Writing my new book helped me see the US Hinterland differently — as the source of America’s renewal

Can writing a book be therapeutic ?

Yes, it can.

Writing my upcoming book The Frugal Economy cured me of my “cognitive cataract”.

In mid-2023, I learned I had a secondary cataract (a complication of the cataract surgery I had in 2022).

Despite my slightly cloudy vision, I decided to write a book on how political and business leaders can reframe the climate crisis as a generational opportunity to change our deleteriously capitalist economy and build a better one.

I had a hypothesis: I intuited that the “left-behind places” in America’s Hinterland may actually *already* been (quietly) building a frugal economy

A frugal economy seeks to revitalize people, communities, and the planet altogether synergistically by better using all existing (local) resources.

My research validated my hypothesis: the left-behind places across the US are actually leading a frugal revolution that will reshape America’s economy and restore US competitiveness in coming decades.

As I wrote my new book, I could “see” clearly where the next American (Industrial) Revolution is unfolding: it’s not in New York or Silicon Valley, but in Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, etc.

As such, we should all stop “seeing” the American Hinterland as burdened with fatalistic “left-behind places”

We must shift our perspective and learn to see (and appreciate) the US Heartland as teeming with innovative and confident “moving-forward places”.

Hopefully, reading my new book will (just like writing it did to me) remove the “cognitive cataract” of political leaders — at two ends of the spectrum — and Fortune 500 CEOs and help them see clearly — and harness — the true potential of America’s hinterland.