Learning and Education

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.

In February, I’ll be attending a conference in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The conference is the “World HRD Congress” for Human Resource Development professionals.
Why is a futurist attending a conference for HR professionals? Because the organizers have asked me to speak about how Personal Futures can help them train leaders and potential leaders in their organizations in long term thinking—foresight. The title of my presentation is “Leadership and the Long-Term Perspective.”

The president’s State of the Union Speech was - at long last - the one I wanted him to give. It went after the very poison that has so sickened the United States of America. His call for us to shake off the Cult of Future-Hatred, indulged in by both right and left, was about urging us to start looking forward again, instead of to some mythically better past.

For some time, I’ve been working on an updated version of the Personal Futures workbook. I am just about ready to post the new edition (4th) at www.personalfutures.net. I’ve sent out some review copies to check for errors, but will have the new workbook posted by the 15th.

What’s new?

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)?

Big cuts by the UK government and a tripling of university tuition fees pushed British students to protest. Passing tuition fees rise by the British parliament may have implications that will affect the future of higher education in the UK and elsewhere.

Change can be made at different levels: individual, organizational and societal. On the one side, people resist change (“we have always done things this way, why shall we change it?”) but on the other side they embrace it (“I have moved into a new apartment”, “I got a new job”). How come?