Predictions for your future in the information age.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
20 years ago it was incredibly difficult to create a reality that you could effect.
You had control over the people you came in contact with. You could reach out to anyone who you could look up the phone number too.
In order to build anything, you needed to pander to the established media. They thrived on this, of course, because no one had a choice but to talk to them.
Now no one needs the media, and you can see how much of an empty shell it was –reality dumbed down to fit into 20 second sound bites. A 24 news-cycle thriving on the degradation of others. I know first hand, I’ve worked for the media.
For 50 years we sat idly by and watched “Lostâ€, now it’s time to reclaim your time.
Television domination is over now. Anyone can publish what they believe in. It is fairly easy to gather followers who will support your cause. This blog proves this, and so does every other blog out there with a following.
There is no longer any excuse to not do what you love. Seriously, create your own movement.
There are millions of things you could be doing tonight instead of watching TV. In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that you should destroy it entirely.
If you must watch something, watch TED. Ideas are far better to fill your brain with than the emptiness of the airwaves.
Here are a few of the changes that I see coming in the next five years because of this change:
Everyone will be supporting a community of minimalist businesses.
As business diversifies, so will the support. Twenty years ago big business dominated because they could buy many more television ads than the rest of us. This is why there’s a Burger King in every single town.
With the rise of social media, everyone now has a chance to find their true following.
As society moves away from that drudge and start appreciating quality hand-made work again, we will start to see consumer support move in that direction. Everyone will be the business owner, the marketer, and the consumer. We will support individual’s single-operator businesses from across the globe.
It will become much easier to rise to the top at what you’re passionate about.
It’s already so easy to Gatejump your way to success, and it will become even easier as good ideas float to the top of the cloud faster. All you have to do is create exceptional value, which isn’t actually that hard. Yes, you’ve been trained to do nothing by the TV in your living room for the last 50 years.
You need to destroy it now, and start working on your own projects every single night until an idea worth spreading appears to you.
Go on walks. Get in touch with nature. Start drawing. Get a camera. Take a dance class. Eat new foods. Write something that means something. Finger paint on your wall. Do something that will make people look at you weird, because the weird people are kicking your economic butt in it’s fluorescently lit chair.
Everyone will have to unlock their inner creativity.
Robots, computers, and outsourcing are quickly replacing cubicle drones. If you have no talents and no inspiration in your daily life, you need to up your game. The robots are coming for you.
Anything that can be done better by a computer is not a good career aspiration.
You are an individual, and it’s totally your fault if you continue to take orders and do repetitive tasks all day, and then go home and watch CSI. Make a change, start to design your freakin’ life, and get out of there. You need to become an artist, a creative, and an original thinker if you’re going to get out of the unemployment line.
A college education is quickly becoming less needed.
20 years ago, the only way to access information was through teachers at a school. This is no longer the case. Many universities are at a major disadvantage in the chain of information distribution, because they’re a bottleneck. They contain numerous teachers who haven’t seen the light of day since 1982.
The world has changed a lot since many of the teachers got to these schools, it also moves a lot faster. The real time information available on the net and through recently published books far exceeds the educational ability of larger institutions.
School teaches you to be good at school.
It’s not to say you won’t learn something there, and I did go, but is it worth $150,000? You have to ask that question.
Don’t go to business school, get a Personal MBA. Read business books, like Jason Fried’s Rework.
You will have to figure out what you’re passionate about.
If you’re stumbling around wondering what you’re actually interested in, that’s okay for a bit. Eventually you need to start doing something though. Sit yourself down and contemplate: what do I really enjoy doing?
If you don’t have an answer, here’s another solution: Stop doing everything you hate doing and see what you’re left with.
The silence of emptiness can be a huge motivator to finding your true calling. Stop running around, start silently contemplating what you want to do for the rest of your life. Once you find that sweet spot, you’ll actually be happy.
What else can you remove to free yourself further?
Once you know what you care about, you have to go further. What ballast do you need to throw overboard to get to the next level? The more junk you remove from your life, the more time you will have to pursue your goals. You will reclaim your dreams. As you remove each task that you hate doing, you will free yourself to make positive choices towards creating great work.
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What predictions do you have for the future of the information age?
What steps are you taking to take advantage of the changes?
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