Season 1, episode 8, "The Battle" Lesson: simulated audio and video are entering a step change This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. A rogue Ferengi captain with a personal revenge agenda tries to manipulate Picard's memories of a battle in which Picard (rightfully) killed the Ferengi's son in self-defense. The Ferengi captain, Bok, gifts Pica

Season 1, episode 7: "Justice" Lesson: make your point up front; don't babble This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. Imagine the Enterprise choosing to go on shore leave on a planet where 1980s hair and bodies out of Olivia Newton John's music video for "Physical" meet 1960s swingers in a futuristic but backwards utopia. There are a lot of awkw

Season 1, episode 6, "Lonely Among Us" Lesson: trust your gut when it tells you something's off about a person The Enterprise accidentally flies through an energy cloud while on an unrelated mission to carry representatives from two warring races to Parliament for peace discussions. The cloud contains a sentient being that jumped into the ship and among some of the crew, possessing them at times. It finally possesses Picard and has the crew turn the ship around and go back to

Season 1, episode 5: "Where No One Has Gone Before" Lesson: don't disregard employees' input just because they're junior This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. A pompous scientist from the Federation (Kosinski) claims he's coming to the Enterprise to run some improvements that will improve warp drive speed. Everyone detects that he's full of sh

Season 1, episode 4, "The Last Outpost" Lesson: Have parity of video chat on business calls (most of the time) This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. In this episode we meet the Ferengi, a race of shady Ross Perot-looking guys who are always looking to profit in a business dealing. The Enterprise crew have heard vague and conflicting reports a

Season 1, episode 3, "Code of Honor" Lesson: realistic haptic feedback is essential for a true augmented reality simulation This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. Lutan, the leader of a technologically backwards planet, has access to an important vaccine that the Federation needs badly. The Enterprise has to go through the motions of courting hi

Season 1, episode 2, "The Naked Now" Lesson: Bad shit happens when people get hammered at company parties This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. The Enterprise stumbles upon a ship on which everyone has frozen to death because a virus effectively made them drunk, and they then thought it was a good idea to crack a window into open space. Which i

Season 1, episode 1, "Encounter at Farpoint" Lesson: Bring on a good COO to complement the CEO early on This post is part of my ongoing quest to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and pull one startup, entrepreneurship, tech, or investing lesson from each. This 90-minute kickoff to TNG had a lot going on--jellyfish in love? Q, perhaps the greatest cosplayer in the universe?--but within the first five minutes I spotted my takeaway. Captain Picard has just st

Star Trek... the final frontier. I'm a fan of scifi--movies, shows, books, video games--but I've never seen a season of Star Trek. It feels like a (black) hole in my cosmic pop culture lexicon. I'm not one to want to watch or read something simply because everyone else has, but Star Trek is classic. It feels like the bible of the modern scifi religion. And I'm sick of missing all the references. So I'm embarking on a quest to rectify this gap, and because I'm having trouble j