I just finished Atul Gawande’s book Better, on the science of performance improvement, especially in medicine, and it was worth the time it took to read. I might have paid for it; the last book (A Very Brief Introduction to the Future) and the next book (Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality) on my reading list were things I paid for in print.

I’ve previewed and reserved On Grand Strategy though and that’s one I wouldn’t have paid for – it’s too far outside my core interests. I learned something really big from it: the importance of thinking in terms of strategic sequences. That’s something that’s easier said than done but hugely important and much easier to do when you think about it consciously.

Because we all paid taxes to fund the public library, and because ebooks are so easy to quickly check out from home, the diversity of ideas that I’m being exposed to is substantially increased relative to the books I’d be willing and able to buy in hard copy. If that’s true even for me, I can only imagine how true it might be for other people less apt to invest in exposure to diverse perspectives.

I’m thinking about this just after leaving a community swimming pool, where for a few dollars people of all kinds of backgrounds have come to be in the water. It’s far more diverse that my workplace, than the natural foods grocery store I shop at, or the last restaurant I ate at.

Collective creation of free and low-cost resources is a powerful way to expand and enrich people’s experiences and perspectives. If we as a society choose corporate alternatives to these collective institutions, optimized for profit and efficiency instead of for public accessibility, it will be a great loss. Let’s make sure to support and appreciate those public institutions.