The latest book from the Sunday Times #1 best selling author
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley appears before Ebenezer Scrooge and unveils two visions of the future. The route to the bright side required a change in attitude and behaviour. The dark side required only that Scrooge should carry on as before.
The same requirement is upon each of us if we are to thrive in our world of techno-powered, blistering fast and accelerating change. To flourish, we should first push back against the training, conditioning and education which has moulded us for a vanishing way of life.
As the world of gradual change gives way to the world of permanent acceleration, the attributes that deliver success and happiness will transform. In fact they’ll invert. Until now the path to the good life was assured by being 'nice'. You knew that it was buttoned-down, buckled-up, average, normalised, predictable, diligent, incremental and rule-following behaviour that led to the good life. The so-called "Organization Man" thrived.
This straitjacket reaped rewards. It still does in many larger organizations. But only for the moment. To continue this way as if nothing is changing all around you will, one day very soon, lead you to a tin pan alley. Because if these nice qualities are your strengths then, gradually and then very suddenly, they will become your weaknesses.
All of a sudden creativity, compassion, empathy, curiosity emotional intelligence and playfulness will be the supreme human qualities. Such behaviour is deeply human and perhaps for this reason it is also the hardest for machines to replicate.
As a result, the steel-cased algorithms that are hurtling into our world at the speed of howling six-legged soldier robots herald something quite different from the doom of our species. In fact, he says, we are witnessing the end of meat machines and the rise of human beings. The result is that we are on the verge of a creative revolution.
To be future proof in a world of constant change we must adopt the liberated, Anti-Nice behaviours of artists, entrepreneurs and inventors. In a pacy and utterly engrossing read this book lays out the code to thrive in the machine age and flourish as technology eats our jobs and turns society upside down.
Get it right and the future, standing on your threshold knocking on the door, is bright.
In this short book the lessons of entrepreneurs, artists and inventors are codified. To become Anti-Nice (which is a good thing) is to pursue six attitudes:
Anti-Certain
Anti-Safe
Anti-Conform
Anti-Moderation
Anti-Order
Anti-Precious
It turns out that the age of the robots may also be the age of the human.
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley appears before Ebenezer Scrooge and unveils two visions of the future. The route to the bright side required a change in attitude and behaviour. The dark side required only that Scrooge should carry on as before.
The same requirement is upon each of us if we are to thrive in our world of techno-powered, blistering fast and accelerating change. To flourish, we should first push back against the training, conditioning and education which has moulded us for a vanishing way of life.
As the world of gradual change gives way to the world of permanent acceleration, the attributes that deliver success and happiness will transform. In fact they’ll invert. Until now the path to the good life was assured by being 'nice'. You knew that it was buttoned-down, buckled-up, average, normalised, predictable, diligent, incremental and rule-following behaviour that led to the good life. The so-called "Organization Man" thrived.
This straitjacket reaped rewards. It still does in many larger organizations. But only for the moment. To continue this way as if nothing is changing all around you will, one day very soon, lead you to a tin pan alley. Because if these nice qualities are your strengths then, gradually and then very suddenly, they will become your weaknesses.
All of a sudden creativity, compassion, empathy, curiosity emotional intelligence and playfulness will be the supreme human qualities. Such behaviour is deeply human and perhaps for this reason it is also the hardest for machines to replicate.
As a result, the steel-cased algorithms that are hurtling into our world at the speed of howling six-legged soldier robots herald something quite different from the doom of our species. In fact, he says, we are witnessing the end of meat machines and the rise of human beings. The result is that we are on the verge of a creative revolution.
To be future proof in a world of constant change we must adopt the liberated, Anti-Nice behaviours of artists, entrepreneurs and inventors. In a pacy and utterly engrossing read this book lays out the code to thrive in the machine age and flourish as technology eats our jobs and turns society upside down.
Get it right and the future, standing on your threshold knocking on the door, is bright.
In this short book the lessons of entrepreneurs, artists and inventors are codified. To become Anti-Nice (which is a good thing) is to pursue six attitudes:
Anti-Certain
Anti-Safe
Anti-Conform
Anti-Moderation
Anti-Order
Anti-Precious
It turns out that the age of the robots may also be the age of the human.
