One of the projects of the Long Now Foundation is to build a 10,000 year clock in a mountain in west Texas. Construction of the clock is currently underway. When it’s finished, the clock will “tick” once a year, and will play different melodies to mark 10, 100, and 1000 year increments.
By encouraging people to think long term, the foundation’s board (a group of Internet pioneers and artists, including Stewart Brand, Jeff Bezos, Kevin Kelly, and Brian Eno) hope to challenge the currently prevailing culture of accelerated “Internet time” and encourage people to think in longer spans of time. They wish to foster a culture of long term thinking and have long-lasting impacts on the future of humanity and the planet.
Slowing down and thinking about the future and large-scale projects is something that we can all benefit from. Two current examples from WatzThis? world: our season of vacations, and our latest book launch.
WatzThis? Vacation Season
At this moment, Chris is on vacation in Michigan and has just swum his first 5k race…a grueling endeavor, he reports, which he spent 8 months training for (he finished 4th in his age group!!). In his absence, Eva has been running the business solo and preparing for her venture to Alaska. WatzThis?, even though we’re a less-than-one-year-old startup, understands the importance of taking time off and how that time fosters healthy lifestyles and the time to think about our long term goals. We do this to avoid burnout, to learn new things outside of the business, to refresh ourselves, and to give each other an appreciation for all the important work that the other does.
Our New Book!
Our 2nd book, JavaScript for Kids For Dummies, was released this week. This book is all about the future, and we’re looking forward to the day, 10 years from now, when we hear from a successful professional programmer whose first exposure to programming was through our book.
Long-term thinking as a business philosophy
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, and an active supporter of the Long Now Foundation and the 10,000 year clock, has always stressed the importance of long term thinking. His 1997 letter to shareholders established the principles that Amazon continues to live by, including making choices that pay off in the long term, even if they may not be the most appealing to shareholders in the short term.
Right now, however, we must make another plea for your short-term support!
What can you do?
And of course, If you don’t want to buy the book, you can still support us by talking about us! Tweet or post to Facebook! Make up your own tweet, or use ours! Here are some easy “click to tweet” links for you…just click the link to open Twitter, where you can edit our pre-written tweet before sending:
We still have a couple of review copies available. If you’re interested in receiving one, please send us an email at info@watzthis.com.
Thanks to all of you and here’s to the future!