Nick Foster in The New York Times: Why the Future Will Feel Ordinary
This month, The New York Times published a thought-provoking essay by futures designer Nick Foster, challenging the way we imagine tomorrow.
While headlines and Hollywood often paint the future as a place of extremes - dazzling utopias or terrifying dystopias - Foster argues that reality will feel much more… ordinary.
“Major changes of all kinds are undoubtedly coming in our future, but they won’t arrive with a firework display or a Hans Zimmer score. They’re much more likely to creep in over time and pile up against all the stuff that currently fills our lives.”
Who is Nick Foster?
Nick Foster’s influence runs deep, shaping how we think about technology, design, and the future.
As Head of Design at Google X until 2023, he led breakthrough projects in robotics, nuclear fusion, and brain–computer interfaces. He is also a Royal Designer for Industry, an accolade shared with Paul Smith, Jony Ive, and Vivienne Westwood, and has collaborated with global innovators including Dyson, Apple, Nokia, Sony, and Google.
Foster prefers the title “futures designer” over “futurist,” reflecting his belief that imagining tomorrow isn’t about crystal balls, but about asking better questions and exploring possibilities. Much of his work has unfolded behind closed doors under strict NDAs, yet the influence of his ideas continues to ripple across industries worldwide.
Rethinking the Future
In his New York Times piece, Foster pushes back against the “breathless visions” that dominate our screens and boardrooms, from bombastic corporate forecasts to dystopian streaming series. Instead, he suggests that the mundane details of life, the tacos, tissues, pencils and punctures — deserve just as much attention in our thinking about the future.
After all, much of what feels “normal” today once seemed extraordinary: smartwatches that track our heart rate, lasers that cost a few dollars instead of millions, robot vacuum cleaners in living rooms, or the pope on Instagram.
As Foster points out, humans are highly adaptable. New technologies, social shifts and cultural changes rarely feel revolutionary when they arrive. Instead, they weave themselves into the fabric of daily life until they feel ordinary.
What We Can Learn from his new book Could Should Might Don’t
Nick Foster’s work pushes us to think about the future in more thoughtful and unexpected ways. Here are just some of the key insights from his new book include:
The future is built from stories
We often treat predictions, projections, or speculations as fact, but they’re really stories. Whether told through numbers, words, or glossy visions, they are guesses shaped by culture and imagination. Recognising this helps us treat them critically and creatively, not as inevitable truths.Extremes distract us from reality
From corporate forecasts to dystopian TV, our visions of tomorrow often swing to extremes. While dramatic scenarios grab attention, they rarely reflect how change actually unfolds. By obsessing over the sharp edges of possibility, we risk missing the subtler but more important shifts.The future will feel ordinary, and that matters
Major innovations rarely arrive with fireworks. They seep into our lives, become mundane, and change our everyday “normal.” What once felt extraordinary (the internet in your pocket, the pope on Instagram) quickly becomes part of the background. Paying attention to this ordinariness helps us see change more clearly.Everyday lives belong in the conversation
Futures thinking too often ignores the details of ordinary people’s lives: sandwiches, the hangovers, the school runs, the dodgy plumbing. By considering how change affects the rhythms of daily existence, we build futures that are more grounded, humane, and relatable.Humans are exceptionally adaptable
Across history, people have absorbed new technologies, political shifts, and cultural revolutions into daily life with remarkable resilience. This adaptability is both reassuring and instructive: it reminds us that futures work is less about prediction, and more about preparing ourselves for integration.We need ambition and detail
Grand visions and warnings of disaster have their place, but they are not enough. Unless we connect those sweeping scenarios to the texture of everyday life, they remain abstract and disengaged. Foster challenges us to think about what AI, climate change, or robotics mean not just in boardrooms, but in the supermarket, the living room, and the workplace.
Nick Foster as a Keynote Speaker
Alongside writing, Nick Foster brings clarity, humour, and provocation to audiences around the world through his though provoking keynotes. Popular speaking topics include:
Why the Future Will Feel Ordinary: Lessons from Could Should Might Don’t
The Truth About Futurism: Why predictions are mostly nonsense.
Designing Futures: What two decades inside global innovation labs taught him.
Technology and Humanity: AI, robotics, and their real impact on daily life.
Breaking Imagination Barriers: Moving beyond clichés of “the futuristic.”
Foster’s ability to connect abstract ideas with the everyday makes him a compelling voice for business leaders, creatives, and anyone wrestling with what’s next.
Why Book Nick Foster Now?
With his new book Could Should Might Don’t launching in September 2025 and high-profile features in both The New York Times and The Observer, Nick Foster is at the centre of today’s conversation about the future.
His mix of insider experience (from Google X, Apple, Sony and beyond), cultural insight, and down-to-earth storytelling makes him one of the most distinctive voices on innovation and futures thinking.
If you want your audience to rethink tomorrow, not as a place of extremes, but as the extension of today’s ordinary lives, Nick Foster is the speaker to bring that conversation to life.