How can Margeit revolutionize the world of books?

One of the revolutionary aspects of Margeit lies in its ability to transform the superficial consumption of books into deep and centralized exchanges.

We have often lamented living in a society obsessed with speed, where, for younger generations, the average attention span is alarmingly decreasing. Literary reading for entertainment has generally been supplanted by cinema, which requires less concentration effort thanks to its immediate images. Then, cinema was surpassed by YouTube with its shorter formats and dynamic edits, and YouTube was overtaken by TikTok, offering even shorter and more engaging videos. Attention reached a critical point when, on TikTok, one-minute videos became so boring that some creators introduced formats with two simultaneous videos: a story on top and an entertaining video below, such as video games, to maintain viewers' attention. These platforms, although possessing many qualities and having profoundly transformed much of society in a positive way, also raise issues regarding reflection and its sustainability. It is crucial to learn how to use these revolutionary tools without becoming entirely complacent and without losing the effort of one's intellectual reflection.

The thinking of new generations, in general, has unfortunately bogged down in a form of fixed hyperactivity, increasingly relying on the assistance of these extraordinary tools to function. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, this powerful tool, our thinking could increasingly indulge in a form of deep laziness. Not only is the physical effort of research removed—heading to a shelf, picking up a book, opening it, turning pages, all physical efforts that undoubtedly help cerebral memory regarding the research subject—but thinking itself risks atrophying.

The world of books is not immune to this condition. Thousands of books are published every day, often without taking the care to measure their content, merely reading an online summary, and for the more courageous, reviews that ultimately only reproduce the book's generic lines, jumping from one part to another.

Margeit presents itself precisely as a solution to remedy these non-rewarding behaviors towards books, offering a digital platform that allows its users to collectively reflect on a book by delving into its detailed content. There is no longer room for vague comments or generic reviews; it is rather a place for exchanging detailed thoughts on books, free from sophistry and considering the book as merely a commercial product worthy of only a few words of discussion. You have probably heard of techniques for discussing a book without having read it, methods even taught in recognized institutions. On Margeit, these approaches are inapplicable. We value slow thinking that explores, hesitates, progresses, and is constantly evolving, rather than hyperactive and static thinking, devoid of effort, substance, and aiming for immediate results. Consequently, this hyperactive static thinking is very weakened against ideologies, which require longer periods of reflection. Thanks to the slower progress of thinking, returning to the sources, it will be able, therefore, to develop the subject of its reflection and even surpass it.

‍

Stop treating books like shampoo

‍

Margeit's first advance compared to other platforms is the revaluation of books as objects of thought rather than mere consumer goods. To illustrate this point, let's play a fun game of differences, this time with screenshots: one from an e-commerce site, specifically Amazon, selling shampoo (on the left), and the other from a book review platform, specifically Goodreads (on the right). Can you identify the difference?

‍

‍

If you have trouble discerning the difference, it's because book platforms treat books exactly like any other consumer product. The mentality towards books remains unchanged: users are there to provide excerpts of their impressions of a product and share their personal experiences so that future consumers are influenced, or not, based on the number of stars awarded.

‍

A single point of reference

‍

Related to the first point, Margeit addresses the issue of dispersed discussions about specific books. Comments on books are scattered across various platforms such as social networks, research articles, conferences, and online videos. This dispersion makes it difficult to collect discussions about a particular book. For example, gathering comments on chapter 3 of "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith would be an arduous task. Margeit centralizes all comments and reviews on a reference page, organized by page number.

The mission becomes even more complex when we consider that search engines have difficulty easily identifying implicit citations or references in book passages. While a search engine can easily determine if Book "A" has been cited by Book "B," this depends on explicit references made by the author of Book "B." However, consider the case where the author of Book "B" did not explicitly cite Book "A" but rather presented its ideas, whether well-intentioned or not. Only human knowledge currently has the ability to detect these subtleties of connection. Margeit thus plays the role of a platform allowing individuals to gather their subtle knowledge, preserving it in a common, organized, and visible space.

‍

“Who is currently reading this book?”

‍

Margeit also addresses the challenge of connecting readers who are reading the same book simultaneously, a task often difficult given the diversity of individual readings. To solve this problem, Margeit offers a "reading journey" feature that allows users to collectively read the same book over a determined period. This feature is integrated into the book's reference page, providing easy access to users wishing to join and participate in this synchronized reading.

Thus, Margeit promotes the predominance of slow thinking without necessarily removing the physical effort involved in consulting a paper book, which helps strengthen memory, but above all by encouraging the reader to return to the source of information and always cite their references. This tentative thinking will be shared with other users in the same book, which holds its universality through its abstraction, and can thus grow through collective thought. The book will therefore no longer be a mere consumer product but a support for the mind that does not suffice in itself and needs you to flourish.

‍

“Thought cannot be consumed, it must be saved.”

‍