#onecupofcoffee Ufuk TARHAN
A futurist who designed his own future, business coach; Ufuk TARHAN . Instead of praising or criticizing in a hierarchical order, we should accompany each other with what we did well or with our mistakes,
He says. He emphasizes that it is time to format our perspectives so that equality and respect come to the fore. Here is the summary of a coffee and a short conversation…
How is your relationship with coffee?
I am not really fond of coffee, because we were two sisters at home and there were a lot of us coming and going. I think this distant stance was caused by the constant saying, “Come on girls, make us a coffee so we can drink it.” We have been on better terms for the last year. I drink it very well now, I even like it :)
Do you have a favorite scent?
Turkish coffee. With sugar.
Can it be a facilitator in your business life? For some of us, it is a source of motivation ,
A must… Coffee for you…
It's something I like to drink while chatting with friends. It's also relaxing and refreshing after meals or when I've just come home from somewhere in a hurry and want to take a breath. Coffee is my friend in moments of rest and enjoyment.
It is possible to try to get to know you through articles and videos on the internet. Your website is also
It is full. We can't get enough of the information, we need to follow the site constantly. What interests me and
A sentence that I think was said to me; "I have no advice for young people! I don't recommend it to adults.
I have a request; leave the young people alone!'' You trust us so much...
A lot. Why shouldn't we trust? We trust both the youth and the adults. People need to trust each other. Everything we can do and can't do is our own doing. That's why we need to be able to look at these things as normal, fluid and natural. Of course, we need to look at the youth with more privilege and favoritism, because they haven't experienced and learned as much as the adults. They are still very fragile and naive. That's why let's leave the youth alone so that they can use their right to discover themselves, learn and grow. Let them live themselves...
We love getting approval... We ask ourselves whether what we do will be appreciated.
much...
Recently, educators, psychologists, pedagogues, sociologists, and social scientists have been giving different messages on these issues. They are trying to make sense of what we do and they say that “approaches such as praise, appreciation, and well done actually reflect a hierarchical relationship”. Therefore, appreciating young people, children, or each other means looking “from above” in a sense. When someone honors another, it actually means implicitly saying “I am superior to you and I evaluate and appreciate you”, which essentially reflects a hierarchical relationship. Instead, we should perceive each other with our mistakes, the things we do well, or the things we do better or worse, and try to accompany and help each other. This is a very different approach, perspective... Therefore, we should all format our value judgments and thought systems. Instead of pressuring and interfering; we should see that we accompany each other’s lives, that we participate in each other’s experiences. I think that we should prioritize and prioritize the issue of equality and respect, not sameness. In short; attitudes such as appreciation, praising, criticizing, etc. are actually our faults. I believe we can fix it…
From the articles I have watched and read about you, I can briefly describe you as follows; generations
and you are a mediator in your relationship with technology.
Yes, I really try to have such a mission. You have approached this sensitive point very well. Actually, all I want to do is to encourage everyone to make peace with technology, to love technology, and to focus on using it for good things. To do this, I try to be a role model. I especially try to do this with women. Because those who are more distant, cold, distant towards technology, and even those who are afraid of technology, who think that it leads to evil; my fellow women, women… However, at the core of every change, there is definitely a technological transformer. If women, who are an inseparable part of a healthy society and life, are left out of the game in such a decisive element, the things that naturally develop and transform do not benefit all of us. For the world to be a better place, women need to be masters of technology as well. When women and mothers improve their relationship with technology, their competence levels will increase, and naturally this development will be reflected in the youth. As the saying goes, “If you educate a man, you educate a single person. If you educate a woman, you educate a whole family, a whole society, and you change the world.” As a result, I find it very important that women embrace and use technology, and that they are at least as far ahead and successful as men in technological fields and disciplines summarized as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), and I see it as “vitally” critical for the future.
As a business designer, you also work towards gender equality in business life...
And a lot... I attach great importance to the harmonization of all differences, especially gender equality, not only in business life, but also in all layers and areas. Business life is just one of the parts and processes of life. Basically, if we can structure the balances in this regard appropriately and healthily in every area and situation, equality and harmonious life will actually be reflected in every dimension. It will have positive effects on both business life and private life. Making distinctions between men and women in order to be good people and to live fluidly and synchronously with each other is essentially subversive and unnatural, an approach that goes against the order of nature. Think about it, with the Internet of Things (IoT), “things” are also getting smarter and are intermingling with people and life. This means that from now on, we will need to show respect to “things” beyond people. If kicking a human is shameful and harmful, kicking a robot that serves us will also be shameful and harmful. We will need to treat our robot brothers and smart things respectfully and properly. Or we will show the same approach to two men or women who are married or living together. I am trying to explain and understand that there is no point in dividing individuals with different preferences, stances, religions, races, etc. as women, men, white, yellow, black. After all, all of us; all living and non-living beings are actually different but equal. We have to see it this way. I believe that the world, the universe, is not inherently a hierarchical structure, that we define the subordinates, superiors, rich, poor, beautiful, ugly.
To open a path that does not exist, to see the realities of the country and to be able to say that we will go there.
You have worked hard. You have also been very tired. You have reaped the fruits of your hardships.
We are curious… Maybe you can give us a summary…
10 years. 13 years, in fact. The year I very clearly called myself a futurist was 2003. Between 2003 and 2006, I first designed myself from scratch. I woke up at 03:00 in the morning and designed my own future during my hybridization period until 07:00. Then I rolled up my sleeves and set off. Here's something; I don't perceive difficulty. I perceive the obstacles and stages in front of me as natural steps that I have to overcome in order to progress. You just put more effort into some, less into others. Difficulty is something like that for me. The things that come my way don't create feelings like unhappiness, helplessness, discouragement, etc. in my body. Or the ease doesn't knock me off my feet, because I know that another one will come right after. I do what I do with such love and awareness that I am very happy with every step I take, with everything. I don't see the ups and downs as abnormal. Actually, it might be more accurate to call it a stable state of peace and balance… Of course, especially at the beginning, there were moments when I felt very sad, cried, and felt like my strength was gone, because you were revealing a new way of thinking, a perspective. People think you are talking nonsense or your feet are not on the ground. You encounter condescending, unbelieving, and mocking approaches such as “What good will this do?” or emphasizing that you are living in a fantasy world. You go through many processes where they treat you differently because they cannot make the subject concrete. Since I am not the type to worry about what I am experiencing during these times and slow down my walking pace, what is happening does not seem difficult to me. What would happen anyway? Would they say, “Welcome, we were expecting a futurist too!”?.. I know how to balance my body with internal conversations and question-answer sessions. I can think, dust myself off, and get up immediately. I recover quickly like a rug. This is how I progressed and reached here. Ten years after I set out, I have a company called M-GEN that does business in two branches, with great experiences and friends. M-GEN is now a successful and well-known company that works in two different branches: business coaching, futuristic consultancy, future planning, strategy avataring and digital agency.
When we founded the Futurists Association in 2005, there were very few participants in the events. Now, no matter what we do, the halls are full. There are different, new formations such as Young Futurists and ambassadors. Thousands of people can say they are futurists. We declared March 1st as Future Day. We want to open future courses. We have already started giving one at ODTÜ. Everyone is sympathetic to futurist activities and wants to participate now. We are slowly hurrying. Futurism is spreading in waves and seeing this makes me very happy and happy. I am still actively involved in the association. I am a member of the high advisory board consisting of previous presidents.
"Someone who knows everything about something and something about everything and uses technology at every stage
Are the number of people who can “integrate”, as you define it, increasing?
It is multiplying. I have a book that I am writing, I believe that it will multiply much faster with that book.
When you consider the relationship between the variability of the physical conditions of work environments (home comfort, cafe environments, sharing areas, etc.) and the way we do business... Do you have anything to say?
Business environments and ways of doing business are changing and transforming a lot and this will continue. Especially in five or ten years, we will experience things that may seem abnormal to many people from today’s perspective. We will become completely independent of place and time. When we say ‘offices of the future’, ‘workplaces of the future’, ‘professions of the future’, completely different structures will come to mind. By the way, I am allergic to the question of “professions that will earn the most and be popular in the future?” Because professions, branches, and branches will completely change. There will be no sharp distinctions. Thousands of new fields, branches, and areas of expertise will develop. The “clear separation, classification” efforts we are used to are actually administrative categories made for administrative reasons. The jobs and subjects that will develop in the future will be too many and diverse to be organized as they are today and will be interrelated with each other. Therefore, today’s professions will either disappear or be made in a different way, with a different name, etc. For example, I was in Istanbul this morning and the students of the Future Studies course at ODTÜ were in Ankara. We completed the lesson by talking to each other via Skype and laughing. Even now, I can give my lesson from any corner of the world to another corner. Once you are online (connected), where and when you are, physical obligations lose their importance. In short, our workplace becomes our “brain”. Our most important work tool becomes our “skills”. There is no possibility of any other limitation in the future. We need to learn to produce and use innovations skillfully. Being together is no longer a necessity. We do not need any binding conditions or excuses to do a job or be useful.
In fact, you leave it to free will…
Of course. This is what pushes people anyway. The reason for such depression, the reason for fear of the future, is not limitations or scarcity, but “freedom, abundance and taking responsibility”. In my opinion, most people get cranky and anxious because it is difficult for people to shape their own lives, differentiate themselves and constantly change. Because for transformation, it is necessary to love life, everything and what you do very much and to be dedicated. However, the current order, the familiar model is very comfortable! The drug-like ease of taking on a constantly determined duty and role such as “Here are the rules. If you follow them, you are good and successful, if you do not, you are an unsuccessful person, so follow the rules and order and be good” has permeated the crowds. The search for “let me get a job, get my salary from month to month, let it be small but have order, let me not struggle or struggle” still prevails. However, there is no such thing anymore. It is not possible! Those who are skillful and want to stay in the game have to take an active role and responsibility on the path of transformation with that skill. Because old-fashioned approaches and mechanisms are not sustainable. These will be overcome. We will have to overcome. The digital arrow has already left the bow! First of all, there will be mass unemployment in today's business lines in 5-10 years, but a lot of brand new jobs will emerge. Everyone will be able to provide services and sell what they are good at. It will be necessary to plan to earn money with contracts, not payroll. Everyone will design and restructure their own lives, time, and resources.
You've probably seen the movie Ex Machina, written and directed by Alex Garland, and to be honest, it reminded me a little bit of it.
It worries us, will these robots dominate us?
Any technological tool can be used for bad things. If it is programmed with that mind and purpose, yes, something like that can happen, why not? Today, there are many inventions of nanotechnology and genetics. They make people who cannot walk walk, make the blind see, complete limbs. Great! However, the same power and knowledge can also be used for destruction or mass deaths. All of these are possible. Every invention can have bad and good areas of use and purposes. Of course, good and bad are abstract and open to interpretation/situation definitions and things that change depending on the situation, but let's state that we use it in the sense that the majority understands. In short, if we want developments to have good results, we need to work to prevent bad things from happening. We need to develop regulations and prepare training accordingly. Humans are very complex creatures. At the same time, they are a simple structure that can progress according to whatever they are conditioned to. Radical changes and adaptations take generations. Although genetic uploads will shorten this process in the near future, we need to know what we want to do by then. We should all decide together what kind of world we want. I think there will be no rest for the world until we clarify what we mean by a better future, a better world, and we all work for it… There is a lot of work to do… I believe with all my heart that if we want, “The Future Will Be Beautiful!”…