« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »
Well, no one has pointed out that a Nine Shift prediction made a year ago turns out to be wrong.
But I'll admit it.
Maybe the first or second of the "lesser" predictions to be wrong.
All of the Nine major Shifts are, of course, still "right" and right-on-schedule.
The stock market has followed the pattern of 100 years ago for the last eight years - - until this year.
Everyone is happy the prediction (that the market would drop) was wrong.
Interesting story how I got to be a certified futurist. From the unedited original version of the movie, here's how it happened:
"But what about Bill? He wants to be a futurist!"
"Why - - Bill - - there's only one thing that futurists have that you don't - - a crystal ball. By the empower invested in me, I bestow upon you the honorary degree of Certified Futurist."
Maybe online newspaper reading is catching on.
Here's a study about online newspaper readers. They are 20% more likely to be male, and a few other stats. (thanks to co-author Julie for the link)
What do you think about reading newspapers online?
Is this a growing trend? Good or bad?
Technology fatigue was one of the new and highlighted issues at this year's Nine Shift Book Club discussion in Baltimore.
Thanks to Book Club moderators Kassia Dellabough, Terry Newman and Thom Lowther, plus everyone who attended, for a great discussion. Our Third Annual.
Technology fatigue is the experience of having so many new technologies being invented, so quickly, that one is unable to keep up with all the new inventions. iPod, YouTube, MySpace, etc.
So, do you experience technology fatigue?
How do you deal with it?
Tell us your thoughts.
100 years ago, H.L. Mencken helped move society into the 20th century.
Mencken was a journalist for the Baltimore Sun. He attacked the obsolete theories and values of the agrarian age. He advocated for facts, data and the truth of the 20th century.
Here's a great quote that rings true for today:
"Man gets ahead by discarding the theory of today for the fact of tomorrow."
We would only modify it slightly and say, Humankind gets ahead by discarding the theory of yesterday for the fact of today. Today we are engaged in the same battle to discard obsolete values and attitudes for the new reality of the 21st century.
Ouch! Here's what Jim Webb, the new U.S. Senator from the State of Virginia said recently:
"America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.
"Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this newspaper has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much.
"In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen." Are we getting closer to closing the wealth gap? What do you think?
The new technology is not always welcomed by everyone. But the new technology always wins.
100 years ago, the Pennsylvania Farmers Union recommended members shoot at passing cars.
Here's a modern day version of techno-backlash.
The Milwaukee Police Department installed expensive GPS systems on squad cars to help dispatchers track officers' whereabouts. But the police officers have been covering the GPS systems in their cars with foil, rendering them useless and the cars invisible to monitoring, according to a November 23 story in the Milwaukee Journal.
Do you see any signs of techno-backlash?
Thanks to all 350 people who heard the new edition of Nine Shift for 2007, which I premiered on Saturday at the big LERN conference in Baltimore, right on the Inner Harbor.
PLUS, the new 20 page supplement Nine Shift for 2007, summarizing the top news and blog entries of the past year, is now available. If you made a comment, you get one free.
Thanks for making 2006 the best ever for Nine Shift!
