This Could Be Our Future

On October 29, Viking/Penguin Books will publish This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.

Here’s what it looks like:

What’s the book about?

It’s about something I call financial maximization. That’s the belief that the right choice in any decision is whichever option makes the most money. Financial maximization is the default setting that runs our world.

The pursuit of financial maximization has created unprecedented prosperity — and significant consequences. Corruption, environmental exploitation, inequality, mass displacement, and a growing social disconnect can all be traced to its influence.

This Could Be Our Future is about how we got here. And where we should go instead. Our world feels locked into place. It isn’t. Things were very different not that long ago. Somehow we got from there to here. Just as we’ll get from here to somewhere else.

But where?

The answer isn’t to make more money, or even to get rid of it entirely. It’s to expand our concept of value. A world of scarcity can become a world of abundance if we expand our idea of value. New forms of rational value — that help to grow things like community, sustainability, and purpose — are possible. Some exist already.

This is the ideaspace that This Could Be Our Future explores.

Keep in mind that it’s me writing this. I’m not an economist, historian, or philosopher. I explain these ideas the way they make sense to my civilian brain. The book uses pop culture references (Adele, Pulp Fiction, and the three-point shot all make appearances), my experience with Kickstarter, and things that actual economists, historians, and philosophers have written to make its case.

I’m very happy with how the book turned out, and can’t wait (slash am totally terrified) to hear what y’all think.