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Мегатренды

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"Мегатренды" - книга, ставшая американским бестселлером и получившая международное признание. Футурологическое исследование, основанное на реальном анализе тенденций развития американского общества конца ХХ века. Джон Нейсбит дает нам новый взгляд на будущее и новое понимание настоящего, анализируя путь, пройденный американским обществом от постиндустриального к информационному.

384 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1982

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About the author

John Naisbitt

59 books64 followers
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and after finishing his studies in at Utah, Cornell and Harvard, he worked as an executive in the coporate world, was called to be Assistant Secretary of Education under President Kennedy when he was 34, and worked as Special Assistant for President Johnson. He has witnessed America going throubled times and good times.
He has traveled the world since the late 1960s, keeping in close touch with corporations and people in many fields of endeavor. He has spoken to virtually every major corporation, to many several times. His cultural life and residence in the United States, Europe and now China keeps him in direct in touch with a changing economic environment -- experience that is reflected in the books he has written.

His international bestseller Megatrends sold more than 9 million copies and was on the New York Times bestsellerlist for more than two years, mostly as number one. John Naisbitt published the international bestsellers Re-inventing the Corporation in 1985, Megatrends 2000 in 1990, which was published in 32 countries and was the Number One bestseller in the U.S., Japan, and Germany, and Megatrends for Women in 1992 (co-authored with Patricia Aburdene). His Japanese language book, Japan's Identity Crisis, was released in 1992 and was a bestseller in Japan.

His 1994 book, Global Paradox, received England's World Review Award for The Best Book of The Year. Megatrends Asia 1995, was a bestseller in the German language and in Asia. High Tech High Touch, was published in the fall of 1999 and has since been published in 17 countries. His last book Mind Set! was published in 42 countries. The Wall Street Journal called his work “triumphantly useful…taking bearings in all directions and giving us the courage to do the same.”

* Studied at Harvard, Cornell and Utah Universities
* Former executive with IBM and Eastman Kodak
* Assistant Secretary of Education to President Kennedy
* Special Assistant to President Johnson
* Former visiting fellow at Harvard University, visiting professor at Moscow State University, and current faculty member at the
* Nanjing University in China
* Distinguished International Fellow, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia -- the first non-Asian to hold this appointment
* Recipient of 15 honorary doctorates in the humanities, technology and science
Source: His Official Web page

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Jason Waldron.
Author 1 book8 followers
March 12, 2009
I read this book in 2003. I wish that I had read it in 1982, when it was written, because it was dead-on about just about every prediction it made.

One concept that stuck with me was the concept of high tech / high touch. It means that you need to serve people using technology by making them feel human, not part of the machine. Sounds like social networking, and what we're doing here at GoodReads.
Profile Image for Mark Fallon.
918 reviews30 followers
September 21, 2019
Re-reading this classic after more than 30 years, I'm amazed about how much Naisbitt got right. While many of his positive ideas haven't yet been adopted - like realizing being a bilingual nation is a strength - the future he predicted is still coming to fruition.

Like many books I read, this became the inspiration for a blog post:
https://www.markfallon.com/blog/what-...

Profile Image for Stephen Gallup.
Author 1 book72 followers
February 23, 2021
When I read this book (38 years ago) I jotted a note saying it was "an attempt to show that current social, economic & political thinking points to a purer form of democracy."

Seeing that note today, and reflecting on the current status of what now passes for democracy, I felt Naisbit couldn't have been as far off base as my note suggested. So I found a quick review of what he said those big trends were, back in that more hopeful era.

Based on this summary, generally speaking, yes, he got a lot of the trends right. The world was indeed transforming into an information society, toward high tech, toward a global economy. The trends toward self-help and networking were real. The results of all that remain with us today, and much of what we do is now easier than it once was.

On the other hand, despite everyone having ample means of sharing their opinions (at least until they find themselves canceled, censored, fired, etc.), I would not say we enjoy a more participatory democracy, or that the trend has been toward decentralization. That might have become a reality if Google, Apple, and a handful of other corporations had not essentially taken over the Internet a couple decades ago, and if corporate media were not continually prescribing a narrow range of acceptable views people should have.

We can't fault Naisbit for what has been done in recent years. He laid out a vision that, I guess, did not take into account the way some people always game the system in pursuit of power over the rest of us. On the other hand, given human nature, that would've been be a pretty big oversight.
Profile Image for Don.
679 reviews
April 11, 2021
Surprised the graphic of the cover is already posted considering how long ago it was Published. Great stuff. Kudos.

First published this book was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 60 weeks. From the mindset of that era, the Author has predicted what 'could' occur.

Well, we are a tad further than the ten-year span predicted within this volume. And yes, some things have become true. Yet, there are many things that did not come real as we know it.

You have to remember that the book came out in the early 80s and this was the time that Personal Computers were just taking hold (the Commodore 64 being the flavor of the day and the company Intel just being started as was also Apple Computers).

Manufacturing as a whole would go Overseas to Japan and the US would become a supplier and producer of Informational Services. South America would be a major player and it was suggested to begin learning Spanish. China was not even considered as a contender due to their Communist non-capitalist beliefs and India was still Third-World. Iran was a concern but not yet an issue, because there was a slight on relations with the Saudis and the Saudis, knew this as it still had possible money issues in regards as usual in cahoots with Big Oil CEOs there in both their various locations and back home snuggled up with dually based dictated US agenda. Japan was thought of as more a threat than Russia or China and those urging lobbyists were always to be seen picking away at Washington.

California will remain a Trend Setter which some adjustment with State Laws being altered usually other States will initiate also into their mandates.

Space Travel would be taken up more and more by Private Investors.

Mexico would be more industrialistic.

We should steer clear of oil and find other modes of power (and that didn't include Nuclear which should be reduced).

And the French would be as they are: the French.

It was important to develop a Computer knowledge. This would be a skill much needed to survive in the business world providing major business was willing to get out of the idea of only seeing the Short Term and investing in Long Term commitments letting the money come in over a longer period of time rather than being greedy wanting it all right this moment appeasing both Stockholders and themselves in the form of excessive Bonuses.

After Clinton, the US had a couple hundred million surplus, and then George Bush and Wall Street took the Country down to trillions in debt to basically US's Wars on 'Terror' even though the USA's own Government are the true terrorists, warmongers, and crooks (shades of New York's Rangel and the mess he created for himself by enriching his coffers at the expense of the Tax-Payers). It was the US Government that brought them where they are today: a burnt-out and almost gutted Country.

Now, let's shoot up to 2011. We do have the Internet, the World-Wide-Web. And the big manufacturers in the US have to some degree have vanished and the envisioned Dick Tracy niffy watch Device is the norm with all the Cell Phones across the globe making this plateau in technology beyond anything our existence saw in 1982. Computer skills It's reached to point of heaven forbid that our wifi gets disrupted or we get out of signal range while making a call.

9/11 was not imagined. Nor was Madoff. Nor the collapse of the Soviet Union.

All of these have totally thrown 70 percent of the Megatrends predicted paths the earth was to expect.

Obama’s support among elements of his base and hence efforts to recapture the political center failed to attract independent possible voting patsies, according to poll even though a strong effort to seize the initiative on the economy was well received by the public. But despite Mr. Obama’s campaign to sell the plan to Congress and voters, nearly half of people say they feared the economy was heading for a double-dip recession, and nearly three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

D'uh? Thank Wall Street, Dick Cheney, the Banks, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Religions, the Chinese, and any other thing you can think in adding that helped do such a massive money drain.

This was written also at the time of the Regan Era and the US was looking pretty decent to what really transpired.

I've got to say it was an interesting read. Not a bad book. Like a trip down Memory Lane to envision back then to what the Author thought what it will be like now.

Nice to dream.
Profile Image for Steve.
371 reviews113 followers
February 27, 2025
Yeah, I read it. Read Alvin Toffler too. Megatrends had its 15 minutes, which unfortunately, ran all the way into the 90's. There were a number of authors who did the same dance, sang the same song. One thinks of George Gilder, Esther Dyson, or Faith Popcorn. These books serve some purpose, if nothing else they get us to think about where we are going as a society. The sad thing is that we only think about it till we get bored, or distracted by some new fad. Then the future comes up on us quick and takes a bite out of us. We need to stop think in 10 second sound bits, powerpoint slides, and start thinking and solving for the long term.
Profile Image for Joe.
451 reviews18 followers
May 2, 2021
Skimmed the whole thing, didn't read every word. I had heard about this book because the author recently passed away. It's a collection of business trends from 1982 that was apparently very popular and influential.

The author got a lot right. The big one, going from an industrial to an information economy, was the major one. He got some details wrong (he said we wouldn't shop online for personal items, only for basic staples); he got others right (we'd worry that our kids are spending too much time on the computer just like we worried about how they spend too much time in front of the television).

By my count, he got five of the trends right (1, 3, 5, 9, and 10) and three wrong (2, 6, 7). The other two are inconclusive (4 and 8). That's pretty good. He should get extra points for trend #3, declaring that the U.S. economy will be more dependent on advances in the biological sciences than in the physical sciences. This is right, and it wasn't obvious from the perspective of 1982 (at least, I think this is right? Maybe I take for granted the advancement of semiconductors through Moore's Law, and that's got to be mostly applied physics).

The ninth chapter, about the shift in 1980 census population from the North to the South (and Southwest), was my favorite. I hadn't heard this narrative told quite like this, but it's important and mostly correct (mostly because his suggested implications were a bit off; he called California and Florida bellwethers, but neither qualify as that now). The author seems enthusiastic about it. I think he complained about Yankees a couple times. And he seems really on board with Reagan.

Overall, it's an easy read. You can just skim the chapter headings as if they are PowerPoint slide titles. The whole thing feels like a PowerPoint presentation that was extended into a book.
Profile Image for Marc Buckley.
105 reviews14 followers
June 4, 2021
This is a classical must-read book for trendsetters and futurists and going back in history and see how well John predicted the future is fantastic.

I had his wife, partner, and co-writer Doris Naisbitt on the podcast Inside Ideas in December 2020, and Doris tells me that right now ‘we are in a time called half time’ and though transformative change is inevitable, as ‘creators of the world, it is what each of us does’ that will still be central to delivering the sustainable future we want to live in.
If you want to listen to my wonderful conversation with Doris you can find the video podcast with Episode 51 here:https://youtu.be/Wvk3jEbHVEQ

Or check out the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/human-c...
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/inside-...
https://medium.com/inside-ideas/doris...
Profile Image for Mike.
161 reviews2 followers
September 6, 2008
Was forced to read this in college because it was the in book to assign. Somebody still owes me those hours I wasted reading that.
Profile Image for Clay Kallam.
1,105 reviews29 followers
August 31, 2022
So a friend of found "Megatrends" in his garage, and passed it on, thinking it might be of some interest to see what the future looked like from 1982, when the book was written. And though the book doesn't merit a careful read, the 10 trends John Naisbitt predicted show how chancy looking ahead can be.

But first, the main thing Naisbitt got right in 1982 was his belief that the United States, and the world, was transitioning to an information economy -- and that first world countries like the U.S. would move away from industrial production. His insight is even more impressive because the Internet was 15 years in the future and personal computers were luxury items. Cell phones? Not even on the horizon.

He also nailed the American population shift to the West and Southwest, and that a multiplicity of options would likely replace either/or choices.

Naisbitt missed badly on some others, as the fine line between ingrained human behavior and cultural impact is often hard to discern. For example, human beings are clearly hierarchical animals, and we always seek to raise our status, so Naisbitt's belief we would see less hierarchy didn't stand the test of time. He did, however, see the importance of networking (again, before computers or the Internet) and the inevitability of globalization.

Overall, "Megatrends" was a fun skim, and more to the point, a clear reminder that predicting the future, even with a huge amount of data on hand, is more a flip of a coin than anything else. So beware of those who claim to know what's next, no matter how well informed, as Naisbitt's "road map to the 21st century" would have certainly led believers into the wilderness had they blindly followed his 1982 directions.
Profile Image for Laura Walin.
1,844 reviews85 followers
June 27, 2024
Reading this book was some kind of a 'back to the future' experience - it was fascinating to find out what the father of the term megatrend had considered as such back in early 1980's. Specifically, as megatrends are by definition supposed to affect us over decades, it was interesting to assess how well the trends foreseen by Naisbitt have hold since.

Speaking for Naisbitt and for the whole future industry that has emerged since, for many megatrends there is considerable insight in what Naisbitt writes. We clearly have seen the change to information society, globalization, networking, individualization, and pluralization in the last forty decades. Some more US-centered megatrends are more difficult to assess from distance.

At times the book is a bit tedious reading as Naisbitt bases - as he should - his arguments on data, and listing this data in detail does not make a good story. Despite of this, I strongly recommend anybody interested in thinking how to change the world read this book and think what we can learn already now about the next forty years is we read the megatrend signals well.
Profile Image for Odysseas Spyroglou.
7 reviews
August 16, 2025
This is one of the seminal and legacy texts we often refer to in foresight. Probably one of the first that coined the word megatrends.
Although it was written 40+ years ago it still resonates today. Not only because you can see some of the trends in the book evolved into culture but mainly because you can understand the process.
15 reviews
July 15, 2019
the takeaway: learn to code or do anything with a computer that will pay
Profile Image for Davey.
43 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2020
So stupid it is hillarious.
2 trends this clown spoke of?
No One will ever shop on line.
Teleconferencing will never work.

Yah right.
Profile Image for Mark Bunch.
455 reviews7 followers
June 28, 2017
Read this in 1982, started my thinking on trends...... catching and riding a business wave. Loved it during college-.
Profile Image for Renz Homer Cerillo.
58 reviews12 followers
August 30, 2014
I thought the book, in a general view, has many informative and educational facts (e.g. statistics, trivia etc.). I encountered two problems, however, in the course of my reading. The first thing is that a large chunk of the book's content is contextualized in America, esp USA. So I could hardly relate with all the things Mr. Naisbitt was trying to say. Secondly, I think reading this book at this generation is quite late. Most of the details are grounded on the previous decade. So again, I could hardly relate. Nonetheless, its highly informative and I was still able to learn a thing or two- just so hard to relate to it.
Profile Image for Patricia Martin.
Author 4 books12 followers
December 3, 2012
I recently re-read Megatrends while preparing my forecast of cultural trends for 2013. It still holds up.

Consider how often you've faced phenomena such as high-tech/high-touch. Or, witnessed the shift from a predominantly national economy to a global marketplace. A few of Naisbitt's forecasts never materialized, such as h,is prediction that we'd favor long-term vs short-term thinking. We are still debating climate change for goodness sake. Seems we are stubborn short-termers.

Megatrends deserves a second read. It certainly set the bar for futurist non-fiction.
Profile Image for Nick.
286 reviews1 follower
September 20, 2010
This book was a four star in my mind earlier (i.e. about a decade ago .... lol) .... now down to 3 *s because of its loss of traction/message.

Nevertheless, a good read, proving yet again - even today - that Naisbitt had vision (albeit not all of his predictions materialized, some of them were huge hits, given the amplitude of the afterward developments and the moment in time when he made his predictions).
17 reviews2 followers
June 9, 2008
A friend gave me this book many years ago. I had a look at it again last night and was astonished (again) how well he called it - in 1982. Then again, there's this thought - the late 90s were such a boom because the changes they brought were so incredibly obvious, expected, and perhaps even a little late, and when they arrived they did so stacked upon one another.
Profile Image for Tom.
12 reviews
December 3, 2013
In 1982 John Naisbitt, seeing significant changes and transitions forthcoming on the American landscape, details our shift from a manufacturing behemoth to one providingservices and digital information to the world. Having retired from the Navy in 1982 when the book was written book helped me fashion my second career in finance and technology.
Profile Image for Rick.
891 reviews20 followers
August 2, 2008
I still quote stuff from this book. Recommended. [but I think there is a newer edition...]
Profile Image for Robin.
176 reviews7 followers
Want to read
January 2, 2009
107 weeks on the Best Sellers list! Future book that predicts tomorrow based on analysis of today's information. Published in 1984. Would be nice to see how far off he was....or right on.
34 reviews1 follower
July 6, 2010
Pretty impressive prognostication of trends driving society. Not all of them have played out, of course, but you can see some of them still emerging in the economy today
Profile Image for Kevin Olsavsky.
15 reviews2 followers
May 14, 2012
Okay, so I read this over 25 years ago, but it was interesting and has proven fairly accurate. The author has a new book out in 2010...he's over 80 now.....
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews

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