A neat list of ideas to watch in 2007 includes:
Maybe Malcolm Gladwell didn’t get it right. New research shows that rather than a minority of influentials leading, the masses do. These researchers found that “the principal requirement for what we call “global cascades”—the widespread propagation of influence through networks—is the presence not of a few influentials but, rather, of a critical mass of easily influenced people….”
- Sometimes, it’s all you’ve got to give: hope that things will get better. And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
- Fire the engineers, let the users take over. Okay, not that extreme, but more companies are realizing that their customers aren’t waiting to be told about the next product innovation — they’re doing it themselves.
- The power of sleep — sometimes you just can consciously wrestle your way through a problem.
- And, from one of our favorite thinkers, David Weinberger, the insidious side of accountability, which claims there’s a right and wrong answer to everything. “Accountabalism is a type of superstitious thinking that allows us to live in a state of denial about just how little control we individuals have over our environment.”
Lots more. Good reads.
