Blockchain, Bitcoin and Artificial Intelligence may be buzzwords, but it’s important for corporates, startups, and individuals to make sense of these technologies of the future.

A startup founder comes up and says, “I invested Rs 40,000 in Bitcoin; it has now doubled.”

Two days later, a friend says, “I want to invest my savings in Bitcoin.”

This is followed by an engineer, asking: “Will artificial intelligence take away my job?”

There is a lot of science fiction in parallel to realities that encompass Blockchain, Bitcoin and Artificial Intelligence.

But SBI’s Head of Innovation Sudhin Baraokar says it as it is. “These technologies are at a juncture where the internet was 20 years ago. The understanding is still minimal for businesses and corporates,” he says.

Now instead of going into theories, let us look at the history of these technologies and how they will impact you.

Bitcoin, a crypto-currency, was born 10 years ago when the founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, who has not revealed himself to the world as yet, wrote a technology protocol called Blockchain. This technology protocol works on distributed networks where it creates blocks out of information (ledger entries) passing through a transaction between multiple parties. This information cannot be tampered by any party because everyone can access the information at the same time. Information cannot be changed without the other knowing.

Current digital technology is based on client-server models where information that is updated or exchanged is controlled by one central server and database. In a business contract execution between two parties, the information is always passing through a bank, which is a trusted third party.

In a Blockchain, the system works differently. It works on distributed computing where every bit of information updated between multiple parties is captured by all parties, including the bank. There is not one central server controlling the flow of information updates; this does not complicate or duplicate work.

“There is no gatekeeper in this case since information flow is open and the third party is a facilitator who witnesses a transaction for you rather than executing it on the behalf of two parties and there is digital trust,” says Sudhin, of SBI. He adds that this digital trust is added by multiple parties coming together to make a system come true.

In simple terms, authorisation and authenticity of the transacting parties cannot be manipulated. At least in theory.

Your Story has reported what Blockchain can do for smart contracts and how it can help your business (read here).

That is Blockchain for you. But, what of Bitcoin?

Bitcoin, which is not a physical entity or organisation, is a deregulated currency that wants to create a new world order in the financial system. It enables a peer-to-peer transaction, where no bank exists in the exchange of goods and digital currency. The whole system is not regulated by central banks of the world, which for the last 200 years have decided the value to an item of exchange either pegged to gold or to the dollar based on trade deficits of nations. The PWC image tells you everything about this technology.

Let us consider an example involving the sale of bananas under the bitcoin system before explaining the tech.

Farmer Vineet Kumar wants to sell 1 ton of bananas to Joe Maggio in the Philippines and they both get into a contract digitally. But, the Blockchain network will set the price based on agri transactions happening across the world. Now, this is where the technology kicks in that a certain individual called Vineet has agreed to sell bananas to Joe at a certain value of Bitcoin.

Once a smart contract is executed by all parties – the logistics firm, the customs and the shipping company – the Bitcoin is released between all parties. How is the question?

This smart contract becomes a block in the system, which the technology verifies to be true within all parties. Since it is a distributed open loop ledger system, the computer that first verifies the transaction mines bitcoins and facilitates the exchange of goods between both parties.

Rajesh Dhuddu, SVP at Quatro, a company that advises on Blockchain technology, says, “This financial and payment system is not understood by many as yet and only smart contracts are understood so far.”

He adds that the Bitcoin scenario remains a financial system understood by a few. Those who have Bitcoin have ushered in an investment frenzy of late because the price of one Bitcoin today is Rs 5.36 lakh. But if you don’t understand the system, it’s advisable not to speculate. Bet on companies that are building smart contracts through Blockchain; Bitcoin speculation is completely dependent on how nation-states will react to this borderless currency.

For the Bitcoin system to become mainstream, it requires central banking to disappear and money as a concept to completely be controlled by a digital system without factoring in data such as inflation and consumer price index. Will it end poverty? No!

“It will be used by advanced societies and the world will have both Bitcoin and currency,” says Arifa Khan, a representative of Etherium Foundation, a technology protocol for Blockchain. She says Bitcoin works because it does not need banks controlling the exchange of goods between people.

Nonetheless, the narratives of the financial system will still create a world of the haves and have-nots.

Let us explore why as we see artificial intelligence step into the scenarios discussed above. AI technically sits on top of Blockchain, can crunch massive amounts of data and make decisions at the same time.

Artificial intelligence is software that writes itself and learns from massive data patterns to make decisions. Today, all software is still being taught by humans and is in the realm of machine learning and deep learning. While governments and politicians use the word AI, they want to jump into the narrative because they can get more students to register in colleges and remain relevant in elections. Nonetheless, the lack of jobs will also be part of their political shenanigans.

In essence, 20 years from now there can be several possibilities. You don’t need people in an era of AI to program systems. Job losses will be real unless corporates train individuals to train the system. This is where society must realign its entire talent to be productive to do something else because consumption is what drives the current financial and economic system.

Author Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Homodeus, says there will be a large useless class who will be dominated by superhumans with implants to power the brain and also live longer. This a possibility and not a prophecy. However, books apart, corporates are already investing in AI.

“If the client wants efficiency we have to move towards systems and technologies that make work happen in the most efficient way in terms of service and price. AI allows that,” says NS Parthasarathy, EVC at Mindtree. He adds that the future is about answering what clients demand.

So, if you are worried about Blockchain, Bitcoin and AI, don’t be because they are all going to impact us at some point. It’s time to learn about these technologies of the future! But refer to the image from PWC and it can help you understand it better.

We’re always chasing something—be it a promotion, a new car, or a significant other. This leads to the belief that, “When (blank) happens, I’ll finally be happy.”

While these major events do make us happy at first, research shows this happiness doesn’t last. A study from Northwestern University measured the happiness levels of regular people against those who had won large lottery prizes the year prior. The researchers were surprised to discover that the happiness ratings of both groups were practically identical.

The mistaken notion that major life events dictate your happiness and sadness is so prevalent that psychologists have a name for it: impact bias. The reality is, event-based happiness is fleeting.

Happiness is synthetic—you either create it, or you don’t. Happiness that lasts is earned through your habits. Supremely happy people have honed habits that maintain their happiness day in, day out. Try out their habits, and see what they do for you:

They slow down to appreciate life’s little pleasures. By nature, we fall into routines. In some ways, this is a good thing. It saves precious brainpower and creates comfort. However, sometimes you get so caught up in your routine that you fail to appreciate the little things in life. Happy people know how important it is to savor the taste of their meal, revel in the amazing conversation they just had, or even just step outside to take a deep breath of fresh air.

They exercise. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. Happy people schedule regular exercise and follow through on it because they know it pays huge dividends for their mood.

They spend money on other people. Research shows that spending money on other people makes you much happier than spending it on yourself. This is especially true of small things that demonstrate effort, such as going out of your way to buy your friend a book that you know they will like.

They surround themselves with the right people. Happiness spreads through people. Surrounding yourself with happy people builds confidence, stimulates creativity, and it’s flat-out fun. Hanging around negative people has the opposite effect. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. Think of it this way: If a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with negative people.

They stay positive. Bad things happen to everyone, including happy people. Instead of complaining about how things could have been or should have been, happy people reflect on everything they’re grateful for. Then they find the best solution available to the problem, tackle it, and move on. Nothing fuels unhappiness quite like pessimism. The problem with a pessimistic attitude, apart from the damage it does to your mood, is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you expect bad things, you’re more likely to experience negative events. Pessimistic thoughts are hard to shake off until you recognize how illogical they are. Force yourself to look at the facts, and you’ll see that things are not nearly as bad as they seem.

They get enough sleep. I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to improving your mood, focus, and self-control. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, removing toxic proteins that accumulate during the day as byproducts of normal neuronal activity. This ensures that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your energy, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough quality sleep. Sleep deprivation also raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Happy people make sleep a priority, because it makes them feel great and they know how lousy they feel when they’re sleep deprived.

They have deep conversations. Happy people know that happiness and substance go hand-in-hand. They avoid gossip, small talk, and judging others. Instead they focus on meaningful interactions. They engage with other people on a deeper level, because they know that doing so feels good, builds an emotional connection, and is an interesting way to learn.

They help others. Taking the time to help people not only makes them happy, but it also makes you happy. Helping other people gives you a surge of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, all of which create good feelings. In a Harvard study, employees who helped others were 10 times more likely to be focused at work and 40% more likely to get a promotion. The same study showed that people who consistently provided social support were the most likely to be happy during times of high stress. As long as you make certain that you aren’t overcommitting yourself, helping others is sure to have a positive influence on your mood.

They make an effort to be happy. No one wakes up feeling happy every day and supremely happy people are no exception. They just work at it harder than everyone else. They know how easy it is to get sucked into a routine where you don’t monitor your emotions or actively try to be happy and positive. Happy people constantly evaluate their moods and make decisions with their happiness in mind.

They do things in-person. Happy people only let technology do their talking when absolutely necessary. The human brain is wired for in-person interaction, so happy people will jump at the chance to drive across town to see a friend or meet face-to-face because it makes them feel good.

They have a growth mindset. People’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you’re challenged, because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed. People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. This makes them happier because they are better at handling difficulties. They also outperform those with a fixed mindset because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new.

Happiness can be tough to maintain, but investing in the right habits pays off. Adopting even a few of the habits from this list will make a big difference in your mood.

Have you ever felt like your boss’s boss is somewhat of an enigma? After all, this person is more senior, and usually less visible than your boss, and as such it can be trickier to build a rapport with them. Yet your boss’s boss could be a valuable person to have on side throughout your career, if you get this relationship right.

As an experienced senior leader, your boss’s boss could teach you some valuable lessons about their own journey to career success. From a more practical perspective, they will also often have the final say on the decisions which could propel your career forward, from approving your attendance on a training course, to granting you more responsibility within your role or getting that well-deserved promotion.    

Of course, when developing a relationship with your boss’ boss, there’s a fine line to tread, and you have to be tactful. After all, you don’t want to undermine your immediate boss and damage this important relationship. At the same time, if you want to progress your career within this organisation, you really need their boss to have a positive opinion of you and your abilities.

I believe the below advice serves as best practice for getting noticed by your boss’s boss. 

Build a strong relationship with your current boss and team

Your current boss has a closer connection with their boss, and from time to time, the two of them will discuss your performance, a discussion which will rely heavily on your boss’s input. Therefore make sure the two of you have a good relationship, whereby you strive to meet their expectations and ask for constructive feedback on where you could improve in your role.

When considering your performance your boss will also factor in how much you collaborate with your team. If you work in isolation of everyone else, you will harm the productivity and dynamic of the team, and your boss is sure to notice. As such, you need to maintain an open and communicative relationship with your colleagues, helping them when needed and also asking for their insights and expertise.

On the whole, make sure your boss identifies you as being a conscientious, self-improving team player. Your boss’s opinion of you, and thus their boss’s opinion of you, won’t often be worlds apart, so it is important to get the former relationship right first and foremost.

Increase the dialogue with your boss’s boss

Understandably, you may be feeling slightly intimidated by your boss’s boss, especially if you haven’t spoken to them much in the past. Start off by looking out for openings to make small polite exchanges, such as a cursory “hello, how are you” as you pass in the corridor, or offering to make them a tea or coffee if you are both working late in the office.

As your confidence builds, share your ideas or questions with them at opportune moments, for instance if they are giving a departmental update and open the floor for questions at the end. The key here is to keep an eye out for chances to start building a professional rapport. Stay mindful of their seniority and be aware that any overly familiar exchanges may just harm your progress, for instance calling them a nickname that only other more senior colleagues call them. Use your common sense to judge where the boundaries are, and strike the right balance between friendly and professional.

Self-promote your expertise

Build your expert reputation within your organisation through some tactful self-promotion.

Talk to your current boss about the opportunities available for sharing your expertise, for instance; starting a blog, offering to speak at events, or presenting to their boss at company meetings and so forth. You can also build your reputation by offering internal training sessions or offering to train new starters. In doing so, you will be able to establish yourself as the “go-to” person for a certain area of expertise within your organisation, an accolade which should get fed back to your boss’s boss.

Think bigger picture

Whilst being known as an expert in a specific area is important when getting noticed by your boss’s boss, remember to think beyond the demands of your immediate role and towards the strategic direction of the team and business.

As Hays CEO Alistair Cox states in one of his blogs: “Thinking big means breaking out of silos”. Therefore, show an interest in other areas of the business, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the current objectives and challenges to the business as a whole, and be proactive in suggesting your own ideas. Your boss’s boss will notice somebody who understands that they are part of a wider business strategy, and can break out of the confines of their role to contribute to this strategy using their bigger picture thinking.

Getting noticed by your boss’s boss is, for the most part, about building your relationship with your current boss and team, whilst developing a reputation as an expert but also as a big picture thinker within your organisation. It is a delicate situation to navigate and it will take time, tact and patience. However, once you have this key person on side, then they, alongside your current boss, can support you as you progress your career within this organisation.