As we approach the new year, I reflect on the past year. It has been incredibly busy, but satisfying. This FUTRtech website and YouTube channel have really matured, and I hope to make more videos in the new year, with more diverse content, more interviews, more cool companies and more great tech. There are also some very exciting things in the works for next year, all I will say at this point is keep April 30th open. More announcements to come in 2020.

So as New Years Day approaches, many people start making New Year’s resolutions. I think about what can I do better next year. I think my goal is to keep my ego from getting in my way. I find that ego and fear go hand in hand. When we are afraid of not knowing enough or being enough, we lean on ego.

I recently sat down with a friend for lunch who had several very prominent CIO positions. We were talking about the challenges that CIOs face these days. Back in 2008 after the crash, CIOs were forced to become financial CIOs. To drive as many costs out of the business as possible. For many CIOs this created isolation, they were forced to push change down from the top, regardless of what those under them thought.

Now, CIOs need to deliver real value to the business, but they are out of touch with technology and their staffs. They feel the need to convey competence, to be able to assure people. So they make sweeping mandates, like we are moving everything to the cloud, without listening to the people closest to the work. 

It is OK to not know things, the best CIOs ask questions constantly, and accept mistakes. My kids are in Montessori schools, and the philosophy there is, “This is a mistake making place.” One of the things that I admire about Silicon Valley is that they are more accepting of failure. Failure is all around them, it is built into the process. The important thing is to fail fast, and not let your ego get in the way of seeing that. Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”

In tech, I think we are always expected to have the answers, to come in and fix the problem. It just isn’t possible to know everything. I spend most of my time following and researching new technologies, and I can say that I know very little of all there is to know, and I spend most of my time focusing on it. So how can people running tech for companies, who are busy making their systems work ever possibly stay on top of everything when it is in a state of constant change. You can’t, I can’t nobody can, and we all need to be OK with that, ask more questions, and above all, listen more. As Stoic Philosopher Epictetus said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” He also said, “If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”

In the next year, I hope to be wise enough to be thought of as foolish and stupid.