If you accurately define the cause of consumer pain, then you can create a successful business that provides solutions to cure that pain. I identify five foundational pain creators in 21st century America: (1) the ability or inability of Americans to maintain sustainable draw-down rates on retirement portfolios that will last them through 40 years of retirement in the absence of Social Security benefits, (2) the excessive income tax drag on wealth accumulation, wealth preservation, wealth distribution, and wealth transfer, (3) the threats to our privacy caused by aggressive marketers; (4) the loss of security of our financial and medical records through theft; and (5) information pollution that Americans are unable to sort through in order make better decisions about all aspects of their lives.

In today's world, yoga is much more pertinent," says Nakon, who directs Northwest Yoga in Des Plaines and teaches at several other locations, including Eight Limbs in Chicago. "It's very stressful to live in today's world bombarded constantly with noise pollution, information pollution. Yoga is a refuge. It allows a deep, still, silent place we can access through movement and breath.

Dr. Wozny predicted that someday the high school student studying geometry will answer problems on a home computer. ''I think it will permeate down to the level of geometry at home,'' he said.

Along the way he foresees a danger he calls ''information pollution.'' ''We'll be drowning in information,'' he commented. ''We will have to work hard and judiciously on how to select data. It's a major concern.''