activities like walking, biking or running—can more than halve your risk for respiratory infections and other common winter maladies.

Strike up a conversation about work values, and it won’t be long before someone brings up a pyramid — a famous psychologist’s best-known theory. Abraham Maslow’s big idea was that we all have a hierarchy of needs: once our basic physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, we seek love and belongingness, then self-esteem and prestige, and finally self-actualization. But that pyramid was built more than half a century ago, and psychologists have recently concluded that it’s in need of renovation.

Today I had a conversation with a client in which he spoke of the internal entrepreneurial groups in his well-established $3 billion company. He referred to these internal teams and their endeavors with pride numerous times. We were discussing why these innovators often failed.

You might not think Tesla, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Ellen Degeneres Show have much in common, but it turns out people were eagerly viewing job openings at these organizations. The roles - which range from project manager roles at Michael Kors and HBO, to an internship at Royal Caribbean Cruises - were some of the most sought-after jobs on LinkedIn in 2017, with tens of thousands of potential applicants looking at these roles.

Image: https://blog.linkedin.com

Ten years ago, Chicago was not a major player in the startup ecosystem. Now, it’s one of the most important cities in tech.

In fact, the overall Illinois rate of startup growth is 68.85%, and Chicago itself has been consistently ranked first for VC returns. It’s been named alongside Boston, Los Angeles, and Austin as one of the country’s best startup cities.

Image: The University of Chicago (Tom Rossiter) The University of Chicago is home to one of the largest and most active entrepreneurship centers in the country.

The status quo is always hard to overcome. I've been saying that a lot lately as our state battles through the budgetary issues that are dragging us down the rabbit hole. It's a frustrating, dangerous time, that has left many of us shaking our heads.

Our work at i2E has been a much-needed breath of fresh air. We mark our 20th year in operation this fall and are planning a big celebration. This week, planning for that milestone was a natural impetus for reminiscing about how, in 1998 in what I like to call a rare moment of clarity of vision, collaboration and optimism for Oklahoma, i2E came to be.

PHILADELPHIA — On the west side of this city’s main Amtrak station sits an empty lot. But soon, it will be transformed into a public park filled with lawns, walkways and even redwood trees, in the first stage of one of Philadelphia’s biggest real estate projects.

The 1.3-acre park, to be known as Drexel Square, kicks off a 20-year, $3.5 billion development that aims to create a hub for technology and life-sciences companies called Schuylkill (pronounced SKOO-kul) Yards. Not only will the project fill in an underused section of real estate, it is also intended to develop business opportunities for research coming out of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, both just a few blocks away.

Image: Across from Amtrak’s 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Drexel Square is under construction at Schuylkill Yards, a $3.5 billion innovation community. Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times

Last Thursday, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains introduced the five winners of the federal government’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI), officially bestowing five of Canada’s fastest-growing sectors with government support.

Yet as the five superclusters, which include projects designed to promote collaboration between academia and the private sector in artificial intelligence (AI), advanced manufacturing, and smart agriculture, take shape, a number of key questions around policy and business weigh heavily on the minds of the public.

Over the past two decades, a confluence of changing market demands and demographic preferences have led to a revaluation of urban places—and a corresponding shift in the geography of innovation. This trend has resulted in a clustering of firms, intermediaries, and workers—often near universities, medical centers, or other anchors—in dense innovation districts. Local economic development leaders are now exploring ways to support this evolution as a means of fostering job creation, economic opportunity, and revitalization in their communities.

The clock is shown being lowered down a stone, spiral staircase in the Sierra Diablo Mountains in West Texas. The Amazon CEO has spent years working with a group of thinkers and inventors to build a clock that clicks once a year and is designed to keep time for the next 10,000 years. The clock is “designed to be a symbol, an icon for long-term thinking,” Bezos wrote in a blog post.