Predictions 2018
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (50.1MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS | More
We hit most of our predictions from last year. This is mostly because we saw “the handwriting on the wall” in several places. Also we have been keeping up with the industry. Doing so will help you to better predict when to make moves in your career and when to stay in place.
BJ’s Predictions
Increase in IoT wearables taken off the market. We had the initial this is really cool aspect of them but now we’re seeing some of the bigger issues especially with security. I’m predicting that there will be a down turn in the growth of that market. At least until consumers can trust the products.
Increase in the tech hubs in the South (SouthEastern USA). We’ve seen Austin, TX, Nashville, TN, Altanta, GA, and Asheville/Charolette NC. I’m predicting there will be either more hubs pop up and the current ones will grow as more companies move here and the start up culture grows.
A rise in Virtual Reality (VR) arcade gaming as VR hits the market too high for the average consumer. It will probably start at larger places like Dave N Busters but then we’ll see small places like we have minigolf or laser tag.
We will be published authors by the end of the year. Even if we have to self publish we’ll have that under our belts.
Will’s Predictions
Increased hostility in the culture wars due to social networks increasing friction. But we’ll start to see signs of the bulk of the population getting tired of it and trying to come up with better digital manners to combat it. We may experience serious violence beforehand.
Popping of one or more the US economic bubbles, maybe a series of them. The core problems with our economy are NOT fixed. The numbers say this will happen, but they don’t say when.
Silicon Valley losing some of its control of the narrative in the tech industry. The Silly Valley has a great location, lots of capital, lots of workers of high skill. However, it also has high taxes, crazy inequality, insane housing prices, and bad traffic. Eventually these costs will exceed the cost to move elsewhere. In addition, there’s a lot of group-thinkey stuff going on in the valley, which may stifle the innovation it depends on.
The Indian software development market will move more of its focus off of US interests and more into the interests of other Asian countries like Russia and China. The world will move away from a monopolar power structure to a multipole power structure. That combined with some of the risks in the US market means that smart Indian firms will hedge their bets. This will be true of other countries as well, but India is liable to be the most profound.
IoTease: Project
The IoT Holiday Lights Project
“A project where I connect Christmas tree lights to my Twitter account and make some minions dance and sing.”
The idea behind this project is to tie in all of your holiday lights both inside and outside of your house to a central controller (Arduino) that gets it’s commands from a Raspberry Pi with a wifi and OpenHAB. This way you can control your the lights through your phone. With a little more coding or some internet searches you could even have the lights dance to the holiday music you are playing. Something that would go perfectly with Lindsey Stirling’s new holiday album.
Tricks of the Trade
Things that can’t continue don’t continue. They might for a while. Look for things that people say can’t continue that have no resolution without making a huge mess (see N. Korea). Those things will continue. Trust the math, not opinions unfounded on same.