Customer Reviews

Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career, and Financial Security (An Uncle Eric Book)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Do not confuse the 3 star rating with a negative evaluation. Quite the opposite is true. However when reading a series like this one must put them all into perspective.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book. It was just too short, it was overpriced for the length of the text and it is simply the tip of a much larger iceburg of political, social and historical thought that makes you close it saying "is that all there is, I want more, give me MORE!" Very well done actually, because it draws you into the other eight books in the series, and if you do not have them I highly recommend getting them all before you start.

I began by reading Mr. Maybury's "Are you Liberal or Conservative, or just confused?" Which I rated at five stars and was instantly hooked. I ordered the rest of the collection (the other eight) in one batch so as to get them all together so I could get started reading them in his recommended sequence as soon as possible.

This book however was no more than an hour read or so and left me starving and anxious to get into the rest of the soup.

His books are actualy fun to read and easily pull you into the world of "Uncle Eric." His considerable talents to educate, fasincate and bring the subject down to a desktop level of understanding, helping you to contemplate what was, what is and what should be in poltics, the economy, morality, education, justice and many other subjects is refreshing.

I have since moved on to "What ever happened to penny candy?" and am just as captivated by it as the last two. This first book sets the basic foundation for all his others, which is that there are models out there that we each react to. Regardless if it is moral, social, poltical, educational, family life, community standards and the like. There are good ones and there are bad ones. There are historically proven models and there are new age individuals who want to tear many of the existing models down and rebuild them sort of speak in their own image or opinion of how things should be. This can be good or it can be devistating on our citizenry and our children. So it is vitally important to understand models in general and to create beneficial models for ourselves and society. Needless to say we are not doing very well in many areas, but fair in others.

In any case this is the starting line and the finish line is eight books away. I highly recommend Mr. Maybury's books for anyone from any background, persuasion and/or political party. If nothing else they make you think. Aristotle said, or was it Socrates? In any case one of them said, "an unexamined life is not worth living," so read these books and ponder his simple assertions against your own beleifs and ideals.

I understand he is writing more books along this same line about the world Wars and such, for our future enjoyment, I will more than likely order them as well.

A great series to read and enjoy. Good job Mr. Maybury.

Maybury begins in discussing mental models or paradigms and how all data we obtain used to support or work with our internal models and how everyone has them and the failure of many educators to understand when obtaining data. We build models, sort data and there's an excellent outline of rules to weigh the evidence. Rather than simply trust the experts, we need to look more towards the hard sciences at least in business and financial security. Now to learn and teach models, in many cases simple stories are more effective than technical data.

Two important models of Maybury are the Austrian economics, which can be read in F.A. Hayek's book, "The Road to Serfdom" and Ludwig von Mises, "Planned Chaos," and the model of old British common law, which can be read in Maybury's "What Ever Happen To Justice." While most educations do not include models, the advice is to determine models, and in doing so, Maybury gives excellent advice or steps to obtain one and gathering evidence and a working hypothesis. I've read just about the same method in a more philosophical tone by others such as Ken Wilber and find this significant advice. And see if the model predicts to some accuracy and that it can be tested against other models you already do know.

The warning is given to avoid tautology and circular reasoning, which many fall prey to. To watch our for cognitive dissonance or emotional blockage to anyone that challenges your model and to always refrain from absolutism and certainty so you can refrain from the trap of cognitive dissonance with the flexibility and ability to grow in paradigm shifts or model changes. When noticing bad and/or evil actions it is the model behind the actions and data that you need to question. The idea here is that models can merge and become integral as in alchemy and wisdom. In this the LLC or limited liability company represents a bad model, an artificial privilege at the expense of others and distorts the stock markets.

Then there is excellent advice on how to acquire helpful models in business and personal character. And since the prosperous employee model has since folded from today's large government and taxes, owning a business can more advantageous, as well as a college degree, developing skills, staying clear from dept., owning assets free from debts, that is better to own a smaller estate free from debt that a large one in high credit, recognizing investments average 4% for stability, investing in short term, watching the world situations for stability, and most important is never to assume your models are complete, always be ready to refine them and consider new models.

This book is written to educate teens and meets/exceeds expectations. Wish I would have known this information when I was a teen. I would have made wiser decisions. I read this book and will give the series to my 13 year old son.
This series of books is a great primer and provides a strong foundation in finance, investments, history, career, etc. Richard Maybury: job well done!

This book is absolutely priceless for teaching how to get ahead. It is very insightful into how to save, how much to save and what are the safest investments.

Best Book I've ever read on Economics. Should be in every school system.

...on a business degree. This series of books will actually teach how the world works instead of some ridiculous theory that doesn't actually apply. Moreover, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to be taught by "Professors" without real world experience. The models presented in these books will give you a simple way to look at the world. After traveling to 40 different countries and talking with natives of those countries, historians, financial advisors, economists, etc. I have personally found these books to be true. No amount of University education could teach what these books will. You can debate college graduates in any country and completely amaze them. A common response is "Wow, I thought you were a dumb American. Where did you learn this..?" I cannot say enough good about this series. Keep up the good work Mr Maybury!!!

I plan to give all of my grand kids this book and the others in the series as they reack the age ig 14.

This is one of the best in the series. Get the whole series and give
it to a young person attending the terrible public schools it will help
them untangle the fallacies and propaganda they are taught.
Ron Paul 2012

This is the first of a series of books by Richard J. Maybury, who calls himself "Uncle Eric". In his series, Maybury delves into some very important subjects. He has a very agreeable writing style that disguises the fact that he is discussing some extremely serious stuff. While the books are catered to a younger audience, I don't find his writing to be at all elementary. He does explain the definition of certain words and events that most adults are intimately familiar with, which may take some getting used to. There's a good reason these books are intended for the younger ones, and parents should be all means try to give these books to their children while they're still young. Once one is grown, it is much tougher to receive new information. These books are by no means politically correct and may be hard for older ones to accept. Still, I don't hesitate to recommend the series to anyone, regardless of age. The insight the author has shouldn't be missed merely because it was intended for fourteen-year-olds--adults need this stuff just as much as they do.

Now I'll give some time to discussing this particular book itself. Part One of the book is entitled "How the Mind Works". In this highly revelatory part of the book, Maybury explains how we as humans create "models" of how we think the world around us works. Probably the best way to describe Maybury's viewpoint is let him say it in his own words. From Chapter Two:

"A model is a mental picture of how the world works. Sometimes models are called paradigms.
"When someone drops an old model and adopts a new one, this is called a paradigm shift.
"Most of us don't realize it, but we devote a lot of time and effort to testing and improving our models, or paradigms, so we have a lot of faith in them. Models are rugged. They are not infallible, but they are tough.
"I believe one of the most important things we should all learn at a very early age is, models are how we think, they are the way we understand how the world works.
"As we go through life we build these very complex pictures in our minds of how the world works--and we constantly refer back to them, matching incoming date against our models. That's how we make sense of things."

Maybury spends much time on this subject, explaining how reluctant we are to change our models--even when data goes against them. To be honest, we human beings are quite stingy. We don't like to realize that we didn't have it all together. It's easier to continue trusting in an erroneous idea than to toss it out when it seems questionable. Maybury explains how we can avoid these pitfalls ourselves--and how we can see other people make these mistakes and attempt to help them.

Part Two is entitled "The Best Model for Success". This part is basically just practical applications of Part One. Maybury gives tips on how one can achieve financial success. We are living in unpredictable days, and Maybury is quite aware of that. He devotes quite a lot of time to explaining how we can still get by (and even thrive) with a big government that makes life increasingly difficult. There is a lengthy chapter with a list of areas of experience that Maybury recommends to prepare one for the business word. Throughout this part, Maybury recommends many books as an additional read, as well as recommending particular organizations for investing, etc.

To summarize, this book is great read, as it lays the foundation for the remainder of the "Uncle Eric" series. Young and old alike will glean valuable insight from Maybury's well-thought book.

This book is awesome! If you have children in high school or college...this book is a must read. I'm probably going to order the entire series I liked it so much.