The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that information, rather than financial power, is what truly empowers individuals in society.
John Naisbitt's quote highlights a fundamental shift in the dynamics of power from a concentrated monetary influence to the widespread accessibility of information. In today's world, the ability to access and utilize information can empower the masses, making it a more democratic force than wealth alone. This perspective urges us to recognize the value of knowledge and information in driving innovation, societal change, and individual potential.
In practice
In a discussion about social media's role in modern activism.
If you have to be right, you put yourself in a hedged lane, but once you experience the power of not having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.
Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.
Strategic planning is worthless - unless there is first a strategic vision.
Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.
The most reliable way to forecast the future is to try to understand the present.
The embrace of a new technology by ordinary people leads inevitably to its embrace by people of malign intent.
You don't get to cut that chain of evidence and start over. You're always going to be pursued by your data shadow, which is forming from thousands and thousands of little leaks and tributaries of information.
There is people who make stuff with words. There is people who make stuff with programs. And I really believe that that whole creative culture, people didn't realize how creative programming is. And anybody who's done it of course knows that not only is it creative, but it's incredibly absorbing.
Maybe it's naive to say, but it almost seems like, in the past, people tried to sell you something you would actually need, like a hammer or a broom or a toothbrush. But now there's this notion that they can sell you anything. And all they have to do is convince you that you need it.
AI has been making tremendous progress in machine translation, self-driving cars, etc. Basically, all the progress I see is in specialised intelligence. It might be hundreds or thousands of years or, if there is an unexpected breakthrough, decades.
We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential.
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