I have spent the evening reading a ton about web site optimization. This is a fascinating topic for anyone trying to create content on the web. And it is one of those little talked about strategies. I think it is kind of like a master web content creator who doesn’t want to give up his tricks in fear that if everyone caught on they would realize that the success of a web site (or a product for that matter) has often very little to do with the brilliance of the work, but more to do with the code that lies beneath it. This of course is the way it is often in life. Whether we are dealing with the movie industry, or book publishing, or even what school or job you end up getting in life. Often it is not just talent that gets us to our destination but the secret code behind the talent. The smartest dudes in a given industry have pretty strong pedigrees, just look at the bio of The Google boys, Mr. Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett to name a few. They all come from families with extremely well educated parents and when compared to the lower economic realms of society defined by many as just “lazy”; I think they have a large silver spoon dangling partially from the corner of their mouths.

A couple of things come together each week that allows me to see the forest more clearly through the trees. This is also defined as getting older, but children also have a way of doing this, and then of course taxes, and documentaries (I am half way through the movie inside job).

A quarter of my way through my taxes, I realized, that this is all a bit like web site optimization, if you understand the tricks of the trade you have an advantage over the rest of your competition. I realized that and then I also realize year after year that all these poor small business owners out there that everyone keeps feeling so sorry for probably have it better than all the rest of us: two words tax shelter. I realized this when I was calculating the losses on my “rental property”/home and saw all the wonderful loopholes one would have if they could self identify as a rental property manager.  I believe that a very large majority of millionaires are business owners. And I bet if you looked at their taxes paid when compared to the average Joe who works for them, they pay a significant amount less. Also they have a lot of money that comes back in the forms of capital gains and dividends (which are taxed at 15%) have the ability to tax shelter money by maxing out their retirement savings, have the ability to maximize their retirement savings, and claim deductions and losses not individually but through a business. If you could get 25-30% more from each of your paychecks you would be able to live a lot better as well.

Hence we are all just tools. The only way we can fight back against greedy bankers, e-commerce and advertising wizards, business owners, rental property managers, retailers and money managers is to educate ourselves. If we understand the tools of the trade we can use these tools. We can pass them on to our children, open their horizon’s beyond ours, empower them to act honestly and effectively! There is no better time ever than now.

The new world is one of rapid information and as my favorite blogger Ev Bogue has termed Augmented Humanity. Augmented by what? Well the internet of course. According to Eric Schmidt the former CEO of Google:  “If you have a child, you’ll notice they’ll have two states: asleep or online.” Scary? I don’t think so, just a sign of the times. But in these times we have great opportunities. Opportunities to obtain a better understating of the world around us. We can all become brilliant investors, online businessmen, writers, teachers, or retailers with a couple clicks of a button and a bit of motivation. Tools like twitter have evolved in such a way as to create a constant flow of new ever more pertinent information that is updated instantly. This will empower a younger more connected generation to share ideas in ways we never dreamed possible. Gone are the days of a stagnant blog post that will be outdated by the time I am done posting it. It will evolve, liquid information, changing, flowing, updating, filling the needs of those who are in need of it, it will find them before they find it.

My take: There is so much opportunity in a breath, so much potential in an instant, to be everywhere is to be nowhere, we must be grounded in our future design, but at the same time open our minds to the flow of this new information. And hence at the end of today I am certain of three things: Death, Taxes and well, my Augmented Reality.