Welcome to the September issue of The Exponential Executive.

In this Issue

	The World is Changing: Unlearn
	To Succeed in the Future: Unlearn Information

In Other News

This month I will be speaking to the Women's Professional Network; The NanoBusiness Alliance; Aging Services of Minnesota; and the Texas Travel Industry Association. As usual, I will be speaking about how emerging technologies will transform the future of a variety of industries and call forth the development of new skills. For an overview of some of the issues and topics I'll be covering just click on the associated link for your industry: Construction; Education; Energy , Health Care; Marketing, Urban Planning and Utilities.

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The World is Changing: Unlearn

Take a look at the map to the right. What's wrong with it? The answer would seem pretty obvious: it's upside down.
But that's wrong. It is only "wrong" from your perspective. For example, had the first explorers been from Chile -- as opposed to Europe -- the first map of the world might have placed South America on the top and North America on the bottom. If so, we might view today's more common map as the one that is "wrong."

Earlier this month, I posted a link to this video, which does an excellent job of explaining how fast the world of social media is changing -- even for the health care industry . To understand the speed and pace of today's change let me highlight just a few items from the video: It took 38 years before 50 million people had a radio; television reached that milestone in 13 years; the Internet 4 years; and Facebook only three. I don't know the exact figure for Twitter but it is certainly less than three years. I also enjoyed the video's twist on the famous quote about Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas no longer "stays in Vegas," it also stays on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Digg -- forever.

The world is changing faster than many of would like or even care to admit. To survive, I remain convinced one of the more critical life skills you can possess is an ability to unlearn. After all, the way you view the world is not necessarily the only way to see the world.
 

To Succeed in the Future: Unlearn Information

Unlearning information. It's sounds paradoxical, right? After all, who in their right mind, would want less information? Well, you might if you want to succeed in the future.

Consider this quote which I came across in Jonah Lerner's informative new book, How We Decide: "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

It is counter-intuitive but often having access to too much information can lead people to make worse decisions. To learn more -- or, perhaps, I should say "unlearn" more -- read my full article article here.