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Professor Donald...'s Profile
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Reviews Written by
Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a Practical Optimist" (Boston)
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Curiosity About the Commonplace Yields New Perspectives, November 8, 2009
"You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth." -- Psalm 71:20
Before thinking about buying or reading this book, please be aware that all the articles were originally published in The New Yorker. If you are a loyal reader of that excellent publication, you may well have read all these articles before.
The strength of Mr. Gladwell's writing in these non-fiction articles is his ability to become fascinated with something that most people either don't notice . . . or don't long think about. With the persistence of a terrier, he keeps asking questions until some new perspectives appear. In almost all cases, these new perspectives will advance your thinking from where it is today. Unfortunately, in some cases, his curiosity will leave you short of satisfying answers to new questions that his writing raises.
Some of the articles are either brilliant . . . or just short of being so, listed here in the order in which they appear:
Blowing Up: How Nassim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster into an Investment Strategy
What the Dog Saw: Cesar Millan and the Movements of Mastery
Million-Dollar Murray: Why Problems Like Homelessness May Be Easier to Manage Than to Solve
Connecting the Dots: The Paradoxes of Intelligence Reform
Late Bloomers: Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity?
Most Likely to Succeed: How Do We Hire When We Can't Tell Who's Right for the Job?
Some of the other stories don't work nearly as well as they might have:
The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen (doesn't have enough development of why we like to buy gadgets pitched on television)
The Ketchup Conundrum: Mustard Now Comes in Dozens of Varieties. Why Has Ketchup Stayed the Same? (focuses on taste research in the context of a poorly designed ketchup product rather than the question that's stated)
True Colors: Hair Dye and the Hidden History of Postwar America (too slim a premise to capture the important shifts in female self-image)
John Rock's Error: What the Inventor of the Birth Control Pill Didn't Know About Women's Health (the article's point is pushed too far, assuming that Catholic doctrine can be predicted based on health benefits)
Open Secrets: Enron, Intelligence, and the Perils of Too Much Information (doesn't succeed either as an expose or fully as irony)
The Picture Problem: Mammography, Air Power, and the Limits of Looking (too much information for what the subject will bear)
Something Borrowed: Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin Your Life? (too speculative to be very helpful)
Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling Made Easy (the point is hammered a little too hard)
The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated? (the point is too obvious to keep our interest)
A few of the stories just didn't seem worth including:
The Art of Failure: Why Some People Choke and Others Panic (not much content here)
Blowup: Who Can Be Blamed for a Disaster like the Challenger Explosion? No One, and We'd Better Get Used to It (the point is pretty obscure and I suspect many people won't be interested)
The New-Boy Network: What Do Job Interviews Really Tell Us? (much ado about first impressions)
Troublemakers: What Pit Bulls Can Teach Us About Crime (much data about the dangers of drawing conclusions from impressions of popular press reports)
At any rate, you'll have lots of new information to use for dinner conversation, if nothing else.
Have fun!
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The Innovative Cohesion of Social Purpose and Culture Building for Global Companies, November 8, 2009
"And sow fields and plant vineyards,
That they may yield a fruitful harvest." -- Psalm 107:37
No one explores and describes management culture, practices, and attitudes better than Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. She often captures subtle insights that are invisible even to those who employ successful methods. SuperCorp is one of her very best books of this type, capturing the emerging trends of global companies that do well to attract and retain talent, acquire and build on other enterprises, innovate, and inspire people to do their best. The book builds on hundreds of interviews over three years in fifteen companies. The detailed stories of how each company (the book emphasizes Banco Real, Cemex, IBM, Omron, Procter & Gamble, Publicis Groupe, and Shinhan Financial Group with occasional insights into a few other companies, two of which were acquired by the focus companies) bring the observations to life.
This is a particularly good time to study emerging and successful global leaders. The leaders who seek to build stronger multinational ties are stretched particularly thin right now, and new Web-based technologies suggest new ways to integrate globally. As Professor Kanter observes, the current best practices are a transitional model . . . but one worth understanding.
The book focuses first on the organizational glue that social purposes and public values bring to large organizations that are spread thin around the globe. The stories are compelling, but my impression is that this perspective isn't terribly new. I remember hearing similar stories built around disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fire, and so forth) dating back into the 1950s connected to the largest American companies. In every decade since then, I have run into new stories of this type. I suspect that good neighborliness has long been a value in many well-run companies, but wasn't always highly visible unless you were looking for it.
I found the book's description of methods involved in encouraging the internal spread of best practices within the organization, the ways that acquisitions are integrated, and ways of developing bottom of the pyramid businesses to be more novel and interesting. Most of these practices I have only seen since about the 1980s, and they are not as frequently employed.
A major theme of this book is creating agile companies that rapidly achieve successful business model innovations. I agree that building a culture that provides a psychological incentive to do so is a good idea. Setting good examples in business model innovation and encouraging skill development are also important, but those aspects were not emphasized as much in these case histories. That was a missed opportunity. IBM and Procter & Gamble, for example, have done a great deal to make continuing business model innovation successful at many different organizational levels and in many different activities, much of which was not described in the book.
It would be good to update this book about every ten years or so to capture the evolution of the leadership and management principles and practices involved. I look forward to reading many such updates from Professor Kanter.
Brava!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Microeconomic Speculations Intended to Challenge and Amuse, November 7, 2009
"But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?'" -- Acts 7:27
One of the earliest lessons of microeconomics has been credited to Pareto, based on his observation that 20 percent of the people have 80 percent of the wealth. Since then, we've learned that many other things are distributed in similar lopsided fashion. If we focus on where there is little opportunity, we get little done. If we focus instead where there is great opportunity, the results may well be virtually unlimited. SuperFreakonomics, like Freakonomics before it, uses Pareto's perspective in a variety of areas where you probably don't normally think that unusual solutions at low cost might hold. The results can be enlightening and amusing, at the same time.
Here's a brief summary of the book:
Chapter 1: Economic inequality of women as exemplified by salary information with a lot of documentation of price elasticity and inelasticity in sex-worker employment.
Chapter 2: Using unusual patterns to locate terrorist intent on suicidal attacks. A shortened life expectation shifts behavior in ways that can be observed.
Chapter 3: People respond to incentives rather than to altruism. Measurements are challenged by newer measurements that take more factors into account.
Chapter 4: Seemingly possible inexpensive ways to solve difficult problems. Filled with more amusing speculation than substance.
Chapter 5: Curtailing carbon dioxide emissions won't cure global warming. The authors look at speculative ideas for changing the heat-trapping qualities of the atmosphere and oceans.
Epilogue: Monkeys can be trained to act like people with money.
If that mix of material seems a little random, the underlying theme is that microeconomic analysis can bring new insights, even where you wouldn't expect it to. Methinks the authors doth protest a little too much.
I could have done with a lot less information about prostitution. I don't really need to understand price elasticity in that area. This material felt a little like pandering to sell more books.
I enjoyed the terrorist chapter. If the book had been more like that, it would have been a lot more interesting.
The studies of motives seemed better suited to a book on social science research than to a popular book.
In the inexpensive solutions, I thought that the authors were reaching to be entertaining more than they were trying to inform.
In the global warming section, the points about carbon dioxide compared to water vapor and methane are accurate and well presented. But the authors went off the deep end in pursuing alternatives. These suggestions are more in the realm of speculation than proven alternatives.
Will the book harm you? Probably not.
Will the book give you a great big insight that will reward you for reading it? Maybe not.
Will the book give you lots to talk with other people? Sure.
I hope the authors will attempt to be more solution oriented in future books and less driven by a desire to be "entertaining."
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
How to Help Oppressed Poor Women Worldwide and Make a Better World, November 3, 2009
"They uncovered her nakedness,
Took away her sons and daughters,
And slew her with the sword;
She became a byword among women,
For they had executed judgment on her."
-- Ezekiel 23:10
Don't miss this book!
In recent years, I've gained much important information from reading books about the common forms of oppression that poor women experience around the world. These books taught me about kidnapped and sold sex and household slaves, mutilation of female genitalia according to custom, lack of educational opportunities, spread of sexual diseases to wives by unchaste men, and uneducated women succeeding as entrepreneurs after receiving training and loans. When someone asked me what they should read, I would tick off a long list of books.
Now, instead, I can refer people who want to know how to help oppressed women and poor people in general by suggesting they read Half the Sky. Every book that I've read that's of value on this subject is generously referenced in Half the Sky.
Authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn do a superb job of raising the big issues and explaining why it's often not so easy to resolve those issues:
1. Female slavery
2. Forced female prostitution
3. Cultural docility of many females and genital mutilation
4. Rape and acid scarring as ways to control women and their families
5. Honor killings
6. Lack of maternal healthcare
7. Complications from difficult pregnancies
8. Effects of ignorance about family planning
9. Religious prescriptions about women's roles
10. Poor educations available to women
11. Financing and preparing women entrepreneurs
12. Shifting gender relations so that family resources are better applied
13. Providing more opportunities for girls
The book combines the big picture (global numbers) with specific examples (often involving the authors trying to save one or two people through their own efforts). The consequence is to give you a sense of how bad things are (there's more slave traffic now than in the worst days of shipping Africans to other parts of the world across the Atlantic in the early 19th century). At the same time, you find out that solutions aren't what you imagine what they might be. The importance of local leaders building solutions from the ground up is made clear.
Helping women is a great way to help children, women, and men. Those who are helped immediately seek to give back to others. As a result, there's immense potential presented here.
The book ends with suggestions of specific things each of us can do to make a difference.
In my case, I've already been helping with donations to free slaves, support poor women, and provide access to more educational and small business opportunities for women. I also encourage my university students in lesser developed countries to find ways to open doors of opportunity where they are. I pray for poor women and their families and write encouraging letters to the ones I know. You can do similar things, and you'll feel great when you do. I urge you to read this book and start taking useful actions such as are suggested here . . . and not stop in that commitment.
I only detected one surprising slant in the book: The authors encourage supporting non-religious organizations and programs for the most part rather than religious ones. In so doing, some many readers will remain ignorant of superb religious organizations that are making a huge difference on these issues.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Imagining the Life of a Blind Recluse with a Mad Brother, October 31, 2009
"And He spoke a parable to them: 'Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?'" -- Luke 6:39
Homer & Langley presents the life of the Collyer brothers from the perspective of the blind (and eventually deaf) Homer. We experience the claustrophobic life that the two led as it might have seemed to a blind, but sane, Homer who wanted to humor his brother's moods and whims. If that's what you want to read about, you'll probably be fascinated by the mental gymnastics that make living such weird lives seem to be the thing to do.
For me, the subject matter wasn't all that novel. I've known many reclusive hoarders in my time, and their ways and thoughts are familiar to me. I didn't gain any new perspectives from this book. In fact, I think that the book could have been a lot more interesting if Mr. Doctorow had picked Langley as his narrator instead of Homer.
I've enjoyed Mr. Doctorow's books in the past because of the wonderful writing and the way that he weaves his stories into the middle of history. Because since the Collyers were trying to avoid history, there isn't much history for Mr. Doctorow to weave into the story . . . except to note the passing of time.
I hope Mr. Doctorow will pick a more engaging subject for his next novel.
If you want to learn more about the Collyers, look them up on the Internet. It won't take as long as reading this novel, and you'll end up knowing about the same set of facts.
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A Powerful and Moving Story of Survival and Redemption in Two Cultures, October 31, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, 'Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.' And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat." -- Acts 27:33-35
Deogratias is someone you won't forget. His story brings painfully home the inhumanity of modern genocide as well as it does the uncaring of many Americans to those who arrive on these shores after having barely survived horrors elsewhere. His story and his life deserve more than five stars.
I graded the book down because I found the structure of this book to be annoying. The book opens with a scene from a trip that Mr. Kidder and Deogratias took to Burundi in 2006. Then the book launches into describing the tail end of Deogratias' escape from Burundi where he boards a plane there to begin a trip to New York and continues with his story through becoming a grocery delivery person in Manhattan who sleeps out at night in Central Park and is in despair. Next, the book jumps back to his growing up in Burundi. From there, the book jumps forward into the next stage of his life in New York when he meets a friend who helps, Sharon McKenna, and what ensues there. The book next jumps back to cover Deogratias' education through third year of medical school in Burundi, as well as explaining a little about the animosities between the hard-to-distinguish Hutus and Tutsis there. Then you go to New York again as Deogratias begins his studies at Columbia. From there, you descend into the genocide in Burundi and Deogratias' long trek to escape through two countries. In the book's second part, the author tells of his other interactions with Deogratias and of interviews he did with those who knew him, culminating in the trip to Burundi in 2006.
Why not tell the story in more straightforward, chronological fashion? It beats me.
You'll also learn a lot about how the genocides in Burundi and Rwanda differed as well as much history about those countries that will probably be new to you. I'm sure you'll feel moved to do someone to help alleviate the problems of poor people in those nations. I've always tried to help in Rwanda, but haven't been aware of the history in Burundi so I've been ignoring that nation. Shame on me for being so insular.
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Reviewer's Tags:
africa, burundi, caring, deogratias, escape, genocide, hutu, rwanda, survival, tracy kidder, tutsi
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Nine Dragons
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by Michael Connelly
Edition: Hardcover |
| Price: $15.47 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Page-Turning Bosch Barrels Forward at Top Speed, October 27, 2009
"I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible." -- Jeremiah 15:21
This is one of my favorite books in the series. It's terrific!
As the book opens, Harry Bosch is bored. He hasn't had a new murder to investigate in weeks. A rare assignment to investigate a routine murder of a shop owner unexpectedly awakens Harry's passion: The victim is the man who shared his last cigarette with Harry during the riots. Harry promises the family that he will get his man. Working all night looking at old surveillance videos, Harry notices an unusual transaction. One thing leads to another and Harry has a suspect. Then the world turns upside down when Harry receives a threatening call telling him to lay off the case.
At that point, what was an ordinarily frenzied investigation with Harry annoying everyone in sight launches into the highest possible gear as Harry finds threats pointed in an unexpected direction. As a result, Harry goes ballistic and the results are predictable . . . lots of casualties. The tension and the drama are so strong you'll feel gripped by them as though the events were happening to you personally.
Harry is like a pit bull whose teeth are clamped onto someone's leg who won't let go, and that can be pretty frightening for the bad guys. They have unleashed a tsunami of retribution that measures beyond anything previously seen.
Michael Connelly paid loving attention to details of geography, technology, culture, and law to make the story more realistic, interesting, and compelling. Rarely have I found a book to be so clear in exploring areas that I'm unfamiliar with so that they became easy to grasp.
Bravo!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Spenser Looks Out for the Bed Hoppers, October 27, 2009
"The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death." -- Leviticus 20:10
Four youngish wives of older wealthy men have been intimate with the same man, someone who can upset their marriages in very fundamental ways. Spenser is called in to help. His sense of the situation shifts as he gets to know the players. Are there any innocents here? Probably not.
For most of this story, you will learn about the lusts and pleasures of irresponsible people. Now, some such stories attract readers because they are titillating. This one isn't. Other such stories draw an audience because there's a lot of humor involved. This one lacks that element. What it does have is a portray of some really shallow people enjoying themselves without much concern for anyone else. I thought that was a real downer.
Much like many of the more recent Spenser books, The Professional turns into a morality tale in the end. But it takes a long time to get there. It wasn't much worth the wait to me. I thought this was one of the weakest books in the series. These books require some interesting conflicts, difficult situations, chilling villains, and action. You will look in vain for those elements here.
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Count Your Blessings and the Annoyances Don't Seem to Matter So Much, October 27, 2009
"And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant." -- Jonah 4:6
The sixth novel in this series about moral philosophy concerns happiness: The book demonstrates that you obtain that delightful state when you appreciate the good parts of your life and realize they are more valuable than your annoyances. Cultivate gratitude and you will be happy.
Unlike the earlier books in this series, there isn't much plot at all. Readers will rejoice in some good news for Isabel Dalhousie in her personal life while groaning over another run-in with professors Dove and Lettuce as well as some unsettling interactions with Minty Auchterlonie. There are two brief scenes with Cat that are a bit trying as well. Your heart will be warmed by some great moments with Charlie and Jamie.
There's no doubt about it that the series loses a lot of steam in this book. Even the wicked Minty didn't succeed in entertaining me very much: She just another grasping person who has to have her way.
I would have graded the book at three stars, but the charming moments were delightful and frequent enough to lift this book into the above-average category for me. Some of the humor is very well drawn, and I could easily imagine the author chortling in his kilt as I read it.
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Rich Ironies Abound Concerning Human Nature from an Indian Perspective, October 24, 2009
My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest;
Days of affliction confront me.
-- Job 30:27
Between the Assassinations can seem like an insignificant book about the distressing problems of people in India. One person I offered it to stopped reading after just a few pages. That's an incorrect reading in my view: This is instead a subtle book that has important things to say about the mind-forged manacles that bind us.
At first the points that are made seem to capture situations that are beyond the control of those who are subject to them. We do face situations where there will be no good physical outcome, and that's a valid part of the experience of poor and uneducated people ... especially those who are also discriminated against. Mr. Adiga soon begins to nudge past that point to show that even in bad situations, there are choices: And some choices are better than others. We have the freedom to choose the dignity of the better choices; however, many people brush aside such opportunities and simply do what feels best to them in the moment. Beyond that, Between the Assassinations points out the rather awkward truth that even those with lots of choices will often fail to make those choices, or select awful ones.
Let me share one small anecdote that illustrates poor choices in the story about a Brahmin woman who lives as an unmarried, unpaid servant because her parents could not afford a dowry for her. Resentful at this loss of status, she begins to envy those around her . . . even a Christian neighbor. It suddenly occurs to her that if she does enough sinful things, she may be reincarnated as a Christian . . . and she delights at the thought. Naturally, it never occurs to her to simply become a Christian and change her life circumstances.
Some might complain that the book leaves little room for hope: I didn't read the book that way. Instead, the book portrays people being their own worst enemies (whether they do bad things to themselves or others do bad things to them) in such ironic ways that you can only conclude that a little rationality could quickly replace most of the worst problems, along with a willing heart to look out for others. In that sense, this is a deeply spiritual book suggesting that the problems portrayed are simply ones that can be eliminated by proper living. In one of the final stories, a Brahmin communist (probably a rare combination) shakes off his long-accustomed menial duties to help a widow who has a lovely daughter. With a little knowledge, the widow's financial problems are solved. The communist, however, cannot solve his own problems: Seeking a fantasy of marrying the lovely daughter even though he is man in his mid-fifties and the family is no longer penniless, thanks to him.
As Job suffered long and hard before God restored him to twice what he had before, Mr. Adiga implies that India has great days ahead . . . when it begins to draw on its talented people in a kind and mutually supportive way to share knowledge, resources, favor, and respect. I think he's right.
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(Boston)
