stewart brand

The New York Times has a feature story on one of my favorite thinkers -and one of my intellectual heroes: Stewart Brand.

Two of his books have shaped my perception and thinking about cities, civilizations, leadership and personal and generational responsibility. I wholeheartedly recommend them.

I think Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility should be required reading for anyone who is in any sort of leadership position. (Read more about the Clock project -and have your mind blown wide open.)

And How Buildings Learn should be required reading for all architecture students.

This gem from the NYT article:

He now looks at the rapidly growing megacities of the third world not as a crisis but as good news: as villagers move to town, they find new opportunities and leave behind farms that can revert to forests and nature preserves. Instead of worrying about population growth, he’s afraid birth rates are declining too quickly, leaving future societies with a shortage of young people.

How's that for counter-intuitive thinking? How's that for hope for our cities?