The Fence Climber 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’s framework for human behavior — laid out in his 1976 essay “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” — has never felt more relevant. We live in an era where the appearance of intelligence is easier than ever to manufacture. Genuine intelligent behavior — the kind that creates real value for both the individual and society — is rarer.

Two forces converged to bring us here. The removal of friction atrophied the capacities it once built. The collapse of presence — replaced by constant distraction, ego, and the outsourcing of thought — did the rest.

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.

The Fence Climber arrives in 2027.