Jane McGonigal, director of Game Research & Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, shares five key insights from her new book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything-Even Things That Seem Impossible Today.
Take a ten-year trip to the future
Ten years is enough time for society, and your own life, to become dramatically different
- New technologies to scale up and achieve global impact
- Social movements to achieve historic victories
- Big new ideas to take root, gain traction and change the world
Be ridiculous-at first
Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous
- We need to prepare our collective imagination for “unimaginable” possibilities-so if they do happen, we’re not frozen with anxiety or stuck in old ways
- If something feels unimaginable, that’s the tip-off that it is an essential future to start thinking about
Turn the world upside-down
Rewrite the facts of today
- Envision the future as vividly as you can
- Make a list of things that are true today and flip them upside down
- Find clues in the news, on social media, and in your own life that make flipped facts seem more plausible
Build urgent optimism
Urgent optimism is a highly motivating, resilient mindset made up of three key psychological strengths: mental flexibility, realistic hope, and future power
- Mental flexibility: the ability to recognize that anything can become different in the future, even things that seem impossible to change today
- Realistic hope: the balance of positive and shadow imagination
- Future power: the feeling of control and agency to directly impact the future with intentional action today
Build urgent optimism
Urgent optimism is a highly motivating, resilient mindset made up of three key psychological strengths: mental flexibility, realistic hope, and future power
- Mental flexibility: the ability to recognize that anything can become different in the future, even things that seem impossible to change today
- Realistic hope: knowing which threats it makes sense to worry about and which new solutions, technologies, and ideas to be excited about
- Future power: feeling of control and agency to directly impact the future by taking intentional action today
Be ridiculous-at first
Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous
- We need to prepare our collective imagination for “unimaginable” possibilities-so if they do happen, we’re not frozen with anxiety or stuck in old ways
- If something feels unimaginable, that’s the tip-off that it is an essential future to start thinking about
Take a ten-year trip to the future
Ten years is enough time for society, and your own life, to become dramatically different
- New technologies to scale up and achieve global impact
- Social movements to achieve historic victories
- Big new ideas to take root, gain traction and change the world
Look for clues
To find future clues, you need to develop a way of observing the world in which you spot weird stuff that others overlook
- You must constantly home in on things you haven’t previously encountered, things that make you say, “Huh…strange,” and “I wonder why that’s happening.”
Look for clues
To find future clues, you need to develop a way of observing the world in which you spot weird stuff that others overlook
- You must constantly home in on things you haven’t previously encountered, things that make you say, “Huh…strange,” and “I wonder why that’s happening.”
Turn the world upside-down
Rewrite the facts of today
- Envision the future as vividly as you can
- Make a list of things that are true today and flip them upside down
- Find clues in the news, on social media, and in your own life that make flipped facts seem more plausible
