“The future creates the present.”

Glen Hiemstra said that to me in 2020, after almost 40 years working as a #futurist. At the time, I took it as a good line. Six years later, it reads more like a warning.

Glen never cared much about forecasting the probable future. He points out that some of futurism’s biggest failures, the collapse of the USSR among them, came from staring too hard at what seemed likely. For decades he pushed his clients to do something harder. Decide what future you actually prefer, then go build it.

Now listen to how we talk about #AI. It’s almost all inevitability: it’s coming, adapt or get left behind. Hardly anyone asks what we want.

Glen also told me what he sees as the single biggest problem humanity faces. His answer surprised me in 2020. In 2026 it looks obvious.

Over two hours, we also got into genius and stupidity as roommates, the McDonald’s Theory of Peace, and why science gives us comfortable lives while the #humanities give us something to live for.

My favorite takeaway was simple. The future isn’t something that happens to us.

The future is something we do.

My 2-hour conversation with Glen Hiemstra, founder of Futurist.com: [ https://snglrty.co/4eLDhl4](https://snglrty.co/4eLDhl4)

Glen Hiemstra has been a futurist for 40 years. But his focus hasn’t been the probable or possible future. Instead, Glen’s focus is “the preferred future.”