What's Next Is Now summary

Imagine you might lose your home in a wildfire. In the face of such devastating change, would you cling to the past, or embrace the opportunity to reshape your future? The author and his family confronted this question after evacuating their home in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2020. For eleven days they lived in a camper van, moving from one friend’s driveway to another. It was a harrowing experience, following news updates as the fire moved closer and closer, but they made it their focus to learn from the experience. They saw their personal crisis as a direct result of the global climate crisis, with droughts and heat waves creating perfect conditions for wildfires. 

Returning home, the author and his partner took several lessons from their experience. The fire was beyond their control, but their attitude to it was not. They maintained a stubborn faith that change is constructive, choosing to focus on the opportunity rather than fear. Being prepared, they realized, isn’t just about having a go-bag ready, but having a mindset poised to turn challenges into opportunities.

Our future doesn’t just happen to us; we create it through the choices we make today. The future isn’t some distant, abstract concept best left to futurists and their lofty predictions; it’s personal, shaped by the day-to-day decisions that gradually transform our lives. Futurists may captivate us with visions of AI and space travel, but ultimately, the story of your future is one that’s yours to write. The more intentional choices you make, the more agency you have to craft a future for yourself.

Thriving in times of uncertainty takes a “future-ready mindstate” – a way of engaging with the world that’s at once open, curious, experimental, empathetic, and radically optimistic. If  you dial up these qualities, you notice possibilities that others miss. You reframe challenges as chances to innovate. You take risks, learn, and build connections.

There isn’t a strict formula. These dimensions ebb and flow according to the situation, like a jazz musician riffing on a theme. One moment may call for a burst of curiosity; the next, a dose of open-mindedness. But the trick is cultivating all of these capacities so you can draw on them as needed. Think of it as cross-training for a rapidly changing world. 

One of the most powerful tools for strengthening this mindstate is creativity. You don’t have to be Picasso. Rather, you must, as the author calls it, connect the dots. First, you must collect the  “dots” – that is, snippets of new input from the world around you — and then connect them in novel ways. Consider your morning commute. What if, instead of zombie-shuffling your usual route, you made a point of noticing five new things? Took a detour to walk a different street? Ordered your coffee somewhere new? Exposing yourself to fresh “dots” shifts your perspective, even slightly. These micro-choices can tilt the trajectory of your day day — and cumulatively, your life — in subtle ways that make space for serendipity.