Never in the history of the human race have so many had so much to do in so little time. That, anyway, is the impression most of us have of civil...
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Feb 16, 2011
David
rated it: 
On time, our experience and measure of it, and particularly our accelerating life perspective, propelled by equally exponential technological advance. Written in 1999, the book loses little strength of argument since the reader can easily mentally update the most recent exemplar technologies and statistics (e.g. # of websites on topic x). Indeed, the intervening decade actually bolsters Gleick's point on progress, as the trends described herein have proven relatively robust and astute, becoming
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Jan 21, 2008
Tessa
rated it: 
An OK book. It's written for a somewhat pop audience and contains few revelations. However there is an interesting section towards the end where he discusses the limits of speed and uses the example of the disabled "close door" buttons on newer skyscraper elevators which exist only so that people can press them and believe that they are causing the doors to close faster when they stay open for the same time regardless.
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Aug 27, 2011
David
rated it: 
After reading Gleick’s Chaos in 1989 and The Information this year, I was anticipating Faster. What a letdown. Chaos and The Information rocked. Faster just plodded along.
In his profile, David Giltinan cites 10 common sources of disappointment in a book. The first is “Failed to match brilliance of author's previous work.” That was certainly the case here. Another distraction is this edition is an audio book, read by Gleick. His reading wasn’t engaging.
The other GR review More...
In his profile, David Giltinan cites 10 common sources of disappointment in a book. The first is “Failed to match brilliance of author's previous work.” That was certainly the case here. Another distraction is this edition is an audio book, read by Gleick. His reading wasn’t engaging.
The other GR review More...
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Mar 31, 2009
Paul
rated it:
This book is great. The acceleration of society/culture by way of technology is a subject that interests me greatly, maybe more than any other, so this book was right up my alley. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Faster is, despite its being almost a decade old, it's still entirely relevant. Aside from the lack of talk about iPods an iPhones, it doesn't seem dated at all. This is especially noteworthy considering the book's premise, which claims that a decade, these days, is an eternity.
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Sep 04, 2010
Dave
rated it:
I loved it. A straight forward, brief and insightful history of time. A refreshing view — to look at a measure that man invented and then obsessed upon. Prior to this read, it was too easy to think of time as a thing of nature. Gleick’s topic, is really his canvas. On it, he paints the history of progress aided by man’s inventions. For example, time from town to town was never in sync down to the minute until railroad schedules and the telegraph made it an obvious necessity. One of the optimisti
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Mar 12, 2010
Emily
rated it: 
When I made my piece about the Heart, I read a lot of books about it and enjoyed little bits of all of them. Then, I read one that summed it all up and seemed to get at exactly many of the things I wanted to explore. (Louisa Young's Book of the Heart, just in case you're curious) Faster is THAT book but for Time.
In pretty much every chapter I found myself thinking, "Yes! That's - yes! I hadn't thought of things quite like that. Damn!" All this time I was thinking I wanted to mak More...
In pretty much every chapter I found myself thinking, "Yes! That's - yes! I hadn't thought of things quite like that. Damn!" All this time I was thinking I wanted to mak More...
Jan 21, 2010
Yofish
rated it:
Essays on how people and machines and life in general is just going faster and faster. The funny thing is he talks about the internet and mobile phones and things like that, and it was written in 1998! So it's weirdly dated. Some interesting factoids--many elevators have their 'door closed' button disabled. The button is just there to make people feel like they have something to do. People are terrible at estimating how much time they spent doing one thing or another. But the datedness was
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Aug 11, 2011
James Gleick looks at time,and our perception of it. He does a good job at describing how the faster pace of life affects everything we do,and how we perceive our world. I especially enjoyed the section on the measurement of time ,and also the chapter on the acceleration of media with "MTV" style editing becoming the norm.Some of the later chapters seem a bit hurried (of course) ,but it's still very worth reading. If you enjoyed this ,you'd probably enjoy the work of Malcolm Gladwell
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Feb 10, 2011
Summer
rated it:
Although some sections of the book were dated to the point of irrelevance, the majority of the book was thought-provoking and still applicable. There is even an author's note at the end stating that a book about our ever increasing dependence on technology and increasing the speed of our lives became outdated in the months between the time it was written and the time it was published. Still, I found the ideas the author discussed- about our culture's need for speed and how it has spawned our col
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Oct 11, 2009
ActionScientist
rated it:
I read this book during a week holiday in the Okavango Swamps (Botswana) at the turn of the Millennium ... after a decade of burning the candle at both ends and living Internet years.
Gleick is one of the small handful of popular science writers able to spin a delightful series of yarns to make his point.
His final big bit of advice: our species needs to learn how to squander copious amounts of time, again. A profound bit of advice, if one can find the time to think about More...
Gleick is one of the small handful of popular science writers able to spin a delightful series of yarns to make his point.
His final big bit of advice: our species needs to learn how to squander copious amounts of time, again. A profound bit of advice, if one can find the time to think about More...
Jun 14, 2009
Chelsea
rated it:
I just finished reading Faster: The Acceleration of Just About
Everything by James Gleick. (Ironically enough, not a quick read.) The basic thesis of the book is that our modern culture is obsessed with the notion of speed and the acceleration of everyday actions is a driving force in our technological and even political developments. Each chapter takes an aspect, object or idea and examines its development in context. Elevators, watches, cars, commercials, almost everything is touched on. H More...
Everything by James Gleick. (Ironically enough, not a quick read.) The basic thesis of the book is that our modern culture is obsessed with the notion of speed and the acceleration of everyday actions is a driving force in our technological and even political developments. Each chapter takes an aspect, object or idea and examines its development in context. Elevators, watches, cars, commercials, almost everything is touched on. H More...
Aug 29, 2010
Joe
rated it:
I was tricked! I thought this was a book about physics (with the alluring word "acceleration" in the title), but it turned out to be more social and behavioral science than anything else. I still really enjoyed it though, as James Gleick once again proved his versatility as a writer.
All the little nuances, the winks and nods to the quirkiest of human predilections and paranoias, were what made this book such a joy to read. And that seems to be Gleick's style, which works i More...
All the little nuances, the winks and nods to the quirkiest of human predilections and paranoias, were what made this book such a joy to read. And that seems to be Gleick's style, which works i More...
Aug 15, 2009
Nick
rated it:
An interesting read. I was a big fan of his "Chaos" a number of years ago, and this is almost as fascinating. Almost - I found it tended to touch rather too lightly on its subjects, as if to secure the reader's waning attention span with short glossy chapters. I also suspect it would have made more of an impression upon me when it came out at the end of the last millenium, rather than today, when many people are all too familiar with the symptoms of time deprivation. Good, but light, r
Jul 25, 2011
Rachel
rated it:
The book was an interesting read, at least. It wasn't especially riveting or alternative from other books of its class, but it offered some peculiar (And generally true) anecdotes regarding time and the human treatment of it. At its best, it allowed me to pause and reflect on my own attitude and use of things such as watches, digital clocks, elevators, telescopes even. At its worst, it was dry and a moderate bore to labor through.
Nov 29, 2008
Christian
rated it:
[Listened to audiobook] I can't imagine a book that better captures the frenetic pace of the world today. From elevators that move so quickly that they require a stop in a pressure equalizing lobby before making the rest of the trip to the 'real time' world of the Internet, Gleick once again explores the world around us in terms that are relatable and fascinating.
Jun 16, 2009
Theron
rated it:
Gleick catalogs numerous ways in which western culture is driven by go, go, Go! Some meme are quite funny, and insightful. Others, upon self reflection, are sad. "So what," you might say after reading this book, just as I did. His conclusion, maybe lacking but I took away a few things. Every generation sees the symptoms of mania (rapid speech, racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, hypersexuality, euphoria, impulsiveness, grandiosity, and increased interest in goal-directed activit
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Oct 06, 2009
Kathy
rated it:
The dichotomy - more time saving devices and technologies vs not enough time in a day... - ... save time for more leisure vs how to 'fill' up that leisure with acceptable, profitable activities...
our obsession with seconds... milliseconds...
the book is full of information and surveys about how people use time, and how that has changed in the last hundred... fifty... ten... one year as radio/TV/internet/cell phones/etc. have interacted with people to be what they are... More...
our obsession with seconds... milliseconds...
the book is full of information and surveys about how people use time, and how that has changed in the last hundred... fifty... ten... one year as radio/TV/internet/cell phones/etc. have interacted with people to be what they are... More...
Jan 07, 2012
Paula
rated it:
Lacks a thorough analysis of the core of development towards a faster-moving, time-conscious society and instead simply sums up all the aspects of current life that have become 'faster' than they were before. I know we're all time-conscious, but I want to know: why? Gleick fails to enlighten us. Boring.
Jan 16, 2009
Carrie
rated it:
Okay, this will sound weird, but I wanted the book to move along more quickly. :) I did like the points that he was making, especially the one about the increased instability in the stock market and the one about humans and our natural inclination toward speed.
Oct 11, 2011
Sherri
rated it:
I felt motion sickness while reading this book. Our society has been speeding up since time immemorial. Essays on the telephone, standard time, etc. All to get your brain thinking faster about how fast the world is today. Dizzying!
Aug 02, 2011
Vance
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I read this during the Dot Com bubble, when I was working 12-16 hour days. It's what stopped me doing that. It's a nice meditation of the effects of a society which is increasingly precise and increasingly over loaded.
Jul 27, 2009
Tanya
rated it:
Some interesting tidbits, but it didn't really feel like I "learned" anything. It seemed like more of a confirmation that the busy-ness I feel is not my imagination. It was a good exploration of the "downsides" to technological advances that have speeded things up.
Jul 19, 2009
Bob
rated it:
Likes: Some interesting examples of the hurried pace of Western lifestyles.
Dislikes: Opinionated ramblings without any explanation or defense of the opinion. Like listening to an old man complain about how the world has changed.
Dislikes: Opinionated ramblings without any explanation or defense of the opinion. Like listening to an old man complain about how the world has changed.
Aug 16, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
This book was outdated by the time it was printed, and ten years later, the concepts come across as quaint. Nonetheless, the discussion of time measurement and importance was interesting and remains relevant.
Sep 09, 2009
Author is bringing attention of the readers to the increased speed of our activities, habits and even thinking. He argues that speed is one of the strongest drugs that drives human society today.
Sep 07, 2011
Paul
rated it:
Let someone borrow this one. Never saw it again. Fantastic look at all the devices we buy and shortcuts we take in life to save time, and how they are doing nothing but taking time away from us.
Aug 04, 2011
Calen
rated it:
Probably had more kick in 2000, but at this point doesn't offer much insight and the extremities used as examples have since been rendered trivial at best compared to modern realities. The first sections covering the history of time keeping are the most interesting but that's likely a matter of perspective based on age.
Aug 03, 2011
Dan
rated it:
I found this an unsatisfying book. It covers an interesting subject and includes some good ideas and examples, but I found the structure confusing and also found it a bit repetitive.
Jun 24, 2011
Roy
rated it:
The author makes some thought provoking points in the book. Unfortunately, these insights are surrounded by 200 pages of lackluster speculation about the 'good'ol days'.
