I was really looking forward to Faster. I'm a huge fan of Chaos, but Faster doesn't quite cut it. The book is far too long, and after the first half I felt like shouting "okay James, I get it"....Gleick offers no solutions, or even opinions, and an entire book of discursive examples is pretty dull. This book would have made a great essay, but the fact that life is accelerating due to the advent of modern technology is obvious, and doesn't merit a whole book of examples. A debate about the merits of this "faster" society would have been nice, but all we see here is an a book basically saying "life is getting faster you know!"...big deal, I could have told you that for free. If you're expecting any sort of insight into an accelerating society, then look elsewhere. Disappointing.
Slashdot Mirror
I was really looking forward to Faster. I'm a huge fan of Chaos, but Faster doesn't quite cut it. The book is far too long, and after the first half I felt like shouting "okay James, I get it"....Gleick offers no solutions, or even opinions, and an entire book of discursive examples is pretty dull. This book would have made a great essay, but the fact that life is accelerating due to the advent of modern technology is obvious, and doesn't merit a whole book of examples. A debate about the merits of this "faster" society would have been nice, but all we see here is an a book basically saying "life is getting faster you know!"...big deal, I could have told you that for free. If you're expecting any sort of insight into an accelerating society, then look elsewhere. Disappointing.
sure thing. i'm pretty handy at photoshop and GiMP, so i'll help out ;p let me know