What we're thankful for in tech

GeekWire

Technology, Tech News, News

4.4 • 116 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It doesn't always come naturally to us, as cynical reporters, but every Thanksgiving week on the GeekWire Podcast, it's our tradition to take a step back and take stock of the positive things in technology, business, and science.

This year's installment offers several reminders of the technologies that we might take for granted, gradual advancements that we incorporate into our lives over time, to the point that we suddenly can't remember what we did without them: automated scoring for sports pools among friends; remote printing over the internet; natural language processing; language translation; mobile ticketing; and drone photography; to name a few.

We hear from several readers and listeners about what they're grateful for right now, including robotic process automation, continued advocacy for diversity in tech, and support networks for startup founders.

In a contrarian twist this year, GeekWire's John Cook also talks about some of the silver linings in these cloudy economic times, including a return to more realistic (and potentially realizable) valuations for tech startups. We're also seeing a silver lining in the job market right now, as layoffs open up the market for hiring by smaller companies.

And in an even more contrarian view, John shares why he's thankful for ... Elon Musk! Be sure to listen to his reasoning before getting out your pitchforks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Siri does not work for me and I've got my own frustrations with Alexa.
0:04.2	Maybe we weren't the best duo here to do what we're thankful for.
0:07.7	I guess that's right hashtag not grateful. Coming up, it is our annual Thanksgiving episode a few days after Thanksgiving, John, but you and I have been going through our minds and everything that's been happening over the past year in the industry and technology, and we've also solicited some great input from
0:35.6	readers and listeners. Are you ready for this? Was this a hard exercise for you?
0:39.8	Somewhat hard. You know, we're always cynical journalists, so we usually are not thinking in the positive, but I think we've got a few good ones here.
0:48.0	What's top of your list of things that you're thankful for in technology, the economy, the industry right now.
0:53.7	Let's get positive here.
0:55.1	One thing I'm thankful for is the ability to bring people together
0:59.4	through community with World Cup pools. And see this with like March Madness and C. Double A basketball
1:06.8	pools I've gotten into fantasy English Premier League soccer. I'm big on that.
1:13.5	This is probably one of my favorite pastimes.
1:15.5	I do it with my son.
1:16.6	We have a great time of tracking players
1:19.9	and following the different games.
1:21.9	And so the ability to do this across geographies with
1:26.2	everything tabulated everything calculated for you the leader board setup
1:31.2	because Todd I'm sure you remember the days back 15 20 years ago
1:36.1	I would always be the bracket master on the NCAA bracket or whatever sporting event was going
1:41.8	on and believe me it was a lot of work. or whatever sporting event was going on.
1:42.5	And believe me, it was a lot of work to track 15, 20, 25
1:47.6	brackets and tabulate how every single person is doing.
1:51.5	I am so glad that task in this day and age has been handed over to a
	...

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