Benno Pieters' Blog

Education is the key to escape the poverty trap. Access to education has always had an entry barrier, but this is no longer the case. Technology is going to make that happen.  The barrier is, at the time of writing this article, mainly access to the global internet. Once you have achieved that, then you can get your education for free. As prices of internet access drop, poor people all over the world will get access to education. It can be in the form of blogs, videos, or billions of websites. During the 2020s, the technical megatrend is the convergence of high bandwidth and low-cost communication, omnipresent AI to help with AI-aided education, and AI-driven preventive and curative healthcare. These are all personal wealth generators for billions of individuals. All goods and services that can be digitized, will decrease in price and become accessible to billions around the globe. Solo Entrepreneurs will dominate cyberspace and can team up with others around the world to form mini...

Cultured Meat can be very disruptive for the meat industry. But it will take a few years before it is so.  Look at the video via this link! There are multiple start-ups racing to be one of the first to market. Millions of investment money is being poured into this new market. The price of Cultured Meat is coming down too. In about 5-7 years the meat industry as we know it, will no longer exist. The promise of the new meat market is huge; no longer will we need to kill animals for food. New types of meat will enter the market. In combination with 3D printing, new forms will appear, making creating meat dishes more and more fun!  Is there a down side? Of course, millions of people will lose their job in the Meat Market. Slaughter houses will dissapear. Cattle farmers will dissapear, as will butcher shops. The whole industry will down-size drastically and will change fundamentally. 

I believe that the Cottage Industry will return in Full Force! What is the Cottage Industry? In Medieval times, in the villages, people used to produce from their own homes. They had a small plot of land to grow vegetables, perhaps keep a cow, and had a few chickens. They were blacksmiths, or bakers, weavers, or cobblers and paid each other with pieces of silver. Some were beer brewers, which used to be very important because you could not always trust the water supply. Gold was used for larger items. In the Anglo-Saxon world, 1 troy ounce of gold, would buy a gentleman a hand-tailored suit. It still does. People were not really rich in those times, but they were quite happy. Here in the Netherlands, you can get a grasp of how that used to be at the Archeon Museum. Industrial Revolution Once the Industrial Revolution started, people flocked toward the cities because they could earn more. The Cottage Industry ceased to be effective as specialization and economies of scale started to set...

The brilliant Ray Kurzweil has made many predictions about technological developments. He bases his predictions on More's Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years while halving the cost. By interpreting what that means for technological developments and their capabilities, Ray Kurzweil has made many eerily accurate predictions. Some say that his prediction success is in the neighborhood of 80%.  One of his predictions is that humans and technology will merge for the benefit of each other, thereby creating a new sort of human species. What happens after that he can't predict. Originally he said it would take place around 2045, but now he has revised it to 2035. Around that time it will be possible to upload parts of the human brain en download them into that of others. Theoretically, you could learn to speak a language in an instant by downloading someone else's language skills. Or learn Kung Fu or Pencak Silat. Basically, you could ...

The oil producing countries are in for a shock! When you read or watch the news and you hear and see that the major oil producing countries are reducing oil production in an effort to raise prices, you would think that the €100 per barrel is an achievable goal. But it is a sympton and confirmation that oil prices are slowly but steadily dropping. Not that it cannot have one or two upside hiccups, but it is going down. Why? There is a good reason for this. When the oilprices hit an all time high of €161 per barrel in june 2008 (https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart)  it set of a chain of events. It made people realise that things had to change and many people around the globe set off to do just that. Now in june 2017, we can see a number of trend getting a firm foothold. Houses are going to be energy self sufficient within the next 15 years. Indeed, they going to be little energy suppliers by themselves. With solar roof panelling th...

Two ways to speed things up. It doesn't let me go; it must be possible to find out sooner than 10 years if FOXO4-DRI is going to be a compound that gives us youth until 120 years! When I look at beloved old people around me, with all sort of ailment I feel that we as a society must be able to come up with something. I may be totally wrong in assuming this, but as a concerned citizen I feel the need to speak out. Dr. Peter de Keizer, the discoverer of the effectiveness of FOXO4-DRI, rightly says that one should not experiment on oneself as there is no way of finding out yet what the possible side effects may be when applied to humans. One brave (or reckless) individual, Mr. Darren Moore, bought the stuff anyway and started using it on himself, reporting his findings online ( Click here ). We all hope he is doing all right at present. It is speculated that there are many other individuals trying it out. But why not speed things up without taking drastic meas...

Hey guys, I am currently re-releasing old posts that I published on other platforms and that are still interesting at this time. I will be publishing personal posts about topics that inspire me on this platform. Why? It just seems handy to have things concentrated in one blogplatform. It saves time to administrate all of them and I don't have to remember on which platform I post what. Do you have any topics you would like me to post about? Tell me and if I have any opnion on them I will post a blog!

Huge economical impact Perhaps I am jumping the gun, and FOXO4-DRI may turn out to be a disappointment, but it at the same time it is already time to think about the implication of worldwide rejuvenation impact. People become more healthy and they will be fit for work again. It will have huge impact on the retirement age. Maybe it has to be set to 100 years or 110 years. Maybe it can be abolished all together, with people building up savings all their work-life's. Maybe we will all start to learn how to build up a retirement schema for ourselves so that we can retire at an age we want. Many sectors of the economy will be affected. Will there be enough jobs to go around? I think there will be because may of the longer living people will start a business of their own and employ people. What kind of lifestyle can you lead? I think that when you can build up your financial wealth during a longer time, that you can lead a reasonably comfortable life. What happens to f...

He got good results he says! In a dangerous move, Mr. Moore started using FOXO4-DRI on himself. He publishes the results on his personal blog ( Read it here ). Most noticeably is that his hair has become thicker and he got more energy. The discoverer of the rejuvenation effects of FOXO4-DRI in mice, the Dutch Scientist Dr. Peter de Keizer, discourages everybody from self experimentation. The reason being the Mice are not Humans and that the medium & long term effects on the human body are totally unknown! So Mr. Moore may end up as the unhappy end in his own version of Horror movie. But at the same time, wouldn't it be wonderful if it would work? We would all be thankful to Mr. Moore and Dr. de Keizer can get a Nobel Prize! At present FOXO-DRI is very expensive and a cure would cost you a lot of money. But it can be produced relatively easily, once it has been proven that it is effective. You can already buy it online from Chinese companies at a rat...

Mice became young again! In March of 2017 a sensational discovery was published by Dr. Peter de Keizer, a Dutch Scientist at Eramsus MC in Rotterdam, in which he stated that he and his team had found a way to reverse aging in mice. ( Read the article by clicking here ) His research had been targeted toward fighting Cancer and slowing the aging process. But when they saw the results in mice, they were astonished: ‘These effects were not what we were purposefully looking for – we had been looking at the kidneys of the mice. But when we realised the implications, we started dancing in the lab,’ said De Keizer The compound is FOXO4-DRI which is relatively easy to produce. Which means it could become available for everyone. It is of-course fascinating and we all hope that this will be a significant step in aging more healthily! Don't try this at Home! Dr. de Keizer urges every one to wait until further test have been conducted. "Mice are...

Possible solution to drought stricken areas Dutch Artist/Inventor Ap Verheggen developed a device with a central unit costing €3, and created water out of thin air in the Mali desert! True, with the current design it took 6 hours to produce 1 glass of water, but if you have many of these devices then your are getting somewhere.  He had been working on the device in the Netherlands, but the humidity in Holland is always high, so creating water wasn't so difficult. It works by sufficiently cooling the air such that you reach the dew point and water starts to condensate. If you collect the water properly then you will produce pure clean water. ( Read the full article here ).  In the arid conditions of Mali he succeeded and opens the road to many possibilities in the desert. Of course he (and his team) will have to develop more robust water devices, but once developed you can think of many possibilities. May be in 10-20 years time the Sahara desert will ...

What will the future be with 3D Meat printing? One of the exciting developments in the food industry is that of the emergence of 3D Meat printing. How will it effect our daily lives? What will the future of farming be? One scenario could be where we all have a 3D food printer in our homes. Via the internet we order a specific meat type and the 3D printer will churn it out. No animal will have suffered, no dubious meat-processing food chain will be transgressed before we have our proteins on our plates. What will the role of butchers be? That where we get our raw ingredients for the 3D printer. We will probably be tasting the meat in the butcher's and then decide what we wille buy. Most probably one box of meat sachets wil be able to produce different meats within a specific range. The farmers will reduce drastically in size and become the deliverers of prime stam cells for Cultured Meat Shops where they transform the stem cells into raw material for the 3D pr...

One of the best Social Media Branding strategies is the social patterning method:  ‘on becoming a Brand!’, which has proven itself extremely well in the past 5 years. It originated in the Netherlands (Europe) and enables small and large companies to brand themselves or their products in a fast way using the social media. In order to do that you need to set-up a Social Media Pattern , which is an investment in time of about one working week. After that it only requires 15 minute a day monitoring time. There is a book called ‘On becoming a Brand!’ written by Benno Pieters and Antoinette Pernot which describes the whole method. So what are the rules? 1)       Knowing what you want. Your product or service offering needs to solve a common problem for a larger group of people, the so called niche. There has to be a vision behind the product which lasts at least 5 years. People love consistency. Next you need to have a mission; the road to achiev...

Cultured Meat from the 3D Printer In the autumn of 2015, two Dutch Scientists announced ( read article ) they have the solution for not having to kill animals for their meat. Food Expert Peter Verstrate and Maastricht University professor Mark Post have been working on 3D printed meat grown from beef stem cells since 2013. They now have produced a first Hamburger for a cost of more than €300.000! But before you think this is impractical, the scientists are planning to have real life solutions before 2020.  The world population will migrate to consuming Cultured Meat by 2025 and cattle, pig and poultry farmers will be out of a job. Butchers will become 3D printer operators!

Together with Antoinette Pernot I wrote the book (in Dutch) in the spring of 2010. It is about how to Become a Brand (yourself). Since we are both Sales People, we look at new ways of generating business with the intent to selling something. We look at new technologies in how we can apply to sell something (easily). We test them and tweak them and when satisfied start using it ourselves. Sometimes we can productize them and support our customers in doing their business. Authority Selling What you really want in selling is that customers approach you in stead of the other way around. Then you can concentrate on quality in delivering your product or service. The best way to sell something is by having a great reputation, by being a brand. Then there are no questions about quality, delivery, people just assume that what you deliver is good stuff and want to know how it can help them. The next step is becoming an Authority in your field of expertise. Then potential customers will start ...

Having forgotten for some time about this Blog, I am back to pusue my Blog activities and publis my Blog thoughts. I also blog professionally on http://www.auriumcommerce.com/Aurium_Commerce/Blog/Blog.html, (take a look) but on this blog I will tackle issues which amuse me or make me wonder. Professionally, I have eveloved to being a Business Catalyst. I have gone beyond the business formula of TC-One (the Sales Consultancy) and have now Aurium Commerce, The Sales Support Company. Antoinette Pernot is my Business Associate and together we conceive new ways of getting business done. Or latest way of supporting small businesses is our Personal Sales & Branding Support Service, in which we help small businesses become a brand in a short time using a combination of traditional business development and the new social media. The goal is to become an authority and the game moves on to Authority Selling. I will be blogging about this on my professional Blog. This will create a continal str...

Observations about hairstyle and the clothing people wear: Men: Long hair: I am creative and emotional. I am not good with money. Money is not important. Short hair without side burns: I am an adventurous type. I am good at earning money. Short hair with short side burns: I am traditional. I am good at earning money. I have my feelings under control. Bald (shaven). I am an extrovert and want you to notice me. I am emotional. I am not a good money earner Long sideburns: I am creative and emotional. I try to appear rational. I am not good at earning money but am in for a good time. Moustache neatly trimmed: I am an adventurer and if you as a woman, take a liking to me, I will certainly take you. I have no scruples; women need to obey me. I earn my money by working hard. Beard. You must take me seriously for I am easily hurt. I want to dominate. Women may approach me but I am hard to get. Pipe. I am clever and easy going. You can easily hurt my feelings. I am not good at finishing things...

Life motto of a smuggler I once knew: chaos tendo, altus ususfructus vicis Daar waar chaos heerst valt veel te verdienen Where chaos prevails, much can be earned

For those who enjoy looking at photographs: some pictures of my last birthday. I turned 49 and held a wine tasting under the guidance of Johan van Walsum. http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=V7LRPVCN Take a look!

I am surprised how easy it is to set up a Blog. I am going to use it to note down ideas, observations and my opinions. Themes I will be posting about: - Sales effectivity - TC-One - Quinto Folium - Politics - Social Capitalism - Reducing Poverty in the world is easy - Scientific developments - Ancient History - Colonialism - Solutions to Social Problems - Personal Success - The Richness of Being and Being Rich Please remind me to write about these themes, I can be scatterbrained and experience many distractions..... Benno Pieters GoudaKarta Indo-Europa