It’s the little things in life that grant knowledge and the information this week from my eight-year-old son that Leap Years occur every year the Olympics take place has somehow made made my life more composed.
So, 2012 is an Olympic year and a Leap Year, and according to the Mayans it’s the year that the world will come to an end. It’s also another excuse for every so-called technology visionary to spew out their predictions for the year ahead.
Will it be different tablets, mobile banking, the DREADED Web 3.0, NFC, mobile coupons, the end of TV, what will it be? Everywhere I look there are predictions, hopes, forecasts, prognostications and auguries, and ironically the most important knowledge I’ll learn is that Olympics/Leap Year thing.
Forget forecasts, purge predictions and anihilate auguries. The world is obsessed with not only looking forward, but that HIGHLY annoying phrase of ‘moving forward’. God, that drives me bonkers, any time anybody says it I feel as if I’ve met another robot.
Ignore Bob Dylan’s advice of Don’t Look Back, do look back and embrace history. Mankind is like an eight-year-old child who wants to be a teenager, who wants to be older because the future fascinates. But we are not children, we are supposed to be adult.
We are our history and even though it appears we’ve blown it and over-consumed, there have been some very high points and technology, read science, has created these extended verticals.
So my ‘prediction’ for 2012 is to look back, not ahead. Up front there’s a lot going on and most of it is the science fiction that has always unnerved me. There’s also a lot of information, not least the news on the radio today telling me that people in their forties lose their marbles earlier in life than predicted.
Now, that hasn’t ruined my year, it’s ruined my day. I’m going to look for examples of how I’m losing it. Maybe this newsletter is evidence of that, maybe turning to an eight-year-old for knowledge confirms that, but maybe, just maybe, I don’t give a fig.
All I know is that it’s an Olympic year and there will be 366 days in it. Aside from that I know today is Friday and it’s already a good day. As I said, it’s the little things.
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
