My Six Takeaways from the book Abundance: The Future is Better than you Think

I usually include ”my takeaways” at the end of my book synopsis presentations.  These are the insights/challenges that I think I, and maybe others, might choose to focus on.

Here are my six takeaways from the book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, which I presented at the July 6 First Friday Book Synopsis.

I liked the book.  And as a life-long pessimist, I found myself thinking, maybe it’s time to be a little more optimistic.

By the way, though I did not have time during my presentation last Friday (in our short 15 minute time frame) to cover this, the book has a lot to say about Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.  This week, Ray Kurzweil was interviewed/profiled on the Newshour on PBS.  Now that is one a visionary, optimistic man.  (Watch Paul Solman’s interview of Ray Kurzweil here).

Here are my takeaways:

• Six Takeaways:

1)  Read more books that point to optimism, and actual solutions (but, not “self-help” books.  Books with data, stories, “research” – books that give actual reasons for optimism).  Study your way into a more optimistic outlook.  (Constantly guard against your tendency to be a pessimist.  Embrace optimism).
2)  Broaden your inputs – broaden them greatly. – And, then, broaden your outputs.
3)  Function on a team, regularly – to solve specific problems.  (To solve those problems – and, to learn how to better function on a team). 
4)  Exercise your compassion/meaning muscles.  Only “making a difference” (desiring to “change the world”) will drive the kind of work that needs to be done.
5)  And – constantly guard against fighting “change.”  Embrace change – including new technology.  Just to get used to embracing new technology.  Because it will continue to come, faster than ever, and we all need to view it not as an enemy, but as a tool to embrace…
6)  And embrace, with more enthusiasm, a true “open-source” approach.  (“Proprietary systems slow things down”).  Learn to share.

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My synopsis of Abundance, with audio + comprehensive handout, will be available e soon on our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

And, to read many of my highlighted passages from the book, read my (Some of) My Highlighted Passages/Direct Quotes from Abundance by Diamandis and Kotler.