Max Levchin's DLD13 Keynote

Seriously though, on-demand everything would already be common place if society could adapt to this new method of doing things. That being said, one need look no further than Max's own example of Uber, which has had quite the regulatory joust so far, to see the battlefield all great ideas have always had to cross.

Transformative change takes a long time and an instant in ancient industries. Advertising has changed formats, but the idea of advertising on television has been static for a very long time. Then the hopper came out, CNET/CBS blew a gasket and there is a threat of major disruption.

My point is this: Max makes a lot of compelling arguments, but one of the biggest ones for me is that if you're aiming for a financial services career, learning to build complex insurance instruments is the place to be (as it sort of has been for the last 10 years in the form of CDOs and their corresponding insured counterparties). All of the technical innovations he writes about have tall regulatory hurdles, but insurance will become increasingly necessary (and complicated) in the coming years.