The United States - 100 Years Ago
Posted By Rob Millard - 2 Comments -
Christopher Taylor is either the most erudite ten year old that I have ever come across, virtually or otherwise, or somebody that really likes this picture of himself as a child. He has a fascinating post titled 100 Years on his blog Word Around the Web about what the USA was like 100 years ago. Which is, of course, a blink of an eye ago in the greater scheme of things.
Here are ten of the century-old statistics that he mentions :
- The average life expectancy in the US was forty-seven.
- There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
- Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
- With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
- Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30.
- The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
- Coca Cola contained cocaine. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
- There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire US.
Isn't it amazing what can happen in just one hundred years? I posted a similar piece about six weeks ago, titled 21st Century Thinking.
The point? To me, both young (?) Christopher and my posts illustrate that we really don't have a clue what the future holds. Yet we happily craft strategies that assume that we do.
(Another 'plug' for one of my most basic premises: that pro-actively developing the organizational resilience that a firm needs to be able to respond to a range of possible futures, and to be able to amend its strategy 'on the fly' as the market morphs and new challenges emerge, is at least as important and "strategic" as the current strategic plan.)
Comments, as always, are most welcome and may be posted below.
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I couldn't agree more: It is imperative that businesses small and large possess and exercise flexibility within a culture capable of change and able to make right turns "on the fly." I would add one other note: Don't avoid visionary thinking, even if today it seems like tomorrow could never look like the vision.
Not so young, I'm roughly your age, but I thought the picture of me as a little guy would possibly disarm critics and people who might dislike my thoughts on subjects :)
To me what I saw there was depressing, we rocketed through the years and innovations then coasted through the last few decades of the 20th century and what do we have to look forward to? We went to the air with Kitty Hawk then to the moon with Apollo then... what? We're coasting on the momentum of our parents and grandparents. What happens when all us dragging our feet finally bring this all to a halt?