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Thematic Technology & Innovation Investing for the 2020s
I think the best way to invest in the 2020s is to follow some proven principles that we all know such as long-term value investing and diversifying. But focusing on certain thematic and macro themes that will shape the 2020s using a mix of intuition and data is the best bet.
The themes that I have in mind for the 2020s include:
Health and Wellness To Counter Rising Burnout—
50% of Americans are already experiencing symptoms of burnout and a Deloitte Survey shows that 84% of Millennials are experiencing workplace burnout. It is estimated that mental illness will cost the world economy $16 Trillion by 2030 according to WEF. Burnout, stress and anxiety are rising very fast over the coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns and economic, climate, social and geopolitical instability.
This means that health and wellness markets will only grow from meditation apps such as Headspace, Digital Health, Wearables, Biotech, Genomics will lead to the digital transformation of healthcare will lead to revolutions in treating mental and physical illness that is only being exacerbated by the pandemic. This will also help unburden our healthcare system in the future as we move to precision and personalized models of healthcare.
Thriving in a Stressful Day and Age with Mindfulness, Meditation and Ikigai
Wellness Trends For 2020
7 predictions for what lies ahead for health tech in 2021
2. Remote Working & The Rise of Digital Nomads—
As a consequence of burnout that we are experiencing primarily from the hyperconnected, hyper digital, globalized and hyperconnected society we live in where this a lot of pressure and the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is always there, I think unfortunately alot of millennials and younger generations will become more disconnected because of this. And there is no stopping this trend. I do believe the world will unfortunately become more polarized as everyone gains access to unprecedented amounts of information. However, on the bright side there will be increasing dynamism of work options such as how we work, where we work and the nature of work itself as tech intensity increases and dramatically shifts the workforce. The coronavirus pandemic has vastly accelerated the rates of change with digital transformation and the big shift in work.
Therefore, I believe younger generations such as Gen Z and Digital Natives such as myself will seek Remote Working, GigTech and embrace new styles of working in the digital age.
I believe this will be a trend toward Digital Nomadism and Remote Working for better or worse. We have the technology and the advances in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to easily enable more remote working. Hopefully as technological automation advances, people will be able to work less, earn more, live better and actually spend more time with friends, family and loved ones as opposed to what we have today.
3. Exponential Growth Curves in Digital Technologies
It is hard to say which exact companies will win or lose, but it is easier to say that picking a basket of stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs and commodities will result in high performing portfolios.
It is also better to invest from Macro, Thematic or first principles. It should be obvious by now that great bets include companies that are betting heavily on digital transformation, software and disruptive technologies of the future. I believe most businesses that fail to innovate will go out of business in today’s ruthless hypercompetitive digital age.
Exponential Technologies and Our Technologically Disruptive and Digitally Transformed Future
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrencies, Public Blockchains, DeFi (Decentralized Finance), FinTech, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies)
Bitcoin, Ethereum definitely are worth it and possibly other tokens such as Neo, ICON, SingularityNet, Brave and Monero are a safe bet as the digital economy grows and fintech, AI, privacy and decentralization converge. And you can pick more that you fancy (please do your own due diligence before making any investment decisions, especially in cryptocurrencies).
Ben Goertzel is putting artificial intelligence into decentralized finance | Modern Consensus
Bitcoin: A Novel Economic Institution | White Paper by Ark Invest
Bitcoin: An Asset Allocator Primer | White Paper by Real Vision
The Role of Blockchain and Decentralization in the Digital Economy
Big Debt Crisis, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Digital Currencies, Digital Economy
Chamath Palihapitiya and Social Capital
Chamath Palihapitiya, an early senior executive at Facebook and current Venture Capitalist and CEO of Social Capital, Chairman at Virgin Galactic and Owner of the Warriors has talked at length about the problems of capitalism at large, the technology and venture capital industry. He has said that Facebook is largely having a negative impact on the social fabric of how society functions and has said that capitalism is having many negative externalities and market failures which are unsustainable.
He is now trying to figure out how to deploy capital into certain technologies (like clean energy and artificial intelligence) to serve certain underserved markets to solve the social problems which plague us such as climate change, healthcare and education so we can have longer-term sustainable stakeholder capitalism rather than the short-term profit-driven, cut-throat, winner-take all economy we have currently. He is a proponent of capitalism and he believes it has problems and is by no means a perfect system but that they can be fixed with the right technologies, capital and the right mindset of people investing, engineering and deploying these technologies. He was one of the first Technology VCs to try to democratize his own mindset, process, and investment advice and is a revolutionary in his publicity and public views on many of these hot topics as well as his eye for everything from science, technology, innovation, fintech, venture capital and social entrepreneurship to startups and Big Tech companies. I think his focus on not only technology disruption but financial inclusion make him formidable and that he represents a change in finance, technology and venture capital that will be very positive as he consciously brings to light many of the issues that matter.
Peter Xing and Transhuman Coin
Transhuman Coin is a token dedicated to the #transhumanism movement, funding R&D to enhance our healthy lifespans, intelligence and wellbeing.
Ark Invest
ARK Invest — Please check out the Ark Invest 2021 Big Ideas Annual Report down in the link below! ARK Invest is run by their CIO Cathie D Wood who has an eagle eye for investing in disruptive innovation. Please watch her presentation at a Singularity University Conference below also! ARK Funds have ETF choices in several companies and industries based on themes ranging from Deep Learning, Fintech, Genomics, 3D Printing to Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles and Next Generation Internet or Web 3.0.
Ark Invest Annual Research: Big Ideas Report 2021
Impossible Foods
Impossible Foods is making plant based burgers and this is one company trying to revolutionize food technology, food production and our food system. By transitioning away from animal-based agriculture, and especially from beef, this company hits two birds with one stone - disrupting the meat industry and saving animals such as cows from slaughter and helping reduce climate change, carbon emissions, freshwater consumption our ecological footprint associated with traditional meat production.
Global Citizen | Which Vegan Burger Is Best for the Environment?
Tesla
Many of the companies in ARKs portfolio I recommend checking out individually and investing in many of them as well, Especially Tesla which was recently included in the S&P 500 and is set to become a top 10 company.
Tesla Set to Become a Top 10 Company in the S&P 500 - Visual Capitalist
Tesla’s Inclusion In S&P 500 Caps Outstanding Year For Clean Energy
A lot of people don’t like Tesla and are Elon Musk Haters but as battery storage costs plummet this decade and millennials look to purchase electric vehicles, electrification becomes the gold standard in the automotive industry over the next 2-3 years, and fully self-driving cars/autonomous vehicles and robotaxis start dominating the roads this decade I believe Tesla will be a great investment because it is way ahead of its competitors and leads in innovation on these fronts and is helping to transform and electrify the transportation and automotive industry. 2 Tesla Channels I follow closely are Steven Mark Ryan’s Solving The Money Problem and Tesla Daily.
SoftBank, Arm and Nvidia
SoftBank, Arm and Nvidia are great investments I believe. As you can see I am a contrarian to the mainstream media and Wall Street gurus who would go crazy at someone saying they love Tesla, SoftBank and Bitcoin 😁.
This is because these are tech companies situated globally from the US to Japan and more which are expanding ruthlessly into the future in gaming, virtual reality/augmented reality, cloud, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, private blockchain, enterprise software, 5G etc. and are focusing on using their scale and (digital) size as a competitive advantage to win in the digital economy.
The SoftBank, Arm and Nvidia CEOs particularly are betting massively on Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and the Future of Computing Infrastructure which is why I am also paying alot of attention to them.
Dawn of a New Computing Era and The Future of Intelligent Enterprises
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