Welcome to Agentland

About the book

Every December, the world dissolves into a festive fog of peppermint and algorithmically selected holiday playlists, and I find myself thinking that used books are an underrated gift.

Used books are wonderful. They're democratic, affordable, and pleasantly scented with the aroma of previous owners who apparently read while eating toast. They also contain ideas, which is more than can be said for most of what clutters our online shopping carts.

This year, something unusual happened. I wrote one.

Welcome to Agentland is a small attempt to explain AI agents to everyday people. It isn't written for futurists. It's for anyone who wants to understand what on earth is happening inside their inbox. The book is warm, curious, and entirely free of diagrams. It even contains jokes. (The diagrams union refused to participate.)

Why a book

Giving someone a book these days is a radical act. In a world where everything is designed to be swiped, binged, skipped, or recommended "because you watched something vaguely similar in 2018," handing someone a book is like offering a small paper shield and saying: "Here. Use this to defend your attention for a few minutes."

And what better time than a quiet afternoon? Those moments when you're waiting for cookies to bake, or relatives to arrive, or relatives to leave, or the New Year's countdown while pretending not to be sleepy at 10:17 p.m.

During these moments, a book is a marvelous thing. It sits there patiently, asking nothing of you except the occasional chuckle and a warm lap to rest upon. It does not autoplay. It does not suggest the next chapter based on your reading history.

Who it's for

Anyone curious. A teenager wondering about the future. A friend who still remembers life before infinite scrolling. A colleague who keeps hearing "AI agent" in meetings and quietly suspects nobody else knows what it means either. Or yourself, for those evenings when you'd like to think about something interesting without being shouted at by an algorithm.

How to get it

Kindle works. Paperback is ideal. The audiobook is on the way, for people who prefer their ideas narrated while folding laundry.

Used books. New ideas. A pleasant, quiet rebellion against a world increasingly determined to keep us from sitting still with our own thoughts.