13 October

I read a lot as a younger person. But I’m a bit off books now, except for some that are important to me. Text and books are very restrictive and narrow things, and we’ve turned books into a fetish. But hypertext is much closer to thought itself, proliferating in every direction at once. Kids get it, many adults still cling to books, like they cling to the music of their youth. “...books squeeze ideas into long, narrow paths that head the reader forward...Long-form writers are out to move readers from A to the Z that is the author’s destination. What is not needed to get readers to that conclusion is left aside...Worthy ideas that diverge from the narrative’s narrow path appear as distractions. Books often just aren’t long enough to enable long-form ideas to uncurl until their natural shape. Further, we’ve elevated private thought because of the limitations of writing.” Too Big to Know, David Weinberger