Future Files
Richard Watson
'Part Jules Verne, part Malcolm Gladwell, Watson has a puckish sense of humor and his book is a thought-provoking, laughter-inducing delight.'
(Publishers Weekly)'Provocative, entertaining, full of surprising facts — a book to help you decide whether the world is going mad or possibly becoming more intelligent.'
Theodore Zeldin'Watson's outlook is radical and hopeful.'
Simon Caterson (Age)Prediction is a dangerous game — the future is never a straight, linear extrapolation from the present. Unexpected innovations and events will conspire to trip up the best-laid plans — but it’s better than not thinking about the future at all.
This updated and revised edition of Future Files is filled with provocative forecasts about how the world might change in the next half century. It examines emerging patterns and developments in society, technology, economy, and business, and makes educated speculations as to where they might take us.
But Future Files is not primarily about prediction. Its goal is to liberate our collective and individual imaginations so that we can see the familiar in a new light and the unfamiliar with greater clarity, and to make us all — individuals and organisations — think about where we are going and to consider whether, when we get there, it will be worth staying.
Future Files will prove indispensable to business analysts, strategists, and organisations, and provides rich and fascinating material for us all to contemplate as we rush headlong into the future.
'Future Files is filled with common sense and surprising data ... and offers intiguing connections ... Overall, Watson delivers a sane, crisp and stimulating report from the futures frontier.'
Richard Neville (Australian)'Fascinating reading for anyone who considers themselves forward thinking.'
Ross McGravie (MX)' … fascinating, frightening and strange …'
Esther Van Doornun (Bookseller & Publisher)'Future Files ... should give just about everyone a reason to pause and think just where they're headed, and where the globe is headed.'
Shane Wright (West Australian)'His ideas on the future of government and politics have been well thought out and provide an attention-grabbing perspective for politicians and public sector management alike ... the book provides inspiring speculation as to the world's future.'
Jane Garcia (Government News)' ... a readable source of ideas and factoids for use by stirrers in the classroom, in the boardroom, or in the torpid zone of public service strategic planning.'
(Canberra Times)Richard Watson
Richard Watson spends most of his time thinking about the future. He is the author and publisher of What’s Next, a quarterly report on global trends, and works with various governments, corporations and non-profit organisations on environmental scanning and scenario planning projects. He is also a writer for several leading publications and a regular speaker at conferences and other events worldwide. He lives in Sydney with an understanding wife and two rather bemused children.
Website: http://www.nowandnext.com
Buy from Readings
Format: Pb
Extent: 320pp
Size: 210mm x 135mm
ISBN (13): 9781921372957
RRP: $29.95
Pub date: October 2009
World English excl. ANZ, South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia (Nicholas Brealey Publishing); Hungarian (HVG Kiado); Simplified Chinese (Jing Hua Publishing House); Complex Chinese (IF Culture Publishing); Korean (Chung Rim Publishing); Turkish (Yakamoz Yayinevi); Croatian (Alfa D.D.); Lithuanian (Verslo Zinios); ; Portuguese (Caleidoscopio); Arabic (Kalima); Indonesian (Ufuk Press); Russian (Eksmo); Bulgarian (Locus)
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