Senior Discourse

This blog has been more of a travelog than anything else. Oh, a few commentaries sprinkled about, but more of a "What I Did on my Summer Vacation," or, "Look What I Can Do." Well, I'm running out of senior adventures to report on, having checked most of the boxes on my pre-retirement list of "when I have the time I'm going to..." Now more than three years into non-employment, the need to keep the brain cells energized becomes more important. Shortly after you stop exercising those brain cells is when the drooling and shirt stains start. So, kind and benevolent reader, be warned. I'm turning to more commentary, sharing thoughts as I observe things from the comfort of my armchair, sipping on my coffee, contemplating what challenges my children (and now grandchildren) might be facing.

The potential consequence of senior discourse is that you slip into a decidedly pessimistic funk. As the world around you changes, which it does constantly and at increasingly accelerated rates, the tendency is to romanticize and harbor the past. New trends and modified behaviors threaten consonance, so it can be easy to see any personal cognitive dissonance as the beginning of the end, the degeneration of society as we know it, and doom and gloom for succeeding generations. I'm trying to avoid that, looking instead at the potential benefits and advances, and perhaps defining things that should be paid attention to as those succeeding generations of family members navigate the future.

The challenge is that the likelihood of predicting outcomes in the future accurately is so minuscule as to make it an exercise only for those never held accountable for mis-forecasts. Meteorologists, economists, politicians, and the like. If you've ever used scenario analysis in strategic planning, as I did in many years in my career, you know that even when the scope is extremely narrowed, the probability of calling it right is well less than 2% in the most stable of times. So all you can do is try to define the potential events that could lead you down an unfavorable or favorable path - hopefully identifying a list of potential actions that will lead to a favorable outcome when those events occur. Therefore, looking at the probable outcomes of technology on economics or social environments to try to capture some directional advice deserves boatloads of skepticism.

This post is simply to advise you, by way of introduction, that several of my subsequent posts will capture some of what I'm learning and thinking about related to the impact of information technology on the future economy and social structure. It's intended as entertainment or, in the case of any of my children that might still be reading this blog, some food for their own thought as they raise their own children and face family challenges on our behalf. After all, I'm hoping they will be healthy and wealthy enough to raise a productive family AND watch after me when I stop learning, start to drool, and assume my very senior position under some lampshade.