From the Managing Directors’ desk:
After an eventful week in Bali, our team is now back on home soil. On the topic of networking, one question came about in Bali that was definitely pertinent, “What does Faiā actually do?” Here was my response:
For a lengthier explanation, click here. Our usual answer is “we are a management consultancy specializing in community and blockchain integration,” but that still doesn’t encapsulate what we actually help with. For consultancies, this is often the case, as - if you drill down far enough - they just solve business problems, and leverage who or what they know to help you do so.
IDEO, one of the largest and most respected design firms in the world, also admit that it’s still hard to explain what they do (see image above). But the experience and process they create for clients keep people coming back for more. That’s how we’re approaching our own growth - by focusing on people, process and culture. The rest, we believe, will come.
There’s also something we’re really passionate about - bridging gaps between communities and technology. As such, there’s a term called techno-wisdom (or techno-ethics) that came across my newsfeed over the last week. It’s the idea that we must develop ‘techno-wisdom’ to prevent technology from consuming us.
According to Michel Puech, author of The Ethics of Ordinary Technology,
“In the face of any problem, we look for a technological solution (1 - see above). When material technology is unavailable domination offers the alternative solution; political technology is our second-order instrumental rationality (2). When something cannot be provided by technology and cannot even be issued by an institution of power, the self has to face its own resources and change itself, which means option (3). The techno-sphere systematically privileges option (1) and our institutional sphere is supposed to design option (2) solutions for the remaining issues.”
As we build more and more, do we give enough thought to both the pros and cons of our creations? This is something we’d like to remind more businesses of as the speed at which we create is exceeding our ability to keep up - making it easier to forget about morality or ethics in the process.
There’s a reason why time has the ability to perceptually “slow down” or “speed up.” Physics can explain this phenomena now quite succinctly.
As you go about your week, have a think about areas of tech that both (as Marie Kondo says) “sparks joy” or sparks fear. And feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts (will always reply). You can see both sides argued in last week’s debate about AI between Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Mind you, blockchain and AI are often mentioned in the same discussions due to their complementary relationship. Blockchain - whichever one becomes the most dominant - will become the “nervous system” of future AI. Have a think about why.
Keep lighting the world on Faiā 🔥
Speak soon,
George Siosi Samuels
Managing Director, Faiā
📚 What We’re Reading…
Here are a few articles from the last week that struck our team the most:
Blockchain, AI offer big savings in transportation and logistics, PwC survey finds
We must develop ‘techno-wisdom’ to prevent tech from consuming us
Fraudsters deepfake CEO’s voice to trick manager into transferring $243,000
🎙 Featured Video
A final recap of the CambrianSV event some of our team-members attended in Bali last week.
🎙 NEW Podcast Episode Released
IWCF049: Communities, Power & Complex Adaptive Systems with Rachel Happe
In this episode, we sit down with Rachel Happe, co-founder and principal at the Community Roundtable. We discuss her journey and explore areas such as business management, the role of "power" in relationships, leadership, and communities as "complex adaptive systems."
🔨 Favorite Tools
A list of our current favorite tools:
Quote of the Week
“The human spirit must prevail over technology.” ― Albert Einstein
Faiā helps growth-stage businesses build communities, improve productivity, and integrate emerging technologies (such as Bitcoin). We are the first company in Asia Pacific to offer Bitcoin (BSV) exclusive integration services, and are evangelists of Community-Centred Design. Our mission is to build the world’s wisest company, bridging gaps between people and technology one community at a time. Visit our website to learn more.