The income tax system is only one of many systems that will collapse in the coming years.
An enormous opportunity is presenting itself as a frightening problem—Complexity. How leaders react will determine the future of their businesses, and indeed the future and prosperity of America for decades to come.
Continue reading… “Collapse of the income tax system – does it mean the end of life as we know it?”
Futurist Thomas Frey: All the way back in March of 2004, working in his laboratory at the University of Southern California in San Diego, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, was working with a new process he had invented called Contour Crafting to construct the world’s first 3D printed wall.
His goal was to use the technology for rapid home construction as a way to rebuild after natural disasters, like the devastating earthquakes that had recently occurred in his home country of Iran.
While we have still not seen our first “printed home” just yet, that will be coming very soon. Perhaps within a year. Commercial buildings will soon follow.
For an industry firmly entrenched in working with nails and screws, the prospects of replacing saws and hammers with giant printing machines seems frightening. But getting beyond this hesitancy lies the biggest construction boom in all history.
Here’s why I think this will happen.
Continue reading… “Printable Houses and the Massive Wave of Opportunity it will bring to Our Future”
New York beats out London as the city with the most global clout.
You can put another feather in the cap of New York. In the rivalry between the world’s biggest cities, New York bests London and Tokyo on a new Global Cities Index by A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Opportunities are often right before our eyes, but few of us can see them.
Futurist Thomas Frey: The super-connected nature of the Internet is giving us a far different “opportunity landscape” than ever before in history. Unlike the painstakingly slow 400-year period between DaVinci’s drawings of flying machines and the Wright Brother’s first flight, development cycles in the digital era can now be measured in hours and minutes rather than decades or centuries.
Continue reading… “14 Global Projects that could Make You the World’s Next Billionaire”
There can be years of decisions, learning, analysis, thought and effort to become an “overnight success”.
Rovio spent eight years and almost went bankrupt before finally creating their massive hit Angry Birds. It was their 52nd game they had created. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing websites in history, but struggled for a long time. Pinterest’s CEO recently said that they had “catastrophically small numbers” in their first year after launch, and that if he had listened to popular startup advice he probably would have quit.
If you haven’t seen the hysterical viral ad by the new start-up company Dollar Shave Club, you’re missing out. In just under a week, more than 3 million people have watched the ad campaign on YouTube, which cost just $4,500 to produce.
Continue reading… “Dollar Shave Club a viral web sensation, but can it become a viable business?”
Do you want to be a millionaire?
You should try building one of the following seven companies, says Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham, if you want to become a millionaire.
Continue reading… “Build one of these 7 businesses if you want to be a millionaire”
Two years after Crocs was on the verge of bankruptcy the company has opened hundreds of new stores.
Footwear-maker Crocs (CROX) was facing a life or death situation in 2008. The Boulder, Colo., company best known for its colorful and lightweight rubber clogs watched as its popularity sank and its inventory piled up on store shelves.
Continue reading… “How Crocs survived its near death experience”
Futurist Thomas Frey: The year is 2032. You have just celebrated your 80th birthday and you have some tough decisions ahead. You can either keep repairing your current body or move into a new one.
Cupcake ATM
An ATM is set to open where your dough comes out freshly baked — with icing on top. Sprinkles, a gourmet cupcake chain with 10 locations nationally, is set to open its first 24-hour cupcake vending machine on March 9 at its original store in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Question: As physical books go away, and computers and smart devices take their place, at what point does a library stop being a library, and start becoming something else?
Continue reading… “Future Libraries and 17 Forms of Information Replacing Books”
Patent trolls rack up legal and licensing bills.
The scourge of inventors everywhere are firms that collect and enforce patents of dubious value—with no intention of creating the invention described in those patents. They force large companies to rack up legal and licensing bills, and scare away startups from putting out novel products. These firms raise prices for all of us, and they generally slow down the future. Everyone hates them.