In partnership with
This week on SHIFT
Moonshots get told as technology stories: build the breakthrough, change the world. Salima Bhimani spent years inside Alphabet's moonshot factory and came away arguing something different. That the real breakthroughs live at the friction point between people, systems, and technology, and the biggest thing standing between you and an audacious idea may be your own mindset. At a moment when most organizations are using AI to trim headcount and tidy spreadsheets, she's asking the sharper question: where are the moonshots?
Dr. Bhimani was Alphabet's first chief strategist for responsible technology, working across bets like Waymo, Wing, and DeepMind; she's now CEO of 10X Responsible Tech and author of the new book Invent Now: The Next Leap in Moonshots. Jennifer talks with her about the unlikely road that got her there - theater directing, human-rights work, a LinkedIn application to Google filed on a whim, and why not coming from tech turned out to be her edge.
Make Tax Season Simple
Tax season doesn't have to mean wondering if you have the right forms, second-guessing your deductions, or scrambling to pull everything together before the deadline.
With BELAY’s tax prep support, you can approach tax season with confidence. Stay organized with one centralized place to gather and check off your documents, keep track of valuable deductions like HSA contributions and education expenses while leaning on experienced professionals who make tax preparation accurate, efficient, and completely hands-off.
Download BELAY's free Personal Tax Checklist and start preparing with confidence, today.
Advertisement
Three things to listen for
1. The mountainside terraces that started it all
At 19, riding up a northern Pakistan mountain range Bhimani spotted centuries-old farming terraces etched into the slopes: local ingenuity beating impossible terrain long before modern engineering. It became her life's thesis: build with people, not for them.
2. "I think you're a little bit too ambitious"
That's what a colleague told her two weeks into the role at Alphabet. Because she didn't come from tech, or know the unwritten rules, she was walking straight into CEOs' offices, wiring together engineers and product people who never spoke, and took the warning as a dare.
3. "Do you know what you're sitting on?"
An organization with 50 years of data asked her how AI could make them better; she flipped the question. Efficiency is the small part of the story. The bigger unlock is what assets you already hold could open up for an entire ecosystem.
We're not just talking about a tool. We're talking really about a brain that is going to evolve and do things that we haven't even yet fully, completely understood.
Listen now
SHIFT publishes every week. If someone forwarded this to you and you'd like to get it directly, subscribe at shiftshow.ai. And if you have a question, a guest suggestion, or a story we should cover, reply to this email. Jennifer reads them all.