Rating: 
Summary: Find yourself in a day just on the other side of tomorrow!
Review: If you wonder more often these days just where you've been, where you might be going, and most important, where you are right now, here is a book that can set your course. Watts Wacker is resident futurist at SRI Consulting, a famous Stanford University spinoff. Jim Taylor directs global marketing for Gateway 2000, known for its highly successful brand of computer marketing."In a truly reasonable world, you could plan your way to a reasonable end... How reasonable is the world we find ourselves in today?" As we enter the last year (or two) of the 20th Century, more and more of us are asking, "Where am I and where am I going?" If I thought I knew the answers before I read this book, I am thoroughly disabused of those answers now. The fly in grandfather's remedial ointment is the rate of change, not just change itself. Today ends at midnight; tomorrow is a different day. Trite? Not so --note the word "different" where the old saw reads "another day." But even more to point, tomorrow is already here! "Houses stagnate in value while bundles of stock rise along a curve no one can understand. Instead of planned obsolescence, we have moved into an era of inherent obsolescence. The computer is outdated the moment we open up the box it has come in; the food processor breaks, we chuck it; the television breaks; out it goes... Real wealth is intangible, not tangible. The temporary is everywhere. And the temporary and intangible, lo and behold, are a perfect fit for the Age of Chaos." As I look about, how can I otherwise than see that the age of chaos is not next year, nor beginning in 2001. It's here, now. The authors are right. But one need not dwell on this fact of life - rather, we look out over the horizon to use this gift of knowledge wisely. In a world in which 25 years of dedicated service to a company is suddenly terminated with or without ceremony --the "pink slip"-- what does one do about "job security?" History teaches that there are a succession of 500-year "Deltas," relatively flat planes followed by precipitous change. We are leaving one of those deltas and entering the next one, even as we cross over into a succeeding millenium. We are entering an age of possibility - really of infinite possibility. Yesterday, although a memory, is dead. We will bury it in the chaos of this year, the next decade, and the next. Towards the book's end there is this intriguing passage: "Twice before in this book we have asked you to find yourself in the scenarios we have created --the first of an uneasy sleeper, the second of that same uneasy sleeper's next day. Now we ask you to find yourself a last time, in a day just on the other side of tomorrow..." --end--
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and insightful but overly wordy
Review: In short the book could have been about 60% shorter. At times the hypothesis drawn are illuminating but very often the authors are spending entirely too much time to support their insights. My feeling is that anyone reading a book such as this doesn't necessarily need a whole lot of convincing as long as there is some sound rationale and telling examples to support the theories. Having just completed the book I would recommend that anyone interested in picking up the book just look at the last 15 pages to get a sense of the nature of the book where the authors make predictions regarding the next 500 months and the next 500 years. There are however some very keen insights on the power and use of technology (connectivity), tribalism, the role of corporations and government, business and social constructs, the importance of constant education, the nature of chaos, the power of the consumer... and almost all of this is addressed from primarily a marketing perspective. There was very little that was written that I disagreed with but I feel like the same thing could have been said in many fewer words.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and insightful but overly wordy
Review: In short the book could have been about 60% shorter. At times the hypothesis drawn are illuminating but very often the authors are spending entirely too much time to support their insights. My feeling is that anyone reading a book such as this doesn't necessarily need a whole lot of convincing as long as there is some sound rationale and telling examples to support the theories. Having just completed the book I would recommend that anyone interested in picking up the book just look at the last 15 pages to get a sense of the nature of the book where the authors make predictions regarding the next 500 months and the next 500 years. There are however some very keen insights on the power and use of technology (connectivity), tribalism, the role of corporations and government, business and social constructs, the importance of constant education, the nature of chaos, the power of the consumer... and almost all of this is addressed from primarily a marketing perspective. There was very little that was written that I disagreed with but I feel like the same thing could have been said in many fewer words.
Rating:
Summary: Perspicacious! The ultimate visionary treatise for business
Review: Perspicacious! The ultimate visionary treatise for
businesspeople today! Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor are incredible speakers as well as writers and practitioners consulting with corporations.
Rating: 
Summary: Baloney
Review: The only thing I can say after reading this book is--baloney! I've never read a more useless business book such as this. I have no doubt that the author has never worked a day in his life. Get a job! Get a life!
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone interested in the future!
Review: This book is a "tough read" -- you've got to concentrate and often re-read passages immediately. However, it is a book that will completely readjust your vision of work and life as the "Age of Chaos" emerges from the "Age of Reason." Given the authors' superb track record, we'd all better pay close attention to what they have to say here. The book works on several levels for readers: personally, professionally and even for potential investors. It should be must-reading for all entreprenuers at the very least.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone interested in the future!
Review: This book is a "tough read" -- you've got to concentrate and often re-read passages immediately. However, it is a book that will completely readjust your vision of work and life as the "Age of Chaos" emerges from the "Age of Reason." Given the authors' superb track record, we'd all better pay close attention to what they have to say here. The book works on several levels for readers: personally, professionally and even for potential investors. It should be must-reading for all entreprenuers at the very least.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating and thought provoking by disrupting assumptions
Review: Wacker and Taylor challange the way we think about most aspects of our lives. The idea that there is a paradigm shift every 500 years is an exciting notion. While the book rambles at times it always rewards the reader with a new idea or a deep insight. As a guide to get accross the delta of change economically, socially, culturally and psychologically the book is exceptionally useful. Even if the authors are wrong on every point (doubtful) the direction they point to and the ideas they gesture to are worth double the price of the book. We need to be looking differently and Wacker and Taylor point a way
Rating:
Summary: Awesome read for every forward thinking CEO
Review: We all need a functioning crystal ball to really excell in todays competitive world. These guys have made what I call 'crystal ball polish'. Whether you prefer to flip to the middle for the 'good stuff' or wade through what is in this case a slow beginning - just do it! You'll see real world case studies and examples extrapolated into a believable future. It's an intelligent compilation that should be worked into every forward looking business persons reading list. Once you've read it, you'll feel like you've polished your crystal ball. Really.
Rating:
Summary: More Questions than Answers
Review: What a book! Anyone looking for Answers or to know what the future will be need not apply. The author's whole point is that there are no answers, and we have to manage our way through the paradoxes as best we can. This is important, unfortunately this point is not always clear in the text - sometimes one is left hanging, wondering whether a question has been asked or a statement made. (hence the lost point, chaps) Maybe I just don't translate American all that well, being English and divided only by language! What Paradoxes? Things are getting bigger. And smaller. Things are going faster. And slower. Things are going global. And local. So the key is to know your self (a point they do make) and this puts me in mind of a quote I read (and can't find so I'll misquote it if I may:-"Give me the strength to change the things I need to change, the perserverence to put up with the things I can't change and the wisdom to know the difference."I am also intrigued by the 'back to the future' angle the authors use - 'futurists better be good historians' sounds like another paradox to me. Overall a good read - a waypoint on the journey with a few good hints and tips. Some other waypoints I have found on mine- Having a few good heros helps (strangely there are not many of these in this in the book) - so check out Horatio Nelson (Christopher Hibbert) - how can one so flawed become so great? The Art of War by Sun Tzu (full text is on the net), I have a printed version with a forward by James Clavell - again notable in its absence. Built to Last (Collins & Porrass - two more Stanford Alumini) which treats the Paradox question as a dualistic concept from Chinese religious philosophy (!).Bon Voyage!
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