Termination Shock

by Neal Stephenson

“He did not understand—none of these people did—that this is stochastic land on the edge of a stochastic reservoir. They didn’t understand it because those are statistical concepts. People can’t think statistically. People are hardwired to think in terms of narratives.

“That’s kinda the point of hiring intelligent people, Red. You don’t exactly know what they’re gonna think of.”

trying to get Dutch people to prepare for disasters was a little like trying to get English people to watch football on the telly or Americans to buy guns.