Earlier this week, someone sent me a link to a blog post that reminded me of the week of seminars that I referred to here. In thinking about the blog post, I remembered attending the keynote address that kicked off the week. The keynote address was given by the president of the Canadian division of what was the second largest computer company in the world at that time.

The keynote address was primarily about the future of computing and the strategy that the company was taking (and going to take) to meet that future. The future of computing that he described (nearly 20 years ago) has held true. Only a few years after that keynote address the same company began selling off its patented technologies to pay its debts. Less than 8 years after the keynote, the company’s remaining assets were sold to a competitor.

There is something to be learned in that. Having a good sense of what the future holds is not a guarantee against making the wrong decisions. It happens to folks who are leading their industry not only commercially but in innovation and have huge financial resources.

I’m saying this without meaning any disrespect to the gent who wrote this post which talks about making something future proof. If someone tries to tell you that they have future proofed something, you are hearing the voice of inexperience.

One of the quotes in my post that I linked to above was “The real world is a special case.” Likewise the future is a special case. No doubt there are many things that we can do to reduce risk, etc. But a world full of beings able to make choices eliminates any guarantees on what tomorrow may hold.