Got this from an internal thread, interesting stats (although mainly US based) that contrast the changes from 1999 to 2009…
All this and still no hoverboard!
Archive for the ‘Arrogance of the Presence’ Category
The “Noughties” By The Numbers
Monday, January 11th, 2010Exploring Innovation
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Working with Andrew Quinn (one of my Strategy Consulting colleagues) we presented at the Exploring Innovation event hosted by Unwired. This is an event that aims to expose various innovative technologies to organisations to help form some of their strategic thinking especially around the New World of Work.
We managed to secure and take one of the Microsoft Surface devices with us, which proved to be a real crowd puller, it’s just amazing what having one of these devices can do to people’s perceptions of what is possible.
The real magic isn’t in the device though, it’s that it’s significant enough of a change in how we view “computers” that it enables people to think really differently about how technology could be leveraged in the way we live, work and play.
This seems to be the real trick to successful envisioning in that you’ve got to find a way to break the thought patterns of those involved to open up to new potential – we aren’t always lucky enough to have a “big ass table” with us, but man, it sure opens doors (and minds) if you do…
The Arrogance of the Present
Monday, June 15th, 2009
In doing some research for some video debates we’ll be doing with the FT soon (more on that soon), I’ve been reading Jonathan Margolis’ intriguing book on Futurology – A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Early on, Jonathan posits a condition known as “Arrogance of the Present” – a condition many people suffer from (and have suffered from throughout history) which is the “belief of every successive generation that at last, sophisticated, modern folk that we are, we’ve got it and indeed, we _are_ it.”
This condition means many things to different people but whatever it means – it spells trouble for those of us that believe we can do better and/or different things with technology and that, believe it or not, as clever as we think we are, there’s still a whole lot more for us to do/invent/evolve.
This arrogance is not restricted to technology either, it applies to many of the changes we face in both our professional and personal lives. Think about what people must have thought when mobile phones were first invented – “why would anyone want to carry such a device” and then think about your lifestyles today. As much as we’d like the option to not have one for a week or two – I’ll bet there’s not many of us that would want to be permanently without one.
The problem for me is that this kind of attitude is infectious in those who don’t have an understanding for what the changes may bring and worse still, feeds on itself to blow even the inane into matters of critical importance to society.
I’m asking you then, as readers of this blog to seek out examples of this “Arrogance of the Present” – highlight them for what they are (hell, send ‘em in and I’ll post them here in a special category of their own if they’re good enough) – but whatever you do, help people understand that we’re just not _there_ yet and if it’s OK with them, we’d like to on keep trying to push the envelope a little…
