Nobody

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Nobody, by Micah Sifry.

Nobody has the answers.
Nobody is listening to you.
Nobody is looking out for your interests.
Nobody will lower your taxes.
Nobody will fix the education system.
Nobody knows what he is doing in Washington.
Nobody will make us energy independent.
Nobody will cut government waste.
Nobody will clean up the environment.
Nobody will protect us against terrorist threats.
Nobody will tell the truth.
Nobody will avoid conflicts of interest.
Nobody will restore ethical behavior to the White House.
Nobody will get us out of Afghanistan.
Nobody understands farm subsidies.
Nobody will spend your tax dollars wisely.
Nobody feels your pain.
Nobody wants to give peace a chance.
Nobody predicted the Iraq War would be a disaster.
Nobody expected the levees to fail.
Nobody warned that the housing bubble would collapse.
Nobody will reform Wall Street.
Nobody will stand up for what’s right.
Nobody will be your voice.
Nobody will tell you what the others won’t.
Nobody has a handle on this.

Nobody, but you, that is.

Never forget, a small group of people can change the world.

No one else ever has.

Micah Sifry is co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. He tweets @mlsif.

Dumb

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Dumb, by Dave Balter.

A long time ago, starting a company that made software for computers was dumb. Microsoft and Apple may beg to differ. A company that manufactures cars: dumb. Putting a college yearbook online: dumb. Limiting updates to just 140 characters: dumb.

Here’s what’s easy: to recognize a really smart new business concept as just that. What’s hard is recognizing that the idea you think is just plain dumb is really tomorrow’s huge breakthrough.

But what makes dumb, smart? The ability to look at the world through a different lens from everyone else. To ignore rules. To disregard the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ and ‘never-succeeded-befores’. Then you need conviction, and the ability to stand by that conviction when other (smart) people look you in the eye and say, "no way, nuh uh."

So, how do you tell a good dumb idea from a bad dumb one? Good dumb ideas create polarization. Some people will get it immediately and shower it with praise and affection. Others will say it’s ignorant and impossible and run for the hills. The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea.

Of course, dumb can be just dumb. You just have to be smart to tell the difference.

Dave Balter is a serial entrepreneur and most recently founder and CEO of BzzAgent. He’s written two books, Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II.

Adventure

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Adventure, by Robyn Waters.

I’ve been thinking about how big our world is and how small-minded we’ve become; how quick we are to judge and how slow to understand. Technology places the resources of the world at our fingertips, yet we have trouble seeing past the ends of our noses.

For every trend there’s a countertrend worth considering. Resolve to leave the screens of your virtual world momentarily behind, and indulge your senses with a real world adventure.

St. Augustine said: "The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page." My advice?

Adventure calls. Blaze a new trail. Cross a continent. Dare to discover. Escape the routine. Find a fresh perspective. Go slow; gaze absentmindedly and savor every moment. Have some fun! Invest now in future memories. Journeys are the midwives of thought; Keep a journal. Leave prejudice and narrow mindedness behind. Make for the horizon and meet new people. Navigate the unknown. Observe, and open your mind. Pursue a road less traveled. Quest for truth. Rely on yourself. Sail away from the safe harbor; Take a risk. Unleash your curiosity. Venture further. Why wait? eXpect the unexpected. Say Yes to adventure….journey with Zeal!

Robyn Waters is an Ambassador of Trend, a Champion of Design, and a Cheerleader of Possibilities. She’s the author of The Trendmaster’s Guide.

DIY

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — DIY, by Jay Parkinson.

Do it yourself.

Most doctors prescribe pills, I prescribe empowerment.

We spend less than an hour per year with our doctor—and 8,765 without. Fortunately, we live in the age of DIY. And now we have the tools to create a new health experience. Dr. Google is always there for us. We can connect with the 500 people in the country all living with the same rare illness. We can email our doctor or meet them by video chat. We can find the nearest farmer’s market with our iPhone. We can use the web to find fellow runners in our neighborhood. Living healthy is getting easier every day.

Imagine if your doctor, acting as your consultant, prescribed all these tools for you to be the most empowered CEO of your health. What if you paid your doctor for advice to keep you out of their office? What if we looked at protecting our own health the same way we look at protecting the environment? What if being healthy became a social, not just a personal, cause?

Empowerment is the best prevention.

My prescription:

Jay Parkinson is co-founder of Hello Health and founding partner in Future Well, a new design firm architecting innovations in health and wellness.

Celebrate

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Celebrate, by Megan Casey.

As I write this, all day long, it’s my birthday. I’ve gotten emails and tweets and Facebook wishes from friends. And I’m grateful to know they’re all thinking of me.

But what about the companies and products and services I have relationships with? Why aren’t they taking this perfect, regular, anticipated, ego-full chance to single me out from the crowd and make me think of them on my birthday? (Tactics aside...)

Why doesn’t iTunes send you a code for 1 free 99 cent song on your birthday? What if Dunkin Donuts gave you free coffee on your birthday, in a special birthday cup that people will notice (and remark on) when you walk in to the office?

Imagine if GoDaddy offered you, Birthday Girl, any 1 of these 10 available variations of your name, today only, for 1 year, free.

What if Twitter put a cupcake icon on your profile. Click and see a live list of everyone who said "Happy Birthday @neilhimself !" that day. It’s not just about free stuff and attention from followers. It’s about a business making up their minds to have an ongoing relationship with you, to invent fun ways to delight you, and mostly about following through in a way you’ll tell your friends about.

Happy birthday.

Megan Casey is Editor in Chief of Squidoo.com

Neoteny

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Neoteny, by Joichi Ito.

Neoteny is the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood. Human beings are younger longer than any other creature on earth, taking almost twenty years until we become adults. While we retain many our childlike attributes into adulthood most of us stop playing when we become adults and focus on work.

When we are young, we learn, we socialize, we play, we experiment, we are curious, we feel wonder, we feel joy, we change, we grow, we imagine, we hope.

In adulthood, we are serious, we produce, we focus, we fight, we protect and we believe in things strongly.

The future of the planet is becoming less about being efficient, producing more stuff and protecting our turf and more about working together, embracing change and being creative.

We live in an age where people are starving in the midst of abundance and our greatest enemy is our own testosterone driven urge to control our territory and our environments.

It’s time we listen to children and allow neoteny to guide us beyond the rigid frameworks and dogma created by adults.

Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons, blogs at Joi Ito’s Web and is an Internet entrepreneur and early stage investor.

Empathy

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Empathy, by Karen Armstrong.

Our word is dangerously polarized. There is an imbalance of wealth and power that has resulted in widespread alienation, suspicion, and resentment. Yet we are linked together more closely than ever before ~ electronically, politically, and economically. One of the most important tasks of our generation is to build a just and viable global order, where all peoples can live together in mutual respect.

We have it in our power to begin the world again by implementing the ancient principle that is often called the Golden Rule: Always treat all others as you would wish to be treated yourself. We need to make this compassionate and empathic ethos a vibrant force in private and public life, developing a global democracy, where all voices are heard, working tirelessly and practically for the well-being of the entire human race, and countering the dangerous mythology of hatred and fear.

At this crossroads of history, we have a choice. We can either emphasize the exclusive and chauvinist elements that are found in all our traditions, religious or secular or those that teach us to celebrate the profound interdependence and unanimity of the human race.

Karen Armstrong is a bestselling author, winner of 2008 TED prize and creator of the Charter for Compassion.

Forever

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Forever, by Piers Fawkes.

You are immortal. The result of everything you do today will last forever.

Everything you buy, own, consume is likely to last forever somewhere in a landfill. Even the majority of the the recyclable materials you use will not be processed and these ‘green’ items will be found piled up in deep far-off valleys whether you like it or not.

When our great great grandchildren finally work out how to solve the selfish errors of our time, we will be considered primitive: our balance with our habitat ignored in pursuit of progress.

But as humans we strive for progress. We will not live alone self sufficiently on our rural hectare and therefore we must bring simple common sense to everything we buy, own & consume. If they will last forever, then we must make these items as useful as they can be for as long as possible.

Products needs to be kept, repaired, loaned and shared. Packaging needs to be reused and returned. That is progress.

Yes, the future will have smaller markets but tomorrow’s business leaders will be the first ones to build markets today that have a focus on forever.

Piers Fawkes inspires his PSFK.com readers, event attendees and corporate clients to make things better. His latest click to print book is Good Ideas in 2010.

Parsing

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Parsing, by Clay Johnson.

How many times have you paid your taxes? Ever get a receipt back telling you what you bought? You’re paying for something, right? Why is everybody arguing about taxes and deficits when they don’t know how their money is being spent?

What if you went to Lowe’s, and paid to improve your home, then Lowe’s did work but didn’t tell you what they did. Would you notice if they fixed faulty wiring?

It is time for us to rationalize the debate. Let’s parse the data and free the facts.

Imagine if we organized around meaningful data instead of vapid rhetoric. What if you could see how much you spent on your commute to work this year, or defending your country, or keeping your neighbor healthy?

What if there was as much data about John Barrow (DGA) as there was about Manny Ramirez (LF-Dodgers). There are 750 players in Major League Baseball, and only 535 Members of Congress.

Most of the data exists and what doesn’t we need to demand. The answer to healthy democracy lies not in rhetoric, but in our data.

That’s parsing I can believe in.

Clay Johnson is the Director of Sunlight Labs for the Sunlight Foundation. He tweets at cjoh.

Knowledge

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This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Knowledge, by Alisa Miller.

How does news shape the way we see the world?

Distorted, bloated, and not representative of what is happening.

Too often, American commercial news is myopic and inwardly focused.

This leads to a severe lack of global news. And increasingly, a shortage of "enterprise journalism" – journalistic depth built over time through original sources – that provides the context and enables thoughtful response.

Too often, the news sticks to crime, disasters, infotainment, and horse-race politics. Many important topics such as education, race and ethnicity, science, environment, and women and children’s issues are often less than 5% of all news combined.

Much of widely-seen online news isn’t better – it’s often just re-circulates the same stories.

The result: much of our news can’t be called "knowledge media" – content that builds insight about our world.

It’s difficult to understand the world, if you haven’t heard much about it. But we also know many Americans want to know more.

Storytelling is powerful. It helps us understand, make choices and can inspire us.

Journalism as we know it is in trouble. The old models don’t serve us anymore with the content we need. Now is our chance to make it better.

By investing aggressively and entrepreneurially in the future of knowledge media – in both journalistic reportage and in powerful storytelling, we can ensure that people get the fullest global perspective. The Time is Now.

Alisa Miller is the President & CEO of PRI, Public Radio International, and her new blog is Global Matters Post. Follow her on twitter.