The New Long Life

September 14, 2020
Scott (The 100-Year Life) and Gratton (Hot Spots), professors at the London Business School, deliver a stimulating guide for navigating an era of extraordinary technological advances and unprecedented human longevity. The authors call for an urgent reconsideration of how people’s lifestyles have been changed by technology, particularly when compared to previous generations. The book is chock-full of academic research, quotes, and data, along with detailed discussions of archetypes the authors use to demonstrate how people have been affected by recent advances: a middle-aged truck driver in Texas whose career is threatened by automation, a young married couple in Japan who must be creative to break out of societal expectations, an elderly man in the U.K. who decides to re-engage with work, among others. Arguing that “currently too many corporate policies are incompatible with human flourishing,” the authors provide suggestions for a new corporate model that calls for employers and the government to foster a work environment more tolerant of longer and nonlinear career paths and provides a more even work-life balance. This will be an important tool for both workers and business leaders looking to adapt to a rapidly changing world.