I recently had two realizations: 1) there is endless complexity in our world, and 2) the flip side of the coin is that there are startup opportunities everywhere waiting to be unearthed, and billion dollar companies waiting to be built. I had known both of these already, but didn’t understand them deeply until recently.

I’ve been digging into the transportation and EV space, and by coincidence, also went on my first road trip in a few years. Seeing so many ICE (internal combustion engine) cars on the road, and the extent of our highway system, made me realize the scale of our built infrastructure.

How do you replace all of these ICE cars? EVs are taking off, but range and charging infrastructure are still lacking. People want to go on road trips and drive to faraway places for vacation. How do you provide a good enough solution that they’re willing to make the switch to an EV?

How do you provide a light and powerful enough battery to move a freight truck over long distances? Or build and maintain our extensive highway infrastructure with low-emissions concrete?

The more I dig into something, the more I realize that there are endless layers of complexity to everything around us. It’s given me a deep appreciation that modern society is able to function properly at all. There’s just so much stuff everywhere, and a lot of times it feels like everything is duct taped together.

There’s so much complexity to the world, which also means there are opportunities everywhere. To think there’s nothing you can do to change the world, or no good ideas left to work on, is a gross lack of imagination and creativity. I believe there are opportunities for billion dollar companies everywhere around us waiting to be uncovered.