In his Long Now Talk, "Finally, something good," acclaimed designer Stefan Sagmeister urges us to zoom out. The faster the news cycle spins, the more we scroll, and the more we catastrophize. Meanwhile, the things that improve tend to do so slowly and quietly. Playful and poignant, Sagmeister's talk transforms long-term data into a new way of seeing human progress. Watch the full episode: https://lnkd.in/gVCR7der Listen to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/gH_rU9Nz
The Long Now Foundation
Research
San Francisco, CA 8,781 followers
Fostering long-term thinking and responsibility
About us
The Long Now Foundation is a globally-recognized champion of long-term thinking and responsibility founded in 01996 by Stewart Brand, Danny Hillis, and Brian Eno. We believe that civilization-scale challenges call for civilization-scale thinking. We are working toward a world rich in imagination and possibility that provides a counterpoint to today's accelerating culture, a world in which we all take the long-term future and the long-term past seriously. Our highest hope is that the next generation will never doubt that we thought of them and built for them. The Long Now Foundation began its work with The Clock of the Long Now, a mythic monument designed to keep time for the next 10,000 years from deep inside a mountain. Our work expanded into related projects all aimed at fostering long term thinking — Long Now Talks, a renowned live event series whose podcasts and videos have over 100,000 subscribers and millions of global viewers, the Long Now membership program, which centers long-term thinking in the day-to-day lives of over 12,000 members from more than 60 countries, and an award-winning cafe, bar, and museum in San Francisco called The Interval.
- Website
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https://longnow.org
External link for The Long Now Foundation
- Industry
- Research
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 1996
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
Fort Mason Center
Landmark Building A
San Francisco, CA 94123, US
Employees at The Long Now Foundation
Updates
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If you needed a reminder to slow down and breathe today, here it is. A timeline cleanse, courtesy of this lovely poem “Nature Does Not Ask Me” by our very own Denise Hearn. The poem calls you to show up, fully inhabited, no more and no less. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/g3HmAuyd
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Legally speaking, corporations are considered people, but what about…rice? A groundbreaking lawsuit asks whether wild rice can hold legal rights under tribal law. Fascinating read on the growing rights of nature movement: https://lnkd.in/gyrcuXBG
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What’s the difference between your “marshmallow brain” and your “acorn brain”? Lisa Kay Solomon asks Roman Krznaric to explain on the “How We Future” podcast here -> https://lnkd.in/g9QAddkt Love seeing two Long Now Talks alumni in conversation.
How to be a Good Ancestor with Public Philosopher Roman Krznaric
https://www.youtube.com/
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James Turrell’s 𝘈𝘴 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸—𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘢 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 opens in Denmark in June, 02026. 50+ feet high and 130+ feet wide, this will be Turrell’s largest Skyspace museum installation. Visitors arrive through an underground tunnel then step into other-worldly light of the enormous dome. More about the installation from ARoS Aarhus here: https://lnkd.in/eYqfEDag Learn more about Long Now’s history with light and land art here: https://lnkd.in/eWmGTQGA
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How does a changing ecological landscape shift our perspective on our role as humans? Join Krista Tippett, host of "On Being," in conversation with Long Now alum Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg. Together, they will explore the influences, ideas, and questions emerging from their exhibit "Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology.” The event also features Long Now's Executive Director Rebecca Lendl as a guest speaker. When: Thursday, March 26, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Where: di Rosa SF, 1150 25th Street, San Francisco, CA Tickets and more info here: https://lnkd.in/ehvctmCr
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The Long Now Foundation reposted this
"We need to learn from history — not just what's gone wrong, but what's gone right." — Roman Krznaric Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher and bestselling author of books like "The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long Term Thinking." I'm a huge fan, and have eagerly shared his books and ideas with colleagues, educators, school leaders, and executive boards. His TEDx talk (link in comments) inspired my Stanford d.school colleagues Louie Montoya, Ariel Raz, Laura McBain and others to create a profound experiential maker experience called "Portrait of an Ancestor" which debuted at SXSW EDU years ago, and has been run at the Smithsonian Futures Museum and with thousands of educators, students and leaders around the world. I even once hosted a donut watch party at the d.school for his virtual The Long Now Foundation talk with his brilliant partner Kate Raworth on what donut economics can learn from history. (True story - and link in Substack!) Getting to sit down with Roman for my "How We Future" podcast to talk about long-term thinking, generational responsibility, and why history might be our most underused futures tool was super special. We talked about "cathedral thinking," how to be a "time rebel," and why disruptive moments may be critical to transformational change. As Roman says, “we keep telling ourselves we’re short-term thinkers. But that’s not the whole story of who we are.” In a world that feels like it's moving faster and faster, learning to think in generations might be the most grounding reframe you didn't know you needed. ⬇️ Full #HowWeFuture Substack summary and episode link in the comments. #FuturesThinking #GoodAncestor #DisruptionNexus #
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The Long Now Foundation reposted this
Looking forward to hosting Eric Ries for a fireside chat at The Long Now Foundation on April 7 in San Francisco. I was fortunate to be a pre-reader of Eric's new book, "Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…and How Great Companies Stay Great." It's a tour de force packed with stories – both the perilous and the pioneering – of founders building organizations that can withstand "financial gravity" through the seemingly unsexy mechanisms of corporate governance, culture, standard setting, and more. Many companies are started with great intentions, but gradually drift toward short-term thinking, extractive behavior, and mission abandonment. Eric rightly argues that this isn't an ethical failure as much as structural. An organization is a complex adaptive system and each decision about ownership, incentives, charters, accountability, and decision-making can either align or misalign it with its wider mission. I'm thrilled that Eric's book will be a force multiplier for the space that so many folks have worked hard to build: steward ownership, employee ownership, perpetual purpose trusts, and other alternative corporate governance structures. It's a rapidly growing space, but there's so much more to do. May more money, resourcing, and attention flow to this work! ✨ Join us in person or on the livestream. Eric's book is available worldwide on May 26, and you can pre-order it here: https://lnkd.in/e59_i4Ux https://lnkd.in/et7WdHhc
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Hear "coral" and you probably picture a bright tropical reef or the bleached skeleton it becomes in a warming ocean. But coral isn't one color, and coral isn't one story. New today on Ideas, read Melody Jue's "Living Coral," about how to remember an organism that dissolves without a trace -> https://lnkd.in/eV_q_Ypq Don't miss Melody's upcoming Long Now Talk, Wed March 18, live in San Francisco and streaming online. Details and tickets here: https://lnkd.in/eqvhETKz
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As humans, we can't know everything — it's a cognitive impossibility. But there’s a freedom in embracing our limitations, as Indy Johar explained in his recent Long Now Talk. Watch his full Long Now Talk here: https://lnkd.in/e3cE6miZ