Daily Inspiration: "Initiative is a lot like ketchup - it starts out slowly and then happens all at once!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Here's a story about how, when I stared at a ketchup bottle around 2002, I turned into a $1/2 million revenue stream on the speaking circuit. I don't make this stuff up.
The story has to do with the fact that if you find some initiative with a new and unique idea, run with it - because if you do things right, your tentative first steps will have you running full speed to take advantage of the opportunity! Innovation is like ketchup!
The backstory - in 2001, the dot.com collapse sent everyone into a technology funk - most were convinced that we had seen the end of big, transformative technologies such as the Internet. Magazine and newspaper editors were canceling my regular columns; my speaking topic focused on technology disruption was drying up; I was no longer writing books around the topic. I was in a bit of a funk.
My old future was over, and I had to invent a new one, fast. Around this time, I spoke at the annual conference of the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute - they represent the companies that make the machines that make product packaging. I had decided around this time that I needed to broaden beyond just the technological future and focus on innovation and creativity quite a bit more in my talks. Hence, my keynote revolved around 'innovation and creativity trends in the consumer goods industry.' After all, these were the folks who made the machines that made the packaging in which a lot of food products were being shipped!
@lkngrrr Still tested positive yesterday, so we are going to give it another day before trying again. But I'm doing an 8km walk each morning - just got back in -- and am active and working, so overall it was pretty mild!
@jeffjarvis His hope for this was destroyed the day he decided to go to war with developers who relied on an API. Zero trust, zero credibility. A bag of hot air wasting time.
Daily Inspiration: "The story of tomorrow is still being written. Will you be an author?" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Are you actively engaged with tomorrow/ It's probably a good idea because you are going to have to live there soon! Something pretty significant is happening all around us right now, although many aren't sure exactly what. Today's image was generated by an AI using Midourney - I had the idea for the quote in my head and used the system to generate something relevant.
But here's the thing - I actually used an AI to write a prompt to feed to the other AI - things are becoming that weird! Huh? I went into a system called Poe, a unique little tool that is rather hard to describe, other than to suggest that it's an AI that lets you interact or get ready for other AIs. In my case, I asked it for "an image based on the idea 'the story of tomorrow is still being written. Will you be an author or just someone who reads it?'"
After the fact, I sat back and thought about all this in the context of the quote that I came up with for today's Inspiration.
One of my oft-used phrases - and you have heard it from me at many times - is this:
"Companies that do not yet exist will build products not yet conceived using materials not yet invested with methodologies not yet in existence."
There's a new variation on that thought:
"Tools that do not yet exist will let us undertake actions that we aren't yet aware of, based on ideas we have yet to consider, with skills that we have yet to develop."
Next week I am in Boston with a group of senior executives for a number of major global organizations. My job for the day is to explain to them what's really happening with AI and our future - and that's a tall order because the story of its' impact on our world is still being written.
We are all but character actors in the story as it unfolds, participating in a grand novel of sweeping change and transformation.
Daily Inspiration: "It's not the fast trends that have already happened. It's the fact they will be even faster tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Most people don't understand exponentiality.
They should, because most are living within it, and it defines their future - right now, particularly with the growth trends of AI. Exponentiality? I asked ChatGPT for an explanation that might help you comprehend it:
Exponential growth can be simply understood as a snowball effect, where something starts off small but grows faster and faster as time goes on.
That's what's happening with AI right now.
First, a continuation of Moore's Law. Second, the cost to 'train' these AI systems is collapsing. Third, we are in the midst of an absolute explosion in the availability of the data that can be used to 'train' AI systems. Fourth, we have seen a massive increase in the research undertaken into AI.
These trends are, in and of themselves, significant. But it's not what has happened so far that matters - it's how these trends continue to accelerate into the future.
----
As The Sun's article points out, GPT-4 may buck the trend for every larger and larger models. Back in 1998 Yann LeCun's breakthrough neural network, LeNet, sported 60,000 parameters (a measure of the complexity of the neural machine to do useful things). Twenty years later, OpenAl's first version of GPT had 110 million parameters. GPT-2 has 1.75bn and GPT-3, now two years old, has 175 billion. More parameters mean better results. State of the art multi-modal networks, which can go from text-to-image to text-to-text or other combinations, are even more complex. The biggest are approaching 10 trillion parameters.
--- Think about that - we are going from AI systems that used 60,000 parameters -0 to 110 million, 1.75 billion, 175 billion - but soon, 10 trillion.
You don't need to understand how AI works to understand its impact.
Daily Inspiration: "Don't measure your success by what you have done. Measure it by what you are yet to do." - Futurist Jim Carroll
No one cares about what you did yesterday - they'll only care about what you can do tomorrow.
That's why it's never a good time to rest on your laurels - it's only a good time to establish some new ones!
This means that you have to keep redefining your ideas of success - it's not what you have accomplished yesterday, but what you hope to accomplish tomorrow.
By getting into a mindset that it's what's next that matters, you'll focus on what you need to do learn, adapt, and grow - you get into a mindset of moving forward rather than resting or standing still. Besides, doing what you were doing yesterday might be completely irrelevant, because the world around you is changing way too fast. If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll end up getting what you've always got - and that might not necessarily be a good thing!
By focusing on always moving forward, you'll also develop more resilience to fast-moving circumstances. You know that the future will be full of surprises, volatility, and the unknown, and so you need some agility in your core that will help you act accordingly. By relying too much on your past success, you might not be able to learn how to quickly evolve when things don't work out in the way that you hoped - but by challenging yourself to constantly change, you'll be able to change when you absolutely need to!
Bottom line? Your future can be enhanced by your past success - but your next success will be more important in continuously redefining it!
Daily Inspiration: "One person's skepticism is another person's gold!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Trends are funny things - some people love them, while others hate them at the same time.
Such is the case with the idea of vertical farming.
This Sunday, I'll be speaking for the Global Cold Chain Alliance in Palm Springs - I'll open their annual conference with a look at the Big Future trends which will provide them opportunities in the future, one of which involves the idea of vertical farming. The industry essentially builds and manages large cold storage facilities - those large freezer buildings that you see all around - for use in the food and medical industry.
The idea of vertical farming has obviously caught their attention since it could provide a valuable pathway for growth for the industry, and so that is one of the topics I am covering. Yet at the same time that they view it as a realistic opportunity, there are other detractors and skeptics - when I shared my post about Vertical Farming last year, there were numerous people all too willing to express their skepticism and indicate that it is an absolutely foolish idea, never bound to see the light of opportunity.
One man's skepticism is another man's gold. That's what happens with many trends, and that is what is happening here.
Daily Inspiration: "Have you ever noticed people are always happy to tell you what you should have done yesterday!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
You've got to have skin in the game.
Why? Some people commit to the future and make the effort to get there.
Others just watch them - and then offer up their commentary on what could or should have been done after the fact. Their insight is usually pretty useless at this point since they don't have any skin in the game. You do - and your efforts matter because you are learning much more about innovation, creativity, disruptive thinking, and transformation. It's by doing that you learn what it takes to succeed, that you develop the knowledge on how to get there, and the initiative that you require to get to your goal.
All of those things give you unparalleled expertise that they will never develop.
That's why I often talk about the idea of 'forward-oriented leadership.' That's the mindset of ensuring that we are on the cutting edge in terms of what might be impacting us tomorrow, rather than analyzing what we did yesterday. It's by acting as a leader to develop corporate agility that can take us forward rather than concentrating on past nostalgia and old glories. It's by viewing the future as an opportunity to be pursued, not as a threat that needs to be vanquished. It's by getting beyond aggressive indecision and taking the steps to get there, as opposed to waiting on clarity that might never happen.
It's by having skin in the game that is called tomorrow.
"The new risk is the unknown risk!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
I had an interesting session in Boston yesterday with a group of corporate risk managers from a vast number of Fortune 500 companies, as well as a large group of insurance executives who serve their industries. The topic, of course, was the acceleration of AI and the new and dramatic corporate risk issues that are emerging as a result.
New risk? It's now emerging faster than ever before, and now sometimes takes on increasingly bizarre forms. Here's the thing - I'm always modifying my slide deck up to the last minute and had a section that would go over the new types of risk that is emerging with this fast-moving technology. But I left that section blank up until the day before as I thought through the best way to try to describe what is happening with the 'future of risk.'
And then, like clockwork, a fascinating article floated across my news clipping service that is almost too bizarre to be true.
Here's a quick overview of what happened in Australia:
A Senate committee has warned artificial intelligence may have seriously undermined its integrity, after consultancy giant KPMG lodged an official complaint about factually inaccurate information receiving parliamentary privilege.
A group of academics has apologised to the big four consultancy firms after their submission to an inquiry contained false allegations of serious wrongdoing, which were collated by an AI tool and not factchecked.
KPMG lodges complaint after AI-generated material was used to implicate them in non-existent scandals The Guardian, November 3, 2023
How do you even try to guard against this type of new risk? Companies are now in a situation in which they can be accused of being involved in a scandal that simply does not yet exist because of some entirely bogus information.
Daily Inspiration: "A negative attitude will never give you a positive result!" - Futurist Jim Carroll Don't. Do. Turn it around. Don't be negative. Be positive. Don't say it's too risky. Take the risk. Don't say it won't work. Make it work. Don't say it's impossible. Make it probable. Don't say it can't be done. Find a way to do it. Don't say it's not worth the effort. Put in the work. Don't say it's too crazy. Make it even more radical. Don't say it's too complex. Work to make it simple. Don't say 'The rules don't allow it.' Make new rules. Don't say that people won't like it. Make them love it. Don't say the boss won't go for it. Make them want it. Don't say it's ahead of its' time. Make it the right time. Don't say it's against tradition. Establish a new tradition. Don't say no one will understand. Help them understand. Don't say it's a crazy idea. Make it a mainstream concept. Don't say it's always been done this way. Find a new way. Don't say you don't know where to start. Establish your own starting line. Don't say it's the dumbest thing you ever heard. Make it into a brilliant idea. Don't say it is doomed to fail. Make successful failure part of the journey. Don't say 'You can't do that.' Give permission for it to be done. Don't say 'I didn’t know that.' Make it your duty to know. Don't say you don’t think you can. Learn how you can. Don't worry about rocking the boat. Get a bigger boat. Don't say it’s against tradition. Banish the tradition. Don't say 'The rules don't allow it.' Make new rules. Don't say you don't know how. Learn how. Don't say you don't care. Care more. Don't say don't. Just do. Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2023/11/daily-inspiration-personal-attitude-a-negative-attitude-will-never-give-you-a-positive-result/
Daily Inspiration: "The big question is not 'how can we change the way we do things today - it should be 'how should we change the way we do things tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
(Posting might be a bit later this week; I am in California for an event, on my way to Hawaii!")
Late last year, I began writing my series on what I call "The BIG Future." It's a series of trends that are redefining our world going forward; you can find it at https://bigfuture.jimcarroll.com.
The series, which I am adding to on an irregular basis, covers a grab bag of trends involving healthcare, construction, agriculture, and more. Several of the posts caught the eagle eye of the President of the Global Cold Chain Alliance, an association representing folks in the 'big freezer' industry - or what we should refer to as controlled building environments, used in the supply chain for storage and management of food and medicine that must always be chilled. The posts included ones on Connected Energy, Vertical Farming, and last but not least ... Methodology Modification.
What's that? Although it sounds kind of boring, it is a very significant trend - representing how in many industries, we are actually changing long-standing methods of doing things through the use of robotics, AI, and other new technologies and concepts.
In the construction industry, this 'methodology modification' will represent one very fundamental shift occurring in the industry - to a world in which more of the process of assembling structures will occur offsite, utilizing robotic assembly line methodologies. In addition, it involves far more use of advanced robotics and other technologies for final assembly on site. In other words, changing the very nature of the way that much of the construction process happens.
Daily Inspiration: "If you keep waiting around for 'it' to be ready you'll never be ready when it's actually ready!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Aloha from Kauai, Hawai! It was a long travel day but definitely worth it. I'm here to speak today for the Chairman's Luncheon for the Western Growers Association - the group that represents much of the fresh produce and fruit industry in California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The topic? Farming in the era of artificial intelligence:
"Don’t know much about artificial intelligence (AI) but wish you did? AI is already arguably the most disruptive technology in human history, but what will it mean for agriculture and the future of food production? During the Chair’s Luncheon, world-renowned futurist and AI expert Jim Carroll will deliver compelling insight into how AI is transforming our industry and what your company can do to stay ahead of this emerging megatrend."
"Whether it’s driverless tractors, weed-zapping robots, or data-transmitting crops, the future of farming is happening faster than you might think! We’re rapidly transitioning into a world of 24-hour farming, no longer restricted to farming only when the sun is up!"
Much of this future will involve AI-based robotics, sophisticated farm machinery, deep data insight on pests, climate, irrigation and water, plant diseases, and more.
One of the trends I will spend quite a bit of time on will have to do with agricultural robots - there are many innovative ideas being rapidly developed - and yet are not anywhere close to being mainstream.
And yet, they aren't yet quite mainstream or even close to being ready for prime time; their deployment is limited; their development is still underway,
One of my favorite phases when it comes to the future is - 'we tend to overestimate the rate of change that will occur on a two-year basis, and underestimate how much change will have occurred on a 10-year-basis.'
"Nurture an insane optimism!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
This was a comment made on stage yesterday by the outgoing Chairman of the Western Growers Association. He was making the point that in the face of a volatile industry - with challenges related to weather, climate, costs, labor shortages, and more - the typical farmer must be insanely optimistic at all times.
With that in mind, think about the honorable profession of farming — it’s been around almost since the beginning of time. And it’s a profession that has involved a lot of trial and error; failure and success; and a heck of a lot of innovation.
Often, during a keynote, I will tell the story that there are really two different types of farmers in the agricultural industry. And I make the point to the audience that their attitude towards innovation should be considered in the light of the attitudes carried by each type of farmer.
The first type of farmer is what we might call the ‘apathetic minority’, who share these attributes:
- they are not optimistic about the future - they tend to seek the “same old advice” from the “same old sources” - they have a high intolerance for risk - they’re not convinced they can continue to make a comfortable living despite all the contrary evidence - they’re skeptical of their potential since they feel they’ve seen too many ups and downs in the industry
Then there is the second group we might call the ‘future positive‘ type of farmer. They share these attributes :
- they’re quite optimistic about the future - they’re very business-minded, using all the latest tools and ideas at their disposal - they are very innovation-oriented, willing to approach everything in a new way with new ideas - they are very collaborative for advice, seeking ideas from anyone and everyone
So here’s a good question: when it comes to you, or the organization that work for, what type of farmer are you?
Daily Inspiration: "Set a goal so small that the mere act of achieving it will convince you that you can achieve a bigger one!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Sometimes you need a win.
You need a measure of success.
You require a sense of accomplishment.
You must believe that you've made some progress. Not every project or initiative that you take on needs to have some grand challenge, bold idea, or transformative opportunity behind it. Sometimes doing simple things will help you accomplish those greater things - simply because it will give you a much-needed mindset of achievement.
That's why it's always a good mindset to believe that the more small things you can pursue in your day-to-day life - and see real achievement - the better positioned you are for the bigger things. Success is built through a series of small actions, suddenly cumulative in their impact - because when you are chasing the small wins, you are actually learning, practicing, focusing, attempting, and trying. Call it the cumulative success that comes from a relentless focus on small steps.
Take the small win - because it's actually a bigger win than you might think!
Daily Inspiration: "It's not the trends that have already happened that matter. It's how these trends accelerate even further tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
A photo from my keynote earlier in the week for the Controlled Environment Building Alliance in Palm Springs, where I'm speaking on the issue of the acceleration of AI.
Most of us were surprised and stunned by the sudden arrival of large language model technologies like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. The fact that we could ask questions of technology and get reasonably intelligent answers, or instruct a computer to draw an image and it came back with magical results in an instant - we've come to believe that we are living in an era of magic. And, we are.
And yet, there is so much more yet to come, because things are speeding up to a rather ridiculous degree. The screenshot I used during my keynote puts things into perspective. A large language model in 1998 was based on but 60,000 parameters. OpenAI's GPT-1 had 110 million parameters, and that grew to 1.75 billion parameters for GPT-2. And yet, the next version, GPT-3, was based on 175 billion parameters ... and GPT4, 1.75 trillion. What's next? Models that will approach 10 trillion parameters or more.
I don't know about you, but when I see exponential growth like this with any trends, I know that something significant is happening.
That's why when it comes to understanding a trend, it's not the trend that has occurred in the past that matters - it's the trend going forward. And this trend - AI - has momentum!
Coming up to 1 year that I set up my single-user Mastodon instance at https://futurist.info
I was convinced that protocols were the future, and that controlling my destiny in the Fediverse would be important - and that running my own server would best help me understand what the protocol was all about.
I tell my story here, from a post last December:
-----
"You might notice my Mastodon instance name, futurist.info It's just me here. I decided early on I wanted my own 'identity' ; my own instance. Just like I got my own email address back in the 90's (under jimcarroll.com) I think over time : - you might find your current Mastodon home doesn't fit your future - it might become like a HotMail or AOL email address - you might want to know how Mastodon actually works by having your own setup - in the months to come, we will see a LOT of paid self-hosting options that might let you set up your own identity for a small fee. With all that in mind, here's the story of how I did it."
Daily Inspiration: "Don't try to succeed too fast. Plan on failing too early" - Futurist Jim Carroll
During my travels last week, I saw what must be one of the greatest commercials of all time, at least to me. From Uber, it promotes its new 'Uber Reserve' service, which allows you to do exactly what it suggests, up to a month in advance.
I admit it - I'm an 'airport dad' - early in the car, early to the airport, early to the gate!
But I will also often talk in my keynotes about those who are first to industry, market, or product, taking on the role of achieving what is known as 'first-mover advantage.'
"First mover advantage' is a cause long-championed by Silicon Valley and the tech industry, and there is a long list of companies that have enjoyed the benefits of this space, the best example being Amazon, followed by Google and Amazon.
And yet, there are also detractors who suggest that being second, third, or even later in a market can be the best role to take on.
That's where the idea of failing too early as opposed to succeeding too fast comes in. If you think about what Apple and others do in chasing 'second mover status' is this: they carefully work within or watch and observe a new industry or product line before they commit. Behind the scenes, they are innovating, testing, developing - and failing with their initial ideas and attempts, quietly and privately, and with lower risk than in doing so in public. The whole idea of failing early rather than succeeding too fast has wonderful merit because it implies that the focus is not just on developing the new product, but also on developing the skills, insight, knowledge, and other capabilities that go with long-term success.
The key bit of insight? Early failure provides crucial knowledge for solidifying long-term success!
Daily Inspiration: *“Invest in your creative capital. You’ll see a return on your imagination!”* – Futurist Jim Carroll
The thing about the image is - it certainly caught your attention. That's the whole point of creativity!
I used a face-swap feature of an AI to generate an image of a punk rocker, backing it onto an image that implies extreme levels of creativity - I used Poe to generate the MidJourney prompt.
I digress.
I use a very expensive research tool - Dow Jones Factiva - to do the hard-core research I need to do for my client projects. Yesterday I was immersed in the very complex topic of how pharmaceutical clinical trials might be accelerated and changed as a result of the increasing use of AI - the potential direction of a potential upcoming keynote early next year. If you ever want to go through over 1,000 articles of very complex research reports, summaries of scientific papers, and medical journals, go for it - this is how I do what I do as a futurist.
Later in the day, though, I needed a break. I used the same research tool while fooling around with an AI image creation tool to find if there were any recent studies, research reports or surveys having to do with 'leadership and creativity.' And I certainly found a lot!
Daily Inspiration: "Be bigger than small minds" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Here in Canada, we have our Thanksgiving holiday a good month before our southern American friends. We also tend to have less stress about the occasion.
In the last several years, the holiday has become a minefield of stress, accelerated worry, extreme concern, and many arguments among the close and extended families that get together for the occasion. You might notice that the news today is full of articles about how to navigate the discussions at the dinner table and avoid the heated rhetoric. It seems that the singular 'crazy uncle' has become rather ubiquitous as conspiracy theories, angry politics, and irrational thoughts become the louder voices in the room.
The situation mirrors the complexities of our world today. At times, it just seems that otherwise nice people have inhabited the land of the angry, bearing the rage of hateful emotions at the same time that they enjoy the highest standard of living known to mankind, the fruits of healthy longevity (if they choose to participate in rational living) and perhaps the last vestiges of democratic freedom as fascist politics rises to the forefront.
Often, this odd situation bubbles to the forefront when you find yourself suddenly verbally attacked at random moments, your social media posts become fodder for extreme rhetoric, or a simple comment at the dinner table leads to a spiral of venomous rage. Yikes!
What do you do about it?
As Taylor Swift says, 'haters gonna hate.' There's not a lot you can do at any given moment, Sometimes it becomes best to simply not participate in the irrationality, to swim in the diseased minds of those around you, to walk the voyage with the craziness.
You can best do this by opting out. Simply don't take part - don't tune in, but turn on to your own thoughts and drop out.
Fox News going through a serious terrorist headline withdrawal as it has to admit that the car came at high speed from a casino in Niagara Falls ---> New York <---- and was heading at high speed towards Canada when it hit the CBP facility on the US side of the border.
Daily Inspiration: "Grateful that every single day, I can share my optimism for tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
To my American friends, may you have a delightful and peaceful Thanksgiving, one that permits much joy and happiness. To all my other friends and followers in Canada and around the world, may we also use this moment to pause and reflect on what we are thankful for!
I am so thankful for having had the wonderful opportunity, for over 30 years, to share my insight and enthusiasm for tomorrow from the stage, the books I have authored, the magazine and newspaper columns I wrote, and the radio shows I was a part of. It is a unique career, being a futurist and a speaker, and I really could not have imagined that it would be so wonderful. I am grateful for my many speaker bureau partners and agents who have had the confidence to introduce me to their clients around the world.
I am so overwhelmingly thankful for the singular and spectacular joy that is given to me by a wife who has been steadfast, supportive, and loving for almost 35 years, allowing me the opportunity to pursue this odd career, while at the same time, rarely complaining that she gave up her own.
I am so thankful to watch my two young boys grow into strong, focused, mature, and caring young men who inspire everyone around them with their focus on love and success. I am equally thankful for the remarkable young woman they have welcomed into their lives as their wives - I am so thrilled to have two daughters-in-law who are each unique in their own way and yet so wonderfully the same in their love for my sons and my wife and I.
I am thankful for coffee.
And I am grateful to each and every one of you who follows these posts and might make it to the end of an occasional one, and who might find themselves touched in a moment here and there with the inspiration I am trying to share with you.
Daily Inspiration: "Your most important skill is your ability to learn a new one!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Do I need to repeat this again?
Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century. That's the observation from educator Lewis Perelman, and it could not apply more than to the situation we find ourselves in today with the arrival of a vast number of AI tools. Regardless of whether you think AI is good or bad, it is here to stay, and it would be in your best interest to accelerate your ability to master the skill of what I have long called 'just-in-time knowledge.'
Consider my own case. I mentioned the other day my use of an extremely powerful tool known as Dow Jones Factiva; it's my go-to research tool, giving me access to a vast range of information far beyond what I can get on the traditional Internet, or even within AI systems such as ChatGPT. It takes me into the universe of millions of articles from a vast number of publications, many of which are not easily accessible, accessible via a powerful highly targeted, and sophisticated search methodology.
The result is that I feed my knowledge - getting the right knowledge at the right time for the right purpose - with a LOT of very detailed information - when I need that information. That's long been one of my most important skills, something I mastered almost 40 years ago with the arrival of such research systems. What can I do? Take a look at this set of 1,000+ articles on the role of AI in Clinical Trials, or this smaller subset of the role of AI in Manufacturing.. I've taught myself how to go out and find a massive set of very specific, detailed information on a particular trend topic that I am currently immersed in, whether for an existing or potential client topic.
Needless to say, it takes a tremendous amount of time to read through these files and undertake the summary research that I need to do.
Daily Inspiration: "Ignore the prattle of the anti-futurists!" - Futurist Jim Carroll ---- Futurist Jim Carroll is running a series that began November 27, 2023, and will end on January 1, 2024 - '24 Strategies for 2024.' Rather than running a trend series for the upcoming year as he has previously, this series will examine a number of his personal beliefs on how to best align yourself with the future. There will be a post each weekday, excluding weekends and holidays, until the series runs its course. You will find it on his blog at https://blog.jimcarroll.com, or on the website https://2024.jimcarroll.com) ---
Negativity doesn't become thee, and yet you are surrounded by it. Ignore it.
Think about it - all of us are surrounded by those who are determined that our belief in a better future is a false hope; that the technologies, trends, and disruptive ideas that we see as opportunities are nothing but a sham of misplaced optimism; that our belief in the trends of tomorrow is misguided and wrong. I learned a long time ago to ignore much of what they say and have usually been right in my decision.
And yet as their voices get louder and their ranks steadily increase, it is more important than ever to simply tune them out.
I first clued into their existence in 1999 when I read the book, The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress. The description of the book on Amazon says it all:
--- Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition -- as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster.
Ignore their prattle and their babble, and carry on.
ALWAYS TAKE THE TIME TO DISCOVER OTHER PEOPLE - NEVER TAKE ANYONE FOR GRANTED.
Earlier this summer, I stopped and spoke to a groundskeeper at my home golf course. He was busy mowing, raking bunkers, doing hard work. You know, manual labor. Many folks might presume that someone like that is caught in a dead end career.
Far from it.
I quizzed him a bit more about his background, what he does, and who he is - and discovered MAGIC.
In the next few days, the three books he has authored - on dense, complex geopolitical and social issues - will be released on Amazon. I gave him the guidance to get them into print.
You might think someone is doing marginal, manual work. Inside their mind might be brilliance.
NEVER take anyone for granted.
Help them out. Give them guidance. Discover who they are!
Daily Inspiration: "Double down on your values and beliefs" - Futurist Jim Carroll
2024 is going to be wild.
It would seem to be a fair statement that most people who have an optimistic view of the future align themselves with actions that might help to build that better future. More often than not, that future involves one that is equitable, fair, caring, and devoid of hate. Hence, our world has been defined by actions around climate change as found within the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) framework, initiatives with respect to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), battles against racism and hate, the rights of individuals to live their life peacefully according to their own sexual identity, the right of a woman to choose, and so much more. Many organizations have established very specific actions elevating the role of women and marginalized racial groups within leadership and in the workforce, boosting opportunities for marginalized populations, reducing their carbon footprint, and more.
And of course, all this stuff has been very much under attack in the last few years.
Going forward, your values and beliefs are going to be tested mightily in the coming year. That's why strategy #2 in my 24 Strategies 2024 is to "double down on your values and beliefs."
It's Giving Tuesday - the day after the madness of CyberMonday and BlackFriday - when we are encouraged to look beyond our material needs and give back to groups and charities that are supportive of the less fortunate.
If you are considering some kindness today, I'd like to suggest a charitable initiative that my wife and I are involved with. Eventsfor.Life, located in Thornbury, Ontario, Canada, supports special needs young adults through a variety of active day programs.
A small donation would be a good way to start to double down on your values and beliefs, as the programs provided by EventsFor.Life brings comfort and joy to those who have been born with significant challenges. Thank you!
I must say, my life is better for having taken the time to get involved.
@ingalls I live right at the bottom red arrow, and my chalet is at the top red arrow.
There is NOTHING more exciting than when a squall moves in.
This is a picture I took on our ski hill one day as a squall moved in. 5 minutes after the photo, we were in a total whiteout for about 2 hours and got 10 cm. fresh show.
@ingalls It is quite the astounding thing. The weirdest thing is that you can be 10 miles either side of one and it's brilliant sunshine, and you just see a massive wall. Epic stuff.
One year ago this week, I setup my solo single user Mastodon instance at https://futurist.info
I thought I would give a shoutout to everyone that was involved in the effort. (Me). Thank you to the team (me) for all the hard work and effort! You did a great, fantastic job with stellar results!
(Wait - there was no hard work or effort. But a shoutout is still nice)
The story of my setup is in my profile.
I have spent about $150 or so for the year. For me, it's well worth it.
Thank you for all the followers, and I look forward to another great year!
Daily Inspiration: 24 Strategies for 2024 #3 - "Be furiously focused, but gloriously distracted!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
There's a lot of new stuff. You should try to be as involved with as much of it as you can. Be the dog from the movie Up!
That's why strategy #3 of my "24 Strategies for 2024" is to be focused but distracted!
What? Think of it this way - do what you need to do in your 'day job,' but keep busy at your 'future job!' Spend time in your current life, but actively explore your future life! The basis for this thinking is that there is going to be more new stuff, coming at us faster than ever before. Wouldn't it make a lot of sense to understand it faster?
Last year, I ran my series "23 Trends for 2023", and it continues to draw a lot of interest to this day. Statistics show me that the most heavily visited post is this one: #8 - Knowledge Velocity. My opening comment in that post is prescient:
"It used to be about what you know. Now it’s not only about what you know, but how fast you need to know it!"
To recap, the post puts into perspective the rapid acceleration of knowledge. In 1900, human knowledge doubled approximately every 100 years; by the end of 1945, the rate had come down to every 25 years; by 1982, every 13 months; and today, with the arrival of the Internet and AI, some suggest it is now doubling every 12 hours. As I often say, I don't know about you, but to me...
That’s the velocity of information growth. Now keep in mind that the rapid growth of new knowledge leads to the arrival of a lot more new stuff.
You need to continuously explore that stuff.
What is that new stuff? Anything and everything:
- the continued arrival of new products and services that didn't previously exist
Yes, I'll get a small hit for this, but that's not why I recommend them. I've actually got a ton of sites I build with it, including my AI site, https://jimcarroll.ai
It's just a glorious little system that deserves more attention.
Totally gobsmacked that after flying over the country at least 100 times in the last 30 years on trips to and from Europe and beyond, I will FINALLY be visiting Ireland in January.
I'll be doing a talk for a global company based in Dublin .....
My wife and I will take one day to drive down to Kilmacthomas, County Waterford - we have our family tree on my moms side traced back there to 1749 when 3 Thompson brothers left to find their future on the other side of the ocean. We are in touch with distant relatives there and will visit them as well!
Daily inspiration: 24 Strategies for 2024 #4 - "Be respectful of complexity" - Futurist Jim Carroll
The future isn't easy. In fact, it takes a lot of hard work.
Nowhere is that fact more relevant right now than with what is happening with AI. As the number of events I take on in the space and the number of inquiries I get for senior executive corporate events on the topic, it's pretty clear that for many, AI has become some sort of wonderful easy thing that you simply drop in - and magic happens. A
And as most of us know, nothing could be further from the truth. It's the latest shiny object in a long list of such objects.
Don't get me wrong - there is something wonderfully significant here that is going to have massive implications, both good and bad. And yet, I know three things are true. First, most people tend to overestimate the impact of any technology or trend in the short term but underestimate it in the long term. Second, AI is not 'one' thing - it's just a phrase that has been applied to a whole series of fast-evolving technologies, including large language models, machine learning, machine vision, and so much more, all of which are at different stages of maturity and sophistication. Third, while ChatGPT and other large-language-model systems are all the rage, they are but a small part of what is going on - the real magic is happening with robots and cobots and machine vision and machine intelligence and beyond.
That's why Strategy #4 in my series of 24 Strategies for 2024 is straightforward: appreciate complexity - with respect to AI and everything else.
Read on for some fascinating statistics on what is really happening out there based on up to the minute research!
@Teri_Kanefield This is a shame. I've got my Mastodon server one year in and it runs like clockwork. I've also got server level backups so I can roll back to any day in the past. Same thing for my Wordpress site.
I use Blogvault for Wordpress backups ... one click restore.
You shouldn't have to abandon your Mastodon server as part of this; it's your identity, and not worth the effort to try to move people again. Just get a good robust server level backup in place for it.
Have your tech support give me a call like he did before if you want to explore.
