Jack Uldrich
Show navigation Hide navigation

Wal-Mart’s Radical Future: A Scenario from the Year 2029

Posted in Future, Futurist, Scenario, Unlearn Strategy

When announced at the end of 2019, the change seemed inconsequential and went largely unnoticed in the media except for a few commentators who criticized it as “typical corporate America wordsmithing.”  Within the walls of Wal-Mart, however, the flipping of its tagline from “Save Money. Live Better” to “Live Better. Save Money” marked the beginning…


Eustress and the Wisdom of the Lobster

Posted in Change, Unlearn Strategy, Wisdom

Rabbi Abraham Twerski has a wonderfully insightful 90 second YouTube clip discussing the growing capacity of lobsters.  In a nutshell, in order to grow larger, lobsters must first become uncomfortable in their existing shell and then they must discard the old shell before they can grow a new and bigger one. (I encourage you to watch…


A Future Perspective on Global Opportunities

Posted in Ambiguity, Perspective, Unlearn Strategy

As the world goes global, the future will belong to those who have the ability to see things from multiple perspectives. To better understand, consider the picture to the right. Do you see a tiger in a jungle or a jungle with a tiger in it? You might say there is no difference between the…


What Will the Future Sound Like? Silence.

Posted in Future, Futurist, Unlearn Strategy

In the new book, Beyond: Our Future in Space author Chris Impey describes early German V2 rockets as “screaming out of the sky at four times the speed of sound.” Does anything strike you odd about the description? With a little reflection, it is obvious that a rocket traveling at four times the speed of sound…


40 Years of Experience or 1 Year of Experience–40 Times?

Posted in Unlearn Strategy, Unlearning

Hilariously, Dale Irby, a teacher at a Prestonwood Elementary, has had himself photographed in the same outfit for 40 straight years. The series of photographs serve as a kind of visual metaphor that, often, peoples claims of having 25, 30 or even “40 years of experience” is little more than one year of actual experience masquerading itself over…


Don’t Get an MBA: Focus on Unlearning

Posted in Business, Business School, Unlearn Strategy

Thinking about getting an MBA? Here’s my advice: Don’t! For starters, it is a waste of money for the majority of students. As Dale Stephens writes in this piece (“A Smart Investor Would Skip the M.B.A.), your time would be better spent taking free online courses and using the savings to instead pursue unique training and…


Enough is Enough: Give Yourself Time by Committing Hara Hachi Bu

Posted in Behavior, Quotes, Unlearn Strategy, Wisdom

There is a Japanese word, Hara hachi bu. It means “eat until 80 percent full.” If you’re trying to lose weight it is a wonderful philosophy to abide by. Be forewarned, however, it isn’t easy to follow. This is because it takes the brain 20 minutes from the time the stomach is full until the…


Re-Understand, Leave Assumptions Behind and Unlearn

Posted in Assumptions, Quotes, Unlearn Strategy, Unlearning Lesson

“Most people aren’t trained to want to face the process of re-understanding a subject they already know. One must obtain not just literacy, but deep involvement and re-understanding.” This wonderful quotation is from Charles Eames and comes compliments of Brain Pickings–a marvelously curated weekly newsletter for the insatiably curious. It reminded me of this quotation…


Futurist Jack Uldrich on the Future … And Unlearning

Posted in Blog, Future, Unlearn Strategy

Dear Readers: I was recently interviewed by a prominent blogger on my responsibilities as a futurist. As I’ve done with past interviews (such as this one on the business of unlearning), I’d thought I’d also share my responses on this website. How or why did you become a futurist? By accident. In 2003, I wrote…


Making the Most of Your Ignorance

Posted in Anti-Library, Blog, Unlearn Strategy

In a world of accelerating knowledge one of the more unfortunate side-effects is that our ignorance grows even faster than our knowledge. (This is because all that “you don’t know” is naturally growing faster than that small amount of new knowledge you can and are absorbing.) This might seem like a depressing notion but it…


Categories

Interested in having Jack speak at your next event?
Invite Jack to Speak

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Exponential Executive Newsletter now!


Get the foresight to flourish

Sign up our Friday Future 15 Newsletter and start taking time to think about tomorrow.