Uncertain future of Tech, Coldplay's Sustainability & San Diego Hikes!
It has been a hard start to the year for tech, wherein all the big and small players in tech have had to undergo large scale layoffs! Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify and many more announced their layoffs, reducing their headcount by a significant(?) number. Personally, it has been saddening to see so many smart, talented and hard working people losing their livelihoods at such short abrupt notice.
Consequently, another disappointing effect of the layoffs has been divesting from high-risk projects in tech. Microsoft has axed teams working on VR & Mixed Reality, Meta reduced roles in its Reality Labs division and Amazon axed multiple teams in Devices, Stores, PXT (people experience) & drone delivery division - Prime Air. The common thread I see here, are high-risk, high-gain tech projects, which were cut-down in favor of saving costs and focusing on core businesses for each of these companies. This will reduce the momentum that’s needed for the research to commercialize the emerging technology these ventures.
Looks like future’s gonna have to wait, until Wall St. gives it the green light.
The one silver lining that I see, is that the job market is now full of extremely talented and smart folks who are now looking to continue their research/development in these fields. So, start-ups have an excellent opportunity to harvest their potential, which was previously quite difficult as they had to compete with Big Tech for the same pool of talent. It looks like now, is a good time to be start up, or start one of your own!
I am an avid reader of HackerNews, especially its comment section which can go down some very interesting (and very opinionated) rabbit holes! It’s also a place to find myriad of side projects that people are working on, and their process behind it. Pretty inspiring and can also be a good place to find your next gig!
They have a Who’s Hiring & Who wants to be Hired section every 1st of month, which has a bunch of roles ranging from contracting to full time at some early stage startups.
Here’s a list of side projects that I found interesting :
Funniest Street View Images : Silliest images pooled from google street view which are hilarious to look at, includes a dino climbing a electricity tower, McDonald’s house, giant fish sculpture stuck in a Portland Building. Do check out rest of his work on neal.fun
How does a Mechanical Watch work? : Bartosz Ciechanowski writes an extremely detailed and illustrated article with interactive javascript components to show you various gears and springs inside an ordinary watch.
He also writes about GPS, Curves, Sound and a myriad of other fundamental topics, from a first principles approach!
Coldplay, the pop music band, not only provide chart-topping, soul-touching music, they are also pledging to be sustainable on their tour while providing positive impact to the planet.
Back in 2019, when Chris Martin had shocked his fans, saying the band was going to stop touring to be more sustainable. However, when they announced their “Music of the Spheres” tour, I was a tad bit disappointed to see them reverse on their noble outreach.
However, that wasn’t the case, it does look like they are committed to a more sustainable tour as outlined on their “Sustainability Page”.
sustainability.coldplay.com is probably the most hip sustainability report/website I have ever seen, it has the chill Coldplay vibes through its design - where it walks you through various projects its undertaken to make a positive impact to the world.
They plan to use solar panels at concert venues, create re-usable modular elements to their show, use kinetic energy from fans jumping around to power up their systems, and are also supporting a bunch of great startups/NGO like The Ocean Cleanup. I really encourage you to slide through their website on your phone - sustainability.coldplay.com !
I’d want to be a optimistic skeptic, as some of this seems mildly inflated PR supporting sustainability (which is now the norm in the tech industry, wherein naive first order approximations are used to tout “your green footprint”), however, the key difference here is, Coldplay didn’t need to do this, but they still chose to!
That’s what makes the difference! I applaud them for this initiative and would love to see more corporate companies take design cues from that webpage, to help consumers understand the impact of the sustainable initiatives taken by them!
I’d love to discuss more about sustainability, if you like reading about it, feel free to subscribe or leave me a comment!
On a personal front, I have been trying to explore hikes in San Diego. The recent rains have turned the somewhat arid landscape into a nicer looking green-ish terrain.
I was able to hike near Mission Trails parks, was pleasantly surprised to see the that SD has quite a bit of hiking population as well!
Cowles Mountain Trail, had a great view from the trail parking lot itself - views of the pacific ocean as you gain elevation, and the distant skyline of San Diego are a treat if you pick this undemanding hike. This hike is definitely the low hanging fruit of the region.
The other trail I explored was Oak Canyon, which has fairly busy foot-traffic, so I recommend starting early (pre 8AM). The trail runs along a stream which culminates into the canyon. Its located in a fairly urban part of San Diego, but since it descends into the untouched canyon, its quite peaceful to hike down the trail. You’d see some beautiful old oak trees which provide shade and a beautiful habitat for a wide variety of birds.
If you’d like to join me on my next hike, please feel free to reach out! Also, do tell me about your favorite spots in San Diego