Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Crisis of Nihilism

In December of 2005 I had the opportunity to invite Umair Haque – who was then running a consultancy called Bubble Generation – to Sony during an internal week-long technology and strategy sharing event. I had been following Umair via his blog and felt Sony should hear what he was saying. Thanks to a skeptical but marginally risk-tolerant boss, all systems were go and Umair enjoyed a trip to Tokyo while Sony got to pick his brain. Of course, few knew who this person was.

Since then, Umair has become the Director of the Havas Media Lab at Harvard, and I just came across a recent presentation of his that is a must see.

http://www.daytona.se/sessions/vol2/umair

Basically, this global crisis we are witnessing is not just a financial crisis – it’s an “interaction crisis”. The principles that have been driving capitalism through the 20th century have ultimately maxed out, and Umair proposes 5 new principles that will guide the 21st century – that *must* guide 21st century capitalism lest mankind dig it’s own grave.

I’ll share these 5 principles here more for my own notes, but you should really watch the presentation – it really just skims the top of changes to come. (20th century capitalist principle → 21st century principle):

• Exploitation → Renewal
• War → Peace
• Domination → Equity
• Value → Meaning
• Command → Democracy

And the tag-lines for these principles:

“tomorrow is today”
“people, not product”
“connections, not transactions”
“creativity, not productivity”
“outcomes, not incomes”