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Everything Now
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'The author has especially telling insights into how advertising and marketing attempts to sway us from one product towards another, near identical one. Read this before you shell out for a new, ever-so slightly shinier mobile phone or pay a premium for anything that goes out of its way to convince you how 'ethical' it is.' Time Out, Book of the Week.
'Explains why we are better fed, educated entertained and longer-lived than ever before, but not happier.' --The Sunday Times
'Combines detailed research with entertaining anecdotes. Optimistic and uplifting, Everything Now quietly, but firmly, invites you to take a fresh look around yourself.' 4/5 The Sun
'Steve McKevitt explains why having everything we want has fed our appetite for destruction.' --Yorkshire Post
'If stuff made us happy, we'd be the happiest people in history. Everything Now explains why we're not.' - David Hepworth, Word
'McKevitt s brilliant and persuasive book highlights the gaping void in Western society, ironically created by its own success. All our needs are now met, leaving us to focus on our ever-changing, and ultimately unsatisfying, wants.' --David Bolchover, Author of The 90 Minute Manager
Product Description
We are healthier, longer lived, better fed, watered, educated and entertained than any generation in history. But we are not happier. We enjoy access to a virtual world of information at our fingertips, yet we are increasingly ignorant of the real world we live in. Given the countless products and lifestyles we have to choose from, why do most of us live out virtually identical lives? Everything Now where we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it has infiltrated almost every area of our lives. The constant drive to invent products we don t actually need is not only an unsustainable waste of dwindling natural resources, but also demands that we are kept in a permanent state of dissatisfaction. In this book, Steve McKevitt reveals how the Everything Now culture is preventing us from addressing the biggest issues of our time and how having less really can make us happier.
About the Author
Steve McKevitt is an expert in marketing, communications and branding. Over a 20 year career, his clients have included Nike, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, Sony PlayStation, Harvey Nichols, Motorola, Universal, Virgin, BT and Atari. His critically acclaimed book City Slackers revealed how most corporate business nowadays is actually conducted on the assumption that it will be a failure. Steve is chairman of Golden, an ideas agency with clients in the UK, Europe and USA. He is married with three children and lives in Yorkshire.
'The author has especially telling insights into how advertising and marketing attempts to sway us from one product towards another, near identical one. Read this before you shell out for a new, ever-so slightly shinier mobile phone or pay a premium for anything that goes out of its way to convince you how 'ethical' it is.' Time Out, Book of the Week.
'Explains why we are better fed, educated entertained and longer-lived than ever before, but not happier.' --The Sunday Times
'Combines detailed research with entertaining anecdotes. Optimistic and uplifting, Everything Now quietly, but firmly, invites you to take a fresh look around yourself.' 4/5 The Sun
'Steve McKevitt explains why having everything we want has fed our appetite for destruction.' --Yorkshire Post
'If stuff made us happy, we'd be the happiest people in history. Everything Now explains why we're not.' - David Hepworth, Word
'McKevitt s brilliant and persuasive book highlights the gaping void in Western society, ironically created by its own success. All our needs are now met, leaving us to focus on our ever-changing, and ultimately unsatisfying, wants.' --David Bolchover, Author of The 90 Minute Manager
Product Description
We are healthier, longer lived, better fed, watered, educated and entertained than any generation in history. But we are not happier. We enjoy access to a virtual world of information at our fingertips, yet we are increasingly ignorant of the real world we live in. Given the countless products and lifestyles we have to choose from, why do most of us live out virtually identical lives? Everything Now where we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it has infiltrated almost every area of our lives. The constant drive to invent products we don t actually need is not only an unsustainable waste of dwindling natural resources, but also demands that we are kept in a permanent state of dissatisfaction. In this book, Steve McKevitt reveals how the Everything Now culture is preventing us from addressing the biggest issues of our time and how having less really can make us happier.
About the Author
Steve McKevitt is an expert in marketing, communications and branding. Over a 20 year career, his clients have included Nike, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, Sony PlayStation, Harvey Nichols, Motorola, Universal, Virgin, BT and Atari. His critically acclaimed book City Slackers revealed how most corporate business nowadays is actually conducted on the assumption that it will be a failure. Steve is chairman of Golden, an ideas agency with clients in the UK, Europe and USA. He is married with three children and lives in Yorkshire.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2023
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford
Everything Now by Steve McKevitt perfectly analyses the distinction between "want versus need" and our perspectives and unique individuality. What we require versus what we yearn for can differ from person to person. McKevitt has captured a moment in time that historians may look back on and wonder why so many people in the 21st-century society put personal possessions and inanimate objects over what matters in life.
I think it's essential to understand that governments and companies aren't alien bodies that we negotiate with. We, the people, work together to make up these governments and companies. Thus, it is also very much our responsibility to be self-disciplined and control our greed so that we can hold ourselves accountable, allowing us to work together to improve our society, first locally, then nationally, and eventually globally.
It's so sad that the more you know about climate and economic reality, the more you feel like our egoism and money-driven economy are just too much to solve such a big problem, and there's hardly anything you can do as an individual! It's so frustrating when you think about it.
The general argument is that while we're presented with the illusion of choice, the vast majority of us still "live out virtually identical lives". We are constantly being manipulated by the things around us, which makes us question the barcodes of products to the thoughts of our friends and family.
February 28, 2015
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.
Steve McKevitt is the British Seth Godin, a visionary with a keen eye for the way that the world works - in Everything Now, he explains his (plausible) theory that "we are healthier, longer lived, better fed, watered, educated and entertained than any generation in history. But we are not happier."
The general argument is that while we're presented with the illusion of choice, the vast majority of us still "live out virtually identical lives". This, he argues, is caused largely by the way that we are constantly manipulated by the things that surround us, from branding and press coverage to the opinions of friends and family.
One particular example that stuck in my mind was this: "In 2009, there were 5,664 people studying forensic science, made popular through glamorous TV programmes like CSI, but only 5,000 people in total working in the UK forensic science industry."
McKevitt is an interesting character in his own right, an author, internet entrepreneur and former bassist of an indie band called The Bollweevils, who received airplay from the great John Peel. That aside, though, his writing his phenomenal - I'll definitely be reading some more.
Steve McKevitt is the British Seth Godin, a visionary with a keen eye for the way that the world works - in Everything Now, he explains his (plausible) theory that "we are healthier, longer lived, better fed, watered, educated and entertained than any generation in history. But we are not happier."
The general argument is that while we're presented with the illusion of choice, the vast majority of us still "live out virtually identical lives". This, he argues, is caused largely by the way that we are constantly manipulated by the things that surround us, from branding and press coverage to the opinions of friends and family.
One particular example that stuck in my mind was this: "In 2009, there were 5,664 people studying forensic science, made popular through glamorous TV programmes like CSI, but only 5,000 people in total working in the UK forensic science industry."
McKevitt is an interesting character in his own right, an author, internet entrepreneur and former bassist of an indie band called The Bollweevils, who received airplay from the great John Peel. That aside, though, his writing his phenomenal - I'll definitely be reading some more.
January 24, 2013
The other side to hoarding--why are we buying all this stuff anyway? Quite interesting, especially the bit about how all our innovation skills are being wasted on creating new wants, instead of working on solving actual problems.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews