Five Things Tech: Scaling, Internet, Impact Printing, Batteries, Volkswagen
Here are five must-read articles just for you!
Hello again, and welcome back to Five Things Tech!
This week we’ll learn what it takes to scale a startup and what it takes to create a downward spiral for the largest automaker in Germany. We also learn about the start of what we now know as the Internet. And if you ever wondered how 3D-printing could be improved, you can read about that as well. Also, how fascinating are batteries these days?
There’s one thing about Tech that’s certain: there is so much innovation that will continue to push everything forward!
Read on, my dear!
Quick reminder: your reading pleasure is so much better after you go paid. So don’t hesitate!
‘Scaling Through Chaos’: How the World’s Fastest-Growing Startups Get That Way
“The skills needed to launch a startup aren’t the same skills needed to scale it, let alone optimize a full-blown enterprise, should it emerge from that process.” - it is so incredibly tough to scale a startup and it takes special skillsets to pull it off. Often, not all the co-founders stay on for the long run.
The Failure That Started the Internet
It’s probably because I was a history major at university, but I really dig stories about the first babysteps of the internet. BTW, I can highly recommend the book “Where Wizards Stay Up Late - The Origins of the Internet”.
“Impact printing” is a cement-free alternative to 3D-printed structures
3D-Printing is still a pretty novel concept and while many people are still trying to grasp what this could mean for the future, scientists are pushing it even further: “A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, however, claims to have developed a robotic construction method that is even better than 3D printing. They call it impact printing, and instead of typical construction materials, it uses Earth-based materials such as sand, silt, clay, and gravel to make homes. According to the researchers, impact printing is less carbon-intensive and much more sustainable and affordable than 3D printing.”
The Battery Revolution Is Finally Here
I’m not sure I was ever that interested in the development of batteries. But isn’t this exiting? While people still fear that their EV won’t have enough battery juice to make it to the office, the latest battery tech will totally change the way our electrical grids will be working in the near future.
How Volkswagen Lost Its Way in China
This is the current national trauma in Germany. Plenty of overpaid auto-bosses couldn’t imagine that if you export cars and factories to China for four decades, that China would start building their own cars. Also, they didn’t want to imagine that the days of the combustion engine could be over soon and then China decided to go full EV. What a colossal management failure for the last decade or longer!
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading! If you missed last week’s Five Things Tech, you can find it here:
— Nico