Uncharted - How to Map the Future
By Margaret Heffernan

An urgent read … Karl Popper for the 21st century' and Robert Phillips, former CEO, Edelman EMEA and author ofand Trust me, PR is Dead'Heffernan is ... a deft storyteller.and Unchartedand is ... wise and appealingly human' Tim Harford,and Financial TimesHow can we think about the future? What do we need to do - and who do we need to be?In herand bold and invigoratingand new book, distinguished businesswoman and author Margaret Heffernan explores the people and organisations who aren't daunted by uncertainty.and We are addicted to prediction, desperate for certainty about the future. But the complexity of modern life won't provide that; experts in forecasting are reluctant to look more than 400 days out.and History doesn't repeat itselfand and even genetics won't tell you everything you want to know.and Ineradicable uncertainty is now a fact of life.In complex environments, efficiency is a hazard not a help; being robust is the better, safer option. Drawing on a wide array of people and places, Margaret Heffernan looks at long-term projects developed over generations that could never have been planned the way that they have been run. Experiments, led by individuals and nations, discover new possibilities and options. Radical exercises in forging new futures with wildly diverse participants allow everyone to create outcomes together that none could do alone.and Existential crises reveal the vital social component in resilience.and Death is certain, but how we approach it impacts the future of those we leave behind. And preparedness - doing everything today that you might need for tomorrow - provides the antidote to passivity and prediction.Ranging freely through history and from business to science, government to friendships, this refreshing book challenges us to resist the false promises of technology and efficiency and instead to mine our own creativity and humanity for the capacity to create the futures we want and can believe in.