Pete's Newsletter - Predictions - Issue #46
Isaac Asimov and Foundation
I somehow managed to trick Cindy into watching the new show Foundation on Apple TV. It's based on famed Sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov's stories.
If you like sci-fi, history, and philosophy. I can't imagine not watching it.
Here is the trailer.
When researching Asimov the man, I came across an interesting interview he did in 1988 with Bill Moyers. Here he is explaining the impact of the rate of change in our society.
The fact is that society is always changing, but the rate of change has been accelerating all through history. For a variety of reasons. One thing, change is cumulative. The very changes you make, make it easier to make further changes.
It was only with the coming of the industrial revolution that the rate of change became fast enough to be visible in a single lifetime. So that people are suddenly aware that not only were things changing, but they would continue to change after they died. And that was when science fiction came into being...
Well, as time goes on, the rate of change still continues to accelerate, it becomes more and more important to adjust what you do today with the fact of change in the future.
So that nowadays, futurism has become an important part of thinking in business, in economics, in politics, in military affairs. At any rate, science fiction is important because it fights the natural notion that people would have that somehow there’s something about things the way they are right now which are permanent.
Video Here h/t @BrianRoemmele
History's Seductive Beliefs
Has the increasing rate of change made it necessary for us all to be futurists?
These days it does seem like you need to predict the future. At least with Investing, careers, real estate, politics, technology, and startups. hmm..
From Morgan Housel
The biggest takeaway from history is that the characters change but their behaviors don’t. The technologies, trends, tragedies and winners – the events that take place – are always in flux and can be nearly impossible to predict. But the behaviors that drive people into action, influence their thoughts and guide their beliefs, are stable. They’re the same today as they were 100 years ago and will be 100 years from now.
Recent Posts
Post #1 - Advice for Startups that are rapidly scaling, as they build their 2022 revenue and sales model.
Scaling and optimizing are two different things, and it isn’t easy to do both simultaneously.
Post #2 - The most important metric for measuring the health of a sales organization - "Rep Participation Rate"
Post #3 - What we can learn from startups like Yelp, DoorDash and Square who managed to win in the difficult SMB market.
Weird History
In 1803 off the coast of Japan, a group of fishermen came across a "mysterious ship-like object" with a single pale woman inside clutching a box. The original drawings of the incident are... familiar.
Trey the Explainer made a somewhat dry but interesting video that looks into the history of the incident. (story starts at 2:50)
Music of our time
I keep going back to two songs, over the past few months, as we all attempt to re-enter some level of "normalcy" — whatever that means.