by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. An edited version of this article first appeared in the November/December 2008 edition of Teach magazine. In my last blog, I talked about how we both can and should move away from the local monopoly of whatever teachers happen to be available to a given student. To recap, what I am […] Read more

Teachers from Socrates up to the present have taught in much the same way: by lecturing in person to a group of listeners. There is a lot to recommend this approach, not least that we are all familiar and comfortable with it, and it’s simple to do: take people interested in learning (or who are […] Read more

Have we hit bottom? Are we starting up? Yes, and no. Yes, we’ve probably hit bottom. No, we’re not starting up – at least the United States isn’t, and most of the developed world will see feeble growth at best. Yet, the global economy is growing, and we are seeing the biggest disparity ever between the […] Read more

The polarization of American politics is evident from the way that Republicans and Democrats seem to loathe each other. They scream at their counterparts; they rant for the cameras; their surrogates in the press besmirch each other as worse than foreign enemies. Indeed, the fact that John McCain, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for president, in […] Read more

And now, as Monty Python once said, for something completely different. Have you ever tried to explain the game of (Major League) baseball to someone who knows nothing about it? I tried once, back in the 1980s, to explain it to my (English) father-in-law, and found to my dismay that baseball is a game that […] Read more

Free trade works for everyone – but only if everyone works. Rich countries, especially in North America, are getting lazy, and that spells trouble.

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. All developed nations are struggling with health care because of their aging populations. In America, for instance, the Great Debate is on, chock full of noise and nonsense, about providing universal health care. Those opposed say that it is socialized medicine, and therefore a sin, and bad. Those who are […] Read more

by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. I’ve written about robots on several occasions before, but want to revisit the subject because the arrival of robots is imminent, and portends more than just science fiction characters come to life. First, let’s review where we are. Robots have been around for decades, but mostly in very rudimentary forms, […] Read more

A wild card is a low probability event, which, if it occurs, has dramatic consequences. I believe we now face such a wild card. The idea occurred to me just last week, as I was riding a plane from A to B. Sometimes ideas coalesce for no apparent reason, and as I was reading about […] Read more