Here we go again. Year after year, with great confidence each time, we choose all the goals we are going to start pursuing next year. Next year, we’ll start eating healthier. Next year, we’ll start going to the gym more. Next year, we won’t check email right before bed. Why do we expect so much from ourselves next year? To understand why next year holds so much promise, it’s useful to consider why last year’s resolutions went unfulfilled. Sure, on any given day, we would all love to kick off the day with a nutritious and delicious breakfast smoothie.

To be completely blunt, the battle to find funding is so competitive that most likely you’re going to take whatever funding you can get to start (and that’s all right). Remember you can always exchange expensive money for cheaper money later. The war isn’t over until you cash out with an exit strategy and there’s a long way to go before you need to make that decision.

Image: https://maverick.mautic.net

December 19, 2016 — What should we be thinking about when we think about the future of biodiversity, conservation and the environment? An international team of experts in horizon scanning, science communication and conservation recently asked that question as participants in the eighth annual Horizon Scan of Emerging Issues for Global Conservation and Biological Diversity. The answers they came up, just published in the scientific journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution and summarized below, portend both risks and opportunities for species and ecosystems around the world.

As the new year begins the world is in a state of great upheaval. Wherever you look, instability reigns. Some places are caught in violence that seems to never end. Other places are faced with major political shifts. The business world is confronting massive changes due to technology, rising protectionism and nativism, and economic uncertainty.

Seems like everyone I speak with these days is thinking and talking about this. A few see opportunity in the upheaval for themselves and their businesses, but many are confused, concerned, fearful, or all three. They’re at a loss about what is happening, the implications for them and their future, what they should do, and how they should act.

By any measure, 2016 was a momentous year, capped by the shocking victory of Donald J. Trump. As his choices for his cabinet were unveiled, a sea change in the path of government policy appeared inevitable. What is less clear is whether Mr. Trump’s proposals will help those who put him in office; the postelection stock market euphoria was more about an expected surge in corporate profits than new hope for the working class.

When Donald Trump settles into the Oval Office in mid-January, his administration is expected to roll out policy changes on several fronts: taxes, health care, engaging with Asia, environmental regulation and so forth. While some actions will follow predictable paths, such as the attempt to recast health insurance policy, others will meet obstacles from either market realities or rule-making processes, or bring surprises, such as a new Asia pivot, according to the deans of Wharton, Penn Engineering and Penn Law.

Silicon Valley veteran Mike Maples Jr. shares heartfelt advice urging aspiring entrepreneurs to "only do things that you think have a chance to be legendary." By committing to always doing exceptional work and being around inspiring people, Maples says you will reap the cumulative benefits of a lifetime of excellence, and be able to enjoy it again whenever you look back.

This is the third SBIR Insider I've written for December 2016. Fortunately I deleted the first two, since new developments brought additional perspective to the stories and how they may affect you. With the election over, we can now concentrate on the future.

Good news on two fronts: a) The government avoided a shutdown by passing a medium-short term continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through April 28, 2017; b) Congress passed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which contained language that keeps SBIR/STTR authorized through September 30, 2022.

However, both of these issues have significant upsides and downsides (gosh, we're sounding like traditional media) that will have an effect on our SBIR/STTR and small business programs. Let's investigate...

At this time, The Review traditionally reflects on the extraordinary people we’ve interviewed and long-form articles we’ve published over the last year. Previously, we told you about former Twitter Engineering Director David Loftesness and Candor co-founder Kim Scott — both of whom had very popular articles that were shared widely, led to forthcoming books and, in one case, launched a new startup.

Members of the 115th Congress take their seats for the first time today, with a unified Republican government for the first time since 2006. While tax and healthcare reform will undoubtedly be at the top of the agenda, the new Congress should devote some time to reforming the federal government’s role in higher education. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the incumbent chairman of the Senate committee tasked with overseeing education policy, and Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), his incoming House counterpart, certainly have their work cut out for them. Here are five areas where they could start.

The U.S. isn't at the top of the list

With a new law barring work e-mail after hours, the French have honored a truth long recognized by economists: working longer hours doesn’t necessarily result in increased productivity. Mexico—the least productive of the 38 countries listed in 2015 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—has the world’s longest average work week at 41.2 hours (including full-time and part-time workers). At the other end of the spectrum, Luxembourg, the most productive country, has an average workweek of just 29 hours.

Paul,* the CEO of Maxreed, a global publishing company, was having trouble sleeping. Publishing is an industry that’s changing even faster than most other fast-changing industries, but Paul wasn’t awake worrying about his strategy. He had a solid plan that took advantage of new technologies, and the board and his leadership team were aligned around it. Paul and his team had already reorganized the structure — new divisions, revised roles, redesigned processes — to support their strategy.

The representation of the city we need is a mystery to us; now, without that vision, we "mutilate" urban value.

The novel Frankenstein written by the English author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley describes the creation of a poor wretch. The premise is that a sum of organs could create a human being. Shelley wanted to write the best horror story and she succeeded.

As Cascadia Capital’s healthcare team contemplates the outlook for 2017, we believe the future of the industry will be affected by the agenda of the new administration. We believe this will have a significant impact on expense containment and prioritization of the wellness agenda.

However, we also believe that the healthcare sector will equally be driven by structural shifts that have fueled consistent equity investment and M&A transaction volume since 2014, including the growth of technology-enabled services.

Like most startup organizations at some point in their lifecycle, Washington University’s Office of Technology Management (OTM) is in the midst of a pivot. Technology transfer as it’s known in the academic world is the process of licensing intellectual property (IP) from the university to the marketplace, and has been going on since at least the beginning of higher education. Located on the first floor of the 4240 Duncan Avenue Cortex Innovation Community (CIC) building, WashU’s OTM is a natural contributor to the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in St. Louis and is in the process of changing its mission, its work and its customer base.

Image: “You have to have all different angles. It’s not a one size fits all.” –Nichole Mercier, Managing Director, WashU Office of Technology Management  - http://eqstl.com

A recent survey asked “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. In Sweden 10% thought things are getting better, in the US they were only 6%, and in Germany only 4%. Very few people think that the world is getting better.

What is the evidence that we need to consider when answering this question? The question is about how the world has changed and so we must take a historical perspective.

When you work for a corporation, you often find yourself collaborating with others as part of your job — when you’re assigned to a new project team, for instance. But when you’re self-employed, collaboration becomes a choice. Working closely with others can open up new opportunities for success and personal fulfillment, but when done wrong, it can damage your relationships and your reputation. Here are five questions to ask yourself in order to determine when collaboration is worthwhile.

At MIT Technology Review we try to keep you informed as new technologies and products emerge. But just as important as the new things that are born are the old things that die. And in 2016, we saw several high-profile tech ideas die in Silicon Valley.

Vine

Launched in January 2013, Vine’s popularity grew with each new looping  six-second clip it gave the world, like the one of a very angry woman at an Apple Store, the one that originated the term “on fleek,” and “Ketchup Mount Rushmore,” just to name just a few. Twitter’s app  also created many stars, some of whom were able to parlay their popularity and Vine-making prowess into real fortune by fashioning clips for marketers.

Ladies and gentlemen, at TED we talk a lot about leadership and how to make a movement. So let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under three minutes and dissect some lessons from it.

First, of course you know, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed. What he's doing is so easy to follow. Here's his first follower with a crucial role; he's going to show everyone else how to follow.

Now, notice that the leader embraces him as an equal. Now it's not about the leader anymore; it's about them, plural. Now, there he is calling to his friends. Now, if you notice that the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.