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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Could Should Might Don't summary
Nick Foster
How We Think About the Future
20 mins
Brief summary
Could Should Might Don't by Nick Foster delves into the complexities of decision-making, exploring the psychological barriers that hinder optimal choices. It offers guidance on overcoming indecision to foster clarity and confident decision-making.
Table of Contents
Could Should Might Don't
Summary of 5 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 5
The day after tomorrow
We live in an age obsessed with the future. Major technology companies collectively spent $177 billion on research and development in 2022 – equivalent to Kuwait’s entire GDP. Governments, media organizations, and cultural institutions pump out endless streams of predictions, visions, and scenarios about what lies ahead. And popular media generates millions of hours of content across films, television, and writing, feeding future concepts into public consciousness.
Yet despite this massive investment in imagining what’s ahead, something has gone wrong. Much contemporary futurism appears misinformed, and willfully shallow – often relying on clichéd references to flying cars and hoverboards, rather than rigorous analysis.
Meanwhile, Generation Z experiences unprecedented levels of anxiety about the future, spending hours each day consuming predominantly negative content. Research shows that 34 percent of Gen Zs worry about the future generally, while 45 percent express concern about their future employment prospects.
This anxiety represents a dramatic shift from earlier generations, who viewed the future with optimism. The contradiction is stark: we have more resources dedicated to future-thinking than ever before, yet we feel increasingly pessimistic about what lies ahead.
The problem isn’t that we lack future-thinking – it’s that most of it is terrible. Corporate futures work often serves vanity purposes rather than genuine strategy. Political leaders avoid long-term planning in favor of quick wins.
Daily pressures dominate business thinking, relegating future-oriented work to isolated “innovation labs” that are disconnected from real challenges. Even professional futurists struggle with an identity crisis, uncertain whether their work provides genuine value compared to concrete professions like medicine or engineering.
But humanity has always grappled with the uncertainty of what’s ahead. From Neolithic communities planning for winter harvests to medieval societies interpreting plagues, we’ve consistently sought to understand and influence what lies beyond the present moment.
The future will arrive regardless of whether we engage thoughtfully with it or not. But can we radically improve how we think about tomorrow?
For the rest of this Blink, we’ll look at four distinct mindsets that characterize future-oriented thinking, each with particular strengths, blind spots, and inevitable shortcomings that shape our view of the future. These mindsets are Could, Shouldn’t, Might, and Don’t.
Let’s look at each in turn.
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What is Could Should Might Don't about?
Could Should Might Don’t (2025) examines the mental frameworks people use when contemplating what lies ahead, identifying four distinct approaches that shape our relationship with tomorrow. Rather than making predictions, it analyzes how humans have historically engaged with future-oriented thinking, revealing the strengths and limitations of each mindset.
Who should read Could Should Might Don't?
- Policy makers and civil society members grappling with complex societal challenges
- Business leaders and entrepreneurs making strategic decisions under uncertainty
- Anyone overwhelmed by conflicting predictions about technology and the future
Categories with Could Should Might Don't
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