A zen perspective on how we think about the future
If you're a music student at the largest university music program in the US, you're not surprised that your University of North Texas home in Denton Texas is an amazingly alive local music venue. The crowd last night at Dan’s was delighted by a fusion of university related alums, local stars, university jazz faculty and Grammy winners. No matter where one can travel in the world, small local venues can easily exceed large commercial venues in quality and surprise. This is whether we're talking about food, microbrews...
For as long as we have collective memory, governments and their adversaries have been sending our youth into the jaws of death called war. It is an old conversation: how do we sacrifice our young for our freedom? The oxymoron of “war to end all wars” has not come to pass because violence usually only begets more of the same, the way all energy forms replicate on multiple scales. The new conversation that we need to invite is: how do we as adults, finally acting with collective wisdom and maturity, engage all youth...
As all manners of technologies continue to proliferate and propagate every corner of the planet, it becomes incumbent on us to decide how much responsibility to assign technologies for our actions. Do social media create narcissistic behaviors? Do processed foods make us unhealthy? Do guns create violence? Do cell phones make us inattentive? Do mass production methods obliterate local living economies? Do government structures make us collectively passive and unwise? I would argue that we will move forward as a civilization...
With nostalgia for the innovation culture of the ‘60s and general lack of enthusiasm for popular investment fads, Peter Thiel – who was Facebook’s first outside investor and a co-founder of PayPal – is shunning the most popular Internet startups because they are not “taking civilization to the next level.” He is putting his billions behind emerging innovators, urging them to sacrifice the questionable value of college for a seat on his magical bus. “Universities are like the General Motors of the 1970s,” said Thiel...
Futurist Ross Dawson in a recent podcast talks about the value of a futurist perspective. The most important single aspect of thinking about the future is that the future transcends boundaries. Whatever domain you are considering, be it a company, an industry, or a geographical region, the key issue is how its boundaries will change and what new will come from outside. However limited the scope of your interest, you need to consider almost everything, across society, technology, business, and the evolution of humanity...
As more people are, with now a third of the US in the obesity column, my friend Doug is migrating toward a healthier nutrition palette. There is no end to what one can easily and quickly do with soy based interesting sausages, any kind of beans and greens, none of which are steep culinary risks. When you add any savory Indian flavored spices, food becomes far more interesting and healthful than the staples of red meat and processed starches. And the eco-bonus is that what tends to be good for our spirit bodies is...
So, do you have a favorite combination of instruments in whatever genre of music you enjoy? We continue to hear more interesting uses of violin and rock, horns and folk, flute and jazz, a Capella and jazz, cello and blue grass. The improvisations ate endless, especially in the live and indie contexts.
The NY Times reports that US crime has decreased to a 40-year low. It is a trend that baffles crime experts. Perhaps it is the same bafflement that has plagued other experts. Their paradigm is unsurprisingly economically oriented. Crime, according to economists, is supposed to increase during recession crises. But then again, many economists had the same bafflement over their lack of prediction of the current crisis. I dream of a future where we get over the ancient narrative that economics drives human behavior...
Today I am launching a Happiness Trends Survey that measures personal happiness along 20 indicators. The survey is anonymous and the research from it will contribute to my 10th book, “The Joy of Thriving,” due January 2012 (DesigningLife Books). I will posting trends here at Jack/Zen as they emerge. I invite you to take it and pass along the link to as many people as you can. It is especially useful for people to do together as a catalyst for new conversations about how we can understand the nature of each other’s...
10-time author and designer with a focus on change in organizations and communities. HappinessChoice.com. Contact Jack at jack(at)happinesschoice(dot)com
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
