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Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives Mass Market Paperback – August 16, 1988

by John Naisbitt (Author)

14 customer reviews

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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (August 16, 1988)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446356816
ISBN-13: 978-0446356817
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,399,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9730 in Books > Science & Math > Technology
- #143104 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

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3 star		7%
2 star		7%
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

Timeless Look at the Fundamental Changes in U.S. Society

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on December 6, 2000

Format: Mass Market Paperback

This book clearly deserves more than five stars for its power and effectiveness in identifying, explaining, and projecting many important trends in American society over the last 18 years.
I first read this book when it was published in 1982, and decided to reread it recently to understand more about the methods used by testing them with 20-20 hindsight.
The book built from the principle that the "most reliable way to anticipate the future is by understanding the present." Although the book relies a lot on that method (by examining current beginnings that could turn into mighty rivers), its real power comes from the long-term perspective of how an information society will be different from the prior industrial one.
The trends identified were:
(1) Becoming an information society after having been an industrial one
(2) From technology being forced into use, to technology being pulled into use where it is appealing to people
(3) From a predominantly national economy to one in the global marketplace
(4) From short term to long term perspectives
(5) From centralization to decentralization
(6) From getting help through institutions like government to self-help
(7) From representative to participative democracy
(8) From hierarchies to networking
(9) From a northeastern bias to a southwestern one
(10) From seeing things as "either/or" to having more choices.
The detail behind each of the trends is often more rewarding than the overall trend itself. You get specific examples that excite your imagination. "On the producer side [of multiple choices], it means there can be a market for just about anything.Read more ›

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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

Worth Consideration

By Dr. W. G. Covington, Jr. on October 28, 2003

Format: Hardcover

Naisbitt looks a long term futuristic trends. He helps one to see the big picture both chronologically and globally. Take for example his opening observation that "While America's new information economy is our most important megatrend, it is only part of the puzzle." He logically argues that "collectively what is going on locally is what is going on in America." The five bellwether states, which set the trends for the rest of the couutry are idenified as; California, Florida, Washington, Colorado, and Connecticut.
A strong case is made in the second chapter for "high touch" (i.e., human involvement) to remain a vital component of the high tech age.
In the third chapter, the global economy is described. The airplane and satellite communication are identified as the technologies that caused the transition from a national to a global economy.
Although an international, global economy exists, surprisingly at the same time decentralization is occurring. He explains in chapter 5 why.
In the following chapter he similarly explains how people are becoming increasinly proactive in their individual futures, and not rely on institutional help.
The proactive theme is carried a step further in chapter seven.
Chapter 8 discusses the phenomenon of networking.
Right up to the end of his book, he makes a solid case for the trends he describes. This is a well-written book, researched so that its essential theme remains accurate although a lot has changed since it originally was published.

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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Valuable but woefully incomplete

By Shalom Freedman HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER on January 25, 2006

Format: Mass Market Paperback

This book was published in 1982. It stresses the motion from national to global economy, from either/ or kinds of choice to multiplicity of choices, from an industrial to an information society, from Technology dictating to us to our demanding what we want from it. These trends do seem to have played a part in the last quarter century.

But if I think back upon the past twenty- five years it seems to me that they are very far indeed from 'covering it all'. Consider the fantastic development of the Internet which has totally transformed the way we learn about the world. True, the book talks about moving towards an Information society but this Daniel Bell and other sociologists made clear many years before-and no one , as I understand it, conceived how the Internet has developed.

Consider other developments of this time, including the political ones, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of the US as single superpower, and then the Terror of 9/11 and the coming into being of a Fundamental Radical Islam that threatens Western society as a whole. Others foresaw in the eighties a return to religion , but I don't think anyone could have imagined anything as disastrous as this worldwide terror campaign against the West.

I could go on. I do not want to fault the book which makes valuable points. I just believe it presents only a very small part of the picture, and the trends which have been most consequential over the past quarter century.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

I Remember this Book Entirely Differently...

By Xenopticon on January 14, 2012

Format: Mass Market Paperback

The central point I recall in this book, which I do not see reflected in my quick scan of these reviews, is that the megatrends cited are DIALECTECAL forces, NOT trends from one direction to another. For example, AS globalization increases and intensifies, SO DOES localization. AS high tech gains ascendency, SO DOES "high touch." The author(s) did not advocate any particular outcome, to the best of my memory; he/they pointed out dynamic tendencies to become aware of and to attend to.

In that light, such "predictions" as are implicit in the megatrends cited do seem often to have played out: The attacks of 9/11 can arguably be seen as a highly localized action in response to the trend of globalization, as well as to the leading role played therein by US political, economic, and business interests and the resulting domestic and international policies. The existence of highly-effective, decentralized networks, such as Al Quaeda, enabling highly localized action in support of a major global trend and disperse organization (i.e., the global spread of fundamentalist Islam) can be seen in some ways as a synthesis of the dichotomous, simultaneous forces of globalization and localization.

Likewise, as technological development accelerates and permeates human cultures, the value of individually hand-crafted items rises. The interest in owning hand-made items, and in making things with one's own hands, increases in parallel. As one indicator of this trend playing out, consider the proliferation of magazines and in-person gatherings on these two groups of subjects.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

The book conditional is very good. Someone introduced this book to me

The book conditional is very good. Someone introduced this book to me. I am reading now. Thank seller to contact me, Frankie.

Published 4 months ago by buyer

Two Stars

Kind of ok

Published 7 months ago by Purna Dangol

Still Right on After 30 Years

I read this book in 1982 and found it to be extremely insightful. Re-reading it today, I am convinced that John Naisbitt was prophetic in this work. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Wayne Palmer

BOOK'S PREMISES
The author posits 10 Megatrends to dominate our society (from 1982) though stating that p. 232: The megatrends are linked. Read more

Published on December 21, 2012 by Neal J. Pollock

Missed the mark for the future: Technology

Read this book in 1984 and was not impressed with it back then. Naisbitt failed to convey or foresee the profound effect technology has had on our everyday lives. Read more

Published on May 30, 2012 by Paul W. Brainerd

February 23,2012

Someone put this old book out on their stoop for someone to take and I thought it would be interesting to see how wrong this prognosticator would be, just like they all are. Read more

Published on February 21, 2012 by T. Dreiling

Review of who sent me the book.

The book was sent as promised, in the time-frame promised, in the condition promised. Can not ask for more than that.

Published on September 16, 2011 by James T. Eartly

The Book That Changed My Thinking

It has been years since I read the book Megatrends, but when first reading it my mind and thinking became far more open than before. Read more

Published on November 5, 2010 by Amazon Customer

The Political Paradox - State rights and power are increasing

The political paradox is State governments are becoming more powerful, rich, and independent. This revelation helped me to understand the illusion of big business and politics. Read more

Published on July 7, 2010 by Golden Lion

The book made its own predictions come true

I was in college when this book came out. Having come from a part of the country that was heavily manufacturing-based, I was seriously interested when I heard a group of students... Read more

Published on March 25, 2009 by Bibliophile