Commerce

In spite of, or perhaps because of, Matthew Broderick thinking that yelling “Learn!” at a computer will actually make it do so, WarGames is a pretty fantastic movie. Released in 1983, the science-fiction film tells the story of David Lightman, a computer hacker played by Broderick, who accidentally finds his way into a military supercomputer programmed to predict outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets the computer to run a nuclear war simulation, which causes an international nuclear missile scare and almost single-handedly starts World War III.

Behavioral economics as we know it today is not behavioral economics as it will be in five, ten, or fifty years. Right now, the field of behavioral economics is basically acting as a wake-up call to economics. Behavioral economics is saying, “Hey, traditional economics: we humans aren’t as smart as you give us credit for. People aren’t 100% rational. Let’s figure out how and why, and if we can some predictable, systematic way of modeling that irrationality, so much the better.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times recently did an experiment; he purchased a digital copy of WIRED on his iPad. While the magazine was downloading, he drove twelve blocks to his neighborhood magazine shop (Brooklyn), bought a paper copy of the same magazine, and drove home. The iPad version was still downloading.

I know, I know, you're shocked.

Writing for the future is an exciting experience (and perhaps a fabulous job), especially for the futurists. In fact, the futurists explain their thoughts and ideas trough writing articles, books and blog posts.

January 1, 2011 marked yet another milestone for the Baby Boomers. As of this New Year's Day, the first of the boomers turned 65, with an additional ten thousand becoming senior citizens every single day. This demographic shift will create pressures and challenges that all generations will have to respond to.

Last night I dreamed (and don't blame me for my dreams) that I was about to address a diverse audience. I wasn't nervous at all (hey, it was a dream), but I was anxious about how to address the group.

"Ladies and gentlemen" seemed wrong. What if there were people in the audience who were gay? "L" and "G" are are still "ladies and gentlemen," but what about "B," "T," and "Q" (bisexual, transgender, and questioning or queer)?