I’m a technology geek, I have to admit.  I take a look back at where we were 5 years ago.  High powered laptops were luxury items (heck, desktops were luxury items just 15 years ago), cell phones were a digital voice communication device that worked everywhere, so long as everywhere was near a major highway.

Compare that to where we are today.  Looking forward 5 years is exciting!  There is no one more in tune with the future than David Houle, a futurist nonetheless.

I stumbled upon David’s blog Evolution Shift over a year ago, and his posts on the future hooked the technology geek.

Evolution Shift has evolved into a recently published book, The Shift Age, and if a look back on the past doesn’t get you excited about the future, a journey through The Shift Age will really open your eyes.

For me, the first dozen pages set the lure.  David wrote the book for those whose time is limited, and only read in short bursts.  Check.  He mentions that most of the columns in his books can be read in 5 to 10 minutes.  Perfect!

The beauty in the book is that it’s an easy read on a deep subject with a far-reaching scope.  The fact that I finished the book in under a week should speak volumes.

A statistical look forward.

David has gone to great depths researching the manifestation of technology through the last several decades, and has forecast out further penetration of connectedness.  As an engineer, “In God We Trust, all others bring data” is a mantra.  The Shift Age shows up with the data.

One of the main points of the book is what David calls the “Flow to Global” (click here and let David explain it to you) in which global forces change the environment in which we live, bringing upon a truly global economy.

Through plotting out internet traffic over the last decade, it is easy to see that global connectedness will (and already has) stimulated the flow to global.

Speed of change.

An interesting concept that David brings forward is how rapidly things change in todays environment.  From my perspective, most of the older generations today understand change, and they’ve come to accept speed.  Younger generations have come to embrace speed, and expect change.

Speed of change is almost a fourth dimension (actually it’s the second derivative of distance with respect to time, or most commonly referred to as “acceleration”).  Personally, I believe most humans think in terms of speed, not acceleration.  So supporting the concept of the speed of change is eye opening.

Something familiar.

Those who frequent the Evolution Shift blog will find The Shift Age familiar, as it is a compilation of various blog posts from 2005 or earlier up until one year ago.  So in effect, The Shift Age is (if you understand the speed of change – you’ll have to read the book), already obsolete.

Never fear though, David has assured me that the follow on to The Shift Age is in the future!

Look for an interview with David Houle soon.

Additional Resources

The Shift Age Website

Evolution Shift Blog

The Futurist Chanel on YouTube

Book Reviews David Houle, Evolution Shift, The Shift Age

Reading “Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst” will leave you wondering how you can ever make a penny in the stock market.

Dan Reingold delivers a first hand account from the shoes of a telecom analyst on The Street and in the process reveals the secrets from the other side of the wall that give business and banking firms a hand up in the stock market.

An experience based in the WorldCom era, the amount of greed and corruption that prevails behind closed doors will knock your socks off, and quite frankly anger you if you’ve got money in the market.

An analyst is brought “over the wall” when confidential information about earnings or mergers is discussed, but never to be discussed with anyone, lest insider information be brought to the market.  Jack Grubman (CNN Money Article), Dan’s public enemy of the street was notorious for pumping up numbers and spilling the beans for the benefit of the banking side of his firm.  The problem was that the SEC either didn’t know about his activities, or turned a blind eye when they found out.

Dan reveals how an analyst could soften the blow of a down quarter or pump up the market in advance of a blowout by slowly leaking information a couple weeks before the news hit the wires.

The details are astounding, and is a must read for those that follow the market or aspire for greatness at the helm of a public company.

While the dot com boom is over (are we on the verge of another?) for now, and the corruption seems to be coming to the surface as a result of the WorldCom and Enron bust, it’s even more important to scrutinize who you get your information from, as you never know what the agenda or motive is from the person or firm which you received it.

Even Jim Cramer (wiki) suggests that you should never rely on a single source of information, but spread your information risk out over a wide range of analysts, and this book couldn’t reinforce that fact any more clearly.

Additional Information
Buy The Book
Dan Reingold Website

Book Reviews, Investing

James Gleick pulls out all the stops in an attempt to convince you that you’re being left in the dust by the rest of the world in his book Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.

Ironically, “Faster” is about the slowest read I’ve encountered in a long time.  Even more ironic is that Gleick agrees, pointing out in the last few pages that due to all the examples of how microchips, cell phones, and television producers are catering to our desire to do more in less time, it’s a tough book to wrap your brain around.

To be frank, I was a bit disappointed.  The facts are interesting, yet seemingly unorganized and repetitive.  While I could identify with his Type-A personality observations, it was just a short segment of the book that really kept my attention.

We are moving at a record clip in our society, to be sure.  Ever annoyed that broadband speed just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore (even while data from a EvolutionShift.com suggests that  broadband is just now coming of age in lower income households, but still in the shadows in others), or that the two second delay between tracks on your CD is wasting your time, we are definately influenced by the clock.

Read more…

Book Reviews