Stephen Dubner

But if we think of the online world as kind of like a second conversation that's happening for many people, that's not a conversation I really get involved with.

I'll be honest with you.

And therefore...

I'm aware of it because I have people who are in that conversation, but I'm not really in it.

And so this sounds bad, but one of the many things I don't like about living deep in that online world is that there are these compulsions that don't really seem to jibe with actual human nature.

There are expectations that if you don't think or say or feel a certain thing about it could be anything, then you're going to be either outgrouped or thought less of.

And I think that that's just never the way that humans have thrived.

When I look at

human history and I'm not a great historian, but I love history.

I love reading it.

I love talking to historians because I'm like a child.

I just don't know that much.

I didn't really like history when I was a student at all because I didn't get what older people say about history being instructive.

To me, you read history because you had to and sometimes it happened to be interesting and you would remember the interesting things.

Now I read history because it's the reason that people read philosophy.

It's the reason people read old religious stuff.

The human condition has changed a lot, but I don't think the human has changed that much.

And therefore it can be thrilling, intoxicating, scary, et cetera, et cetera, to see what history has brought for us that we can remember now.

I understand.

The most I can tell you is both sides suck.