camwiese

Incredible project. It's great to see people valuing craft and building physical things.

Thank you for sharing this. Giving people hope and a belief in the future is what the Fair is all about — especially in the face of extreme pessimism.

One of the largest problems is due to the negative media cycle and focus on things that drive engagement. Hopefully by stepping out of this algorithmically generated world, we can get experiencing the future and imagining their role in it.

Absolutely. Everyone wants to talk stagnation, but we don't realize how much incredible work is being done in the background. Then, because we live in filtered versions of reality, we don't see it. The Fair serves as a showcase of all of the incredible work being done to shape the future to 1) give people hope and 2) inspire more people to help build it.

Thank you — I pieced that feature together. Will tweak!

As stated in the essay, they now operate as "International Exhibitions", not "World's Fairs." There's some nuance to this, but the problem is still the same. These events are national branding exercises & architecture competitions, not a place where the future becomes real.

We fundamentally believe in the prosperity of our physical world. The fair itself will be physical, but will have a virtual component so that anyone with a smart phone or, even better, a VR headset, can participate.

Yes! Success for most Fairs depends on the timeline you're looking at. Even the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans (which I know I call out in the essay), was considered a failure at the time. Now 30+ years later, New Orleans has a thriving waterfront district that wouldn't have been developed without the Fair.

To clarify. There's no unifying vision because most of the Pavilions are developed by large government committees where everyone wants to show off a little bit of everything. As a result, their Pavilions end up being a watered down version of their vision for the future.

Great question. We're planning to compile the most compelling vision of the future that we can. We'll shape the content to suit the technologies available, but also need to ensure we paint a picture of where we can go.

Most Fairs struggle with this because the organizing body has no control over the content of most of the Pavilions. By privately organizing and operating it, the new World's Fair will function more like Epcot where we craft the experience pulling in corporations, countries, and ngo's as we see fit.

Lastly, the Fairgrounds are generally split up into themes with each of the companies/countries hosting their own Pavilion. The map from the 1964 New York World's Fair is a pretty good example of this: http://www.nywf64.com/maps01.shtml

Expo 2020 is shaping up to be an incredible project, however I'm still expecting it to fall victim to the same challenge that all Fairs since 1970 have had: a lack of a unifying vision. Since every country presents their own narrative, it's hard to guarantee alignment.

I'm heading out there next month and will hopefully find something inspiring to help shape our efforts.

I'm in a similar state of mind. Would love to hear about what you're working on!

Thanks :)

Looks cool. What's your stack?

Love the support :)

Did you find this in the citation of an ICO white paper?

Not sure if you follow Ben Thompson (Stratechery / Exponent.fm) but he bases a lot of his business analysis around this book. If you liked TID then I highly recommend Ben's writings.

This is a great suggestion. Thanks!

Nice to see Heart of Darkness on here. In what way did it shape your mental model of the world?

It's always difficult working with schedules. Any suggestions for improving strategies like this that can help avoid scheduling conflicts?

Thanks for reading! It is, especially for those like myself who don't really fit in (Literary comparisons to: Winston (1984), Guy Montag (Fahrenheit 451), and Hamlet (Hamlet..)) Luckily I do have a wise father to help give me some direction (even though most of the time I feel like he's asking me provoking questions - which may be rooted in my stubborn nature...) But again, thanks.

I know, I'm looking forward to starting school in the fall! It's going to be a great experience.

Right now I'm in the process of writing about Disneyland; I'll be sure to send you the link. I agree that it's appeal does fluctuate, but I'm not sure if it will lose its appeal entirely. - I guess I'll have to wait and see. Either way, I'm glad that it was touching to you and that you enjoyed reading it!

*Obviously my desire to go to Stanford may seem like I was pursuing the 'name'. But I thought I made it clear that I wanted to go to Stanford because of the types of people there, not the prestige associated with the school.

I used to be, but not so much any more. What specifically gave you that impression?

How would you propose the non-technical founder raising funding without a product? Personally, I can sell the vision all day long, but people want to see a product. Any advice for non-technical founders who want to raise "idea" funding to pay a developers salary?

Boom. All you need right here : http://mattangriffel.com/post/15243700892/on-learning-to-cod...