THE world that we live in is changing and that can be disconcerting.

New technologies such as artificial intelligence add to the uncertainty.

Not so long ago it was fear of change driven by the internet of stuff and before that the advance of automation and before that goodness knows, but there has always been something.

It’s easy to find ourselves on the outside raging against change when change is not the problem.

The reality is that some things have changed almost unrecognisably over time, but they shifted so slowly that in day to day living the difference is in-perceivable.

I often hear or read of people longing after the world they used to live in.

Their home town as it used to be in their youth is a classic example. It’s always better in their minds than it actually was.

Nostalgia can be hypnotic and misleading. The truth is that our home towns are safer than they have ever been, our houses are better, our diet is healthier, we have more variety in entertainment and travel is more accessible.

But the past is more dependable and therefore more comforting. And importantly the past is something we can share.

As the new year develops I would rather we looked forward to sharing a better future, by building on the good things and improving the bad, that collectively we identify the areas we can improve quickly and pledge to work long term on the more complex.

Before we know it, these will be the good old days.