A review by shighley
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson

3.0

Steven Johnson gave one of the best keynotes I've seen at the ISTE conference, and I read one of his books after that. His "chance favors the connected mind" TED Talk mirrors that keynote. This book just seemed like too much of a jumble to me; a love letter to the novel Middlemarch combined with the hunt for Osama bin Laden? It was interesting to learn about Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin making decision-aiding checklists, and I definitely have some takeaways from the book. I thought it was interesting that I started this the day after I went to a conference that talked about the glaciers-- and then this book started with them. During the week I listened to the book, I saw Bill Nye in person, who also spoke about Frank Drake and Arrecibo, more connections. I also attended the "Dawn or Doom" conference at Purdue University, and heard futurist Thomas Frey of the daVinci Institute; there were some parallels with decision-making there as well.

As a librarian and avid reader, I absolutely felt vindicated by Johnson's idea that we need to read more novels, and his advocacy for the value of daydreaming hit home as well. And, yes, I wanted to learn more about George Eliot/Mary Anne Evans and did some research on her. But, overall I just felt like the book jumped around too much.