Fluency’s attraction is obvious. But there is a quieter truth: People need a bit of its opposite. They want to be challenged, shocked, scandalized, forced to think—just a bit. They enjoy what Kant called free play—not just a monologue of fluency, but a dialogue between “I get it” and “I don’t” and “I want to know more.” People are complicated: curious and conservative, hungry for new things and biased toward the familiar. Familiarity is not the end. It’s just the beginning.
