A Salute to a Decade that Never Recessioned
The 2010’s started, on January 1, 2010, with the waves of the aftermath of the Great Recession still crashing on our collective psyche. It ends with the economy chugging along at full employment.
The Decade of Continuous Economic Expansion was also notable as the greatest decade for innovation ever. Innovation now happens faster than ever. In the 2010’s we saw the rise of numerous new trends, not the least of which are:
- Artificial intelligence
- Robots
- Climate Change
- Self Driving Cars
- The Rise of China
- Facebook / IG
- Sharing Economy
- #MeToo
- CryptoCurrencies
- Drones
- Video cameras and survielance
- And Space Travel
Let’s take them one at time:
- Artificial intelligence
AI was just a Sci Fi fantasy as the decade began. As we close out the decade, Alexa sits feet away, ready to attempt to answer any question. She has a spotty track record, but I suspect she’ll get better. Far better.
AI is with us everywhere on our phones, its just a matter of time before its everywhere at work. It will make humans far more productive. Combine this with robots, and the future gets interesting!
- Robots
Robots technically existed well before 2010. I bought a toy robot dog for Christmas in 2000 or 2001. It was crude, but it could sort of walk. The real challenge for robots was a bi-ped walking. They’re getting pretty good here as 2020 dawns.
Robots haven’t penetrated every day life like AI has, but they are showing up more and more.
Combined with AI and self-driving cars, the future of humanity could be really amazing if we just don’t kill the planet. Oh, wait.
- Climate Change
Climate Change was well known in 2010. In a sense, it’s frustrating to find it here on the list of emerging trends. And that’s just the lack of political will frustrating.
The science, the data, the approaching tipping point, Climate Change has reached a gut check moment. Hopefully it’s not not too late. Because otherwise, the future looks pretty amazing.
Imagine how productive we’ll be in autonomous vehicles!
- Self Driving Cars
Technically self driving cars are here. In day to day reality, they’re still aways away.
Tesla claims they can turn on full autonomous as soon as the laws catch up. It may still be a while before we know. But make no mistake, this is an innovation set to increase human productivity as much as any since the dawn of the internet herself. Americans commute times are miserable, and they keep increasing. For those of us who commute, autonomous vehicles can’t get here soon enough.
- The Rise of China
China has been on the rise since Nixon’s famous detente visit. In 2005, as a financial advisor with a mutual fund house, we were offered trips to China as sales reward. So the rise of China has been long coming.
Nothing has really slowed them. As their economy matures, their GDP growth will likely normalize. But from their military to space to AI, the Chinese are trying to do something they’re not known for – innovation.
- Facebook / IG
When 2010 started, Facebook was still mostly a college site and wasn’t yet on cell phones. IG hadn’t even started yet. 10 years later, Facebook has become a dominant force in American life, and it owns the richest database in a nation of databases. F’book’s DB is chockful of the whereabouts, buying habits, political leanings and relationships of every American. Even those who have no accounts.
- Sharing Economy
From AirBnb and VRBO revolutionzing hotels and neighborhoods to Uber and Lyft transforming car ownership and how we commute to co-working spaces maximizing our offices, the sharing economy is expanding rapidly and shows no signs of slowing.
Sharing is good. Turns out it’s good for productivity too.
- #MeToo
The #MeToo hashtag actually took over a year before it went viral, perhaps an ironic reflection of the frustration of some victims of sexual harassment who report the crime only to see nothing happen. The frustrations of countless victims – including numerous men – poured out with the #MeToo movement. A Supreme Court nomination got caught up in the furor, making all look bad. Hopefully changes will make us better as a society, such as clear reporting guidelines, along with grace and sympathy toward victims who bravely come forward.
- CryptoCurrencies
The processing power needed for blockchain tech was rather pricey until this decade, and within this short 10 year span, cryptocurrencies like BitCoin and Eithereum saw a huge run up followed by a spectacular crash – multiple times. Some still debate whether or not these are even currencies, but they clearly are stores of value, as many thousands currently use both currencies every day.
Many issues remain, like ease of use (it’s still too complicated for Mom) and criminal usage (the main driver of crypto activity right now). But there’s huge upside potential for this still quirky tech.
- Drones
Entering the decade, the only drones were owned by the Pentagon and they dropped bombs on people. Now a drone costs less than $50, you just can’t fly them in the wind. Or a steady breeze.
Some day they might carry packages, even people. Right now, they take amazing videos. And annoy people. And that seems to be about it. Right now.
- Video cameras and survielance
When the decade started, video cameras were out there, and video cameras had been making an impact on society since at least 1991 and the infamous Rodney King beating. So in a sense, this isn’t one that completely arose in the 2010’s like InstaGram or AI.
There was an explosion of video in a couple of key facets. For one, cell phone cameras went from barely legible to pro quality. Everyone has one all the time. Life will never be the same.
Nicholas Kristof wrote a great piece at the end of 2019 on the many reasons why 2019 was a great year to be alive, perhaps the greatest year ever for humans:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/opinion/sunday/2019-best-year-poverty.html
Very well written, he says it better than I could.
Innovation. Innovation is the driver of almost all our progress as humans.
Here’s to innovation!