What's Our Problem?
A Self-Help Book for Societies
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- 10,99 €
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- 10,99 €
Publisher Description
From the creator of the wildly popular blog Wait But Why, a fun and fascinating deep dive into what the hell is going on in our strange, unprecedented modern times.
Between 2013 and 2016, Tim Urban became one of the world’s most popular bloggers, writing dozens of viral, long-form articles about everything from AI to colonizing Mars to procrastination. Then, he turned his attention to a new topic: the society around him. Why was everything such a mess? Why was everyone acting like such a baby? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff?
This massive topic sent Tim tumbling down his deepest rabbit hole yet, through mountains of history, evolutionary psychology, political theory, neuroscience, and modern-day political movements, as he tried to figure out the answer to a simple question: What’s our problem?
Six years later, he emerged from the hole holding this book. What’s Our Problem? is a deep and expansive analysis of our modern times, in the classic style of Wait But Why, packed with original concepts, sticky metaphors, and 300 drawings. The book provides an entirely new framework and language for thinking and talking about today’s complex world. Instead of focusing on the usual left-center-right horizontal political axis, which is all about what we think, the book introduces a vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups. Readers will find themselves on a delightful and fascinating journey that will ultimately change the way they see the world around them.
Anyway he wanted to say a lot more about all of this but there was a word limit on this book description so just go read the book.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
With keen observations and self-awareness, Tim Urban dives into the origin story behind the U.S.’s current political mess. Modelling U.S. politics after the human brain, he divides the system into four quadrants: the low-minded and the high-minded on both the left and the right. In theory, the four should provide balance in a functioning democracy, but as he observes, the equilibrium has become out of whack. The Wait But Why blogger shows how we’ve gotten into a vicious cycle of uncompromising, win-at-all-costs tactics employed by power players on both sides, posing a very real danger to our entire political future. As always, Urban explains himself through approachable language and helpful metaphors, and his conversational narration helps takes the edge off these controversial topics. Plus, his trademark stick figure drawings are there to illustrate his arguments. Urban makes a strong case that high-minded thinking needs to make a comeback—before it’s too late.
Customer Reviews
An important book, but a bit chatty here and there
Being a long time WBW fan, I expected the book to be equally informative and entertaining to read, at the minimum. While it mostly succeeded in the “informative” part, I wouldn’t say it was very entertaining, but rather slow and repetitive at many places and like other readers noted, definitely too long and too USA centric.
Still, the message that Tim tries to deliver, is too important too ignore and I’d feel awful if I rated his work for less than 4 stars. There’s 5 star content in there, but there’s also 2 star content (I was really bored while reading the humongous section about the colleges. I got the point during the first 15 pages, he didn’t need to go on and on, and on).
Nevertheless, this is an important book and it’s recommended if you want to know a little more about wth is going on with our society lately, but make no mistake: It won’t be as easy to digest as Tim’s articles.