The central insight of this book is that the current crisis is fundamentally a crisis of understanding. This crisis is not only characterized by a lack of truly significant ideas but also, amidst the race for innovations and high-frequency trading, by the spread of a kind of mental sclerosis: today's understanding of the world increasingly relies on lifeless models, risking the loss of its competence in reality. However, a critique of model thinking cannot itself adhere to models. The importance of understanding our contemporary world is underscored by the fact that globalization cannot spread without model thinking. Even if everyone experiences the dynamics of globalization to varying degrees, that does not necessarily mean it is being adequately understood.