Longpath

Book summary

Ari Wallach is a futurist, a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and the founder of Longpath Labs, which helps individuals and institutions adopt mindsets geared toward the future. He is also the CEO of Synthesis Corp., a strategic innovation consultancy based in New York. His TED talk on Longpath has garnered more than 2.5 million views.

Humanity’s ingrained tendency toward immediate thinking, once essential for survival, now often obstructs progress by fostering unhealthy habits, environmental neglect, and shortsighted decisions. Modern technology, particularly social media, exacerbates this issue by promoting fleeting gratification through metrics like likes and views, which fail to nurture qualities essential for personal and societal growth. To counter this, a three-step approach is key: first, develop awareness of how short-term thinking influences emotions and actions; second, embrace the brain’s capacity for change by believing in your potential for growth; and third, cultivate a long-term perspective by fostering gratitude, wonder, and empathy, which strengthen connections across generations and encourage more thoughtful, enduring choices.

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