Longpath

Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs – An Antidote for Short-Termism

De: Ari Wallach

Narrado por: Ari Wallach

"An antidote to nearsightedness. Ari Wallach won’t just leave you planning months or years ahead—he challenges you to look generations ahead. Get ready to think and think again." — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

A paradigm-shifting manifesto for transforming our thinking from reactionary short-termism to the long-term, widening our scope beyond today, tomorrow, and to even five hundred years from now to reclaim meaning in our lives.

Many of the problems we face today, from climate change to work anxiety, are the result of short-term thinking. We are constantly bombarded by notifications and “Breaking News” that are overwhelming our central nervous systems, forcing us to react in the moment and ultimately disconnecting us from what truly matters. But there is a solution.

Futurist Ari Wallach offers a radical new way forward called “longpath,” a mantra and mindset to help us focus on the long view. Drawing on history, theology, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and social technologies, Longpath teaches readers to strengthen their ability to look ahead, relieve reactions to stressful events, increase capacity for cooperation, and even boost creativity. Wallach challenges readers to ask themselves, “to what end?”—what is my ultimate goal and how does my choice align with my values? And even more provocatively, Wallach challenges readers to ask “to what end?” for civilization at large.

Whether it’s work, marriage, parenting, or simply trying to be a good human on the planet, framing decisions from a much larger scale creates a more fulfilling and sustainable life now and for future generations.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Ari Wallach (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

We Loved "A Brief History of the Future"

We loved the PBS series "A Brief History of the Future" hosted by Ari Wallach, and we were excited to read more of the background and ideas that went into the series. Longpath is a relatively short listen, and it doesn't cover the range of material in the PBS series, but it offers enough additional depth or unique content to be worth the time.

I Didn't Feel it.

I kept feeling like the author was giving a lot of examples that were not fact based and were presented as if he were trying to build a viewpoint on his own concept of history and the future using stories. I was not sure his examples were true and they didn't seem to be pertinent to me. I didn't feel that they were proving anything. I had hopes for this book. And I didn't go away with any personally actionable steps or changes in my way of thinking. I couldn't think of ways I could be a more effective in my relationships or personally after listening to most of the book. I kept feeling he was generalizing. I became disappointed after I listened for a couple of hours and I started skipping around to see if he was going to give the suggestion of writing a future letter to yourself. Last week his presence as a guest on Huberman Lab podcast was what drew me to order this audio book. In that podcast Ari talked about writing a letter to your future self. Eventually I started searching through the chapters I hadn't listened to yet, but I never found any info on the letter to your future self. I was never convinced or affected by all the examples he gave. I don't have any concrete idea of what is unique about "the long path" is. I'm probably just too stuck in my present. He's saying to incorporate the future we need and want into daily lives but he gives examples that involve things I have little to no affect on personally in my own daily life are frustrating. I didn't choose the book so that I would be convinced of something that would take decades and lifetimes for hundreds of people working together to accomplish. I really wanted to be exposed to the personal (brain) scientific viewpoint of human relationship with the future and past in order to help manifest a really good future for myself. I still want to write a letter to my future self. I bought this audio book because I wanted to launch myself on writing that letter to my future self. I think this seemed like a book about how important the past and future are from a sociology perspective. I did take away the one idea that even if you think you have no impact on the future generations you do based on your influence on and genetics of your own offspring and those you are in concert with.

Ok

It was a good distraction but I was looking forward to it being over the entire time. A couple interesting thoughts but not my wheelhouse.

Waste of time

Nothing special here. Full of meaningless fluff like "The answer to how is yes". If you want to make the world better do something more productive with your 20 dollars and 4 hours. Unless you want to hear daffy duck prattle on about feelings, stay away.