What's Next Is Now

What's Next Is Now Plot Summary

Introduction

When we think about the future, most of us oscillate between excitement and anxiety. We imagine dazzling technological breakthroughs, yet worry about our ability to navigate the uncertainty ahead. This paradox leads many to passively wait for the future rather than actively creating it. But what if we could develop a mindset that turns this apprehension into agency? The future-ready mindstate offers a revolutionary framework for approaching tomorrow with intention rather than trepidation. This mindstate isn't about predicting what will happen; it's about preparing ourselves to shape what could happen. Through cultivating five key dimensions—radical optimism, unreserved openness, compulsive curiosity, perpetual experimentation, and expansive empathy—plus discovering your unique "Dimension X," you gain the ability to see opportunities where others see obstacles. Rather than being passengers on the journey to tomorrow, this approach positions you as the navigator, making deliberate choices that transform the unknown into a landscape of possibility.

Chapter 1: Radical Optimism: Seeing Better in Every Experience

Radical optimism transcends the conventional understanding of positive thinking. It's not merely seeing the glass as half full, but recognizing that every situation—even challenging ones—contains the seeds of improvement. This mindstate dimension focuses on the potential for "better" rather than perfect, allowing you to identify opportunities in circumstances where others might only see limitations. The human brain has evolved with a negativity bias, making us naturally alert to potential threats and problems. While this served our ancestors well for survival, it often prevents us from seeing possibilities in our modern lives. Radical optimism works against this bias by training your mind to actively search for potential improvements in every situation. Unlike blind optimism, this approach doesn't ignore problems—it reframes them as opportunities for growth and innovation. At its core, radical optimism is fueled by saying "yes" and "yes, and..." instead of "no" or "yes, but..." When you say yes to experiences, ideas, and perspectives that differ from your own, you create an opening for unexpected positive outcomes. The practice of "yes, and..." takes this further by building upon others' ideas rather than dismissing them, fostering collaboration and creativity. This approach was exemplified in the development of Google Street View, which began with someone asking if it was possible to photographically map the planet, followed by a series of "yes, and..." responses that expanded the idea into a revolutionary technology. Another powerful aspect of radical optimism is reframing—shifting how you perceive a situation by changing either what you're looking at (the focus) or how you're looking at it (the perspective). By zooming out to see the broader context or zooming in on specific details, you can discover new dimensions of possibility in familiar situations. For example, when facing a challenging work project, stepping back to understand how it fits into the organization's larger strategy might reveal solutions that weren't apparent when focusing solely on immediate obstacles. The practice of radical optimism doesn't require extraordinary circumstances; it can be applied to everyday situations. When faced with problems, try converting them into "How might we..." questions that orient your thinking toward solutions rather than limitations. For instance, instead of focusing on "slow elevators" as a problem, reframe it as "How might we make the waiting experience more pleasant for users?" This subtle shift opens up innovative approaches that might not emerge when fixated on the original problem. Cultivating radical optimism means developing the habit of looking for better in everything you encounter. Each time you practice this dimension, you strengthen your ability to see possibilities where others don't, positioning yourself to shape a future aligned with your aspirations rather than being constrained by present limitations.

Chapter 2: Unreserved Openness: Embracing Change and Uncertainty

Unreserved openness is the dimension of your future-ready mindstate that enables you to welcome the unknown rather than resist it. It's like free-falling into a new experience—not because you trust that everything will work out perfectly, but because you trust yourself to benefit from whatever happens. This dimension represents a fundamental shift from seeking certainty to embracing ambiguity as a source of growth and opportunity. Most of us are naturally inclined toward the familiar. We develop routines, traditions, and comfort zones that provide a sense of security but ultimately limit our experiences. This "status quo bias" closes our minds to anything that threatens our current situation. Unreserved openness challenges this tendency by encouraging us to deliberately step beyond our established boundaries. Rather than viewing change as threatening, those who cultivate this dimension see it as constructive—an invitation to discover something new about themselves and the world. The practice of unreserved openness often begins with a leap—choosing to engage with an unfamiliar situation even when uncertainty creates discomfort. Each time you make this choice, you reinforce your capacity for openness, creating a generative cycle where a little openness produces even more openness. This was demonstrated when Oliver Bierhoff, director of the German Football Federation, contacted the author after reading an interview about innovation culture. Despite having no background in football, the author embraced the opportunity to work with the organization, helping them develop rituals that supported openness to new thought patterns and innovative ideas. Transparency plays a crucial role in developing unreserved openness. While openness relates to what comes in, transparency concerns what goes out—your willingness to be vulnerable by sharing your authentic self, including your mistakes and uncertainties. At Google, the weekly TGIF (Thank Google It's Friday) meetings exemplified this principle, with founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page taking direct questions from employees and responding with honesty. These regular displays of transparency built trust throughout the organization, creating an environment where people felt safe to explore new ideas. Trust—both in yourself and others—forms another essential foundation for unreserved openness. When you trust yourself to handle whatever arises from a new experience, you become more willing to venture into unfamiliar territory. This self-trust develops gradually as you discover that you can land on your feet even when circumstances don't unfold as expected. As meditation teacher Adam Leonard found when introducing mindfulness practices at Google, trusting that engineers would experiment with meditation if presented as a scientific hypothesis led to the formation of meditation communities in over 160 Google offices worldwide. Actively seeking diversity of thought, experience, and perspective further enhances your capacity for unreserved openness. By exposing yourself to viewpoints different from your own, you expand your understanding of what's possible. This might mean spending time with people unlike your usual social circle, consuming media outside your preferred genres, or visiting places you've never considered. Each of these experiences provides creative input—those "dots" that can later connect to form innovative ideas and solutions. Ultimately, unreserved openness is about choosing to be available to life's ambiguity and uncertainty. It doesn't require you to like or agree with everything you encounter—just to approach each experience with acceptance rather than judgment. By cultivating this dimension, you position yourself to discover opportunities that remain invisible to those who cling to the familiar and predictable.

Chapter 3: Compulsive Curiosity: Exploring the Unknown Path

Compulsive curiosity transforms you into a natural explorer in unfamiliar territories. This dimension of the future-ready mindstate doesn't just encourage occasional questioning—it makes inquiry a fundamental aspect of how you engage with the world. It's characterized by an insatiable desire to understand, discover, and investigate what you don't yet know, turning the unknown from something threatening into something irresistibly fascinating. While children possess nearly 100% curiosity levels, this natural inquisitiveness often diminishes dramatically by adulthood. We replace our wonder with pragmatism, our questions with assertions, and our exploration with routine. Organizations follow a similar pattern—start-ups begin with boundless curiosity that fuels innovation, but as they mature, they become tamed by convention and lose their distinctive investigative edge. The author observed this phenomenon when visiting NASA, where despite tremendous resources and talent, the agency had drifted away from the big "what if" questions that defined its heyday. To revitalize curiosity, you must first step over your personal assumptions—the stories and frameworks you use to make sense of daily experiences. These assumptions, while useful for navigating routine situations, often blind you to interesting details and possibilities around you. The author discovered this when he wore a time-lapse camera for two weeks, capturing his daily activities. Reviewing the photos revealed countless details and interactions he had missed, demonstrating how our assumptions filter out potentially valuable information. By consciously recognizing and moving beyond these assumptions, you create space for curiosity to flourish. Your senses provide powerful pathways to curiosity when you learn to use them deliberately. Though we typically rely on vision for information, the most curious individuals engage all their senses to investigate the world. Each sense delivers unique data that, when combined, creates a richer understanding of what we experience. You can cultivate this multi-sensory awareness through simple exercises like closing your eyes while eating to intensify taste, focusing solely on ambient sounds during a walk, or touching familiar objects with the back of your hand instead of your palm. These practices heighten your perception and trigger questions you might not otherwise consider. Becoming comfortable with not knowing represents another crucial aspect of compulsive curiosity. In professional and social contexts, admitting ignorance often feels risky or embarrassing. However, acknowledging what you don't know creates fertile ground for discovery and growth. Former Googler Jon Ratcliffe demonstrated this when he received an unexpected call from Archbishop Desmond Tutu's office asking for help with a technology solution. Rather than pretending expertise he didn't have, Ratcliffe embraced the unknown, reaching out to colleagues and working through technical challenges to create a successful Google Hangouts connection between the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama when diplomatic obstacles prevented their in-person meeting. Questions themselves—particularly "I wonder..." statements—serve as the engines of curiosity. Unlike the transactional questions we typically ask to gain immediate information, curiosity-driven questions open pathways to exploration without predetermined destinations. At Stanford's d.school, students spend six weeks solely focused on finding the right question before attempting solutions. This practice helps them discover more meaningful problems to solve and broadens their perspective beyond conventional thinking. Similarly, inverting questions—asking "how might we decrease sales?" instead of "how might we increase sales?"—can reveal insights and opportunities that standard questioning might miss. Cultivating compulsive curiosity doesn't require extraordinary circumstances; it simply asks you to approach ordinary situations with fresh eyes. By questioning assumptions, engaging your senses, embracing not knowing, and asking thoughtful questions, you transform your relationship with the unknown from one of anxiety to one of anticipation. This dimension becomes a dot-collecting expedition that continuously expands your understanding and prepares you to navigate an uncertain future with confidence.

Chapter 4: Perpetual Experimentation: Learning Through Action

Perpetual experimentation moves you from thinking about possibilities to actively testing them in the real world. This dimension of the future-ready mindstate transforms ideas into actions through continuous, deliberate testing and learning. Unlike the passive consumption of information, experimentation engages you directly with reality, providing immediate feedback that shapes your understanding and guides your next steps. Although experimentation comes naturally to children, most adults have had this instinct stifled by fear—fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of the unknown. Parents and educators, in their well-intentioned efforts to protect children from danger, inadvertently teach them to avoid uncertain experiences. The result is adults who have forgotten how to experiment and who often remain stuck in familiar patterns even when they're no longer effective. Overcoming this resistance requires recognizing that experimentation isn't primarily about success; it's about learning. Each experiment, regardless of outcome, provides valuable information that can guide future decisions. The experimental mindset begins with asking "What if?" questions that challenge assumptions and explore possibilities. These questions create an opening for imagination and invention by focusing attention on what could be rather than what is. When NASA leaders visited Google for a 10x thinking session, they were encouraged to consider questions outside their usual domain—"What if we reimagined cities?" This shift in focus sparked creativity and reconnected them with their capacity for bold thinking. Similarly, when employees at Uber were developing a benefits program for drivers, asking "What if drivers could share educational benefits with family members?" led to a more impactful program aligned with drivers' actual priorities. Creating a psychological safety zone proves essential for meaningful experimentation. Research on team dynamics shows that members of high-functioning teams feel secure enough to voice opinions, share ideas, and take risks without fear of judgment. Pixar Animation Studios cultivates this environment through their Braintrust meetings, where filmmakers receive candid feedback focused on improving projects rather than criticizing individuals. This separation of the person from the problem creates space for honest assessment and creative problem-solving. As Tom Chi, former Head of Experience at Google X, explains, when team members aren't attached to the outcome of any single experiment, they can move "neutrally and fluidly from one experiment to the next." Testing and prototyping form the practical core of experimentation. Testing involves trying multiple approaches in quick succession to discover what works and what doesn't, while prototyping gives physical form to ideas to evaluate their feasibility and appeal. Both practices accelerate learning by generating concrete feedback rather than relying on speculation. During the Google Glass development, the team committed to producing fifteen hardware prototypes weekly for ten weeks—a pace that prevented attachment to any particular version and maintained focus on continuous improvement. Similarly, a student at Google's Crittenden campus tested her idea for office-sharing by placing simple sign holders outside ten offices with cards indicating availability, quickly confirming that office owners were willing to participate in her experimental program. Seeking risk, rather than avoiding it, distinguishes those who excel at experimentation. Mountain climbers, aerialists, and options traders succeed not because they eliminate risk but because they develop comfort with discomfort. You can build this capacity by deliberately choosing activities that stretch your boundaries—giving a presentation if public speaking makes you nervous, asking for a raise if discussing money feels uncomfortable, or initiating conversations with strangers if you're naturally shy. Each experience strengthens your ability to operate effectively in uncertain situations. Perhaps most challenging is learning to let go of ideas that aren't working, despite the emotional investment they represent. At Google X, employees received extra vacation days, bonuses, and guarantees of future project participation when they volunteered to abandon unsuccessful initiatives. This incentive recognized the difficulty of letting go while encouraging the objective evaluation necessary for effective experimentation. As former Googler Seth Marbin discovered while developing GoogleServe, the community service program that now engages hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, viewing everything as a draft subject to refinement allows for continuous adaptation based on new information. Perpetual experimentation propels you to the edge of the unknown with confidence that you can navigate whatever you encounter. By embracing "what if" questions, creating psychological safety, testing and prototyping rapidly, seeking calculated risks, and letting go when necessary, you develop the capacity to not just anticipate the future but actively shape it through informed action.

Chapter 5: Expansive Empathy: Building Human Connections

Expansive empathy connects your experience to others' in a way that transforms both. Unlike the other dimensions of the future-ready mindstate, empathy exists solely in relation to another person, making it uniquely powerful for navigating a shared future. It's not just about understanding how someone else feels—it's about using that understanding to create outcomes that benefit both of you and potentially the broader community. At its foundation, empathy acknowledges our "co-humanity"—the fact that we share this planet with billions of others who are also trying to shape their futures. Far from being merely altruistic, empathy serves as a practical imperative for achieving your own goals in this interconnected world. Consider a sleep-deprived parent of a newborn who desperately wants a full night's rest. Until they understand their baby's needs and respond appropriately, they won't achieve that desired future. Similarly, in professional contexts, understanding the perspective of colleagues, clients, or customers creates pathways to solutions that might otherwise remain invisible. Shifting from a first-person ("I") perspective to a second-person ("you") viewpoint forms the initial step in practicing empathy. This requires quieting your own thoughts and experiences to create space for genuinely hearing and observing others. The author demonstrates this with a personal anecdote about a silent meditation retreat, where his initial irritation with another participant's cough drop-sucking habit transformed into compassion when he paused to consider what the other person might be experiencing. This shift not only changed his reaction but deepened his understanding of empathy itself as a transformative practice. Filling in the gaps of what you don't know about others' experiences further enhances empathy. We often make assumptions based on limited information, creating narratives that may bear little resemblance to reality. A friend of the author harbored resentment toward a colleague who abruptly withdrew from an important project—until learning months later that the person had been seriously injured in a car accident. This revelation highlighted how easily we fill information vacuums with our own misguided interpretations. Asking thoughtful questions, particularly a series of "whys," can reveal the underlying experiences and motivations that explain someone's behavior, creating a foundation for genuine understanding. Considering consequences—both immediate and long-term—extends empathy beyond individual interactions to broader impacts. Human-centered design exemplifies this approach by focusing on creating products, services, and processes that respond specifically to human needs. When developing solutions, practitioners consider implications not just for the direct user but for communities and even future generations. Former Googler Sandra Camacho applies this principle in her work as an inclusive design strategist, helping organizations identify potential harm their designs might cause to marginalized communities and develop more equitable alternatives. Predictive empathy offers a way to exercise this dimension even when specific information about others is unavailable. By drawing on your understanding of common human experiences—what makes people feel scared, hopeful, frustrated, or joyful—you can anticipate needs and responses that inform more compassionate and effective choices. The "futures wheel" provides a structured approach to this thinking, mapping first-, second-, and third-order consequences of potential actions to reveal patterns and surprises that might otherwise go unnoticed. The practice of expansive empathy yields benefits that extend far beyond individual interactions. Astrid Weber, a UX designer at Google, has applied her empathetic approach to projects ranging from climate technology to refugee response initiatives, building communities where people inspire and empower one another. Her success demonstrates how empathy creates connections that multiply impact and open doors to collaborative opportunities that would remain closed to those focused solely on their own perspective. By engaging empathy—shifting perspective, filling information gaps, considering consequences, and predicting human needs—you develop emotional clarity and purposeful awareness that enriches every dimension of your future-ready mindstate. Like a bridge between "I" and "you" that reveals the potential of "we," expansive empathy ensures that your journey toward the future benefits from the profound insights and opportunities that only human connection can provide.

Chapter 6: Dimension X: Discovering Your Unique Superpower

Dimension X represents your distinctive superpower—the special quality or strength that influences how you approach situations and shapes your path forward. Unlike the other dimensions of the future-ready mindstate, which can be deliberately cultivated, your Dimension X is already intrinsic to who you are. It's the lens through which you uniquely perceive the world and the force that guides your most meaningful choices. Understanding your Dimension X begins with recognizing your future-ready milestones—the key moments and turning points in your life that have propelled you forward. These milestones aren't necessarily the obvious achievements like graduations or promotions; they're often the experiences that triggered significant growth or learning. By mapping these events and examining how you responded to them, you can identify a recurring quality or approach that has consistently influenced your path. For the author, this quality is a "bias for action"—a tendency to move forward without overthinking, which has opened doors to opportunities he might otherwise have missed. Your Dimension X intensifies over time, becoming more pronounced as you face new challenges and make choices that align with this core strength. Earth Chariyawattanarut, who has lived and worked around the world, discovered that his ability to gain deep insight into others has guided him through diverse experiences since childhood. Initially helping him adapt as the "new kid" in different environments, this quality later became crucial to building partnerships across organizations and industries. Similarly, Laura Jones found that her talent for making unexpected connections between ideas and people has led her to opportunities ranging from Google to Instacart, where her work culminated in a campaign featuring Lizzo that debuted at the MTV Video Music Awards. While your Dimension X represents a powerful asset, it can sometimes lead you into challenging situations. The author describes how his bias for action prompted him to write a newspaper op-ed suggesting changes to a traditional drumming group from his hometown, resulting in unexpected backlash from community members who weren't ready for innovation. Sarah Devereaux's Dimension X—grit—similarly created difficulties when her determined approach to accomplishing goals earned her the nickname "bulldozer" from colleagues. Yet this same quality enabled her to undertake the challenging six-year process of transforming her leadership style to become more collaborative while maintaining her natural persistence. Operating with awareness of your Dimension X allows you to leverage its influence more intentionally. Rather than being surprised by where this strength takes you, you can recognize when it's active and consider how it might interact with the other dimensions of your future-ready mindstate. When your Dimension X combines with optimism, openness, curiosity, experimentation, or empathy at peak levels, the choices that present themselves become clearer and more compelling. This awareness also helps you anticipate and prepare for potential challenges your Dimension X might create. Your Dimension X plays a crucial role in helping you "square the circle"—attempt what seems impossible. As mathematician Lindemann-Weierstrass proved that constructing a square with the same area as a circle using only a compass and ruler is mathematically impossible, this phrase has become a metaphor for tackling seemingly insurmountable challenges. Your Dimension X provides the confidence and distinctive approach needed to confront these situations, reminding you of your unique capabilities while the other dimensions present creative pathways forward. In organizational contexts, a Dimension X manifests as culture. Tesla and SpaceX, for example, share a culture defined by embracing failure as a necessary component of innovation. CEO Elon Musk's statement that "If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough" reflects this Dimension X, which influences every aspect of how these companies approach challenges. Similarly, individuals can identify the Dimension X of organizations they're considering joining to assess alignment with their own strengths and values. Ultimately, your Dimension X represents the signature quality that makes your future distinctly yours. It's the through line of your life story and the rudder that guides you forward through both calm and turbulent waters. By recognizing this superpower and understanding how it shapes your choices, you gain the ability to harness its energy more purposefully in creating the future you envision.

Chapter 7: The Future-Ready Life: Shaping Tomorrow Today

The future-ready life represents the practical application of the mindstate dimensions in your everyday experience. Rather than passively waiting to see what tomorrow brings, you actively craft your future through deliberate choices informed by radical optimism, unreserved openness, compulsive curiosity, perpetual experimentation, expansive empathy, and your unique Dimension X. This approach transforms uncertainty from something to fear into a canvas of possibility waiting for your distinctive imprint. Living future-ready means keeping the future simultaneously close and distant—seeing immediate opportunities while nurturing a broader vision that guides your longer-term direction. Like a composer creating music, you work with the dimensions of your mindstate to craft something entirely new, making choices that build upon each other to form a coherent whole. This composition process isn't about avoiding change and uncertainty but embracing them as essential elements of your creative journey. Each choice you make—whether in response to anticipated events or unexpected challenges—adds depth and texture to your unfolding future. The future-ready approach fundamentally changes how you experience each day. Rather than merely putting one foot in front of the other, you wake up eager to discover where your choices might lead. Within ordinary activities and situations—walking the dog, having breakfast, responding to a surprise phone call—lie multiple opportunities to make choices that become the notes in your future composition. The simple question "What if?" serves as a prism through which these everyday moments transform into possibilities: What if a conversation with a stranger triggers a breakthrough idea? What if a walk during lunch introduces you to music that lifts your spirits? These seemingly small choices accumulate to shape a future aligned with your aspirations rather than determined by circumstance. When living future-ready, the central question shifts from what you want to do or who you want to be to how you want to be in your future. This subtle but profound distinction focuses attention on the qualities and values that will define your experience and the impression—your "you-print"—you leave on the world. Will your choices reflect resilience and boldness? Will they demonstrate understanding of yourself and others? Will they create positive impact for those in your story? By checking in with yourself regularly to ensure alignment between your choices and your intended way of being, you create a future that serves as an appropriate legacy to how you lived.

Summary

The future-ready mindstate represents a transformative approach to navigating uncertainty: instead of predicting the future, we prepare to create it. By cultivating radical optimism that sees opportunity in every challenge, unreserved openness that welcomes the unknown, compulsive curiosity that explores beyond assumptions, perpetual experimentation that converts ideas into learning, expansive empathy that builds meaningful connections, and awareness of your unique Dimension X, you develop the capacity to shape tomorrow through deliberate choices made today. This approach fundamentally redefines our relationship with the future, transforming it from a source of anxiety into a landscape of possibility. Rather than being subject to whatever tomorrow brings, we become active participants in determining what that tomorrow looks like. The future-ready mindstate doesn't eliminate uncertainty—it embraces it as the very space where innovation, growth, and meaningful change become possible. By engaging these dimensions in our daily lives, we discover that what's next isn't some distant eventuality we must wait for; it's unfolding right now through the choices we make and the perspectives we bring to each moment.

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Frederik Pferdt

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