Heart-Centered Thinking: “What captured me is that people are doing things out of their own good heart.” This sentence was just one of many that caught my attention in this fascinating article, “Banking the Most Valuable Currency: Time.” The article discusses the growing trend of “time banks.”  In an over-simplified way, a “time bank” is simply a sophisticated bartering scheme in which community members exchange their talents and skills with one another.  As a futurist, what I did not appreciate is just how fast this trend is growing around the world.

Think Smarter: Across the globe almost 600 million people are engaged in farming. Most of these farmers are subsistence farmers working in developing countries. In many cases, they lack the money, tools and expertise to make their farms more productive. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence this is all about to change. (Reminder: If you are a farmer and are interested in a free copy of my book, A Smarter Farm: How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Agriculture, feel free to drop me a note at jackmuldrich@gmail and I’ll forward you a PDF of the book.)

Think Cheaper: One aspect of the future that many people tend to overlook is how certain technologies get both exponentially better and exponentially cheaper. For example, this new advancement could make solar cells 2 to 4 times cheaper.

Think Different:  As a futurist and a keynote speaker, I still travel quite a bit. As most of you know, travel can hardly be described as fun these days. In fact, it is the aspect of my job which I least enjoy. Having said that, I am not exactly a fan of doing virtual presentations either. What’s the alternative?  As this article suggests, it could be holograms: Hologram Lecturers Thrill Students at Trailblazing University.

Think Ambiguously: This week a few stories about electric vehicles caught my eye. The first two seem to point toward a future of slower growth for EV’s: Hertz is Dumping 20,000 Tesla’a Citing a Lack of Demand and Ford Cuts Back the Production of its F-150 EV Pick-up Trucks. This future could certainly occur. Alas, the alternative is also true: EV’s could continue to grow in popularity as these two articles suggest: EV’s are Getting Cheaper and Tesla Plans to Build a New Model in 2025. So which is it? Nobody yet knows. My advice: Pay attention, embrace ambiguity, and always be prepared to challenge your thinking.

Afterthought: “Nobody knows where the human race is going. The highest wisdom, then, is to know where you should go: toward perfection.” –Leo Tolstoy

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