This was one of a few books that I picked up on a whim from the table at our local bookstore, Golden Hour Books. It's a great bookstore, with awesome curation and impeccable vibes, but I need to be careful with what I pick up, because the books are strange. The other book I picked up from there this year I ended up abandoning after 150 pages.

I had at least heard of David Graeber, though, so I was excited when I discovered that he has written a book with this subtitle of "On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". I hypothesized (correctly) that I would find the book cathartic in what has been a quite bureaucracy-heavy year for me at work.

Perhaps because of that mental load, my tolerance for non-fiction has been low this year, so I opted to listen to the book on Libby. This helps me get through non-fiction faster, although the ideas tend to wash over me like waves, rather than track linearly like they do while reading. That was the right call for this book, which at times can be quite esoteric and digressive.

It was still an entertaining listen, though! The title is derived from his argument that bureaucracies are essentially utopian in that they assume that all members of the bureaucracy are behaving perfectly: rationally, predictably, and according to the arbitrary rules of the bureaucracy.

One idea that stuck with me was his argument for the inherently bureaucratic nature of "ends vs means". Means and Ends seem like such fundamental building blocks of rational thought, synonyms for Cause and Effect, and almost verging on scientific in their relationship to reality. But Graeber argues a) against identifying or favoring certain ideas as 'rational' in the first place (as an empty and circular definition) and b) that indeed Means and Ends are only the result of an inherently procedural society. Means and Ends need no distinction or separation, he argues, in settings where people are not regulated away from that which they prefer to be doing. A radical idea, to be sure: but an interesting one.

This book was dry, and I'm not likely to recommend it to many. But if you find these sorts of sociological reflections to be invigorating, give the audiobook a try!