New Book: “The Problems With All the Good Things”

Published on July 11, 2023 (↻ May 6, 2024), filed under Philosophy (RSS feed for all categories).

I’m German, and Germans are avid, competitive complainers. We can tell you exactly why yesterday’s win of your favorite club was undeserved, why today’s beautiful weather sucks, and why the German and any other government’s successes are irrelevant given what they continuously keep f’ing up. A complaint-free world? Please.

But it’s probably not national negativity that would explain why there’s so much to complain, about everything.

It’s also not clear whether one can actually complain about everything. Are there problems with everything? Even with the good things?

This is what I’ve investigated, putting AI to the test and documenting the findings in a little book: The Problems With All the Good Things. As it turns out, there’s both less and more going on when it comes to complaining, and finding problems everywhere. Enjoy.

Format and price	Ebook (EPUB and PDF), $7.99
	Kindle ebook (free app for Android and iOS), $7.99
	Tip: Get this book at a discount with another book (at Leanpub).
Preview	Select chapters (PDF, 200 KB)
Length	73 pages (PDF)
Sellers	Amazon
	Apple Books
	Kobo
	Google Play Books
	Leanpub
	Gumroad
Latest version	1.3.3

Description

Here are two observations that you’ve likely made in your life:

One, you’ve noticed how easy it is to find fault. If you haven’t found fault yourself, then you know others who find this wrong and that wrong and that other thing wrong as well.

Two, you’ve learned about things generally deemed desirable and good, things not connected with fault, whether these are states of being or possessions or activities.

Now, if you put the first observation to the test (looking for fault), would the second still hold (that there are things without fault)?

Would there be nothing to complain about; would there be nothing wrong with all those things desirable and good?

This question is what this little book is exploring, by interviewing OpenAI’s ChatGPT about the problems, with many good things.

The outline:

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Problems With What You Are
• The Problems With What You Do
• Afterword
• Feedback
• About the Author
• About The Problems With All the Good Things

❧ I’m grateful to Vadim Gershteyn, who edited the book, as well as Yaroslav Kiyenko, who advised on questions related to AI-generated content. Thank you.

About Me

I’m Jens, and I’m an engineering lead and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for companies like Google and as an engineering manager for companies like Miro, I’m close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

With my current move to Spain, I’m open to a new remote frontend leadership position. Feel free to review and refer my CV or LinkedIn profile.

I love trying things, not only in web development, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.