Think: In 1980, AT&T commissioned McKinsey to forecast cellphone sales in the year 2000. McKinsey’s crack team of consultants came back with a forecast of 900,000 which prompted AT&T to forego the opportunity to manufacture its own cellphones. It turned out that in 2000, 109 million cellphones were sold–meaning McKinsey’s original forecast was off by a factor of 100! I mention this because McKinsey is now forecasting Cloud’s Trillion Dollar 2030 Potential. McKinsey may be right, but it might also be wildly wrong. (My advice: If you’re still not thinking about the cloud, you could be missing an opportunity even bigger than the “experts” are forecasting.)
Think Fast: What’s the future of long-distance transportation? It might be the return of super-sonic air travel as United Airlines is betting on, but it could also be floating magnetic pods. As this article suggests, Virgin Hyperloop is now working on the technology just north of Las Vegas. I especially liked this quote from the article, “It starts off with two people riding a Hyperloop. It ends with hundreds of millions of people riding on a Hyperloop and that’s what the 2020s, the roaring 20s will be.”
Think Different: Most of us know the iconic line from the movie, “The Graduate,” where Benjamin is given one word of advice regarding his future, “Plastics.” Well, I have two words for you about the future, “Compostable plastics.”
Think Faster: Robots are now building robots. This does not mean that all manufacturing will soon be done by robots. It does, however, portend a bright future for “lights-out manufacturing.” (The term describes manufacturing operations that do not require humans to be physically present in order to run effectively.) If you are in the manufacturing business this article (although written a few years ago), still provides some solid advice for when you may want to pursue “lights-out manufacturing.”
Think Wisely: Most of us don’t spend enough time thinking about how we really want to live our lives. This is unfortunate, but here are three ideas for how to live a fuller life.
Thought of the week: “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding .” John O’Donuhue
Until next week: Don’t stop thinking about the future! But also never forget “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting!”
