Ari Wallach's "Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs - An Antidote for Short-Termism" expands upon Wallach's life work as a futurist helping leaders more consciously and ethically shape tomorrow. Wallach's TED Talk on Longpath has been viewed over 2.5 million times and translated into 19 different languages.

Now, Wallach serves as Executive Director of Longpath Labs, an initiative focused on bringing long-term thinking and coordinated behavior to the individual, organizational, and societal realms in order to ensure humanity flourishes on an ecologically thriving planet Earth for centuries to come.

The book "Longpath" essentially explores this initiative and puts into print the concepts that serve as a foundation for Longpath and a world where we move away from reactionary short-termism and instead move toward long-term living and leading and, as the title notes, "becoming the great ancestors our future needs."

Wallach asserts that many of the problems we face today, from climate change to work anxiety, are the result of short-term thinking. Wallach also asserts and passionately writes that Longpath is the solution.

If you've ever worked in large systems, you'll likely recognize the world that Wallach writes about. As a project director for a government agency, I see every day how so much of how we lead, fund, and support our social systems is reactionary in nature and geared toward short-term solutions destined to have only a short-term impact. We've become a society of sound byte social systems and Wallach's Longpath aims to create a different way aiming toward the longer path.

As a book, "Longpath" is surprisingly straightforward and understandable. Weaving together information with inspiration, Wallach projects the value of a world where we stop simply reacting and we move toward creating the world that we want future generations to live in.

Truthfully, there's nothing particularly "new" about this information. It's simply that we've moved so far away from it that it feels almost revolutionary.

"Longpath" is both intellectually satisfying and emotionally resonant, Wallach's stories about his father adding emotional depth to these concepts and strategies. Wallach himself is an engaging writer and "Longpath" offers him a chance to expand upon the materials in his TED Talk and to bring to life these ideas that have become his life work.

For those seeking a different way of leading, organizing, and living, "Longpath" is a valuable and vital tool for the individual and organizational toolbox. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic