As always, please note that the text below was written by a human, identified as Iwona Fluda. An AI tool was used only to correct minor grammar and syntax. English is her third language.

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I came across a few extraordinary books recently and would like to share a few words about how they inform what we can do as individuals and communities to co-create a better future for everyone. I know that “sustainability” as a word doesn’t always spark the best emotions in people. From greenwashing to hashtags that too often mean nothing, because (surprise, surprise) there is no action behind them, we need to rewrite the narrative and truly embody the values we preach.

For me, sustainability means more than the standard definition. It is also about long-term thinking and acting with responsibility for the future.

A great example I recently encountered is a post by Prof. Renee Adams (see here), where she shares:

“#Mistakes my own. I am making an official #pledge not to use #AI to generate content in my #posts and #work (except for grammar checks and coding assistance). To do this I’ve changed my #LinkedIn #profile #header to indicate that all mistakes in my posts and work are my own.

This is, by far, the best example of a sustainable long-term thinking I’ve come across since the dawn of the AI revolution. Please note: A recent analysis by originality.ai found that over half (54%) of long-form (100+ words) English-language LinkedIn posts are AI-generated. Let this sink in. Just imagine this scenario long term:

When you fully outsource your thinking to AI tools and stop using your own brain, your brain actually suffers and its powers weaken.

See the recent discovery by Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7068923270460547808

Writing an essay entirely with AI reduces original cognitive engagement, while starting without AI and then adding it can actually enhance it. I recommend reading the whole study to understand the nuances.

Talking about reading and learning abilities: declines in both negatively influence long-term cognitive health. Studies have shown that cognitively stimulating activities, including reading, puzzles, games, and other forms of active engagement, are associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline in later life (see more here).

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7108944817360909246

I would personally question passive activities like watching TV, but that’s a longer debate for another time.

We might come to a humble conclusion: if social media was designed with the intention of making us, the users, addicted (as multiple studies confirm), we could argue that

AI tools may be leading us into intellectual erosion: individually and collectively.

They solve short-term challenges while quietly contributing to long-term ones. Imagine a society where most of its members are unable to think independently and have forgotten the skill of thinking. Let us not go there.

Instead, I would like to focus on something else: a long-term solution. For me, that solution is creativity and cultivating creative skills across the board.

When creativity touches the soil, a whole new world can be born. And what if we combined our creative ideas with the impact (long-term thinking needed) they might generate? Today, we have the great opportunity not only to envision a better future but to act upon it.

Over the last decades, many countries have set goals of exponential economic growth. Yes, in many ways we live in healthier environments (though this is still questionable), we have access to many things we want (if we have the money), we enjoy freedom of speech (as long as it doesn’t offend anyone), and we may still believe we can rely on governments in times of crisis (also questionable).

But one of the core reasons for our environmental, mental, and social collapse is not the lack of resources. It is their unfair and unequal distribution. It is not a lack of knowledge, but the twisting of narratives, illusions, and propaganda. It is not a lack of creative ideas to solve our challenges. It is short-term thinking and ego-driven approaches that consider only one part of the equation: me, me, me.

And yet, life is so much more than our small personal worlds. In his book The Gendered Species, Tamas David-Barrett reminds us that the systems we live in—patriarchal, hierarchical, extractive—are not inevitable. They arose under specific historical and environmental pressures, yet we continue to carry them forward as though they were permanent. By unpacking these inherited structures, we see that our cultural and social choices are neither natural nor fixed. They are stories we tell ourselves, and stories can be rewritten.

Just to quote Charles de Lint:

We’re all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. It’s a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, it’s true, but then so’s everything.

In Roman Krznaric’s The Good Ancestor, the invitation is to stretch our time horizons far beyond the next quarter, the next election, or even our own lifetimes. He calls on us to act as “good ancestors,” cultivating the wisdom to prioritize the needs of future generations who cannot yet speak for themselves. If we reduce life to the logic of short-term gains, we end up with temporary satisfaction and long-term damage. But if we shift towards intergenerational thinking, our decisions gain depth, integrity, and meaning.

Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics adds another vital dimension. It offers a compass for living well within planetary boundaries while ensuring no one falls short on life’s essentials. The “doughnut” reminds us that true prosperity is not about endless growth but about thriving in the safe and just space between ecological ceilings and social foundations. This framework helps us see sustainability not as sacrifice, but as balance: the art of meeting human needs while protecting the living systems that make those needs possible.

Together, these works form a powerful triad: Dávid-Barrett exposes the constructed systems that limit us, Krznaric calls us to think across generations, and Raworth gives us a practical model for economic and ecological balance. They converge on one profound truth: our world is not bound to the path it is on. We can choose differently.

And perhaps that is the essence of long-term creativity: using imagination not only to invent new tools or ideas but to redesign the very narratives, systems, and values that guide our shared future.

So perhaps the invitation is simple:

Let us dare to create differently, to think further, and to act more responsibly. The future is not waiting. It is being shaped by what we choose to do today.

P.S. None of the people mentioned in this text paid me for it. I share my observations freely with the intention of inviting all of us to reimagine better. Thankfully, my newsletter is not read by many people, so the idea and associated imagery that I might irreversibly influence someone with my words feels both humbling and slightly amusing.

#SustainableThinking #GoodAncestor #Creativity #Futures #SystemsChange #Imagination #CreativeLeadership #DoughnutEconomics #RegenerativeFutures University of Oxford.