…and the little Fiat isn’t bad either…
https://www.cam.ac.uk/this-cambridge-life/the-futurist-who-would-like-the-future-to-slow-down
Lovely Little Profile Piece
Reply
Author Archives: Richard
A Preview of Coming Attractions…
Stat of the Week
In a recent study, some 70 percent of U.S. mothers reported that they played outside every day as children; only 31 percent of their children do.
Graffiti watch
Lewes, East Sussex, the day before yesterday.
Top 4 Megatrends?
I wouldn’t totally disagree with these 4 Mega-trends via McKinsey & Company, although I’m not sure about limiting the list to just 4. Maybe best see my trends map for a contextual overlay. Link for web version here or print version here.
.png){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
Excuse me…?
New category on my blog – hypocrisy watch. No, it’s not a new $40,000 eco-watch by Gucci, although it could well be. Example number one is a charity run by David Milliband that pays the former foreign secretary £700,000 per year, but somehow canl’ pay it’s full-time interns anything at all. Example number two, from the Sunday Times Luxx magazine, a feature on sustainable pensions followed, two pages later ,by a feature on handhags costing £6,015.
The magazine goes on to feature a hotelier that says “I hope we’ve made a kinder, softer place that makes people more conscious of their surroundings” , which is then followed by a feature on swimming pools with rollerskaing floors and wave machines and 30m yachts with glass hulls to watch the fish.
I have no issue with any of these things in isolation. It’s the combinations that bother me.
Pure Orwell
From my new friend ‘Mr T’ in Seattle.
Is Time Circular?
Sitting on an uncomfortable train going to Cambridge. I’m supposed to be thinking about waves of disruption, but instead I’m reading about gardening. The line in the piece below that grabs me is that in a garden, time is circular, not chronological. It’s certainly not wholly linear, although, to some extent, it is ultimately about birth, decay and then death. Then the cycle repeats. Strangely, for me, that’s not a depressing thought. Quite the opposite in fact.
Getting Closer…
It’s getting a bit better, although still too many mistakes and currently lacking an underlying logic for the structure. Bear with…
Quote of the Week
Something from Jim Steinman, the musician, who wrote Bat Out Hell and died a few days ago (1947-2021).
“If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.”
Reminds me slighly of Kurt Vonnegut’s quote: “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” And this, of course, harks back to Guillaume Apollinaire’s ‘Come to the edge’ quote.