The Next 20 Years of Your Life: A Personal Guide into the Year 2017

by Richard Worzel

According to THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS OF YOUR LIFE, our future is moving into a society of more diversity and more extremes, but we can influence our own lives. The book shows how we each can apply thought, action, commitment, and compassion to prevent the erosion of the social values we cherish.

294 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1998

Reviews

[Desmond Rivet · Rating 2 out of 5]

The parts on technology (computer genies) and some of the predictions in "assassin marketing" were quite dead on. Other parts, not so much.

[Mike Steinborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book over a decade ago and remember thinking at the time how interesting it was! Since then, I've re-read it several times, once every few years, just to remind myself of some of the things Worzel says. I find some of his ideas, especially those portrayed in his vignettes of possible future scenarios, quite thought-provoking.

Unlike his more famous counterpart in the US, Alvin Toffler, Richard Worzel does not seem to be a household name even in his homeland of Canada, despite the fact that my research shows that he is quite a respected futurist.

I'm a little disappointed in his rather negative perspective of television and computers. In my opinion, his comments on these represent a rather shallow, one-dimensional view of these mediums considering the more robust perspective he exhibits throughout most of the book.

But all in all, a useful and helpful read over the years. His view in a nutshell? "The future will offer less security but more opportunity". May we have the courage to take advantage of those opportunities and not let our fear of the former allow us to miss out on the latter!