Friday, June 24, 2011

Book Rec - A Whole New Mind


I don't know exactly why I reserved this book - A Whole New Mind - at my library and read the whole thing. Perhaps the 4.5 stars on Amazon lead me astray.

The one is very, very weak. Really it's just *creative people* propaganda. The author asserts that artists and designers are the smartest, most important people on the planet. So a bunch of starving artists and iMoron types ran out, bought the book, swallowed the self-aggrandizing pabulum, and rated it highly on Amazon.

Don't get me wrong, the guy's thesis isn't rubbish. It's just that his argumentation is lacking; and there are just so many better self-help, self-redefinition books out there.

Note it is very rare for me to end up reading garbage. My vetting process and my discerning eye generally serve me well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. This book was disappointing (at least the parts that I read). Stop reading it after about 40 pages. League Islander

CaptiousNut said...

LI,

Only 40 pages in, eh?

Well then you didn't get to the worst part. On p70 or so the author talked about the almighty importance of *design*. To illustrate his point he summoned up the poorly designed butterfly ballots in Florida that supposedly kept Al Gore out of the White House. About as large of an eye-rolling moment as I've ever experienced!

Deep Thought said...

Hey Capt,

I thought his next book was pretty good, "Drive" - although I wouldn't be surprised if you found it a bit "elementary". Keep in mind, you and League Islander are in the big boys' flight while I'm still working my way out of the ladies room!

Very much in line with a talk he gives at TED. Here's link if you are interested - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html