Team Human

I enjoyed the book - and always enjoy Rushkoff's work - and I agree with most of its conclusions. But I found myself just kind of skimming. I felt like the same point was being made over and over again, and even though I think it's an important point, the book's readability suffers for it.

That said, I'm still Team Human.

I like Douglas Rushkoff's ideas around civilization and human-ness. I agree with him in general about the isolating effects of the way we "connect" today. What I didn't love about the book is that so many of his 100 "statements" just say things as if they're obviously true. I wasn't always so sure. I also think I could have gotten as much out of watching a few more of his videos on YouTube.

I agree wholeheartedly with the central premise of this book: that we need a return to human-centric and community-centric values, connection and collaboration.

But sadly the book read as a series of inaccurate statements about what's going on in the world, designed to evoke an emotional response, but ultimately distracting to someone who is looking for nuance and precision. There is also no suggestion of what to do practically about these issues, other than "find the others".

All in all, a worthwhile message, but the value of this book could have been condensed in a Tweet. A better (though narrower) take on many of the same themes is Jaron Lanier's "Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now".