Before coming onto the Ringling College of Art and Design faculty as the resident futurist, David Houle helped redefine television as part of the executive team that launched MTV and its sister networks like Nickelodeon and VH1. When he isn’t traveling the country giving corporate speeches or writing books about everything from marketing to healthcare to climate change, he has a relaxing view of Sarasota bay from his condo downtown. We sat down with this forward-thinker to talk about the ideas that shaped him.
Ahead of the Curve
I have always done things people either ridiculed or said wouldn’t work that later became mainstream—living in a van years before it became a phenomenon, backpacking around the world a number of years ago before it became something young people do, leaving CBS to help create and launch MTV, creating online courses in the 1990s. An Arthur Schopenhauer quote has really gotten me through it. “In the revelation of any truth there are three stages. In the first it is ridiculed. In the second it is resisted. In the third it is considered self-evident.”
Miguel de Unamumo
“We should try and be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.” Whenever someone does something conventional wisdom says is wrong, quotes are a good support system.So many people in Sarasota are the offspring of our past–we’re in the tourism business, we’re in the real estate business because thinking things will always come back. That’s no longer valid.
My Father, Cyril O. Houle
Born in Sarasota in 1913, he was the only one of five siblings to get a college degree, then a master’s and PhD. He spent 40 years teaching at the University of Chicago, then another 15 as the senior advisor to the Kellogg Foundation. He was regarded as the father of adult education and coined the phrase ‘life-long learning.’ The title of one of his books, The Inquiring Mind, is one of the ways I define who I am.
My Children
It has been said that being a parent is the closest thing to reincarnation in this lifetime. I see both my father and myself in my son and at the same time marvel at how cool and unique Christopher is. At 27, he is off to get a master’s and possibly a PhD in film and media at the University of Amsterdam after having backpacked internationally and worked for an environmental advocacy company in New Zealand. My stepson Jordan, now 20, has been my window into the world of the digital native.
My Wife Victoria.
My best friend, lover, soul mate, CFO and partner, all in one. Though we have only been married 7 years, we have been together for 14 and have known each other for 27. We met in the workplace when she was an accountant for me. I say that she is my third and final wife. She is now a successful relationship therapist and does a good job of supporting me and keeping me humble.
Buddhist Philosophies
I don’t believe in organized religion but my orientation is more Buddhist than anything. I am always thinking of where things are going. The only way to do that is to be absolutely in the present. Most people have legacy thinking. All of these religions arguably are different visions of the past, most with some male figure around whom was created a moralistic male-dominated power structure. How can a futurist learn from Catholicism or Judaism? Buddhism is all about quieting the mind and being in the present.
Honors
I am proud of having won two Emmys (for the syndicated children’s show Energy Express), a George Foster Peabody Award and being nominated for an Academy Award (for the documentary Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream).
Art Museums
You name a museum and I have been there. Whenever I am in New York I go to the Frick and The Met. I love the Art Institute in Chicago and The Getty. What I love is Western art. A few of my favorites are Vermeer, Cezanne, Pollock and Warhol. And I love Michelangelo.
Writing Books
I’ve written five books, three of which I was the sole author. I have this view about the future of humanity. I’m just writing about the things that interest me, that are undergoing a fundamental change. Healthcare has gone through a fundamental change. Obviously the planet is going through a fundamental change with the climate. It’s a very transformative time right now where a lot of change is happening quickly and people need context and conceptual constructs to help them navigate.
John D. MacDonald
He lived here in Sarasota and was probably the most significant artist in Sarasota, a community with all these newly wrought wealthy folks with plastically-altered wives. He was such a great writer. There is a whole genre of writers like Carl Hiaasen, all these Florida writers, and all acknowledge John MacDonald as their strongest influence.
Screens
I spent 20 years in media and entertainment with an orientation toward screens–TV, Internet, all of it is on some sort of screen, even our phone calls now. When I am at these tech conferences, people, always say, ‘Let’s get everyone is on the same page.’ We need to get on the same screen.
Audiences
I love to talk to an audience. I become alive in front of a group of people talking about the future as I want to be a catalyst to get people to think about the future as most do not. I am creating a conference about the future that will turn into an annual event and I am holding it in Albuquerque, New Mexico next year. I am always giving talks.
