ELESEWHERE U.S.A

Author: Dalton Conley

Over the past three decades, our daily lives have changed slowly but dramatically. Boundaries between leisure and work, public space and private space, and home and office have blurred and become permeable. How many of us now work from home, our wireless economy allowing and encouraging us to work 24/7? How many of us talk to our children while scrolling through e-mails on our BlackBerrys? How many of us feel overextended, as we are challenged to play multiple roles–worker, boss, parent, spouse, friend, and client–all in the same instant?

Dalton Conley, social scientist and writer provides us with an X-ray view of our new social reality. In Elsewhere, U.S.A., Conley connects our daily experience with occasionally overlooked sociological changes: women’s increasing participation in the labor force; rising economic inequality generating anxiety among successful professionals; the individualism of the modern era–the belief in self-actualization and expression–being replaced by the need to play different roles in the various realms of one’s existence. In this groundbreaking book, Conley offers an essential understanding of how the technological, social, and economic changes that have reshaped our world are also reshaping our individual lives.

NYTIMES REVIEW
In a book that he describes as social criticism rather than social science, he underscores that privileged, present-day Americans (this study’s narrow yet book-buying constituency) can only be “convinced that they’re in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time, when they’re on their way to the next destination.” He postulates reasons for this phenomenon. But he cannot offer a coherent overview.

“This very book intends to serve as the first-edition guidebook to this new world we have created,” he trumpets about the putative Elsewhere that some of us inhabit. That’s a tall order, especially since Mr. Conley spends part of his time out on a limb, sawing.

Some of the claims made in “Elsewhere, U.S.A.” have become badly dated, whether by recent circumstances (“it is not true that firings or layoffs have increased”; “when we look at the economy as a whole, we find that volatility has greatly decreased over the last 25 years”) or by dated research (Google’s stock is said to have peaked at “over $500,” though it hit the $750 range). When Mr. Conley speaks of economic anxiety, he refers to awkward differences in status rather than a more timely fear of being out on the street.

But this book’s greater problem is the thin, iffy nature of its extended arguments. To back up the familiar claim that we have allowed merchandising to invade our private lives, he invokes (in no particular order) the selling of formerly free snacks on airplanes, slogans on T-shirts (with a thumbnail history of the T-shirt thrown in for filler) and the perils created by the bottling and marketing of water. A section on the changing nature of theft in a time when many goods are no longer worth stealing but social security numbers are extremely valuable, he describes an episode in which “fake” Yahoo operatives appeared to be scamming him. That these operatives turned out not to be fraudsters and were trying to reach him about legitimate business does not keep this story out of Mr. Conley’s book.

He is on more solid ground when his anecdotes are nothing but colorful. Though people rarely carry much cash in a world full of ATM machines, diminishing the likelihood of muggings, he writes, “That said, it would seem easier to pick people’s pockets these days, or just conk them on the head with a club like so many baby seals as they cruise down the street, clicking away on their BlackBerrys totally unaware of their surroundings.” That there is nothing newsworthy about excessive BlackBerry use — or workaholic parents, children burdened with too many after-school activities, hedge fund managers who work from home in their pajamas and so on — does not lessen that passage’s colloquial appeal.

But Mr. Conley has no big new point to make. He awkwardly coins new locutions (“weisure” to conflate work and leisure, “convestment” to do the same with consumption and investment). He struggles with jargon while trying to interject the term “intravidual” into our collective conversation. Beware an “of course” when a point is anything but self-evident: “The irony, of course, is that the intravidual is just as much an ‘intervidual’ (inter meaning ‘between’), since it is the networked nature of our new, Elsewhere economy and the penetration of others into us that shatters the individual.”

Mr. Conley dutifully travels out to Mountain View, Calif., to note the Orwellian nature of life at Googleplex, Google’s corporate headquarters. A pox on Mountain View: it is now the destination of choice for writers seeking to pad books with sci-fi visuals and newish-sounding but already conventional wisdom.

Otherwise the source material for “Elsewhere, U.S.A.” (beyond Mr. Conley’s own colorful experiences, like the time he watched a British otter movie thanks to the recommendation of Netflix) is either weak (YouTube videos) or unhelpful. In citing “The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work,” the 1997 book by Arlie Russell Hochschild, Mr. Conley is simply emphasizing that some of his insights are old news.

Yet he buries in a lengthy footnote one of the most intriguing points that he might have explored: the connection between the social disembodiment described in “Elsewhere, U.S.A.” and rising rates of autism, a condition that defies the conventions of social networking. Mr. Conley might really have taken himself elsewhere had he pursued the question of how autism and our isolating, newly normal adult behavior are related.

Why Evolution Is True

Author: Jerry Coyne

Jerry A. Coyne is left utterly incredulous whenever he hears the term “theory of evolution.” As a point of fact, he suggests, the phrasing is an inaccurate and unfortunate pairing, though the word in question is not the one synonymous with pioneering British naturalist Charles Darwin.

In Why Evolution is True, his new book, the University of Chicago professor expresses sharp disdain for the modern portrayal of evolution as mere speculation and biological conjecture.
“The battle for evolution seems never-ending,” he writes. “And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition. What is at stake is nothing less than science itself and all the benefits it offers to society.”

Nearly a century has passed since the “Scopes Monkey Trial” pitted celebrity attorneys Williams Jennings Bryant, a self-described Christian, against Clarence Darrow, an agnostic, in a Tennessee courtroom. Famously, they squared off over the legality of teaching evolution in a Bible Belt public school.

Although the Scopes case ultimately helped establish evolution as a bedrock element of public science education in America, the clash between Darwinism and religious creationists rages on.

Coyne says the proponents of intelligent design often leave out a critical detail in their challenges to evolution: the ever-growing body of empirical evidence, which he insists is irrefutable, that moves evolution squarely from theory to scientific fact.

He opens his provocative narrative by visiting a 21st-century version of the Scopes trial. The case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania, involves members of a local school board mandating that intelligent design be treated as evolution’s equal in explaining the origin of species on Earth.

Coyne methodically lays out the complete trail of evidence supporting evolution, ranging from the fossil record of dinosaur bones to sophisticated DNA analysis, and many decades of rigorous peer-reviewed scrutiny in between.

In this 200th anniversary year of Darwin’s birth, “Why Evolution Is True” ranks among the best of new titles flooding bookstores.

For those who may embrace Darwin’s hypothesis but have a difficult time defending it, Coyne, a university professor of evolution and ecology, supplies readers with more ammunition than they ever will need.

He makes the case for evolution in a way that is eminently understandable, colorfully articulated, and relevant to our time.

Mentioned are politicians and pundits, including former Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas and conservative fireball commentator Ann Coulter, both of whom he finds guilty of gratuitously pitting evolution against organized religion.

“Critics of evolution seize upon [the controversies], arguing that they show that something is wrong with the theory of evolution itself. But this is specious,” Coyne writes. “Far from discrediting evolution, the controversies are in fact the sign of a vibrant, thriving field. What moves science forward is ignorance, debate, and the testing of alternative theories with observations and experiments.”

He notes: “A science without controversy is a science without progress.”

Coyne celebrates the amazing wonder of a world that is not eviscerated by scientific inquiry but further illuminated. The special ways that life adapts and perpetuates itself is a marvel to behold, he writes.

It is apparent, he notes, in the shapes and behavior of species, differences between sexes, and special relationships such as the one between faunal pollinators (bees, butterflies, bats,
and birds) and blossoming flowers that yield not only food but also beauty. Even the book’s cover illustrates the descent of birds from dinosaurs millions of years ago.

In the end, Coyne does not find science and those who practice it to exist in exclusion from those who seek spirituality in either nature or a church sanctuary.

He quotes Albert Einstein, who once remarked: “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science…. [I]t was the experience of mystery – even if mixed with fear – that engendered religion.”

Alex & Me

Author: Irene Pepperberg


Although his brain was no bigger than a walnut, Alex the African gray parrot could do more than speak and understand — he could also count, identify colors and, according to his owner Irene Pepperberg, develop an emotional relationship. When Alex died in September 2007, his last words to Pepperberg were "You be good. I love you."

In her new book, Alex & Me, Pepperberg explores the world of animal cognition and describes her unique relationship with Alex.

Pepperberg is adjunct professor at the Department of Psychology at Brandeis University and a lecturer and research associate at Harvard University. She is also the author of The Alex Studies.

Book List 16 May 2009

Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding
of Meditation and Consciousness
by James H. Austin
Published by MIT Press in 1999
$14.50 (paperback) in very good condition
This book uses Zen Buddhism as the opening wedge for a wide-ranging exploration of consciousness. In order to understand the brain mechanisms that produce Zen states, one needs some understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the brain. Austin, a neuroscientist and Zen practitioner, interweaves his teachings of the brain with his teachings/personal narrative of Zen.

To Serve God and Wal-Mart:
The Making of Christian Free Enterprise
by Bethany Moreton

The history of Wal-Mart uncovers a complex network that united Sun Belt entrepreneurs, evangelical employees, Christian business students, overseas missionaries, and free-market activists. Through the stories of people linked by the world's largest corporation, Moreton, a history and women's studies professor, shows how a Christian service ethos powered capitalism at home and abroad. "A fascinating portrait of the interconnections of commerce, spirituality, and government in modern society. Moreton treats Wal-Mart as a great whale of a corporation that gathered religious and political significance as it traveled from Bentonville, Arkansas, throughout the US, on to Mexico, and to every corner of the globe." --Walter A. Friedman, Harvard Business School

The Hindus: An Alternative History
by Wendy Doniger


"Learned, fluent, and entertaining in spite of the complexity of this ambitious undertaking, Doniger is also controversial, a role she embraces, confident that fresh viewpoints are essential to understanding the worlds that shaped the Hindu tradition, and the ways Hindus shaped society.... As she energetically parses the relationships between gods and humans, karma and renunciation, asceticism and sensuality, priests and kings, men and women, she is also seeking glimpses into everyday Hindu life during each of India's empires. Lavishly detailed, dynamic, and encompassing, Doniger's multidimensional history celebrates Hindu wisdom, diversity, and pluralism with knowledge, insight, and passion." --Booklist

Counter- clockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility
by ELLEN J. LANGER
“Counterclockwise makes a strong case for the influence of expectation and belief on how our bodies function, on how we heal, and even how we age. Ellen Langer presents fascinating scientific data to support this view and argues convincingly that we should learn to take greater control of our health through the practice of mindfulness. Her research is innovative and empowering.”—Andrew Weil, M.D.

“Ellen Langer’s work has been an inspiration to me for years. Counterclockwise, her latest book, will change the way you think about your health — for the better. It’s simply fabulous.” —Christiane Northrup, MD, author The Secret Pleasures of Menopause and The Wisdom of Menopause

"Awareness-mindfulness-is the first step in healing. In Counterclockwise, Dr. Ellen Langer eloquently describes how becoming more aware of our beliefs and expectations allows us to powerfully transform our lives for the better. A pioneering, beautifully-written book." —Dean Ornish, M.D.

“Take a smart, creative social scientist, without any respect for conventional wisdom and you get Ellen Langer. She is a fantastic storyteller, and Counterclockwise is a fascinating story about the unexpected ways in which our minds and bodies are connected. More importantly, Counterclockwise shows how a better understanding of this relationship can lead to a better life.”—Dan Ariely, Ph.D., author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions


Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything
by Daniel Goleman
Two years ago, British fashion designer Anna Hindmarch produced the must-have accessory of the season: a bleached, organic cotton tote manufactured in fair-wage factories, subsidized with carbon offsets and emblazoned with the slogan, I'm NOT a plastic bag. But according to Goleman (Emotional Intelligence), the people who bought the bag were advertising their ecological ignorance, not their consciousness. In this thorough examination of the inconsistencies and delusions at the core of the going green effort, the author argues that consumers are collective victims of a sleight of hand, helplessly unaware of the true provenance and impact of the products they purchase: they reassure themselves by buying environmentally friendly tote bags that, upon ecological assessment, reveal some uncomfortable facts, e.g., 10,000 liters of water were required to grow the cotton for one bag, and cotton crops alone account for the use of about 10% of the world's pesticides. Goleman's critiques are scathing, but his conclusion is heartening: a new generation of industrial ecologists is mapping the exact impact of every production process, which could challenge consumers to change their behavior in substance rather than just show.

Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

Author: Dr Stuart Brown

From a leading expert, a groundbreaking book on the science of play, and its essential role in fueling our intelligence and happiness throughout our lives. We've all seen the happiness in the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing with glee across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless and all-consuming. And, most important, it's "fun".
As we become adults, taking time to play feels like a guilty pleasure, a distraction from work and life. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. In fact, our ability to play throughout life is the single most important factor in determining our success and happiness.
Dr. Brown has spent his career studying animal behavior and conducting more than six thousand "play histories" of humans from all walks of life, from serial murderers to Nobel Prize winners. Backed by the latest research, "Play" explains why play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve, and more. Play is hardwired into our brainsait is the mechanism by which we become resilient, smart, and adaptable people.
Beyond playas role in our personal fulfillment, its benefits have profound implications for child development and the way we parent, education and social policy, business innovation, productivity, and even the future of our society. From new research suggesting the direct role of three-dimensional-object play in shaping our brains to animal studies showing the startling effects of the lack of play, Brown provides a sweeping look at the latest breakthroughs in our understanding of the importance of this behavior. A fascinating blend of cutting-edge neuroscience, biology, psychology, social science, and inspiring human stories of the transformative power of play, this book proves why play just might be the most important work we can ever do.

Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance

Author: Richard M. Restak

A leading neuroscientist and New York Times-bestselling author of Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot distills the research on the brain and serves up practical, surprising, and illuminating recommendations for warding off neurological decline, cognitive function, and encouraging smarter thinking day to day.

In Think Smart, the renowned neuropsychiatrist and bestselling author Dr. Richard Restak details how each of us can improve and tone our body’s most powerful organ: the brain.

As a renowned expert on the brain, Restak knows that in the last five years there have been exciting new scientific discoveries about the brain and its performance. So he’s asked his colleagues—many of them the world’s leading brain scientists and researchers—one important question: What can I do to help my brain work more efficiently? Their surprising—and remarkably feasible—answers are at the heart of Think Smart.

Restak combines advice culled from cutting-edge research with brain-tuning exercises to show how individuals of any age can make their brain work more effectively. In the same accessible prose that made Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot a New York Times bestseller, Restak presents a wide array of practical recommendations about a variety of topics, including the crucial role sleep plays in boosting creativity, the importance of honing sensory memory, and the neuron- firing benefits of certain foods.

In Think Smart, the “wise, witty, and ethical Restak” (says the Smithsonian Institution) offers readers helpful suggestions for fighting neurological decline that will put every reader on the path to building a healthier, more limber brain.

About the Author
Richard Restak, M.D., is an award-winning neuroscientist, neuropsychiatrist, and clinical professor of neurology at the George Washington University Medical Center. The bestselling author of eighteen acclaimed books about the brain, including Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot and Poe’s Heart and the Mountain Climber, he has also penned dozens of articles for a variety of publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. He is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Neuropsychiatric Association.

It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making…

Author - Greg Gibson

Human beings have astonishing genetic vulnerabilities. More than half of us will die from complex diseases that trace directly to those vulnerabilities, and the modern world we've created places us at unprecedented risk from them. In It Takes a Genome, Dr. Greg Gibson posits a revolutionary new hypothesis: our genome is out of equilibrium, both with itself and its environment. Simply put, our genes and our cultures are at war. Our bodies were never designed to subsist on fat and sugary foods; our immune systems weren't designed for today's clean, bland environments; our minds weren't designed to process hard-edged, artificial electronic inputs from dawn 'til midnight. And that's why so many of us suffer from chronic diseases that barely touched our ancestors. Gibson begins by revealing the stunningly complex ways in which multiple genes cooperate and interact to shape our bodies and influence our behaviors. Then, drawing on the very latest science, Gibson explains the genetic "mismatches" that increasingly lead to cancer, diabetes, inflammatory and infectious diseases, depression, and senility. He concludes with a look at the probable genetic variations in human psychology, sharing the evidence that traits like introversion and agreeableness are grounded in equally complex genetic interactions. Simply put, it demolishes yesterday's stale debates over "nature vs. nurture," introducing a new view that is far more intriguing, and far closer to the truth.

Talent Is Overrated: What really separates world-class performers from everybody else

Author: Geoff Colvin

Expanding on a landmark cover story in Fortune, a top journalist, Geoff Colvin, debunks the myths of exceptional performance. One of the most popular Fortune articles in many years was a cover story called “What It Takes to Be Great.” Geoff Colvin offered new evidence that top performers in any field–from Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill to Warren Buffett and Jack Welch–are not determined by their inborn talents. Greatness doesn’t come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades. Perseverance guarantees that results are inevitable.

And not just plain old hard work, like your grandmother might have advocated, but a very specific kind of work. The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes, that enables you to achieve greatness.

Now Colvin has expanded his article with much more scientific background and real-world examples. He shows that the skills of business—negotiating deals, evaluating financial statements, and all the rest—obey the principles that lead to greatness, so that anyone can get better at them with the right kind of effort. Even the hardest decisions and interactions can be systematically improved.

I’ve couched over 1,650 small businesses owners from around the world in various industries, economic conditions, cultural environment, and mindset. Those that tend to fail are far different than those that succeed. Colvin explains some of the most common factors of those who succeed. What does he mean by perseverance? Well, just imagine if you ran most of the race but felt too tired and too stressed and lost hope at the last few feet before the finish line. And, your competitors don’t stop until they cross the finish line. If you give up, you’ll stand a 0% chance of succeeding. But, if you stay persistent despite setbacks, despite challenges, despite the extra push you need to give yourself, YOU HAVE A 100% CHANCE OF MAKING IT! Again, persistence guarantees that results are INEVITABLE!

This new mind-set, combined with Colvin’s practical advice, will change the way you think about your job and career and will inspire you to achieve more in all you do. I’ve read a lot of books on mindset topics and this one is definitely cream of the crop. I’d also look up John Assaraf, he is lso one of my favorites, and has written several books related to mindset and marketing for the small business owner.

World-class talent isn’t something you are born with. It must be developed over many years of unflagging dedication, education, and “deliberate practice” of a key skill, which requires consistent repetition and immediate feedback. Colvin credits “deliberate practice” for the extraordinary achievements of phenoms like Jack Welch.

Chapter Seven, “Applying the Principles in Our Lives,” presents more good ideas in 20 pages than many self-help books manage in 200. Among them: Treat business news like case studies by carefully considering what you would do in the place of a struggling leader; periodically go back and practice the fundamental skills of your craft (for example, analyze the ratios in a financial statement with pen and paper instead of software); and constantly deepen your knowledge of your industry.

Colvin spends much of Chapter Nine, “Performing Great at Innovation,” tearing down straw men, including the presumably widespread beliefs that creativity depends on flashes of insight and that great inventions are created from whole cloth rather than built on the work of earlier inventors.

Anyone managing employees should consider this question: How do we balance the need to stretch people, which requires that they grapple with difficult and unfamiliar tasks, with the need for them to deliver peak performance at all times? The author’s response is nuanced, but he is a fan of the stretch.

Just as parents and teachers develop chess, sports, and music prodigies, Colvin suggests they foster business skills in young children. It’s a brilliant piece of work, and it deserves to be studied by anyone involved in human development.

Colvin’s new book actually grew out of an assignment at Fortune. A couple years ago he was asked to contribute a piece for a special issue on great performance in business. “The resulting article,” according to Colvin, “provoked a more intense response than anything else I’ve written.” It is meticulously written, and the assertions made in the book are based on rigorous scientific research. The principal researcher who informs many of the findings discussed in the book is Professor K. Anders Ericsson, Conradi Eminent Scholar at Florida State University. Ericsson and his colleagues have been conducting study after study on expert performance for over thirty years, and their work may just revolutionize how leaders are developed in the future. At least, I hope so.

Colvin’s provocative title neatly summarizes the premise of his book. Here are a few of the key messages from Talent Is Overrated:

1. Natural gifts and talents, if they exist at all, aren’t what we think they are and they are not enough to explain world-class performance in chess, music, ballet, medicine, golf, business, or any other endeavor.
2. Staggeringly high IQs also don’t characterize the great performers. Sometimes they champions have higher than average intelligence, but in many instances they are just average.
3. Years of experience don’t necessarily make someone a high-performer, let alone the greatest performer. And, as startling as it might sound, sometimes more years of experience can mean poorer performance compared to those newly graduated in a specialty.
4. If natural talent, high IQ, and even years of experience don’t explain greatness, then what does? The factor that best explains great performers is what the researchers call “deliberate practice.”
5. Colvin admits that “Deliberate practice is a large concept, and to say that it explains everything would be simplistic and reductive.” Therefore, if we are going to become experts in anything, it’s essential that we understand what deliberate practice is and what it isn’t. What most of us do when we “practice,” it turns out, often does not lead to great performance at all, and it may just contribute to being mediocre and could even make us worse.

Colvin does a superb job of providing us with insights into what deliberate practice is, what it isn’t, and how it works. He also applies the concepts to our personal lives, our organizations, and to innovation. In blogs over the next couple weeks, I’ll share with you some of the key components of deliberate practice and propose ways in which we can apply these concepts to the development of leaders. In the meantime, if you’d like to join me in the dialogue, I urge you to read Talent Is Overrated. I’m certain it will influence how you think about what you can do to become a better leader and what you can do to develop those with whom you work. If you aspire to world-class performance, this will be time well spent.

So, who is the author of Talent is Overrated? He’s a very talented person, ironically. Geoff Colvin, Fortune’s senior editor at large, is one of America’s most respected business journalists. He lectures widely and is the regular lead moderator for the Fortune Global Business Forum. A frequent guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box and other TV programs, Colvin appears daily on the CBS Radio Network, reaching seven million listeners each week. He also co-anchored Wall Street Week with Fortune on PBS for three years.