When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” As a teacher, I am familiar with this well-known Zen proverb. What I did not expect is that my students would turn the table on me and become my teacher. I teach a class on critical thinking at the College of St. Benedict’s and Saint John’s [...]
Editor’s Note: The following article has been written for Compass, the quarterly magazine for the Association of Professional Futurists. When it is published later this Spring, it will be behind a paywall. As the author, I have been given permission to share it with my readers and followers. It is entitled, “The Spare Lung: Why [...]
I speak to a lot of people and audiences about the advances in artificial intelligence. One of the most common refrains I hear is something along the lines of this: “I tried ChatGPT/Gemini/ClaudeAI and it didn't do a very good job.” I understand the sentiment and agree that, at the present time, AI remains far [...]
“The power of questions” was the theme of my class at the college of Saint Benedict and St. John's University this past week. Right before the break, I asked, “In the spirit of questions, do you have any questions for me?” I told the students they could ask me any questions they wanted. There was [...]
On my substack feed the other day, I wrote that imagination is a form of perception. What I meant is that the human imagination properly understood and harnessed can help us discern the future. As a way to make my point, I showed the two photos below and asked the question in whose imagination would [...]
Suggesting that the direction of the future is spiritward is a bold claim. For starters, it presupposes a belief in spiritual things. The greatest of which is the idea that you, I, and everyone else are spiritual beings. Personally, I’m convinced that this figure is 100 percent. I will, however, candidly acknowledge that I cannot [...]
Dear Readers: In the coming weeks and months, I intend to write more about my idea that the direction of the future is Spiritward. (If you wish to follow my daily thoughts, I invite you to subscribe to my free Substack account.) If you’re confused by the word Spiritward, I invite you to think of [...]
Earlier this week, I came across this article, “AI That Acts Before You Ask is the Next Leap in Intelligence.” The subtitle reads, “The future belongs to proactive systems.” The authors are right in one sense. This is exactly what AI proponents are pushing and it is what AI companies will, in fact, be able [...]
I highly recommend this article by Ryan Holiday: 26 Rules to Be a Better Thinker in 2026 I encourage you to read and, per Holiday’s own advice, re-read it. If you are pressed for time, here are my quick take-a-ways: Think for yourself. Your first thought is rarely your own. It most likely belongs to [...]
One of the challenges of living in today’s world is that we are inundated with information. This makes separating the signals of true change–that is the real harbingers of change–from “noise” very difficult. This quote, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” gets at the nub of the issue. And to what issues [...]
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