A piece from the beloved Fox News arrived in my inbox–It’s Fear Over Our Country’s Future That’s Driving the Tea Party Movement. For once, I agree….sort of. I suggest that the fear transcends current politics. I’m reminded of one of the first futures books I read, way back when I was an undergraduate at Salem State College just discovered the field of futures studies: Fred Polak‘s The Image of the Future. The book came out in the 1970s, translated from Dutch, with the thesis that key driver behind the rise and fall of civilizations was the presence or absence of a compelling image of the future. He concluded that a key problem of contemporary society was the absence of such an image. Fast forwarding to the present, that absence remains.– Andy Hines
For Foresight, Use Hinesight
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- Foresight success? May 13, 2013I did a five-minute “Little Big” at the APF “Play” Gathering on May 3rd in Orlando. I called it “A Framework for Discussing Success.” The ideas emerged from dissertation and I am planning to write a journal article on it, but for now here are the main ideas. I reviewed the foresight literature to see […]Andy Hines
- 16 things that made me go hmmm at APF’s “Play” May 7, 2013Thought I’d share some musings from my experience at the APF “Play” gathering. Borrowing from the old C&C Factory song, here are 16 Things That Made Me Go Hmmm.(I’m not attributing as I don’t want to misquote anyone or get them in trouble) LVC for types of simulation: Live players – football practice; Virtual – people […]Andy Hines
- Reflections on the Future of Cities April 29, 2013The Houston Futures extended family gathered for a weekend of futures fun on April 12 and 13. While a key purpose is to give students, prospective students, alums, faculty and friends a chance to socialize and network in person, there was also plenty of good discussion about the future. The topic theme on “city making” […]Andy Hines
- Futurist: specialist or generalist? April 22, 2013A prospective student raised a question about specialization in foresight in a recent APF listserve conversation. This question is also a frequent one of our Houston Futures grad students. We discussed the question recently in Pro Seminar and did a ”personal branding” exercise to help us think through how we want to present ourselves to […]Andy Hines
- Future of Knowledge Work April 18, 2013I have a new article that I put together with my frequent collaborator Chris Carbone of Innovaro on the Future of Knowledge Work published in Employment Relations Today. It explores how knowledge work is being reshaped by a variety of social and technological forces that together will alter how it is distributed, organized, and performed in […]Andy Hines
- Thinking about the Future….soon to be re-stocked April 16, 2013So sorry if you’ve gone to Amazon and seen Thinking about the Future selling for over $2,011.22. Of course, feel free to buy it at that price . Unfortunately, it recently went out of stock and I was not notified. I will re-stock when I get back in Houston on Wednesday and it will be […]Andy Hines
- What do we call it? April 12, 2013It’s been great to hear growing interest in developing the field and profession of _______, um, what do you call it? I looked at this question in my dissertation and found it has received intermittent attention over the years (Cornish, 1977; Horton, 1999; Becker, 2002; Schwarz, 2005; Amsteus, 2008; Sardar, 2010; Masini, 2010; Marien, 2010; […]Andy Hines
- Glass Houses April 5, 2013A great post by “The Consumerist” on a social-media driven issue on Future of Artificial Dyes in Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Mary Beth Quirk tells the story of how two bloggers triggered an online petition with over 270,000 signatures that led to a meeting between the bloggers and Kraft. Here’s a telling quote from the […]Andy Hines
- A Futurist Elevator Speech April 2, 2013Someone asked me recently for my elevator speech on “what is a futurist?” Basically, if someone asks you what a futurists is, what’s your 30-second response. [And we require our students in the futures studies program to do one.] I’ll confess that I am not consistent, and that there are a whole bunch of calculations I […]Andy Hines
- Ten Do’s and Don’ts for an Aging Futurist March 26, 2013I just celebrated my birthday and realized that almost half of my life now has been as a practicing futurist – 25 years if you count the two years in the program at UH. In the spirit of eating one’s own cooking, I am forecast that I will at some point be an old or […]Andy Hines