Who among us, when we go to the bathroom, doesn’t take our phone with us? Let’s face it: practically everyone. It happens when we wait for the subway, when a friend is late at the bar. It happens in every single, tiny pause in our day. Our breaks turned into “phone breaks”. We often realize that by doing so we do not feed the mind, but perhaps in some cases it is the phone that feeds on us, our time and our attention.
But how can the trend be reversed? The answer is not to demonize the web, but to make a intelligent mix. The idea is to transform, every now and then, that passive pause into a pause that enriches us. Imagine having something fresh, light, but full of content in your hands. 100 pills of science and culture. Open it, read for 3 minutes – the time of a reel, but on paper – and you take home a curiosity, a scientific explanation or a useful sociological fact. I liked this idea so much that… we actually made it happen!
My new book is out, published by Hellopeople: Pause Book, 101 pills of science and culture for when you put down the phone. You can find it on Amazon, both in paperback and eBook version. If you like, leave an honest review: it’s a great help for us.
You can find answers to questions like “Why do bar napkins never clean anything and only spread dirt?”, “Do filter jugs really purify water or is it just marketing?”, “Is an electric car really worth it?” or “What would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped rotating?”.
The layout was taken care of in an obsessive way to make it functional 100%. Wherever you open the book, you will find a complete pill enclosed in two adjacent pages. What does it mean? That you won’t even have to turn the page to finish the concept. Start on the left, finish on the right. Stopbreak over, mind fed. You can read it from beginning to end, or open it at random like an oracle of science. And for the more precise, at the top right of each pill there is one box to tick with the pencil to mark “read”.
Additionally, each pill has a “review” based on three parameters:
- Utility meter: how much is it utile in everyday life.
- Figometer: how much is it figo know it so you can tell it to your friends.
- Shockometer: how much is it schoc than what we thought we knew.
Why are the pills 101 and not 100? The number 100 smelled of “closed”, of final. 101instead, gives the idea of a projection towards futuretowards what is to come. If you like the book, maybe we’ll make a second one, from pill 102 to 203.
There disclosure on social medialike this book, is not intended to explain the universe in academic detail. The pills – whether written, video or reel – are not intended to replace university manuals or in-depth studies. They want to do something else: ignite curiosity. These 101 pills are 101 fuses. Each one can trigger a small explosion of interest that will push you to go read, watch and discover more elsewhere. Behind every single two-page pill there are decades of studies, research and scientists who have dedicated their lives to that topic. What you find here is the extreme synthesis.
The hope is that Pausa Libro is a starting point, never an arrival point. Because in a world dominated by instantaneity and speed, the ability to go in depth it will always remain our greatest wealth.
Have a good break, wherever you are!
