Understanding the future - a willingness to stop, contemplate, watch and allow

I reflect on a quote from Steve Job from time to time,

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. ... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. ... They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

They are the individuals from Socrates to Darwin to Galileo to Jobs, individuals willing to see the world differently and a world with possibilities.

In 2016, I wrote about a modern version of the Tragedy of the Commons / (more recent version) (outlining the argument that the park maybe our greatest health resource), which was then followed by a series of thought articles centred around our lives in cities and the relationship with the outside world:

• Never Enough Funds - outlining the argument that the existing parks model doesn't delivery real value to society
• Rethinking Maslow's - outlining the argument that parks might be the central element we need just as important as food and shelter
• 2019 Another Turning Point - outlining that we may have hit the turning point (and understatement for 2020)
• It is just a suburban block - outlining the argument that the block of land maybe our most valuable open space in cities

They all have a number of common threads,

• the past has insights to the future and
• that we have within our grasp the tools and concepts that can change cities for the better.

However, did we really need the global tragedy that we are experiencing, to do something? To do something that is sensible?

Can we see and even understand the social landscape we live in?

There is a very Canadian and American saying from Wayne Gretzky, that really does give us an insight

'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'

Can we do the same, can we be brave enough to watch the crazy ones and see where they are skating too? and then follow and take action?

#NatureNeverCloses

@MosaicInsights