There’s something powerful about the number 3.
Reading Steve Case’s (AOL) The third Wave, I’m struck by how clearly we can explain things and connect things by 3. In the case of this book, Case is able to break down the evolution of the Internet as three phases:
1. Building the Internet
2. Connecting to the Internet
3. The Internet of Things.
Case gives credit to his thesis with a clear acknowledgment of Alvin Toffler’s book (of the same title!). Written in 19 , Toffler clearly outlines and accurately predicts human kinds technological revolutions as:
Agricultural age
Industrial age
Information age.
You don’t have to read either of these two books to get a grasp and understanding of what each are trying to explain. Yet, as you plow through each of these books, you can’t help but stay on track and, if not agree, completely understand their arguments. Each of the three relate to the other two. Each one is a clear, chronological set up to the next. Each one is clearly explained and supported.
Where we’ve been.
Where we are.
Where we are going.
Thinking in 3’s is a great way to encapsulate and grasp what may otherwise be something confusing and hard to grasp.
Father
Son
Holy Ghost.
Mind
Body
Spirit.
It’s great to collaborate with three people. There is always a consensus. Two can work together while the third goes off and tackles a new challenge. Three founders can outnumber two VC’s in a conference room..
3 sauna rounds are a preference shared by myself and countless guests to my saunas, as well as what I later learned to be common in Finland and also as with the centuries old Mayan Temescal tradition.
Three is not absolute. Marriages, except maybe in San Francisco, don’t work with 3. Same, currently, with internet protocols, which are based on switches of “1.s and 0’s.” But what about a new internet protocol, instead of “1’s and o’s” could we make more powerful microprocessors with switches of “1’s and 0s and 2’s?” Why not?