Sunday, August 22, 2010

Only 100 of the 500 SandPs the same as 1957

The End of Management
A popular video circulating the Internet captures the geometric nature of these trends, noting that it took radio 38 years and television 13 years to reach audiences of 50 million people, while it took the Internet only four years, the iPod three years and Facebook two years to do the same.

It's no surprise that fewer than 100 of the companies in the S&P 500 stock index were around when that index started in 1957. end quote.

If there are fewer than 100 of the original 500 still there from 1957 it puts the last 50 years in a completely new perspective for all or most of us.

If you look at the 38 for radio
                             13 for TV
                               4 for internet
                               3 for IPod
                               2 for Facebook

you begin to comprehend what we all are up against in regard to what Alvin Toffler once called Future Shock. At this point we live in a state of perpetual shock that I might call Post Traumatic ongoing Future Shock which would be defined as having more things to adapt to than was humanly possible and stay what would be defined as a normal human being.

However, normal cannot mean normal human in 1950 through 1980 or even 1990. The new normal is only abnormal to those of us who lived through the 1950s and into the present. So, welcome to the new abnormal. But, if you think it is normal then it is. Because "As a man thinketh so is he(or she).

So you might ask how far can a human adapt? I think a better question might be "How far can a human physically adapt?" Because psychological adaptation is relative but physical adaptation  is more of about bio-mechanical absolutes.

No comments: