Future Here Now: Don’t future proof. Get Future Ready

This piece is part of a subscriber-only series I produce called Future Here Now. Future Here Now focuses on the early indicators of how the coming era will demand very different mindsets, values and skills — from us, from our organizations and from our communities.

If you like this, you will get a lot out of that. Learn more here.

I saw this sign on the streetcar this past weekend:

And it’s starting to make me mad.

I wrote this a few months ago for my paid subscribers (they get the good stuff — hint, hint)

I’m sure you have seen the ads. For training, AI, management courses, certificates.

“Future Proof your Career!!” they tell you.

I see those words far more often than I see Future Ready, except in my own writing.

It’s an understandable stance for people living in the unsteady transition between human eras. We see, even if dimly, that our collective future won’t look like our past. Maybe not look much like it at all.

And just like with other threats, like lightning and robbers and inflation, we try to guard against the impacts of change that we don’t want. Rabbit-proof. Shock-resistant. Fireproof.

But can we future proof? I don’t think so….

We will change more fundamentally, top to bottom, in the next 50 years than our ancestors did between 1600 and 1800. And those changes are unfolding right now, every day, whether we recognize them in that moment or not.

You gonna “Future Proof” against that? Go fight the tide. It’ll be easier.

Fundamental era change requires fundamental humanity change. Future Proofing might give you a chance to stay in yesterday’s job- and yesterday’s mindset — for another few months. But it won’t last — and like fighting the tide, it will wear you out and give you precious little to show for your effort.

This is why I don’t use those words, and I don’t talk about Future Proofing anything.

We’re grossly underestimating how profound the change we’re living through is. We’re acting like we can guard against it. But like fighting the tide, sooner or later it sweeps us off our feet.

How does Future Readiness differ from Future Proofing?

Future Readiness means accepting change, understanding change, working with change, like a surfer. Future Proofing means trying to build up defenses against that future, like planting your feet on the seafloor when you see the wave coming.

You probably know how well that works.

Future Proofing will break. Altafiber’s cable will break — or more likely, become obsolete, like a telephone land line. But a Future Ready internet system will have alternatives, will be able to flex and change and move from one delivery method to another. Maybe it won’t need cables at all.

So here’s the big question for a Monday:

Are you future proofing, or are you getting Future Ready?