As today’s technological culture permeates society, tech innovations have proven to be good and bad. From the current Facebook personal data breach fiasco — a topic of conversation as Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress — to the explosion of social media and mobile gadgets in all corners of civilization, some wonder if it’s too late to put the tech genie back in the bottle.

“All things considered, the democratization of computing … the democratization of the transfer of information … may not be what you like,” said Guy Kawasaki (pictured), chief evangelist at Canva Inc., an online graphic design tool. “But do we go back to a time where we send things by fax machine? Not at all.… All things considered, it’s a great time to be alive.”

Kawasaki, a marketing specialist, author and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is also a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. He worked in two different roles at Apple during the company’s turbulent times in the mid-1980s and again in the 1990s, and is currently a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. A prolific writer, Kawasaki has authored “The Art of the Start 2.0,” “The Art of Social Media,” “Selling the Dream” and other titles. He’s currently working on a new book, “Wise Guy,” a compilation of stories that influenced his life.

“Have you ever heard of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’? This is ‘Miso Soup for the Soul,’” he joked about his upcoming book.

Kawasaki joined John Furrier (@furrier) and Lauren Cooney (@lcooney), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the DevNet Create event in Mountain View, California. They discussed investing in fringe ideas that work and those that don’t, the next generation of social, comparisons with the sport of surfing, and the impact of open-source. (* Disclosure below.)

This week theCUBE features Guy Kawasaki as our Guest of the Week.

Why ‘dumbass ideas’ are good

As a venture capitalist, Kawasaki advises entrepreneurs that while finding the next big thing isn’t easy, they should look as far outside the box as possible for opportunities. No idea is too “dumb.”

“I don’t want to be too dramatic, but I could almost build a case that you should invest in or work for the most dumbass idea you heard,” he said, citing Airbnb, eBay and Zappos as examples of businesses that stretched credibility at the time, but quickly revolutionized their industries in the sharing economy.

Yet, as a participant in Garage Technology Ventures, Kawasaki has seen his share of crazy ideas that didn’t quite pan out. Like most venture capitalists, Kawasaki was pitched on a number of fledgling business proposals, including a plan to float a dirigible over San Francisco that would serve as a hotel and another that would build a geodesic dome over the entire city of Los Angeles.

“I can’t remember if it was to keep the air pollution in or out,” Kawasaki joked.

One day, a group of entrepreneurs from a reputable Silicon Valley company pitched him on an idea that sounded intriguing. It was ostensibly a new way to protect the hard drive in a laptop computer if it was suddenly dropped. Kawasaki and his partners went to the company’s office to receive a demonstration of what they expected would be highly sophisticated, motion-sensitive protection technology.

“I swear to God, he brings out this piece of foam and says it’s military spec foam,” Kawasaki said. “So they take your hard disk, place this foam around it, and put it in the laptop.”

Catching the next wave

Predicting and capitalizing on tech trends, such as blockchain, cryptocurrency and decentralization, is analogous to surfing, a sport Kawasaki is highly familiar with having grown up in Hawaii. As a veteran of Silicon Valley, Kawasaki has had a prime spot to witness successive waves of technology innovation, both the successes and the failures.

“If you have enough surfers in the water, somebody’s going to catch a wave and look good,” Kawasaki said. “But if you’re in the water, nine times out of 10 you’re going to get crushed.”

What about the next generation of social? As the use of social platforms as business marketing and sales tools continues to evolve, many question if the practice is more harmful than helpful. It can be both, according to Kawasaki, but the good outweighs the bad.

“Do I think that social media targeting and all that for sales is a good thing? Yes, I do,” Kawasaki said. “I don’t think it’s as bad as people say.… I think that the ability to spread ideas with social media, all things considered, is better.”

Open-sourcing his latest book

He also views the open-source community in the same light: a benefit to businesses and society rather than a negative. “I believe in open source. I believe that … the more intelligent people are pounding on your stuff, the better it is,” he said.

As if to prove his point, Kawasaki recently “open-sourced” his unfinished book via social media. He posted an announcement offering to send the current version, approximately 80 percent complete, to a maximum of 280 people. It was a risk, but the community feedback was significant for the author.

“Does that mean they could take it and publish it in China tomorrow?” Kawasaki mused. “Yes. But from that I get hundreds of comments that make my work better.”

As the current chief evangelist for the online graphics design tool Canva, Kawasaki has come full circle. He spent the early years of his lengthy career in a similar role singing the praises of a fledgling computer platform at the time to skeptical developers. It was called the Apple Macintosh.

“You can only declare your intelligence and victory after the fact,” Kawasaki said. “You’re talking to a guy who quit Apple twice and turned down Steve [Jobs] once, so how smart could I be?”

Here’s the complete video interview, and there’s more coverage from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE coverage of the DevNet Create 2018 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for DevNet Create. Neither Cisco Systems Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

Additional reporting by Mark Albertson.