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

Minds Behind Maps

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.

We talk about the future of mapping and Tech in general as well as how Steve thinks maps will disappear.
Buckle up this is a long one, but well worth it.

I highly recommend you watch this one on YouTube

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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