In response to some of the foolishness taking place around the country on tax day today, I offer a very un-GenX take on the subject of the individual and the community, reposted from my old Emphasis Added blog from 2003:The concept of  the “rugged individual” is intimately bound up with contemporary conservatism. He (because the ideal is ...

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As part of my work with Dan Rasmus at Microsoft, we're revisiting the scenario planning framework we developed in 2003 (as explained in our book, Listening to the Future) in light of current events. The following few posts will outline my own ''unofficial'' (e.g., not Microsoft-sanctioned) view of potential outcomes to the economic crisis. This ...

Just saw that Stud Terkel, the great journalist and sociologist, died today at the age of 96. His oral histories of ordinary people helped define our notions of generational attitudes and work. Needless to say, he was a great inspiration.

''I suffer from attention surplus disorder, Fraa Orolo liked to say, as if it were funny.'' This line really stood out to me when I heard author Neal Stephenson read from his new book, Anathem, last Monday. Stephenson, along with William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and others, is part of the generation of ''cyberpunk'' authors whose vision of a wired, ...

This is a re-run from the old Emphasis Added, originally posted July 25, 2005. It's in line with my current interests and seemed like it was worth a re-post.Imagine for a moment that technology, globalization and other “big trend” factors have transformed the US economy such that the only good job prospects are in the construction industry. In ...

This brutal takedown of Mark Baurlein's The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, or Don't Trust Anyone Under Thirty over at the Huffington Post raises some good points about the perennial efforts of older generations to sound alarms about the insufficient learning, respect, and work ethic of ...

A couple of weeks ago, there was a minor furor caused by Lenore Skenazy, a New York parent who allowed - even encouraged - her 9 year-old son to find his own way back from Bloomingdale's to their home on the Upper West Side, riding the subway on his own. Skenazy, who wrote about her experience in the New York Sun amid much public criticism, has ...