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reviewed Abundance by Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein: Abundance (2025, Simon & Schuster)

Surprisingly superficial for something so researched

Downgrading this to 2 stars. A few weeks have gone by and I'm finding myself more and more annoyed at some (many?) of the choices the authors made in the framing of this book.

Giving this 3 stars instead of 2 because reading it seems useful to keep abreast of The Discourse, and it was a reasonably quick read (I reserve 1 star for "didn't want to waste time to finish this").

Despite all the footnotes and references, this book has the superficial vibe of the early Internet "Let's make more Progress with Technology and then we will have Luxury for Everyone!" manifestos, but applied more broadly to also housing, energy production and some nebulous "innovation". It's hard to take seriously as a stance in 2025.

I hope it spurs more conversation and deeper thinking about these themes, but I fear its lack of thoughtfulness about trade-offs might take us in an even worse direction.

replied to anaulin's status

@anaulin Interesting - I had some similar feelings about the end of How Infrastructure Works. The book does a lot to explain how infrastructure is the thing you take for granted, but ends on a superhopeful note about how we can cure our ills by planning for a world of energy abundance. It's very hard to listen to that message now and not think about who controls where that energy is directed and how it is distributed. If we can't equitably share the abundant food that is enough to feed the world, why would we share an energy surplus instead of darkness in some places and TV in the Sky for others?