Confusion over my status as a futurist

I have, in the past few weeks, received several confused emails and tweets regarding my continued writing on subjects pertaining to the trends, scenarios and where the world is heading in general. “Didn’t you just announce that you won’t be doing that kind of thing anymore in the pages of The Atlantic?” they ask.

A bit of clarity on the matter: I am writing full time at this moment, and if you are writing for people, it should involve their world, their life, and how it might change. This may look very much like what came to be called “futurism.” One might note that I chose my words very carefully in that article for the Atlantic – one I did not seek to publish, but that was requested of me, it should be said. In the article, I made a very specific statement about the strategic intelligence industry, the practice of being part of a corps of analysts at the service of corporate and government bureaucracies regarding long-term future trends and what should be done about them. That is the part that no longer interests me, the bit about arriving at best practices and pretending that futures studies somehow functions like accounting, HR, or even market research.

But thinking about the world and how it’s changing for real people – and helping them decide what should be done to arrive a future that is just, prosperous, aesthetically beautiful, healthy and fun?

It’s not just my business – it should be everyone’s business, in all of their affairs. So, yes, I will continue to write on topics of humanity and how it’s changing.

If you need a futurist consultant, I remain uninterested in that work – but would be more than happy to recommend to you the best practitioners in the industry. Just drop me a line.