I’m a techno-optimist, but techno-optimism should be practiced with both empathy and care. And I’m a believer in what is possible if you do it that way. First, I’m going to give you a word of warning. Experts extrapolate the past. They prevent radical progress because they don’t think nonlinearly.
They don’t think of the improbable. I personally believe only the improbables are important. We just don’t know which improbable is important. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, with a passion for a vision, they dream the dreams, and then are foolish enough, and we need more foolishness, to try and make those implausible dreams come true. That’s what entrepreneurship is about, something I’ve loved my whole life.
In the 40 years, I’ve been doing innovation and innovation only. This may surprise people. I can’t think of a single large social impact change that was driven by an expert in the field, possibly with the exception of biotechnology, that’s driven by an expert, by a large institution, a large non-founder-led company.