At the end of the 19th century, New York City stank. One hundred fifty thousand horses ferried people and goods through the streets of Manhattan, producing 45,000 tons — tons! — of manure a month. It piled up on streets and in vacant lots, and in 1898 urban planners convened from around the world to brainstorm solutions to the impending crisis. They failed to come up with any, unable to imagine horseless transportation.
Why Business Leaders Need to Read More Science Fiction
At the end of the 19th century, New York City was struggling with a manure crisis; as horses ferried people and goods through the streets of Manhattan, they produced tens of thousands of tons of waste, choking the streets and creating a public health problem. Urban planners were at a loss, unable to imagine that a new technology — the automobile — would render the problem obsolete in little more than a decade. What assumptions are constraining your thinking? Business leaders can expand their mindsets and envision new futures by leaving the industry white papers and management hot-takes at the office, and picking up a science fiction novel instead. These futuristic fantasies tap into our fears, hopes, and ambitions, expanding our notion of what’s possible and helping us see the present more clearly. That’s why leaders like Jeff Bezos and Sergey Brin have admitted to mining Sci-Fi novels for inspiration. Science fiction reframes our perspective on the world. Like international travel or meditation, it creates space for us to question our assumptions.