Comments

My simple approach to enlisting the help of 4 year olds (some of them are actually 80 year olds) is to have you (and me) accept that you are 'experience rich and theory poor' when dealing with C21st possibilities.

Your ongoing understanding of C21st business in theory, and in practice, could come down to the quality of your insights into the web, clans, and tribes. To help you to better understand those entities you may need to slough off much of what you hold as indisputable truths. I suggest you take more comfort from your imagination than your intuition until things settle down around 2015.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 14, 2009 4:19 PM

For one, see EVERY difficult situation as a glorious opportunity to make anew that which I have once held true.

It's a great time to be alive! Thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 14, 2009 4:46 PM

Richard, I am dumbfounded that you would label this as new. As I understand it, way way back, the brain of our ancestors had a once-only growth spurt of extraordinary magnitude. The growth was not mostly about readin' writin' and 'rithmatic. About 60% of the new growth was "used up" on issues of social bonding per se. It is our highly developed tribal-social instincts that set us apart from other species more than any other thing. (I think I'm getting this right.) So tribes, clans, webs are truly hardwired; perhaps we are taking to social networking, circa early 21st century, with such glee because it "comes naturally"???

At any rate, it's all worth thinking about--and thanks for providing the impetus for doing so.

Posted by tom peters at January 14, 2009 5:12 PM

What a beautiful post thank you.

Tom - my first grandson Sebastian will be 4 years old in September 2009 but I'm not waiting till he is 4. I’ve been learning from him for three years already. You are so right this learning from youngsters thing has been going on literally ‘since Adam was a boy.’

There is nothing new in learning from youngsters. You gave us this quote centuries ago in “Liberation Management” from Victor Palmieri that I love and use all the time:

“Strategies are okayed in boardrooms that even a child would say are domed to fail. The problem is there is never a child in the boardroom”

Kids have always been the greatest form of inspiration and learning. Long may it continue. Computers and technology facilitate their teaching of us oldies thank God.

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 14, 2009 5:27 PM

Thank you for this recommendation. I will soon order the book. Although I'm not a Boomer, I spend quite a lot online. I have never been a fan of malls, especially indoor ones--bookstores, though, are quite another thing. But shopping for such is just easier online.

With regards to insides and outsides, there will never be an outside without an inside, as there will always be an inside needed to program an outside and an outside needed to make it happen. Social networks rely on people and online shopping networks, needless to say, rely on consumers.

The interesting thing will be how to reward service in this digital age, how to build equitable businesses. Many large online news blogging sites, for example, both benefit from advertising and unpaid post bloggers (writers). But who benefits most? Perhaps that’s not the question to ask. Maybe rewards come from various means.

Listening to a cable news network one night there was a gentleman starting a new blogging political site. The newscaster asked the entrepreneur, do you expect people to blog for your site for free? Without stuttering in the least, the entrepreneur replied, "of course."

With large blogging sites there must be some sort of exchange, perhaps notoriety or exposure of sort for the blogger. There are programming costs associated with such sites, but there will not be printing press and delivery costs either. It seems more reminiscent of the many artists for centuries who give their talents pennies or for free to large organizations with simply the hope of what one day may be.

By going online, reducing cost associated with printing and delivery, who will benefit most, the publishers or writers of Christian Science Monitor? (The New York Times recently added advertising to their front page out of necessity.) I’m assuming that their editorial structure will not change massively. Perhaps they will add blogging to their online version as most other newspapers online do, while the posts remain trained journalists.

I must admit to loving this time of upheaval. It has the feel of a meritocracy. But will it be really when it comes to equity?

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 14, 2009 5:45 PM

Sure it comes naturally - that's the whole point! Tom, what you are yet again making a 'big deal about' is simply a commonsense and practical use of new technologies to form C21st social constructs. An uninhibited 4 year old will take up these modern tools and use them in new ways (that is the new bit) to do what we have always done - be sociable, learn things that are useful, rely upon our powers of imagination to either solve or to go around 'sticky and complex' problems. One of our current problems (global recession/depression) is 'new' simply because a bunch of people used modern technologies to build an interconnected global financial network that made redundant our C20th social arrangements for regulating banks, etc. In the same way a 4 year using web-based social networking to inform herself and others about her universe and then to converse with others about what she has discovered is not new - it a continuation of what our ancestors did. BUT then again it is 'new' because she has access to a whole new digital world of technologies and inter-connectedness that did not exist when you were 4 years old Tom. Its good fun this new digital world - whether it is new or old - it is just lots of fun....

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 14, 2009 5:49 PM

"it is just lots of fun"

I hope, Richard. As usual (!), all swords are double-edged; it also enables-abets unspeakable harm by those who choose to inflict it.

Posted by tom peters at January 14, 2009 6:18 PM

Richard, to your point, have you read this?

FYI:“Technology massively multiplies soft power—particularly video technology, and particularly in the hands of non-state actors. … The power and distinction of a government’s voice is lost in the competing chatter, and in some ways it becomes the least compelling simply because it’s the least novel. It’s not just words competing against words. Images are now competing against images. People are visual creatures, and they tend to respond to videos and pictures on a much less rational and much more visceral level. … YouTube (and whatever follows it) will soon have greater global influence over narratives about international events (if it doesn’t already) than any government information source could hope to have.” —Foreign Policy, Nov-Dec 2008

Posted by tom peters at January 14, 2009 6:44 PM

Commonsense is not often common and what is natural seems completely foreign to some. Hence, this is the brilliance of others to make commonsense embraceable and what is natural acknowledgeable.

Four year olds often do both of these effortlessly, totally unknown to these adorable and often precocious ones. Maybe this is a formula for adults too: charm and irreverence.

brand viagra without prescription Posted by Judith Ellis at January 14, 2009 6:55 PM

I had not read that quote Tom but I agree with the sentiments expressed there. It worries me! So I have been doing something - my thing I guess - about it. I am fortunate to have a direct line into policy making within my country and so it is through that channel that I have been reminding our political leaders of just how and why these web-based multi-media changes might impact the normal course of events. I am one small voice calling, through that channel, for the withdrawal of our troops from the Afghanistan/Pakistan War (some in Australia deem it to be the right war - I do not!). Also I am just one small voice urging President Elect Obama to increase cyber-warfare capabilities to way beyond what exists today and in so doing also choosing not to follow the Bush mistake of fighting a losing war - this time in Afghanistan/Pakistan. I also urge President Elect Obama to use his wonderful appoints at the CIA et al (including his new advisor on terrorism) to recast Washington's notions of the real threats being faced around the globe today. I know, from long hard experience, that I am simply pissing into a very strong breeze but what the heck I owe it to my sons to try to do something to change these ridiculous strategy and policy settings. about a year ago I blogged HARD on my own site about the rise and rise of those who seek to harm the citizens of my country (and yours Tom) through web-based images, comment, conversations, videos, etc. I believe in freedom of the press, media, and internet BUT I also believe in remaining vigilant when your citizens are at risk.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at January 14, 2009 8:49 PM

buy viagra australia online "Also I am just one small voice urging President Elect Obama to increase cyber-warfare capabilities to way beyond what exists today ..."

Amen!

(I'd add "dramatically" before "increase.")

Posted by tom peters at January 14, 2009 8:59 PM

What I love is children's questions. When I became a Dad I expected the factual stuff "how old is the Earth?" "What is the Sun made of?" etc

I didn't expect "WHY is the Sun?"

How do you answer that!?!?

What I have most gained from children is a renewed sense of curiosity and wonder - it's fabulous.

Posted by PaulH at January 16, 2009 10:55 AM

Kids are super!!!

Posted by Judith Ellis at January 16, 2009 12:43 PM

Good point!
Anyway I am helping my 14 months old grandchild to prepare to be on Tom's board, within three years. I am sorry his blog is written in Spanish, but here it is: www.angel-omar.blogspot.com
Greetings from Chihuahua, Mèxico.
Armando Ortega

Posted by Armando Ortega at January 18, 2009 1:12 PM