Shift (Silo, 2) — Alex Priest

Highlights

He had seen videos of what Charlotte did, camera feeds from the drones and hen from the missiles as they were guided in to their targets. The video quality was amazing. You could see people turning to look up to the heavens in surprise, could see the last moments of their lives, could cycle through the video frame by frame and decide—after the fact—if this had been your man or not. He knew what his sister did, what she dealt with.

The last two weeks had been like summer camp, where being around the same people almost every hour o the day brought a level of familiarity and intimacy that knowing them casually for years could never match. There was something about forced confinement that brought people together. Beyond the obvious, physical ways.

Learned this the hard way during the pandemic. Also a good analog to startup life.

“Predict the inevitable,” she said, “and you’re bound to be right one day.”

Often, it was the man with the most promises who got the chits, not the one who made people better.

Life at its essence, Jimmy learned, was a series of meals and bowel movements. There was some sleep mixed in as well, but little effort was required for that. He didn’t learn this great Rule of the World until the water stopped flushing. Nobody thinks about their bowel movements until the water stops flushing. And then it’s all one thinks about.