A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

I ve decided to stop lying to you.
As far as I can tell there are only three kinds of lies: the kind you don t want to get caught telling, the kind you don t  care if you  get caught telling, and the kind you can t get caught telling. Let s go through them one by one.
 
1.      The kind you don t want to get caught telling. This is just your average, everyday lie, whether you re late for work or did a real bad murder. Getting caught in the lie, thus, is a problem.
2.      The kind you don t care if you get caught telling. This  kind of lie is about the lying, not about the outcome. You repeat the lie, stick to the lie, change the lie, re form the lie, abandon the lie, come back to the lie. The lying might help avoid some negative outcome, but really it s a tool for weakening reality, and thus strengthening yourself.
3.      The kind you can t get caught telling. This happens when only you know the truth. This is the kind of lie I ve been telling.
 
For years now, that last kind of lie has felt, to me, like a kindness. I mean, it s not a surprise that the story of your reality is incomplete. We  all know that. Scientists don t  know where most of the matter is. I don t know what it s like to live in Yemen. Our imagining of the world isn t fully accurate. But if you know something no one else knows, something that would change everyone s story overnight, something that would make everyone else s life worse, telling the truth might seem like the wrong thing to do, like exercising too much power. As I have discovered, there s nothing special about me, nothing  that makes me particularly suited to making that kind of decision for an entire planet of people. The only reason I get to make it, it turns out, is ugly, vulgar luck.

A lot of people have said that I have a habit of exercising too much power, and one of

Hank Green

Praise for A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Hank Green s punchy follow-up to his debut novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing centers on a low-odds attempt at saving humanity from extraterrestrial sabotage. Infused with social media savvy prose and all the latest tech fads from cryptocurrency to brain-computer interfaces the story unfolds through retelling from the alternating points of view of an alien emissary s closest friends. The book is as pleasant an escape as a breezy spring day in a virtual reality simulation.
Fortune, The Best Books of 2020, according to Fortune Staff

While there are many parallels to our current climate, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is a hopeful read that provides a "Black Mirror" like warning of new technology without the heavy feeling of dread. Green gives nuance to the privileges of escapism with humor and grace through main characters taking a chance on hope, even if it is beautifully foolish.
USA Today

A raucous, boldly inventive tale of alien technology, social media and influencers, the limits of the human mind, and the lengths humans will go to get what they want. Even after a satisfying ending, readers will have much to think about.
Booklist (starred review)

A book about people pursuing second acts after a traumatic crisis is pretty timely - and such a book, filled with compassion, bravery, smart mobs and stupid ones, and a hell of a metaphor for late-stage capitalism, besides.
Cory Doctorow

Fills me with hope.
Ashley C. Ford, Elle

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor builds in every way on the thrills of the first book, featuring twists that are even twistier, mysteries that are even more mysterious, and, most impressive of all, solutions to those mysteries that are as interesting as their set-ups. This is a book that thinks deeply and wisely about fame, wealth, the internet, and the future of humanity, but also, and I m not sure