Someone once destroyed a ball with his teeth rather than let others keep playing.
He gained nothing. Everyone lost.
Carlo Cipolla called this stupid behavior. It surrounds us.
We are getting worse at thinking. The OECD has been measuring the decline since 2006 — in reasoning, literacy, numeracy — across 24 high-income countries. In teenagers and adults alike.
The cause is not one thing. Comfort replaced effort. Distraction replaced presence. Ego replaced empathy. Together, they erode the capacities that make us effective, connected, human.
The Fence Climber is a book about what happened. About the people who still climb. And about what becomes possible when enough of us decide to pay attention again.
Coming 2027.