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How long does it take to read Smarter Than You Think?

Clive Thompson

Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson takes about 6 hours 15 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 6 hours 15 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2013. 341 pages, about 93,775 words.

13 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 10 hours 25 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 6 hours 15 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 54 minutes

The page count is the median across 3 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

" It's undeniable-technology is changing the way we think. But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson delivers a resounding "yes." The Internet age has produced a radical new style of human intelligence, worthy of both celebration and analysis. We learn more and retain it longer, write and think with global audiences, and even gain an ESP-like awareness of the world around us. Modern technology is making us smarter, better connected, and often deeper-both as individuals and as a society. In Smarter Than You Think Thompson shows that every technological innovation-from the written word to the printing press to the telegraph-has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt-learning to use the new and retaining what's good of the old. Thompson introduces us to a cast of extraordinary characters who augment their minds in inventive ways. There's the seventy-six-year old millionaire who digitally records his every waking moment-giving him instant recall of the events and ideas of his life, even going back decades. There's a group of courageous Chinese students who mounted an online movement that shut down a $1.6 billion toxic copper plant. There are experts and there are amateurs, including a global set of gamers who took a puzzle that had baffled HIV scientists for a decade-and solved it collaboratively in only one month. Smarter Than You Think isn't just about pioneers. It's about everyday users of technology and how our digital tools-from Google to Twitter to Facebook and smartphones-are giving us new ways to learn, talk, and share our ideas. Thompson harnesses the latest discoveries in social science to explore how digital technology taps into our long-standing habits of mind-pushing them in powerful new directions. Our thinking will continue to evolve as newer tools enter our lives. Smarter…

Subjects: Social media, Internet, Social aspects, Psychological aspects, Thought and thinking, Information technology

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