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Aoyama goes to an elementary school in a small, but rapidly expanding town, with its back towards a mountainside. Even though he’s just a child, he already made plans on how to become a full-grown adult. He decided, at the age of 5, to never get mad again. He’s always calm, calculating and disciplined, waking earlier than his parents or his sister. He’s busy every day with research projects, writing and sketching in his notebook, exploring the town with his friend Uchida, going to the cafe and the dentists’ office. It is in the dentists’ office that he first met “the lady” – a mysterious woman that eventually becomes a topic of his research, perhaps the most difficult research of his life. That is saying a lot, considering that one day Aoyama, along with his friends who join him later - Uchida and Hamamoto - decide to investigate a mysterious phenomena that started happening in their city recently – penguins and other unusual creatures appearing in random places and a strange object floating in the forest. Will these science kids be able to solve this mystery and learn along the way? Well, I read the book so I already know the ending. I won’t say much but it my opinion it delivers a great, even if open-ended, conclusion to the story.

Once again, Tomohiko Morimi manages to deliver a fantastic light novel that hooks you on since the very beginning. I absolutely love the atmosphere, I could vividly paint the town Aoyama lives in when reading the book, I constantly made elaborate solutions to Aoyama’s problems, I smiled when he and “the lady” talked, and I felt anger whenever the bully Suzuki messed with Aoyama and Uchida. I adore these kids. It could easily become one of my favourite books.

"I made a record in my notebook of how it felt sitting alone at that window, but reading it over now, I don’t feel like it captured those feelings at all. I wasn’t able to reproduce it accurately. I’ve only felt like that once in my entire life. I have learned it is extremely difficult to write proper account of once-in-a-lifetime experiences."

I think this book has a ton of valuable insights into how you can extract value from online services and improve your lifestyle, by setting rules in place about access to "new tech", recalculating if social media really gives you the promised value or have you fallen into its addiction trap, taking walks and getting bored again to boost creativity and many more. Everyone can pick up this book, read it, and start applying at least some of it's rules in everyday life, which I did too, and I think it's amazing.

However, some ideas presented seem to me like more of a hit or miss and a few come from questionable sources, like financial independence communities or religious groups. On top of that, I think social media giants aren't put through rigorous research and blamed enough. They know about what happens with users and choose not to act up on it. If this point was expanded upon more I think the book would have a bigger impact.

I think Johann Hari did a great job at researching and covering the topic of how the way we currently live in the modern world does a great deal of harm to our minds. We are addicted to the constant flow of information, miserable, often unable to focus on tasks and involuntarily reaching for our smartphones for the so much craved shots of dopamine. It turns out that it's not really an individual issue anymore. In part thanks to our consumerist society, social media giants, food companies, pharmaceutical industry etc. which all have a financial incentive to have the world this way + other environmental factors outside of our control, it's impossible to come out clean out of this mess. As the author states, there isn't a simple solution to this problem. However, there are still certain strategies and techniques that you as an individual can employ to stay happy, healthy and actually focused on what's important, which are also covered here.

The book isn't exactly perfect. Still, in my opinion, more attention should be given to the issues presented in this work. I feel how on personal level it's harder for me to just stop looking at social media or youtube (all of which actually became less social are more like platforms for advertising) and do things that actually matter. I notice that others experience a similar thing themselves and this book is a great start to actually notice and understand the problem. I recommend it wholeheartedly.