How to Future

"Just like great science fiction, 'futuring' isn't about trying to predict the future; it's about stimulating creative thinking about a range of possible futures. In How to Future, two of the best strategic foresight professionals in the business share all of their secrets, explaining how you can use the same tools they use to help their clients systematically think about and prepare for what's coming next--whatever it might be. It's a toolbox for taking control of your own future." * Kevin Bankston, AI Policy Director at Facebook and Fellow at Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination *
"The Future is no longer uncertain once you have read How to Future. The book does a brilliant job of providing the reader with the confidence and know-how to embrace uncertainty and work purposefully towards the future with ease. Using models of possibility and clear framework tools, anyone can learn to understand, predict, and shape the future, which is particularly refreshing considering the fact that futuring can often feel like an intimidating task." * Julie Doleman, Managing Director, Global Expansion at Experian Consumer Services *
"The future is rarely singular, and even more rarely stable. And there are few voices I would rather have in my head, to keep me company into all those futures than Scott Smith and Madeline Ashby. Drawing on more than two decades of expertise and experience, this book is an exemplary way-finding tool, full of helpful instructions and sign-posts that will be unfailing useful no matter where you find yourself. And the book is also an incantation: summon the future, they write, but do it with intentionality, a sense of purpose, and a strong moral compass!" * Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, Director of the 3A Institute, Australian National University and Senior Fellow, Intel Corporation *
"Smith and Ashby have done our increasingly uncertain world a service with How to Future by sharing the crown jewels of the futurists' trade. This book is filled with plain-spoken but extremely sophisticated guidance on how to understand-and prepare for-what's over the horizon." * August Cole, co-author of Burn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution and Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War *
"Reading How to Future in mid-2020, reinforced in my mind how important it is to broaden the scope of who gets to 'future.' There has never been a better time to learn how to imagine new possibilities and incorporate more diversity of experiences and points of view into the process. If you want to engage communities and make new, different, and more resilient futures happen, Smith and Ashby's book provides both a manual and a call for doing so." * Matt Jones, Principal Designer, Google AI *
"In a world that needs proper, grown-up futures thinking more than ever, How To Future is simply brilliant - it's the tonic (and the gin!) we've been waiting for. A true manual to futuring, it is both accessible and wise, written by two of the leading thinkers in the field with their characteristic wry pragmatism. With hope and without hype, the book shows us how to better think about, prepare for, and deal with the many strange things the future yet has to offer." * Professor Alf Rehn, Author "Innovation for the Fatigued" *
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. The old pros at Changeist have written the definitive guide to thinking around corners, out of quarantine, and through the uncertainty ahead. How to Future contains all the accrued foresight you need to begin practicing futures as a team or organization, and persuasively argues that your "return on vision" will trump straight-line projections every time." * Greg Lindsay, Director of Applied Research, NewCities Foundation *