Who recommended The Clock of the Long Now?

4 people have recommended The Clock of the Long Now in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Stewart Brand, Bret Victor and Phil Libin. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is The Clock of the Long Now worth reading?

4 people we track recommend it. It is best for: a city planner at a municipal government trying to justify multi-decade infrastructure choices to elected officials — useful for vivid examples and rhetorical frames that make long horizons relatable; a product manager responsible for critical infrastructure (energy, transit, data centers) pushing for longer maintenance and investment cycles — useful for design-minded case studies to bring leadership on board; a teacher or community organizer running workshops on intergenerational responsibility who needs evocative anecdotes and practical design ideas to spark discussion. It may not suit: you'll likely put it down when the book moves into repeated technical descriptions or cycles back to the same calls for long-term thinking — that midbook technical/advocacy stretch is a common drop point; annoying if you prefer step-by-step policy plans or checklists — lacks hands-on exercises or operational templates; lose interest if you want tight political analysis or quick, detailed roadmaps for systems change — the book favors narrative and design thinking over policy nitty-gritty.

What books are like The Clock of the Long Now?

Readers of The Clock of the Long Now also turn to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, The World as It Is and Out of Control, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

The Clock of the Long Now: Recommended by 4 People

Name: The Clock of the Long Now
Author: Stewart Brand

Using the designing and building of the Clock of the Long Now as a framework, this is a book about the practical use of long time perspective: how to get it, how to use it, how to keep it in and out of sight. Here are the central questions it inspires: How do we make longterm thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare Discipline ...