Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create it

The above quote was from Abraham Lincoln. What a fantastic way to view the future. In times like this, people are constantly worried about the future: economy, AH1N1 virus, terrorism, etc. Let's do what Lincoln suggested. Create the future we want today. What's one thing that if we start to do today that would change our lives 5 years from now? Learn a new skill? Start an exercise program? Start to be involved in charity work?

I was sharing with some friends on the Power of One. Can one person change the world? Definitely not on his or her own. But one person can inspire many others to change their world and when enough people change, we change our world together.

Maya Angelou said this. "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." I say this sheepishly. I still catch myself complaining about certain things. Well, I'm going to do my best to stop it. Rather than complain about it, I'll do something about it. Then, it's fruitful.

Selamat Hari Raya!

24 comments:

  1. The quote "The best way to predict the future is to create it" DID NOT come from Abraham Lincoln (Where did that idea come from, anyway?), but rather from Alan Kay, a computer expert that is most notable for coming up with the early ideas of the graphical user interface (GUI) and the laptop/notebook computer (His version he called the Dynabook), way back in the 1960's.

    In the future, I'd suggest actually RESEARCHING before posting, to make sure that information is absolutely correct.

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    1. Alan Kay changed the word Create to INVENT.

      Abraham Lincoln: "The best way to predict the future is to create it"

      Alan Kay: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it"

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  2. Thank you for taking the time to post a comment here. Also appreciate that you care enough to offer a correction regarding the source of the topic. Most people just couldn't be bothered about it.

    Actually, I thought I saw the quote somewhere as being quoted by Lincoln. But then again, I could have just been wrong.

    Have a nice day!

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  3. Actually, That quote goes back further to Morier.

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  4. Moliere, not Morier.

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  5. Depending on where you read it, this quote either came from Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker. It's a pretty safe bet that usually the oldest source is correct. Before you start USING CAPITALS in impotent indignation, Anonymous, I'd suggest that you RESEARCH further back than the 1960s.

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  6. It is not a safe bet to believe that the oldest source is correct when dealing with an unknowable source of a given creation. Objectively speaking, that's a terrible assumption.

    If we applied that to the universe and how it came to be, we would arrive at the conclusion that the sun created the Earth, moon, and stars (or some such nonsense) because that is what the oldest religions say and they are correct because they are old.

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  7. But the sun did, indirectly, create the planets and solar system? Without the mass of the sun in the center, the material floating around wouldn't have condensed into planets. The sun provided the gravity and the stratification of materials to allow the planets to form.

    BTW - quote-world attributes this quote to Lincoln. I'd trust them as they are in the "quotes" business.

    Enjoy

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  8. Also the matter contained in our planets and everything other than hydrogen was created during the collapse of stars like ours so yes our planet and our solar system was created by "the sun" or more correctly the collapse of another sun.

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  9. What a sad little commentary on the wasted potential of the information age, that someone posts such a poignant message of hope, and it only succeeds to spark a petty debate over who said it first.

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  10. Does anyone have the quote in writing, prior to Alan Kay having said it?

    His is a brilliant visionary, illuminator and creator with or without the quote.

    – Allen Kay, CEO, Korey Kay & Partners, who created Xerox advertising (1971-1982), not Alan Kay the computer scientist who worked at Xerox PARC and created the future.

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  11. Just to complicate matters, I've seen this quote attributed to Stephen Covey!

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  12. Alan Kay said the best way to predict the future is to INVENT it. I know Alan

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  13. This is so ridiculous

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  14. The best way to create the future is to have an argument about the best way to create the future - surely I'm the first to say THAT

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    1. Nope. I believe Rufus Leaking first said that in 1666.

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  15. How can you take a lovely quote then taint it with a lame argument about where it came from... Are we thus meant to think that the future you guys were looking forward to were disagreements etc etc ... I would like to hope that you wanted more for yourselves! Luke Bong thank you for your posting it gave me inspiration and a happy wish to create my perfect future, which is what I assume you wanted from your post x
    P.s. I hope you get the future you wish for x

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  16. "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Alan Curtis Kay. 1971.

    "The origin of the quote came from an early meeting in 1971 of PARC, Palo Alto Research Center, folks and the Xerox planners. In a fit of passion I uttered the quote!".
    — Alan Kay, in an email on Sept 17, 1998 to Peter W. Lount
    http://www.smalltalk.org/alankay.html

    "Finally, I said: 'Look, the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Alan C. Kay
    http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/futures.htm (In this article, Alan discusses Where Ideas Come From.)

    Cf. Dennis Gabor, Inventing the Future (1963): "The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented."

    Please post your sources. I don't claim to know who came up with the idea, but here is some verifiable data. It's possible that it's been ripped off since Aristotle. Einstein probably said "The secret to creativity is concealing your sources." Picasso may or may not have said "Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" But because people don't post their sources, so we'll never know.

    I haven't provided a definitive answer, but I've provided my reasons for my thinking along with my sources.

    This is why Wikipedia matters... to have a place and process to hash this stuff out. It's not perfect, but it's more accurate than most people think, it's accountable to outside scrutiny, and it posts ample sources.

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  17. I love this!!! Great post. And a great quote - no matter WHO Said it. What a fantastic and friendly reply from Luke Bong to the critical commentator about taking his time to comment. It even gets better with a discussion about the solar system and creation of life. Random chaotic social media ... Have a wonderful day - today AND in the future.

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  18. Hi all you nice folks !! just this moment fell on all this squabble about a quote - Now, let me tell you that it's my Granpapee who made up that quote in the firss place. Y'all have a nice day now.

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  19. "That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way." -Ernest Hemingway, in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1934.

    PS I am only here because I saw the debated quote in a post on facebook attributed to Lincoln and it reminded me of the above Hemingway quote, so I was curious if Lincoln really did come up with it, and now I am even more confused. I suppose it is simply a common thought (common to geniuses anyway), and they all likely came up with the idea in its various quoted forms, independently.

    Arguement settled.

    (Except I have still not been able to find any source for the Lincoln quote, which is weird, since he wasn't so old that they couldn't keep a record of where and when this was said...)

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