Jackie o yang

The key to saving the environment is not looking backward, it’s moving forward. I realized this the first time I visited Italy twenty years ago. Everything was clean and green. The rivers sparkled. The lesson for me was obvious: the answer is not underdevelopment. The answer is progress. When China was poor, the air was so polluted that people could barely see the blue sky. Today, blue skies have returned to their cities. Development does not only create wealth, it also provides the resources needed to restore and protect the environment. Some environmentalists want us to preserve every aspect of our biodiversity, including the mosquitoes for example, so that researchers can fly in once every ten years from their universities (which build particle accelerators and billion-dollar laboratories with their pocket money), study our ecosystems, and count how many people died from dengue outbreaks. They want to buy our air through carbon credits. If carbon credits were such a great deal, they would be selling them to us, not the other way around. Cleaning every river, lake, and water source in El Salvador, and ensuring they remain clean and sparkling, would cost roughly $12 billion. Where is that money supposed to come from without economic development? Carbon credits? The path forward for our country is the path of Japan and Singapore, not the path of the Congo.

The faster the world changes, the more we must turn to timeless truths: the fragility of knowledge, the centrality of face-to-face collaboration, the wisdom of tradition. We are all influenced arcane scribblings of the past; we are all the wearers of "cerulean sweaters". To know this history is to move more freely through the world; dialogue with the past empowers us to shape the future. What a privilege to bring people together in Toronto to discuss these ideas alongside @_benjaminparry and @jiamixue, hosted on Wygo by @jossmurphyy, featuring the gorgeous design of @anthea_irl, a beautiful livestream led by @looeegee, and a full-blown book fair. This was the beginning of a dialogue we hope to carry forward in Toronto for the rest of our lives. It is an honour to be part of The Great Conversation with all of you. Stay tuned for the full video & written lecture in the next few weeks.

Some more behind-the-scenes photos:

hanging out listening to the great conversation

From dropping out of university, to pro gaming, to community college, to getting accepted to Stanford...I still don't believe it. PLEASE take this as a sign to chase your dreams. You are not too old, and you are not behind.

been following my goat since this Exil video 6 years ago, crazy to how far he's gone in his career

We’ve been telling the story of technology backwards. Our tools take center stage, but these artifacts are the lagging indicators of progress, not the drivers. What propels the world forward is dialogue, a swirling conversation across generations about what it means to be human. You have been part of this conversation your entire life. You just haven't been formally introduced. On May 27th, during @TOTechWeek we invite you to join The Great Conversation, a lecture about how technologists shape history. Hosted with @ambitionlabsinc, @NotionHQ, @cursor_ai, @AmbrookAG, @colossusmag, @psumvc, and many more. Tickets on sale now!

we celebrated our makers with the help of @claudeai. here’s what they’ve been building with it!

to the people who dedicated 8 months and countless hours into this symposium, we thank you. this event would not have been possible without your work.

months of late nights and big dreams went into this symposium, and I am so grateful for everyone on the team going to remember this weekend for a long, long time

I didn’t know it was possible to bring joy to so many people at once

Thankful for everyone for everything we did for each other to pull off this year’s Socratica Symposium. Every single person who contributed should be proud of what we managed to do and how much fun we had while doing it. It takes a village, truly.

Every part of the symposium is someone's demo. From the AV, to food, ticketing, and logistics. You get to see only 10 demos on the stage, but it's only possible because of the demoers working behind the scenes.

The architect of the coolest box lights in town

it takes a village

I had a good run for the socratica symposium show this year. Thanks for watching everyone

WE'RE GOING NUCLEAR

come to symposium and you can meet macaroni man (6'4 btw)

we sold out (of day 1!) if you can't make it in person, we've got a livestream on March 21, 7pm: youtube.com/live/0FeiflPA4pg limited tickets still available for day 2!

she dal on my dong till I nae