Timelessness: Reading Others Thoughts

I have a horrible attention span, but I'm pretty decent at read blogs.  Bloggers write about food, life, design, inventions, and technology will eventually reference a good book.  These good books have been ones so potent even a horrible reader like me can finish a 300 page book in 2 days.

My current tastes have been leaning towards thought provoking essays and posts.  Timeless in ways that force me to think about my previous 20 years, with all that has changed and stayed the same, and try to position myself for the next 20 years.  Forecasting is very hard, and the last person that asked me for my 10 year plan (Tufts graduate I met in high school) got a really half baked answer.

When I think about what I was doing 20 years ago I start to see the benefits of long term thinking.  20 years ago I was 13 with a slow hand me down computer and begging my friend for hand me down modems so I could increase my bandwidth while chatting on BBS or playing the text based game LORD.  In contrast, last night I was watching Netflix, while creating mind maps on my cell phone from the comfort of my couch.  3 dedicated pieces of hardware (apple tv, iPhone, flat screen tv) easily doing what would be impossible with my one piece of hardware I had 20 years ago.

20 years ago, I was biking to school and biking all over my town.  I most likely was playing 10 hours of basketball a day with the friends I had at the time.  I also loved video games like Secret of Mana, Killer Instinct, F-Zero, and whatever was released from the Mario series.

The hardware and software I enjoyed have changed, but what has stayed the same?  I still love technology.  I still love new ideas.  What will I be doing in 20 years when I'm 53?  I'll probably have some used convertible red mid-life crisis mobile that drives itself.  Forcasting that far into the future is challenging.  There is quite a bit that could happen in 20 years.  The tools I use now like the iPhone, apple TV, and flat screen will be a joke compared to what I'll be sitting in front of, walking with, or riding in the future.  This trend of tools dying off has really challenged me lately all due to blog posts from Kevin Kelly.

Here in list of what I'm reading now.

Current Reads:
- http://www.kk.org/thetechnium (Kevin Kelly is the founding editor of Wired)
- http://longnow.org/
- Who's Your City by Richard Florida.
- What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell
- Whole Earth Catalog