Jane McGonigal's Blog

My new book Imaginable is here!

Pre-order a signed, personalized copy via Book Passage before March 22, 2022, and you’ll also get two tickets to my secret virtual book party — with special guests, games and the chance to just hang out together and ask me anything!

You can order Imaginable from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or a local, independent bookstore via Bookshop.org. For orders of 25+ copies, you can get up to a 40% discount via Porchlight! I’ll do a private book club meeting and imagination training for any group or organization that orders 100 copies – email me if you’re interested!)

A world-renowned future forecaster and game designer teaches us to envision the future before it arrives—and gives us the tools to help shape the world we want to live in.

The COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most disruptive events in human history, has made it more challenging than ever to feel prepared, hopeful, and equipped to face the future with optimism. How do we map out our lives when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? What we need now are strategies to help us recover our confidence and creativity in facing uncertain futures.

In Imaginable, Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. She invites us to play with the provocative thought experiments and future simulations she’s designed exclusively for this book, with the goal to:

build our collective imagination so that we can dive into the future and envision, in surprising detail, what our lives will look like ten years from nowdevelop the courage and vision to solve problems creativelytake actions and make decisions that will help shape the future we desireaccess “urgent optimism,” an unstoppable force within each of us that activates our sense of agency

Imaginable teaches us to be fearless, resilient, and bold in realizing a world with possibilities we cannot yet imagine—until reading this transformative, inspiring, and necessary book. 

Praise for Imaginable:

“Reading this book is like sitting down with a creative, optimistic friend—and getting up as a new version of yourself. Jane McGonigal has long been a visionary. Now she teaches the rest of us how to be one too.”

—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of When and To Sell Is Human

“In challenging times, it can be tempting to put our heads in the sand. In Imaginable, futurist Jane McGonigal offers us her outstretched hand. McGonigal plows years of research and simulation into an actionable guide that proves that we are vastly more capable of building desirable solutions than we realize. Fueled by her conversational tone of ‘urgent optimism,’ McGonigal’s questions and challenges are a galvanizing, must-read road map to a sustainable, desired future for all who can imagine.”

—Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult

 “Jane McGonigal is unusually adept at anticipating events that most of us can’t even fathom. In this eye-opening, actionable book, she teaches you how to widen your peripheral vision, extend your imagination farther into the future, and conceive of the inconceivable.”

—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

 “Imaginable is a delightful and actionable antidote to apocalypse: an invitation to play with the future as if it were limited by nothing but our own imaginative capacity. An inspiring read.”

—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock and Team Human

“In Imaginable, Jane McGonigal teaches us to bring soul-stirring imagination to our daily lives. As she persuasively demonstrates, imagination training is more than just a skill set: it’s a creativity boost, a mindset shift, and an emotional uplift all rolled up in one. The life-changing techniques you’ll learn in this science-packed book will help you choose your future and feel more in control of what happens next.”

—Nir Eyal, author of Hooked and Indistractable

 “Imaginable is more than a book, it’s a mindset upgrade. It teaches you to think more creatively and optimistically about what’s next. You’ll be excited about the future rather than fearful of it. Your brain will be on fire with new possibilities. And you’ll never call anything ‘unimaginable’ or ‘unthinkable’ again.”

—Peter H. Diamandis, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Future Is Faster Than You Think

 “With Imaginable, Jane McGonigal has pulled off a rare and essential feat: she’s written a book filled with inspiring ideas about how the future might play out that also provides immediate, practical tools to help you think more creatively about how you can change that future yourself.”

—Steven Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Farsighted

“Imaginable is one of those rare and thrilling books that actually changes you. It translates scientific insights into psychological breakthroughs, giving you a new set of tools to feel more hopeful, more creative, more awake to your dreams for the future. It empowers you with what McGonigal calls a sense of ‘urgent optimism.’ It will help you transcend the present moment to realize your full potential and make a future that’s better for all.”

—Scott Barry Kaufman, psychologist and author of Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization and Wired to Create

“A unique and insightful look at how games and simulations can not only teach us about the past but give us a window into our future. Jane McGonigal’s work provides us with a whole new set of tools to make important decisions better, faster, and more transparently.”

 —Sid Meier, creator of Civilization

“Everyone should be imagining the future as a basic survival skill. This book is for everyone and is the only book I know of that will teach you the proven techniques that futurists use to forecast the future. It includes all the methods I use, and more. Do yourself a favor: Read this book.”

—Kevin Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Inevitable and Senior Maverick for Wired

And the very first major review is in, and it’s a rave! From Publishers Weekly: “Futurist and game designer McGonigal delivers an illuminating look at how imagining the future can help to change one’s own life while making a difference in the world. … Expertly blending practical advice and big-picture thinking, this is a stimulating guide to preparing for the future. Readers will be inspired to put their imaginations to use.” Get your copy of Imaginable and upgrade your imagination now.

(I’ve also written two New York Times bestselling books, SuperBetter and Reality is Broken.)

I can’t wait to discuss my latest New York Times bestseller SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully with you. It’s powered by the science of games, to help you build lasting resilience. The habits you’ll learn in this book are backed by data from more than 1 million people who have used the SuperBetter game to recover from depression, anxiety, and trauma, and to get stronger for life.

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Get the ebook.

Get the paperback.

Get the audiobook.

“More than one million people have had their lives changed by Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter program, and I see why. It’s a marriage of positive psychology with pioneering insights from cutting-edge game design. This is a plan for profound growth in the face of whatever challenges life throws at you – and whatever ones you can throw at yourself.” – Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit

“At the heart of SUPERBETTER is a simple and potentially transformative idea: We can use the same psychological strengths we display when we play games to confront real-life challenges, whether it’s illness, injury, or just changing our habits for the better. Grounded in research and informed by McGonigal’s own sometimes harrowing experiences, this book will make you stop and think, then get you to act.” – Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind.

“SUPERBETTER delivers mind-boggling, science-supported, health-promoting knowledge and practical steps to bring more well-being into your life in a fun and engaging way, even if you are facing epic challenges like anxiety, depression, traumatic brain injury, or medical illness. Visionary innovator and researcher Jane McGonigal provides the proof and the practices that reveal how living a ‘gameful’ life can help you get personally stronger, closer to others, clearer in your mind, braver in your actions, and a greater hero in your own unfolding life story. SUPERBETTER is a playful, hands-on manual immersing you directly in challenges and adventures of creative gaming to develop more flexibility and resilience as you transform your life.” – Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine and author of Mindsight

“In this dazzling manifesto, Jane McGonigal knits together state-of-the-art research, moving anecdotes, and extremely satisfying mini-challenges to show us how games—video and otherwise—hold the key to a more productive, joyous life. A game designer by training and an empath by nature, McGonigal uses every power-up at her disposal to convince her audience that the very tools we deploy in imaginary worlds can be used to overcome struggles in everyday life. The result is a candy-crushing, genre-slaying read, for which fans will surely be sending her gratitude notes for years to come.” – Jennifer Senior, Op-Ed Editor for New York Times and author of All Joy and No Fun

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You might also like my previous book Reality is Broken.

Get the ebook.

Get the paperback.

A visionary game designer reveals how we can harness the power of games to boost global happiness.

With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games.

I’ve written two New York Times bestselling books, SuperBetter and Reality is Broken. (and shhh… it’s a secret… but I might be working on my third book right now!)[image error]

Find out what other people are saying about SuperBetter… and then get your own copy and start your adventure today.

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Help your company get SuperBetter, or level up your organization’s understanding of global game psychology and culture, with a 40% discount on orders of 100 copies of either book, via Porchlight/800CEORead.

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Get your copy of the New York Times bestselling book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World now.

If you’d like a signed, personalized copy as a gift or for yourself, click here!

“As addictive as Tetris, McGonigal’s penetrating, entertaining look into gaming culture is a vibrant mix of technology, psychology, and sociology, told with the vision of a futurist and the deft touch of a storyteller…. McGonigal makes an inspiring case for the way games can both enhance our personal happiness and help society.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

Here are some my favorite podcasts I’ve done!

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The Joe Rogan Experience: Episode #694 Jane McGonigal – audio link and (video link)

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The Tim Ferriss Show: Episode 93: Jane McGonigal on Stressing Less and Getting More Done with Games – audio links and transcript!

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Oologies with Alie Ward: Ludology (The Study of Games) with Dr. Jane McGonigal – audio links and transcript!

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Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy: How Games Make Life Better (audio links and show note)

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Meditative Stories: Exploring the alternate reality of your own life with Jane McGonigal

And here are a few of the favorite interviews I’ve done of all-time.

“I’m a Runner!” For Runner’s World magazine (April 2012)

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“Super Girl” for Elle Magazine (June 2011)

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“Gaming as a Spiritual Practice” for the Buddhist Geeks podcast (January 2011)

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“The Coolest Science Geek We Know“ for Refinery 29 (August 2013)

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“The game that can add 10 years to your life”

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In my 2012 TED Global talk, I explain how games can boost our resilience, help us experience post-traumatic growth, and even give us 10 extra years of life.

“Gaming can make a better world”

The best hope we have for surviving the next century on this planet? Games. In this 20-minute TED talk, I explain why we need to achieve 21 billion hours of online gaming a week by the year 2020. That’ll be just an hour a day, every day, for half of the people on Earth…

“How to think like a futurist”


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In my 2016 SXSW keynote, I give a one-hour master class in how to think like a futurist. Why think about the future? To create something new, you have to be able to imagine how things can be different. And the future is a place where everything can be different. This talk, based on my work as Director of Game Research & Development at the Institute for the Future, is designed to prepare you to invent, innovate, create, make a change, make a difference. And, naturally, it ends in a massively-multiplayer forecasting game!

On the Colbert Report
 
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In which I attempt to convince Stephen Colbert that playing games is the single most productive way to spend our time.

3 habits to think more creatively and optimistically about the future

 

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In this lesser-known TEDx talk for the 2017 Skoll Forum, I teach you 3 fun habits (mental challenges) you can try while you watch to strengthen the neurological pathways that allow us to think more creatively and optimistically about the future. I LOVE this talk, and not nearly enough of you have seen it… check it out!

“Blissful Productivity”

Throw out your to-do lists. This 45-minute School of Life sermon proposes a radically gameful way to get the most out of each day.

“Gamers tackle the world’s most urgent challenges”

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7 minutes live on CNN news! This was a major epic win for me — and for the EVOKE game, which officially became the first alternate reality game in the genre’s ten-year history to make it on to live national news.

“How to unleash 10 positive emotions in 60 seconds of play”

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I was pleasantly surprised when TED decided to share this secret mini-game of Massively Multiplayer Thumb-Wrestling that I ran at TED Global 2013. Now you can learn how to give a hands-on demonstration of the top 10 positive emotions of gameplay.

“Truths and Myths in Gaming” with the Big Think

Watch more videos.

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Congratulations! You just found the hidden easter egg: a page from my new book SUPERBETTER. And you get to read a sneak page! Well played.

INVITE ME TO GIVE A KEYNOTE OR SPEAK AT YOUR ORGANIZATION!

I work with the Leigh Bureau, for the fastest response, you can contact them directly.

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My #1 goal in life is to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I’ve forecast that this will happen by the year 2023. Of course, it’s not enough to just forecast the future — I’m also actively working to make it a reality.

My best effort so far? SuperBetter, a game that has helped more than a million players so far tackle real-life health challenges like depression, anxiety, chronic pain and traumatic brain injury. (See the successful results of University of Pennsylvania’s randomized controlled trial of SuperBetter for depression, and learn more about our NIH-funded clinical trial of SuperBetter for rehabilitation, which showed that players of SuperBetter recovered from symptoms of concussion faster!) SuperBetter is used by professional athletes, children’s hospitals, substance recovery clinics and campus health centers worldwide. Since 2018, the SuperBetter app has been evaluated independently in multiple peer-reviewed scientific articles as the most effective app currently in the app store for treating depression and anxiety, and chronic pain,  and for having the best evidence-based design for health behavior change.

More recently, I launched the Ethical OS with the Institute for the Future. It’s a set of gameful tools to anticipate the unintended consequences of new technologies, so we can avoid social harms and protect humanity’s long-term wellbeing. Featured in Wired and on NPR, the Ethical OS has been downloaded more than 25,000 times and is currently in use by mayors, universities, start-up incubators, and leading Silicon Valley companies in a global, collaborative effort to make a better future – and not get blindsided by the tech we create.

In the meanwhile, on the way to that epic win, there are plenty of other achievements to be earned. Here are a few I’ve unlocked so far:

New York Times Bestselling Author of Reality is Broken and SuperBetter

Young Global Leader & Davos Speaker  World Economic Forum  

“Top 100 Creative People in Business” Fast Company

“10 Most Powerful Women to Watch” Forbes

“20 Most Inspiring Women in the World” Oprah Winfrey for O Magazine

“10 Breakthrough Ideas in Science ”  New York Times 

“10 Best Keynote Speakers in the World” Fora TV

“20 Entrepreneurial Women to Watch”  Entrepreneur Magazine

“Top Ten Innovators to Watch” Business Week

“The Most Important 50 Game Developers” Game Developer Magazine

“The Ambassador Award” Women in Gaming for service to the Game Industry

“20 Most Important Women in Videogaming” Gamasutra

“Top 35 innovators changing the world through technology” MIT Technology Review

“Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of the Year” Harvard Business Review

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“Entertainment Breakthrough of the Year” World Technology Forum in association with CNN, Time and Fortune Magazine

#1 Social Impact Game of the Year Games for Change 

Most Important Futures Work of the Year  Association of Professional Futurists

#1 Bright Idea of the Year BrandWeek

Activism Award from SXSW Interactive

Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association

The Gaming Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences

Year in Review honors from The New York Times

And two unusual honors that I’m particularly proud of…

#1 Spot on the Annual List of Top Ten Sexy Geeks from Violet Blue (this is the geek equivalent of making People magazine’s most beautiful people issue, or Barbara Walter’s most intriguing people of the year!)

Ranked #16 All-Time Most Engaging TED talk.. and that’s one ahead of Bill Gates, who’s ranked at #17

Help SuperBetter at Work understand the connection between the art and words we love, and our own personal strengths. Take this five-minute survey… (LINK COMING LATER TODAY!) it’s fun and you’ll be a part of the first study of its kind![image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error]

To celebrate the holidays this year, I’m going to give away 50 signed, personalized copies of my book SuperBetter (United States mailing addresses only):

at least 40 hardback copies
and 10 audiobook copies (CD format, not MP3 — sorry, I know most people don’t listen to anything on CD anymore, but if your car has a CD player, this could be useful!)

I will personalize the book or the CDs to you, or to anyone you want!

All I ask is that you pay for shipping (via Paypal). I will be shipping it priority USPS, so that’s $6.

If you are interested in a free, personalized signed book, send an email to janemcgonigal@yahoo.com and please use the subject BOOK or AUDIOBOOK (depending on which you want). Include your mailing address so I know you’re in the United States. I will reply if you are one of the first 50 to respond, ask who you want me to sign it to and let you know how to send me $6 on paypal

Week one: Creativity

General reading/viewing

Scientific papers

Fit between future thinking and future orientation on creative imagination

increasing the temporal distance of future thinking facilitates creative thinking
Additionally, one’s creative imagination can be improved when thinking timescales and future orientation are aligned

Self-projection and the brain (3 core processes are the same)

Counterfactual thinking: an FMRI study on changing the past for a better future

Remembering what could have happened: Neural correlates of episodic counterfactual thinking

Episodic future thinking and episodic counterfactual thinking: Intersections between memory and decisions

Neural activity associated with self, other, and object-based counterfactual thinking

With an eye toward the future: The Impact of Counterfactual thinking on Affect, Attitudes and Behavior (GET BETTER LINK TO PDF)

Cognitive neuroscience of human counterfactual reasoning (past and future)

From what might have been to what must have been: Counterfactual thinking creates meaning

The functional theory of counterfactual thinking

Is there a core neural network in empathy?

The social cognitive neuroscience of empathy

Two systems for empathy

The necessity of others in the mother of invention

The 2080 Census: The World as we Don’t Know It

Week two: Imagination

General reading/viewing

Scientific papers

Six Rules for Effective Forecasting

The Story of the Chinese Farmer (video)

Society as a Social Invention and You as a Social Inventor

Foresight Signals: A Futurist’s Vacation Reading List

Desirable and undesirable futures call for different scene construction processes

Institute for the Future – Ten-Year Forecasts

Learning is Earning in the National Learning Economy – Institute for the Future Research Map

Week three: Personal change

General reading/viewing

Scientific papers

Time Metrics Matter: Connecting Present and Future Selves

When does the future begin? A study in maximising motivation

Psychological connectedness to the future self

Episodic Future Thinking Reduces Reward Delay Discounting through an Enhancement of Prefrontal-Mediotemporal Interactions

The Future is Now: Reducing Impulsivity Using Episodic Future Thinking

 The psychology of future you (Video)

Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self

“Remembering and imagining: the role of the self” (focusing stories about the future on significant narrative/goal milestones to enhance creativity/foresight)

Episodic future thought and its relationship to remembering (on the importance of signal exposure for autobiographical futures)

Eye movement disrupts future episodic thinking (on the importance of visual-spatial details in autobiographical futures)

“Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering”

Week four: Influence

General reading/viewing

Scientific papers

Some hints on writing preferred futures

Visioning and future studies and Why imagine the future?

Wanted: Professors of Foresight

Six Artifacts from the Future

Week five: Social Intelligence and Empathy

General reading/viewing

Scientific papers

What If? Everybody on Earth jumped at the same time

What If? Everyone actually had only one soul mate?

Here’s a fun idea for a holiday gift for someone you hope will have an amazing year in 2016:

Give someone a copy of SuperBetter (any version — hardback, Kindle, or audio) and I’ll make a personalized YouTube video for them wishing them a happy new year full of adventure, power-ups and creativity as they vanquish their bad guys and achieve their biggest goals.

Buy a copy for yourself, and I’ll make you a video too :)

Here’s how it works. Buy any copy online and forward the email confirmation to jane@superbetter.com.  If you bought it at brick-and-mortar store, snap a photo of the receipt and send me that. I’ll email you a link to an unlisted Youtube video! BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE PERSON I AM MAKING THE VIDEO FOR SO I CAN SAY THEIR NAME IN THE VIDEO! And include any other relevant information you’d like to help me personalize it even more.

Note: This is valid for copies purchased December 14 – 31, 2015 only.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have had their lives changed by Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter program, and I see why. It’s a marriage of positive psychology with pioneering insights from cutting-edge game design. This is a plan for profound growth in the face of whatever challenges life throws at you – and whatever ones you can throw at yourself.” – Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit

 

 

I’ll be on the road this September and October for the SUPERBETTER book launch. I’m doing lots of public events, so come out and see me — we’ll talk, we’ll play a game, I’ll sign books!

If you see me coming to your city and would like to organize another talk or book signing (at a school, your company, a bookstore, wherever!) email me! I’m jane@avantgame.com

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO COME SEE ME AND YOU LIVE IN A CITY WHERE THE ONLY TALK I’M DOING REQUIRES AN EXPENSIVE CONFERENCE OR FESTIVAL PASS, TWEET AT ME AND I WILL SEE IF I CAN SMUGGLE YOU IN. SERIOUSLY. @avantgame

EDMONTON

September 10 – IGNITE Festival (festival pass required)

NEW YORK CITY

September 16 – New York Public Library, Celeste Bartos Forum (Midtown) – 6 PM – save the date

September 17 – NYU Game Lab (Brooklyn) – 7 PM – save the date

BOSTON

September 18 – Google HQ (employees only) – 11 AM

September 18 – MIT’s Bartos Theatre – 7 PM – event details

SEATTLE

September 21 – Town Hall – 7:30 PM – reserve your ticket

MOUNTAIN VIEW

September 22 – Computer History Museum – 6:30 PM – register now

TORONTO

September 24 – Ramsay Talks at the Hot Docs Cinema – 6:30 PM – ticket required

September 25 – Rotman School of Business – 8 AM – ticket required

NANTUCKET

September 26 – The Nantucket Project – conference pass required

SANTA CRUZ

September 28 – The Bookshop – 7 PM – details here

CHICAGO

September 30 – 1871 in the Merchandise Mart – ticket required, details TBA

LOS ANGELES

October 30 – Playful Learning Summit – ticket required