Stories can be a vital tool to advocate for your ideas, cause, and company; they persuade, and they move people to action. Below, Stanford GSB faculty, alumni, and visitors including Professor Jennifer Aaker, Airbnb’s Chip Conley (MBA ‘84), and Twitter’s James Buckhouse shed light on the power of stories and how to craft an effective one:
Imagine a company that retrieves your checked luggage, then delivers it straight to the Next pod you’ve hitched a ride home on from the airport. Or a business that lets you summon a bathroom on-the-go. What if Starbucks could deliver coffee to your car? These ideas were too futuristic for the firm [Tomasso Gecchelin] was working for at the time, so he struck out on his own and founded Next.
MORE: This Guy Wants Us to Commute in Autonomous, On-Demand Pods
Sports, robots, and the power of the sun - here are our favorite tech stories from this week.
1. The first NBA game of the season will be streamed in VR Have you ever watched a basketball game at home and wished you could just crawl through the TV? Well, strapping it to your face might be the next best thing. NextVR is hoping to give fans a courtside experience with video and audio so immersive it’s virtually realistic. via: @engadget
2. Light-powered computers would work millions of times faster Not so long ago, the bar for “instant” was rice that cooked in five minutes. Recently, though, it’s high-speed everything, and it almost seemed like “instant” was actually instant. Boy, were we wrong. Ultra-fast, light-based computers are on the horizon. via: @quartz
3. Google is developing a system to detect if you’re a driver or passenger We all know that it’s dangerous to text and drive. Leaving the phone in your pocket can take some willpower, but with a smartwatch, the screen is right there in front of you. Google understands that nobody has that kind of self-control, and it has a solution. via: @phandroids
4. Robots Can Now Teach Each Other New Tricks They’re great employees once they’ve learned the ropes, but any prospective robo-employee that puts “self-starter” on its resume is a liar. Be prepared to do a lot of cold, vice-like hand holding. Better yet, just invent a robot to do it for you. via: @mittechnologyreviewdesign
