# _The Quarry_ by Iain Banks #book-report > Lastly, I think it's a very good sign if the various areas of the stuff you know about sort of all fit together. Like biochemistry and engineering fit together, even though they're completely different fields, because they're linked by clearly provable physical laws and mechanisms that make sense and that demonstrably work. I've met some very intelligent people whose thinking is all joined up until you get to religion, and then it's like that's an area that's been fenced off as out-of-bounds, not subject to the rules about proof and likelihood--even plausibility-- that they'd apply as a matter of course in every other area. Yeah, what the fuck is up with religion anyway. > ...you have to partner people in conversations; it's generally supposed to be a cooperative, not an adversarial, process. You're helping each other to feel your way to some sort of shared meaning, not jousting from either side of a fence. This could come in handy at work! > I can't decide if I want to move back up here at some point, or not. I miss it, but Hol says sometimes missing somebody or something is just a natural part of your life, and doesn't mean you absolutely have to go back to that person or place. > Tricky one. Thinking about this in relation to the idea of moving back to Vermont.