Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things that Seem Impossible Today
Written by Jane McGonigal
Narrated by Jane McGonigal
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
“An accessible, optimistic field guide to the future.”—San Francisco Chronicle
The COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly frequent climate disasters, a new war — events we might have called “unimaginable” or “unthinkable” in the past are now reality. Today it feels more challenging than ever to feel unafraid, hopeful, and equipped to face the future with optimism. How do we map out our lives when it seems impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? What we need now are strategies to help us recover our confidence and creativity in facing uncertain futures.
In Imaginable, Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable.
She invites us to play with the provocative thought experiments and future simulations she’s designed exclusively for this book, with the goal to:
1. Build our collective imagination so that we can dive into the future and envision, in surprising detail, what our lives will look like ten years from now
2. Develop the courage and vision to solve problems creatively
3. Take actions and make decisions that will help shape the future we desire
4. Access “urgent optimism,” an unstoppable force within each of us that activates our sense of agency
Imaginable teaches us to be fearless, resilient, and bold in realizing a world with possibilities we cannot yet imagine—until reading this transformative, inspiring, and necessary book.
Editor's Note
Practical and illuminating…
Jane McGonigal made a living predicting how people might react to unimaginable circumstances. In 2008, the game designer and author of New York Times bestseller “Reality is Broken” even ran a simulation that accurately predicted many aspects of the pandemic. In her newest release, McGonigal shares how the act of imagining the future can change yourself and the world, as well as practical and illuminating tips that will inspire even the most die-hard nihilist.
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Reviews for Imaginable
14 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very interesting. I feel more prepared to deal with the future, and how to find ways to stay on top of the ever-changing landscape. However, I felt it dragged on and sections were repeated almost word for word. Could have been half as long. But overall a very interesting topic. Her interview on the Tim Ferriss Show was amazing and I hoped the book would have been just as good but it wasn’t.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5It was a bit cheery for the future we are facing. She glorifies capitalism's one size fits all with her questions on how to come back to a single information source and understanding. She is dancing the line one does when they try to serve the middle average population. She tries to cover everything under the sun. But then provides insufficient detail and insights of value. She didn't pick an audience to serve outside of making money. The book gets worse the further you go into it.