The Medici Archive Project’s L’Arte di Negozio program sponsored by Kluz Ventures is pleased to present an online workshop, “Skill versus Luck in Technology Today”.
The question we want to tackle this time is an old question, but always new: What is the role of Skill versus Luck in human affairs? Each culture, each epoch, each individual has asked it and answered in different ways. Machiavelli famously (or infamously) posed in his Prince, pitching Virtue against Fortune, and giving a slight edge to the latter. More recently, Peter Thiel in his From Zero to One (chapter 6), on “whether success comes from luck or skill”, wrote: “From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to the mid-20th century, luck was something to be mastered”, provocatively concluding that in the 21st century, skill is winning over luck.
In our workshop we want to address this question freely, focusing specifically on what in the world of technology the answer entails.
Introduction by Marcello Simonetta (The Medici Archive Project)
Chair: Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project)
Speakers: Stefaan Verhulst (GovLab, New York University)
Kay Firth Butterfield (Center for Trustworthy Technology)
Jacob Soll (University of Southern California)
