Two of my favorite writers and thinkers have recently released books. Clay Shirky has written a book entitled Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age in which he persuasively argues, among other things, that the Internet is making us smarter because it is allowing society to produce such knowledge accelerators as Wikipedia at virtually no [...]
Can the Internet Help Us Unlearn?
March 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
"If this is the information age, what are we so well-informed about?" So asks David Gelernter is this excellent essay in Edge entitled, Time to Start Taking the Internet Seriously. Rather than rehash Gelernter's entire article, I just want to highlight a few key concepts: 1. To date, the Internet has been about increasing the [...]
Video Killed the Video Star
March 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
If a picture is worth a thousand words how much is a picture within a picture worth? That's the question every video provider should be asking itself because, like this famous picture from Pere Borrell del Caso, there is often more to a picture than meets the eye. Earlier today, I came across a new [...]
Do the Math Until It Doesn’t Add Up
February 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When Data and Decisions Collide: Unlearning Needs to Result
November 4, 2009 By 1 Comment
Fellow blogger and change agent, Seth Godin, has an excellent post today entitled "When data and decisions collide." In it, he recounts numerous examples of people ignoring data because it doesn't line up with their "hunches" — or what people think they know but "just ain't so." Godin is pessimistic about the time it will take most [...]
To Unlearn: Try Reading the Newspaper Backwards
October 1, 2009 By 2 Comments
In my 2008 book, Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies, one strategy I encourage people to employ from time to time is that of reading the newspaper backwards. Why? Because it can help you more clearly see where the future is headed. This, in turn, will [...]
The World is Changing: Unlearn!
August 27, 2009 By 2 Comments
Take a look at the pictures to the right. What's wrong with them? The answer would seem pretty obvious: they are upside down. But that is wrong. They are only "wrong" from your perspective. From outer space there is no up or down, so the globe can just as correctly be viewed from one perspective [...]
