Description of a Good Futurist

-- a university of arizona course on methods and approaches for studying the future

There are different perspectives on what constitutes a good futurist. In part, the answer depends on whether you want an overview or a detailed study, whether the person is a full time futurist or their job is mostly doing non-futures work, and what resources and tools they have available. My perspective on the characteristics of a good general futurist are:

• Develop anticipatory skills and maintain awareness of current and potential changes
 • Know what to look for and separating important events from noise
 • Use a radar approach rather than a vacuum cleaner approach to data gathering
 • Know what tools are available and when to use them and when not to use them
 • Prepare to react early to new changes while allowing for flexibility as more is learned
 • Don't place undue trust in experts or in non-experts (or yourself)
 • Watch out for the bandwagon effect (safety in keeping with fads)
 • Watch out for group think (fear of standing out)
 • Be wary of unstated assumptions or simplistic statements
 • Define your "future" time frame and don't go out too near or too far
 • Implement foresight knowledge into your daily activities so you become an "automated futurist"

Related page: Futurists viewpoints on good futures studies (book reviews)