Ben's Book,

Hi there, it's Ben Lai. I've invited you here today because I've written a book about lots of ideas that have been floating around in my head, and I'd like your feedback on it. The book covers a lot of topics, from environmentalism to education reform to the sorry state of democracy to the overwhelming influence of capitalism on our lives. The book takes the form of a Socratic dialogue. My goal with this book is to get some bold ideas into people's heads so that they can start talking about them.

But before I publish this book, I need feedback from many people about how good or bad it is, so that I can improve it where I should, and that's where you can help me. Because I trust you enough and value your opinion enough to invite you here, the best way that you can help me now is by giving me the most brutal honesty you can. Here's what I am asking of you. I don't expect anyone to have time to read the entire book, but I'm hoping that you can spare a few minutes to read at least one chapter in my book. Normally, an author would not spoil the suspense built into his book and describe every chapter, but I want you to enjoy doing this favor for me, so just read the summaries of the chapters below, and click on a chapter that sounds intriguing to you. (If you can't decide, then just pick the chapter that has the same number as the day of the month that you were born on, otherwise, I'm afraid that some chapters will be neglected)

Next, after you've read that chapter, I'd like you to answer three questions:

1. What did you like?
2. What did you not like/were confused by/disagreed with?
3. After reading that chapter, do you think it would be worth your money and time to buy and read the book?

After you've finished reading the chapter, please fill out this survey.

Note that I'm not trying to run a pyramid scheme and get you to buy my book, because, in fact, I will provide you the entire book for free if you really want to read the whole thing (it's more than 300 pages). I'm really asking you this: if I had never asked you to read it, would it appeal to you?  Please please please be honest.  A simple "Yes" or "No" will do, you don't need to read the book to prove it. I know that everybody's busy; I'm not going to ask so much of you.

Okay, so now that I've explained my instructions painfully, painfully clear, here are the chapters.

Chapters

Chapter 1.    A Woman from the Internet    The first-person narrator, named David, gets an email request to meet a strange woman named Cora who explains that she has a mission for him.  This woman has strange powers that allow her to foresee the future, in a sense.  She wants to share her vision with David, and he has to decide whether to agree.

Chapter 2.    The Island    Once David agrees, Cora starts describing the state of the world as she sees it.  She compares our planet to an island with limited resources.  She also discusses how modern society revolves around money.

Chapter 3.    An End in Itself    After Cora's explanation, David experiences a personal conflict in his life involving money.  Then, they discuss how David views money, and whether he overvalues it.  Cora asks David to draw on his own life experiences to understand the relative importance of money to other things.

Chapter 4.    It Would Take a Miracle    Cora discusses how very few people in modern society have attained the highest level of happiness, and why that is.  She introduces a bullet list of all the topics that she plans to cover in the rest of the book.

Chapter 5.    The Tragedy of the Commons    Cora introduces a very important concept, which can be summarized as "that which no one owns, no one cares for," which explains modern civilization's abuse of the natural world, as well as many other phenomena.  She uses a thought experiment to persuade David that the tragedy of the commons is not impossible to solve.

Chapter 6.    Fall in Love    This chapter argues that the main problem with environmentalism today is that people are not emotionally affected enough by environmental problems.  It is all too easy for us to tune out the problems of nature, when we have so many of our own personal problems.

Chapter 7.    A Drop in the Bucket    In this chapter, Cora uses another thought experiment to illustrate a very common fallacy, called the fallacy of insignificance, which causes people to think that their actions amount to nothing when compared to the actions of everyone else in the world.  She then uses several different analogies to explain how to solve this paradox.

Chapter 8.    Everyone's Purpose    Does God care if we solve global warming?  In this chapter, I give my opinion on that subject.  If you are fairly religious, I need to warn you that I might rub you the wrong way with this chapter.

Chapter 9.    The Power and Limits of Logic    After angering anyone who is religious, in this chapter, I make the case that the other extreme of the spectrum, logic and science, are also not the answer to all of humanity's problems -- just to clarify.

Chapter 10.    The Yearning    Cora explains what she thinks are the two great "spiritual" forces that drive all people.  She also touches on the subject of competition and our tendency to compare ourselves to others.

Chapter 11.    Feeding Children Fish    In this chapter, I criticize the way that we currently educate our children.  We try to feed them lots and lots of knowledge, but we neglect to do the two most important things: we fail to teach them how to learn on their own, and we fail to inspire them with the love of learning new things.  If anything, the standardized assembly-line mentality of our school systems accomplish the opposite.

Chapter 12.    A Caring System    This chapter talks about how institutions are not set up to automatically "care" about people; it is the people running those institutions that determine how caring it is.  Warning: this chapter is short and light on ideas, it is really a "segue" chapter.

Chapter 13.    The One Thing You Should Do    This is yet another segue chapter, in which Cora explains that we really ought to tell other people how much difference they've made in our lives.  Because of the "negativity bias" (a universal psychological bias for noticing negative things rather than positive things, which has been well documented), we tend to criticize others much more than we compliment them.  Cora urges David to consciously make up for that.

Chapter 14.    Mr. J.    David thinks about who has affected his life the most, and he thinks back to a high school gym teacher named Mr. Jenner, or "Mr. J.", who kept him out of trouble.  He reminisces about Mr. J. and realizes that he should go and pay him a visit.

Chapter 15.    Final Letters    Cora advises David about what he can do in his own life to tell the ones that he loves the most how much he really loves them.  This chapter gives an idea about how he can do that, by writing special letters to his wife and children.

Chapter 16.    Matthew and Sarah    David writes those letters to each of his two children in this chapter.

Chapter 17.    Photography and Video    After David finishes writing letters to his wife and children, he realizes that there are so many things he should say to them.  He also asks Cora to give him advice about what he should do for anniversaries and birthdays.

Chapter 18.    A Global Collusion    Cora finally launches into a critique of capitalism.  She compares it to a giant conspiracy, where everyone participates, but one in which we give up control over our lives in order to attain material comfort and to feel financially secure.  It is a devil's bargain that everyone makes.  But then, she says that there is still hope.  Warning: this chapter is a little cynical.

Chapter 19.    Purpose and Balance    Cora talks about the American Dream, Maslow's Hierarchy, and what she thinks is the highest state of happiness that people can attain: a life of purpose and balance.

Chapter 20.    Etched on Your Grave    This chapter talks about why she thinks it's possible to act with purpose even in the cutthroat world of capitalism.

Chapter 21.    Mastery over Technology    In our modern world, technology is so ubiquitous that we feel almost powerless in its reign; we feel that we need to keep up with the latest technology, both for our jobs and to "keep up with the Joneses".  In this chapter, I argue that technology is just a tool, a means, not an end, and we need to decide how we as a society wish to use technology to accomplish our greater goals.  I also discuss how our love of gadgets contributes to a garbage-generating mentality.

Chapter 22.    The Power of the Purse    In this chapter, I discuss why we have more control over capitalism than we think.  We think that we have no control because employees have no control over their employer, but we are also consumers, and as consumers, we can always choose to reward or punish businesses based on whether they further greater goals.

Chapter 23.    Mexican or Italian?    I feel that in America, there is a great divide between liberals and conservatives today, and we have a tendency to demonize whoever disagrees with us.  I make the case in this chapter that it doesn't need to be this way.  Drawing on research from psychologist Jonathan Haidt, I make the point that we all actually have the same moral values, not contradictory ones, but different subpopulations emphasize different sets of those values.  This holds the secret for how we can come back together as a nation and as a society.

Chapter 24.    Watermelon Seeds and Marshmallows    In this chapter, Cora discusses ways that people can motivate themselves so that they can achieve goals.

Chapter 25.    Deepest Fears    This chapter delves into what Cora's and David's greatest fears are, and how to deal with fear in general.

Chapter 26.    For The People    In this chapter, Cora discusses the problems in American democracy today, mostly caused by money, specifically, the question: whom should a candidate be loyal to, the voters or the people who donated to his or her campaign?  This is a giant conflict of interest, and leads to an inherently corrupt government.

Chapter 27.    An Unsolvable Riddle    In this chapter, Cora tackles an extremely controversial subject that divides people today, and proposes ways for both sides to see the other side's point of view.  This is a very divisive topic, for which I beg of you some tolerance and open-mindedness.

Chapter 28.    Intertwined    Cora discusses the American medical system today and how it is a classic case of a "tragedy of the commons".  Then, she discusses how this problem can be potentially addressed.

Chapter 29.    The Answer is One Word    In this chapter, I make some suggestions about how we can reward public servants without requiring extra money, and make their lives more meaningful at the same time.  I also hint that the engine of economic progress is not about innovation or capital expenditure or skill, but about valuing people and giving them the opportunity to shine.

Chapter 30.    Its Own Sun    Cora introduces a novel idea about recruiting random people to serve as watchdogs over government, similar to the way random people are recruited for juries.  She also discuss ways to curb corruption and self-aggrandizement in public service.

Chapter 31.    Reconnect and Regrow    Cora proposes a way for people to practice some of the lessons she has taught, by coming together in support groups.  Warning: this chapter won't make any sense unless you've read the rest of the book.

Chapter 32.    The Last Secret    Cora divulges to David that she really doesn't know how people can change, and David tells her how he thinks they can.