Customer Reviews

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a fun little book chock full of wise sayings gleaned from episodes of the original Star Trek. The original was not a space opera, it was a futurized series of life's lessons, very carefully crafted. Each episode had a heavy-duty message embedded within--and not very hard to spot either. This book does not necessarily include these thematic messages, but it does excerpt a number of pithy, humorous quotes from the characters. It is highly reminiscent of a poster my dentist has in his office of Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I expect there is also a book with that name, but I haven't read it. These words of wisdom also remind me of Dr. Akin's famous "Laws of Spacecraft Design" which you can access on the internet. With his permission, I used several in my book "The Knowledge Management and Information Technology Encyclopedia" (published by the Government and not for sale). My favorite submits from Marinaccio's delightful book are:


Gossip is often confused with conversation. In fact it often takes the place of conversation. Take gossip away from some folks and they would turn into mimes. p.61

When everyone is responsible, ultimately no one is responsible. p.52

Idiot-proofing is also genius-proofing. p.94

Great people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about people. p.61

Attitude is the top priority; after attitude, talent or gifts are important. p.64

As Yogi Berra, the great Yankees catcher, once said, "You can observe a lot, just by watching." p.23

A person who understands a rule knows when to break it. p.50

Competent people know which rules to follow and which to ignore ... when people of good judgement are allowed to exercise their insights, good results usually follow. When people=s hands are tied, they are ineffective. p.94

The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play. pp. 8, 53, & 54

Difficult choices expose how we truly feel. What we believe deep inside. p.39

The most important time to help someone is when they need it. p.8

For man, Utopia is endless challenge. p.17

Okay, I confess: I was amused by this book, and since I suspect that that was most of its intention, perhaps I'm being too harsh in giving it only two stars. And yes, there were some legitimately thought-provoking ideas to be found...but only a few. If you can find this book used, cheap, as I did, it's definitely worthwhile for a lark. But there is DEFINITELY NOT enough book here to be worth list price. It is grossly overpriced to capitalize on the Star Trek market, and that's the source of my dissatisfaction.

This book was not only fun to read, but it made me think I've missed out on a lot by not being more of a Trekkie! I bought it for a Trekkie friend, then had to borrow it back.

We tend to forget all the lessons we learned watching the original Star Trek series, and Dave Marinaccio brings it all back with a lot of humor.

This book is a must for any original Star Trek fan. You can read it in one sitting, and then your friends will all be borrowing it. You may want to buy an extra just in case.

as the tittle says, i cant really say anything that the other reviewers haven't said themselves.
all i can say is that at first i was expecting it to be kind of corny, like if you encounter an alien energy life form set your phaser to heat to destroy it or if you encounter a giant rock thing use cement to heal its wounds.
but it wasn't anything like that, it was good, very entertaining thoughts and ideas about the lessons learned from star trek and how they are related to the authors real life.

defiantly a must read for any star trek fan.

This is not a 'complete' work on the subject,but it is a very good way to get people to know that there was "meaning in Star Trek" (like a past book had said).There are things that were learned by watching Star Trek,and this book gives a taste of this.The way to read this book (or another of its kind) is to first understand that Star Trek put out messages in the neat form of a fiction TV show--real types of problems in a well done TV program. This book is a good read,and worth the buy.

Do you like Star Trek? Do you really, REALLY like Star Trek? Do you weave some concept of Star Trek into each day of your existence or even each conversation? If so, then this book will be a great little read for you. If not, then stay away.

Strangely, this is easily the most meandering book I've ever read in my life. Basically, author Dave Marinaccio starts talking about Star Trek, in trying to relate its themes to situations within his own life, and doesn't stop for about 120 pages. There are no real chapters, no laid-out themes, just the author gabbing it up with a line break ending each train of thought.

That being said, this is still a rather interesting read for the hard-core (or at least very close to it) Trekkie. Though some of Marinaccio's thoughts/ideas are a stretch, others do indeed strike a chord and will remind you why the show is such a favorite. The real "plus", though, is Marinaccio's subtle humor throughout. It is like reading a book from "The Sports Guy" (Bill Simmons) in the sporting world. The material may be so-so, but the colorful description and delightfully glib commentary make it worthwhile.

Thus, while I wouldn't necessarily rush down to your local bookstore/library to get this book, if you are a hard-core Trekkie and come across it, please give it a look. It's very light reading (one night, two at max) and will, at the very least, make you smile on a dozen or more occasions.

There are many lessons in the various Star Trek series, some of them obvious, but many others more subtle. In this book, Marinaccio describes several of the lessons that he has learned from Star Trek, although he mentions the movies and subsequent series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation his focus is on the original series.
Marinaccio has worked at many jobs; the two that he refers to most often are in marketing/advertising and working with mentally retarded adults. Quite frankly, a reasonable and logical comparison between Star Trek and marketing was something that I would have dismissed out of hand. However, in most cases Marinaccio is able to carry off the comparisons, making them sound reasonable and causing this Star Trek fan(atic) to think of ways in which the concepts in Star Trek could be applied to my world scenarios.
This is a fun book for fans of Star Trek, for it was always much more than a series of television shows. It was a positive vision for the future, where challenges were met and overcome using non-conventional and original means. Through it, millions of people were inspired to think at least a little bit differently about the world in general and their individual circumstances in particular.

This book is a light-hearted examination of important issues in American culture. In Star Trek, we see racism, sexism, career choices,and pretty much anything else you would ever need to know, explored.We aren't always given the pat answer - indeed, part of the vision is that we never reach perfect unity.With Kirk's crew we meet new races - and forget that we ARE different races. We cease being black, white, yellow or red and attain the wonderful experience of being Human.

I admit it. I loved anything to do with star trek. I was not sure I would like this book, but I found this book very entertaining and interesting. Even though most of the material on television is junk, the relationship between real life and some of the material in the Star Trek series makes logical sense. I think Mr. Spock would agree with my evaluation. There are philosophical and social lessons to be learned from many of the episodes of Star Trek. This little book is for anyone who grew up with loving Star Trek.

Rating: 4 stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Predator Hunter: A warrior's Memoir)