Author: The 32
The 32
Reading time: 19 minutes
Synopsis
The Fax Club Experiment (2025) starts with a simple question: What happens when 100 strangers slow down, stay anonymous, and answer one deep question each week for a year? It’s a calm protest against too much noise. It’s a story about being curious, being brave, and finding real ways to connect with people again. If you want real talks in a world full of quick chats, you will wish you were part of this experiment.
What’s in it for me? Learn about a group of people who built a community by slowing down and going analog.
Emails, text messages, chat groups, Zoom meetings, phone calls – we use these ways to talk to each other now. But do they give us enough time to think well and have good ideas?
What if we went slower? What if we used old ways, like a fax machine? What if we took seven days to think before replying? This is the idea behind the Fax Club. It was a group that wanted to spend a year thinking and talking with more care.
In this summary, you will learn the rules of the club. You will also see the types of questions they discussed. And you will find out how it changed the people who stayed until the end.
Blink 1 – The year of the fax
It started with a feeling. What if people still cared about words, questions, and meaning? What if, in a world that only cares about being fast and doing things quickly, we took time to think deeply once a week? This is how Fax Club started. It was partly an experiment, partly a protest, and partly a way to show love for being curious.
The rules were quite simple. There were 52 weeks and 52 questions. One hundred brave people joined. Every Friday, a question came by fax. Members had one week to reply. Their answers had to be honest and from the heart, not just showing off. Everything was anonymous. No one used their real name or told about themselves. Each person just had a number. Being anonymous became a great advantage. Because they didn’t need to protect their image, people wrote with true honesty, deep thought, and kindness. This is rare to see online.
What happened was that people started paying attention again, in a calm and special way. The answers were not long essays or arguments. They were personal thoughts, strong statements, short poems, and late-night ideas. They were sometimes funny, sometimes very honest, and often deep. The best answers did not try to “win” the question. They made the question more interesting. Fax Club taught everyone that a good question doesn’t end a talk. It helps the talk continue.
Using a fax machine in 2024 meant you had to be serious. Slowly, some people left. Others were asked to leave. In the end, only 32 strong members stayed. What they went through changed from a strange social test into something life-changing. It became a community built on being curious and trusting each other.
One early question was, Why did you join? Some wanted to think in new ways. Others wanted to find people like them. One person joined to hear their dead father’s old fax machine sound again. Another joined “to change their way of thinking.” One member said it “saved my life.” Another joined because they said, “it was a crazy idea – and I wanted to be with people who like crazy ideas.”
That’s the main idea of Fax Club’s power. It did not promise answers. It promised questions that made people think hard. It also reminded them that in a world of noise and distractions, being curious and thinking deeply might be the most unusual and important thing to do.
Blink 2 – Better ideas through seeds, coffee, and courage
In the first few months, the Fax Club’s way of thinking became clearer. Many questions asked members to think differently. They made people rethink common ideas about work and daily life. For example, “How could a three-hour workday help your business grow?”
Or, “How would you create a work culture where people are not afraid to fail?” The answers to these questions often showed a happy truth: new ideas grow best in a friendly and slightly unusual place. One member thought of a “garden culture” with three steps. First is the Seedling phase. Here, an idea gets sunlight and peace. No quick criticisms. Just space for the person to form the idea. Next is the Bud stage. Here, people are very open with their feedback. Everyone tries to challenge the idea, like a storm. The creator just listens and writes notes. Last is the Mature Shrub. The idea is strong now. You can use it or save it. The important thing is the timing: be gentle at first, then be strict. This way, mistakes help growth instead of causing hurt.
In week eight, there was a task that many members found difficult. At your next coffee shop visit, be brave and ask for a 10% discount. If they ask why, just say you wanted to try. It sounds silly. But then you are there, and your hands get sweaty.
One member waited twice, then finally tried. Their voice was a little shaky. They explained it was an experiment, showed their shaking hands, and the shop became very kind. The barista said yes. She also did more than expected and paid for the next customer’s drink too. Everyone left smiling, full of coffee, and a bit proud. Another person sang for a discount at a tea shop. They turned the line into a small show. The big lesson was not about money. It was about how a small, honest request can make a place friendlier. It showed how kindness often spreads.
This type of personal connection also showed in the answers for week ten’s question. The question was: Imagine you lose your social media for a year, but your business is doing better than ever. Why? One person focused completely on their work. They made things worth buying instead of looking for likes. They worked with people who cared about real creations more than what was popular. Another person enjoyed meeting people offline. For three months, they had many breakfasts, brunches, and lunches. They built real friendships. Work then came to them through these new friends.
If you put these ideas together, you get a simple, friendly guide. It helps you think in new ways and build stronger relationships. It’s a good way to describe Fax Club’s magic: a small experiment, a moment of honesty, and suddenly you feel bigger and more open.
Blink 3 – The power of tiny fixes and everyday rules
Has a door ever gotten stuck because of a tiny stone? Small things can sometimes make a big difference. So, what is one tiny thing you would remove to make life easier?
Some members disagreed with this. One member said their “pebble” was the idea that there’s just one big problem to fix. They felt that if you fix one, another will appear. The adult way is to learn how to deal with problems as they come. This means, don’t spend time fighting what you cannot change.
Other members wanted to get rid of small, annoying thoughts in their heads. For example, the thought that time is always running out. They felt that if this quiet worry went away, they would do more. And life would feel less rushed.
In week 15, the club was asked to share their “rules for life.” The answers included simple advice, like carrying a small notebook that you actually use. One member has a kindness project. They write thank-you notes to people who do important work but are not always noticed. Another member has a list of ten points. It is like a guide for a calmer mind: know what you need, accept not knowing everything, spend time outside, own less but love what you have more, make time for fun, and see feelings as helpful information.
A third person focused their main rule on listening. Not just pretending to listen. But truly listening, side-by-side, long enough to fully understand someone’s view. This builds trust more than anything else.
The club also liked experiments you could feel. So, there was another social challenge: ask a second question. “How are you?” is a common question. But if you don’t accept the quick “fine” answer and ask, “But how are you, really?”, you invite someone to share more. One member tried this at their usual coffee shop. The owner gave the usual polite reply. Then, when asked gently again, they talked about the slow summer, the long work hours, and the worry of running the business when staff were on holiday. Their talk lasted longer. They shared stories about work, worries, and what helped them. The sandwiches tasted better because the feeling between them was friendlier.
Another member shared a simple tip: add an observation to the question. For example, “You look energetic today” or “You look happier.” Then, watch the person relax because someone truly noticed them.
It’s good to have a few kind rules you can use quickly. And if you are not sure, ask one more curious question. It’s amazing how a small action can often lead to a big change.
Blink 4 – Stop apologizing and stay human
Earlier parts of The Fax Club Experiment were about being brave and connecting with others. This part is about finding balance. It’s about choosing what to stop, what to follow, and how to stay true to yourself in a fast-paced world.
The group was told to spend a lot of money – twenty thousand pounds – on their personal growth. They did not rush to famous universities or hire well-known coaches. One member wanted to spend three months working as an artist in a screen-printing studio. There would be no clients, no bills, no deadlines. Just ink, color, and the fun of getting messy again. It was not about being ambitious. It was about allowing themselves to play, to create without a clear goal, and to feel time pass slowly instead of quickly. The surprise? Two years before, they had the money but no time. Now, they had the time but no money. They wrote, “There is no perfect time. You just have to try.”
Another member planned to spend only a small part of the money on a music course. They would let the rest of the money go. This was because maybe the real lesson was to want less and only agree to what felt truly right.
For week 33, it was time to think creatively again. Imagine ten years from now. There are as many robots as people. The question was, “How have you prepared your life for this future?” One person talked about a business where robots did logical tasks. People did tasks needing feelings and understanding. Robots did jobs needing intelligence. People did jobs needing emotional intelligence.
Others chose to completely disconnect. They had meetings outside, without phones or internet. Just two people talking until new ideas grew naturally. A third member created rules. They said to only use robots that people could understand. And only if these robots made the planet better. The result was not a fear of technology. Instead, it was a greater respect for things robots cannot do. These are emotions, creativity, and asking moral questions.
A few weeks later, the club discussed a deep question. How much pleasure should we look for in our lives? Some members said that always trying to find pleasure means you might miss real happiness. They felt that joy is often seen when looking back, not when looking forward. Others focused on opposites. They asked, “How can we know joy if we never feel sadness?” One member suggested looking for other “P” words instead of pleasure: play, passion, purpose, and excitement. And a funny answer described it like a boxing match. The heart and the head were fighting, both sure they were right, and neither wanted to give up.
For many questions, the answers came back to one main idea: trying to understand things better, not just doing more work. Money and pleasure are not the main goals. And getting better does not mean doing things faster.
Blink 5 – The challenge of challenging your perspective
Towards the end, the group faced the “Walk in Their Shoes” challenge. By then, their talks had become more honest and caring. The task seemed simple: spend a week trying to understand a very different point of view. But it felt like being lost in a hall of mirrors.
One member said the experience was very uncomfortable. They felt strange as they tried to accept ideas that strongly disagreed with their own. This made them understand that they often only listen to agree, not to truly understand. They wrote, “I thought I was open-minded, but how open am I, really?” Another member tried to read news from “the other side.” But they found that internet programs (algorithms) kept them in their own usual group of ideas. What they searched for online kept showing them their own ideas. It made it seem like they were getting balanced information. They said, “Even when I tried, the computer programs stopped me.” Their final thought was worrying: disagreement is not just about feelings. It is made by design.
One member decided to learn about the “tradwife” movement for a week. These are women who choose traditional roles and housework as a way of life. What started as curiosity became more meaningful. They liked the care and skill in this lifestyle. They learned some recipes. They respected the thought behind it. But then they found a part of that world that said it was the only correct way to live. This made their main belief very clear: freedom means having choices, not forcing them on others. The experiment did not make their opinion stronger. It made it clearer.
Next, the club started to challenge common beliefs. These were “truths” in society that quietly limited people. One business person criticized the strong focus on competition. They called it “a distraction that pretends to be discipline.” When everyone only thinks about beating others, no one creates new things. Another member broke down the idea of the “Good Mother.” They said that always giving up your own needs does not teach children love. It teaches them to feel empty. They said the most important thing a parent can do is to live a complete life themselves, as an example for their children.
As an extra question, members were asked what they learned from Fax Club. People said that being anonymous made them feel free. They found their own voice again, without needing approval from others. One person was amazed at how the club helped them trust their inner feelings. Another felt lighter. They finally saw how much worrying about what others thought had stopped their progress.
The final answers showed a shared feeling of thanks. Thanks for strangers who became friends. Thanks for the calm excitement of finishing a task on time. Thanks for the special feeling of being anonymous but truly understood. One member wrote, “The best answers are not always the loudest. The special thing is to see the world from a slightly different angle.”
After 52 questions, they did not agree on everything. But maybe that was the whole idea. The project was not made for everyone to agree. It was made for curiosity. It was about finding the human part of ourselves beyond what we usually see. And being brave enough, at least once a week, to look at things differently.
Final summary
In this summary of The Fax Club Experiment by The 32, you learned that Fax Club was about enjoying slower life, asking better questions, and feeling human again. For 52 weeks, one hundred strangers thought about topics like failure, new ideas, bravery, kindness, curiosity, and being part of a group. They found that true progress comes from honest thinking, not perfect answers.
By being anonymous, people found closeness. By feeling uncomfortable, they grew. Each task showed the same truth. This included celebrating mistakes, being brave enough to ask for a discount, being quiet, or questioning their own beliefs. The truth is: being open, showing your true self, and being curious build stronger communities than being competitive or always sure.
The experiment shows that meaning is not something you find. It is something we make together, one good question at a time.
Okay, that’s it for this Blink. We hope you enjoyed it. If you can, please take the time to leave us a rating – we always appreciate your feedback. See you in the next Blink.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/the-fax-club-experiment-en