What I learned after spending two days with futurists and positive psychologists

I wish Scott Barry Kaufman had been my college professor. Scott told me that he gives extra credit for daydreaming in his classes. That would have been an easy A for a space-case like me.

Scott is the scientific director of The Imagination Institute in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The Imagination Institute's mission is to "make progress on the measurement, growth, and improvement of imagination across all sectors of society." One of the ways it's doing this is by conducting retreats with different groups of people"-"such as educators, evolutionary psychologists, standup comedians, and futurists"-"to learn how they use their imaginations in their work.

In May 2016, I participated in The Imagination Institute's two day "futurists retreat," held at Institute for the Future's Palo Alto headquarters, where I'm a research director. I arrived on Tuesday and met the other participants. Leading the retreat along with Scott was Jane McGonigal, IFTF's director of game research and development. Jane's a game designer and author of two New York Times best-selling books about self-development though imagination, creativity, and play. We were joined by IFTF staffers Tessa Finlev, Dylan Hendricks, Sarah Smith, and Kathi Vian, along with futurists Stuart Candy and Jamais Cascio, Imagination Institute's Elizabeth Hyde, and James W. Hovey of the Eisenhower Fellowships.

What follows is my account of the retreat, and the five memorable insights I gleaned from the experience. (more")