Neil
This is a book worth re-reading on a regular basis. Just like Shapiro's “Fad Surfing”, it seems so cynical - are they parody? Hard to say. Possibly.
Regardless, it's certainly a reality check. A palate cleanser.
Insightful - refreshing.
Clients often want solutions, but change is hard work (just like exercise and health) and will often readily take (settle for) a panacea, instead.
If you work as a consultant- you must add value.
What an excellent book.
I can't possibly review it from the perspective of political science, in that I'm not sufficiently educated in the field - I am an enthusiastic amateur reader.
I particularly enjoyed the discussions of;
•third states and it complimented my other readings about the jeopardy of binary opposition - the tendency to define what something is not, rather than clearly define what it does stand for - and the intrinsic instability in that position.
• the compatibility of fact, truth and goal based believe
• Russia, China and US, asymmetry and strategy going forward.
• China as a civilisation rather than a state.
All-in-all time well spent.
The truth is in the telling, as Robert Evans wrote in the, “The kid stays in the Picture”, there are 3 truths; your truth, their truth and what actually happened.
What stands out to me is that the Jesuits feel a part of a cause, something far greater than an individual, spanning millennia, joined in belief that embraces all, regardless of creed or position, the stakes are higher, and the scale infinitely greater.
Obviously if you are a church conservative, then the brotherhood's realignment back to the teachings of Christ, is a betrayal of the pope and hierarchical church order.
If you feel that the church has inserted itself between the faithful and god, and on the way drifted from teachings of Christ, then the picture looks somewhat different.
It's a fascinating insight into the responsibility of authority, the overt and tacit contract of trust and the foibles of man.
It's an enjoyable listen and as always the BBC production values are high.
It's excellent that it's not abridged and you basically get the whole short story narrated.
The story starts and ends with dissolving, which is a nice call back loop.
Chiang likes the theme of language either defining our sense of reality, restricting or altering it and supercharging our expansion and evolution.
My only gripe is perhaps that Chiang overuses the word Gestalt.
But hey-ho, still good.
This is a great little trigger book, it is fundamentally about our inability to imagine, our contracting ability to fantasise ourselves into the future.
Without data and analysis, nothing can change and even then, it seems that progress is easily sabotaged.
Yet, if we've given up on actually seeing the world, seeing what isn't being measured, isn't that even more tragic.
Ideology. Ignorance. Inertia.
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” - Bruce Lee
We invented industry and a society based on this industrial economy, rocketed our affluence, became addicted to our new lifestyle and then like jenga - had the foundations of our abstract world kicked out.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
So, as individuals we're in a tumult.
You perhaps misunderstood the social contract - you do your best for the company and they in their turn look out for you.
Gone are they days, when companies assessed their employees career potential and like gardeners, cultivated and tended. That's an overhead, an overhead to be offloaded.
You've been left with that role (and anyway shouldn't you have been taking a more active role in your career anyway?)
This little book is a nice primer for the ideas of self reflection, purpose and constructing a personal narrative that communicates.
There is nothing particularly new in this, the premise is similar to that of the Pacific Institute.
The difference is the price of entry. It is worth reading.
I've been buying different versions and editions of the Art of War and also Naked Lunch for the last 30 years - totally different and unconnected. But they do share one thing - each edition makes you think about the core ideas.
The vagueness, the ambiguity, which are not; but actually self evident truths to an expert. Not me.
They require reading and re-reading.
It's an enjoyable radio drama.
It feels similar in tone to Huxley's ‘Brave New World'; intellectual improvement of society through slavery based upon embryonic manipulation, eugenics and class based upon notions of intelligence and linguistic ability. Jefferson 37 has failed suppression and malleability via starved linguistic development.
It also has a strange familiarity to ‘The Island' (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(2005_film)), which is basically a thematic re-run of ‘Logan' Run'.
I'm hoping the radio play existed as a script before the screenplay, just being produced after the the film.
I realised that it's actually the second time that I've heard it. The first must have been during the first broadcast in 2006 (archive.org) or 2008 (BBC), not sure which correct.
I've just read this alongside “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power” and a re-read of Orwell's “Nineteen Eighty Four”.
What's to be said? Prescient? Of course not. Situations are observed and then the theme is seemly drawn further, for (satirical) effect.
We start with the precepts that there are rules and consistency and that systems can be navigated, once navigated documented, then decisions and positions maintained.
Dealing with authority and bureaucracy is fundamentally unbalanced for the individual anyway, when authority then discards or works to undermine these precepts...
Take these factors and inject surveillance, mistrust, informational revisionism and gaslighting.
Where does it lead? Not to comedy. Unsettling and sobering.
Eric Ambler takes similar themes of statelessness, individual vulnerability, but at least Arthur Abdel Simpson, gets some salvation.
How can a book do justice to a career that generated 3,500 sketches and designs, 1,000 of those are chairs?
500 of those chair designs have been in production.
It's a great reference.
Lots of original photos, that's also a rub. B+W isn't really bringing the pieces alive. The wood grain, the textile.
It does feel a bit flat in its presentation - a semi catalogue perhaps.
My previous comments about the Finn Juhl book apply here as well.
I think the monograph format need to evolve.
There is plenty to research further.
I'm not sure what I made of this.
It certainly ticks all the boxes, as an introduction to Finn Juhl.
It covers his stand out pieces and gives a career background and context.
However, I was left with a nagging feeling, a little irksome, that it missed something or failed to grasp something.
Anyway,
Stand out parts were, his house. You can see his aesthetic and vision in context.
- this is covered in more detail in another book.
His watercolours, which are superb.
Again, these are covered in more detail in another book.
I think it's perhaps a little flat in presentation and layout. With so many sparkly magazines, websites and editorials - altering what we expect from the presentation of furniture and design.
It just seems that these monograph editions need to evolve.
The picture on page 97 illustrates this point. Colour, insitu picture of a chair, great wood grain and jointing details and contrast with fabric upholstery. It really captures the chair's qualities. It's clear why it's a success.
It's well worth a read and it has a bunch of follow up leads to research.
It covers the Swedish regions, the mascots; animal, flower, etc.
We found it by chance during the summer, whilst in the dentist's waiting room.
Immediately tried to buy a copy. Tragic that it's out of print.
Found a copy at a loppis. What a great ‘little' book! Coincidentally, wouldn't you know, we're using it this year, as my daughter studies Sweden as part of the NO/SO Curriculum. not little in size, it's A4-ish
I have to say, I enjoy listening to Sinek in interview more than reading his books.
He is passionate and a great salesman, however his books do not have the same energy (for me, at any rate).
Interesting ideas, which ‘chime' with my own views and experiences within organisations.
They do however seem to be repeated a few times within the book and not in a ‘building mass / effect' way.
I read it a few times.
I'm going to say finished, I've read it 4 or 5 times and browsed it constantly since purchase.
I love ice cream and I love Frozen Yoghurt. I have my own ice cream machine and I'm now making my own frozen yoghurt.
The best I've ever tasted was in Berlin and I haven't managed to match the taste balance yet. But it's fun trying.
I love this book and I carry it with me in my bag.
It has everything and it's minimalism, reduction and overflowing in stimulation, because it draws such reaction through contemplation and reflection. It's been many different books for me, from mood to mood and place to place.
His book, Ways of Seeing and the TV Series deeply affected me in art school and knowing that John Berger isn't going to writing anymore is sadness. But we still have the way he described the world in books he wrote.
It's hard not to be gushy.
An enjoyable introduction to Gin, Gin & Tonic and Gin Cocktails.
Having spent last year experimenting with Tonics, Chapter 2 was interesting.
For such a simple spirit, there so many variations of flavour and that doesn't even cover the experiments with all the different tonics and siraps. There could easily have been a whole book just about just that.
From the back cover,
“Gallery is primarily intended for senior classes in secondary schools It is a selection of the verse most teachers and pupils want when preparing for the 0 and Higher Grade examinations, combined with a selection of other poetry which is much too good to be allowed to drift out of sight.
Poems are arranged chronologically since the compiler believes that one of the best contexts in which to encounter a poem is that of the poet in his time and place.
This also leaves the reader free to discover for himself stylistic similarities or a common area of concern between poets.
The reader is expected to treat this book like a picture gallery.
Not all the contents need to be searched for hidden meaning. Some verse will merely stimulate a passing reflection or give a moment's amusement, other poems may niake the reader pause for careful study. Displayed like this, they can be appreciated in all their variety.”
This was required reading at school, many, many years ago - never sold it and have read it many times.
A great selection of poetry from the 16th to 20th Centuries.
I occasionally read my annotations from younger me's and have mixtures of feelings about my insights from different points in my life, sometimes insightful and also sometimes lacking understanding.
It makes me realise just how much fantastic poetry exists and how powerful language really is.