» Great Books

No, You Rock, Seth Godin!

shawn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:44:45 +0000

This morning, Seth Godin posted this:

You rock

This is deceptive.

You don’t rock all the time. No one does. No one is a rock star, superstar, world-changing artist all the time. In fact, it’s a self-defeating goal. You can’t do it.

No, but you might rock five minutes a day.

Five minutes to write a blog post that changes everything, or five minutes to deliver an act of generosity that changes someone. Five minutes to invent a great new feature, or five minutes to teach a groundbreaking skill in a way that no one ever thought of before. Five minutes to tell the truth (or hear the truth).

Five minutes a day you might do exceptional work, remarkable work, work that matters. Five minutes a day you might defeat the lizard brain long enough to stand up and make a difference.

And five minutes of rocking would be enough, because it would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.

It is a great example of the quick shots of inspirational adrenaline that Seth scribbles out nearly every day (sometimes multiple times a day) on his blog. But I would amend his wise words just in the slightest and add emphasis to one line in particular.

First, the amendment. I don’t think five minutes is enough. I also believe that we are capable of much more than that. I appreciate that Seth is letting us off easy, but I personally feel that I can work in flow for between 30 minutes to 2 hours almost every day. For more on Flow, a brilliant practice that you should be bringing into your business life, you can go here.

Now for the emphasis. He says that a potential great work is “to deliver an act of generosity that changes someone.” I say that the greatest work you can do is lift another person with your generosity. I would emphasize Seth’s point that the work you do in a day is measured by the people you can effect.

If you are in business, your output of a product or service is only as good as the positive change it creates in the lives of your customers. But you, as a human, are also only as good as the positive change you are directly making in the lives of your people. Your employees, your co-workers, your family and friends should all end each day feeling appreciated and fulfilled, bettered for having passed through another day of trials, growth and human interaction.

And that typically takes you just a little longer than five minutes.

Inexpert Review: Economic Support for Becoming a Call Girl

shawn — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:51:20 +0000

“Levitt and Dubner’s SuperFreakonomics: Rather than a Sequel to the Original and Uncanny Economic Stories We Presented in Freakonomics, We’ve Created a Dry Scientific Journal of What Other Economists are Doing and How They’re Passing It Off as Pop Psychology. Also, We’ve Included a Bonus Guide on How to Start Your Own Business as a High Paid Escort Including Suggested Services and Hourly Rates.”

The full title is very long, but funny in a “pick it up off the shelf and show your friend to get a laugh” marketable way. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Levitt, the economist and presumably “the source” for the material again pairs up with Dubner, the storyteller, to rekindle the magic they made together four years before with Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. I loved Freakonomics. It was, in so many ways, the right book at the right time. Like lightning striking, many factors came together to create the perfect conditions for a dramatic effect. Freakonomics published on the heels of Gladwell’s counter-intuitive bestseller, Blink, into a general resurgence of interest in pop psychology and pseudo-educational non-fiction.

Levitt and Dubner grabbed some literary headlines with their sensational, statistically-based assertions, including the deliberate counter-argument to Gladwell’s explanation of decreased crime covered in The Tipping Point. They had a lot of fun, fresh and surprising discoveries that were shared in a punchy and “radio-friendly” way that is a tribute to Dubner’s writing ability—he was able to convert Umberto Eco into Dan Brown. The masses could enjoy Freakonomics.

But like the old adage about lightning striking, Superfreakonomics is a miss.

UNLESS you are looking for financial data to support your transition from your current career into the thriving industry of High-Paid Escort Service Providers. In which case, the first 55 pages are a “must read.” In these pages, a world-renowned economist will explain to you that prostitution is not about buying sex, but really about limited suppliers seeking to satisfy a decreasing demand for a price inelastic service. It is virtually a cut-and-paste business proposal for you to take your Brothel plan to the investors for your A round.

If you have the time and interest to learn more about effectively selling yourself on the street at an hourly rate, this book is for you. If this does not currently align with your career goals, borrow it and read chapter 5 about global cooling, as this will be the water-cooler topic sometime in the near future where you can impress your friends.

My rating for the book is 20,000 otherwise stable housewives turned drug addicted prostitutes because of inalterable economic incentives out of a possible 50,000 otherwise stable housewives turned drug addicted prostitutes because of inalterable economic incentives.

Also, in my extensive research for this blog (i.e.- “reading wikipedia“), I learned they are making a film adaptation of the first book. This will be bad. I look forward to writing another Inexpert Review in the future, apparently sometime around August 2010.

Go See Benjamin Button, Unless…

shawn — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:37:00 +0000

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great movie to see, unless you feel like you have already seen it. Or have already seen another schmaltzy/romantic time-traveling film like it. Or if you are in the mood for something funny. Or you’re on a date. Or you’re a teenager. Or you’re really old. Or if you’ve recently lost a loved-one. Or if you get emotional over hurricane Katrina footage. Or you’re kind of sleepy. Or you have anything else to do for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes.

I’m not saying I didn’t like it, because I did, I’m just saying that it is not a great movie for everyone to see. Disclaimer Moment: I am a marketer, not a movie critic; for a professional’s opinion, go here. IMO, the demographic for this movie is Middle-Aged Women. You know, the same people that loved The Notebook, The Lake House, or The Bridges of Madison County.

If you’re the kind of person that loves going to movies with the intent to cry through the whole second half, then this is a great movie for you. Or if you like the idea of seeing Cate Blanchett age before your eyes. Or if you love hummingbirds. Or if you are in the Somewhere in Time Fan Club. Or if you believe Brad Pitt is an Oscar-worthy actor.

Now, I’m not ruling out Brad and Cate for Oscars for this one, in fact, they’ll probably get Oscars for it the same way Charlize got one for Monster and Nicole Kidman for The Hours. We all know that getting ugly gets the Academy’s attention. I’m just saying I’ve seen better movies come out this year and I’ve definitely seen better film adaptations of books.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 24-page original story is here and it is a great story in its own right. However, besides the title and the lead character’s name, it has little in common with Fincher’s film. My wife says it borrows heavily from the 2003 novel The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven’t read it, so you’ll have to take her word for it. Or, if you don’t feel like reading it, you could just wait a few month’s and see it in theaters. I just read that Brad Pitt’s production company has picked up the title, which is set to release later this year. I, for one, won’t be going to see it. Unless I decide I’m in the mood for another romantic time travel film.

The World is Still Round…

shawn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:24:00 +0000

In spite of Thomas L. Friedman’s best efforts to claim otherwise in his newly revised The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Release 3.0. Just as in his previous books, Friedman showcases his journalistic forte for information gathering, analysis, and insight-laden extrapolation. He supports well his own previous arguments for free trade, market specialization, and classical economic theories regarding absolute and comparative advantage. (Smith, Ricardo, … Reich)

I’ll pause here to acknowledge that I, too, am a strong proponent of globalization. I have seen first-hand the dissolution of geographic and political barriers to trade and the ensuing benefits to the local economy. I find no fault in Friedman’s historical observations, including his 3 eras of globalization, his 10 flatteners, and even his recommendations for new hybrid fields of study he calls “Mash-Ups.” These ideas are spot-on in our global economy of increasing convergence.

But why all the doom and gloom, Mr. Friedman? Instead of telling your readers how the new “flattened” world will make lives better—spurring the economy of our New America into a greater leadership role as the birthplace of ideas and a nation of entrepreneurs—he focuses on the bad. Friedman follows the M.O. of Lou Dobbs, crying wolf over foreign theft of US jobs and a general disappearance of the American middle-class. Rather than pointing to the strengths of our human capital as inventors, creators, and brand builders, he tells readers that the American sky is falling in competition with Indian and Chinese ITs and engineers.

Friedman leans toward the dramatic, but what do you expect from an Opinion Columnist? He opens with this quote from an Indian software CEO: “The global playing field is being leveled… and the US is not ready.” This is followed by other sensational statements of hyperbole. “Today, people in China and India are starving… for your job!” he warns his children. But then, you are given to flights of the inflammatory if you are to make your living as an op-ed writer. The Title The World is Friendlier to International Business because of Improvements in Technology and Transportation doesn’t sell books.
–Shawn Butler

U.S. Also Exports Dreams

shawn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:31:00 +0000

The American Dream is no longer exclusive to America. During the past 20 years, 1.3 billion Chinese have also dared to dream as indulgently, as hedonistically, and as short-sightedly as our culture does. Long admirers of the reckless and materialistic American lifestyle portrayed in our Hollywood film exports, the rising core of the Chinese population is becoming free to pursue the American dream of self-indulgence and instant gratification of all their wants.

“Chinese dream of buying a car, a house, a first-class education for their children, and a range of consumer goods conferring status and convenience, just as they do to middle-class families in Europe and America. As disposable incomes rise, people are eating more protein and using more electricity to run their computers, televisions, and household appliances,” writes James Kynge in his book China Shakes the World (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). We are seeing China undergo in a very short period of time the changes that the U.S. and other developed countries underwent over the course of three centuries. China is being forced through this period of turbulence at an incredible pace because of the social, economic, and political pressures within and surrounding the country. The velocity of the change, rather than the change itself, is the root of the many ills currently plaguing the budding progress of China.

The rate of change in China has not allowed the nation to develop a mature social conscience and moral law. Chinese history is steeped in great thinkers, wise men and profound philosophical insight. This makes it all the more appalling that they have degenerated into a nation without a moral compass. The 1960’s rise of communism imposed atheism that undermined the current generation’s ethical foundation. Kynge states that “[t]he ideological vacuum that replaced communism undermines [trust]. The daily diet of propaganda disorients it. The venality of officials devalues it. The ascendance of a value system dominated by money hollows it out. What is left is a society in which describing someone as honest can just as easily be a gentle criticism as a compliment.”

Without a strong national moral compass, the country is rampant with instances of fraud, deceit and counterfeit. In many instances, these are only for the gain of wealth, but often the cost of the deception is human lives. We read from Kynge that “every time a Hollywood blockbuster was cut, it would appear on DVD in China before it had been released in the same format in America… A sixth volume in the series of Harry Potter novels appeared in China months before J.K. Rowling had written it… Kettles blow up, electrical transformers short-circuit, medicines have no effect, brake pads fail, alcoholic beverages poison those who drink them, and the use of inferior milk powder has caused several babies to starve to death.”

From our Western-centric point of view, it is simple to feel aloof from the morally remiss situations we read about in the East. However, we need to recognize that Americans are one of the leading forces causing the rapid changes to the Chinese nation. Kynge reports that “it is the advertising, marketing, and sales executives in Europe and the United States, as well as the shareholders of the brand-owning company, that take the lion’s share of the value from the product that the migrant workers create.” When we comment that the changes in China are happening too fast for the country to reasonably adapt, we cannot ignore the powerful influence that the demands and the unintentional export of the US culture have had on their current situation.

So it should be no surprise that the ambitions and appetites of its people are also following suit. China is adopting the same American dream of self-improvement, comfort and wealth that has been the calling card of immigrants to our country for so long. However, “in spite of the resemblance China bears to America in an earlier stage of its development, the chances that the Chinese will one day be able to consume at the same rate as Americans do today are close to zero. It is not that they will choose to be more frugal. It is simply that the world does not have the resources to cater to 1.3 billion Chinese behaving like Americans.” It should be added that the world in its current environmental situation does not have the resources for the 300 million Americans to continue behaving like Americans either. –Shawn Butler

Dead Languages: Requiescat In Pace

shawn — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:21:00 +0000

In the Good Ol’ days, Latin was reserved for the elite. Between the First Century Anno Domini until the time of Darwin, Latin was an ironic common bond between Scientists and Clergy. Knowing Latin was a clear division between the educated noble class and the vulgar common folk. As of this Morning, August 1st, Latin’s been a “Dead Language” for about a thousand years. Even the Vatican abandoned it as the official lingua franca in the ’60s. It is time to let it take it’s place in history.

This idea that Speaking Latin = Erudition in the year 2007 only leads to a lot of people looking stupid and sounding ridiculous. Exempli gratia- nobody would think you less of an idiot for saying, “I’ll Help You if You’ll Help Me” in Ancient Mayan or Proto-Latvian, but modern speakers are to be taken as geniuses for saying, “We’ll do it Quid Pro Quo” (followed by a smug little wink). Communication is only useful if both parties understand what is being said, ergo, it is useless to say words in a language that no one understands.

Across the internet, bloggers affect intellectualism by spattering pseudo-latin phrases into places they don’t belong. Nothing makes you look like a bigger idiot than trying to sound smart and then saying something nonsensical. Here are some tips:

Tip #1: Et Al. This is an abbreviation for “Et Alia” meaning “And Others.” It is a useful phrase for writing about a bunch of people, and only having to name the most important one.
Sample Sentence- “Everything about Latin is known by Shawn Butler, et al.”
Way to Look Like an Imbecile- Using the English word “All” as in- “I know everything about Latin, I’ve read Socrates, et all.”

Tip #2: Per Se is the Latin phrase for “Through Itself.” It should be used to express the idea that something does or does not support an argument in and of itself.
Sample Sentence- “Knowing Latin per se does not make one smart.”
Way to Look Like an Imbecile- First, by NOT knowing what it means, as in – “I’m not a Latin Expert per se, but I know a few phrases.” This happens when people are trying to sound intellectual, but they really mean the phrase “as they say” or “so to speak.”
The Second is by mispelling it, as in – “I shouldn’t have tried to use Latin, but now it’s out of my hands, per say.”
I’ve also seen these: perse, persay, and even pursay. Wow.

Tip #3: i.e. is the abbreviation for “id est” meaning “that is.” It is really the most basic phrase ever created; the equivalent of “that is to say” or “I mean…”
Sample Sentence- “I love the Classics, i.e. Latin and Greek.”
People say it all the time in English and never have a problem. “Yeah, I read Plato, that is, I read The Republic by Plato.” See how it is getting more specific? That makes you sound smart!
How to Sound Like an Idiot- Now, try to use it to start a list, as in- “I’ve been to lots of countries, i.e. Italy and Greece.” It’s subtle, but trust me, it’s WRONG. What they are after is another phrase in Latin:

Tip#4: e.g. is the abbreviation for “exempli gratia” meaning “for example.” Another No-Brainer in English, but things get tricky when you don’t know what you’re saying and you’re trying to sound smart.
Sample Sentence- “Cicero’s best writings are actually speeches, e.g. On Behalf of Milo and Post Reditum in Senatu“

An interesting point just came to mind– Why even bother putting down any of these terms? In most cases, we’re saying the exact same words we would in English. You can’t even say they are abbreviations to save space. In the case of Pro Bono (For Free), you’re not even saving letters.

Here’s the new rule: If you don’t know what it means, don’t say it/ write it/ type it/ blog it/ link to it. That’s it. In fact, we are all just better off forgetting that Latin was ever a language at all. Let’s just be honest about it:

Latin is Smart People Secret Code.

So, like any secret code, all the club members should have a little codebook that we can flip to in order to decode our encrypted messages. I suppose that could be next week’s blog. Q.E.D.

Fun Fact: Latin is a Language Option on the Screens of the ATM Machines in Vatican City. This way the Cardinals can get some QuickCash. –Shawn Butler

Completely Necessary List of Books to be a Literate Member of Society

shawn — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:40:00 +0000

I was asked by a friend to compile a list of the books that were important for him to read in order to be a Literate and Contributing member of modern culture.
This is my first attempt — The main criteria for this list was to cover the books that are referenced either directly or in allusion in the literary community. For obvious reasons, that turned out to include all the “staple” books that are required reading for middle school and high school students.
NOTE: This is not a listing of “great books,” or even “good books,” and not a list of my favorite books, which would be MUCH different. This list is designed to guide young readers in their desire to cover the [quote, unquote] literary basics.

In alphabetical order by the first non-“the” in the book title.

1984–George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer–Mark Twain
A Farewell to Arms–Ernest Hemingway
A Lesson Before Dying–Ernest J. Gaines
A Separate Peace–John Knowles
A Tale of Two Cities–Charles Dickens
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–Lewis Carroll
All the King’s Men–Robert Penn Warren
The Ambassadors–Henry James
An American Tragedy–Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm–George Orwell
As I Lay Dying–William Faulkner
Atlas Shrugged–Ayn Rand
The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman–Ernest J. Gaines
The Awakening–Kate Chopin
Beloved–Toni Morrison
Bless Me, Ultima–Anaya Rudolfo
Brave New World–Aldous Huxley
The Bride Price–Buchi Emecheta
Brideshead Revisited–Evelyn Waugh
The Brothers Karamazov–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Call of the Wild–Jack London
Candide–Voltaire
The Catcher in the Rye–J. D. Salinger
Cat’s Cradle–Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Catch-22–Joseph Heller
The Chosen–Chaim Potok
The Clan of the Cave Bear–Jean Auel
The Color Purple– Alice Walker
The Count of Monte Cristo–Alexander Dumas
Crime and Punishment–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Deliverance–James Dickey
Democracy–Joan Didion
The Divine Comedy–Dante
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?–Philip K. Dick
Doctor Zhivago–Boris Pasternak
Don Quixote–Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde–Robert Louis Stevenson
Ellen Foster–Kaye Gibbons
Empire of the Sun–J. G. Ballard
The End of the Affair–Graham Greene
Ender’s Game–Orson Scott Card
Ethan Frome–Edith Wharton
Faust–Goethe
Flowers for Algernon–Daniel Keyes
The Fountainhead–Ayn Rand
Frankenstein–Mary Shelley
The Giver–Lois Lowry
Go Tell It on the Mountain–James Baldwin
Gone with the Wind–Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath–John Steinbeck
Great Expectations–Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby–F. Scott Fitzgerald
Grendel–John Gardner
Gulliver’s Travels–Jonathon Swift
Heart of Darkness–Joseph Conrad
The Hobbit–J. R. R. Tolkien
House Made of Dawn–N. Scott Momaday
In Country–Bobbie Ann Mason
The Invisible Man–H. G. Wells
Invisible Man–Ralph Ellison
Ivanhoe–Sir Walter Scott
Jane Eyre–Charlotte Bronte
The Jungle–Upton Sinclair
Kindred–Octavia Butler
The Kitchen God’s Wife–Amy Tan
The Last of the Mohicans–James Fenimore Cooper
The Left Hand of Darkness–Ursula K. Le Guin
Les Miserables–Victor Hugo
Less Than Zero–Bret Easton Ellis
Like Water for Chocolate–Laura Esquivel
Lord of the Flies–William Golding
Love Medicine–Louise Erdrich
Moby Dick–Herman Melville
Moll Flanders–Daniel Defoe
The Naked and the Dead–Norman Mailer
Of Mice and Men–John Steinbeck
The Old Gringo–Carlos Fuentes
The Old Man and the Sea–Ernest Hemingway
On the Road–Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest–Ken Kesey
Out of Africa–Isak Dinesen
Pride and Prejudice–Jane Austen
The Prince–Niccolo Machiavelli
The Red Badge of Courage–Stephen Crane
The Remains of the Day–Kazuo Ishiguro
The Return of the Native–Thomas Hardy
Robinson Crusoe–Daniel Defoe
Roots: The Story of an American Family–Alex Haley
The Scarlet Letter–Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Screwtape Letters–C. S. Lewis
Shogun: A Novel of Japan–James du Maresq Clavell
Slaughterhouse Five–Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The Slave Dancer–Paula Fox
Something Wicked this Way Comes–Ray Bradbury
Song of Solomon–Toni Morrison
The Sound and the Fury–William Faulkner
The Stranger–Albert Camus
Summer of My German Soldier–Bette Greene
The Sun Also Rises–Ernest Hemingway
The Sweet Hereafter–Russell Banks
Ten Little Indians–Agatha Christie
Tess of the d’Urbervilles–Thomas Hardy
Their Eyes Were Watching God–Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart–Chinua Achebe
The Time Machine–H. G. Wells
To Kill a Mockingbird–Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse–Virginia Woolf
Treason–Orson Scott Card
Treasure Island–Robert Louis Stevenson
V.–Thomas Pynchon
War and Peace–Leo Tolstoy
The Waste Land–T. S. Eliot
Watership Down–Richard Adams
The World According to Garp–John Irving
Wuthering Heights–Emily Bronte

I was going to keep this list down to 100 books, but there are probably closer to 120. I would be interested to see submissions from readers, because I know I left off some that were important (i.e.: everybody’s read them). Scan through and see if your favorites are on the list.