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A review by nhnabass
From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want by Rob Hopkins
4.0
I began this book on the heels of the incredible "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy" by Jenny Odell in an attempt to find tangible ways to invest our attention elsewhere as a form of protest to capitalist dogma of productivity that is slowly killing us and the world. With that goal in mind, this book certainly did what I expected it to do! A hopeful manifesto in support of re-imagining everything we hold as a "truth" or a "given" about the way we live. There is something freeing about being able to "what if?" your way through thought experiments without the constant, usual "that's not possible" "we could never" "we can't afford it" "politicians wouldn't buy in"-- the "realist" rhetoric that we are always met with that keeps us in imaginary boxes.
Hopkins does a great job laying out what individuals and organizations are already doing successfully as he takes us through these through experiments. It is wonderfully exciting to read case study after case study about the many different ways projects big and small have successfully diverted attention away from the economy and productivity but into social happiness, access, creativity, and imagination. This sparked hope, joy, and more than anything relief to read in a world that continues to feel bleaker and bleaker.
However, that really is all this book is-- case study after case study. Only deducting a star as I found myself really struggling to continue by 2/3 of the way in. As this was a completely new topic to me, I understand the value of presenting the many different case studies and showcasing that there are numerous well-studied scholars who have already done work here as well, but man it was starting to read drier and drier. Perhaps a symptom of a shortened attention span, but it was getting difficult to finish. I'm glad I did though, and I thoroughly enjoyed this as a follow up to a book that posited the need to divert our attention and this one being a guide on how exactly to do that. Overall, really enjoyed.
"It is my hope that this book might prompt a reconsidering of the strategies used by organisations and campaigns working in responses to the challenges we are facing, that they might work to make sure the expression of a positive vision of how the future could turn out, their dream of it, comes through loudly, imaginatively and passionately in all that they do."
Hopkins does a great job laying out what individuals and organizations are already doing successfully as he takes us through these through experiments. It is wonderfully exciting to read case study after case study about the many different ways projects big and small have successfully diverted attention away from the economy and productivity but into social happiness, access, creativity, and imagination. This sparked hope, joy, and more than anything relief to read in a world that continues to feel bleaker and bleaker.
However, that really is all this book is-- case study after case study. Only deducting a star as I found myself really struggling to continue by 2/3 of the way in. As this was a completely new topic to me, I understand the value of presenting the many different case studies and showcasing that there are numerous well-studied scholars who have already done work here as well, but man it was starting to read drier and drier. Perhaps a symptom of a shortened attention span, but it was getting difficult to finish. I'm glad I did though, and I thoroughly enjoyed this as a follow up to a book that posited the need to divert our attention and this one being a guide on how exactly to do that. Overall, really enjoyed.
"It is my hope that this book might prompt a reconsidering of the strategies used by organisations and campaigns working in responses to the challenges we are facing, that they might work to make sure the expression of a positive vision of how the future could turn out, their dream of it, comes through loudly, imaginatively and passionately in all that they do."