Steve Mahaley

In a conversation with a colleague recently, I was going on about this clarity I feel around the work we do at Red Fern – that, while there are many logical applications of virtual reality technology and excellent design work going on out there, we, here, are not driven simply by what technology *can* do, but rather what it *should* do to help with real issues.

We find ourselves, here in the 21st century, with a host of problems that seem to plague humanity: human rights abuses, attacks on democracy, destruction of natural resources, wealth and health disparities, and (especially it seems in our country) an insatiable desire for ‘more, bigger, faster’ at a time when a collective application of the brake pedal on ‘progress’ might be desperately needed.

I told my friend something like “I only really want to work on problems worth solving”. He said, “you should rename your company to that”.

We won’t rename the company, but we will sharpen our focus on what constitutes a problem worth solving, and therefore what projects we prefer to engage in. What follows below are posts and stories about the problems we are thrilled and humbled to be working on, alongside some truly amazing people.

This just out from friend and colleague Dr. Randal Pinkett and his business partner Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson! For all our Black friends and colleagues, this looks to be a great read. Having worked with these gentlemen and with BCT Partners, we have nothing but the highest regard for their knowledge, insight and abilities to connect and help others who are seeking success.

I was invited to speak with my good friend, colleague and author Nikhil Raval this morning. Nikhil has written a book entitled Target Gen Z, and is now featuring people of all disciplines to better understand what is, and is not, pertinent when it comes to working with those of us born after 1996.

I’ll update this post when the link to the podcast is ready, but for now will say that we touched on education design, digital natives / residents vs. immigrants / visitors, and what traps to avoid (no, it’s not love at first sight, always!) and what approaches I take to incorporate new tech into the work I do that is often targeted at Gen Z learners.

Nikhil in Ahmedabad, India, and me in my North Carolina home. Fascinating. One of the things I love about communications technologies – allowing us to bridge great divides of distance to explore topics and solve problems together.