Most people don’t think much about economic freedom and that some countries are more free economically than others.
For the 18th year running, Hong Kong scores the highest rankings of any country in the world for:
And to point out the obvious…. Hong Kong is part of China! Check out the announcement: click here
OK, so there is a lot of doom and gloom predictions that the world is turning to ^&%$! if you track history (which has a habit of repeating) you will know that these predictions have been the same for many generations… and yet, the world we live in today is way, way better than the world of our parents.
Just look at what we can do in terms of travel, building wealth, communications, entertainment etc. etc.
I came across the below chart from the White House… yes, sure, its political… however, I do think it tells a story looking back that things have stabilized and are now improving. US economic growth is on an upswing.
This is a great video of Budapest in time lapse. It brings back memories of an awesome visit a few years back… the winter market, warm and friendly people… amazing architecture and a lot of history… I was pleasantly surprised.
The below infographic tells an interesting story when comparing the end result State by State. Different public policy, industry focus, and economic development strategies make some States more competitive than others.
Utilizing debt is one thing – how you pay it off is another… check out the below chart:
As the US Govt. Debt discussions have occupied a lot of media attention over the past weeks, I notice that there has been a lot of inaccurate facts and figures circulating around the internet. Many people believe that the Chinese Govt. owns most of the debt, when in fact it only owns 7.5% of the total.
This video visualizes the movement of 880 iPhones in Europe in April 2011. Taken by tracking their GPS (they volunteered for it).
I was thinking the other day about life before iPhone and wondering how I managed to do all the things that my iPhone does… so I decided to put together a MindMap with the main tasks I use my iPhone for… and wow, its one thing to know this and another thing to see it all laid out visually… click on the image below for a larger image:
This years Global Competitiveness Index tells an interesting story… the US is sliding down the rankings, Switzerland maintains its lead and Sweden is on the way up. Singapore goes sideways. Having said that ranked 3rd in the world is not a bad place to be! There are many factors that drive productivity and competitiveness. Understanding the various factors is a very interesting process… and if you are an investor and/or entrepreneur, where would you establish a new business? (ie: its easier to do business in countries at the top of the list)
Having had an Apple iPad since they were first released, I wondered if the new iPad would be different enough to get one. I didn’t wonder for long and moments later placed my order online. Shipped directly from the factory in China, the iPad arrived via Fedex.
Now that I have had a week or so to set up and test the iPad 2, I can say the improvements are significant and it is well worth getting one – even if you have a fully functioning original iPad.
Here are the main improvements/new features that stand out:
Despite what some people think – the iPad is way more than a large screen iPhone! Over time more apps are becoming available that take advantage of the cloud, syncing and integrating seamlessly with your desktop/laptop and mobile phone. A simple example of this is when you update a password on one device, it is automatically available on all your devices… (don’t worry, it is encrypted to make it secure).
If you haven’t ordered one yet… I highly recommend it!
In 2009 Google embarked on a project to analyze performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards to identify the top habits of the most successful Google managers… below are the results courtesy of the New York Times. It is interesting that #1 on the list is to be a good coach…
It is amazing just how fast the future turns into the past. Take a moment and consider the present, and as soon as you focus on the present – it becomes the past.
Think about it. If the future is created in the present – and the future becomes the present at a certain point – which then immediately becomes the past…. if you spend all your time creating the future or living in the future, you will miss the magic of being present – here now. If you spend all your time reliving past glories, then you are missing the magic also.
The most powerful moment is right here, right now. Question is what you do with this present moment?
If you spend all your time enjoying the present, then you are not building or consciously creating your future.
So the best thing to do is to remember the past, live in the present, while creating and designing a better future… now that is an art!
American author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil has some very interesting predictions about the future… worth considering… check out the graphic below… and note the predictions that have already been proven true!
Some people are eager to predict the end of long-term US growth. I would not be so quick. The American people have a remarkable talent for bouncing back – just take a look at the below chart of long-term real growth is US GDP. Make up your own mind…
As we consider 2011 and what direction the future will take, it is useful to look at the world as a whole and remember that the world we live in today gives us very useful clues as to how the world of tomorrow will look.
Population size and growth are not the only factors to consider, however they give you a very good idea of where things are headed.
Consider the below chart that shows that 50% of today’s world population lives in just six countries! Wow, only six countries! Clearly the USA is the most developed of the six – and the others have a long way to go in terms of development – to catch up. This adds up to lots of growth… check it out for yourself:
The future can be seen in movies and todays research projects… and when it comes to transportation self-driving cars are just around the corner…
As manufacturing productivity goes up – the number of manufacturing jobs goes down. This means that more output is being produced for a lower cost. What happens to the people out of work due to increases in productivity driven by technology? They either go out of work altogether – or… up-skill themselves into higher paying service jobs.
Take a look at the below chart that makes the shift visible:
There are some very useful pointers in this video…
Check out this video from ABC Nightline about Zappos.com – they are trying to revolutionize how business is done and how people work… awesome!
Zappos.com, which works hard to recruit people to join the company, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a bonus.” Zappos.com actually bribes its new employees to quit!
The thinking is that if you’re willing to take the company up on The Offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.
Can you measure happiness? For many people happiness is subjective and not so easy to measure, however a person’s mood level is easy to detect from their choice of words and their emotional content.
Alan Mislove and his colleagues at Northeastern University filtered 300 million 140 character tweets posted on twitter from 2006 to 2009 and measured them against a psychological word-rating system to assign a mood score reflecting positive vs negative mood level.
Check out the below visualization by location during the day… results are facilitating… people on the west coast of the US are happier than those on the east coast:
OK, so this is an ad for Kaiser Permanente… it is well done and I think we will see more medical and health related services advertising like this. The possibilities for connected health care are stunning… and right now very isolated silo based systems are the norm…
Highlights of a recent Entrepreneur Survey by Siamak Taghaddos include:
This iPhone App is cool… the interaction between social media and television.
The Personal Computer followed by the Internet created previously unimaginable new channels for commerce. Todays new frontier is being driven by mobile phones.
Consumers are using their mobile phones to surf the internet, check bank balances and to make purchases. This new channel is called m-Commerce and though the sector is still in its infancy it is growing at an unprecedented rate.
According to IDC and Jupiter Media Metrix, US m-Commerce revenues climbed from $127 million in 2001 to over $58 billion in 2007. The progression of m-Commerce revenue charts out exponentially.
“You can’t look the troops in the eye and say, “It’s been a bad year, we can’t do anything for you,” but then say, “By the way, we’re going to pay ourselves a $1 million bonus.”
H. Ross Perot (1930–), US entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and politician.
Referring to his resignation from the General Motors board following GM’s decision to freeze profit-sharing payments to workers while going ahead with executive bonus payments.
Source: Quoted in Thriving on Chaos (Tom Peters, 1987)
Check out this Nokia video. It amazes me how many people are polarized by this video… and the comments say it all… personally, I think that imagining the future uses of technology is not that easy. Sure, its easy to imagine what we could do – the hard part is imagining and building stuff people fall in love with and actually use.
Make up your own mind:
Microsoft’s interactive table, dubbed Surface is like an iPhone interface on your desktop… touch the surface and interact with the computer with your fingers rather than with a traditional keyboard and mouse.
Below is a video showcasing BMW’s commercial application of Surface for selecting a new BMW:
