BizStratBlog2

Paradigm Shift - are you ready for it?

My good friend Andy Drago from The Aurora Group sent me this video the other day - asking if I was ready for the paradigm shift we're all in the middle of. 

I can't vouch for all of the statistics in the video (they didn't give reference materials) but I think the message is fairly clear - not only is the world changing quickly, it's changing even more quickly than we imagined it could change.  As a reader of science fiction none of this comes as a big surprise to me - but put together as it is in this video it certainly drives home a series of linked events in a way that is powerful and persuasive.

So the next question is - what do we do about it?  How do we prepare ourselves for this shift in the world order:

glumbert.com - Shift Happens

NYS Science Olympiad - the glory and the shame

My son recently had the opportunity to participate in the NYS Regional Competition for the National Science Olympiad.  It was the culmination of over 4 months of preparation and practice.  A team event-winning depended on all the kids working together as a whole.  The event was attended and eagerly participated in by regional schools, large and small, from the Rochester area.  Calvin participated at the "B Division" level - made up of grades 6-9 (essentially middle school kids).  When I say they worked hard - I really mean it.  The events these kids participate in range from building devices to passing tests on such diverse subjects as aquifers, oceanography and geology.  My son built a trebuchet (a kind of catapult) with his teammates.  They tossed a hacky sack over 15 meters across the St. John Fisher field house.  They had to resarch and build the device themselves, run all the tools to build it (with supervision of course) and also test fire and chart all the possible variations on weights of the payload and the counterweight (they didn't find out the weights of their payload and counterweight until they began the competition).