Review by Booklist Review
MIT professor Venkataraman identifies five key areas in which we can improve our ability to think ahead and dodge reckless choices. One is to use a variety of metrics to measure progress, so that we don't overemphasize short-term gains. A second lesson is to improve on how we imagine the future. This effort could be as traditional as tending perennial plants or as contemporary as experiencing future risks via the jaw-dropping sensations of virtual reality. A third approach is to seek immediate returns for long-term goals, such as linking lotteries to savings account deposits or creating portfolios that mix quick-payoff and slow-payoff investments. A fourth area of improvement is to temper fixations on immediate gains. It's hard for politicians, for example, to propose visionary goals when our campaign finance laws pressure them to focus on pleasing constituencies' short-term desires. A final lesson is to design institutions that encourage forethought. Business institutions could reward CEOs for prescience and decrease the power of uncommitted, short-term shareholders on company boards. Venkataraman's clear, steady argument will engage a wide variety of readers.--Dane Carr Copyright 2020 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a thought-provoking and eminently readable debut, Venkataraman, an MIT professor who served as senior advisor for the Obama administration on climate change innovation, considers why people-individually and collectively-often undermine their own best interests, opting for short-term rewards over longer-term, perhaps more sustainable benefits. Venkataraman takes a multifaceted approach-surveying research from biology, psychology, and economics, among other fields, and gleaning lessons from diverse groups such as poker players and Montessori students-to determine ways to encourage people to choose more wisely and more consistently consider long-term consequences. Strategies have ranged from a Michigan credit union's offering depositors chances to win prizes when adding to their savings accounts, to doctors receiving emails praising their record of giving prescriptions only when warranted. In both cases, positive reinforcements proved far more effective than attempts to, respectively, encourage savings for unknown emergencies or micromanage doctors' medical decisions. In the business world, strategists have suggested giving investors incentives to take a more patient approach to the market. (One banker likens the idea to Odysseus tying himself to the mast in order to resist the sirens' song.) Venkataraman's thoughtful and clear-eyed assessment of how to teach oneself to make more carefully considered decisions should prove a valuable tool for anyone wishing to think less in the short term and more toward the future. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Venkataraman (science, technology, society, MIT), senior adviser for climate change innovation during the Obama administration, writes a thought-provoking study of the implications of decisions in planning for the future, citing unfortunate short-term decisions made by policymakers to seek immediate satisfaction instead of planning for the long-term. Predicting the future is not enough, unless it is "paired with imagination," she states. The author investigates what allows wisdom to prevail over recklessness in our choices. The first part of the book includes analysis of envisioning the future and draws on specific perspectives from sociologist Marshall Ganz and virtual reality expert Jeremy Bailenson. The second part features specific case studies of Sarah Cosgrove, who worked to bring attention to and prevent the overuse of antibiotics, and Marie Montessori's innovative educational theories and school programs. Later chapters focus on lessons for scenario planning, including a discussion of decisions made during the Cuban Missile Crisis and World War II. VERDICT An intriguing look at strategies for the long-term with citations from business executives, sociologists, and philosophers; highly recommended.--Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Queens Village, NY
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A former Obama administration senior climate policy adviser urges that we adjust our sights to take in a longer view."A good forecast, it turns out, is not the same as good foresight," writes Venkataraman (Science, Technology, and Society/MIT), who observes that modern humans do not often take the time to look at the ramifications of the decisions we make outside of their immediate effects. So it is that corporations look to the next quarter and not the next century and retirement catches so many people financially unprepared. And so it is, in a pointed lesson that the author offers early on, that we continue to build our homes and cities in hurricane- and flood-prone areas without adequately preparing for the eventuality, underinsured and underprotected. "The choices we make today shape tomorrow's so-called natural disasters," adding that it might drive the point home better if weather forecasters would include images of the effects of past disasters when they're predicting a storm. It's understandable that we have a bias for the present, or what the film director Wim Wenders calls the "monopoly of the visible," but our failure to examine the implications of our actions is having all kinds of effects. One is the near collapse of our fisheries, which is one of Venkataraman's case studies, and the persistent eruptions of the Ebola virus, which the author considers a prime example of what historian Barbara Tuchman called "marches of folly," on a par with the Trojan horse and the American misadventure in Vietnam: "Societies and leaders of each era knew better but acted as if ignorant." Habitat destruction, extinction, continuing climate change leading to an uninhabitable Earthsuch are the results of the short term. To counter our patterns of thinking and doing, the author closes with prescriptions including such things as finding "immediate rewards for future goals" and weaning ourselves from the desire for instant gratification in favor of "fighting for greater foresight in society."A timely reminder that time is not on our side without long-term thinking. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
