Edwin Andrade
You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new….It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.
–– Steve Jobs
Right now according to long-running polls, what people around the world want more than anything else is a good job.
But that’s only because they don’t believe something else far better is available.
Steve Jobs is right: People don’t really know what they want. That’s why someone has to make them aware of what’s available.
But when someone does that, they are often vilified for doing so. People will call them dreamers, socialists, communists, out of touch with reality….or worse.
The fact is, however, we’re now at a time when humans can stretch their imaginations…and reality will match what they are reaching for.
This includes a life once barely imagined. Where “work” of the kind typically imagined is a thing of the past. The world is quickly evolving. It’s becoming a place where human beings can spend far more of their time doing anything but working.
They may do things that could look like work. But they certainly won’t feel that way.
This transition is humanity’s newest frontier. It directly confronts hundreds of years of human thinking that must change. That thinking must change because the newest frontier demands it.
Before it changes, people first must understand the thinking. It goes:
There are so many people on this adventurous road figuratively pointing towards this new frontier, it boggles the mind to think about. That they don’t think the same strengthens the cause. No single answer will create humanity’s future. But each one amplifies the others.
Paradoxically, Trump is a major contributor to this effort. Albeit indirectly. His presidency shattered our stupor. Our belief about traditional establishments that have long become archaic relics of the past. And yet still curry favor among those for whom it enriches, as well as those brainwashed to believe it helps them too.
Shattered illusion is why so many people agree fundamental structural changes to our nation’s framework are necessary. Quoting the survey findings directly:
About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say democracy is working well in the U.S., though just 18% say it is working very well. At the same time, a majority supports making sweeping changes to the political system: 61% say “significant changes” are needed in the fundamental “design and structure” of the U.S. government to make it work in current times.
The only problem with the 61 percent is, they aren’t clear on what “significant…fundamental” change looks like.
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Recently, for example, Hillary Clinton called for the end of the electoral college. While this is certainly ambitious, it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. Many ideas offered today are similarly bounded by in-the-box thinking.
Hillary Clinton called for change. It’s bold…but it’s hardly fundamental.
Socialism and democratic socialism are of this ilk. They, like capitalism, are anachronisms of the past. Systems highly corruptible while money, markets, and government abound.
Now is the time for Americans to take a “moon shot mindset” towards changing our fundamental national structure. The rise of artificial intelligence, dramatic social shifts in human existence, including its ability to blur gender lines; and the environmental shifts we’re seeing underway, all demand something far beyond business as usual.
This is no time for conservatism and preserving tradition. Unless the future scares the bejesus out of you. Meaning, you feel insecurity as you think about how a fundamentally different future might cause you loss.
But there are alternatives in which everyone wins. Even the one percent. For no future is worth pursuing if anyone suffers. We can create a world where everyone wins. Not just the 99 percent. Not just the one percent.
Americans are still looked at as leaders of the world. Sure, there are a lot of People in other countries whose minds changed about our leadership. And for good reason.
But their minds can change again.
And they will (for the better) if America is willing to take on changes the majority of Americans now deem crucial. We can, once again, earn international respect by declaring a new world. One that creates real equal opportunity for all, while preserving unequal outcomes for individuals.
For it is not possible for everyone to benefit equally, because outcomes are dependent on preceding effort. Though not all effort is created equal.
Some human effort is more productive than others. “Hard work” ranks very low as “effective” effort. (Photo: Ant Rozetsky)
Equal opportunity combined with unequal outcomes is impossible with capitalism because there is too much self-interest in preserving unequal opportunity. The future demands something better than that. There are all kinds of options. Some better than others.
Taking advantage of American’s will puts the onus on those who think they know what real fundamental change looks like. They must make a compelling case why their idea is sound. Most don’t do very well at that. And while the ecosystem is crowding, there is always room for more.
Steve Jobs was right: people don’t usually know what they want until it is shown to them.
It’s time to show them the vast variety of options, instead of the old traditional ones. Options that move us much farther down the evolutionary road. Options more consistent with the AI-dominated world we’re seeing emerge.
Here’s what we suggest must be included in viable options leading to fundamental change. If these aren’t present in an idea, the idea doesn’t promise anything fundamental and instead represents in-the-box-thinking:
It should also inspire hope for the future for every individual, regardless of their beliefs, experiences, background or other superficial characteristics. Such inspiration should result from an individual’s personal experience interacting with this new idea and seeing results in their life-experience which directly confirms and validates that hope. Hope should not be based simply on someone’s say-so. It should be grounded in personal experience.
Moreover, the system should have a realistic transition plan addressing the following:
Any approach you examine must have elements that are forward-looking. These elements should offer us a way out: After taking that path, we must be in a brand new, inspiring territory. Anything less promises more of the same.
You can use these bullets to compare and contrast solutions you may hear from political, business, community and spiritual leaders, inventors, talk show hosts. We set a high bar. But our goals must be lofty to cross over the problems we’ve created. If solutions offered don’t check off on all these items, it’s not likely to get us out of the mess we’re in as a country, or as a species.
Likely you haven’t thought of many of these let alone all of them. Like Steve Jobs said: you don’t know what you want.
That is why we’re sharing this: for you can have it all. But first, you have to consider everything.
Learn more: download this free table comparing some of the best ideas out there, as well as more traditional approaches to making the world a better place. You don’t have to give us your email and it’s completely free. Open the google file then save to your computer.
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