Faster

In this summary you will learn

• How and why society's pace is speeding up
• How technology has accelerated or caused this increased speed
• What impact this faster society has on your health, recreation, family life and work

getAbstract rating

Why you should read Faster

Our lives have speeded up, a phenomenon that affects both individuals and society according to author James Gleick. He describes examples of speed's impact in chapters that read like separate essays on different aspects of life. He covers the element of acceleration in machines, books, advertising and attention span. Ironically, his book is written in a very leisurely, reflective, pop-sociology or pop-history style that takes its time exploring different historical developments leading to how quickly life moves today. This is an observation, not a criticism, since getAbstract.com finds that this book provides an engaging, compelling look at some important and indicative changes in society. Yet, Gleick doesn't get around to the cell phone, a major factor in today's fast pace. Many of these changes - such as the explosion of new technologies - have been covered extensively elsewhere, but Gleick's broad view of these developments offers executives, managers and general readers a new context for understanding them - if you can slow down long enough to read it.

About the Author

James Gleick is the author of the bestseller Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman and of Chaos: Making a New Science, both of which were nominated for the National Book Award. He lives in New York.