How a Futurist in 1952 envisioned our present

Following a tweet by Guy Kawazaki, I stumbled upon Lists of Note, a cool blog featuring lists & todos written by random celebrities such as Marylin Monroe or science fiction author Robert Heinlein.

Published in Galaxy magazine in February of 1952, below are Heinlein's predictions for the year 2000:

So let's have a few free-swinging predictions about the future. Some will be wrong - but cautious predictions are sure to be wrong.

1. Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door -- C.O.D. It's yours when you pay for it.

2. Contraception and control of disease is revising relations between the sexes to an extent that will change our entire social and economic structure.

3. The most important military fact of this century is that there is no way to repel an attack from outer space.

4. It is utterly impossible that the United States will start a "preventive war." We will fight when attacked, either directly or in a territory we have guaranteed to defend.

5. In fifteen years the housing shortage will be solved by a "breakthrough" into new technologies which will make every house now standing as obsolete as privies.

6. We'll all be getting a little hungry by and by.

7. The cult of the phony in art will disappear. So-called "modern art" will be discussed only by psychiatrists.

8. Freud will be classed as a pre-scientific, intuitive pioneer and psychoanalysis will be replaced by a growing, changing "operational psychology" based on measurement and prediction.

9. Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered; the revolutionary new problem in medical research will be to accomplish "regeneration," i.e., to enable a man to grow a new leg, rather than fit him with an artificial limb.

10. By the end of this century mankind will have explored this solar system, and the first ship intended to reach the nearest star will be a-building.

11. Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision.

12. Intelligent life will be found on Mars.

13. A thousand miles an hour at a cent a mile will be commonplace; short hauls will be made in evacuated subways at extreme speed.

14. A major objective of applied physics will be to control gravity.

15. We will not achieve a "World State" in the predictable future. Nevertheless, Communism will vanish from this planet.

16. Increasing mobility will disenfranchise a majority of the population. About 1990 a constitutional amendment will do away with state lines while retaining the semblance.

17. All aircraft will be controlled by a giant radar net run on a continent-wide basis by a multiple electronic "brain."

18. Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.

19. Mankind will not destroy itself, nor will "Civilization" be destroyed.

Here are things we won't get soon, if ever:

-- Travel through time
-- Travel faster than the speed of light
-- "Radio" transmission of matter.
-- Manlike robots with manlike reactions
-- Laboratory creation of life
-- Real understanding of what "thought" is and how it is related to matter.
-- Scientific proof of personal survival after death.
-- Nor a permanent end to war.

A couple of quotes to conclude these 60-year-old predictions:

• Political debaters could benefit from: "I never learned from a man who agreed with me."
  
• And a reminder for VCs, Angel investors, doctors and whoever contemplates a dead-end: "Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done."
  

Thank you Steve for everything, R.I.P.

Dear Steve Jobs,

Many thanks for your dedication, for your inspiring passion to do what you love, for bringing colors and beauty to the grey world of computing, for making products our grand-parents AND kids love showing off, for making products that connect people to each other, generation Y with generation, for being our muse.

I couldn't help shed a few tears over your death this evening. I know it sounds weird, given I didn't know you personally. But I practically grew up watching you and Bill Gates arguing and making up ;) After all, I'm one fo those who learned how to spell my name on an Apple keyboard before even knowing how to write it with a pen. Another reason I feel sick to my stomach is the realization that my opportunity of meeting you one day is forever gone. Completely vain I know, yet it is oddly frustrating and shakening... As you pointed out during your famous commencement address, life is indeed very short...

My dear Friends,

May Steve Jobs' spirited legacy inspire you for many years to come...

2 pieces of advice for hospitality entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship advice can come from the most unexpected places... Have you noticed how it often occurs when you happen to be wandering around or on your day off?

After the intense launch of Ridehack, this labor day weekend was indeed welcome. And to make the most out of it, a trip to Upstate NY seemed the perfect way to find peace, quiet and nature.

A great Airbnb find led us to Rhinecliff, NY in a private and charming guest house surrounded by magnificant trees, still standing after Hurricane Irene's passage. Our hosts, a very friendly family, were grateful the water "only" destroyed their garden and covered everything up to the first floor of their house...

Alana, owner of the Red Dot, in Hudson, NY

Yesterday was spent exploring the quaint town of Hudson, NY following the advice of a CouchSurfing friend. After walking around the main street and enjoying the beautiful architecture, we found our way into the welcoming Red Dot, a local bar/restaurant owned by Alana. It quickly surfaced that Alana had lived in the city, i.e. New York City, for more than twenty years (it turned out that all the people who spoke to us that day were ex-New Yorkers...).

After years spent in the city in the extrememely competitive world of Fashion, and having launched Versace Jeans Couture in the US, serendipity brought Alana a welcoming parachute and a nice piece of real estate in Hudson NY.

A trip in Mexico led her to Alberto's Continental, a restaurant in Merida, which had welcome anyone and anybody including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The Lebanese owner, who obviously knew what he was talking about, gave Alana, then toying with the idea of opening a restaurant in that Hudson NY building, two pieces of advice.  She was kind enough to pass these along:

Advice #1: Serve hamburgers

Advice #2: Treat the place like your own living room

If you can't do any of these, then forget about opening your own restaurant!

How to live before you die, by Steve Jobs

To start this new semester inspired, may I invite you to watch Steve Jobs' Commencement Address to Stanford University's graduates.

Although performed in 2005, its content remains extremely actual and will hopefully resonate with you for as long as you live... If not, you can always do like me, which it to read the transcript or watch it again occasionally ;-).

Outside-the-Box Revenue Models for Online Dating & Social Networks

I landed yesterday evening in Miami for iDate and... as of late last night it turns out I will be speaking at an interesting workshop this afternoon @ 1:30pm.

Some of the ideas that I will be sharing may be inspired by practices that have proved to generate successful results in other industries.

Other ideas may be intuitive or based on "emotional marketing".

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. You may be a publisher, a blogger, a shopping site, who found clever ways to create new revenue streams in your niche. Please shoot (before 1:30pm EST)!

Cheers, S@ 

INTERNET DATING CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP: IDEA Session: "Outside the Box" Revenue Models for Online Dating & Social Networks - 3 Unique Perspectives

This 3^rd annual workshop is one of the most popular attended by most of the CEO's in the business. The session serves as a unique idea generating session for developing other revenue models for Online Dating and Social Networking. Three independent consultants to the industry will each provide "outside the box" ideas on how businesses can acheive higher revenue from their user base. Speakers are: Bill Broadbent (Founder & CEO of Instinct Marketing), Scot McKay(Founder / Dating/Relationship Consultant at X & Y Communications) and Sandira Calviac (Marketing Consultant). 

At previous events, the Revenue Model Workshop was met with resounding success from the delegates. Many operators gained valuable business information and some gained multi-million dollar business ideas from the session. At the iDate2010 event, each presenter will provide ideas in "rapid fire" each for 20 minutes, followed by a 30 minute question period from the general audience.

On the future of advertising agencies

A comment I posted this morning on Gotham Gal's blog post: A reality check.
That was before breakfast, so some words might have been eaten on the way ;)

There are many ways to break the rules, and it's not always about coming up with NEW processes or NEW thinking. Her dream may not sound unique to you or revolutionary, but she - as a unique person with her unique take on the world - may bring a unique perspective. A great agency is not just about cool and new this and new that but is a lot about reliable people committed to providing their clients with the best collaborating experience and value.
Most often companies that are "getting killed" are the ones (in which partners killed each others first and/or) who forgot their purpose and who they're doing it for, focusing too much on the what and the push of matter vs. adapting to what the market wants. Think about Nokia going from toilet paper and rain boots manifacturer to holistic provider of mobile experience.
Also, to resonate on the restaurant observation, why do we as a customer pick this restaurant over another one? Most important, why do we go back?
Or, why do people buy old school, vintage clothes?
Often time, we - especially in the media/tech industry - tend to obsess with the latest, newest tech or buzz word, when in fact successful things or transactions are rarely 'new school'. No reason to be jadded though ;)
Maybe that woman via her boutique agency will be able to provide that missing piece for her clients in a way that no other agency can... For every client, there's an agency out there... ;)
"To you I am nothing more
than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world. . ."
The Little Prince, Saint Exupery

Stand by Me - Playing for Change

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

What Should We Do With Our Life?

By: Po Bronson

The real meaning of success -- and how to find it.

A fantastic article about why and how each individual should find meaning in what he/she does and go for it. I especially like how the author, Po Bronson, finds out about some misconceptions and kills in the process the idea of wanting to make (tons of) money 'first' in order to fund/unleash that meaningful dream.
To me, it's like parents who plans to have kids when they earn enough, thinking that this financial comfort will automatically bring the emotional balance required for the 'preparation of the nest'.
The article is from 2002 (published in Fast Company), I wonder if the author still thinks that way, or if he made some new discoveries on the topic.
Apparently he wrote a bunch of books:

More excerpts from the article:

• Being smarter doesn't make answering The Question easier. Using the brain to solve this problem usually only leads to answers that make the brain happy and jobs that provide what I call "brain candy." Intense mental stimulation. But it's just that: candy . A synthetic substitute for other types of gratification that can be ultimately more rewarding and enduring. As the cop in East L.A. said of his years in management at Rockwell, "It was like cheap wood that burns too fast."
• What am I good at? is the wrong starting point. People who attempt to deduce an answer usually end up mistaking intensity for passion. To the heart, they are vastly different. Intensity comes across as a pale busyness , while passion is meaningful and fulfilling.
• Every industry has a culture. And every culture is driven by a value system [...] One of the most common mistakes is not recognizing how these value systems will shape you. People think that they can insulate themselves, that they're different. They're not. The relevant question in looking at a job is not What will I do? but Who will I become?
• Probably the most debilitating obstacle to taking on The Question is the fear that making a choice is a one-way ride, that starting down a path means closing a door forever.
• If you don't like The Inevitable Cocktail-Party Question [i.e. "What do you do?"], maybe it's partly because you don't like your answer.