How long does it take to read The Clock of the Long Now?
time and responsibility
The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand takes about 3 hours 39 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 39 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1999. 199 pages, about 54,725 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 5 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 39 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 17 minutes |
The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Using the designing and building of the Clock of the Long Now as a framework, this is a book about the practical use of long time perspective: how to get it, how to use it, how to keep it in and out of sight. Here are the central questions it inspires: How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare? Discipline in thought allows freedom. One needs the space and reliability to predict continuity to have the confidence not to be afraid of revolutions Taking the time to think of the future is more essential now than ever, as culture accelerates beyond its ability to be measured Probable things are vastly outnumbered by countless near-impossible eventualities. Reality is statistically forced to be extraordinary; fiction is not allowed this freedom This is a potent book that combines the chronicling of fantastic technology with equally visionary philosophical inquiry.
Subjects: Time, Responsibility, Strategic planning, Computers
