Steve Coast: Discussing the Future of Maps & Tech with the Founder of OpenStreetMap (& why he thinks maps will disappear) - MBM #30

Steve Coast is the Founder of OpenStreetMap, one of the most successful open source projects; started in 2004 and now used everywhere from Apple's Maps, Mapbox and even Pokemon Go recently. Steve has worked at places like Microsoft, TomTom, Telenav & Digital Globe.

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About Steve:

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

Shownotes

• OSM timelapse over England from Geofabrik

• Peter Thiel: Zero to One

• Mark Zuckerberg on The Joe Rogan Experience

• Naval

• Cellular Automaton

• Rule 110 (not 238 as I eluded to)

• John Boyd

• The book of OSM

• Stephen Wolfram

• Neal Stephenson: The Diamond Age

• James Dyson: Invention: A Life

• The 48 Laws of Power

• Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

• Podcast Recommendation: EconTalk

• Book Recommendation: Travels by Michael Crichton

Timestamps

03:47 - Conversation begins, Steve Describes Himself 
06:30 -Why Does Steve think he's Good at Predicting Trends 
12:22 - Steve's Predictions for the Future of Maps 
21:36 - Maps will Disappear 
26:46 - Incentives for a Location Based Social Media 
33:26 - Steve's Detachment to Maps 
38:17 - Past Achievements as Mental Frameworks 
50:37 - The Start of OpenStreepMap 
59:33 - Why Did OpenStreetMap work (and not other projects)? 
01:04:44 - Simplicity Over Anything Else 
01:17:05 - How does one build Simple Products? 
01:20:35 - The influence of Cellular Automaton 
01:25:18 - Pushing One's Self to Think Outside the Box 
01:32:53 - Steve's Understanding of Maps when he started OSM 
01:36:38 - Everything is Illegal, Except Tech 
01:52:40 - Steve's Current Interests 
01:58:00 - Crypto, Why it's At Least Worth Paying Attention To 
02:03:22 - Putting Maps on the Blockchain, and Why You'd Even Want to Do That 
02:12:13 - The Next Thing that Will Kill OpenStreetMap 
02:21:10 - All the Maps are the Same Today, But Don't Need to Be 
02:31:28 - Believing (or Not) in Early Projects
02:33:38 - Advice for (not Only) Young People 
02:44:53 - Steve on Podcasts 
02:49:02 - Steve's Book Recommendations

Feel free to reach out! 
- Website
- My Twitter
- Podcast Twitter
- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person
- Sponsor the Podcast
- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work