I always thought it would be pretty great to have vision that goes out there (5-10-20 years).  I believe in my ability to do stuff, but in the past few years, I have come to terms that my confidence level in looking past two years is very low.  I am not complaining.  Having confidence to look out two years in your line of business can be handy.  (To be clear, I am talking about confidence and willingness, not actual ability).

Tim O’Reilly and his colleagues at O’Reilly Media have no such shortcoming.  They pride themselves at looking out long and wide.  They can often place mortal thoughts into a broader and more far-reaching context.

Listen to Tim O’Reilly and Rael Dornfest in the “Distributing the Future” podcast with Daniel Steinberg, where they discuss The Mechanical Turk, bionic systems and how we need to pull from the strengths of both people and of machines.  They put my thoughts in a far more global view.