Ezra Klein

What if this continues? What if what I see is real?

What if this continues? What if what I see is real?

None of them are, right? Isn't that the thing about the gifts, in stories at least?

None of them are, right? Isn't that the thing about the gifts, in stories at least?

There's another line that struck me as particularly potent in the book, which is this one. You write, quote, how did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? And you're talking about the before world, in a way, our world, now the consumer world. But it just struck me as such a clear way of putting something of the human condition, not just insatiability, but a talent for insatiability.

There's another line that struck me as particularly potent in the book, which is this one. You write, quote, how did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? And you're talking about the before world, in a way, our world, now the consumer world. But it just struck me as such a clear way of putting something of the human condition, not just insatiability, but a talent for insatiability.

Tell me about that.

Tell me about that.

I have a lot of plastic pails in my home right now.

I have a lot of plastic pails in my home right now.

One thing I like about that answer is that I think when I read that line myself, I thought about the talent for insatiability as a human condition, the inability to be happy, to always want a bit more. But something you're saying, which is of course true, is that even if human beings have at many times been itchy, even if just sitting still can be hard,

One thing I like about that answer is that I think when I read that line myself, I thought about the talent for insatiability as a human condition, the inability to be happy, to always want a bit more. But something you're saying, which is of course true, is that even if human beings have at many times been itchy, even if just sitting still can be hard,

The kind of insatiability we have now is culturally different even in memory.

The kind of insatiability we have now is culturally different even in memory.

And I guess the other line I wanted to bring to you here, because it maybe relates well to that one, this comes in context of two characters, again, thinking back to before times and obsessing over the difficulties of their extramarital affair. But I just loved it, which is, "'We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?'

And I guess the other line I wanted to bring to you here, because it maybe relates well to that one, this comes in context of two characters, again, thinking back to before times and obsessing over the difficulties of their extramarital affair. But I just loved it, which is, "'We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?'

We all feel a version of this, and it's very hard to live as if you know it's true, even if you intellectually do, that the problems I have right now are wonderful problems to have. It doesn't mean on some level they're not problems. I mean, my son was up every hour on the hour overnight and whatever.

We all feel a version of this, and it's very hard to live as if you know it's true, even if you intellectually do, that the problems I have right now are wonderful problems to have. It doesn't mean on some level they're not problems. I mean, my son was up every hour on the hour overnight and whatever.

I have all the little difficulties of a life, but it is hard to imagine how I will look at myself and my own lack of, not spoken, but felt gratitude at times. But it's hard to live as if you know how good your life truly is. It's just a strange thing about being human.

I have all the little difficulties of a life, but it is hard to imagine how I will look at myself and my own lack of, not spoken, but felt gratitude at times. But it's hard to live as if you know how good your life truly is. It's just a strange thing about being human.