Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

I have a confession.  Although my family would have been considered working poor (my dad worked odd jobs in construction, sawmills and factories), I was able to attend a university, pay my tuition by working on a dairy farm and graduate.  This ultimately opened doors to membership among the "elite" by way of a college degree and a job with a living wage.   It is easy to forget the struggles of one's past when life has moved on.  It's easy to assume our personal experiences are representative of most.  My recent research, however, has revealed this to be untrue.  In many parts of America, there are macro and micro-economic forces and trends that are negatively impacting life opportunities, careers, hope and the quality of the human experience. When a customer complains of bad customer service, how should the business respond?  Apologize, empathize and ensure it doesn't happen again.  If businesses ignore these complaints they will quickly suffer the results.  It

The future is not unexpected.  Yesterday’s future arrived today.  It’s an inevitable pattern.  I have been reading a lot about inevitability lately.  Last week I listened to Bill Gates and Rashida Jones on the Ask Big Questions podcast.  In this podcast Bill Gates shared that we have already damaged the earth and the negative consequences are inevitable.   In my work over the past few months, I have written a series of articles under the title of The Future of Information, Truth and Influence.  Many of the articles address the negative and unanticipated consequences of social media on our society.  Many authors of the research I have been studying seem to have a fatalistic view.  We have let the genie out of the bottle and there is no going back.  It’s inevitable.