Random Curiosities: The Shit I Think About is your ticket to a world filled with humor and quirky insights.
This lighthearted book invites you to explore random and thought-provoking ideas that bounce around the author's mind, all presented with a delightful wit reminiscent of Bill Bryson. Whether you're looking to spark your curiosity or just enjoy a good laugh, this collection of musings is sure to entertain. Plus, we invite you to share your own chapter ideas for future editions – let your imagination run wild!
Table of contents listed to wet your appetite :-)
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
The chaotic curiosity that sparked this book and the strange logic of rabbit-hole thinking.
2. Human Life vs. Earth Life
A cosmic reality check on how briefly humans have existed — and how loudly we’ve made ourselves heard.
3. Population Collapse
From baby booms to baby busts, how civilisation might quietly fade out while watching Netflix.
4. Is the Earth Dying?
The planet is fine. It’s humans who need saving — preferably before beachfronts reach Kansas.
5. The Universe’s Strange Connection?
Quantum entanglement, cosmic Wi-Fi, and why the universe might be one big group chat.
6. Before the Big Bang
Did something exist before everything? Or is that just our brains short-circuiting on the question of time?
7. Extinction-Level Events
The five times Earth hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE — and why the next mass extinction might be homemade.
8. Changing the Way We Think
Neuroplasticity and how your brain is less a finished product and more a work-in-progress spaghetti blob.
9. How Will the Universe End?
Big Freeze, Big Rip, or Big Crunch — take your pick. Just don’t expect fireworks.
10. Tied Up in Contradictions
Why Fifty Shades of Grey exploded in a feminist world — and what that says about fantasy, freedom, and filters.
11. Capitalism
Monopoly, billionaires, and why Dave always ends up owning Boardwalk and everyone else’s soul.
12. School Daze
Why modern schooling still feels like a Victorian obedience factory — and what education could be instead.
13. The Impact of AI on Our Souls
What happens when AI takes your job, cooks your meals, and leaves you with nothing to do but exist?
14. How Not to Die Soon
The scientifically boring secrets to living longer — and why they’re more effective than superfood dust.
15. We Are All One
Quantum physics meets ancient mysticism. Are religion and science just using different metaphors?
16. Reality.exe
Simulation theory, digital déjà vu, and why the universe might just be the world’s weirdest software.
17. Lazy, or Just Traumatized?
A defence of modern Greeks — and how 400 years of Ottoman rule shaped a healthy distrust of government paperwork.
18. Man’s Best Friends
How dogs, goats, and sheep weren’t just our first companions — they were the co-founders of civilisation.
19. Men Are From Mars, Women Are Not
The Gender Equality Paradox, nature vs. nurture, and why sameness isn’t the same as fairness.
20. We Need to Talk About Birkenstocks
The fashion revolution no man asked for, and why clunky sandals might secretly be a power move.
21. Trump’s MAGA-lomania
Why agreeing with Trump sometimes feels worse than disagreeing — and what that says about modern discourse.
22. Our Memories Lie
The Mandela Effect, false memories, and why your brain is less like a hard drive and more like a drunk novelist.
23. Luxury and (Our) Value
Why humans spend insane money on logos — and what that says about insecurity, identity, and our fragile egos.
24. The Pursuit of Slightly Elevated Contentment
What economists, Buddhists, scientists and psychologists all agree on (sort of) about real happiness.
25. Too Proud to Know When to Quit
How inclusion became institutionalised confusion, and why the alphabet soup might need a stirring spoon.
26. Congratulations, You’re a Man — Now Apologise for It
The strange cultural guilt trip of modern masculinity — and why men are quietly checking out.
27. The Elusive Quest for Objectivity
Why we’re all hopelessly biased — and how real understanding starts when we admit it.
28. How We Became Outsiders in Our Own Lives
Living in third-person, curating our identities, and why we feel more like characters than people.
29. The Lost Art of Self-Discipline
Why we can’t stop eating the marshmallow — and how to build a life worth sticking with.
30. Aliens: Visitors or Not
Why it’s easier to believe in extraterrestrials than in ancient humans being really clever with rocks.
31. Bringing It All Together
A final zoom-out. The randomness, the wonder, the chaos of thought — and the shared dot we all live on.
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." — Albert Einstein
At any given moment, my brain is bouncing around. It drives my wife crazy. One second, I’m thinking about one thing, and the next, I’m off in another direction without knowing I’ve moved on or even realizing I left the station. I forget where I started, I have no direction, but I keep going. Before I know it, I’m googling like crazy—because, naturally, one thing always leads to another, and I HAVE TO HAVE ANSWERS!
Some might call this an undiagnosed case of ADHD. I prefer to think of it as simple curiosity.
If you’re holding this book, I’m guessing you know the feeling. That itch to understand the weird, the wonderful, and the completely bizarre. The thrill of discovering that the world is not what you thought it was—that history is full of strange twists, science is stranger than fiction, and reality itself is up for debate. Just getting an answer to the simplest of questions I had no answer for a few seconds ago, feels like a triumph.
This book is a product of that mindset. Each chapter starts with a question or a simple idea that popped into my head—some of them big, some of them small, all of them fascinating in ways you might not expect (to me anyway). And just like my brain, it refuses to stay in one lane. Join me for the ride.
