Check out this hilarious summary from Rev.com’s ChatGPT function:
Speaker 1 discusses a book they've read called "The Art of Non-Conformity". The book encourages readers to think for themselves and not just follow the crowd, using the metaphor of jumping off a bridge because everyone else is doing it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of questioning expectations and obligations, and making deliberate choices to think differently. They also mention that their own books are available on Amazon for a limited time, but will be removed at the end of the year due to issues with Amazon's distribution. Speaker 2 appears to be part of a different conversation, discussing being a free individual and not just a number.
Oh, my Gawd! That’s brilliant, innit? :)
*****
Hi everyone. Well, today I'm going to read you a prologue from a book I just got out of the library called The Art of Non-Conformity, which sounds like a contradiction in terms until you read what's in here. Prologue, sorry.
Prologue.
When you were a kid and wanted to do something your parents or teachers didn't like, you may have heard the question "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?" The idea is that it's not good to do something stupid, even if everyone else is doing it. The logic is, *think for yourself instead of following the crowd.*
It's not bad advice, even if it's sometimes used to exert control more than to support independent thinking. But one day, you grow up and suddenly the tables are turned. People start expecting you to behave very much like they do. If you disagree and don't conform to their expectations, some of them get confused or irritated. It's almost as if they are asking: "Hey, everyone else is jumping off the bridge. Why aren't you?"
I wrote this book to help bring the childhood message up to adult application. Screw those people jumping off the bridge. Make your own decisions. Live your own life.
Asking "why?" to everything like a three-year-old is helpful in making sure you don't jump off the bridge without at least considering the alternatives. Whenever you find yourself confronted by a request, obligation, or expectation you don't like, it helps to look carefully for the motivations and rationale behind what you hear.
When you ask why, and the answer comes back, "Because that's what you're supposed to do," you know you're looking out over the bridge again. In the average day, you'll confront this reality many times---in work, relationships, and the countless decisions and choices you are required to make. The presence of the bridge and the expectations of other people are somewhat unavoidable. Whether you jump or not, however, is entirely up to you.
Even if the people giving it to you weren't that great at following it themselves, the counsel you may have heard at a young age was correct. Why jump off the bridge just because everyone else is doing it? You can step back from the ledge, turn around, and walk away into new adventures that had previously been only fleeting ideas. You can also help other people walk away from the bridge, or you can rewrite the rules that brought you to the bridge in the first place. The possibilities are unlimited, but it all begins with a deliberate choice to think differently.
Where have I heard that expression “Think differently” before? Was it Steve Jobs who said something like that? Maybe. I've heard it somewhere. Alrighty, take care and I'll talk to you later. The Art of Non-Conformity. Let's see, who is this by? Hang on, hang on, Chris Guillebeau. I hope I'm saying that right. Talk to you later.
I nearly forgot to mention all my books are $2 99 on Amazon now. Get them while you can because they're going to be coming off at the end of the year or the first of the new year, whatever. Yeah, $2 99 from now until the end of the year. At which point they will be no longer on Amazon. My ebooks, that is. My print books will still be there because they distribute through Ingram and I'm fine with that. All I want is to be able to distribute to Amazon through D2D and they're being real dicks about it. Amazon, that is. Okay. What's new? Right?
Alright, so in any case, I'm moving all my ebooks off of their platform at the end of the year, beginning of the new year, and no, this is not a New Year's resolution. It's just me jumping off a bridge in my own way, or not jumping off a bridge in my own way. Whatever. I'm just doing what I want to do. Thank you. That is all. Talk to you later.
*****
Where am I?
In the village?
What do you want?
Information?
Who side are you on?
That would be telling? We want information, information, information.
You won't get it.
By hook or by crook, we will.
Who are you?
The new number two.
Who is number one?
You are number six.
I am not a number. I am a free man.
Hahahahahaha ...
A Reading from 'The Art of Non-Conformity'