I am reminded by your Fragment, of the time I looked into the future. I was asked to give a talk at a senior European manager's meeting on where the culture of the computer industry lay. They all expected me to tell them that the future was the next family of the mainframe. Instead, I drew a map with mainframes in the top corner, many, as yet unknow, computers in the bottom corner and "content" filling the rest of the map. I said the future belonged to companies that owned and transported content. There was a stunned silence. My manager stepped onto the stage, applauding and apologising that we had run out of time. As he led me off, he said, "That was a career-limiting speech". The company was IBM ( look it up ) and I was alluding to companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc. I left IBM within a year.
I am reminded by your Fragment, of the time I looked into the future. I was asked to give a talk at a senior European manager's meeting on where the culture of the computer industry lay. They all expected me to tell them that the future was the next family of the mainframe. Instead, I drew a map with mainframes in the top corner, many, as yet unknow, computers in the bottom corner and "content" filling the rest of the map. I said the future belonged to companies that owned and transported content. There was a stunned silence. My manager stepped onto the stage, applauding and apologising that we had run out of time. As he led me off, he said, "That was a career-limiting speech". The company was IBM ( look it up ) and I was alluding to companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc. I left IBM within a year.
Bravo, John. Well done, even though it was career limiting! You clearly saw through the fog far better than 99.999% of us.
The issue, of course, does not go away. The challenges of 2025 and beyond are as, if not more, profound. Can we glimpse the future any more clearly?