Jay Latta FUTURIST

Have you ever questioned the traditional consulting practices in the architecture and construction industry? We invite you to a thought-provoking conversation with Jay Lada, a distinguished innovator and 'architect'. Jay challenges the status quo and introduces us to the empowering concept of anarchy and its potential to unboss structures. Tune in as we discuss the application of AI in creating safe corridors and improving efficiency in the construction space.

As we journey with Jay, we discover the impact of life experiences on shaping our perspectives and career paths. Jay's diverse career trajectory, from the diamond business to dreams of being an astronaut, provides a rich tapestry of insights. He stresses the criticality of multi-perspectivity to comprehend the complex world and shares his journey of bridging the communication gap across industries.

Our exploration doesn't stop there. We dive headfirst into the world of technology and its potential to optimize work and life. We delve deep into the technological layers of data-centered businesses and the creative solutions that can emerge from understanding the multi-perspectivity of problems. Hear about the transformative potential of robotic process automation, immersive technologies, and get a glimpse into the future with urban mining and 3D printing. Get ready to have your horizons broadened with this engaging and enlightening discourse.

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Chapters

• 0:11 Embracing Technology in Architecture and Construction
• 11:59 Technology's Future
• 24:25 Technology in Work and Life Optimization
• 40:32 The Future of Independent Manufacturing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hi everyone, welcome to the Future Construct podcast. I am your host, Amy Peck. I am very excited for today's guest, who is a very good friend of mine, who I've known for years, mr Jay Lada. Hi, jay, hey, hello. So, jay, you've had a storied career which we're going to get into in a moment. You've been an advisor to many companies. You were head of innovation at BMW. You have been consulting with some of the largest companies in the world. You are a fusionist and, I believe, coined the term an architect as opposed to architect, and that's very relevant because we are focused on architecture, engineering and construction on this podcast. But you are part of our Futureist series and I know we have thoughts about that particular word. But the way I'm thinking about it, what I'm hoping to do here is go beyond really the vertical specific solutions and really talk about where we're headed globally as humans, how business, products and services are going to change fundamentally with technology. And you are right in the thick of it. But why an architect as opposed to architect? Well, start there.

Speaker 2: 1:46

So an architect came because many in the consulting business I prefer to see myself instead as an advisor or counselor Consulting is simply so worn out in the same way like a Futureist is worn out so many simply want clear, actionable items. So best is you have a book, you give them the book, page 15 till 98, and this is how you have to do it. So I came out of my experience in my whole professional life for bigger companies like Siemens, like BMW, like in the banking area, if it was fiducia, if it was a hypocredit and so on, there were always these patterns, which means we are putting processes and layers of hierarchies into everything and then we start to mess it up. I'm strongly believing in anarchy. Anarchy is not this destructive. This is mostly when people are throwing stones and so on. This is anomy. This is not anarchy.

Speaker 2: 3:02

The pure idea behind anarchy is believing into your own skills, having a self organized system. So, in fact, even direct democracy is, in fact, a radical interpretation that might lead into anarchy. When everyone is participating, when everyone is trying to change something and this brought me into this Everyone wants to have an architect that helps them to build their projects, to help them with their products and so on. So I'm bringing this anarchy into it, teaching the people how to help themselves, how to unboss the structures so that even the boss starts to be a valuable part of the overall team. Then you see that the magic starts to spark and the people start to be creative again. They start to think how we've been as children.

Speaker 1: 4:01

I love that when we first met, you were on a panel years ago that I was moderating and I remember that the other two panelists and they were great, but I was just like.

Speaker 1: 4:15

I love the way you think and what you just described is something that I think I'm a big believer in, that we need in business and, I think, being relevant to our audience just for a moment, in the AEC industry you have factions of companies who are really embracing technology and pushing it forward, but then you have companies that are still in the if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of realm. It is okay and it has worked so far. And there is something challenging on these multi-billion dollar, multi-year, especially really really large construction projects. It's challenging to change the workflow, but necessary. What are some of the ways that you advise clients to really embrace technology, not be fearful of it, because that's one of the big factors. There's the fear factor and then there's just the resistance factor. You have people who are in the field. They have their tools, they know their tools. They don't want to learn something new.

Speaker 2: 5:33

So the first thing that I try to implement is giving them not a predefined tool set, but just recommendations. Go to this block, surf onto this website, read this and that and try to figure out. Be curious. So everyone when I'm involved into such self-finding projects, has some time simply to play around. You need to wake up their curiosity. You have to remind them how curious they've been, how they've been playing as children again as children.

Speaker 2: 6:09

As soon we enter school, we are just becoming part of this linear society, and especially in the construction business. Of course, it's a business that worked for decades, for centuries, how it was. You are taking bricks, you are taking wood, so what kind of new invention can you make? So they are somehow used to do things how they've always done it. What I'm recommending, especially in the construction business, is do not see yourself as competition to each other. So many are doing this. Try to identify, even if do not change a running system. If it's not broken, do not change it. Yes, but you can enhance if you work with someone together that does it in a slightly different way. Unlearn and relearn. We have sometimes to forget what made us successful, because the times are changing and if we miss this opportunity, we will become irrelevant. I do not think that any of these multi-billion dollar companies wants to become irrelevant. So teaching them this curiosity, bringing this back and it doesn't matter in what kind of region it is Construction business, for example can improve when they start using AI.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Why AI? Everyone is talking about AI. Well, you can. For example, there are several tools. We can, for example, define corridors on your construction area where you define okay, this is a safe corridor, you do not need to wear a hard hat. Whenever someone leaves it, an alarm goes on and he will be reminded he needs to be properly equipped.

Speaker 2: 8:01

It can even do something different. On a construction area, you are using several subcontractors, so these AI tools can even start counting if the built 34 workers were really on site or if there were just 90 by coincidence. So many things can happen. We are, for example, digital twins are a very important thing In architecture. We already start. We have our tool sets to create everything, but we do not pass it over, so it needs to be this kind of ecosystem. So when you have a construction area and you start scanning the construction area and simply mapping it with the architect's vision on stuff, then you have this overall thing where you see that something might go wrong. You can take it afterwards, pass it over to facility management, to the sales agent, to whomever runs it. So right now we are in this position, through technology, to make a package out of everything, and it's not just one size fits all, it serves your needs.

Speaker 1: 9:15

I love that. We're going to take a little break to hear from our sponsors and we are going to come back and continue this conversation with Jay Lada. All right, and we are back with Jay Lada and architect AN emphasis on the AN. So, jay, we didn't start where I usually start, which is a little bit about your background. Of course, I know all about it because we've been friends for years, but I'd love for you to share your journey because it's pretty interesting and unexpected.

Speaker 2: 9:58

Okay, where do you want me to start?

Speaker 1: 10:03

Well, post-toddler pre-now. So somewhere in there Pre-now okay.

Speaker 2: 10:09

So before this, right now, my eternal freedom and joining my friends to speak all over the world, working with you, working with my fantastic clients. I'm extremely picky when it comes into clients, by the way, so of course, before I've been working for a huge German, south German car manufacturer it turned out to be interesting and boring at the same time. I mean 10 folding. Before I've been working for a mid-sized consultancy here in Munich in many, many projects nearly 10 years in financial services, for insurances, in even construction, architecture and construction stuff. Before I've been in a publishing company, in the IDG group. So finally then the leading webmaster for PC world, gamestar and so on, and so CIO magazine yeah, they had all of this Before. My first stop in Munich was for Siemens, and at Siemens I've been one of the guys to implement an enterprise resource management software. I will not name it which one it is. I hate it from the deepest of my heart and I really was so happy when I got from a headhunter an offer to go somewhere else. But what you are referring to to my journey is something different. In the 90s I've been working. During my university time I came into Jillingkirchen my university time. I came into Jillingkirchen with stones not with normal stones, but with precious stones, with diamonds. It was something unexpected. It was something very interesting. I learned a lot. I have some stories that I cannot share. I've landed several times in the hospital, robbed a few times, but this time being in the diamond business, buying corals, stones, letting them cut in Ramadhan, then polishing in Antwerp was something extremely interesting to see that a society, this closed society, can live and deal just via handshake, without contracts. So it was something extremely rewarding, something very, very interesting how this community simply is very close and supportive. Then, of course, the movie Blood Diamond came out and the overall stuff started to be a little bit less interesting than I've been robbed my last time. Then I gave up, but I will tell you something that might surprise you even a bit more.

Speaker 2: 13:34

Before I studied geology, my initial plan since I've been a little boy was to become an astronaut. Really, my whole school time, everything that I've done was focused on studying engineering, becoming an engineer for space rockets, for rocket engines. But I had, during my military time, an accident and was then not allowed to make all of these internships and so on, which, of course, was the final thing for my career. So I had to rethink what else will I do now? So I started to study physics, which was fantastic. I love physics, but the math behind was not the funniest part in my life. And then one of my friends because I started to fly at the age of 14, 17,. I made my license and one of my flying buddies simply recommended me hey, jay, come with me to. Now that you don't know what to do, simply check it out. He was studying geology. So if it's something for you and it was really love.

Speaker 2: 14:49

From the first moment on, I've been able to travel. You know how much I enjoy it to travel. I've seen places where normal people would never come into If it was the restricted area. In Namibia there is a 200 mile restricted area around the mining, the debers, or Namdeb, namibian debers, where they are completely keeping people out here. If you can enter it and you see stuff that does not exist anymore, like fossil termites, these buildings from them, and you can compare them to the ones that exist right now, it's really fascinating. On an older station In places, it's really. I should write a book about it.

Speaker 1: 15:42

You should, you should, and I think what's really interesting too is that we as a society are really obsessed with people who have been doing the same thing over and over and over, and you see job postings and it's like you need to have done exactly the same thing for most of your career. Otherwise it's hard to advance or make a lateral move. I would argue, like you are a perfect example is that all of this life experience shapes the way you think and helps you move away from the kind of group thing which is anathema to innovation. So you're a big believer in that. I think that's where the AN comes in, the AN architect. What excites you about bringing this wealth of experience that you have in completely different industries? But how does that kind of push you forward and help you in your career?

Speaker 2: 16:54

So being who I am was never easy, because trying to be a valuable member of the society, in the corporate life, in whatever, is simply something the people are used how I've said it before a linear career, a linear life, step by step. In US, you are even more accepting a mistake, that someone simply took the wrong exit, that he does it in a different way. Try it in Germany. You make one mistake and it's done so. Here. What I brought in is, whenever I've been in the position to hire someone, I always hired people that had nothing to do with it. Like, one of my best project managers was a historian, someone who deals with history. He was the most brilliant guy to put things together. Of course, if you deal with history, if you see these milestones, these timestamps, you think in a slightly different way than if you've just out of your software engineer career made a project management course. One of my best product owners studied chemistry because she understood reactions, axial and reaction, so she could simply grab this knowledge out of chemistry and implement it into human behavior, and this is fascinating. If you try to see patterns and when you come from a completely different area, then you've proven that you can make it everywhere. So I am not scared.

Speaker 2: 18:42

Many people tell me oh, how could you leave your former employer so much money? Well, it's quite easy. I make more right now, but this is not the topic. The thing is right now, with my experience and I'm in technology since 35 years I got my first paycheck at the age of 14 for discovering a security issue and this was really this. Okay, I can really make money with my knowledge, with deep diving into something, and one of my expertise is simply, or my magic is to be on this meta level. I do not like to talk about meta, but from this holistic perspective and connecting the dots, we have so many people that are experts in something. You need them, of course, but people who can translate and who can bring these different things together and make a package out of it, and translation is very important. We are, in every business we are getting used to, to invent an own language so that the software engineer cannot be understood by the CEO, by the consultant, by whomever. Marketing is a different language. Medical people, classic Latin. They talk in a different way. This, on the one hand, to be more efficient in your job, On the other hand, to keep the others away.

Speaker 2: 20:12

So we are completely losing this human, human point. And in our over complex world right now, when we have to understand each other ecosystem thinking, it's our multi-perspectivity, human centricity and so on we have to relearn how to talk with each other, how to ask questions that we do not need to pretend that I've studied in Harvard just to impress my CEO, whatever. No, it's human as well. We have to find again, like children. It was one of these scientists don't ask me who it was, gosh you need to be able to explain what you are doing. Well, 10 year old, that's exactly the thing.

Speaker 2: 21:08

So when we are hiding behind our nomenclature, behind our special technical yada, yada, whatever, then it's simply some kind of not feeling secure being in our workflows. As soon we leave this kind of specific speech and we try to explain it to the others, two things happen. The first thing is you realize what kind of bullshit you are talking about. You could do it far easier and faster if you do not hide behind this stuff. The second thing is the others start to understand you. It means you are appreciated more, they can communicate with you and you become more efficient, which is as well rewarding for yourself.

Speaker 1: 22:02

Yeah, that's really true, and it's funny I think you always hear the term in your own groups people, it's like there's no such thing as a stupid question, and generally the person who says that doesn't really mean it. Yes, Then they raise an eyebrow when you ask a stupid question. But my thinking is that they're not stupid questions. It's questions that you're living above in your day to day. And again it goes back to being able to explain it to a 10 year old, and this is why, again, it goes back to these kind of innovation structures where, when you're bringing people from the outside and it's almost great that they don't understand what you're trying to accomplish, because we're so laser focused on our belief system and that we believe that what we're doing is the right path, and then so, because of that, everything that we do is already predetermined towards that goal, right towards that end. And what we have a hard time with is someone coming in and going well, wait a minute. They're looking at it from a completely different angle and they're saying, well, yeah, what if we did it this way? And it makes it harder, but at the end of the day, it's going to propel companies forward, it's going to propel processes forward.

Speaker 1: 23:27

I think it's safe to say that both of us are big believers in the actual technology and not the hype. You are probably one of the most well versed people across really the technology spectrum. We always have fascinating conversations about this, usually late at night in the foreign country, but that now was standing. So what are the things that really, whether it's excite you or that you'd like to see implemented? And AI the metaverse was the bell of the ball last week. Now it's AI. That's fluid, right, and the reality is all the technology is coming, but where do you see it all going and how do you see it all going? And what are the things that are exciting for you right now, because we're in an exciting time.

Speaker 2: 24:23

We are in very exciting time. So currently what I see is that technology, especially the connected technology, is completely merging into our lives. What we see right now is a merge of technologies. We see a huge dematerialization of businesses. I mean home office, it's meanwhile. You do not need a data center. If cloud would be a little bit more reliable, if could rely on the prices that your provider does not tweak on his own profitability, if we could improve connectivity so this always on we could be far more augmented. Or the final goal should be an augmentation of the workforce, augmentation of the humanity.

Speaker 2: 25:20

What do I mean with this? Take, for example, rpis, robotic process automation. Mostly it's being used to cover huge processes. So again, this company-wide, huge yadda, yadda. If we focus on the laptop guy on the one somewhere doing something, we see that all of these recurring things that we are doing In average. With one of my clients, we figured out that with RPAs, with CPAs, we could optimize every workplace by two hours per day.

Speaker 2: 26:03

Wow, because most of the stuff is simply running behind information, somehow talking with others about stuff that you've explained them 10 times already. You need to do reports, you need to send it over, you need to do your presentations and so on. All of this stuff, everything that can be described as a workflow, can be automated. And then we have time to do our human stuff, which is creativity, which is inspiration, innovation, which is helping others, because then you learn something. If you in your job, if you do not have time to learn, if your manager is standing behind you oh, do you have capacity? I have here another bullshit job for you Then, of course, you slow down, simply, you optimize your own workflow not to be bothered. So the goal with our today's technology, and even right now, the latest type around chat, gpd or these large language models, is that personal assistance, something that is really valuable, that can, on your individual level, support you, help you to transcribe meetings, to maybe even represent you in meetings, sitting there and saying uh-huh, uh-huh, like what I am doing, being more efficient, which means by efficiency I do not mean that you can work more and make more money for whatever. It means simply bringing more quality into your work.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Right now, this huge merge between metaverse I mean, come on, metaverse, it's just one small facet. How Mike Pell said, metaverse is a description for technologies that we have since decades. We have just a marketing term for it, together with one client or for one client. I've described these five technological layers for data-dominated businesses. You know it, it's this cake where on top is the data visualization, which is immersive tech, of course. Then we have the data prediction, which is AI. Then we have a third layer, the data choreography, which is big data, small data, excel sheet, whatever. Then we have the data connectivity.

Speaker 2: 28:30

People do not think about data connectivity. Is it real-time data? Is it replicated data? What do I need to do with it? Is it enriched data? And the last layer is data immutability. Can I trust my data? Is it biased data? Do I need blockchain? Do I need high encryption and so on. And the sexy thing is, if you have here this cake and you cut out your own piece, you see still, to the left and to the right, what happens as well. So you are still connected while working on your stuff. And this helps many of my clients, for example, to start thinking in this way, not just in one deep dive, but really to see it from a little bit wider angle. Things can look. Let's say what can I show you? What do I have here?

Speaker 1: 29:20

You're looking for something in your office to hold up.

Speaker 2: 29:23

Something to hold up? Yeah, so if you have, let's say, nah, this or nothing.

Speaker 1: 29:33

I don't know A cup or whatever.

Speaker 2: 29:36

No, I will not start here to grab something.

Speaker 1: 29:40

I think you should pull out some diamonds and, like you know, oh gosh, I would need to go to the safe.

Speaker 2: 29:45

I still have some book aunts here. No, it's simply, let's say, a coffee cup with the grip on it. If you hold it into the picture and you see just the side without the grip, from your perspective you see it slightly different than what I see. Yeah, it does not mean we are wrong.

Speaker 1: 30:04

This one doesn't have a grip, though.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Yeah, exactly, I have even one here without a grip. So what we have to understand is there is not just one truth out there. Many things are true, but the truth is, in an ideal condition, a sphere that from every angle looks the same, but mostly it is not. It has some dense in it, it has some, so therefore, it's necessary that you go around it. Therefore, this multi-perspectivity, to understand. Sometimes, when you go around a problem and you see it from a different angle, it's just so obvious. Why haven't you thought about it? Therefore, I'm a huge advocate of immersive technologies To go into this.

Speaker 2: 30:50

And now comes the trick after Metaverse. Right now we are in spatial web, spatial computing, when you really can with your device, when you can go around your processes. I mean, imagine, for example, if you would have your processes and you see how they are connected, and you can really step back and see them from a distance, how they are connected, and then you immediately see oh gosh, this process does not belong here. You simply grab it and put it somewhere else. Then you spin it, rotate it.

Speaker 2: 31:27

The value of informations in 3D is incredible. All of these might mappers are baby stuff. We are visually oriented beings. Therefore, immersive tech is on top of my cake. It's one of the most important. 90% of our natural compute power goes into processing visual informations. When I'm working here, sometimes I even take post-its and I lay them over, because this additional information layer is very important. So I'm going to go into the next slide. What we have to do is to understand what we need is tools that adapt on us and not we on the tools. So what I'm excited about is really this right now, ip around AI. There is no AI, it's just high end statistics, but it can really improve due to the tremendous computer power that we have right now. It can improve how we are working, how we are communicating, how we understand things and with using, for example, large language models in our personal assistants, in our search engines, means we will find instead of search.

Speaker 1: 32:59

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that distinction. I think that's great. I think we've sort of been calling it almost semantic search, where it's like the environment knows, kind of what you're looking for by doing, the fact of how you're moving through a space or what you're doing or what your intent is. And I guess my personal hope is that you know, as we are able to augment our capabilities using this technology. You know, instead of replacing the two hours commuting every day, you know in and out of work and out of offices, Instead of just doing more work like actually replacing those things you talked about creativity, you talked about learning, and ultimately, those are the things that will make us better workers and also get us to this vision where you know truly. You know technology is there to help us optimize our day to day so that we can get back to the things we care about, and I'm hoping we just don't fill the time with work, right, which is which is the trap.

Speaker 2: 34:05

You've said something very important in this specific time. I will not name it. In average, just 24% of the people were able to work remotely for them. As soon they started to realize what powerful tool they got, they started to adapt their work on their life habits. So I could go shopping, if I've been allowed to go shopping whatever, due to the curfews. But I started to be the master of my time to decide when to do what, when I've been in the mood. I mean, come on, there are people who simply get out of the bed. They are zombies before their fifth coffee. They are nothing and you force them to go into into work, point nine. They have to be there and simply be annoying to everyone. So here, with this powerful tool, we already started to understand how fantastic work life could be if we are fully allowed to do it. My shock was just 24% were able to do it. So I started to do some research and work with a few players. How can we enable the others to work in their jammies during breakfast as well?

Speaker 2: 35:21

Remotely, which means, for example, construction areas, agriculture, mining areas, where you could in again, immersive tech, virtual reality, where you could simply have metaverse, having, let's say, a construct verse where you would, with your headset, sit and with your joystick, simply steer the excavator, the, the cra, whatever you need on your on your construction area and simply work like this. Majority of these things can be remotely operated. We just do not have the platform for it. So you see the guy beside with his small, small joystick and steering and looking up into the sky. If he would simply give him a headset that he can work remotely, we will be far happier and the people would not need to live where they work. It's the same in mining In China as the ugly word. There are some some areas where mining companies are already using these remote trucks.

Speaker 2: 36:37

I gave a speech about this 2021, I think during the VR days where I showcase this. So here is a tremendous potential. Healthcare, the same. Right now, one of the startups that I'm advising is working on the remote training and remote servicing through what we call remote robotics. So you will keep your job. You do not need to be scared to lose your job, because your expertise, your human expertise, is still valuable. We just need to give the people the right tools to their head.

Speaker 2: 37:14

And an additional thing for immersive tech is now again circling back to, to, to, to children. When you remember how we've been playing as children with our trucks and whatever, and staying there and managing me alone. I've been managing a whole construction area because I had this God mode. I've seen over everything and I do not need to do the people everything at the same time. I've been focused on what I had to do right now. So, taking the excavator, preparing everything, then my truck came. Yada, yada, yada. Imagine how cool it would be to manage your work from this God perspective. If it's air traffic control, if it's city management, traffic management, energy flows, all of this stuff, we could become so efficient and through this gamification we would be happier because we see what we are doing.

Speaker 1: 38:17

And it makes it fun. I mean gamers are pretty well, but gamers and programmers are very well positioned for the future.

Speaker 2: 38:23

Yes, definitely.

Speaker 1: 38:26

Well, Jay, before we finish, I'm going to ask you the last question, which I ask everyone, which is that if you could project yourself 20, 25 years into the future and you could have any product or service or gadget that just makes you, Jay, personally, happy, what would it be and what would it do?

Speaker 2: 38:48

So you know Neil Stielsen right? Yes, of course he's a clever guy. Well, he wrote, beside of Snow Crash, as well as another many books, but a second one which I really love is the Diamond Age. Not because of the diamond in the name, but he described a technology, a molecular assembler, many technologies, but this molecular assembler was really something extremely fascinating. It was how he described it. It was the size of a microwave oven, so the whole city had these pipes where the source for these microwave ovens were delivered and these molecular assemblers could print any product that you wanted.

Speaker 2: 39:32

Last year, I've discovered a startup that really is working on something like this. Of course, not a microwave oven and not these things. What they are doing is a printer on the nano level. You can print currently around 400, 450 materials, and this is really something extremely exciting because, on the one hand, it brings us benefit in circular economy and sustainability.

Speaker 2: 40:00

Everything that you can turn into a gas, even a dump where you have trash and so on. All of these stuff. They are a lot of gases. You can simply catch them and use them in space travel. All of these asteroids and so on can turn into a valuable resource. So they turn everything into a gas and a plasma stream assembles it on the surface.

Speaker 2: 40:27

And it's scalable because, like a printing head, like an inkjet, you can simply scale it. And this is, for me, my dream technology, because it can bring creativity onto a municipal area where you will have micro-fabbing. You could become independent from bigger manufacturing companies. You could become independent from supply chains, because if you already have this urban mining, then you simply turn it through these specialized printers. Imagine, for example, having a device like this you know what it is and you can print it out in one piece. You would from the company, simply you would pay them for the IP, download the printing exactly and print it out when you need it. This is my really most exciting thing that I really believe will be a huge breakout and change radically our life in future.

Speaker 1: 41:28

I love that. I love that. Well, Jay, it's always a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 2: 41:35

Thank you for the invitation. Have a great one, see ya, bye, bye.