I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right.
Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong.
At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future.
Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong.
He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it was not until Sir Isaac Newton described it eloquently with the falling apple example 400 years ago we were clueless as to why rocks or any object falls downward to earth. That said we now believe with 100% certainty that it is gravity that is holding us down as we drive from SF to LA or eventually our flight to Tokyo lands. But what if?
What if our present understanding of gravity is wrong?
What if our understanding of time is wrong?
And so on.
What life might look like another 400 years from now is anyone's guess and there is a high likelihood that those guesses will be wrong. In part because they are formed with our fixed understanding of what we know to be fact today. So the notion of gravity is highly likely to be different too. It was not what we believe now to be true a mere 400 years ago for all of civilization which is much older than that.
In a similar argument an earlier book I read about what makes genius genius, the author observes that such attribute is often assigned to a person after the fact, later in time not when the person is actually performing their best work. Hindsight has a better success rate than foresight.
Ideas, space, people all change. Some of the largest commercial successes are businesses that hold no inventory, a concept foreign just a couple decades ago. Facebook, Uber or Google who other than owning a few buildings to house their staff own no tangible product yet are worth billions of dollars. Their whole existence is built on the promise of new ideas and ways to make life friction-less. Some simply aim to provide you more free time.
Today more than ever a man becomes a woman and vice versa. At least there is growing acceptance and possibility for those that want their gender reassigned. It is how we view our world that has to change.
Donald Trump just might be POTUS!
PS: some thoughts expressed in this blog are mine and bear no resemblance to what is in the book - unless you can disprove it
Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong.
At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future.
Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong.
He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it was not until Sir Isaac Newton described it eloquently with the falling apple example 400 years ago we were clueless as to why rocks or any object falls downward to earth. That said we now believe with 100% certainty that it is gravity that is holding us down as we drive from SF to LA or eventually our flight to Tokyo lands. But what if?
What if our present understanding of gravity is wrong?
What if our understanding of time is wrong?
And so on.
What life might look like another 400 years from now is anyone's guess and there is a high likelihood that those guesses will be wrong. In part because they are formed with our fixed understanding of what we know to be fact today. So the notion of gravity is highly likely to be different too. It was not what we believe now to be true a mere 400 years ago for all of civilization which is much older than that.
In a similar argument an earlier book I read about what makes genius genius, the author observes that such attribute is often assigned to a person after the fact, later in time not when the person is actually performing their best work. Hindsight has a better success rate than foresight.
Ideas, space, people all change. Some of the largest commercial successes are businesses that hold no inventory, a concept foreign just a couple decades ago. Facebook, Uber or Google who other than owning a few buildings to house their staff own no tangible product yet are worth billions of dollars. Their whole existence is built on the promise of new ideas and ways to make life friction-less. Some simply aim to provide you more free time.
Today more than ever a man becomes a woman and vice versa. At least there is growing acceptance and possibility for those that want their gender reassigned. It is how we view our world that has to change.
Donald Trump just might be POTUS!
PS: some thoughts expressed in this blog are mine and bear no resemblance to what is in the book - unless you can disprove it
You may be wrong, or I may be..
ReplyDeleteAs Billy Joel said - You may be right - I may be crazy
ReplyDeleteBut it just may be a lunatic you're looking for!