Why shouldn't neighbourhoods change? Why is wearing a suit a good way to quit smoking? Why do people think that if you do one thing you're against something else? Is monogamy a trick? Why should making the city more fun for you and your friends be a super-noble political goal? Why does a computer last only three years? How often should you see your parents? What do spam filters tell us about the world? How should we behave at parties? Is marriage getting easier? What do gyms say about the way we live now? Why do we sometimes feel like frauds? In short, pithy chapters ('Gentrification', 'People's Protective Bubbles Are OK', 'A Mind Is Not a Terrible Thing to Measure'), Misha Glouberman tells us what he has learned about life, tackling the most trivial of questions alongside the more important ones and revealing that they have more in common than you might think. From thoughts about conflict resolution in the Middle East to observations about loud music in rowdy neighbourhoods, from questions on the function of spam filters to ideas on how to edit our own lives, "The Chairs Are Where the People Go" is an invigorating, entertaining handbook for the times we live in.