As a professional futurist, I seek inspiration everywhere–even in unconventional places. Therefore, while some of the books on this year’s list pertain to the future not all do. Here are five books that helped me think differently about the future and I’m confident they can help you. Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter Most…
Posted in Books, Business, Business as Unusual, Change, Future, Future Proof, Futurist, Innovation
Over the past year, my work as a professional futurist has continued to evolve. I now speak more often about the need for intellectual humility; spend extra time helping clients reframe old questions, as well as asking new ones; and devote additional time to the vital tasks of reading, thinking and reflecting. The reason I…
Posted in Books, Business as Unusual, Future, Futurist
As is my annual tradition, below are my top books on the future for the past year. They are not listed in any particular order. 1. Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. The world is awash in data and it will only…
Posted in Books, Business as Unusual, Future, Future Proof, Futurist, Leadership
With all due respect to Fleetwood Mac, many people “can’t stop thinking about tomorrow” because they never begin in the first place. Bill Gates’ solution to this problem is to dedicate one week a year to thinking about the future. He calls this week, quite unoriginally I might add, “Think Week.” Now, I can almost…
Posted in Books
Dear Readers: As is my annual tradition, here is a list of the books which have caused me to engage in the most unlearning over the past year. You will note that the books include both new and older books. (If you’ve read a book that challenged your thinking in the past year and/or caused…
Dear Readers: In 2012, I published my latest future-related book, Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow (written with able assistance of fellow futurist Simon Anderson). The book was shaped in no small way by the thoughts, ideas and writings of numerous other futurists, thinkers and authors. As a small token of my…
Posted in Books, Education, Future, Futurist, Higher Education, Publishing
Trey Radcliff has an excellent piece over at GigaOm discussing why e-books will be bigger than expected. I agree with his analysis. I also agree with the statistics outlined in this article, Apple to Give Lesson on Textbooks: By 2020 digital textbooks and learning content will represent more than 50% of the overall textbook market….
Dear Readers: Below is my annual list of top ten books on the future. (Because I believe there is great wisdom in the past, you will note that many of the books were published prior to 2011.) Below, in no particular order, were the books most influential in shaping and changing my thinking this past…
Posted in Books
Dear Readers: Every year I’m humbled by how much I have to unlearn and this year was no exception. My never-ending journey down the path of unlearning was facilitated and, in many cases, made enjoyable by these 10 books. Here, in no particular order, are my favorite books on unlearning for 2011: 1. Being Wrong:…
Posted in Black Swans, Books, Stories
In honor of tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I thought I would recount a wonderful story from Nassim Taleb’s outstanding book, The Black Swan: “Consider a turkey that is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird’s belief that it is the general rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members…
