Spotted in YOUR INNER CEO:

Communications has evolved more in the last 10 years than it has in the previous 100

I see that assertion a lot, but I don't think it holds up. Why? Well, I was thinking about this last night before bed. Let's ponder the communications field 30 years ago, when I was in high school. Sure, there's more person-to-person going on now, but the spread of information hasn't changed that much since 1978 - at least, not if you compare it to the changes between 1878-1908.

People like to say that "change is accelerating", but they're simply wrong. There's nothing going on now that compares to the wrenching changes that took place at the close of the 19th century. That was the time when the industrial revolution really caught hold, and great masses of people left the farm (and centuries of nearly identical manual labor) for urban life.

We like to think our era is uniquely changing, but it's simply not true. Compared to the time 100 years ago, things now are incremental in nature. Pick up nearly any book on the late 19th century and you'll see what I mean.

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