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Book details
  • Genre:BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
  • SubGenre:Organizational Behavior
  • Language:English
  • Pages:360
  • Hardcover ISBN:9781098365370

Surfing Rogue Waves

How to paddle out into the 21st Century

by Eric Pilon-Bignell PhD

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Overview

(for Canada orders - visit Amazon)

In the ocean of our lives, we are experiencing rogue waves building in a full-on mode of complex hyper-disruption. All the changes in our world feel less predictable, more relentless, and more catastrophic than ever before. We should be concerned, as these changes will transform everything we know about our world and ourselves. We will never be sure how all of this disruption and change will transform our lives, but we know change is happening. For the first time in human history, there are technologies of exponential capacity that are starting to crash into one another, creating an explosion of amplification of how each technology makes rogue waves. And the frequency of these collisions will only increase in the coming years, reshaping our lives every time. While we may start to see how these changes happen, there are still countless unseen revolutions happening in distribution, transportation, finance, real estate, retail, education, advertising, food, health, manufacturing, entertainment, and many other industries.

How do we prepare for changes we can’t even see?

As our technologies get faster and develop more rapidly, the collisions get exponentially more catastrophic and impact our day-to-day in further-reaching capacities with less predictability. We don’t know much, we can’t see into the future (yet), but we do know that forecasts have advancements in robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, digital biology, and sensors slamming directly into 3D printing, blockchain, global digital networks, and AI to create an explosion of rogue disruption, unlike anything we have ever seen.

And here you are. You need to buy milk and get to work on time and make sure you have an internet connection that is fast enough to stream your favorite shows. But these disruptions will only move the daily life of all humanity into uncharted, unexplored oceans, and we will be forced to reimagine the world. Not only will we be presented with technological and systematic challenges, but we will also be forced to rethink everything we know from the human experience, from aging and happiness to artificial human augmentations. These rogue waves of disruption are already making us reconsider how we raise children, how we govern our cities and nations, and how we care for this planet. What does it mean to be human? Or to have morals and ethics? Whatever the answers, one thing is for sure: we all have to stop watching from the shore and start learning to surf the greatest waves humanity has ever experienced.

This book present you with a surfing framework. The surfing framework’s goal is to focus on how change is happening in your life instead of simply relying on chance. Relying on our past knowledge means we rely on luck to move us forward—like riding a surfboard backward. Sure, you might be able to catch the odd wave, but you won’t last long once you are on it. Without understanding where waves come from, you could paddle out only to sit in the middle of a glassy ocean and complain about how you never catch good waves. Or, you could use this surfing framework, built off scientific theory, to shape your future through intentional decisions so you can have the time of your life riding the best waves that come your way.

This book is also for anyone interested in how the future is unfolding today. No more standing around watching from the shore. We must all jump in, paddle out, and start surfing the greatest waves in human history. No more excuses. Our decisions and actions today, small and big, will determine the fate of humanity. We must not fight the waves of advancement and progress; we must use them to our advantage and surf them. We must surf and navigate our way to a flourishing future that is more ethical, all-encompassing, and sustainable. This book aims to raise awareness of the speed of the rogue waves of disruption we are paddling out into, so we can be rational yet excited about what the future holds.


Description
Humanity is at a crossroads between the world as we know it and the rapid pace of disruption. The smallest changes are reshaping our world faster than we can comprehend. Over the next few years, we will experience more disruption than in the previous 100 years. Do we notice this change happening? Are we numb or oblivious to this change? Are things changing too fast and too regularly to notice? Every modern change presents as a giant, rogue wave emerging on the horizon—will we surf these waves with mastery? Or will we let them swallow us whole? We live in the greatest period of opportunity in all of human history; how will you gain from it? Furthermore, how will you influence and shape both your life and the future of humanity? Do you have a plan to engage exponential change in your life? Our political and social systems are outdated, and potent disruption is heading for them like a freight train. Increased opportunities bring elevated risk, and the public's trust in companies, governments, the media, and even science are all under attack. How do you filter through the noise? How do you make sound, optimal, and rational decisions faster than ever? As the waves of material science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, blockchain, AI, and dozens of other industries collide with one another, rogue waves will emerge and obliterate life as we know it. Everything, including what it means to be human, will be disrupted. We must proactively consider the ethics of tomorrow, today. This book presents a gripping and insightful framework on how to pick up a board and surf the rogue waves of the 21st century. Eric's original insights will help business leaders understand the onslaught of the complexity of the disruption they face. Not just in the office, but throughout the everyday encounters of daily life as they navigate and unshackle future potential. No more watching from the shore. No more excuses. The decisions and actions we take today, no matter the size, will ultimately determine the fate of humanity. Why fight the waves of advancement and progression when we can use them to our advantage? For it is riding this surf where we find our way to a flourishing future that is more ethical, all-encompassing, and sustainable. Surf's up!
About the author
Eric is a pragmatic futurist focused on addressing disruption by increasing the creative capacity of individuals, teams, and organizations to ignite change, innovation, and foster continuous growth. Eric has an undergraduate degree in engineering, an MBA in Information Systems, and a Ph.D. in Global Leadership. His doctoral work primarily explored complexity sciences centered on executive cognition and their use of intuitive improvisation, decision-making, artificial intelligence, and data-based decision models. When he is not working with clients, researching, or writing, he can be found in the mountains or on the water. He founded PROJECT7 to raise awareness and money for research on brain-related illnesses. Eric is currently working and living with his wife in Chicago, Illinois. To connect or learn more about this book, Eric, or PROJECT7, please visit www.ericpb.me.