I mention the Parkfield Café in the conclusion of Adapt. Parkfield, California sits atop the San Andreas Fault and has been the site of significant earthquake research. Scientists calculated that Parkfield was at the epicenter of the fault and would therefore be the best spot to watch for signals that the “big one” was about to happen.
Take a look at these two pictures.
The one on the left shows two monuments that are now more than 12 feet apart because of the two-inch slide per year that Parkfield experiences atop the fault. The one on the right shows the water tower that serves as the entry feature to the Café, complete with their marketing slogan: “Be here when it happens!”
I used the Parkfield Café as an illustration of an example of an early warning system.
The idea is that we can get a jump on disruption if we see it coming. You might feel this early warning system in play in your world when you find yourself retooling your background image for your next Zoom call, or using Reonomy’s tool for what will sell next, or responding to a request for proposal as an Upwork vendor, or reading about another one of your compatriots who has left brokerage and gone to work for Amazon.
Change is in the wind. What are the early warning signals that you are watching?
THE FUTURE IS NOW!
