Social Impact Authors: How & Why Tim Andrews of ‘A Brief History of a Perfect Future’ Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
…We really want to change the world. We want to do this by getting individuals, institutions, and governments to make progress on our major issues by using the fantastic tools that will become available to us over the next three decades through rapidly advancing technological capabilities and thinking differently about how to attack our biggest challenges. We want people to think about the futures that are possible in 30 years given these incredible capabilities. Then work backward to the present to figure out what we should be working on today, tomorrow and the next day.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Andrews.
Tim Andrews is a leader in Booz Allen’s civil and commercial business, providing strategy and organizational design, analytics, technology, and cybersecurity services for commercial companies and federal agencies. His areas of expertise include emerging technologies, IT transformation, IT architecture, IT operations, data science, cybersecurity, and health IT.
Tim’s primary focus is helping Booz Allen leaders and clients understand the operational advantages and pitfalls of important emerging technologies. He also assists in capturing significant opportunities and identifying talented senior technologists to align with them.
Tim also leads the design and deployment of innovative technologies in large, complex delivery projects, aimed to enhance organizational performance and generate new opportunities.
Tim has an A.B. in engineering from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in computer science and electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I grew up “BC” — before computers. My father was a professional musician who went back to school and ended up being an early programmer on a mainframe. My first experience with computers was playing hide and seek in a mainframe my father was programming over the weekend. It was a whole warehouse full of enormous boxes the size of refrigerators. I think as a result, I’ve always had this playful relationship with technology. When was I was around 11 my father handed me a Fortran (old computer language) programming book and said if I wrote a program he would run it for me in while he was at work. It’s hard to understand how unusual this was at the time. The only computers were these warehouse-sized things and using them was very expensive. I was very lucky to get this exposure early and feel the thrill of writing a program that did some fancy calculations.
Music was also a big part of my upbringing. My father was a musician and my mother loved music. Our family never distinguished between music, computers, math, reading or other “subjects”. All were just things to do that had lots of overlap. That was really important in shaping how I thought about things. Today we might say I was raised with a balance between left and right brain activities. Creativity was a thread across it all. Science and computers in our family were just like the piano: instruments for creative expression. Lastly, we argued like nobody’s business. We would take both sides of an issue and politely argue, just to see who could make the best case. This made me a good critical thinker. I’m always asking why? Why is something done a certain way?
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
One book that really had an impact on me was “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman, published in 1985. This book really made me think about how people communicate important public issues, and to see the computer more as a communications tool than a faster calculator. “We shape our tools, thereafter our tools shape us” was said by John Culkin back in the ’60s and is the meat of the message in this book. If you communicate using smoke signals, your conversations are very different than if you communicate using newspapers, and newspapers and books promote very different conversations than TV and Twitter and Facebook. It’s not that one conversation is necessarily better than another, but that they are very different and the communications tool “shapes” the conversation. So we can pay attention and shape the tools to figure out and promote “better conversations”. Something sorely needed today.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
On a business trip, my first stop was a casual dress day with some engineers working on a big system, after which I was going to a final interview for a job with some very senior executives. I realized as I woke up in my hotel room the next morning to travel to this really important set of interviews that I had forgotten the pants to my suit, and the only pants I had were the casual ones I had worn with the engineers. There wasn’t time to go home or even try to buy a slightly nicer pair of pants. So I had to put on this crazy outfit and go talk to these senior execs. I didn’t make any stories up; I just told them the truth. They all got a laugh out of it and I got the job. I learned a few big lessons. First, if you’ve done the work and you’ve got the skills, you’ll most likely get the job. It’s not about the clothes. Second, don’t try and make up excuses. Most senior execs want honesty and competence. Lastly, triple-check that you have your pants!
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
That’s easy. Our book, “A Brief History of a Perfect Future”, is focused on making big changes on big issues. The subtitle is “Inventing the world we can proudly leave our kids by 2050”. We really want to change the world. We want to do this by getting individuals, institutions, and governments to make progress on our major issues by using the fantastic tools that will become available to us over the next three decades through rapidly advancing technological capabilities, and thinking differently about how to attack our biggest challenges. We want people to think about the futures that are possible in 30 years given these incredible capabilities. Then work backward to the present to figure out what we should be working on today, tomorrow and the next day. In my experience, you get very different answers than you would through the normal planning processes that start with today and look forward. That approach tends to dramatically underestimate the impact of these rapidly advancing technologies and the futures they make possible.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
There are so many great stories in the book that it’s hard to pick just one. One of my favorites is told in the first few pages, where we describe the invention of most modern computing technology by the staff at Xerox PARC. Most people think of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates when they think of modern computing. While both made important contributions and built enormous companies, the actual computers and environments we still use today were invented by a relatively small number of people in a relatively short timeframe at PARC. One should note that much work was done in the decade prior to the 1970s (when PARC was created) by the government-funded ARPA, but still, Xerox PARC finished the work and invented a remarkable future including Ethernet, the use of a mouse and windows to control applications, the browser, email, the laser printer, the precursor to Microsoft Word, and more.
The story around how water is being taken from the air in the driest place on earth, showing that it can be broadly available and inexpensive, the story of the genomics editing technology known as CRISPR and its incredible capability to further drug research and the government-funded DARPA Grand Challenge that started the work on self-driving cars are also wonderful.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
My colleagues Paul and Chunka were already working on the book when we did some work together, so that was part of my inspiration. It was conversations with my kids (and my co-authors’ conversations with their kids) during this time frame. The nature of these conversations really started to change a few years ago with our children really starting to worry about the viability of our very existence over the next several decades, given climate change and other major challenges. I also saw a picture of the Pacific Gyre plastic garbage right around this time, that I knew about but hadn’t seen up close. If you haven’t seen it, you should Google it. Together, all of this made us want to write a book that could have a real impact and as the subtitle says, leave a world our kids can be proud of.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Our book is just out so it’s too early for there to be many stories about its impact on individuals, but I did talk with a person who was pretty happy in their current position in a big tech company, but decided to join an autonomous vehicle company, in part based on the things we talk about in the book. The idea of doing exciting, leading-edge work that will save millions of lives by preventing accidents and could also provide access to healthcare and jobs to people lacking this was a compelling vision.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Perhaps the most important thing is to inject urgency into the conversation. The big challenges we have: climate change, energy, healthcare, equity and others will only become more difficult the longer we wait. Communities and politicians at all levels can make a difference and need to start doing so now. Second, I would encourage learning about these amazing advances taking place across computing, information, genomics, energy and more. It’s important to understand what’s possible. As I noted earlier, most of us dramatically underestimate what these advances will make possible in just a few short years. But it requires collective effort to make them come to fruition. The availability of these opportunities alone does not make them happen. So the third thing I recommend is writing what we call future histories to be concrete about the future we want to invent. Think about what it would be crazy not to have 30 years hence, and then work back towards today to figure out what we have to start doing now in order to get there in 30 years. You will be surprised, and I hope, inspired, by what’s achievable if we start now and work together.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
I’m a big believer in “servant leadership”. That is, great leadership is about creating the right environment to empower others. I like the metaphor of gardening. Just as in the garden you can’t make the flowers grow, but can greatly increase the likelihood that they will flower by watering, weeding and so forth, in the same way you can’t control those you lead as if they have dials on them and are just cogs in the machine. But you can create better environments in which they are likely to make better decisions and perform optimally. For example, providing clarity is really important. Most knowledge work involves somewhat amorphous objectives. Helping those you are leading to understand how to translate abstract ideas into plans and objectives and giving them feedback on whether they are headed in the right direction is extremely important. Another thing I see great leaders doing is enabling their teams to dream big. If you don’t start with big aspirations, you’re unlikely to expand your vision later. A critical corollary to this is the leader has to create a safe environment, balancing the “aim high” attitude with “it’s ok if we don’t get all the way there” achievement. Often this is referred to as enabling risk-taking, but I think that misses the more important point. You have to be taking risks to do something really fantastic, way beyond normal business. You still have to get things done and taking a risk for risk’s sake just sets your team up for failure. But aiming high to create extra value is well worth some risk, and the leader must both help establish that high vision, and enable risk-taking to try to get as close as possible to achieving that shared vision.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 — Find good mentors in different areas: some for intellectual development, others for business judgment, still others for life beyond work.
2 — Working with others is, well, work. Be patient and listen. You will learn amazing things.
3 — Find the smartest, most honest people you can and get on their team. If you don’t agree with them, even better. Group think is very dangerous.
4 — Dream big but don’t expect to achieve all your dreams. Don’t be overly frustrated when things don’t work out.
5 — Remember, it’s work, and there’s more to life. Find love, make some art. These are what make us human.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The only way to predict the future is to invent it” by Alan Kay. This is the mantra I’ve had since I first heard it and even more so after working with Alan. It helped me to dream big and think about what was possible with innovative technology. It also helped me avoid trying to predict the future as if it were predetermined. I felt empowered to question things and realized that we can invent the futures we want if we work at it.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
I’d love to have breakfast or lunch with Danny Kahnemann or George Church. Danny was one of the inventors of Behavioral Economics, and his book Thinking, Fast and Slow is terrific. I’d love to talk with him about his insights into why we humans do the crazy things we do. George Church is a very interesting person at the forefront of the genomics revolution. I remember him saying many years ago that genomic sequencing would be very inexpensive when it was still very expensive. I’d love to talk with him about what he sees on the horizon now.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Here are some links for people wanting more information about me or the book:
A Brief History of a Perfect Future book site
A Brief History of a Perfect Future at Booz Allen
A Brief History of a Perfect Future at Amazon
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Tim Andrews of ‘A Brief History of a Perfect Future’ Is Helping To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.