Peek over the pail and look down the road

So this is the year they were talking about after all, eh? At the turn of 2000, tech futurists went to work thanks to all those advancements that were happening. The real visionaries spoke about the year 2020, and the short-sighted (pun unintended) ones kept themselves occupied with 2010. It was all over the place, remember? Somehow, 2010 (or the turn of the decade as we call it) was expected to be this tipping point in everything that cocooned the human imagination. They said it all – ranging from high rates of diabetes to back to back economic recessions to selling real estate on the moon. Somehow, in 2002 (or 03), 2010 seemed liked this year that was way into the future. For some of us it even seemed that it would take a really really long while to get there.

But then, here we are. It’s 2010 and it doesn’t feel very much different than it did when they made those predictions, really. The undeniable fact however is that the world today looks very very different from the one 7 or 8 years ago; maybe even 3 or 4 years ago. Probably because we’ve come to accept change living day to day that we don’t realize it! The futurists were right. Well, at least some of them were. So i find it hard to digest when people say "This is what i am, i can't change." Sorry bud, don't tell fibs.

So the deal-of-this-coming-decade as I understand is the (seemingly obvious) fact that we’re going to remain logged on to the internet twenty four bar seven. Logging on-and-off is out; staying logged on is in. This means we’ll all have a smart phone in our hands whether we like it or not. Balckberries ain't just for the C-suite guys. If some one had told you in 1999 that you’d OWN a mobile phone ten years from now, you’d have probably thought that the guy had lost his marbles. But trust me to trust the tech pundits on the blackberry thing.

Expect two other things this decade:

Number one:- Expect drug companies to shift towards producing preventive medical treatment moving forward over the traditional curative medications. People and insurance companies it seems are more into fixing the tap before it leaks. If you're planning on studying medicine, at least be sure to learn nutritional medicine really well.

Number two: - If people are going to stay logged on to the internet 24X7, much of the money in the world will move into cyberspace (accelerating the already building trend). How does that help you and me? This means that if we can figure out a way to get a slice of this internet money pie (monetizing blogs, tweets so on), we can effectively work at our careers because we like it and not because we have to. Which means, expect to see people in their twenties retiring before their parents do. And expect billionaires still in high school. Forbes will just have to put out a trillionarries list eventually.

Until then, sit back and have a meaningful year ahead. Take care of the years, and the decade will take care of itself.