It’s 20 years since I started to write my first book, [amazon_link id=”0262531666″ target=”_blank” ]The Weightless World[/amazon_link]. As I plan for this year’s Festival of Economics (in Bristol, 17-19 November 2016), I picked the book up again (out of print but you can download it free from my website). We’ll be doing a session on the way digital and other innovations have been changing the economy, life, the universe and everything.

[amazon_image id=”0262531666″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Weightless World: Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy (Obex Series)[/amazon_image]

It seems remarkably prescient, rather to my surprise, albeit more optimistic in tone than feels appropriate now. The rise of not just flexible but independent working. The growing importance of city economies. Private digital currencies. The tension between national politics and global problems. The mismatch between institutions of the 19th and 20th centuries and the way people will live and work in the 21st century.

On reflection, 20 years is just too prescient. If only I’d published it five years ago…

Here I am in 1996, writing The Weightless World too early