10 Ideas That Are Really Changing the World

Do you ever wonder how people come up with numbered lists like the Ten Sexiest Sons of silicon Valley or
Five Ways to Get Even with Your _ _ _ hole Boss. This week’s Time cover story is about 10 ideas that are changing the world. I wonder how Time''s editors came up with that list. To save you the newsstand price of $4.95, here are the 10 ideas that Time avers are changing the world:

#1 Common Wealth: how we must work together globally to avoid the dinosaurs’ fate.

#2 The End of Customer Service: Sales clerks are being replaced by technology.

#3 The Post-Movie Star Era: Movie success will depend on stories not famous faces.

#4 Reverse Radicalism: Talking to retired terrorists will show us how to end terrorism.

#5 Kitchen Chemistry: Home cooking will morph from art to science.

#6 Geoengineering: Zillions of mirrors in space could end global warming.

#7 Synthetic Authenticity: People like fake if it feels, looks, smells, sounds and tastes real.

#8 The New Austerity: People are going to start living within their means.

#9 Mandatory Health: Companies are going to make employees live healthy lives.

#10 Re-Judaizing Jesus: Jesus was a Jew after all. Get used to it!

 
There. I’ve not only saved you $4.95 and possibly some sales tax, but the 20 – 30 minutes you would have Except for #1 (which is not revelatory) and #6 (which could just be science fiction) Time’s list of world-changing ideas are about as intellectually worthy as contemplating the downward flow of a bubble of dew.

Time’s writers embellish the 10 articles with audacious hyperbole as though terms of exaggeration can impart gravitas that is otherwise missing. For example, in pontificating about #7, Time writer John Cloud describes my good friend Joe Pine (The Experience Economy and more recently Authenticity) and his partner Jim Gilmore as “legendary business consultants.”  I should think that Joe, who seems always to be rolling a toothpick around in his mouth, would feel a little embarrassed by that characterization, especially because it appears in an article that cites his book Authenticity. I know Joe. He’s much more real than legendary.

Of what importance is it that home cooks are going to start thinking of preparing supper as a scientific act? In the first place, I am hard pressed to believe that prediction.

Time’s audacious claim to be offering to readers “10 ideas that are changing the world” stands as a profoundly shallow reading of the world of today. Less than useless, the articles are not even mildly engaging.

So, even as I have yet to finish my series of occasional posts to “Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times,” I am going to start a new series: “10 Ideas That Are Changing the World.”   I will use many of the 10 categories in Time’s cover piece to show that Time’s writers missed the really big ideas in those categories that are changing the world -- and having direct relevance to us all.
 

Comments

[Preston]

Wow. Just... wow. I didn't know that TIME started printing short fiction. I may need to dust off a few short stories and submit them.

What a joke.

[Shama Hyder]

Can't wait to read your own top 10. I will be tweeting out this post.

= )

[Dick Ambrosius]

Give them hell my friend! I cancelled my subscriptions to both Time and Newsweek last year because I found them both incredibly biased and boring.

[Alex Bonner]

#4 Reverse Radicalism: Talking to retired terrorists will show us how to end terrorism....
You've got to be kidding me. Like these guys hit 35 (a ripe age for most terrorists) and simply give up, retire, move to florida and start golfing??? Aside from being a moronic thought, Terrorists, like the rest of the world, evolve, change, morph and adopt modern ways, despite their often archaic notions. Using cell phones to detonate explosives.....

[Tom Asacker]

#11 Hype Sells

Go get 'em David!