Think Big, A Book Review

Dr. Ben Carson is an extremely well accomplished neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Detroit with his brother, the two of them sons of a single, working mom. As his story begins, Dr. Carson acknowledges that in his youth he did poorly in school, but through the help of his mother and other kind souls in his path, he was able to become the man and professional he is today. Think Big is more than an autobiography, it's a book about achievement. If you don't know how to succeed or know if you're headed in the right direction, Think Big helps put any doubts you may have to rest.

Most striking and infectious is Dr. Carson's regard for books. He believes, as experience has shown him, that through books, one's imagination sparks and one's ability to relate others soars. The book is like a catalyst for change.

In my own reading, I was inspired to re-evaluate my interests through Dr. Carson's writings about the significance of in-depth learning. As a professional, I understand the significance of keeping up with trends or a hobbiest keeping up with new toys. Yet something different happens when we make the decision to immerse ourselves in a subject. Whether it be in accounting, literature, stamp collecting, or volleyball, your mind and attitude are different when you approach them with more than just a cursory reading, more than a "just enough to do my job" or "take this test" sort of attitude.

Think Big is part biography, part advice, part medicine, and it is excellent preparatory reading for college-bound seniors and undergraduate pre-meds. Yet, it is also part drama and entirely true, which makes it fair reading for any person young or older who wishes to learn about passion, learning, and determination from someone who has experienced it all.

Freakonomics, A Book Review

The basic premise of Freakonomics is that everything that happens leads to something else, or that one thing leads to another. It's a book about cause and effect from a social perspective. With this view, the author challenges our assumptions about the way things are or the way we actually perceive them to be. The book is written with a lighthearted tone, making its subjects and case studies seem more like fodder for a cocktail party than as questions for research. Such treatment makes Freakonomics accessible for a broader audience of readers, especially those who might not otherwise venture into learning about such a field. And what is that field exactly? The "freakier," less mathematical side of economics.

For all its great writing and its rather daring subjects, the book and the cause-and-effect relationshps the authors propose are a bit of a stretch. Abortion is heralded as being responsible for the dramatic dip in crime across America in the 1990's. It is supposed that abortion was responsible for ridding the nation of the young, lower income, less well-educated individuals who would no doubt have been responsible for perpetuating crime had they been born. Yet the author fails to account for the drop in deviance levels from other segments of the population that were around. The book makes arguments like this and others without also giving attention to plausible alternatives.

Another case in point is the authors' assumption that young people want to be dealers of narcotics because it is flashy and cool in spite of the risks and low pay associated with it. They compare it to the way a young person would want to enter a glamourous low-paying profession like publishing to have a one-in-a-million shot at becoming a super high-paid executive. (See my review for The Devil Wears Prada.) That the authors compare an industry of entertainment to the selling of narcotics is laughable, but then to also say that young people become sellers of narcotics because they want to seems even more absurd. The author points out that the sellers of narcotics in his book earn as little as $3 a day, much less than minimum wage.

It would seem to reason that a person interested in making money would try to find a job that paid more. In the face of minimum wage, selling narcotics isn't even an option ... unless you have no other place to find a job. In areas suffering from the proliferation of the trade of narcotics, one key issue in whether people decide to sell narcotics is their options for finding an honest job. How many corporations house their offices in the ghetto? How many people patron businesses housed in ghettos over those they find in a mall? How many malls are in the ghetto? And even if a person were to find a job outside the ghetto, how much more of a burden would it be to find transportation to that job, an additional cost, especially if that person is already working to earn extra money and the only ride that person has is the bus. Now, if that person is a child or a teen, the time that child spends traveling to and from that honest job miles away from his or her home then takes time away from studying. For adults, it takes time away from parenting. It takes time away from learning skills for a better job. Given the choice, thinking in real economical terms of opportunity cost and benefit, the reason people choose to sell narcotics is clear. It has nothing, or at least very little, to do with being cool.

Freakonomics is not a rigorous book. That is its major flaw. It attempts to explain some of our generation's most challenging questions, but it offers only simplified answers. The onus to dig deeper for the true causes of events falls on the reader, but the book does not actually encourage such thought. Nowhere do the authors even suggest that they could be wrong or that there could be other plausible reasons for various events. Such writing is the mark of poor scholarship and I do not recommend that it be read.

Ode to the GPS

How did people used to get around without GPSs? The one I have is made by Garmin. Not only does it give you directions to the locations you request, but you can also find directions to nearby banks, theaters, restaurants, hospitals, lodging, etc. It even includes a mode that directs you away from traffic to your destination.

I'm usually not much into electronics, but I really appreciate my GPS. Knowing that I can drive around and not get lost has really helped me think about exploring a new way home from work or just going off on a road trip. I can drive to another city or get a rental car and travel anywhere in North America without a paper map.

Automatic Saver

I've announced already that part of my challenge will include learning more about money, saving, and finances. As of today, I'm taking it a step further and issuing a challenge to myself to save at least $2,600 in 2009. That's $25 per week for 52 weeks, a full year of saving. That amount, $2600, in and of itself isn't a lot. I have student loans and past due tuition up the wazoo. However, saving just that small sum consistently will be the mark of a breakthrough.

In the past, when I've tried to save consistently, some sort of emergency would inevitably show up. And then when the money was gone, it would be easy not to start all over again. I know this one simple act of saving consistently is the first step in realizing financial independence. One of my favorite money books, The Automatic Millionaire (by David Bach), is based on this principle. But as I've learned throughout this challenge, reading and knowing how to do something is very different from actually doing it.

At first, I started with the idea of saving $40 a week. Then I suppose I felt that amount was just too comfortable, so I upped it by $10. The truth is, saving $40 is actually no easy task. I'm really living paycheck to paycheck. One wrong move, and I'm out. I've got to think about what I'm spending my money on, what I'm not spending on, and how I can go about reducing my spending where I can.

I already know I spend a lot of income eating out. Sometimes, it will be at a restaurant. Other times, it's just fast food. Least of all will I spend time actually cooking, though it is both the cheapest and healthiest way to eat. It might also help contribute to my weight loss. (Follow my weight loss on my other blog: www.poundapound.blogspot.com.) Eating out, I think I spend about $75 or more a week. It's not just because I like to either. Eating out is convenient when you spend lots of time at the office.

I will also try to chronicle how I save money. I think I'm paying too much on my cell phone bill already. That's something else I can cut back on. But I don't want to become a penny pincher. I don't want to live in fear of not having enough. I want to live comfortably and be debt free with considerable wealth.

Next Stop: Factory Girls

The next book on my list is Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
by Leslie T. Chang. What is this obsession, this proclivity I have toward Asian culture? And really, it's not Asian culture so much as I am interested in the rights and cultural lives of women in that area. The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient
was the first such book I read addressing American interpretations of Asian culture. Then there was the Memoirs of a Geisha
. I didn't really get into that book so much, but I know it added to my interest of region and women's rights.

I look forward to reading the book. From the jacket cover, I think it may also have a lot to do with globalization and business: two additional areas in which I have a great interest.

The Devil Wears Prada, a book review

I finally finished The Devil Wears Prada! From its reviews on Amazon.com, there doesn't seem to be much consensus either way on the merits of the book. The disparity in the rating stems, I think, from people assigning stars on the basis of differnt criteria. If everyone were to judge the book on qualities as chic lit, there would be more of a consensus. The same would be true, I think, if all the reviews were about the literary quality of the book. Either way, I'm glad I finished. Here's the review I wrote myself for Amazon.com:


Add This Book To Your Business Collection

It's certainly not literary fiction, but The Devil Wears Prada is a light, easy read for a stress-free vacation and a surprising addition to a professional's business library. The book tackles such issues in business as management, employee satisfaction, and the deadline-driven world of the publishing field. As readers follow Andrea Sachs through her first job and first year at a popular fashion magazine in New York, NY, they are invited to share in the ups and downs of working for a demanding boss in a position of low pay and virtually non-existent status. Along the way, Andrea realizes what it takes to be successful and what unquestionable abuse one can yield upon employees when their boss is one of the most respected and feared professionals in their field. Andrea also learns to prioritize. In coming to understand her personal work limits, she also begins to develop a healthy work/life balance, something many professionals -- men and women alike -- find themselves struggling with day after day.

Andrea represents what most people are like when they take on their first job or what many become after years of unsuccessful attempts at getting ahead the old-fashioned way. They're caught up in the myth that hard work and perseverance are what get people promoted. Yet after a few years of brown nosing, these same people begin to realize that the true road to success actually lies elsewhere, that to succeed, they must indeed be very good at their chosen profession, but to rely on it as the sole means of advancing their career would be naive.

The Devil Wears Prada should be a staple among business books. There are lessons about dealing with bosses, navigating through business culture, and more all illustrated in its pages. The lessons one might learn from reading some of today's greatest business books are found together in The Devil Wears Prada. It is a perfect learning tool for professionals who like to learn by example and through reading about other people's mistakes.

Aspiring professionals in publishing will also benefit from reading this book. Even those readers with other interests will still find the book appropriately amusing, touching, and perhaps even all too real to be just fiction.