Last Friday (December 12th), the GrepBeat Book Club gathered for a ninth meetup, and the last one of 2025. We switched up the venue this time, abandoning GrepBeat HQ and meeting up at Durham’s Yonderlust Café (a nice little coffee shop off Main Street that doubles as an outdoor apparel store and a sanctuary for plaid-hooved* Christmas moose, pictured above).
Up for discussion this time around was “But What If We’re Wrong? (Thinking About The Present As If It Were The Past),” by culture critic/essayist Chuck Klosterman. It was a bit of a departure from our typical focus on tech/startup-themed reads, but since we all but exhausted that surprisingly shallow genre in our first eight meetings, variety may be the new name of the game.
As for when that variety will surface—what book we’ll cover next and when—we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, as always, here’s a recap of our ninth book: “But What If We’re Wrong?”
*”Hoofed” is “more correct,” but I prefer “hooved” and this is how change happens
The Book in 150 Words
“But What If We’re Wrong?” is a complex series of thought experiments stemming from a fairly simple idea: that what we think of as true or representative of our culture is unlikely to be thought of that same way hundreds of years from now.
Klosterman more or less establishes this as a fundamental truth (or at least extremely likely) and then embarks on a quest to identify both things we could be wrong about and things that will define our time.
This exercise is split up into sections. The author examines things like what one figure might define all rock music, what scientific truths might become outdated, which TV show will serve as the most lasting glimpse into real life, and so on.
Written with Klosterman’s trademark quirky wisdom, it’s equal parts thought-provoking, maddening, and—insofar as it demonstrates the value of debating with openness to being wrong—surprisingly instructive.
What Book Club Thought
We had a fairly light gathering last Friday (holiday schedules are packed, we know), and I’m a bit biased this time around because I’ve long been a fan of Klosterman’s work. Attempting to set that bias aside (I’d recommend this read to anyone with intellectual/cultural curiosity), I’d say Book Club found “But What If We’re Wrong?” to be enjoyable and thought-provoking, but a tad frustrating as well.
The frustration comes from the fact that some of this book’s sections dip into rambling and flirt with losing focus. Attacking the same general question across different verticals (music, television, science, sports, etc.) can become somewhat repetitive, and perhaps in his attempt to avoid that issue, Klosterman can veer off on convoluted side quests before circling back to his key points.
With that said, there was some agreement that his generally witty approach keeps things from getting dry (don’t skip the footnotes if you decide to read this one), and the thought exercises at the core of the book were appreciated. It’s generally fun to “think about the present as if it were the past,” as Klosterman’s subtitle suggests, and the process through which the book does this teaches, to some extent, a rational and even kind method of debate.
4/5 stars
Notable Quotes
- “History is defined by people who don’t really understand what they are defining.”
- Editor’s take: This isn’t just a quip, but a pretty interesting observation about the “best” of any one thing being defined by people who don’t know about that thing. Klosterman’s example is basically that anyone who really knows architecture can probably name a handful of greats, but someone who doesn’t know it will default to assuming Frank Lloyd Wright is best. Thus, those who don’t know what they’re talking about prop up architecture’s GOAT.
- “To matter forever, you need to matter to those who don’t care. And if that strikes you as sad, be sad.”
- Editor’s take: Kind of an extension of the first quote/concept, but I like this as well.
- “Is it possible that we are mechanically improving our comprehension of principles that are all components of a much larger illusion, in the same way certain eighteenth-century Swedes believed they had finally figured out how elves and trolls caused illness?”
- Editor’s take: This playful quote alluding to “certain eighteenth-century Swedes” may actually encapsulate the book better than any other single line. Basically, a perfect understanding of how trolls cause illness will falter if, 100 years later, we find out trolls don’t exist.
- “We are socially conditioned to understand the world through storytelling.”
- Editor’s take: Yeah!
- “He was the ultra-hedgehog….”
- Editor’s take: This is a quote about Ronald Reagan.
What’s Next For Book Club
Wouldn’t you like to know? We’ll tell you in 2026!
