Long-term Thinking in a Start-up Town

Long Now’s Executive Director Alexander Rose recently appeared on the Freakonomics podcast in Episode 381, “Long-term Thinking in a Start-up Town.” The podcast was recorded before a live audience in a variety show format. In addition to Rose, the show featured the co-founder of Lyft, a pioneer in male birth control, a specialist in water security, and a psychology professor who is also a puppy. 

Rose spoke about the 10,000 Year Clock; the benefits and pitfalls of long-term thinking; and the Interval, which Rose called “one of the top first-date bars in San Francisco.”

Speaking about the Clock, Rose said:

The idea is to challenge your thoughts about time, and there’s a lot of ways you could do that. We could have a white paper that talks about this. But what we were trying to do is create something on a mythic scale that’s kind of the Grand Canyon but for time. A large art piece in the desert that is a monument to long-term thinking.

Listen to the podcast in full here.

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What is the long now?

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

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