Trends 2000

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY DEC 30, 1996

Picture phones will be everywhere, cutting down on the need for business travel. We will become obsessed with wholesome and healthy foods and interactive online learning will revolutionize education. These are some of the predictions Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute, makes in this entertaining but far from convincing book. Celente (Trend Tracking) strings together clips from various newspapers, a key source of his research, to show that Americans--particularly baby boomers--are growing more obsessed with diet, exercise and living well. He concludes, using the device of looking backwards applied for much of the book: "By January 1, 2000, vitamin counseling was on the way to becoming as professionalized and as respected as pharmacology." Those looking to, as the subtitle suggests, prepare and profit from the future will be disappointed by a lack of specific advice about what to do, even if the predictions come true.