Futurists

Wendy Wasserstein’s Guide to Slothful Living

Bill Thompson

About 20 years ago, the New York public library assembled a list of books on the seven deadly sins.

One of which, of course, is sloth.

But if you’ve always been a little fuzzy about exactly what sloth is playwright essayist and satirist Wendy wasserstein to the rescue.

You may remember wasserstein best for her 1989 play The Heidi Chronicles, which won a Tony award and a Pulitzer prize.

Her 2005 book Sloth is a parody of self-help books, with detailed instructions on how you too can acquire sloth.

I interviewed Wendy several times, but this was the most fun one. So here now from 2005. Wendy Wasserstein.

Wendy Wasserstein died in 2006, She was 55.

Alvin Toffler

Bill Thompson
Photo by Vern Evans

Being a successful futurist does not require some psychic ability, or a stack of tarot cards, or a crystal ball. Wha it does Involve is the ability to extrapolate from current conditions to map out what the future may hold

And one of the most successful, and influential, futurists of our time was Alvin Toffler.

His 1970 book Future Shock, and his 1980 bestseller The Third Wave, set millions of readers on a new path of thinking.

Toffler accurately forecast developments such as the internet, personal computers, and cloning.

In 1990, Toffler produced another book that, in 30 years’ time, has proven to be as accurate as his first two books. It was called PowerShift, and it outlined what we now recognize as the age of information.

As you listen to this, if you’re old enough, try to remember where you were and what you were doing in 1990. Then judge for yourself if Toffler’s forecast was accurate.

So here now, from 1990, Alvin Toffler.

Alvin Toffler died im 2016. He was 87.

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