The answer to this question only peeks through Markoff’s authorized prose, but against Brand’s gray account of himself, the occasional glimpse of other people’s perceptions reveals a lot. What else do you need to know about a man who habitually induced his Whole Earth Catalog coworkers to play a game with padded swords just so he, with his experience and size, could beat the crap out of them? Arrogant, lazy, pretentious, and mean: Between the lines, it sure sounds like this guy sucks. This admittedly uncharitable lens brings Whole Earth into sharper focus.