Season 1 Recap. What's next in 2024?
Recap of Season 1, Listener Survey, Massive thanks, See you in 2024!
Thank you for joining us for 2023 of Obviously The Future.
In our inaugural season, we released 12 episodes on the podcast that featured four Avalanche founders, four fund advisors, three Austinites, three professional storytellers, and 12 guests sharing their views on the future.
Season 1 Recap: The stories we highlighted
Why did you focus on storytellers? Why tell origin stories?
Origin stories. Every hero has one. Every company needs one.
Stories are scouts venturing into the world to clear the way for your ideas.
And stories are home, reminding you who you are, even as you grow.
Damien Walter reminded us that ‘story is the physics of the human world,’ and we agree.
Arvind’s title at Avalanche is EIR and Chief Storyteller. Learning the art of storytelling is one of three pillars in his innovative high school model.
We take origin stories - and understand the why - as foundational to every venture we engage with and invest in.
Removing middle agents to empower people directly.
Michael Barber discussed the original Avalanche, the unbundling of higher education driven by students as a customer: ‘It is students who are paying money to go to university. So the students don't choose you, you are gonna struggle, and if you don't mark their work, you're not likely to attract them in the future.’ Warren Carlyle discussed his realization that ‘talent is going to be able to reach their audience directly, and there's a lot of things that are kind of being decentralized and changed.’ Our youngest guest, Wesley Wang, described how he has crafted his film storytelling career and garnered support and views on social media, and bypassed traditional gatekeepers.
Technology drives outcomes and results.
“It makes a huge difference to the public to know whether you're approved in one second instead of two weeks,” said Joe Connor about his company Odyssey Education, which implements ESAs on behalf of governments. Chris Neilson described how effective school matching and information drives market efficiency and his goal with Tether Education: “And so then you start to up the game and you make this market more efficient, especially at the bottom.” Al-Hassan Hlelieh and Saad Rizvi explained how technology drives outcomes by providing transparency in government.
Shared values and thoughtful design are the foundation of community building.
Elle Beecher discussed how she ‘speeds up the process of genuine connection by leading and maintaining the shared values of being curious, kind, and open-minded.’ Nick Gray told us that designing in-person interactions specifically for introverts was important.
Invisible trends underneath the surface in our world.
Catalina Kaiyoorawongs, CEO of LoanSense, highlighted how “The loan officer is the financial advisor to the average person.”
Deepak Sekar illustrated how Generative AI and ProfJim are revolutionizing the traditional textbook.
Dalglish Chew explained that the wisdom we need isn't easy to scale quickly, and exceptional coaches are unlikely to be replaced by AI anytime soon. Maybe AI can’t solve every problem, and humans still have a role.
Our Story
We have featured origin stories and visions of the future that we would want to live in. We (Arvind and Katelyn) have weaved in our individual and collective origin stories through the season. In Season 2, we aim to be more precise and more explicit about what Katelyn is building at Avalanche and what Arvind is building in his new high school.
Book recommendations to your younger self
At the end of each episode, we asked guests to recommend a book to their younger self. These ranged from practical business books to immersive novels to storied philosophers. We present the recommendations to you for your perusal:
Ep 1 - The Brothers Karamazov
Ep 2 -Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki
Ep 4 -I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No guilt, no excuses
Ep 5 -Dune - Novel by Frank Herbert
Ep 6 -Bodhicaryavatara
Ep 7 - Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction
Ep 8 -Games People Play: The Psychology Of Human Relationships By Eric Berne
Ep 9 -The Surrender Experiment: My Journey Into Life's Perfection
Ep 10 -Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Ep 11 -Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Ep 12 -The Philosophy Of History by GW Hegel
Your feedback requested and what’s next.
The sound quality will improve. Season Two will launch again in March. In the meantime, we hope to share more original research and perspectives from team Avalanche to this email list.
We'd love your feedback and thoughts as we record the second season. Please fill out the 3-question, 1-minute survey at the link below. We’d greatly appreciate it :)
Final words of thanks.
Thank you to Matthew Xu, our analyst intern, who helped catalyze this podcast and edited most of the first season!
Thank you to our guests (and several others unpublished) who gave their time and attention.
Thank you to every active listener. Your thoughts and engagement keep us going.
See you in 2024!