Why Thinking About The Future Is So Important

The future is closer than we think.

I will be the first to admit that forecasting the future is damn near impossible. Some technologists and futurists are somewhat adept but, for the most part, we all suck at it.

That said, it does not mean that we cannot study and understand general trends as they start to unfold. We also can begin to grasp where things are going.

Surce

We are at the point where I firmly believe not doing this is a great detriment for oneself. Quite simply, technological development is moving too fast. If people do not condition themselves to question where things are going, they are likely to make decision that haunt them.

This applies to the fields of investing, careers, where to live, and a host of other "life" decision we make on a regular basis.

Let us look at careers. Are you ready to spend four years in school (or more if the field requires post-graduate education) studying for a career that will be gone within a decade? Most will answer no. The follow up question is whether the field one is pursuing falls into this category?

How many students are embarking upon a career that might not be there in 10-15 years?

This is just one example. How about the idea of investing? Many like to make long term decisions. What are your thoughts about the oil industry? Do you agree with the mainstream media that oil is done and those companies are in trouble?

It is easy to fall into this belief. However, if we analyze the pace of EV implementation, as an example, we see that there are going to be a lot of cars requiring gasoline for many years to come. In fact, even if EV sales skyrocketed, we will still spend the next half decade putting out more gas powered cars than electric.

Of course, nothing is forever and there will come a point where the EV movement does take over. There again, ideology can get in the way. Not being able to see the fact that most cars sold at the end of this decade will be non-gas powered could be fatal.

Without understanding how rapidly things are changing, we are apt to utilize the same thinking we always did. This is not going to work. When I look back upon live from 1980-2000 and how it changed, it was truly amazing. Most fail to remember how much things changed and how it affected our daily lives.

Instead they focus upon the last 20 years where things were rather slow, at least from that standpoint. Outside the smartphone, a lot is basically the same.

That is not going to be the case. We are entering upon another technological cycle that is on the upswing. These things go through 20 years phases, and can be traced back to the mid-1800s. With the pace of things as compared to a few decades ago, we are going to see great changes within the next 10 years.

This is why thinking about the future is so vitally important.

---

If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.

gif by @doze