The Technium: 88 Prompts for Long Term Thinking
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88 Prompts for Long Term Thinking
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88 Prompts for Long Term Thinking
In January 2019 I wrote out scores of prompts for thinking long term that I felt should inform the foundation I was later co-chair of, The Long Now Foundation. These axioms were only shared internally, but I feel they would be useful to anyone trying to take a long view so I present them here.
1 Our aim is to improve the present by remembering the future.
2 Our religion is change.
3 We promote tools and systems that manage the resources of change.
4 Over time, the process of change itself changes, compounding change.
5 We are making the world safe for continuous compounding change.
6 The system that best manages compounded change is civilization.
7 We favor tools that operate upon civilization.
8 Civilization is long-term thinking; Long-term thinking is civilization.
9 We promote long-term thinking instead of long-term planning.
10 Plans vs perspective: Long-term planning is a type of answer; because answers are fixed they can become irrelevant during compounding change.
11 Long-term perspective is a type of question; because questions are open they can remake their meaning during change.
12 Long-term thinking keeps revisiting decisions so that unexpected solutions can be found later.
13 The best choices today are those that lead to a greater number of choices in the future.
14 We seek those possibilities that increase future possibilities for all.
15 Individually we are better off with expanding possibilities for everyone.
16 Civilization is the process of creating the maximum number of opportunities that work for the maximum number of people.
17 To maximize the greatest good means to maximize the longest good, because most of those affected are yet to be born.
18 Tomorrow will arrive without our help; our job is to make tomorrow as big as possible.
19 To fill our tomorrow with so many possibilities that they must be carried over to the day after tomorrow.
20 Finite games focus on how they end; infinite games focus on how they continue.
21 Where we work there is no winning; there is only improving the game, and keeping it going.
22 We want to create infinite games, where all who play, win.
23 We trust the future.
24 We are trying to equip the future so it can help itself.
25 There is far more future than there is the past; the future is a bigger territory.
26 Since progress is real, our descendants will have more information and better tools, which will make them more capable of fixing problems we can’t.
27 The uncertainty of the long-term is a penalty we can pay with technology.
28 Our job is to keep the process of progress going.
29 We can leverage the power of longevity to accomplish things brevity can not.
30 The force of compounding value is one of the most powerful things in the universe.
31 Long-term processes can create leverage that can produce disproportionate returns.
32 Even large setbacks and disasters can be overcome by small compounding over long terms.
33 To maximize compounding value the benefits must shift to the future.
34 Patience is rewarded. We seek tools and...