The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next

320 Pages·1998·1.75 MB·English

by  Jim Taylor

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tHe
500
yeaR
Delta
tHe
500
yeaR
Delta
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER
WHAT COMES NEXT
JIM TAYLOR AND WATTS WACKER

WITH HOWARD MEANS
Copyright © Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker 1997

First published in Great Britain 1997 by
Capstone Publishing Limited
Oxford Centre for Innovation
Mill Street
Oxford OX2 0JX
United Kingdom
Reprinted 1997
Published by arrangement with
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1-900961-30-X

Digital processing by The Electric Book Company, London, UK, www.elecbook.com
To Judy and Katherine and to Betsy,
for putting up with a production many years in the making
amid great skepticism,
and to John E. Means
Only connect!
— E.M. Forster, Howards End
How can you connect in an age where strangers, lovers,
landlords, your own cells betray?
Or bind the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of
change keep ripping away?
— Jonathan Larson, Rent
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
The Convergence of Change xiv
Who We Are xvi
The Four New Freedoms xvii
TRIPLE-WITCHING HOUR PART I 1
1. THE DISPOSITION OF REASON 9
The Multiplicity of Change 14
The Rise of Intuition 18
2. THE DISORGANIZATION OF ORGANIZATION 21
Social Organization: The Real Family Values 23
Corporate Organization: The Rise of Free Agency 31
Governmental Organization: A Borderless World 36
3. THE DECONSTRUCTION OF ECONOMICS 44
The Wings of a Butterfly 48
First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage 52
Innovation Crunching and Product Confirmation 55
MILLENNIAL CONVERGENCES PART II 61
1. VALUES: AUTHENTICITY, CONNECTIVITY, AND A
NEW CIVILITY 65
The Center Will Not Hold 68
Probing the Extremes 69
Victimhood 70
The Millennialists 73
2. MOTIVES: TIME CHITS AND PRINCIPLES 74
Proof, Not Guarantees 76
Starstruck 78
The Declining Value of Status 84
Contents
3. PERSPECTIVE: NO WALLS, WITHOUT OR WITHIN 89
The Parable of the Forest and the Trees 91
Think Global, Act Global 94
One Corporate Culture, One Shopping List, One Life 96
The Drive to Free 99
4. COMMUNICATIONS: ONE TO ONE, MANY TO MANY,
ALL TO ALL 100
Human Synapses 102
Commercial Communications: Get to Know Me 103
Interpersonal Communications: Masked Meanings 105
I’m from the Millennium: Show Me 108
The Two Faces of Honesty 111
5. INFORMATION: SHARING, NOT WITHHOLDING 115
Man Bites Machine, Machine Bites Man 115
The Information Economy 118
You, Inc. 121
The Beehive Effect and The Law of Increasing Returns 126
6. LIFESTYLES: FROM MASS TO SITUATIONAL 128
Lemmings and Digerati 132
Ad Hoc Lives 135
7. EMPATHY: NOT GUILTY 139
New Winners, New Losers 141
That Was Then, This Is Now 143
The New Ethics Agenda 144
UNREAL REALITIES PART III 151
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING PART IV 161
1. CULTURAL SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THE NOBLE
TRUTH OF PAIN 165
The Noble Truth of the Cause of Pain 168
The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Pain 171
The Noble Truth of the Path That Leads to the Cessation of
Pain 174
2. RIGHT VIEW: FUSION 175
A-bombs and H-bombs 176
The Fusion Game 182
Managing Fusion 185
Homophyly 186
3. RIGHT THOUGHT: DEMAND-BASED MARKETS 190
Brand Latency, Customer Loyalty 192
One-on-One Marketing 195
Scarcity Cravings 196
Hit ’Em Where They Are 197
4. RIGHT ACTION: MEMBERSHIP 198
Tribalizing the Customers 200
Defending the Cave Persons 202
The Hunt, Not the Hunter 204
White Man Speak with Forked Tongue 206
5. RIGHT SPEECH: DOWNWARD NOBILITY 207
6. RIGHT EFFORT: RISK MANAGEMENT 215
Editors, Brokers, Intermediaries, and Intimidators 218
Dances with Wolves 221
7. RIGHT LIVELIHOOD: PUBLIC PRIVACY 223
The Privacy Sheriff 226
The Privacy Editor 227
The Privacy Agent 228
8. RIGHT MINDFULNESS: THE ENERGY MODEL 230
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back 234
9. RIGHT CONCENTRATION: THE DISASTER AGENDA 237
Where Are Your Moats? 239
Thrival Skills 240
Personality Engineering 242
Renewal 243
Contents
NEW RULES FOR A CHAOS WORLD PART V 245
The Wisdom of Planning 245
The Wisdom of Preparing 247
The Wisdom of Managing 251
The Wisdom of Sitting at the Top 255
THE 500-YEAR DELTA PART VI 267
The Next Five Hundred Days 269
The Next Five Hundred Weeks 270
The Next Five Hundred Months 274
The Next Five Hundred Years 275
AFTERWORD: THE AGE OF POSSIBILITY 279
GLOSSARY: A NEW VOCABULARY OF CHANGE 283
INDEX 295