Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We're Thriving in a New World of Possibility

Description

The future isn't a place. It's a set of tools. For three hundred years we've lived with Isaac Newton's tools, designed for a clockwork universe where the rules are simple, knowable, and apply the same way everywhere. The future was a set of possibilities that narrowed as they approached, so our most basic strategy was to anticipate what happens and to work the clockwork's levers to eliminate all of the possibilities except for the one we wanted. But now the clockwork is coming apart as we get used to the truth that everything affects everything else, all at once, forever. In this new future, our best strategy often requires holding back from anticipating and instead creating as many possibilities as we can. The book's imperative for business and beyond is simple: Make. More. Future. In Everyday Chaos, we'll look at how we've been busily, silently overturning our most basic ideas about change. We'll see how that's already affecting how we plan, measure success, make predictions, model and explain our world, and design strategies - and ultimately how we think the future emerges from the present. By acknowledging the complexity and intricacy all around us, we're learning that we succeed by making the future even less predictable, employing new tools for new success in a new type of future.

From the earliest days of the web, David Weinberger has been a pioneering thought leader about the internet's effect on our lives, on our businesses, and most of all on our ideas. He has contributed to areas ranging from marketing and libraries to politics and journalism as a strategic marketing VP and consultant, an internet adviser to presidential campaigns, an early social-networking entrepreneur, a writer-in-residence at Google, a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, a Franklin Fellow at the US State Department, and a philosophy professor. His writing has appeared in publications from Wired to Harvard Business Review, and his books include the bestselling The Cluetrain Manifesto.

"Weinberger has given us a beautifully written set of mental maps to help keep us aligned with our own futures." -- KMWorld Advance Praise for Everyday Chaos: Seth Godin, author, This Is Marketing-- "My copy is filled with notes on the margins of every page. This is what books are for--a mind-blowing, game-changing, fun-to-read race into the future. Wow." Reid Hoffman, cofounder, LinkedIn; Partner, Greylock-- "If you want to better understand the possibilities that machine learning and other forms of AI are creating--and harness the power of these breakthroughs--read this lively and illuminating book!" Aneesh Chopra, former (and first) US Chief Technology Officer, Obama Administration-- "Weinberger's thought-provoking call to action is a must-read for business leaders pushing the envelope on innovation, for policy makers seeking to protect the public from undue harm, and for the rest of us who are keen to live better lives but mindful of any unintended consequences." Robin Chase, cofounder and former CEO, Zipcar-- "David's writing is just so pleasing, and his ideas so interesting and useful, that I found myself reveling in his words, nudging my partner and saying, 'Let me read you this bit . . . '" Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab-- "With classic Weinberger wit and brilliant insight, this book shatters the myth of predictability while delivering grounded, actionable advice for anyone trying to thrive in the everyday chaos that has become our world. A page-turner must-read for everyone."