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"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.
ARI WALLACH is a futurist and the founder and Executive Director of Longpath Labs. As adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, he lectured on innovation, AI, and the futures of public policy. Wallach’s TED talk on Longpath has been viewed 2.5 million times and translated into 21 languages. He has written for outlets like the BBC and Wired, ran Fast Company magazine’s “FactCo Futures with Ari Wallach,” and has been featured in The New Times, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, CNN, Vox, and more. www.longpath.org
"This perceptive book is 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
"Reading this book is like joining hands across generations in order to find the hope, drive and imagination necessary for us to build the world we wish to manifest. A world built on justice, spirit and joy." — Ai-jen Poo, President, National Domestic Workers Alliance, author, The Age of Dignity
"Ari Wallach has written an essential guide to the 22nd century. You read that right. With the acumen of a futurist and the soul of a rabbi, Wallach shows us that the only effective antidote to the rampant now-ism of the present is to have an urgent conversation about reshaping the far-future. Longpath will make every conversation you have more meaningful." — Bruce Feiler, New York Times-bestselling author of Life Is In The Transitions
A brilliant futurist who sees with his whole heart, Wallach shows us how to co-create a future of dignity, justice, and love as daily practice. This book will ignite your agency and lift your gaze to the horizon of possibility. Longpath showed me how to feel future generations’ joy—that joy is now my North Star. Wise, practical, powerful, this is an essential handbook for how to birth the world we dream. — Valarie Kaur, bestselling author of See No Stranger and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project
"People who face great oppression—as Ari’s father did are somehow best able to think beyond themselves, seeing ways forward just when every path seems blocked. Black people in America never had the luxury not to see ahead. We thank our ancestors at the same time we strive to become ancestors worth thanking. Longpath will help more people embrace this mindset and the behaviors that go with it. Changing our minds can transform our lives." — Rashad Robinson, President, Color of Change
"Like a prophet of old, Ari Wallach offers us an urgently-needed message: While we can’t thank those who came before us, our survival as a species relies on our paying their sacrifices forward. Wallach expertly combines evolutionary biology, psychology, and spiritual wisdom not just to remind us what we owe future generations, but to give us the tools we need to truly become better ancestors." — David DeSteno, author of How God Works
"Ari Wallach will change the way you look at time. Longpath offers a thought-provoking perspective on how we carry our ancestral history and how we can shift our thinking from short term reactions to long term responses. What actions will we take if we view it from the perspective of our great-great grandchildren?" — Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness
"Ari Wallach’s approach to being great ancestors is an antidote to the addled, unsustainable traps of short term thinking. Philosophically deep and practical, timeless and urgent, Wallach's message is one we need more than ever. Take it in; your descendants will be glad you did." — Jamil Zaki, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, author of The War for Kindness
"Longpath is a radical call to expand the window of our attention. In doing so, we shift our thinking and behavior, making us better, happier people." — Amishi Jha, Professor and author of Peak Mind
"By cultivating what Wallach designates the Longpath way of living, we have direction for how to get beyond short-term decision making rooted in myopic opportunism. A poetic master of creative metaphor, Wallach invites us all to join in the Longpath journey, for species survival yes, but no less because this is a joyful and fulfilling way of living our lives together!" — Daniel Liechty, author of Facing Up To Mortality and Transference and Transcendence
"I loved this book for its authenticity and audacity. Longpath not only helped me envision a brighter future, but also to improve how I can be a more effective leader in the present. This is a playbook that anyone can leverage right now to achieve world changing results. It’s an impressive feat and makes Longpath a must-read." — Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
"Ari Wallach challenges practices that incentivize harming our future. Providing helpful tools and anecdotes, Wallach wisely guides readers into making personal and professional decisions with awareness of long term impact – decisions that will enrich our being and one day make our far off descendants proud." — Ytasha L. Womack, author of Afrofuturism
"Like Victor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning, Ari Wallach gives us a roadmap to finding meaning and hope in this moment between what was and what will be with the deep insights and provocations one would expect from not just a futurist, but a father who cares deeply about the world we will leave behind to our descendants." — Alec Ross, New York Times bestselling author of Industries of the Future and The Raging 2020s
"Albert Einstein observed that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Ari Wallach’s Longpath provides a clear way to think differently, so that we can better address the issues of our time." — Jonathan Rose, author of The Well-Tempered City and co-founder of the Garrison Institute and President of Rose Companies
"What kind of world do we want our children and grandchildren to inherit? Ari Wallach refocuses us on this critical question, which our forebears once weighed more mightily than we do today. Becoming a great ancestor requires not only navigating ever-present crises, but imagining the world as it could be through one's everyday philosophy and choices." — Laurence C. Smith, author of The World in 2050, John Atwater and Diana Nelson University Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University
"In a turbulent world, Longpath offers a moving, trenchant guide for anyone seeking to close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be." — Hahrie Han, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, Director, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University, author of Prisms of the People
"Ari Wallach’s Longpath is a timely reminder that even as acute challenges draw our attention, it is essential to take the long view if we are to achieve the shared vision of a just and sustainable world. At a time when resilience is an imperative, and not just a buzzword, Longpath provides a pathway to making it a reality." — Aron Cramer, President and CEO, BSR
"In the context of a time that is hyperconnected, yet fractured, filled with both transformational change and anxiety, Ari Wallach gives us a compelling roadmap forward, a manifesto for shifting our mindset from the short to the long term—bringing us from the past to the present to a better future we still have the chance to co-create, with even our smallest decisions and interactions." — Asha Curran, CEO, GivingTuesday
Brilliantly weaving together rationality and spirituality, Longpath offers a new lens through which we can all imagine and shape the future. — Adam Bly, Founder & CEO of System
"Ari Wallach has become our trusted guide to the future and Longpath is our roadmap. Longpath is not a “mindfulness time out,” but “a frame of mind” for living. Wallach's storytelling gently and persistently moves us to realize that, like the butterfly whose flap of wings caused a storm miles away, our daily actions are building out the future for the generations to follow." — Sudhir Venkatesh, William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology & African-American Studies at Columbia University
"What if we took the time to extend empathy and care to the generations that came before us? And how about generations that will come after us? In this heart-stretching, time-bending invitation, futurist Ari Wallach pushes us to widen our circle of concern by seeing ourselves as links on an intergenerational chain. Longpathism is a clarion call: it’s on us to make sure the future of humankind is not characterized by the loneliness, alienation, and divisiveness we’re living amidst today." — Jenn Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director of Einhorn Collaborative
"Sometimes all it takes to change your life is to see it from a different perspective. Ari Wallach’s Longpath blows through conventional thinking and opens up a world where each and every one of us can carefully consider how the choices we make today can impact the future. If you are reconsidering your life choices, this book will illuminate the path forward." — Kathryn Murdoch, Co-Founder and President, Quadrivium Foundation
"When I hear the word ‘futurist,’ I expect jetpacks and meal-replacement pills. But Wallach isn’t that kind of futurist. In this striking and insightful book, Wallach takes us back in time to see the longer picture. We emerge liberated from our small sense of time and endowed with the responsibility of being a future ancestor." — Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual
"A new framework for thinking about our decision-making patterns, with empathy at the center of all." — Chade-Meng Tan, author of Search Inside Yourself
"Short-term thinking is enticing and may even feel good up front, but more often than not, it ends up causing harm down the road. Wallach compellingly argues that our biggest challenges require playing the long game, and he shows us how to get started. We’ve got no time to waste." — Brad Stulberg, author of The Practice of Groundedness
Longpath - blending psychological, emotional and even spiritual development - offers a crucial blueprint and inspirational call to action: to create the futures that we want for ourselves and our descendants. — Hollie Russon Gilman, Senior Fellow at New America and Affiliate Fellow at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
"Written with brilliance, beauty, and no shortage of soul, Longpath is the most important and hopeful guide to the future we can start building today." — David Sax, bestselling author of The Revenge of Analog and The Future is Analog
"Longpath is a way to think about the future — that you can use today. I expected it to be about planning for the future but loved that it's about how to live now. Ari's voice is warm, fresh and powerful… This is a very important book." — Scott Heiferman, Co-founder of Meetup
“This new mindset is one that has us pause and relax a bit. It has us reflect on the world we’re creating with our day-to-day craziness of never-ending to dos that rob us of the opportunity to envision something better, for us, but also for future generations.” — Forbes
"Longpath will leave you reevaluating your path and priorities in a positive way." — Rich Roll Podcast
"Longpath teaches you how to heal from your past to pave the way for a brighter future, the importance of paying attention to the long game, and how to visualize your future successes." — Lewis Howes, The School of Greatness podcast
