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Custom Reality and You
Nothing has changed more in the last few decades than our concept and perception of reality. The effects have manifested in our news, entertainment, and Google searches, we’re finding that a lot of things we thought were objective aren’t automatically so.
Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.
Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2018
87 people are currently reading
309 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 12, 2018
This is going to be a pretty long review... First, some background on Peter Coffin and how I was introduced to him.
In 2011, I was first introduced to Peter Coffin through gossip blogger Xiaxue. She told the story of a man criticising her on twitter with his Japanese girlfriend. Xiaxue became interested in the girlfriend as her humor seemed overly crass, and she often made racist jokes about being Asian. She discovered that the girl pictured was a Korean model and the account was a fake. She accused Peter Coffin of making up the fake girlfriend and ridiculed him. The story got pretty big, was featured on Gawker.
I was re-introduced to Peter Coffin when my boyfriend showed me some of his YouTube videos about advertising and “lifestyle marketing”, which were very interesting.
After watching some of his videos, I read the "fake girlfriend" story from Peter Coffin’s perspective:
- He was catfished by someone pretending to be Japanese.
- He was accused of creating the catfish account and then it snowballed out of control, the smear campaign caused him to lose his job and made him unhireable. The “fake account” story is still on the first page of google when you search his name.
This experience has definitely influenced some of Coffin’s beliefs. Becoming the target of a smear campaign gave him first-hand, personal experience with the media choosing an entertaining, sensationalised and untrue story over a more mundane one.
Anyways, onto the book! So this book is about a few things:
- Algorithms are further distorting our individualised experiences of reality so that people can’t agree on what the facts are. We are being presented with completely different information, which is tailored to us.
- Neoliberalist policies are creating a society in which everything is commodified. ie . being trusted by other people is “social capital”.
- The concept of “cultivated identity” - Coffin’s shorthand for the way that consumables are being tied directly to people’s core ideas of themselves.
- These things are leading to wealth and power being funnelled upwards to a small group of powerful people.
Cultivated identity:
Marketers want fans of products to identify with the product so strongly that the object is extremely important to them - maximum consumption being the goal.
The idea that the person who consumes the most media, buys the most merchandise etc is the “biggest fan” has led to a lot of toxic fandom behaviour (ie Rick and Morty fans behaving terribly at McDonalds, fans of shows doxxing and attacking critics etc)
The result of everything being commodified:
-Individualism-
The concept of individualism is core to neoliberalism. We are all responsible for our personal wellbeing, our backgrounds and circumstances outside of our control are ignored. How we spend our money is “voting with our dollar”. As community action is prevented as much as possible and unions are dismantled, “voting with your dollar” becomes the main voice people have. The underlying system remains the same, but we have some say over consumables for sale.
Individualism leads to accessing events through the lens of specific people, rather than systems:
The bigger picture is ignored, societal systems are unquestioned. Everything comes down to individuals. This way of thinking tells you, if you’re wealthy, it’s because you work hard and deserve it. Your background, any privilege you have, is irrelevant. After all, anyone can become rich if they work hard! So poor people must be lazy and lacking in “personal responsibility”.
This study was referenced in the book, an explanation for why anxiety and perfectionism is higher in millennials than previous generations:
“With general social malaise as a backdrop, neoliberalism has succeeded in shifting cultural values so to now emphasize competitiveness, individualism, and irrational ideals of the perfectible self (Verhaeghe, 2014). These ideals are systemic within contemporary language patterns, the media, and social and civic institutions, and are evident in the rise of competitive and individualistic traits, materialistic behavior, and presentational anxieties among recent generations of young people. Revisiting Hewitt et al.’s (2017) model, it is interesting to consider how young people are coming to construct a sense of self and identity in this kind of culture. The notion of a flawed and disordered self appears especially relevant (Banai, Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2005). That is, a sense of self overwhelmed by pathological worry and a fear of negative social evaluation, characterized by a focus on deficiencies, and sensitive to criticism and failure. This sense of self is a close match to the sense of self constructed by perfectionists and is reflected in many of the recent changes to self, identity, and behavior observed in young people. Young people appear to have internalized irrational social ideals of the perfectible self that, while unrealistic, are to them eminently desirable and obtainable. Broadly speaking, then, increasing levels of perfectionism might be considered symptomatic of the way in which young people are coping—to feel safe, connected, and of worth—in neoliberalism’s new culture of competitive individualism.
“Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016″
"Custom Reality and You" was an interesting, thought-provoking book overall, if a little unfocused at times. It could have done with some more editing, and I think that maybe the broad scope should have been a little reigned in. The tone is very conversational which can be beneficial as it might reach different audiences to other books on this topic.
In 2011, I was first introduced to Peter Coffin through gossip blogger Xiaxue. She told the story of a man criticising her on twitter with his Japanese girlfriend. Xiaxue became interested in the girlfriend as her humor seemed overly crass, and she often made racist jokes about being Asian. She discovered that the girl pictured was a Korean model and the account was a fake. She accused Peter Coffin of making up the fake girlfriend and ridiculed him. The story got pretty big, was featured on Gawker.
I was re-introduced to Peter Coffin when my boyfriend showed me some of his YouTube videos about advertising and “lifestyle marketing”, which were very interesting.
After watching some of his videos, I read the "fake girlfriend" story from Peter Coffin’s perspective:
- He was catfished by someone pretending to be Japanese.
- He was accused of creating the catfish account and then it snowballed out of control, the smear campaign caused him to lose his job and made him unhireable. The “fake account” story is still on the first page of google when you search his name.
This experience has definitely influenced some of Coffin’s beliefs. Becoming the target of a smear campaign gave him first-hand, personal experience with the media choosing an entertaining, sensationalised and untrue story over a more mundane one.
Anyways, onto the book! So this book is about a few things:
- Algorithms are further distorting our individualised experiences of reality so that people can’t agree on what the facts are. We are being presented with completely different information, which is tailored to us.
- Neoliberalist policies are creating a society in which everything is commodified. ie . being trusted by other people is “social capital”.
- The concept of “cultivated identity” - Coffin’s shorthand for the way that consumables are being tied directly to people’s core ideas of themselves.
- These things are leading to wealth and power being funnelled upwards to a small group of powerful people.
Cultivated identity:
Marketers want fans of products to identify with the product so strongly that the object is extremely important to them - maximum consumption being the goal.
The idea that the person who consumes the most media, buys the most merchandise etc is the “biggest fan” has led to a lot of toxic fandom behaviour (ie Rick and Morty fans behaving terribly at McDonalds, fans of shows doxxing and attacking critics etc)
“When a person’s identity is on the line, criticism of one’s treasured thing starts to feel extremely important. I also believe that all of us acquiesce to at least some degree of this aspect of socialization in capitalism. However, I very much want people to understand I am not saying that enjoyment of things is bad or that responsibility for this rests on any individual. It is not you who is cultivating your identity; it is capital that is extracting value from you. Think of it like a crop on a factory farm; the farmer plants seed, nurtures and harvests.
By cultivating identity, marketing can encourage a person to act as if they own a thing they love, despite not being involved in the process of creating it."
The result of everything being commodified:
“Today’s world often withholds the opportunity to experience substance, instead offering a shallow, marketable version of every place, thing, idea, or whatever. Guy Debord talked about this in his 1967 book “The Society of The Spectacle.”
Debord asserted that modern society essentially does not have an authentic social life. Instead, it's co-opted by representation and performance. He outlines a process by which a phenomenon he calls “Spectacle” takes effect as “the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing.” He said that getting to this point is regarded as the “moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life.” One could say that the commodification of life we’ve discussed in this book is just that.
Cultivated identity is the result of an inauthentic environment tailored to encourage consumption by means of tying it to one’s identity.
The fact that consumption (particularly of creative work) affects identity is not the problem. The issue I am attending to the is that when consumption effectively takes over the main functions of identity, it leads to obsessive and/or abusive behaviors that have been so publicly on display as of late.”
-Individualism-
The concept of individualism is core to neoliberalism. We are all responsible for our personal wellbeing, our backgrounds and circumstances outside of our control are ignored. How we spend our money is “voting with our dollar”. As community action is prevented as much as possible and unions are dismantled, “voting with your dollar” becomes the main voice people have. The underlying system remains the same, but we have some say over consumables for sale.
Individualism leads to accessing events through the lens of specific people, rather than systems:
“When I say, “Logan Paul,” what do you think? Japan Suicide Forest, right? How much discourse surrounding that event had anything to do with systemic racism? Almost none. Everything was about how bad every person thinks Logan Paul is.”
The bigger picture is ignored, societal systems are unquestioned. Everything comes down to individuals. This way of thinking tells you, if you’re wealthy, it’s because you work hard and deserve it. Your background, any privilege you have, is irrelevant. After all, anyone can become rich if they work hard! So poor people must be lazy and lacking in “personal responsibility”.
This study was referenced in the book, an explanation for why anxiety and perfectionism is higher in millennials than previous generations:
“With general social malaise as a backdrop, neoliberalism has succeeded in shifting cultural values so to now emphasize competitiveness, individualism, and irrational ideals of the perfectible self (Verhaeghe, 2014). These ideals are systemic within contemporary language patterns, the media, and social and civic institutions, and are evident in the rise of competitive and individualistic traits, materialistic behavior, and presentational anxieties among recent generations of young people. Revisiting Hewitt et al.’s (2017) model, it is interesting to consider how young people are coming to construct a sense of self and identity in this kind of culture. The notion of a flawed and disordered self appears especially relevant (Banai, Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2005). That is, a sense of self overwhelmed by pathological worry and a fear of negative social evaluation, characterized by a focus on deficiencies, and sensitive to criticism and failure. This sense of self is a close match to the sense of self constructed by perfectionists and is reflected in many of the recent changes to self, identity, and behavior observed in young people. Young people appear to have internalized irrational social ideals of the perfectible self that, while unrealistic, are to them eminently desirable and obtainable. Broadly speaking, then, increasing levels of perfectionism might be considered symptomatic of the way in which young people are coping—to feel safe, connected, and of worth—in neoliberalism’s new culture of competitive individualism.
“Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016″
"Custom Reality and You" was an interesting, thought-provoking book overall, if a little unfocused at times. It could have done with some more editing, and I think that maybe the broad scope should have been a little reigned in. The tone is very conversational which can be beneficial as it might reach different audiences to other books on this topic.
March 7, 2020
It isn't that I disagree with everything Coffin says, his politics are not that far from my own, it is how he has expressed them. This book is terribly written. It pinballs around, making references to things that it never explains. Some of those references are to philosophical works. Coffin's takeaways from these works are shallow, and sometimes not completely accurate. He admits to having no academic training, and this book isn't supposed to be academic, but he could have at least researched things, and given the reader context. Also, footnotes and endnotes would be nice. You don't have to be an academic to cite your sources.
His references to his own life, and to pop culture are even more scattershot. The constant referencing of pop culture reminds me of Slavoj Zizek, but Coffin isn't as good a writer as Zizek, and I'm not even that big a Zizek fan. Zizek at least takes the time to recount the plot of the movies and shows he is referencing, so you understand what he is talking about even if you never saw it. Coffin doesn't do that. He can't even stay on topic for more than two pages before he goes off to ramble about something only tenuously related.
The biggest argumentative flaw in this book, despite the fact that it makes no arguments, only makes assertions, is the premise of collective reality. Coffin mentions Ayn Rand, who believes in an "objective reality" but Coffin's "collective reality" seems no different than Rand's in practice, just a left wing version. This book uses postmodernism a lot, but Coffin doesn't seem to know his Nietzsche, which is where a lot of these postmodern concepts start. Nietzsche was a hardcore individualists, and parts of his philosophy is reactionary, but the main thrust of his philosophy is that all "collective" realities are necessarily lies.
His references to his own life, and to pop culture are even more scattershot. The constant referencing of pop culture reminds me of Slavoj Zizek, but Coffin isn't as good a writer as Zizek, and I'm not even that big a Zizek fan. Zizek at least takes the time to recount the plot of the movies and shows he is referencing, so you understand what he is talking about even if you never saw it. Coffin doesn't do that. He can't even stay on topic for more than two pages before he goes off to ramble about something only tenuously related.
The biggest argumentative flaw in this book, despite the fact that it makes no arguments, only makes assertions, is the premise of collective reality. Coffin mentions Ayn Rand, who believes in an "objective reality" but Coffin's "collective reality" seems no different than Rand's in practice, just a left wing version. This book uses postmodernism a lot, but Coffin doesn't seem to know his Nietzsche, which is where a lot of these postmodern concepts start. Nietzsche was a hardcore individualists, and parts of his philosophy is reactionary, but the main thrust of his philosophy is that all "collective" realities are necessarily lies.
March 25, 2018
This book presents a philosophy that potentially marketable identities are cultivated by the neoliberal capitalist system crafted from certain ego-centric ideas such as individualism. These constructs leading to a custom reality built of these and other ideas meant to commodify the majority if not the entire life of an individual for the benefit of the powerful. Frankly, I do agree with the author's assertions.
I do watch his youtube channel and much of what is in the book is covered in his videos but individually in the book they are collected and presented in whole. The text was easy reading and his concepts are well thought out and plainly and clearly stated. His use of current examples and popular references such as to South Park and Black Mirror help to make his meanings clear but may seriously date this work in a few years in that sense. I especially liked his example of context when asking the reader to imagine their take on the Black Mirror episode San Junipero if the couple were rich, affluent, and straight, basically at the top of society.
My grounding for this work would be The Metaphors We Live By and the ever popular Simulacra and Simulation so I feel pretty comfortable with the perceptual reality of the individual. So if that is concept is something that you're not familiar with or even comfortable with then before reading this you might want to start with the more difficult material first mentioned previously. If you think this book is right up yer alley then I would add them as suggestions. I do highly recommend this book.
August 15, 2021
It has been a while since I read this book, as I have mulled over what I wanted to say. The things that have stuck with me and why I rated it so low despite being quite agreeable with the ideas and premise of the book include poor editing and some pretty egregious misinterpretations of basic texts and sayings.
The first about half of the book reads much like a click‐baity YouTube script, with tons of pop culture references and edgy meme‐ish language (which is where the author is coming from, so not that surprising). The last bit of the book reads much better, which I guess means they got into the habit of writing for a book instead of a YouTube video as they got deeper into the work? Going back and revising the first parts of the book would have lent itself greatly to its readability.
Secondly, there are a number of times where Coffin will take a concept that is generally well understood… and then completely misunderstand it. E.g., at one point Coffin takes a look at “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” and jumps to the worst possible reading of this, taking multiple paragraphs to jump through hoops, finally arriving at the interpretation of that saying that almost everybody using it understands it as.
This smugness and attitude of intellectual superiority while misunderstanding at best or misrepresenting at worst is what put me off of this book, as much as I wanted to like it. We need more anticapitalist literature!
The first about half of the book reads much like a click‐baity YouTube script, with tons of pop culture references and edgy meme‐ish language (which is where the author is coming from, so not that surprising). The last bit of the book reads much better, which I guess means they got into the habit of writing for a book instead of a YouTube video as they got deeper into the work? Going back and revising the first parts of the book would have lent itself greatly to its readability.
Secondly, there are a number of times where Coffin will take a concept that is generally well understood… and then completely misunderstand it. E.g., at one point Coffin takes a look at “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” and jumps to the worst possible reading of this, taking multiple paragraphs to jump through hoops, finally arriving at the interpretation of that saying that almost everybody using it understands it as.
This smugness and attitude of intellectual superiority while misunderstanding at best or misrepresenting at worst is what put me off of this book, as much as I wanted to like it. We need more anticapitalist literature!
July 1, 2018
The ideas in the book are great... but I had a hard time getting used to the style of the writing (especially the first half). I found it easier to read if I imagine Peter reading the text out loud, as if it was one of his Youtube videos.
Aside from that, I think the ideas in the book are super interesting and important. I have also felt validated with the book, as it succinctly articulated (and synthesized) some ideas that I had around cultivated identities and "culture of me". Therefore I think I will also validate it by giving it a high rating.
Aside from that, I think the ideas in the book are super interesting and important. I have also felt validated with the book, as it succinctly articulated (and synthesized) some ideas that I had around cultivated identities and "culture of me". Therefore I think I will also validate it by giving it a high rating.
August 6, 2019
I might not agree always with Peter Coffin, but i really like his way of analyzing Capitalism and the way it affects us daily.
The book, is like condensing every single one of his videos into a more serious and streamlined essay, one that is incredibly easy to read and understand, but deep enough to actually make you see things from a different perspective and to understand why.
Peter tries to make sense of the influence Capitalism and Neoliberalism have had in our daily lives, effects that can´t be explained without creating some new terms, like Custom Reality, Cultivated Identities, Perpetual Correctness, etc
I would recommend this to ANY leftist leaning person, mostly to anyone with an online presence, it helps us to see the world and our daily interactions in a different way.
The book, is like condensing every single one of his videos into a more serious and streamlined essay, one that is incredibly easy to read and understand, but deep enough to actually make you see things from a different perspective and to understand why.
Peter tries to make sense of the influence Capitalism and Neoliberalism have had in our daily lives, effects that can´t be explained without creating some new terms, like Custom Reality, Cultivated Identities, Perpetual Correctness, etc
I would recommend this to ANY leftist leaning person, mostly to anyone with an online presence, it helps us to see the world and our daily interactions in a different way.
June 4, 2019
Great insights but Needs a copy editor
Great, light read with interesting insights, but there are some glaring and distracting errors. Peter’s writing is clear and easy to read. He brings together philosophies and irreverent humor to make the case that capitalism alienates and divides us, and I feel he succeeds at supporting this claim.
Great, light read with interesting insights, but there are some glaring and distracting errors. Peter’s writing is clear and easy to read. He brings together philosophies and irreverent humor to make the case that capitalism alienates and divides us, and I feel he succeeds at supporting this claim.
April 13, 2018
This book is a detailed and well structured exploration of the way modern society works to create an environment where all available choices result in someone making a profit, and how that is either the root or a significant contributor to many of the current economical/social/cultural problems we are facing.
Many of the ideas are exposed by the author in their Youtube videos, but the book really takes the time to lay out the core arguments that underlie the videos. It truly shows that this is not just a clever insight propped up with vague prose, made-up jargon or a wall of citations, but it comes from careful observation and deep reflection, as well as honest engagement with existing political and philosophical ideas.
It is also quite easy to read, both because of the conversational tone and because it makes no requirements from the reader in terms of prior academic knowledge.
In summary, I think it works both as an introduction if you are unfamiliar with the author's ideas, as well as a more detailed argument for why they hold those ideas, if you already are familiar with their other work.
Many of the ideas are exposed by the author in their Youtube videos, but the book really takes the time to lay out the core arguments that underlie the videos. It truly shows that this is not just a clever insight propped up with vague prose, made-up jargon or a wall of citations, but it comes from careful observation and deep reflection, as well as honest engagement with existing political and philosophical ideas.
It is also quite easy to read, both because of the conversational tone and because it makes no requirements from the reader in terms of prior academic knowledge.
In summary, I think it works both as an introduction if you are unfamiliar with the author's ideas, as well as a more detailed argument for why they hold those ideas, if you already are familiar with their other work.
May 5, 2023
This is the worst book I have ever read. 1 star feels like too much but Goodreads doesn't let you go any lower. This is the kind of book you would strap someone to a chair and read out to them as a means of torture (though this is a punishment so sadistic that I seriously doubt even the torturer would emerge unscathed). Poorly written, poorly edited, and even poorly conceived, I read this book as an exercise in masochism but it surpassed even MY pain thresholds...
Peter Coffin finds out other people with opinions exist and then attempts to elaborate on that for 200 pages by deploying an incredibly poor understanding of philosophy alongside their own Disney-brained cultural autosaturation. I seriously considered writing an ironic 5 star review for this book but it was so bad that I would feel guilty if someone saw my review and exposed themselves to this travesty of a book.
Peter Coffin finds out other people with opinions exist and then attempts to elaborate on that for 200 pages by deploying an incredibly poor understanding of philosophy alongside their own Disney-brained cultural autosaturation. I seriously considered writing an ironic 5 star review for this book but it was so bad that I would feel guilty if someone saw my review and exposed themselves to this travesty of a book.
March 6, 2019
I was really conflicted on how to rate this book. As far as the central thesis and supporting arguments and examples, it was excellent. A rational explanation and defense of postmodernism was needed, and Peter Coffin provides that.
It’s the writing I had an issue with: stylistically, grammatically, etc. It seems like Coffin wrote this in extreme haste. I had to read quite a few paragraphs multiple times, but not because the concepts were difficult to digest.
All in all, highly recommended, just be prepared for the somewhat disordered and frantic writing style.
It’s the writing I had an issue with: stylistically, grammatically, etc. It seems like Coffin wrote this in extreme haste. I had to read quite a few paragraphs multiple times, but not because the concepts were difficult to digest.
All in all, highly recommended, just be prepared for the somewhat disordered and frantic writing style.
October 28, 2018
This book is tremendous. It doesn't cover any major new ground, but synthesizes it in a way that is far more accessible than the turgid reads of its forefathers. His philosophical assessment of why Capitalism fails resonates more with me than endless arguments of market Socialism vs. Corporatism vs. free market Capitalism.
March 3, 2019
Peter Coffin's Custom Reality and You makes the reader think (or re-think) objective reality and our personal experience and interpretation of it. This book identifies the outside influences that may manipulate what society considers truth.
November 5, 2019
This book was frustrating, and the lack of editing (both in normal writing AND in structure and content) made it unnecessarily annoying to read.
October 20, 2019
Matrix + Marksov Kapital
October 26, 2018
It’s typically unfair to use someone’s personal background against them in reviewing a piece of work. After all shouldn’t we judge the work as a standalone piece? This attitude is easier said than done, but I find that it is fair when there is such a connection or clear hypocrisy that the author should have known better.
Personally I know the author of this piece as someone whose attempts at comedy are boring, and for creating a fake profile for a young Japanese girl so that he could have a fake online relationship for 8 months (though he labels this a smear campaign). I have to say that beyond this I know very little about the man.
You can imagine my curiosity when I realised that he was going to write a book all about shaping the world to suit your own desires. Everything from creating an echo chamber so that you don’t have to listen to dissenting opinions, but also other forms of escapism like online gaming such as Warcraft. Considering the author’s experience of inventing an external persona (or how someone else did this to dupe him if you take his word for it) I thought that it would be a fascinating examination as to our existence in an increasingly digital world. Hell a section on the catfishing that he alleges he was victim to would have been the best thing possible for this book.
There are some interesting, if not entirely brand new, observations in this. When he comments on reality being the same, even if not perceived that way, for people who are poorly sighted and those that are perfectly sighted it genuinely got me thinking. As someone who knows a hell of a lot about hearing loss part of his job it appealed to me that deprived senses can almost disguise your perception of reality.
Like a lot of books I dislike though, tone and style comes into the conversation. This particular book cannot pick a tone or style and stay consistent. One minute it’s citing complex academic works about Postmodernism (which I must confess I haven’t read as of yet) and the next it’s making comments that I think are supposed to be abstract and funny, but don’t work. Perhaps the author was trying to offer a happy medium between a dry text book and witty commentary but it read more like two separate authors bringing their own distinct styles to a collaboration, rather than a coherent piece.
The author also tends to get distracted a lot, or makes points that hint that he has moulded existing works to support his premise. There’s a few paragraphs about Ready Player One (a book I will not defend the quality of) where the criticism seems more to be a whinge that it didn’t focus on the themes that the author wanted it to, instead of actually offering insight as to how it ties in to the conversation at hand.
I’m sure Coffin did a lot of research, but I’m also sure that he didn’t hire an editor considering the scattershot nature of the book. It lacks focus and quickly became a more frustrating read than an interesting one.
Personally I know the author of this piece as someone whose attempts at comedy are boring, and for creating a fake profile for a young Japanese girl so that he could have a fake online relationship for 8 months (though he labels this a smear campaign). I have to say that beyond this I know very little about the man.
You can imagine my curiosity when I realised that he was going to write a book all about shaping the world to suit your own desires. Everything from creating an echo chamber so that you don’t have to listen to dissenting opinions, but also other forms of escapism like online gaming such as Warcraft. Considering the author’s experience of inventing an external persona (or how someone else did this to dupe him if you take his word for it) I thought that it would be a fascinating examination as to our existence in an increasingly digital world. Hell a section on the catfishing that he alleges he was victim to would have been the best thing possible for this book.
There are some interesting, if not entirely brand new, observations in this. When he comments on reality being the same, even if not perceived that way, for people who are poorly sighted and those that are perfectly sighted it genuinely got me thinking. As someone who knows a hell of a lot about hearing loss part of his job it appealed to me that deprived senses can almost disguise your perception of reality.
Like a lot of books I dislike though, tone and style comes into the conversation. This particular book cannot pick a tone or style and stay consistent. One minute it’s citing complex academic works about Postmodernism (which I must confess I haven’t read as of yet) and the next it’s making comments that I think are supposed to be abstract and funny, but don’t work. Perhaps the author was trying to offer a happy medium between a dry text book and witty commentary but it read more like two separate authors bringing their own distinct styles to a collaboration, rather than a coherent piece.
The author also tends to get distracted a lot, or makes points that hint that he has moulded existing works to support his premise. There’s a few paragraphs about Ready Player One (a book I will not defend the quality of) where the criticism seems more to be a whinge that it didn’t focus on the themes that the author wanted it to, instead of actually offering insight as to how it ties in to the conversation at hand.
I’m sure Coffin did a lot of research, but I’m also sure that he didn’t hire an editor considering the scattershot nature of the book. It lacks focus and quickly became a more frustrating read than an interesting one.
January 18, 2019
I very much enjoy Peter Coffin's videos. Just wanted to get that out of the way, before continuing on. While I think this book is important for collecting all of Peter's thoughts on capitalism and the market place of ideas, you can literally find every talking point mentioned in the book by watching his YouTube videos. This makes the book very hard to recommend, since you can consume the same content and message for free. I think this acts as more of a way to preserve his ideas, in case something were to happen to YouTube or the internet as a whole. As someone who is an avid watcher of his content, it was rather disappointing for his book to not really offer anything new. There were also grammatical and spelling errors everywhere, and I'm reading the revised edition! At the end of the day, I would say watch his videos (especially Very Important Docs) instead of buying this book.
March 23, 2019
Worth your attention.
abandoned
September 4, 2019Interesting ideas but ultimately too frustrating of a writing style for me. Desperately needs an edit. Love Peter's videos, though.
December 1, 2020
I first saw Peter Coffin on his Youtube channel, and I'll say right off the bat that his "Very Important Documentaries" series is definitely worth a watch. His book however, I'd suggest you pass on. Coffin attempts to explain his interpretation of our contemporary world in a series of chapters whose titles suggest related and concise concepts, but are realized often as inconsistent ramblings. He tells us about the post-modernist skepticism of the meta-narrative, reminding us over and over that as imperfect perceivers, everything that is understood through a human lens is subjective and incomplete. He asks us many times to work together to create a more true "collective reality," but never seems to attempt to do this himself. Peter Coffin is clearly well read as he cites many important works on social theory and philosophy, but he portrays his understanding of the world as ultimately true without much in the way of evidence to support this. It makes for a jarring reading experience that feels like a lecture from someone that only kind of believes what they are saying. There are a number of contributions that Coffin makes to the discourse that I really like. Such as the labeling of the titular "Custom Reality" and the interpretation of social media platforms through a neoliberal lens. I believe these are poignant observations about our current world, but he explains them better on Youtube. I hoped to read his book to learn more about the ideas he was talking about there, but it reads more like a rough draft for the "Very Important Documentaries" series as a whole. I hope Coffin keeps writing and I would like to see what else he has to say, but this book in its current for ain't it.
November 20, 2018
Peter Coffin presents their ideas on how neo-liberalism and capitalism has brought us to where we are now in 2018.
Peter has a lot of very interesting and thought provoking ideas about how individualism has resulted in us forming self-validating groups which they call "validation gangs". These "validation gangs" are created from groups of various people who agree on something and become a collective due to that need to feel right and therefore having power due to how we have been socialized to view being wrong or flawed as inherent weakness rather than a consequence of being human. They go on to say how the current ruling class in neo-liberal capitalism has used this as a way to cultivate people's identities around products and what appears to be the option of choice. This has resulted in us losing any sense of a collective reality to agree upon basic facts while also being a powerful form of social control all in the name of increasing profit and power to enable them to hoard wealth.
Peter's ideas here are great. I enjoyed the read and it certainly seems very applicable to our current society especially in the United States. It also has helped to flesh out my own thoughts and also think of ways of speaking with friends and family about these topics. The book could certainly have been edited better as there are a few typos and times where a sentence or joke feels it could have been cut out which I could see making this book closer to 3 maybe 2 stars for some especially if you do not like Peter's humor. I look forward to seeing more work by Peter especially if they get the resources to do some real hardcore digging and research into their theories.
Peter has a lot of very interesting and thought provoking ideas about how individualism has resulted in us forming self-validating groups which they call "validation gangs". These "validation gangs" are created from groups of various people who agree on something and become a collective due to that need to feel right and therefore having power due to how we have been socialized to view being wrong or flawed as inherent weakness rather than a consequence of being human. They go on to say how the current ruling class in neo-liberal capitalism has used this as a way to cultivate people's identities around products and what appears to be the option of choice. This has resulted in us losing any sense of a collective reality to agree upon basic facts while also being a powerful form of social control all in the name of increasing profit and power to enable them to hoard wealth.
Peter's ideas here are great. I enjoyed the read and it certainly seems very applicable to our current society especially in the United States. It also has helped to flesh out my own thoughts and also think of ways of speaking with friends and family about these topics. The book could certainly have been edited better as there are a few typos and times where a sentence or joke feels it could have been cut out which I could see making this book closer to 3 maybe 2 stars for some especially if you do not like Peter's humor. I look forward to seeing more work by Peter especially if they get the resources to do some real hardcore digging and research into their theories.
April 7, 2018
While written from the perspective of a post-911, post-Trump era, inside-cyberspace millennial, the book's intention can be summed up similar to Carl Sagan's 'Demon Haunted World' as an appeal to be skeptical and think critically about mass media consumption.
While I struggled with the meandering first half of the book, Coffin begins to hone in on his main points in the second half and builds up his arguments to a compelling conclusion.
Coffin says "My belief is that disagreements in what "the Truth" is (..) have slowly developed into a situation where we might as well be living in different dimensions. This situation is engineering (..) by capital interests."
Some of the witty references are going to date the book fairly quickly, but then I believe the author intends the work as a very "2018" read. Commendable effort for a first time author on a difficult but relevant topic.
While I struggled with the meandering first half of the book, Coffin begins to hone in on his main points in the second half and builds up his arguments to a compelling conclusion.
Coffin says "My belief is that disagreements in what "the Truth" is (..) have slowly developed into a situation where we might as well be living in different dimensions. This situation is engineering (..) by capital interests."
Some of the witty references are going to date the book fairly quickly, but then I believe the author intends the work as a very "2018" read. Commendable effort for a first time author on a difficult but relevant topic.
September 22, 2024
in retrospect, there was never anything new or interesting about this but there wasn't anything to be too mad at peter coffin over either. unlike now...
peter coffin, if you are reading this i hope you have LOGGED OFF!!! the three stars are for being a situationist youtuber lol legit so cool and for the diy ethos of the whole project. credit where credit is due. and watching the antics of this person online over the course of the better part of a decade has been a wild ride and such a joy, occasionally, and maybe that is worth something too.
overall, nothing profound here really but also nothing offensive
peter coffin, if you are reading this i hope you have LOGGED OFF!!! the three stars are for being a situationist youtuber lol legit so cool and for the diy ethos of the whole project. credit where credit is due. and watching the antics of this person online over the course of the better part of a decade has been a wild ride and such a joy, occasionally, and maybe that is worth something too.
overall, nothing profound here really but also nothing offensive
May 7, 2019
The author introduces important ideas and constructs a vocubulary around them to make further discussion easier, which I appreciate.
The conversational tone does wear a bit thin, however. Large sections of the book felt more like a transcript from a YouTube video, rather than being fully adapted for print.
The book also could have done with another pass over from a copy editor as it contains a number of typos and errors.
The conversational tone does wear a bit thin, however. Large sections of the book felt more like a transcript from a YouTube video, rather than being fully adapted for print.
The book also could have done with another pass over from a copy editor as it contains a number of typos and errors.
May 30, 2021
Very insightful and eye-opening book. Peter Coffin explains and portrays very large, amorphous ideas in his book "Custom Reality and You." The attention marketplace, as well as a critical perspective on the capitalistic institutions and forces that affect and ultimately sustain it, are the main focus of this book.
October 24, 2018
This was, indeed, a Good Read. At times Coffin's conversational tone obscured some of his points for me, but overall I think this is well worth reading and a very interesting and necessary look at our current society.
July 22, 2020
Great book. Very well thought out and balanced, and very open minded. Unfortunately, I had to unfollow the author on twitter because he’s the exact opposite. He spends most of his time ranting and talking down to people and their ideologies. Quite an interesting contrast.
September 10, 2021
Amazing concepts with one of the worst executions i have ever seen. A good could have been
August 29, 2021
I gave this book a decent rating because some people will benefit from reading it, but I do have to mention that I don't think the writing is good or clear, and I'm not sure this book was even edited.
Edit: Needless to mention I do not support this author anymore.
Edit: Needless to mention I do not support this author anymore.
June 30, 2018
In need of a small amount of editing to fix some errors in presentation, but the overall substance of the book is great.
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