This will be short (Internet fickle amonst other excuses). I finished Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott earlier this week. It was the most “practical” of the books I’ve written by her, because it’s on the topic of writing. She teaches writing classes and workshops and wrote this book to put down the advice she shares with countless students year in and year out. It was a very encouraging read, because, as I’ve said before about Lamott, she makes the ordinary parts of life seems so interesting.

The book gave me encouragement as a writer to continue to write, if not for some lofty goal of being published (which she warns is not all it’s cracked up to be), then simply for your self.

I’d recommend picking up this book if your a writer or would like to be. Definitely worth a bit of your time.

I normally include some quotes, and I plan on adding them later, but I don’t have the time right now. So, this concludes your weekly book review.

A few months back my brother introduced me to a video of a guy named Clay Shirky talking about wikipedia and something called “cognitive surplus“. It was brilliant. Shirky basically pointed out that in USA we spend more time sitting around watching commercials on the weekend then it would take to create the entire Wikipedia, about 100 million hours of thought.

From there I found out Shirky had just come out with a book entitled, Here Comes Everybody, The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Having just started a wikipedia-like project, and lamenting the inefficiencies of organizations, I grabbed a copy of the book as quickly as I could. This book is simply brilliant.

If you have any interest in social networking, the power of the internet, or simply using technology creatively for your cause, event or organization, I recommend this book. It’s more philosphical then practical, but it contains many practical examples and you (at least I) can’t help but have a hundred ideas you want to go and implement immediately after each chapter.

What’s great about this is that Shirky shares stories about things that have relevance beyond online. It’s not just about a facebook group that has 100,000 members, which has no impact on the world outside of that social network. Instead he talks about flash-mobs and twitter being used as political tools, Flickr and Meetup creating social groups that never would have found each other otherwise.

One brief idea I’ll summarize here is the idea of lowered transaction cost. It used to be that the cost (time, money, resources) for any collective effort was very high, thus often only taken on by large organizations or groups. But with the internet the transaction cost of any particular action is nearly zero. That’s part of the reason you have millions of blogs, social networks, and plenty of failures. But it’s also how brilliant ideas by random individuals are able to take off in ways they never could before (think facebook or google even).

You should find a copy of this book and get your read on.

I  recently re-read the book Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky. This book had originally been a spark in my interest in community organizing over five years ago. Alinsky, according to wikipedia, is consider the father of community organizing. He was fairly notorious from the 1930’s to the 1960’s for his organizing of labor and union groups to civil rights involvement. And his book is full of great and creative stories of his organizing days.

The truth is, Alinsky was way more radical then I could ever hope to be. He seemed to be a man of solid convictions, but also steadfastly committed to getting the job done. Here’s a powerful statement:

…in action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind. The choice must always be for the latter. Action is for mass salvation and not for the individual’s
personal salvation. He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal conscience has a peculiar conception of “personal salvation”; he doesn’t care enough for people to be “corrupted” for them. -p. 25

Wow, that is a challenging statement. He basically argues that any means is acceptable if it reaches your end. He uses Gandhi as an example, arguing that Gandhi was only non-violent because that was the best means to reach the end, and that after they won power from the British, Gandhi then was willing to use force (or at least didn’t argue against it) in maintaining that power.

Alinsky’s creative action and threats have included everything from tying up the bathrooms at O’hare to organizing proxies of stockholders to influence huge corporations. He was notorious for being one step ahead, and I hope I can glean some of his wisdom in future organizing.

Here are his rules for Tactics, which is a major component of the book:

Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.

Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.

Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”

Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

Some obviously need some explaining, but for that you’ll have to pick up the book. Enjoy.

“The fact is that it is not man’s “better nature” but his self-interest that demands that he be his brother’s keeper. We now live in a world where no man can have a loaf of bread while his neighbor has none. If he does not share his bread, he dare not sleep, for his neighbor will kill him. To eat and sleep in safety man must do the right thing, if for seemingly the wrong reasons, and be in practice his brother’s keeper.”

So, one of my current housemates is a third grade teacher who recommended I read What Does it Mean to Be Well Educated? And Other Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies, by Alfie Kohn. I’ve been devouring the book and have found Kohn’s insight fascinating. I’m going to post some quotes in upcoming blogs so I’ll keep this review brief.

I think every educator should read this book, or at least some of Kohn’s work (most probably have). I’m not sure that everyone will agree with his opinions, but I think he has brilliant insight that will help you see a different perspective and consider things from an angle you hadn’t before. Kohn manages to step back from the current debates that are often polarized to two sides and lends a whole new perspective the questions some of the very assumptions we currently take for granted.

The ideas are pretty radical at times, but I find I agree with much of what he says. He’s extremely critical of standardized testing, national standards, business and politicians involved in education decisions, and a huge opponent to grades.

Here are a couple quotes and links to a lot of the complete essays!

From Confusing Hard with Better:

But how many adults could pass these exams? How many high school teachers possess the requisite stock of information outside their own subjects? How many college professors, for that matter, or business executives, or state legislators could confidently write an essay about Mayan agricultural practices or divergent plate boundaries? We would do well to adopt (Deborah) Meier’s Mandate: No student should be expected to meet an academic requirement that a cross section of successful adults in the community cannot.

A list Two Cheers for an End to the SAT on why to ditch the SAT:

• The SAT is a measure of resources more than of reasoning.
• Aggregate scores don’t reflect educational achievement.
• Individual scores don’t reflect a student’s intellectual depth.
• SAT’s don’t predict the future.
• SAT’s don’t contribute to diversity.

And finally From Degrading to De-Grading on why to do away with grades:

Grades tend to reduce students’ interest in the learning itself.

Grades tend to reduce students’ preference for challenging tasks.

Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking.

Grades aren’t valid, reliable, or objective.

Grades distort the curriculum.

Grades waste a lot of time that could be spent on learning.

Grades encourage cheating.

Grades spoil teachers’ relationships with students.

Grades spoil students’ relationships with each other.

Feel free to read the complete essays linked above and let me know your thoughts.

A friend mentioned this book and I thought I’d probably be worth my while to pick it up and give it a read. So, I grabbed Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, by Bill Cosby, from the library and gave it a quick read. It was decent, but I’m not sure how I feel about it overall, this is a review, not an endorsement of Cosby or the book.

As Cosby has begun speaking out on issues within the black community, the biggest critique he’s received is that the issues he’s addressing our ‘in house’ issues, for the black community, not society at large. He’s airing the dirty laundry in front of everyone, which leaves justification for the society at large not to address more systemic issues. Basically, his speaking out gives many white people a token person of color to point to that they agree with, and let’s them off the hook from addressing the issues of systemic racism that they are in a position to address. And, in large part, I’d agree with this critique.

The book is good. It covers a lot of issues, suggests solutions, encourages action, but overall I think it was a poor choice of medium for the message. I don’t believe the book will reach it’s intended audience. Interestingly, I’ve only heard Cosby’s name and his statements referenced by white people, when his audience is clearly African American’s who have been the victims of oppression for years.

So, whether you read this book or not, understand this it isn’t intended to let anyone off the hook. It should simply be an encouragement to everyone that we are all working on and making an effort to address the problems that exist in our neighborhoods and communities.

A couple quotes I found interesting. The first is to counter what people commonly refer to as Cosby’s critique of Hip-Hop. He actually has some positive things to say about Hip-Hop; his critique is mainly against the misogynistic, violent, drug-promoting and demeaning lyrics of some more popular rap music. Here is a brief quote:

Expressions like “right on,” “give me some skin,” “give me a high five,” not to mention “cool” and “hip” and “jazz” for that matter, all drive from the black experience. No ethnic roup in America has had nearly our influence on spoken English, much of it energizing. In music, the use of black vernacular in the lyrics of blues, jazz, and today’s hip-hop are a part of the richness of American culture that has been embraced by people around the world. Black people can be proud of their contributions to American language and speech.

And this one I just appreciated,

Parents and caregivers, have you heard a kid say, “well, I can either flip burgers or go out here and make some real money selling drugs?” When you hear that, do you stop the child and say, “Wait a minute, fool. You don’t flip burgers for the rest of your life. You flip them to become the manager of the place. You flip burgers to move from manager to owner of the damn franchise”?

You have to say this to your kids more than once. So do their teachers. If the kids give you lip, ask them to identify a middle-aged, home-owning drug-dealing grandpa with a family that loves him. That will keep them quiet-and busy.

That’s for you folks who work and raise kids who brought up that question, not for those standing from afar critiquing the community.

I asked Michael from The Ooze if it would be okay if I went ahead and made some badges and tried to put together a semi-official list of those who are part of the Ooze Select Blogger group. This will hopefully allow people to read a variety of reviews on the materials that we are sent. Basically the list of blogs below are bloggers who were selected by The Ooze to receive books from publishers and authors to review and blog about (obviously in hopes of creating interest and buzz around their particular book).

I wasn’t given an official list, so we’ll let the Blogosphere do it’s magic and allow those who are Select bloggers to discover this post, comment below so I can add you, and steal the Select Blogger Badge below.

I’m starting the list with the first ten select bloggers I can find via a google blog search. There are 50 out there so try and find your way over and I’ll add to the list as you comment.

The Ooze Select Blogger List (In no particular order):

1. Rev. Todd
2. Consuming Worship
3. Blake Huggins
4. Trying to Follow
5. Recliner Ramblings
6. Some Strange Ideas
7. Solar Crash
8. Todd Littleton
9. Julie Clawson
10. Calacirian
11. Notes From Off Center
12. Keeping Feet
13. Swinging From The Vine
14. Intercession City
15. Gavin
16. Blind Beggar
17. Sally’s Journey
18. With/out God
19. Sensual Jesus
20. What Canst Thou Say?
21. Into The Subversion
22. Some Strange Ideas
23. Kingdom Grace
24. Jonathan Merritt
25. The Journey
    
26. And More to come….

A note to select bloggers: If you are planning on tagging or categorizing your Ooze Book reviews in some fashion, please post the url to that category or tag page on your blog rather then just the blog url itself. I figure ‘select’ bloggers ought to be web-savvy enough to get the badge on their own page, but let me know if you need help. (I would appreciate it if you would copy the image to your own server).

My friend, Bryan, recommended this book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, by Shane Hipps and I picked it up from the library about a week ago. It was a phenomenal and very insightful read, which I’d highly recommend to anyone in church leadership or church anything.

The book basically talks about taking a step back from media (and it uses this term broadly) and considering the impact the media itself has on us, rather then just considering the message we communicate through it. For example, we tend to think of Television as evil when it promotes drugs and violence, but good when it promotes christian evangelism; but as for the television itself we tend to consider it a neutral entity. Hipps points out that no piece of media is neutral it all has an impact on us as individuals and as a culture. The advent of the printing press brought about the age of individualism, you need only look at the protestant reformation (sola scriptura) to get an historical understanding of that.

Hipps references a lot of Marshall McLuhan as the sort of resident expert on the subject, he’s the guy who said:

The Medium is the message.

McLuhan also said:

“The content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb.”

The point he was making is the the media we use has huge implications that we tend to ignore. The message is important, but if we aren’t aware of the impact of the medium it will have dangerous implications.

I’m going to begin writing and reflecting on quotes from books I’ve been reading in future blog posts, so stay tuned for a few from this book. And remember to pick up a copy from your local library some time.

You can read this article by Shane Hipps to get a taste for the book, or check out his website.

I read this book, Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, by Susan Gregory Thomas, and I would highly highly recommend it, regardless of if your a parent or not.

Not only does the book give you a behind the scenes look at the multi-billion dollar business of marketing to children, but it gives you statistics and awareness that will infuriate you. Here are some examples.

Program Length Commercials. The industry calls them PLCs and they are pretty much all the shows you and I grew up on. I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m going to. Your favorite kids shows and nostalgic heroes, GI Joes, Strawberry Shortcake, Gummi Bears, He-Man, TMNT, Transformers, Smurfs, and on and on, they where/are all commercials. In a brilliant marketing move, advertisers have created half hour long, enticing and engaging commercials, that will make you fall in love with the characters, and, of course, buy all of their licensed products. The kids going to want a GI Joe lunchbox, a Bratz halloween costume, and He-Man underwear. You’ve been had, and your kids will too if you don’t watch out.

Disney wants Your Money. Sure, you might think the Disney princess thing is cute, but it’s also a strategic marketing and branding campaign to hook customers at a young age. If they can hook a kid when they are young that kid (and their parents) will spend over $100,000 over the course of their lifetime on Disney related products.

Baby Einstein Is A Scam. First of all, the whole “Mozart Effect” has no relevance to babies (the study was originally done with a small group of college students, and similar studies on babies show no unique results). Baby Einstein videos, and other merchandise have never been proven to be educational, in fact, the reverse might be true (Baby Einstein makes kids dumb).

There is a bunch more in this book, but I’ll just leave it for you to enjoy when you pick up your own copy. Seriously, read this book.

(I’m putting the P.S.’s at the beginning because they’re important)
P.S. Final thought. I’m thinking about doing some contest to give away some of the nearly new books I have. Would you be interested in something like that?

P.P.S It’s my brother’s birthday. He’s the coolest freaking kid I’ve ever met. Here’s proof.

Now wish him happy birthday by commenting below, or checking out his blog (and subscribing!)

Okay, now to your regularly scheduled post…

I didn’t actually I decided to finish the book, Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life Is All about, by Matthew Turner. It was one of the books I recently received as an Ooze Select Blogger, and it was the shortest so I thought I’d pick it up first. I put it down after the first couple chapters, but then just decided to plow through.

I don’t usually like to give negative or critical critiques of other people’s writings, since I recently wrote a book myself and know I’d be bother by a negative review. However, Matthew Turner has written a number of successful books and has been the editor for CCM magazine as well, so I think he’s probably credible enough that my little review won’t bother him, if he even notices.

I didn’t like this book at all, at least the part I read. Not only did the direction it was going seem quite random, but I felt like I couldn’t really understand his points either. I think I would describe the book as being sort of ‘philosophical’ in nature, not really talking about anything specific and practical but just about the way we ‘are.’

The one story I did like, where the title of the book is derived from, is about a substitute teacher he had at his private Christian elementary school, who taught them the hokey pokey, which they head never learned because dancing was from the Devil.

Anyways, I thought I’d get my review out early so that other Bloggers who are writing reviews can feel okay about giving their honest own two cents, and to see if anyone else whose read this book felt the same way as me.