Bill Parker

As a little boy I used to love to play guns with my cousins. These were the days before political correctness took conflict and toy weapons away from children so we had an impressive arsenal of plastic pistols, rifles, and even hand grenades. We yielded these toys with devastating Rambo like results; at least that’s how we imagined it. Using your imagination is as simple as taking some components of reality and exaggerating others to visualize something new. We would create noises as we shot, pretend we were hit when shot at and hit the deck to avoid those pesky grenades.

Predicting the future isn’t that different. Our components of reality are historical record and our exaggerations are predictions that extend out trends that we have identified which can be tied together and allow us to visualize the future.

I’m sick and tiered if hearing “go deep” and “think outside the box”. Anyone who uses this in a speech without specifics, ideas, or examples is not listening to their own advice. These feeble attempts at inspiration may sound good but are simply white noise to the brain.

Going Deep = Details = Blueprints / Data

Think Outside the Box = Different Perspective = New Ideas