The World Without Us

Alan Weisman's 2007 thought experiment imagines a world from which humans have suddenly vanished, tracing in forensic detail how the natural and built environments would evolve over days, decades, and millennia. The book became a New York Times bestseller, was named one of the decade's most influential books, and was translated into over 30 languages for its unflinching account of what human civilisation will leave behind — from decaying skyscrapers and rusting bridges to persistent plastics, nuclear waste, and the strange longevity of bronze sculptures and polyethylene.

Branson recommended Weisman's thought experiment at a moment when Virgin was expanding into carbon sequestration and sustainable aviation, suggesting he saw it as a tool for long-horizon thinking about environmental impact. The book's method is directly transferable to strategy: imagine your company, product, or industry gone, then trace what persists and what vanishes. That exercise separates genuinely durable value creation from activity that merely feels productive. Weisman's time horizon — centuries and millennia — is impractical for quarterly planning but essential for any founder building infrastructure, a brand, or a platform designed to outlast its original market. The book also forces a confrontation with unintended consequences: the very things we build to improve life (plastics, concrete, pesticides) are what persist longest after us. For a founder, that inversion — what you think is temporary may be permanent, and vice versa — is a powerful reframing for product design, materials choices, and strategic bets.