Master Your Mindset #14
Futurist Mindset
To survive and thrive in any industry, one must consider the future to stay ahead of trends. Because we are living in a time where technology now, is literally doubling in speed and costing half as much each year, what is relevant today will become obsolete very quickly. This process of increased speed and decreased cost is only getting faster and faster. My favorite futurist, Ray Kurzweil, wrote a book titled The Singularity is Near. Here he discusses how the Law of Accelerating Returns deeply impacts our future and in such a way that is inconceivable to most people living.
Who is Ray Kurzweil?
Ray Kurzweil is a graduate of MIT, an inventor many times over, an author and predictor of the future. His predictions, on his singularity curve, of the impact on technologies have proven to be extremely accurate. His predictions are based on the Law of Accelerating Returns. He was employed by Google to build the first artificial brain and what he is predicting for the next two decades take us into a mind-blowing reality.
What is the Law of Accelerating Returns?
The tendency for advances to feed on themselves, increasing the rate of further advance, and pushing well past what one might sensibly project by linear extrapolation of current progress.
Consider the Law of Accelerating Returns to stay ahead of future trends.
When someone has a proven track record of success with inventions and accurate future trend predictions that are based on mathematical equations, one should take notice and use that specialized knowledge to contemplate how these future technologies will impact their own industry so that they can be prepared to have a competitive advantage or at the very least remain relevant. Consider Kodak.
How I found Ray Kurzweil
I became online friends with the social media guy for Michio Kaku, one of my favorite physicists. In conversations with him about how I don’t believe people are supposed to die, he introduced me to a documentary, Transcendent Man, that was soon to be released by Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis where they talk specifically about this topic; how in our lifetimes (year 2045), people will be able to reverse aging and, if they want to, live forever. Many people’s minds cannot even conceive this topic. I know because I’ve brought it up only thousands of times.
Next Week’s Master Your Mindset Teaser:
Even Pieter Thiel, who I will be talking about next week, in the Zero to One Mindset, asks potential employees: “What is one truth that you believe hardly no one else agrees with?” To be inventive, one must contemplate the future and not be held back by linear thinking. The simple concept that if we can imagine it, it can happen should always prevail. My mind conceives amazing things and I believe we are evolving to an incredibly magical future without limitations.
-Christi McAdams