In fact, while we read a novel, we are insane—bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren’t there, we hear their voices, we watch the battle of Borodino with them, we may even become Napoleon. Sanity returns (in most cases) when
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“Disconfirmation of deeply held beliefs causes severe psychic pain; what better way of alleviating it than in the company of newly won believers? As put by Festinger, “If more and more people can be persuaded that the system of belief is correct, then clearly it must, after all, be correct.”
― The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups
― The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups
“There was one time that a pirate buried treasure somewhere. One time. And the entire idea of buried pirate treasure comes from that one incident.”
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
“Monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles during their migration across North America,”
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
“The primary function of financial capitalism is to efficiently funnel money from those with an excess of it to those who need it.”
― The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups
― The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups
“In addition to ice skates, physicists don’t really understand what causes electric charges to build up in thunderstorms, why sand in an hourglass flows at the speed it does, or why your hair gets a static charge when you rub it with a balloon.”
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
― How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
Jia Jun Qin’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jia Jun Qin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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