Obsolete Model: The Car New Model: The Human *** Obsolete Model: The Car “The spirit of generosity already threatened by the horse, evaporated entirely with the motor car.” – Bruce Chatwin in his Patagonia notebook *** I’m about to buy a car. And I don’t like it. I wish I didn’t have to. I’ve had an issue with cars for a long time now. … Continue reading Cars
Initially this post was to be called ‘Dress Code for Futurists’. After spending five years with futurists from over the world, I wanted to find out whether there was a particular way to dress for futurists. Doctors, plumbers, history teachers, clowns and other professions have their own dress code, whether it’s prescribed or not. But I haven’t been able to decode the futurist dress code … Continue reading Nine Metaphors for a Futurist
Obsolete Model: Hard Work New Model: No Work *** Obsolete Model: Hard Work I used to write and send CVs and job applications. But I never got the jobs I applied for, and most of the time I didn’t even get an interview. This worried me for years, but as I wrote here, it is something I now have accepted. I will not get … Continue reading The Future of Work: From Coworking to Noworking
Obsolete Model: Democracy New Model: The Dynamic Integral Governance App Store *** In my home country Australia we have decided to destroy the Great Barrier Reef. Over the past year we’ve seen a lot of media reports on how plans for a new coal shipping lane in Queensland will impact on the highly sensitive and unique ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef – one of … Continue reading The Dynamic Integral Governance App Store
This image came up on Facebook yesterday, with the heading: We can now only watch as West Antarctica’s ice sheets collapse, and a link to an article written by a researcher at ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Australian National University. And we all reacted in different ways; “Oh my God! This is terrible!!! But I better keep calm and carry on. We will … Continue reading Some of my issues…
The End of Institutions? Technology is a tool which can be used for good and for bad. How do we know which it will be? How do we know what the consequences will be when we build a gadget, an app or a web platform? And, perhaps more importantly, what the unintended consequences will be? Today the most powerful organisations are created by … Continue reading Wise Innovation And The End of Institutions
Some futurists, including me, are obsessed by process. Joseph Voros’ Generic Foresight Process, IDEO’s Design Thinking Process, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U, Graham Wallas’ Creative Process and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey are some, which I have obsessed over in recent years. As you know, a process never describes what reality looks like. Reality is always more complex and messy. The beautiful randomness of life is … Continue reading The Mystery Train – A new model for thinking about the future
I’m looking for a space to lease. A space suitable to turn into a place where ideas are turned into action. A place for makers and changemakers who work to co-create the future they want together. A combined coworking space and school for entrepreneurs, with a garden café and maker lab on site. But as you know, large spaces in central areas of all major … Continue reading Four Creative Ways to Get a Great Edge Community Space (which is way beyond your budget)
In November last year I went to Internetdagarna – a conference on all things Internet in Stockholm. In one of the panel debates, someone said that there are no problems to solve any more for app developers. There are for instance 26 or 27 excellent photo apps trying to get angel funding now, they continued. All is old. The market is saturated with products … Continue reading Games for Change
This morning I found a link to Kevin Kelly’s travel blog in my gmail inbox. The old founding executive editor of Wired magazine is now on the road, and yesterday – from Leh in India – he posted some thoughts on the problem with travel guide books: “At least 98% of most guidebooks, even the best ones, will guide you to buildings. Page after page of … Continue reading Serendipity is the New Black
