Review: The Optimistic Decade

The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The Optimistic Decade” tells the story of a high plateau summer camp run as a kind of eco/spiritual Outward Bound. The book follows a number of characters:
- the camp director with the crazy idea to start the camp,
- a returning camper who realizes he want to be a part of the camp as his career,
- an idealistic new camp counselor, an activist student,
- the activist’s father, a failing radical newspaper publisher,
- the original owner of the land where the camp stands
- his son, a troubled young man making unlikely plans to take the land back
- various others, including funders, parents, current and former campers.

The book is written with chapters telling the story of the camp through different times, from the original creation of the camp through a current-day story (view spoiler)[ involving the downfall of the director and the camp itself. At the end, pretty much every character has become the opposite of where he started – the activist has found love and sex, the director is no longer quite so dedicated to the land after threats of lawsuits and job loss, the returning camper has lost his chance at his dream job, even the camp is on the way to becoming a subdivision. Everyone is optimistic, and like a decade, it comes to an end. (hide spoiler)] I listened to the audiobook version and found myself enjoying the descriptions of the camp and the land, but not really getting into the plot. I found it much like following a TV show through a few episodes, where the bad guys and the good guys are all kinda wimpy. Good production values, but the story felt too familiar, and with no one to root for. I was expecting something different.

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Review: The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary

The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph A. Michelli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this book after reading Starbuck CEO Howard Schultz's book "Onward". The Schultz book covers the guiding priciples under which Starbucks operates - it's what they train their employees on. "Onward" gives a number of examples of these stories but goes much beyond, with quite a bit of company history. This book, "The Starbucks Experience", really dives into those guiding principles and provides a number of examples of how the company and its employees meet those principles in day-to-day business, really complimenting "Onward". With the variety of examples, I could see many ideas that could apply in my business life. This book met the two reasons I have to read a business book, to provide food for thought and to provide specific ideas to implement. Don't expect earthshattering revelations here, though. A lot of this is really summed up as taking responsibility and looking at the bigger picture. But who couldn't use some reminders and good examples of this? Nice book.

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Review: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a grammar books written not as a textbook but as a popular non-fiction book, part how-to and part analysis and history. It’s interesting if you are into that kind of thing, and I suspect most fans would fall into a type, say INTJ: People that look for patterns, and that have a high standard of competence for themselves and others. It seems this is a very good description of this book’s target market. I found it interesting (and yes I occasionally test into this group). I enjoyed the discussions of grammar and history. The writing was very engaging, surprising given this topic that can be quite dry. The last large section contains what you’d expect in this kind of book, a long list of common errors with discussion, and another listing of the author’s pet peeves, grammatically speaking. If anything, it was a bit long, especially that last bit. I listened to this on audio. This wouldn’t be a great experience for those wanting to take notes, but for those listening for story and for style, audio is fine.

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Review: Bloomberg QuickTake: Disruption's Fallout

Bloomberg QuickTake: Disruption's Fallout by Bloomberg News
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook version of this, in large part to figure out what it was. This contained a bunch of "articles" that were likely between a page and a few pages each in the written version. The articles were midway between a wikipedia article and a traditional magazine article you might read in, say, "Business Week". All were loosely related to the vague idea of technological or business disruption. It was kind of like listening to a summary of Wired magazine articles. I found the articles were relatively high level. The topics were hit or miss. The good thing is that because the articles were so short, like the Chicago weather -- just wait a minute and it'll change. I'd consider the topics to be interesting, but the writing was a bit shallower than I usually like. The concept of the audio of a theme-based magazine itself was interesting, but I don't think it works as well in audio -- there were mentions of graphics and illustrations that I believe told more of the story than you got in the pure audio format. Perhaps if this was written for audio first, it would have been a better experience.

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Review: The Girl Who Lived Twice

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were multiple points while I was listening to this audiobook that I realized that the characters were narrating action that happened off-screen for an extended period of time. It is like listening to someone describe a movie in excruciating detail, even though you know most of what happens to begin with. The action seemed more limited than previous Salander books, replaced by dialog on past events. I am sensing a downward spiral. The ending involves superhuman physical activity and extreme pain thresholds. I don't think Fonzie has jumped the shark quite yet, but we are in that season.

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Review: One Native Life

One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book contains a number of short reflections of the author on his life. It has the feel of a local journalist writing in a small town paper about their life. I found the stories interesting as personal reflections, much as I would a favorite local columnist. When I think back on my reading of this, I don't believe it was as focused on portraying a "native life" as I would have assumed from the title. The stories that had the most impact were of the author as a foster child, and the difficulties he had in life based on his upbringing and the physical issues he had. I will most remember these stories from this book, and the author's style that I would call gentle reflection.

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Review: Big World

Big World by Mary Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this short story collection. The author puts you into the head of a number of characters. Most, if not all, were women. Most, if not all, had thoughts that were a mix of bizarre, petty, and humorous. Do people really think this way?

I listened to the audiobook version. The multiple narrators were excellent. I only wish I had a good way to capture some of the many pithy lines Miller wrote. Quite fun. I would read more by Miller.


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Review: Your Money or Your Life

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read “Your Money or Your Life” when it first was released in late 1992, based in part on a quick review I read in “Whole Earth Review”. I found it life changing in tying earned and spent money to the time a person uses to earn that money through work and investments. It made me realize that life could be considered an optimization model, and given my propensity to enjoy numbers, I took that message to heart. I recall the simple steps that Dominguez and Robin defined to understand the simple concepts and integrate it into your life. I also recall the author’s dedication to using government bonds as his only investment. Having taken a few finance classes in college, I could see the flaws in that tactic, and lived my life with a much broader investment portfolio than this book originally promulgated. But I also lived my life considering how time equals money.

Here, 27+ years later, Vicki Robin has updated the book. I wanted to reread the new version to see if Robin’s recommendations had changed, and if I had changed. I sensed some of both. Robins rewrote sections of the book to make them sound different and to offer some different specific advice, while maintaining the original short list of steps. The changes that struck me were the broadening of recommended investments to be more compatible with modern “financial independence” thought, focusing more on low cost broad market index funds including stocks and bonds. I also sensed the earlier sections of the book contained more philosophical content than the original edition. Perhaps it’s just my failing memory, but I seemed much more “new age-y” this time around. I also noticed that Robin includes a number of specific things to try to reduce expenses that, after I’ve read dozens of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) books in the past decade, were nothing new.

But those steps still resonate, they are still practical and usable. But I ask myself if I would have taken so much of the books message to heart if I had first read it today to start my path to optimize personal finances, and I believe so. The basis of the book – measuring your real earnings and determining the real cost of things, then deciding if the thing you are buying is worth the time you put into earning the money for it – that’s still valid and key. And the long term measurement of the growth of your assets and the ability to live off of your assets is also the basis of thought of any working person who dreams of retiring, early if possible. As a starter book, this is still one of the best. For those already on the path to financial independence, this is likely just a good discussion about how you already live. I’ll maintain my 5 star ranking as this is one of the handful of books that have greatly impacted my life.


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