See what we can't see

Recently Rochele told me a story. When Columbus ships came to America, the Native Indians could not see them coming. They thought their ships will clouds.

After reflecting on this story, I came to understand that we cannot see something that we do not know. If I am a Native Indian, how can I see ships when there are no ships in my World? How can we see what we don't know? How can we see what we can't see?

John Naisbitt says discoveries grow out of something that is already there. Ripe apples had always fallen to the ground but Isaac Newton saw "the deeper meaning." The Earth has always circled the sun but Copernicus and Galileo observed the evidence and make the connections. Geniuses often build on details that many people can spot but can't connect.

There are things we can see but others can't. There are things that others can see but we can't. Let's help each other to see what both of us can’t.

The John Naisbitt paragraph is taken from page 42 of his book - Mindset.

11 Forecasting Mindsets

11 forecasting mindsets

1. While many things change, most things remain constant.
   
2. The future is embedded in the present.
   
3. Focus on the score of the game.
   
4. Understanding how powerfull it is not to be right.
   
5. See the future as a picture puzzle.
   
6. Don’t get so far ahead of the parade that people don’t know you’re in it.
   
7. Resistance to change falls if benefits are real.
   
8. Things that we expect to happen always happen more slowly.
   
9. You don’t get results by solving problems but by exploiting opportunities.
   
10. Don’t add unless you subtract.
    
11. Don’t forget the ecology of technology.
    

Source:

Mind Set

John Naisbitt

HarperCollins

ISBN: 9780061136887

High tech - high touch

What is high tech - high touch?

Sense from:

High tech - high touch

John Naisbitt, Nana Naisbitt, Douglas Philips

Page 26

Broadway Books

ISBN: 0767903838

It is a human lens.

It is embracing technology that preserves our humanness and rejecting technology that intrudes upon it. It is recognizing that technology is an integral part of the evolution of culture, the creative product of our imaginations, our dreams and aspirations - and that the desire to create new technologies is fundamentally instinctive. But is also recognizing that art, story, play, religion, nature, and time are equal partners in the evolution of technology because they nourish the soul and fulfill its yearnings.

• It is expressing what it means to be human and employing technology fruitfully in that expression. It's appreciating life and accepting death.
  
• It is knowing when we should push back on technology, in our work and our lives, to affirm our humanity.
  
• It is understanding that technology zealots are as shortsighted as technology bashers.
  
• It is creating significant paths for our lives, without fear of new technology or fear of falling behind it.
  
• It is recognizing that at its best, technology supports and improves human life; at its worse, it alienates, isolates, distorts, and destroys.
  
• It is questioning what place technology should have in our lives and what place it should have in society.
  
• It is consciously choosing to employ technology when it adds value to human lives.
  
• It is learning how to live as human beings in a technologically dominated time.
  
• It is knowing when simulated experiences add value to human life.
  
• It is recognizing when to avoid the layers of distractions and distance technology affords us.
  
• It is recognizing when technology is not neutral.
  
• It is knowing when to unplug and when to plug in.
  
• It is appropriate human scale.
  

High tech - high touch is enjoying the fruits of technological advancements and having it truly sit well with our god, our church, or our spiritual beliefs. It is understanding technology through the human lens of play, time, religion, and art.