When the economic future feels more iffy than ever, randomness should not be something to fear but rather, something to exploit. Author-provacateur Nassim Taleb talks with Fast Company about the concepts behind "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder" and how we can harness disorder to advance our careers and our companies.
Ever notice how when the future becomes the present, it takes way longer to go through than you thought? Then get ahead with activity-based forecasting.
Google unveiled plans to make Net searches lighting quick with Instant Pages. This is possible only because Google's "very confident that we know what search results you want." Sure, you'll shave five seconds or so off all your searches--but it's not without some complexities.
Here are a few things that people might live to regret saying in the future. All are offered in a spirit of festive fun but all also have a serious side.
Think you're good at predicting the future? History says that you're not. What have people said in the past about the future and why do so many predictions get things so hopelessly wrong?
In the December/January issue, Fast Company magazine takes an in-depth look at the tumultuous state of advertising on the eve of the biggest creative revolution the industry has witnessed in decades. As a companion piece, we asked three agencies -- BBDO, Factory Design Labs, and Victors & Spoils -- to visualize the business today and what they foresee. Their contributions indicate an optimistic, if wryly cautious, view of the future. Have a look:
DARPA's issued a new "funding opportunity" dubbed Prophecy--it's a program to investigate how virus evolution may be predicted, notionally to improve the way the drug business tackles health threats. But it's DARPA, so there're military issues in the mix too.
Sarcasm, emoticons, slang, and idioms are usually difficult for software to interpret, which makes it tricky for companies to analyze huge amounts of customer feedback through comments, blogs, and emails. IBM's new software might be able to help.
