In 1899, a group of French and German artists drew illustrations of what they thought the world would look like in 2000.

In this drawing, they basically predicted FaceTime.
The artists imagined a device that would let you project a performance into another room—kind of like TV.
They envisioned moving sidewalks.
The artists imagined robotic cleaning devices. 90 years later, the Roomba would be invented.
They imagined flying taxis, decades before the first planes or helicopters.
One drawing predicted roofs over cities. That one didn't happen, but at least we have them over sports stadiums 🤷‍♂️
Another depiction of FaceTime / Zoom, with some heavy-duty equipment to boot.
And personal flying devices—still waiting on those.

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More from @rex_woodbury

21 May
During the pandemic, unemployment in the Philippines hit 40%.

Thousands of Filipinos without jobs—like Howard, pictured here—turned to blockchain-based online games as a way to make money.

Here's how it happened 👇 Image
It started with Axie Infinity, a popular blockchain game with cartoonish creatures called Axies.

Axie is what’s called a play-to-earn game: if you win battles you earn a resource called Small Love Potion. You can exchange SLP for the cryptocurrency ETH & then convert to dollars. Image
This man used to drive a taxi, but he had no customers during COVID.

He started playing Axie and making up to ~$300 a month. For reference, minimum wage in the Philippines is about $170 per month. Image
Read 13 tweets
20 May
1/ In January 2019, Burger King began mysteriously liking people's tweets from 2010.

Because liking decade-old posts is creepy, people started noticing. But no one could figure out why.
2/ After the internet was buzzing, Burger King did its mic drop:
3/ For $0 in marketing spend, Burger King created massive earned media value. Not bad.

Brilliant example of savvy, innovative social media marketing.
Read 4 tweets
8 May
This is Megan Leeds, better known as MeganPlays.

In 2018, Megan was making $400/month posting YouTube videos of herself gaming.

Today, she takes in millions of dollars a year, has 3.6 million subscribers, & launched a game studio that will bring in $8 million this year.

👇👇👇
Megan started out by posting YouTube videos of herself playing The Sims.

She made about $400/month.

Then, she switched to Roblox and everything clicked. She says: “I immediately saw a turnaround. I could actually pay my bills.”
Megan is a triple threat:

She's part entertainer: she's high-energy and charismatic and uses bright colors (including her signature pink & purple hair) to engage viewers.

She's part gamer, livestreaming her gameplay.

And she's part developer, creating games for Roblox.
Read 11 tweets
7 May
The most important trend of our generation is the disaggregation of work.

In 2027, America will become a majority freelance economy for the first time.

👇
Young people today are skeptical of "traditional" career paths. Many watched their parents lose jobs during the 2008 financial crisis. Many lost their own jobs during the pandemic.

This skepticism is breeding a distrust of institutions and a backlash to centralized authority.
Millennials & Gen Zs don't want to "rent" time to a corporation or work within "the system".

They'd rather use their own hustle and savvy to dictate their own fortunes.
Read 9 tweets
6 May
In 1996—11 years before the iPhone—David Foster Wallace predicted FaceTime, Zoom fatigue, and the rise of audio platforms like Clubhouse and Discord.

Here's how 👇
In his 1996 book Infinite Jest, Wallace forecasts a technology called the "video phone". Keep in mind, this is before cell phones go mainstream.

With the new technology, people shift from audio calls to video calls, which sound a lot like today's FaceTime and Zoom meetings.
It turns out, people really hate the video meetings.

They feel like they always have to look good and be "on". It's exhausting. Sound familiar?

This is Zoom fatigue, 15 years before Zoom will even be founded.
Read 13 tweets
5 May
There are a lot of buzzwords in tech right now—creator, community, Web3, NFTs, metaverse.

The thing is, they all connect. They're intersecting & building on each other to forge the next generation of the internet.

Here's how I think everything connects 👇👇👇
First, we're becoming a digital species.

Over the last decade, internet users have swelled to 4.5 billion—60% of the world. Americans spend *11 hours a day* interacting with digital media.

With tech, we communicate, create, & collaborate in new ways & at an unprecedented scale.
The scale of the internet is stunning. Every single minute, people:

• Stream 404,444 hrs on Netflix
• Post 347,222 Insta stories
• Upload 500 hrs on YouTube
• Ship 6,659 Amazon packages
• Install TikTok 2,704 times
• Send 41,666,667 WhatsApp messages

Source: @VisualCap
Read 21 tweets

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