User Profile

Wow. It’s the ur-advice book and it explains so much about the mostly very derivative genre. I’ve been reading a lot of leadership books lately, as I’m wanting to transition from freelancing to working in a larger organization with other people. I’ve been pretty shocked by just how sexist they are in their assumptions, but this one blew me away with its limited cultural perspective. I live in Germany now, but even when I lived in the States I was aware that there are cultural differences in how to approach people. My grandmother was a French speaker and often used the term „grinning idiot“ for people who smile all the time for no good reason. My German language learning partner specifically asked me to explain why Americans are so into smiling. It’s a freaking stereotype. In this book he advocates smiling all the time as if it’s universally positive. I found it hard to take this book seriously. The basic thesis, ok: people treat you differently depending on how you approach them, think about things from your audience’s side. But the details seem specific to Midwestern white people. Not a particular useful guide for dealing with a diverse range of people.

After listening to this audiobook, I felt more caught up on my understanding of how technology is affecting society. I’m a compulsive learner, and lately I’ve been working on transitioning from thinking of myself as an overgrown college student to trying to take myself seriously as a professional adult. In this book he makes a strong case that lifelong learning is a part of our societal reality. The basic tools we work with are changing rapidly. I just took an online class to refresh my excel skills. This book helped me frame that as part of continuing education, rather than as a regression back to school. It also helped me frame the actual current threats better: namely terrorism and hacking. I started listening because of the title. I’ve been having problems with people being late and/or flakey. It didn’t really address that issue beyond „people are so busy these days!“ And the subtitle promised optimism. I guess it was somewhat optismistic? Kind of? I’d say it’s more like „golly gee, what a world!“ And there was a LOT of pining for the old days. In the end it wasn’t what it said it was. And it felt overlong, repetitive, and boring. I think I could have absorbed the same information in a tenth of the time. I know a lot of people are big fans of this author, maybe they’d find his long, detailed memoir style ramblings more interesting than I did. I kept thinking he was going to make a point. Why did I finish it? It started strong and I hoped it would end strong after I got past the fluff. Nope.

What a delight this book is! I’ve begun a practice in the past few months of reading a little before getting out of bed in the morning, and this was the first book I finished in that manner. And each of those mornings started with fresh, bright optimism. I found myself convinced that all the problems in the world are just design problems. I’ve been increasingly annoyed with this narrative that people are bad, everything we do is harmful, the earth is dying, and we should all reduce, be less, hold our breaths and prepare for the collapse of civilization. The authors design buildings and products that leave the world better. Not just nontoxic, but regenerative, healing. They talk about thinking of resources in terms of „nutrient cycles“. So, instead of „how do we reduce or reuse this toxic product?“ the question becomes „how do we design products so their components are endlessly recaptured and the manufacturing process cleans the water and air?“ An example that’s very easy to understand: they took those fleece jackets that are made of recycled plastic and redesigned the zippers and snaps so that at the end of the jacket’s useful life it can be raw material once again. Instead of reusing the plastic once, they created an endless cycle. The authors have set up a certification program for products that meet their standards, and they provide services for companies who want to meet the standard. For example, they maintain a list of fabrics that furniture makers can use to create nontoxic products that produce no pollution in the manufacturing process. Another world is possible, we just have to design it.

This book is refreshingly dense, compared to the lightweight, self-help feel of so many business books. I’m keeping it so I can reread it at some point. His approach to emotions was interesting and challenging for me. He advocates keeping your emotions to yourself, refining your skills at figuring out the emotions driving others, and scripting your communications to maximize impact. It struck me as such a manipulative, inauthentic way to behave. I put the book down for a little while in disgust before getting back to it. But then I pushed on and worked on engaging those ideas. He says that when meeting with people, you should put in preparation time that’s commensurate with the importance of the meeting. That’s been helpful advice. I’ve started sitting down to think through what I want, what’s driving them, etc. It’s helped me feel much more sure of myself in meetings. Even when writing emails to friends, it helps to stop and think about what this person wants and needs before I blurt out what’s on my mind. The more of these business books written by men I read, the more I realize that the business world takes place inside this mutually self-reinforcing web of masculine values: don’t reveal emotions, focus your energies on things that maximize your personal advantage, etc. The externalized emotional and domestic labor that this world view relies on is the vast negative space around this portrait of the economic man.