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What the Next 15 Years Will Be Like
I started blogging15 years ago, with a post about the ancient Greeks and Romans — specifically about an amphitheater I had visited in Fiesole, a tiny town in the Tuscan hills of Italy which nonetheless supports some very respectable Roman ruins, including a substantial baths, Etruscan villas, and the aforesaid amphitheater. This summer, the stars aligned, and I found myself back there, finally able to travel once again, and just as enchanted with Tuscany and Fiesole as ever.
When I visited all those years ago, the theater was visible, but the excavation of the various ruins had hardly begun. Now the baths are ready for your visit, there’s lots of information to absorb about the Etruscans, and a summer festival crew was busy setting up the amphitheater for a Pink Floyd tribute band.
I’ve written more than fifteen hundred blog posts about everything from political speeches to the neuroscience of communication to how often Billie Eilish swears on stage. Those interested in the art and science of communication have had to cope with the Internet and social media, artificial intelligence, Wikipedia, and Google as sources for thought leadership, and rhetorical styles as disparate as those of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump.
It has been a wild ride.
