article thumbnail

What Is The Job Metaverse Is Trying To Do?

The Horizons Tracker

While the metaverse sprang to public attention with the renaming of Facebook earlier this year, the phrase was coined back in 1996 in Neal Stephenson’s book Snow Crash, in which the science fiction author described an immersive version of the internet that was accessed via virtual reality. It’s a market that is already worth $3.1

article thumbnail

When Will this Low-Innovation Internet Era End?

Harvard Business Review

Then there's another view, which I heard from author Neal Stephenson in an MIT lecture hall last week. Stephenson was clearly trying to be provocative. But he's not alone in the judgment that we're not actually living in an era of great innovation. Stephenson was clearly trying to be provocative.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Why Business Leaders Need to Read More Science Fiction

Harvard Business Review

Singapore has overtaken Silicon Valley as the world’s innovation hub after FDA regulation prompts a brain drain from California. Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age inspired Jeff Bezos to create the Kindle ; Sergey Brin mines Stephenson’s even more famous Snow Crash for insights into virtual reality.

article thumbnail

The Stakeholders You Need to Close a Big Deal

Harvard Business Review

The champions I’ve known have been motivated by a host of related factors – generating personal visibility, drawing attention and resources to their domain, or being perceived as innovators. OnLive’s product enabled high-end video games to be hosted in the cloud and played from any device.

article thumbnail

Can Being Overconfident Make You a Better Leader?

Harvard Business Review

Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T, famously said , “I told people you weren’t betting on a device. There was also no way that Apple could have met its tight product timelines, or kept its products shrouded in secrecy until launch, without fierce commitments from its employees. You were betting on Steve Jobs.”

article thumbnail

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the U.S. Antitrust Movement

Harvard Business Review

The authorities accepted the increased risks from concentrated telecommunications, financial, and radio industries, among others, for the prospect of future efficiencies and innovation. However, they argue that these firms achieve their “superstar” status with superior quality, lower costs, or greater innovation.