Name: But What If We're Wrong?
ISBN: 9780399184123

But What If We're Wrong?

"We live in a culture of casual certitude. This has always been the case, no matter how often that certainty has failed. Though no generation believes there's nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. And then, of course, time passes. Ideas shift. Opinions invert. What once seemed reasonable eventually becomes absurd, replaced by modern perspectives that feel even more irrefutable and secure--until, of course, they don't. But What If We're Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past.^ Chuck Klosterman asks questions that are profound in their simplicity: How certain are we about our understanding of gravity? How certain are we about our understanding of time? What will be the defining memory of rock music, five hundred years from today? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? How seriously should we view the content of television? Are all sports destined for extinction? Is it possible that the greatest artist of our era is currently unknown (or--weirder still--widely known, but entirely disrespected)? Is it possible that we "overrate" democracy? And perhaps most disturbing, is it possible that we've reached the end of knowledge? Kinetically slingshotting through a broad spectrum of objective and subjective problems, But What If We're Wrong?

What Hacker News says

gorfian_robotJan 2026

his books "I Wear the Black Hat" and "But What If We're Wrong?" are really good.

but I don't give a shit about team sports

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fredmcgubbinsAug 2024

There's a good book called, "But What If We're Wrong?" by Chuck Klosterman that explores the concept of how things we consider the "best" or "worst" of contemporaneous common knowledge may change over time.

One of his examples was how there are only a handful of classical music pieces that folks remember and consider "great" after a 100+ years have passed and yet there were many composers who were popular at the time they were composing. His question was, "out of the the works of rock-n-roll in the 1900s and early 2000s, how many will be remembered in 200 years time?" Will it be "Louie-Louie"? Something by Elvis? The Beatles? Beyonce?, the viral song 'what does the fox say?', something that is contemporaneously unknown but is discovered some time in the future?

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JackFrJun 2024

> I am pretty sure people in some distant future will think about us as heathens for eating meat, driving cars and wearing plastic. I hope they will be wise enough not to cancel us complete for this and hear out other wisdom we might want to pass.

I think we're pretty poor at predicting what future generations will think about us. To that point I heartily recommend "But What If We're Wrong" by Chuck Klosterman.

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ttarabbiaNov 2023

I credit 2 books with helping (hopefully?) with the ability to question the overlap between what I see as truth and orthodoxy.

But What If We're Wrong [1] by Chuck Klosterman and Against Method [2] by Paul Feyeraband.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_What_If_We%27re_Wrong%3F

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_Method

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JackFrOct 2020

Chuck Klosterman's book "But What If We're Wrong: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past" examines this phenomenon, and while its difficult to make predictions (that's one of the takeaways) it's a terrific lens to look at both the present and the past.

(One of my favorite chapters is imagining 1000 years into the future, where rock and roll is basically only remembered for one artist, who might that be? And why it won't be Elvis or the Beatles.)

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JackFrMay 2020

A decent amount of our stuff. It’s important to read stuff like this to encourage a little humility. These guys were no less smart than we are.

When you read stuff like this from an earlier era it’s always shocking just how different their frame of reference is, what’s considered important and what’s assumed common knowledge. The book “But What if We’re Wrong?” By Chuck Klosterman really does a great job looking at this question.

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