“We are going to have to live here with one another, believing what we believe, disagreeing in the ways we disagree… To recognize that does not mean we don’t disagree.” — New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, speaking on his podcast
The data are in: We have far too much data. In our haste to advance and innovate, we’ve mistaken accumulation for insight. Perhaps, I thought, it is time to stop thinking altogether.
I began to suspect this on a cross-country flight, when an exuberant seatmate explained to me that he never reads, let alone consumes, the news. “Keeps the mind sharp and my head clear,” he said, before a segue into his meticulously detailed theory of the moon’s role in vaccine efficacy. His serenity was undeniable, infectious. His confidence, unshaken by evidence, was radiant even as he followed me into my Uber and, later, my home.



