September 2012

What a world we live in

> A fruit salad tree…bears up to six different fruits of the same family on the one plant. All fruits retain their own individuality, with staggered ripening times. – [The Fruit Salad Tree Company](http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com/)

More futures

> With enough minds, all tomorrows are visible – [Jamais Cascio](http://futuryst.blogspot.com/2012/09/design-is-team-sport.html)

The genius copout

> If they were just like us, then they had to work very hard to do what they did. And that’s one reason we like to believe in genius. It gives us an excuse for being lazy. If these guys were able to do what they did only because of some magic Shakespeareness or Einsteinness,…more

Even more Obama on decisions

> “Obama structures meetings so that they’re not debates,” says one participant. “They’re mini-speeches. He likes to make decisions by having his mind occupying the various positions. He likes to imagine holding the view.” Says another person at the meeting, “He seems very much to want to hear from people. Even when he’s made up…more

More Obama on decisions

> Nothing comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable…Otherwise, someone else would have solved it. So you wind up dealing with probabilities. Any given decision you make you’ll wind up with a 30 to 40 percent chance that it isn’t going to work. You have to own that and feel comfortable with the way…more

Simplicity and decisions

> You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make…more

The future is now

> To be a futurist, in pursuit of improving reality, is not to have your face continually turned upstream, waiting for the future to come. To improve reality is to clearly see where you are, and then wonder how to make that better. – [Warren Ellis](http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14314)

Ask, don’t tell

> The leader of the past knew how to tell, the leader of the future will know how to ask. – Peter Drucker