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We talked in this week's show about very smart computers - including Watson, the supercomputer and Jeopardy! champion. Want a little taste of Watson in your own home? Gadget guru Ben Saren has some pointers on how the newest gadgets can spruce up your humble abode in this exclusive web extra.

Gadget Spotlight: Around the House

What's Watson the supercomputer up to these days? We examine how this Jeopardy champion has gone from winning game shows to changing health care, finance, and education.

Watson After Jeopardy!

What does it look like when you're creating and selling your own product? Your own brisket, pickles, or ideas? We talked to Susan Piver, director of the Open Heart Project, an online meditation and mindfulness guide.

The Open Heart Project

Think about those emails you get every minute, the texts constantly vibrating in your pocket, a news cycle that never ends. In his book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, best-selling author Douglas Rushkoff offers up an arresting theory about how living in this brave new world changes us. Part 2 of 2: the economy.

Douglas Rushkoff: Present Shock and the Economy

Think about those emails you get every minute, the texts constantly vibrating in your pocket, a news cycle that never ends. In his book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, best-selling author Douglas Rushkoff offers up an arresting theory about how living in this brave new world changes us. Part 1 of 2: Entertainment.

Douglas Rushkoff: Present Shock and Entertainment

David Pogue of the New York Times spends his time thinking about the race to make phones ever slimmer, and their cameras just a bit better, and our watches a little smarter. We chatted about his predictions for the latest and greatest breakthroughs in technology.

New Tech with David Pogue

Do you ever wonder why so many movies now have a number at the end? Anita Elberse, professor at Harvard Business School, certainly did. In her new book, Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment, Elberse argues that, despite living in a world with more media sources and entertainment options than ever, our tastes are converging on the flashiest blockbuster hits and the biggest superstars.

The Rise of the Blockbuster

Matt Richtel, New York Times writer and author of “The Cloud,” says the modern job hunt is in for a huge change.

The End of the Resume

Dan Pink, author of “To Sell is Human” and “Drive,” says that in the 21st century economy, ideas are our most important currency.

Dan Pink's Idea Economy

If your income can flow from any place on the globe, and you can earn your money on the Internet, the question for individuals and startup teams alike increasingly is: where do I go? In the tech industry the answer more often than not has been Silicon Valley. For many people and companies that is still true, says Sten Tamkivi, CEO and co-founder of Teleport.org, but it’s not a simple binary answer any more. “It’s more a question of when, and how often do you spend time in Silicon Valley?” he says. And of course, why?

Quality, cost, and opportunity, those are the key elements to consider when deciding where in the world you want to be when you are starting a career -- and starting a company. In this segment of the pod, Tamkivi relates his own experience as an executive at Skype, and how he thought about its global workforce and what made it work so well. He also describes what he’s learned from starting his own far-flung company Teleport.org, which is in the business of helping people decide where in the world the best place for their career and company is. 

a16z Podcast: Software and Overcoming the Randomness of Birthplace

Last week at the Milken Institute conference, Ben Horowitz, cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, sat down with Re/code's Kara Swisher.


A Conversation With @bhorowitz and @karaswisher

"This time is different." But it's always different! So what's going on now in the public markets? Why does this even matter? For one thing, tech markets have grown significantly. And one big reason is internet and mobile. It's like a multiplier for the market size and opportunity.

In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Andreessen Horowitz managing partner Scott Kupor, mobile analyst Benedict Evans, and corp dev research partner Morgan Bender break down <a href="http://a16z.com/2015/06/15/u-s-tech-funding-whats-going-on/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a slide deck</a> we recently shared, including answers to what all these so-called “unicorns” are, how it affects venture capital and the funding landscape, and how we define a "quasi-IPO."

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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
 
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

a16z Podcast: The Rise of the Quasi-IPO

a16z’s Chris Dixon and Mike Hearn talked about all things bitcoin on the a16z Podcast a couple months ago, including an issue that has bitcoin developers on edge these days: the question of how best to scale the bitcoin blockchain before capacity runs out. Hearn and others offered a solution (Bitcoin XT) -- in the parlance, a “hard fork” -- and quite frankly, not everyone in the bitcoin community is in favor of this approach yet. Which we heard about from various online quarters!

So in the interest of airing diverse opinions and other options for solving bitcoin’s scaling problem, we invited two more experts from the bitcoin world, Adam Back and Alex Morcos, to share their views on the topic. A well-known applied cryptographer whose longtime focus has been digital currency, Back invented hashcash, a proof-of-work system used in bitcoin mining. He’s also the cofounder of Blockstream (which, full disclosure, may also have interests in the outcomes of this debate). Morcos is the founder of Chaincode Labs, based in New York City, and was a co-founder of quantitative trading company Hudson River Trading.

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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
 
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

a16z Podcast: Hard Forks, Hard Choices for Bitcoin

Legendary investor Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett's financial partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) invokes a set of interdisciplinary "mental models" involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management to keep emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment. In a new book focused on lessons learned from Munger, Tren Griffin (who works at Microsoft and has long focused on lessons learned from many investors) shares insights on decision making and the psychology of human judgment -- especially as it applies to investing and risk.

But Griffin believes that these lessons can be applied to all of us in our daily lives, not just by investors. (He also argues that investing may be one of the last liberal arts). So how then do we channel our inner Munger? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, we discuss how to think about thinking; why the best investors and business leaders spend more time on what they DON’T know; and how the best way to be smart is to ... not be stupid.

a16z Podcast: The Best Way To Be Smart ... Is To Not Be Stupid

On this episode of The Show About Science, Nate interviews Anna Rothschild, the host of Nova's Gross Science. Nate asks Anna what she knows about cow and kangaroo burps, ribbon worms, and infections. He also gets more information on everyone's favorite topic, cheese mites. You can find episodes of Gross Science at www.youtube.com/user/grossscienceshow. Ewwww!

004: Gross Science with Anna Rothschild

The robots are coming. But before they do, we’ll need to give them our morals. Queena Kim reports on why “moral philosophy” will mean big business in the tech world.

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