The world is a wonderful place. This quarter, in our ‘What A World’ segment, we argue that 2016 was the best year ever!
I’m blown away by how palpable the feeling of exponential change has become. I’m also certain that 99.99% of humanity doesn’t understand or appreciate the ramifications of what is coming.
– Peter Diamandis, founder of Singularity University
2016: The Worst Year Ever?
I have always been amused by an interesting trait of human nature which I call “Fashionable Pessimism”.
For some reason, we all have a tendency to think that it is fashionable, “Smart” and intellectual to be pessimistic, while optimists are generally considered naïve and childish. The chronicles of history are filled with the tales of famous “intellectuals” who were considered the great thinkers of their time because of their convincing dire predictions for how the world was headed for imminent disaster. I have come to believe that we like to celebrate the Pessimist, because there is something that seems “smart” about being the first to know about some coming disaster that nobody else knows about – yet.
I recently experienced an amusing reminder of this phenomenon. A casual friend has developed a career as a writer and media pundit, and regularly appears on “The Today Show”. During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, she posted a notice on her Facebook page that she was to appear on the Today Show to do a segment entitled “Why 2016 was the Worst Year in History”, and was hoping her followers would send her examples she could use. This topic gave me a good chuckle, and I couldn’t help but think my friend needed a reality check.
2016: An AMAZING Year
Peter Diamandis is an author and speaker, and founder of Singularity University. He has a slightly different perspective, and feels that 2016 was one of the greatest years ever for human development. Please enjoy his latest post…The Top 10 Tech Trends that Made the World Better in 2016.
What a world we live in, and how lucky we are to live in this country, at this moment in time. The future is indeed very bright, even though it is so fashionable not to believe it!
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