Posts tagged book
Quick Reviews: Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers
Jan 18th
Outliers is a typically engaging and thought-provoking work from Malcolm Gladwell. His case studies make a compelling case that cultural conditioning, personal commitment, and timing are critical determinants of success that are typically overlooked in favor of celebrating unique talent.
We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that’s the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all.
The book suggests an updated version of Horatio Alger’s stories, in which broader social awareness of trends and opportunities can help more Bill Gates (and Malcolm Gladwells) rise to the surface. In light of our flattening world and the decline of generational mobility in the United States, it would help to set aside the ideal of individual genius and recognize the support systems that allow genius to flourish.
Mocket Research: Reasons for purchasing Sarah Palin’s new book
Nov 25th
[among those buying "Going Rogue" (Q11=1)]
Q12a. What was your primary reason for buying this book? (please select one response)
- 27% Looking for the tough cliches the MSM doesn’t want you to read
- 13% Cutting out photos to spruce up tattered Anita Bryant calendar
- 10% Researching next Russian history term paper
- 8% Nervously searching for veiled personal threats
- 6% Hoping to find definitive spelling of “youbetcha” to settle Scrabble argument
- 6% Able to exchange unread copy of “Faith of My Fathers” for Palin credit
- 5% Saving $99,971 in speaker fees for my trade group
- 5% Learning tips on how to score with professional snowmobile racers
- 5% Delighted to find folksy frontier wisdom printed on something besides beaver pelts
- 4% Mistaken for Tina Fey’s SNL tell-all
- 4% Throwing the bums in DC out, one revenge book at a time
- 3% Protecting our Constitutional rights to buy shit we don’t need
- 2% (Various chants / slogans ending in exclamation points)
- 2% Don’t Know
[among those not buying "Going Rogue" (Q11=2)]
Q12b. What was the primary reason you decided not to buy this book? (please select one reponse)
- 30% Not fully vetted by Oprah’s book club
- 14% Fully expect MoveOn.org to email line-by-line quotes from now until 2012
- 11% Following Sarah’s lead to be well read by avoiding reading
- 9% Waiting for the movie … not the porno, but the other “Going Rogue” movie
- 7% No index, no ego browsing, no dice
- 5% There can be only one “Maverick,” and Tom Cruise had me at Top Gun
- 5% Holding out for a REALLY batshit crazy governor’s memoir from Blago
- 4% Reading a political autobiography feels dangerously like becoming informed
- 4% Already sold out at my compound
- 3% Currently outsourcing all my reading to India
- 3% Jealous that another pretty conservative is more popular than Noam Chomsky
- 2% Book sales are for closers!
- 2% (Various expressions of solidarity with wolves)
- 1% Don’t Know
Quick Reviews: Craig Ferguson’s American on Purpose
Feb 18th
Posted by wae in Books
No comments
For once it’s nice to read about a celebrity who experiences success and notoriety after their bout with drugs and alcoholism. I love Ferguson’s humor, and am only slightly disappointed that more of it doesn’t come through on the page. His personality comes across best when the story is rooted in Scotland, physically or metaphorically.
As youthful debauchery transitions into growing celebrity, it is perhaps inevitable that the book loses some of its anarchic self-awareness and slips into something of a procedural for unlikely success. But I found it impossible to stop reading this breezy and engaging story, spun with an outsider’s perspective that avoids many of the usual tropes of an American rags-to-riches tale.
Genuinely moving and insightful, the book serves as reminder to follow your interests, even (or especially) when they lead to unfamiliar territory.