Outrun Change

We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.

Archive for the category “Change down the road”

29 Apr 2013
3 Comments

Impact of the technology revolution has barely begun

That we haven’t seen the full impact of IT is a comment I heard the first time a few years ago. That sort of made sense but didn’t really register. This blog is focused on sorting out that change. The idea that the technology revolution has barely begun finally clicked for me with a column by Matthew Yglesias – Why I’m Optimistic About Growth and Innovation.

A few industries have seen huge impact from technology. Think of book publishing, journalism, and music. Those industries have been turned upside down. I read a lot and listen to a bit of music so am quite attuned to those areas. The way everyone consumes news has been transformed. I regularly read dozens of blogs a day. They just appear on my computer screen with a mouse click or two. I’ve always been a news junkie, and my consumption has soared in the last few years.

However, as big as those industries are, they are a small part of the total economy.

Read more…

Posted in Change around us, Change down the road, Pondering, Technology and tagged ,
27 Apr 2013
1 Comment

What your visit to the doctor may look like in 2023

You will still take a cab to the doctor’s office. For a while. That is a post that guesses what the annual checkup might look like a decade from now.

A self-driving car takes you to the office. A friendly, perceptive, caring, automated voice talks you through your checkup. Sensors that don’t touch you run all the tests.

John Bredehoft paints an appealing picture. Check it out.

You’ll have to read the article to see John’s predictions for the destiny of Google, Facebook, and Apple.

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road and tagged
18 Apr 2013

Interview with an asteroid miner – Yeah, I did say mining of asteroids and it’s coming from the private sector

Check out this video - Profits in Space! Entrepreneurs Are Scanning the Cosmos for Big Money. Glenn Reynolds interviews Chris Lewicki, CEO and Chief Asteroid Miner at Planetary Resources.

A few highlights: Read more…

Posted in Change down the road, Technology and tagged , | Leave a Comment
06 Apr 2013

Start a college in your basement

The frontier in higher education is wide open.

How ‘bout starting a college in your basement with $100k seed money?

That’s what Mr. Tim Cook has done with Saxifrage School. He wants to radically cut the cost of college education. His idea is to combine learning a trade or other productive skills along with traditional humanities classes that teach you to think.

Check out the status so far, according to Startup Takes Aim at Old-School Ways in the Wall Street Journal: Read more…

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02 Mar 2013

The frontier is open, education department – stuff learned vs. time spent

One territory in the open frontier of the education world is the idea of assessing knowledge acquired instead of counting time spent in chairs.

Two articles last week point to the possibilities, both from Via Meadia:

College Too Expensive? Try the $5,000 degree – Second sentence of the post:

Read more…

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28 Jan 2013

New frontiers are open – Part 4

The new frontiers:

  • Oil Patch
  • Publishing
  • Education
  • Space Exploration

New frontiers have opened up, with incredible opportunities as wide as the prairies in the northern plains states. They also have the same high price of admission as the old frontier.

In the previous post, I talked about the oil patch and publishing. Now I’ll talk about education and space exploration.

Education

Read more…

Posted in Change around us, Change down the road and tagged | Leave a Comment
25 Jan 2013
1 Comment

New frontiers are open – Part 3

The new frontiers:

  • Oil Patch
  • Publishing
  • Education
  • Space Exploration

The American prairies

The opportunities opened up wide as the prairies and the Dakota sky with the signing of the Homestead Act.

A man and his family, or a single woman, or a former slave, could stake out a claim, work as hard as you wanted, and with a little bit of luck and constant hard work, make a go of it. Millions of people did.

The opportunity was there for the taking.

As I mentioned before, the land was free but the admission price to play was steep.

That frontier has long been closed.

Other frontiers have opened up, with the opportunities, also as wide as the prairies. Also with the same high price of admission.

Read more…

Posted in Change around us, Change down the road and tagged
15 Jan 2013

What if we laid off 70% of all workers? Wouldn’t we go back to the Stone Age and stay there forever?

That’s the lead question in an article by Kevin Kelly at Wired, Better than Human.

He asks:

Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do?

Well, we’ve been there, done that.  And thrived.

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road, Technology and tagged , | Leave a Comment
15 Dec 2012

Why the Malthusians always get it wrong

“We are about to starve to death” is a recurringly popular idea. And it is recurringly wrong.

Rich Karlgaard surveys the Malthusians of several ages before giving two reasons such folks always miss the boat in his article Bad News Bear at Forbes.

Mr. Karlgaard mentions four people in the we’re-gonna’-starve-this-afternoon camp.  I’ll add a fifth.

Read more…

Posted in Change around us, Change down the road and tagged | Leave a Comment
28 Nov 2012

“Top of the first inning” in education reform

There is radical change taking place in the education world. Where will it go? How will we handle on-line cheating? What’s the credential going to look like? 

Nobody knows. And that’s okay.

Huh? That’s okay?

Yeah. Read more…

Posted in Change down the road and tagged | Leave a Comment
01 Sep 2012

The technology revolution has just begun – part 2

What will develop next after the astounding technology changes of the last 30 years? We have no idea.

Previous post described my brain stretch from an article, The Next Great Growth Cycle, by Mark Mills.

His main point is we can no more tell today where technology will be in 30 years than we could predict in 1980 where we are today.

He then points out three major technology transitions that are already here and will have a huge impact in the future:

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road, Change in the past and tagged , , | Leave a Comment
31 Aug 2012
1 Comment

The technology revolution has just begun – part 1

It is hard for my brain to stretch that far, but when I try really hard, I can grasp that the astounding technology change we’ve seen in the last 30 years is no more than the opening chapter for the future.

My latest brain stretch is courtesy of The Next Great Growth Cycle, by Mark Mills.

He describes the astounding technology growth from 1950 through 1980 that left people wondering what could possibly come next.

Sitting in 1980…

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road, Change in the past and tagged ,
06 Aug 2012

3-D printing of exoskeleton for child who is no longer immobilized

Emma, the child in the video, was born with a disease that means she can’t lift her arms. Available technology helps but is too heavy for her. Looks like the equipment isn’t very mobile.

The manufacturer used 3-D printing to make parts light enough for this little girl to move her arms and mobile enough for her to go everywhere with it.

From the YouTube link:

Two-year-old Emma wanted to play with blocks, but a condition called arthrogryposis meant she couldn’t move her arms. So researchers at a Delaware hospital 3D printed a durable custom exoskeleton with the tiny, lightweight parts she needed.

Read more…

Posted in Change around us, Change down the road and tagged | Leave a Comment
02 Jun 2012

Radical change is a factor for even the newest college grad

“Future-proofing your career” has three areas of advice for new college grads from Charlie Ball.

Actually, the advice applies to everyone.

With new college grads having at least a 45 year work horizon in front of them, he has three major words of advice:

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road | Leave a Comment
03 May 2012

Some skepticism on mining asteroids

Count The Economist as skeptical on the plans Planetary Resources has to mine asteroids as one step in their privately funded space exploration efforts.

In their article, Going platinum, they survey some of the hurdles.

Read more…

Posted in Change down the road, Technology and tagged , | Leave a Comment

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