{"id":18,"date":"2026-05-24T12:16:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nathaliemeier.lu\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2026-05-24T12:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:16:26","slug":"the-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nathaliemeier.lu\/the-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Fence Climber<\/em>&nbsp;starts with a simple scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group of families. One ball. A Sunday afternoon game. One person climbs fences to keep it alive. Another destroys the ball entirely rather than accept elimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carlo Cipolla&#8217;s framework for human behavior \u2014 laid out in his 1976 essay &#8220;The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity&#8221; \u2014 has never felt more relevant. We live in an era where the appearance of intelligence is easier than ever to manufacture. Genuine intelligent behavior \u2014 the kind that creates real value for both the individual and society \u2014 is rarer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two forces converged to bring us here. The removal of friction atrophied the capacities it once built. The collapse of presence \u2014 replaced by constant distraction, ego, and the outsourcing of thought \u2014 did the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book draws on Cipolla, the Roman Stoics, OECD research, and thirty years of watching how people actually behave under pressure. It is a call to attention. And a practical argument for reclaiming what we are quietly surrendering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Fence Climber<\/em>\u00a0arrives in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/thefenceclimber.substack.com\">Stay close<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fence Climber&nbsp;starts with a simple scene. A group of families. One ball. A Sunday afternoon game. One person climbs fences to keep it alive. Another destroys the ball entirely rather than accept elimination. Carlo Cipolla&#8217;s framework for human behavior \u2014 laid out in his 1976 essay &#8220;The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity&#8221; \u2014 has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The book - Nathalie Meier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Fence Climber\u00a0starts with a simple scene.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nathaliemeier.lu\/the-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The book - Nathalie Meier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Fence Climber\u00a0starts with a simple scene.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nathaliemeier.lu\/the-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nathalie Meier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T12:16:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/the-book\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/the-book\\\/\",\"name\":\"The book - Nathalie Meier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-24T12:16:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-24T12:16:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Fence Climber\u00a0starts with a simple scene.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/the-book\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/the-book\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/the-book\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The book\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nathalie Meier\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Nathalie Meier\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cropped-book-illustration-scaled-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cropped-book-illustration-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"Nathalie Meier\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nathaliemeier.lu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The book - 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