by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. An edited version of this article first appeared in the November/December 2008 edition of Teach magazine. In my last blog, I talked about how we both can and should move away from the local monopoly of whatever teachers happen to be available to a given student. To recap, what I am […] Read more

Teachers from Socrates up to the present have taught in much the same way: by lecturing in person to a group of listeners. There is a lot to recommend this approach, not least that we are all familiar and comfortable with it, and it’s simple to do: take people interested in learning (or who are […] Read more

Have we hit bottom? Are we starting up? Yes, and no. Yes, we’ve probably hit bottom. No, we’re not starting up – at least the United States isn’t, and most of the developed world will see feeble growth at best. Yet, the global economy is growing, and we are seeing the biggest disparity ever between the […] Read more

The polarization of American politics is evident from the way that Republicans and Democrats seem to loathe each other. They scream at their counterparts; they rant for the cameras; their surrogates in the press besmirch each other as worse than foreign enemies. Indeed, the fact that John McCain, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for president, in […] Read more

And now, as Monty Python once said, for something completely different. Have you ever tried to explain the game of (Major League) baseball to someone who knows nothing about it? I tried once, back in the 1980s, to explain it to my (English) father-in-law, and found to my dismay that baseball is a game that […] Read more

Free trade works for everyone – but only if everyone works. Rich countries, especially in North America, are getting lazy, and that spells trouble.

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. All developed nations are struggling with health care because of their aging populations. In America, for instance, the Great Debate is on, chock full of noise and nonsense, about providing universal health care. Those opposed say that it is socialized medicine, and therefore a sin, and bad. Those who are […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. I’ve written about robots on several occasions before, but want to revisit the subject because the arrival of robots is imminent, and portends more than just science fiction characters come to life. First, let’s review where we are. Robots have been around for decades, but mostly in very rudimentary forms, […] Read more

A wild card is a low probability event, which, if it occurs, has dramatic consequences. I believe we now face such a wild card. The idea occurred to me just last week, as I was riding a plane from A to B. Sometimes ideas coalesce for no apparent reason, and as I was reading about […] Read more

Innovation is motherhood in the corporate world. You have a problem? Innovate! Falling sales? You need innovation! Losing market share? Innovation will fix that.  Are your people less than dedicated to good old Corporate You? Don’t hesitate ­– Innovate! There is, in fact, a minor industry in innovation these days. It’s become a black box, […] Read more

  “What if I’m wrong? What else might happen instead?” This (two-part) question may just be the smartest question in the world, because it allows you to lift your head and look around at a broader world, outside the boundaries of your opinions and preconceptions. If you’re considering the future, as I do, then this […] Read more

What follows is a summary of a presentation I gave to a symposium on the future of food. In attendance were farm producers, food processors, food retailers, and research scientists. I believe that the development of nutrigenomics will prove to be the most important development in food production and preparation since the introduction of fire […] Read more

What follows is a summary of a presentation I gave to a Canadian manufacturing group concerned about the financial and economic effects of the current crisis. I found it particularly interesting that I had just spoken to this same group eight months earlier, and the presentation was hastily arranged and held just seven days before […] Read more

Regular readers of this blog know that I have been increasingly concerned about the credit crisis, and have maintained for some time that this crisis has the potential to bring down the global financial system. I have also stressed that there has been a very low probability of this happening. More recent posts, though, have […] Read more

I recently spoke about the future of education to the faculty of an elite, K-12 private boys school. Money had clearly been lavished on the campus, which looked like a small private university. And it was clear that only people with deep pockets could afford to send their boys there. During the Q&A after my […] Read more

“That 70s Show” is a TV program, presumably about nostalgia for an earlier day. Yet, we may actually be going back to the world of the ’70s, and I don’t think we’re going to like it. In particular, we are going to experience inflation that is higher than any we have had since the 1970s, […] Read more

What follows is a summary of a presentation that I made for the international “Pulp and Paper Strategies” conference in Miami, Florida, in mid-February of 2008. In it, I outline the major changes in our society’s use of paper, and the very positive forces at work that can benefit pulp & paper producers, particularly the […] Read more

In June of 2000 I wrote an article called “Hi, robot!” (which you can still find on my website) in which I said, among other things, that a robot vacuum cleaner for households would be among the first robots available, that a general-purpose robot housekeeper might be available within 7-10 years, and that human-like commercial […] Read more

 The credit crisis unfolding in the U.S. is not over, nor have we seen the worst of what may be to come. Indeed, I would argue that we have seen two of the four Horsemen of the (financial) Apocalypse, and should keep our eyes peeled for the other two. The two that we’ve witnessed to date […] Read more