7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding the coming Future, March 10, 2001
This review is from: Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era (Paperback)
With the publication of Infinite Wealth, Barry Carter has established himself as a voice on the leading edge of the synergic paradigm.
The synergic paradigm is a place where you and I can be much more by working together than we could ever be by working separately. It is a place where we both can win. It is a place where we can create a win-win world in contrast to our present win/lose and often lose/lose world.
To solve the problems facing us (humanity) at the beginning of the 21st Century will require nothing less than our learning to work together. We must learn to Co-Operate. As Barry Carter explains in his Conclusion to Infinite Wealth:
"Our social institutions are dying. The pain we feel is the pain of death and birth simultaneously, the death of one civilization and the birth of a new one. We have entered a period in which the conservative person who does not take risks and needs stability has become the risk taker, the radical, and the gambler. It is a period in which the one who refuses to change will surely be the one who will lose the most in the coming years. There is no going back to the way things used to be. Back to the basics is a failed policy. The future has already begun, and the trend is clear.
"Starting today you must have a completely new outlook on life. You must be responsible. You can no longer depend on employers, unions, or governments to look out for your economic well-being, to provide you with a job, retirement, social security, health care, or a safety net.
"From this day forward you and your global network of partners are responsible for creating work and wealth for yourselves. If you have no network you have no security. All of the rules have changed. The guarantees and promises made to you by Industrial Age society are null and void and will be breached.
"The government and controlled economies have no choice. The power bestowed on them in the Industrial Age is slipping away--to you the individual supplier and customer. You the individual supplier and customer have no choice about accepting this responsibility. Mass victimization is no longer an option.
"Because most companies and employees are not seriously preparing, the number of companies that fail to make the transition could be extremely high. And there likely will be no unemployment benefits, no welfare, and no Social Security safety nets to catch those who fall. Your network is your security. As we stand poised on the edge of the greatest advancement and growth boom in history, we may stumble. Many may lose life, fortune, and standard of living and suffer tremendous hardship.
"We the individuals are the only ones who can make the change. Our corporate and political leaders do not have the power, vision, or intelligence to address the root causes. We the people must wake up from the Industrial Age sleep into which our factory-style schools, jobs, and governing system have lulled us. We must come out of our defined compartments and take responsibility. Our leaders cannot do what has to be done to correct our problems; this responsibility does not lie in their bureaus of specialty. It is not in their job descriptions.
"History has shown that real change usually comes only through crisis. The evidence shows that the crisis has begun. Tens of thousands are dead from the transition. We can possibly lessen or prevent the crisis if we align ourselves with the change. Today we have the technology, knowledge, power, ability, intelligence, and willingness to move faster toward win-win wealth creation.
"We must use intelligence to recognize what is occurring and move with the natural flow of things and with all deliberate speed. Either way, we have to make the transition. Meandering along simply means that we will pay a higher price in life, death, suffering, standard of living, and debt for our children. Meandering also risks complete collapse and possibly a dark millennium.
"The universe does not guarantee our standard of living or our survival. Perhaps our ancestors had to meander during periods of social transition because there was little or no precedent and little knowledge to use the precedents there were. We are fortunate because we can learn from their mistakes. As the late Carl Sagan said, "we see further because we stand on their shoulders" (1980).
"Becoming aligned with the coming change will allow us to avoid pain and to prosper. Let's get on with it. Let's stop the bleeding and start the fun, passion, and living! This will be the most fun and exciting time of our lives!"
Barry Carter has discovered one of the biggest secrets of science: "When you read and understand the work of a world's leading expert, you can become the world's second leading expert."
Carter spent 12 years of his life studying the world's leading experts in the synergic paradigm. In Infinite Wealth, he shares what he has learned and interprets his new understanding from his unique perspective developed from working as a cog in the wheel of our present Industrial Civilization. With this interpretation he has expanded the paradigm. As a synergic scientist working in the field for 27 years, I was surprised and delighted to learn more. Infinite Wealth has much to offer to both novice and expert.
This is an important book that explains the shape of the coming future. I recommend that every thinking human read it!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Survival Manifesto for Anyone with A Brain, February 11, 2001
This review is from: Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era (Paperback)
First off, this book made the cut above another ten or so options on the fringes (the amazon reviews helped). It was a good choice. The author captures the essence of many other books as well as real-world experience with two fundamental points that every manager and every employee--including fast-food employees and others in "drone" jobs--needs to absorb: first, that the existing bureaucratization of the economy at every level is costing so much as to place those companies in jeopardy during the forthcoming economic shake-out, and second, that the sooner every individual begins the process of inventorying their personal capabilities and creating the networks for offering their personal services and knowledge via the Internet to all comers, the sooner they will be able to share in the profits associated with their direct individual contributions to the new economy.
The Department of Defense acquisition and contracting examples are especially shocking because they show, so credibly and in detail, how we have institutionalized multi-billion dollar waste.
This is a special book. It is by a practical man who has drawn very personal and transformative lessons from the school of hard knocks, and whose recounting of those lessons have value for anyone who expects to work for a living today and in the future. This is not a "get rich quick" book as much as it is a "get rich together or get left behind" book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Infinite Wealth - Not exactly as you might think, February 10, 2000
This review is from: Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era (Paperback)
Assuming that Futurists do their homework right, one should be able to act on their insights with a fair degree of confidence. With "Infinite Wealth" the same trending snapshots caught by noted futurists such as Faith Popcorn, Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt take on more personalized dimensions. Barry Carter opens up before his readers doors to personal fulfillment, inviting them to join the driving forces of 21st Century new economies. If ever there was insider information worth its weight in gold, this is it.
Whether or not you are already a pioneer of the emerging Free Agent Nation, this book is a must read! If you are one of tens-of-millions sensing that the world you thought you knew is changing, not certain where you might fit in, I highly recommend "Infinite Wealth" as a beginner's guide to learning. But be forewarned! "Infinite Wealth" is not really about material wealth - per say, and if that is what you seek...well then maybe you should read the book. Otherwise, you may never know what hit you.
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