Book Description
In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.
Questions for William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Amazon.com: Whom do you think this book will appeal to?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book should appeal to a wide "coalition" of business leaders and innovators--impatient, change-minded executives in big companies, senior leaders in smaller, entrepreneurial companies, young people with big dreams about their future and their careers. This book should inform and energize anyone and everyone who wants to do big things in business by shaking up the status quo and challenging the powers-that-be. One important point: We strongly believe that this book should appeal to women as well as men. It is not meant to be an uptight, starched-shirt type read--your typical all-male business book. The book doesn't target women executives per se, but we believe it will appeal to men and women alike.
Amazon.com: What's the story behind the book?
Taylor and LaBarre: In one sense, Mavericks at Work has been 18 months in the making. That's the amount of time that the two of us spent totally focused on the travel, research, interviewing, and writing to create Mavericks at Work. In another sense, this book reflects more than a decade's worth of learning, thinking, and writing about the best way to do business and the new cast of companies and individual leaders that represent the face of business at its best. First at that classic voice of the business establishment, Harvard Business Review, and then at the new-generation magazine that he cofounded, Fast Company, Bill Taylor has been traveling the world, visiting companies, and interviewing great business leaders. Much the same goes for Polly LaBarre--first at the venerable IndustryWeek magazine, and then as one of the original members of the Fast Company team, Polly has made it her speciality to discover, understand, and chronicle the most exciting and innovative leaders in business.
With respect to Mavericks, the book reflects our in-depth access to the 32 companies featured in the book. This is anything but an "armchair" business book. We logged tens of thousands of miles and spent countless hours visiting, conducting interviews at, and participating in meetings, training sessions, and events inside a wide variety organizations. We went deep inside these organizations, looking to understand the ideas they stand for and the ways they work. We participated in a filmmaking class at one of the world's most successful movie studios. We attended a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, where employees of what has to be the world's most entertaining bank sang, danced, and strutted their stuff. We sat in on a crucial monthly meeting (the 384th such consecutive meeting over the last 32 years) in which top executives and front-line managers of a $600-million employee-owned company share their most sensitive financial information and most valuable market secrets. We walked the corridors of a 120-year-old research facility where a team of change-minded R&D executives is transforming how one of the world's biggest companies develops new ideas for consumer products. We walked the streets of Manhattan with teams of employees from a hard-charging hedge fund, who were sizing up ideas about stock-market picks.
Amazon.com: What makes this book relevant today?
Taylor and LaBarre: We believe that this is the right book at the right time, with a set of messages and a collection of practices that will inspire business executives and entrepreneurs to bring out the best in their companies, their colleagues, and themselves. Why this book now? Because business needs a breath of fresh air. We are, after five long years, coming out of a dark and trying period in our economy and society--an era of slow growth and dashed expectations, of criminal wrongdoing and ethical misconduct at some of the world's best-known companies. But NASDAQ nuttiness already feels like time-capsule fodder, the white-collar perp walk has become as routine as an annual meeting, and the triumphant return of me-first moguls like Donald Trump feels like a bad nostalgia trip, the corporate equivalent of a hair-band reunion. We've seen the face of business at its worst, and it hasn't been a pretty sight. This book is intended to persuade readers of the power of business at its best.
Which speaks to one of our major goals for Mavericks at Work--to restore the promise of business as a force for innovation, satisfaction, and progress, rather than as a source of revulsion, remorse, and recrimination. Indeed, despite all the bleak headlines and blood-boiling scandals over the last five years, the economy has experienced a period of transformation and realignment, a power shift so profound that we're just beginning to appreciate what it means for the future of business—and for how all of us go about the business of building companies that work and doing work that matters.
In industry after industry, organizations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership. There's a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. "Google is not a conventional company," read their Letter from the Founders. "We do not intend to become one."
Nor does the unconventional cast of characters readers will encounter in this book. From a culture-shaping television network with offices in sun-splashed Santa Monica, California, to a little-known office-furniture manufacturer rooted in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from glamorous fields such as advertising, fashion, and the Internet, to old-line industries such as construction, mining, and household products, they are winning big at business--attracting millions of customers, creating thousands of jobs, generating tens of billions of dollars of wealth--by rethinking the logic of how business gets done.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, put it memorably some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." We believe the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in the pages that follow are inventing a more exciting, more compelling, more rewarding future for business. They have devised provocative and instructive answers to four of the timeless challenges that face organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.
Amazon.com: Can you give us a brief summary of your book--in 250 words or less?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book is a report from the front lines of the future of business. It is not a book of best practices. It is a book of next practices--a set of insights and a collection of case studies that amount to a business plan for the 21st century, a new way to lead, compete, and succeed.
Our basic argument is as straightforward to explain as it is urgent to apply: When it comes to thriving in a hyper-competitive marketplace, "playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload--an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling--the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your company and industry can and should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things a little better than the competition.
This book is devoted to the proposition that the best way to out-perform the competition is to out-think the competition. Maverick companies aren't always the largest in their field; maverick entrepreneurs don't always make the cover of the business magazines. But mavericks do the work that matters most--the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual.
Who are these mavericks? The core ideas in this book are rooted in the strategies, practices, and leadership styles of 32 organizations with vastly different histories, cultures, and business models. But all of them are business originals, based on the distinctiveness of their ideas and the power of their practices. They are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers, and redesigning work. Together, they are creating a maverick agenda for business--an agenda from which every business can learn.
Book Description
In the last decade the business world has been dogged by bad leadership, CEO greed and the excesses of the dotcom craze. Now, as the authors of this lively new book suggest, companies and corporations are moving away from traditional methods of how to lead, manage and compete, towards a more 'maverick' management style that has proved highly successful.
Mavericks at Work is the first book to document this change – and to give readers a glimpse into the ideas and techniques behind fast–growing but unconventional companies such as Google, HBO, Lendlease and Southwest Airlines. It profiles some of the most exciting – and often eccentric – CEOs in the US, and details their strategies for success.
With its accessible tone, Mavericks at Work is both serious and fun; business 'edutainment' for a smart, ambitious readership.
Customer Reviews:
Become a Maverick.......2007-10-10
"Mavericks at Work" hit a home run for me. I love to think and act like a Maverick. I love to do "work that matters". This book introduced me to others who think like I do and have found business success. Thanks!
"Mavericks at Work" starts off with great a great introduction and keeps on going. I love the quote from Alan Kay (introduction): "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Why does business spend so much time trying to figure out what the competition will be bringing to the market place instead of trying to "invent the future"? Why not invent the market? Then you don't have any competition!
My favorite chapters were Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 10.
Chapter One - "Not Just a Company, a Cause: Strategy as Advocacy." This chapter does a great job of explaining why YOU need to create a Cause, not just a company. Causes make raving fans. Raving fans bring profits
Chapter Three - "Maverick Messages (1): Sizing Up Your Strategy". Take notes on this chapter, you will be glad you did. The authors give five questions every company should ask when sizing up your strategy.
Chapter Four - "Innovation Inc.: Open Source Gets Down to Business". Do you need some "innovative" ideas on how to get your company to embrace innovation as a way of life? This chapter shows you how. Don't be shy about putting some of these ideas to work.
Chapter Ten - "The Company You Keep: Business as if People Mattered". Great chapter on TALENT! Business today needs to put Talent at the top of the agenda for every strategy meeting, every business plan, every performance review, etc... All company's say that their people are their most important asset. Few prove it through their actions. This chapter shows some organizations that know and act as if People Matter and the payoff are increased profits.
Larry Kevin Adams
Author of "Selling: Powerful New Strategies for Sales Success".
theactionator.com
Stories to inspire - Lessons to Learn.......2007-08-10
Interesting stories and concrete examples are one of the most powerful ways to learn and be inspired. If you want to learn to succeed in the new world of work, then the collection of stories and examples in the book Mavericks at Work is a great starting point. The book profiles 32 remarkable US entrepreneurs who have battled bureaucracy and challenged the status quo, and won, while redefining success in their industries. The authors William Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company, and Polly LaBarre, a former writer for Fast Company, uncover some remarkable examples of how businesses are succeeding in hypercompetitive industries by being distinctively different.
Their findings are centered on 4 key themes:
1. Be different and pursue more than just money: Successful mavericks are fearless about breaking with outdated traditions and confining standards. Making money is only a small part of a bigger mission which they are deeply passionate about. Examples include Southwest Airlines, the company that pioneered low cost air travel and democratized the skies. The book highlights how Southwest saw it as their mission to make air travel accessible to all and by going after this wholeheartedly they innovated on different ways to save cost such as using second tier airports, not serving food and seating people on a first come first serve basis. Keeping this mission at the centre of the organisation has differentiated them from the competition and enabled them to consistently make profits is a loss making industry.
2. Tap other people's brains: The innovators of today rely on more than just their own insight and intelligence. They create systems to enable and encourage others to help them solve problems and come up with ingenious solutions. Examples include TopCoder Inc., a software development house for many large multinational organisations. They create competitions for technology geeks from all over the world to come up with solutions for software problems in return for lucrative prizes and prestigious ranking points. In this way they are able to use the wisdom of many to solve very specific software development challenges.
3. Connect deeply with customers: Connecting with customers is about a lot more than just traditional advertising, it is about really understanding what customers' value and connecting with that value system in a deep and meaningful way. Jones Soda asks customers to contribute photographs to be used on the labels of their cool drink bottles. Customers submit photos plus the story attached to each photo. Many photos are selected and placed on the bottles to be distributed in the region in which that customer lives. This creates a massive interest in the community as they discover "who is on the label?" and "what their story is?"
4. Partner with your employees: Maverick business enable employees to really understand what drives the business. They are given the opportunity to freely contribute to the overall mission of the business and be rewarded for doing so. At Cranium, a fast growing, innovative board game manufacturer in Seattle, the Chief Financial Officer holds companywide meetings on the company's numbers. He tutors the staff on cash flow and financial ratios, and every employee then assesses his or her own productivity. He recognizes that this helps keep the whole company focused on the right priorities
These are just a few of the many insightful, uplifting and inspiring examples that are highlighted in this energetic and well written book.
Great book!.......2007-07-25
This is one of the best business books I have read. Though it is written principally for managers and entrepreneurs, the book is truly inspiring for those starting up their own business. You will learn some very unconventional ways of managing your organization and innovating! "Playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. The only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your organization should be going.
Follow Southwest airlines' example by not hiring industry veterans in your organization. Industry veterans are harder to retrain, and come to your organization with preconceived ideas. Hiring people new to the industry fills your organization with fresh ideas.
Don't hesitate to fire your customers if they don't fit into your organization's culture. ING, a bank unlike others, does exactly that. ING also innovates by being different from other banks. They open on Sunday for example, and deposits are in a person's account within 24 hours (other banks take up to 3 business days). If groceries and malls can open on Sundays, why not banks?
Pixar Animation, unlike other companies in its industry (who hire on contract basis), hires full time crew. This creates a team atmosphere where everyone gets to know each other, and thus can be more productive.
Use open source. A Gold mining company in Canada did just that when it asked people from all over the world over the internet for their insight on where gold could be found. With worldwide expertise available, they found their answer! Cirque du Soleil similarly scouts the whole world for talent. Talent is everywhere, and you have to go everywhere to find it.
Any entrepreneur should be asking the following two questions: (a) If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why? (b) Why would people want to work for you?
Don't hire great people, or else you have to change your whole work environment into greatness. Hire good and smart people, but they don't have to be great. You have to be able to shun traditional ideas.
Finally, just in case some of you are wondering, Samuel Maverick, a Texan lawyer and politician, is the namesake of the eponym maverick, meaning an unbranded range animal. Gradually the term was enlarged to include anyone who could not be trusted to remain one of his group.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, said some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
Gets the creative juices flowing.......2007-07-05
A very inspiring book in helping think outside the box. Loads of real-world examples throughout. Starts with great energy and passion by the authors, and (maybe) runs out of steam in the end. Or maybe I just wasn't as interested in the subject covered. Anyway... I bought three more copies as gifts for clients.
Describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium..........2007-06-20
Like a host of the new "psychosocial" business books, Mavericks at Work describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium. The focus is not so much on the business styles of the 50's and 60's, as illustrated by the work of, say Peter Drucker, but rather it focuses on the new gestalt of branding through an intense devotion to customer service. By examining companies from the large scale of Proctor & Gamble and the World Bank, as well as new upstarts like Craigslist and ING Direct to open source communities like Wikipedia and TopCoder, authors William Taylor and Polly LaBarre take a new approach to finding out what the basis of the new energy and focus of companies who's products or services allow them to differentiate themselves and pull away from the pack. As veterans of the cutting edge business magazine Fast Company, the authors are well suited to have the inroads and knowledge in witnessing what works (and what doesn't) for the new breed of entrepreneurs or those within established enterprises trying to re-write the rules of business in the new world order. In addition, the pair operate one of the best follow-on websites we've seen featuring outtakes from the book, a blog, podcasts, interviews and information about their 'Mavericks Live' special events around the country [...]. A must for anyone thinking about Business 2.0. - Tim Devine
Book Description
Read it.
You're already living it.
Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or off?
Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.
Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for disease almost every time.
Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in to the crops they planted and ate to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.
Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth -- and, especially, what that means for us.
Customer Reviews:
Very,very, interesting.......2007-09-21
This is one of those books that is a delightful read, educating, interesting, and entertaining. The author puts forth his theories that many modern diseases are variations of evolutionary traits that were held by our ancestors that enabled them to survive the ice age and bubonic plague. He goes on to describe how viruses cause certain behavior in their carriers to help the viruses survival. The common cold leaves you well enough to stay moving and go to work so you can spread the virus to others, while the parasitic malaria wants you immobile and in bed because mosquitos can continue to carry it even better with you immobile.
The author also presents a case currently making head way in evolutionary science that is challenging the savannah theory. He proposes that we are evolved form aquatic apes as opposed to grassland dwellers, which would explain our hairlessness like other aquatic mammals and being bipedal. We also have fat stored at the skin like water dwellers and our infants have swimming instincts at birth that have been proven by water birthing that is very successful.
And finally I was really fascinated by the finding that what scientists have believed were "junk DNA" is slowly being shown to actually be a creative force that causes mutations in DNA for the benefit of survival of the species. I have always had trouble believing in the evolutionary theory because no mechanism could be created with causing it outside of God, and God would not need it. I also believed that the key was in DNA. Now I have a cause, the DNA itself creates and casues beneficial mutations.
I really can not do this book justice in a review with out making it far to long so buy the book if the above sounds interesting. The book presents an excellent case and has made me a believer.
Evolution in a way you never knew!.......2007-09-08
Everything out there is influencing the evolution of everything else. The bacteria and viruses and parasites that cause disease in us have affected our evolution as we have adapted in ways to cope with their effects. In response they have evolved in turn, and keep on doing so.
There are many dietary diseases that have had an evolutionary advantage in our ancestors but that today do more harm than good. In a person with hemochromatosis, for example, the body always thinks that it doesn't have enough iron and continues to absorb iron unabated. The excess iron can lead to liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, and even cancer.
Why would a disease so deadly be bred into our genetic code? Remember how natural selection works. If a given genetic trait makes you stronger--especially if it makes you stronger before you have children--then you're more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass that trait on. People with hemochromatosis have therefore an evolutionary advantage--protection against the bubonic plague!
On one set of experiments, macrophages from people who had hemochromatosis and macrophages from people who did not were matched against bacteria in separate dishes to test their killing ability. The hemochromatic macrophages crushed the bacteria. They are thought to be significantly better at combating bacteria by limiting the availability of iron than the nonhemochromatic macrophages. So though hemochromatosis will kill those inflicted with it decades later, they are much more likely than people without hemochromatosis to survive plagues, reproduce, and pass the mutation on to their children.
Diabetes also provided an evolutionary advantage to our ancestors by providing superior ability to withstand the cold by eliminating water and driving up sugar levels (like alcohol, sugar is a natural antifreeze). As a theory, it's hotly controversial, but diabetes may have helped our European ancestors survive the sudden cold, including the ice-age.
Malaria is an infectious disease that infects as many as 500 million people every year, killing more than 1 million of them. But not everyone who gets bit by malaria-carrying mosquitoes gets infected. And not everybody who gets infected dies. So what's helping the malaria survivors? People with a genetic tendency for sickle-cell anemia, another inherited blood disorder, had better natural resistance to malaria.
As you've seen with hemochromatosis, diabetes, and sickle-cell anemia, one generation's evolutionary solution is another generation's evolutionary problem.
At the end of the day, every living thing shares two hardwired imperatives: Survive. Reproduce. To achieve this, some organisms have inherited ingenious techniques to manipulate their hosts--the phenomenon that occurs when a parasite provokes its host to behave in a way that helps the parasite to survive and reproduce.
Orb weavers are a family of spiders that experience host manipulation. A wasp bites the spider, temporarily paralyzing it, then deposits its egg in its abdomen. The spider then goes on with his life oblivious to the egg in him. The egg then hatches, and the larva slowly feeds off the blood of the spider. When it is ready to cocoon, it injects chemicals into the spider's bloodstream to manipulate the spider into building a special web for it--instead of building circular webs, it goes back and forth building a rectangular web. Once the web is completed, the larva kills the spider by sucking off all its blood, and then throwing its carcass to the jungle floor below. It then uses the specially built web for it to cocoon by hanging on it.
A worm that infects ants is a classic example of another host manipulator. As the worms being carried by the ant develop, one of them makes its way to the ant's brain where it manipulates the ant's nervous system. Suddenly, the ant behaves in completely uncharacteristic fashion. At night, it leaves its colony and hangs on the tip of a grass, waiting to be eaten by a sheep. If it does not, it returns to its colony only to resume again its journey at night to the tip of a grass waiting to be eaten. Once eaten by a sheep, the worm would have succeeded in its manipulation, and would grow inside the sheep's stomach, its intended host.
The rabies Virus is another interesting host manipulator. It manipulates its host into becoming aggressive, which will make its host bite others and thus also infecting others.
Here is one amazing example of host manipulation: One researcher has discovered that women infected with T. gondii spend more money on clothes and are consistently rated as beings more attractive than women without the infection. Infected women were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends, and cared more about how they looked. However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men. Infected men, on the other hand, were less well groomed, more likely to be loners, and more willing to fight. They were also more likely to be suspicious and jealous and less willing to follow rules.
A normal sneeze occurs when the body's self-defense system senses a foreign invader trying to get in through your nasal passages and acts to repel the invasion by expelling it with a sneeze. But sneezing when you've got a cold? There's obviously no way to expel the cold virus which is already lodged in you. The cold virus has learned this reflex so it can infect your colleagues, family and your friends. Your body is actually being manipulated by the virus into sneezing!
The herpes virus may heighten sexual feeling, which will increase the probability of transmission. In other words, sometimes the herpes virus may want you to get some action in order for it to spread to other hosts.
So what if we made it easier for a given type of bacteria to survive in a healthy human than to survive in a sick human? Would this create evolutionary pressure against behavior that harms us? In fact there is an evolutionary advantage for the malaria parasite to push its hosts toward the brink of death. The more parasites swarming through our blood, the more parasites the mosquito is likely to ingest; the more parasites the mosquito ingests, the more likely it will cause an infection when it bites someone else. Cholera is similar--it doesn't need us moving around to find new hosts, so there's no reason for the bacteria to select against virulence. The bottom line is that if an infectious client has allies (such as mosquitoes) or good delivery systems (such as unprotected water supplies), peaceful coexistence with its host becomes a lot less important. In those cases evolution is likely to favor versions of the parasite that best exploit its host's resources, allowing the parasite to multiply as much as possible. Some researchers believe that we can use this understanding to influence the evolution of parasites away from virulence. The basic theory is this: shut down the modes of transmission that don't require human participation and suddenly all the evolutionary pressure is directed at allowing the human host to get up and get out. According to this theory, the virulence of a cholera outbreak in a given population should be directly related to the quality and safety of that population's water supply. If sewage flows easily into rivers that people wash in or drink from, then the cholera strain would evolve toward virulence--it can multiply freely, essentially using up its hosts, relying on its access to the water supply for transmission. But if the water supply is well protected, the organism should evolve away from virulence--the longer it remains in a more mobile host, the better its chance of transmission.
A series of cholera outbreaks that began in Peru in 1991 and spread across South and Central America over the next few years provide compelling evidence that this theory might actually work. The water supply systems from country to country ranged from relatively advanced to seriously rudimentary. Sure enough, when the bacteria invaded nations with poorly protected water supplies, such as Ecuador, the virus became more harmful as it spread. But in countries with safe water supplies, such as Chile, the bacteria evolved downward in virulence and killed fewer people. The implications of this are huge. Instead of challenging bacteria to become stronger and more dangerous through an antibiotic arms race (which we are currently losing), we could essentially challenge them to get along. If mosquitoes didn't have access to bedridden malaria patients, the microbe would be under evolutionary pressure to evolve in a way that allowed the infected person to remain mobile, increasing the opportunity for it to spread.
A series of groundbreaking research has shown that certain compounds can attach themselves to specific genes and suppress their expression. Let's take a look at a few examples. Depending upon the time of year the vole (a type of mouse) is due to give birth, baby voles are born with either a thick coat or a thin coat. The gene for a thick coat is always there--it's just turned on or off depending on the level of light the mother senses in her environment around the time of conception.
One species of lizard is born with a long tail and large body or a small tail and small body depending on one thing only--whether their mother smelled a lizard-eating snake while pregnant. When her babies are entering a snake-filled world, they are born with a long tail and big body, making them less likely to be snake food.
This is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it. I truly enjoyed reading it and I have learnt things I never imagined! Now that's what I call precious reading!
Understanding genetic disease from an evolutionary point of view.......2007-09-01
We really don't "need" disease. This is a bit misleading. It just so happens that some genetic disorders, such as sickle-cell anemia, favism, diabetes, hemochromatosis, the tendency to obesity, etc., confer on the afflicted compensatory advantages. Thus a predilection for getting fat is adaptive if a drought or a long winter beckons, or a person with a genetic tendency toward sickle-cell anemia is less likely to get malaria, and so on. Note that it is only diseases caused by genetic mutations that Dr. Moalem is talking about.
One of the techniques our bodies use when fighting infection is to reduce the amount of iron available to the invaders. Bacteria need iron to reproduce. If there is a lot of it available their numbers can grow quickly. Without iron they can't reproduce at all. Iron is a limiting factor for many kinds of life. Vast stretches of ocean support little in the way of life because the microorganisms that begin the food chain can't grow where there is so little iron. As Dr. Moalem reports in this wide-ranging and eyebrow-lifting book, sprinkle some iron onto those patches of ocean and they will quickly turn green with microorganisms.
So it is a bit of an irony that people who have hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes them to retain large amounts of iron in their bodies, are able to survival infections like the plague. This is because they starve the invading microbes through "iron locking." They have a lot of iron in their bodies, but they keep it away from the bacteria. Other people who have low levels of iron in their bodies are able to withstand bacterial attacks because they also keep what little iron they have away from the germs. In fact, one of the body's initial responses to microbial invasion is to limit the amount of free iron in the system.
Genetic coding for levels of iron in the body is an example of evolutionary adaptation, part of the ongoing arms race between us and the microbes that live in and on our bodies. This is just one of several interesting and new ideas coming from the growing science of evolutionary medicine that I found in Survival of the Sickest. Incidentally, one way to manage hemochromatosis is through donating blood on a regular basis, which explains in part why physicians of old were sometimes successful when they bled their patients.
This got me to thinking about "only women bleed" which led me to think about hemorrhoids (which prove that it isn't only women who bleed). Perhaps bleeding instead of retaining blood, which seems like the more natural thing for our bodies to do, has adaptive value in some people in some environments.
Another interesting idea is this from page 58: "ACHOO syndrome--its full name is autosomal dominant compelling heliopthalmic outburst syndrome." It is a "disorder that causes uncontrolled sneezing when someone is exposed to bright light, usually sunlight, after being in the dark." Dr. Moalem suggests that "way back when our ancestors spent more time in caves, this reflex helped them to clear out any molds or microbes that might have lodged in their noses or upper respiratory tract." Now this may sound a bit far fetched, but I have suffered from low grade allergies all my life, and used to have asthmatic attacks. I came to believe that the buildup in my lungs and the sneezing were signals to me to move on! Of course now I clean and vacuum like a germaphobe, but the idea is the same. My symptoms were adaptive. They more or less forced me to reduce the level of potential irritants and microbes in my environment.
But there is more. I noticed long ago that sometimes the sun in the morning would cause me to sneeze. I never figured out why until I read the above from Dr. Moalem. I am just the kind of person who would need to sneeze those molds out.
Later on in the book Moalem returns to an evolutionary idea that has been kicking around for decades. Beginning with the work of Elaine Morgan from the 1970s the public became aware of the notion that we humans had an aquatic past. She got the idea from marine biologist Alister Hardy. Through such books as The Descent of Woman (1972) and The Aquatic Ape: A Theory of Human Evolution (1982) Morgan argued that some of our unusual adaptations came about because we had an aquatic past. Taking up the idea, Moalem writes, "Every hairless mammal is aquatic or at least plays in the mud--think of hippos, elephants and the African warthog. But there aren't any hairless primates." (p. 198) Furthermore we have fat directly under our skin to help keep us warm just as aquatic mammals do. Also, Moalem notes, "the ability to survive on land and sea" gives us adaptive flexibility. If "chased by a leopard, the semiaquatic ape could dive into the water; chased by a crocodile, it could run into the forest." (p. 199)
These ideas are familiar but what I didn't know was that an aquatic past could have figured in our evolution toward bipedalism. "[S]tanding upright in water allowed...[aquatic apes] to venture into deeper water and still breathe, and the water helped to support their upper bodies, making it easier to support them on two feet." (p. 199)
This is an easy to read book, aimed at a general readership. An earlier, slightly more technical book that covers some of the same territory is Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1994) by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams, which I also recommend.
Razzle dazzle them.......2007-08-27
This book embodies much of what I dislike in popular cience books, while having few of the qualities I admire in such books. It relies more on sleigh of the hand and razzle dazzle, you-wouldn't-have-thought-of-it than on throughly thought out, well substantiated lines of thought.
Let's start with the subtitle: "A medical maverick discovers why we need disease". That is a clear case of fiction: nowhere in the book does the author "discover" anything; he merely retells the study of others. This, of course, is not a demerit, as many interesting scientists have difficulties in explaining their work in clear terms, acessible to the layman. However, the author must be hyped as the "discoverer", as the center figure in the tale.
Since James Burke's "Connections", it seems that popular science must explore all the crossroads, no matter how irrelevant. So Moalem goes on long tangents that have little to do with the theory he is trying to substantiate. In order to show how diabetes works to protect the body against cold, the reader is taken through the mechanism of an ice age, how ice core samples are removed and so on. If one were to remove all this "extra" material, this book would be thin indeed.
The book seems to revolve around this material and the author's use of jokes. Unfortunately, his sense of humour tends more towards ha-ha than funny, which helped to further fray my patience towards this book.
All of this is indeed a pity, as the subject is very interesting. If more pages had been dedicated to developing a central line of thought and substantiation and to showing the debate behind all these ideas (in a real light, instead of "the thickheaded traditionalists who won't accept new ideas"), it would be well worth the read.
Somewhat difficult subject matter for those lacking a background in science or medicine.........2007-07-08
From time to time I pick up a book on a subject I know virtually nothing about. Ordinarily I devour books about history or politics or current events. These are topics I am well versed in and comfortable with.
Dr. Sharon Moalem's "The Survival of the Sickest: sounded like a fascinating departure from my ordinary fare. So I thought I would give it a whirl. Unfortunately for me the results were somewhat mixed. Although Dr. Moalem and her co-author have written this book in fairly simple language that most should be able to follow pretty easily I found myself overwhelmed at times by the number of terms I was simply not familiar with at all. I'm afraid my lack of education in the sciences was showing. Blame me not the good doctor. Yet in spite of these difficulties I was still able to glean some important information from this book. I now have a somewhat better understanding of the whole business of why disease exists in the first place. I also discovered the important role viruses play in our ability to survive and reproduce. I also found out that the development of diabetes in human beings probably emerged as natures response to people having to cope with conditions in regions with extremely cold temperatures. This makes perfect sense and was interesting to me because a number of people in my family have battled this disease. Perhaps the most fascinating thing I learned in "Survival of the Sickest" is that exposure to the sunshine actually helps to convert the cholestorol in our bodies into the vitamin D we all need to ensure strong bones and help avoid osteoperosis. I had never heard this before and found this revelation to be quite interesting indeed!
For me, attempting to read "Survival of the Sickest" was a little like visiting a foreign country and not knowing the language. I was simply unprepared to get the most out of this book. As you can see, other reviewers continue to heap praise on Dr. Sharon Moalem for her book. I suspect their evaluation of this book is right on the money. In the end I found that reading "Survival of the Sickest" was time well spent anyway. After all, it is impossible to expand your horizons if you never make the attempt.
Amazon.com
Mississippi is not widely known for being first in anything; in fact, Michael Orey notes in Assuming the Risk, the state ranks last or near last on an embarrassing array of scales. And yet, he writes, it was in the courtrooms of this disparaged Southern state that a pioneering team of lawyers led the way in a politically controversial crusade against the tobacco industry. Mississippi was the first state in the nation to sue cigarette manufacturers to recover smoking-related health care costs incurred by the state's Medicaid program. The fierce legal battle resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement and eventually led to hundreds of billions of dollars in fines levied against the tobacco industry when other states followed suit.
Though decidedly pro-plaintiff, Assuming the Risk is not another vituperative rant against the Evil Empire of Big Tobacco: Orey does not shout and stomp on his soapbox. Instead, the veteran legal journalist and Wall Street Journal editor coolly focuses on the objective facts, presenting the who, what, where, and when of a complex and contentious litigation. His well-researched and detailed narrative spotlights the key figures in this real-life morality play--the mavericks, lawyers, and whistleblowers--including one particularly revealing chapter on Jeffrey Wigand, a former research scientist for the tobacco firm Brown & Williamson, whose decision to break a confidentiality agreement by speaking with 60 Minutes investigative reporter Mike Wallace became the subject of the 1999 film The Insider. --Tim Hogan
Book Description
Mississippi is not widely known for being first in anything; in fact, Michael Orey notes in Assuming the Risk, the state ranks last or near last on an embarrassing array of scales. And yet, he writes, it was in the courtrooms of this disparaged Southern state that a pioneering team of lawyers led the way in a politically controversial crusade against the tobacco industry. Mississippi was the first state in the nation to sue cigarette manufacturers to recover smoking-related health care costs incurred by the state's Medicaid program. The fierce legal battle resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement and eventually led to hundreds of billions of dollars in fines levied against the tobacco industry when other states followed suit.Though decidedly pro-plaintiff, Assuming the Risk is not another vituperative rant against the Evil Empire of Big Tobacco: Orey does not shout and stomp on his soapbox. Instead, the veteran legal journalist and Wall Street Journal editor coolly focuses on the objective facts, presenting the who, what, where, and when of a complex and contentious litigation. His well-researched and detailed narrative spotlights the key figures in this real-life morality play--the mavericks, lawyers, and whistleblowers--including one particularly revealing chapter on Jeffrey Wigand, a former research scientist for the tobacco firm Brown Williamson, whose decision to break a confidentiality agreement by speaking with 60 Minutes investigative reporter Mike Wallace became the subject of the 1999 film The Insider. --Tim Hogan
Customer Reviews:
Insightful!.......2001-09-19
Michael Orey begins his thorough examination of the courtroom battles against big tobacco by examining Horton v. American Tobacco, the Mississippi case that launched the mid-1980s barrage of legal attacks on big tobacco and led eventually to U.S. settlements of more than $200 billion. As they read about the assault on Brown and Williamson, cinema buffs may feel they are revisiting The Insider with Al Pacino. The book combines a walk-through of the day-to-day legal procedures and motions with a look into the lives of the major players. This well-written volume presents the tobacco case like an engrossing true-crime story, although some readers may find it has too much detail to hold their interest. We [...] recommend this fascinating book to most general readers. But while executives searching for principles to apply to their own companies may find themselves captivated, they won't find much here that is generally applicable.
Great!.......2000-07-27
It may seem paradoxical to most that for trial lawyers are not afraid to lose a case. Every trial is a learning experience. You learn about your opponent; you learn about yourself. You try a losing case over and over in your head at night. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from the opposing lawyer. You become obsessed and through it all you learn how to win.
This is the true story of some country lawyers in Mississippi who launched a holy war against Big Tobacco. They were unlikely Davids battling a Goliath.
The country lawyers looked like easy pickings to the big firm lawyers from the big cities. The silk stocking crowd would bury them in paper, bankrupt them in endless discovery, and outdazzle them in court, if the bumpkins ever got that far. These champions of nicotine had never lost a case. The clients had never paid one dime to any tobacco victim. They were the chosen ones, selected to keep the streak alive, to bring home the scalps of the piteous Mississippi lawyers.
Trial lawyers know that a lawyer who has never lost a case has never tried a case. Undeterred by the myth of invincibility of the tobacco industry these dreamers were able to use the industry's incredible arrogance on itself to bring it to its knees. In short, the truth got out, and the rest is history.
If you are a law student or a young lawyer thinking about trying cases for a living, read this book. This is how its done and how you can sleep at night.
Superb Story With Little Heroes And Lots Of Lying Everywhere.......1999-09-14
What an interesting recording how Lawyers violate their own standards of conduct just to win. The book shows how documents about Tobacco were stolen and then how the person who stole them was paid $1.8 million by the very Lawyers he helped to win billions for in fees. Yet, I wondered what those same Lawyers would have the same tactics used against them, how they would feel. But the cause was to show that smoking Cigarettes is evil and not good for our health, yet we already knew this and making the companies admit it was a victory. So in the end whenever someone is being sued and if we applaud those breaking ethics and the laws in pursuit for justice, then we encourage bad behavior. In the end when we celebrate this kind of action how far can murder, threats of murder and destruction's of families will be justified in pursuit of justice? Billions have been made, billions have been won, but by whom and for whom? No one should be proud of their actions as described in the book and if they are they can wonder later what will happen when others use the same tactics are them. What is tragic is Society knew shortly after the Native Americans gave Tobacco to Columbus that it was deadly, but people wanted it, and used it, so the governments created Sin Taxes to help discourage it. It did not work back then and it will not work now. People will be free to do what they want and nothing will stop it. At the same time, no one should begin to smoke or smoke but how do you stop it. The book is a great read. I recommend it highly but read it without smoking if you can!
Customer Reviews:
Iconoclastic Management Book.......2007-07-28
Maverick is a valuable management book because of many of the counterintuitive ("You just couldn't do that!") concepts that Semler actually implements. It's value lies as much in showing "Well, he did just do that" as it does in espousing theory - without the implementation, it would just be too out there...
Some of the counterintuitive:
- Let managers set their own pay. And publish publicly.
- Don't fire people during a strike. Or even take attendence.
- Get rid of extra management (don't "hoard" talent) but fund their new startups if need be.
There's much more, as well as some less controversial advice ("Treat people with dignity" & "Rotate your managers"), but it's best to read the book yourself to get the stories with the advice.
Great Book.......2007-07-01
Very fun and interesting, and we can learn a great deal by using this story as examples and lessons.
Great Book.......2007-02-22
Learn from the experience of this Brazilian entrepreneur that goes against normal business models and managed to sustained in the market with a highly profitable company.
It is fun to read, it is a business story and not a business history or theory. If you like to read about business, if you are interested in opening your company or just if you think you want to learn about others real experiences, read this book!!
The Pursuit of Happiness.......2006-12-25
I read both of Ricardo Semler's books, Maverick! and Seven Day Weekend prior to watching the film about Enron. As a 22 year old dreamer, idealist, pragmatist, and economics student, I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to see the opposite ends of the capitalist spectrum. There's so much knowledge to be learned from the two companies, Enron and Semco. Semco is everything Enron wasn't and is making profit while empowering its employees like no other company on the planet. Business does not have to be analogous to war. Enron's motto was `ask why' and nobody ever did, Ricardo Semler's motto is `ask why' and he hasn't stopped asking. Ricardo Semler will be regarded as the most influential CEO of the 21st century, mark my words.
Believing in others.......2006-11-10
I think the purpose of the book is to illustrate that if we trust each other and we discuss our diferences we generate synergy and cohesion in any group making it easier for its memeber to achieve a given goal.
Book Description
Praise for MAVERICK REAL ESTATE FINANCING
"Once you start reading, you won't be able to put the book down. You will feel you are part of the deals that industry leaders have put together. This is a real book about real people and how they address risk and reward."
—Bruce S. Schonbraun, Managing Partner The Schonbraun McCann Group LLP
"Bergsman applies a journalist's logic to the complex world of commercial real estate, making it easier for outsiders to understand. He writes with the authority of a true insider."
—Brannon Boswell, Managing Editor Shopping Centers Today
"Congratulations. Finally, someone has written a book that reflects real estate finance in the twenty-first century. With the growing proliferation of real estate education in university business schools today, this book should be required reading!"
—James D. Kuhn, President Newmark Knight Frank
In Maverick Real Estate Financing, Steve Bergsman—author of the widely acclaimed Maverick Real Estate Investing—describes the various financing methods you can use to achieve real estate investment success. Maverick Real Estate Financing also introduces you to an innovative group of real estate professionals who have used these methods to build substantial fortunes.
By listening to some of the world's most successful real estate Mavericks—includingWilliam Sanders, W. P. Carey, and Stephen Ross—you'll discover what sets them apart from the rest of the pack and learn how to apply their proven principles to your own real estate deals.
Each chapter examines a different real estate financing technique and the Maverick who best exemplifies it. Some of the strategies and products discussed include:
- Equity financing
- Public and private REITs
- Agency loans
- UPREITs
- Commingled capital
- Retail site arbitrage
- Conduit loans
- Sale-leasebacks
- Distressed mortgages
- Low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs)
Download Description
Real estate financing lessons from some of the best minds in the business The real estate market is booming, and over the last few years, people have turned to this reliable investment because of its incredible potential. However, real estate investing is a much different beast than buying a home. The objective is no longer real estate for individual use, but to lease the property to others in order to create income. In this follow-up to the widely acclaimed Maverick Real Estate Investing, Steve Bergsman describes in detail various real estate financing methods that can be used for real estate investment success. Each chapter discusses a different financing technique from first mortgages, equity financing, conduits, and agency loans to low-income housing tax credits, distressed mortgages, and UPREITs and profiles real estate financing mavericks who have used these techniques to capture huge profits. While advice on real estate financing abounds, Maverick Real Estate Financing offers proven techniques and strategies from some of the best minds in the business including: W.P. Carey, and Robert Taubman. Steve Bergsman (Mesa, AZ) is a nationally recognized financial and real estate writer. For the past 20 years, he has been a contributor to many leading publications and regularly writes the ""Ground Floor"" real estate column in Barron's. He is also the author of Maverick Real Estate Investing (0-471-46879-7).
Customer Reviews:
This will give you ideas, but not a real how to..........2007-01-16
I liked this book, but it really only provides you ideas on how to raise capital. It is not a real how to guide. So if you are looking for that, look elsewhere...
Examine Your Motivation.......2006-12-13
This rating is based on how well the book met my expectations. If you are honestly ready and focused on joining the ranks of Zuckerman, Shorenstein, Zell, or Trump, then a book like this might serve well as a type of guide post. You would then be dealing with projects in the $100 million plus range. If, however, your focus is on the lower end of the spectrum ... like financing apartment buildings under $5 million - with or without the aid of an investment group - you will not gain much in the way of practical knowledge from this book
Real Estate Entrepeneurs - This is Your Must Read!.......2006-12-05
I live, breathe, eat, and sleep real estate - everything from the single family homes to the development deals to the commercial turn-key acquisitions.
There are few books that are must reads in the world of the cookie-cutter industry that is dangerously overplayed. That is why Steve Bergsman's book is a must read (several times over). Financing, especially in the world of commerical lending, is a complicated subject that many investors across the spectrum do not put enough thought into. Bergsman offers great insight on not only the mavericks that pioneered (or help to pioneer) the concepts, but he also provides great examples of deals done in every creative, yet ethical and legal, way to structure financing.
As the owner of a capital funding group - this is what makes me tick - this book should be refreshing for those that are fed-up with the over-leveraged (and often danagerous) ways to finance real estate. This is a long-term success book that highlights how multi-million dollar deals that keep you in business are structured. Donald Trump's most famous saying regarding thinking big fits this book. You can reach it if you just know what to look for.
I believe in meat-and-potatoe reviews, so here is the meal:
- Sale-leasebacks are discussed
- REITs
- Commingled Capital
- Raising Capital/Equity Financing
and much more are discussed in impressive detail. So think big by buying this book. Stay in business by buying this book!
Real Estate Business People - This is Your Must Read!
A must read for all in real estate .......2006-04-26
Steve Bergsman has outdone himself... Maverick Real Estate Financing is a natural progression from Maverick Real Estate Investing, and a must real for all who are immersed in the world of real estate financing. Through detailed examples of some of the world's greatest real estate financiers, Mr. Bergsman has given the reader a vivid picture of how to navigate their way through the numerous financial alternatives available to anyone interested in investing in real estate.
A Must Read for Anyone in Real Estate Finance.......2006-03-31
Having been involved in the world of real estate high-finance for nearly two decades, I was intrigued by what Mr. Bergsman might have to say on the subject. Turns out, his take on financing methods and personalities in the industry was right on target. -- I should know, as I worked with some of them. It's a fascinating industry, and the author has made a fascinating read out of it. A must read for anyone in real estate finance and to understand the barons of the industry.
Anne Kazel-Wilcox
President
Gold Coast Communications Inc.
Book Description
The movie Jerry Maguire and HBO series Arli$$ barely skimmed the surface. Now the true inside story of the sports agent business is exposed as never before. During baseball's evolution from national pastime to a $3.6 billion business, the game's agents have played a pivotal role in driv-ing and (some might say) ruining the sport. In a world of unchecked egos and minimal regulation, client-stealing and financial inducements have become commonplace, leading many to label the field a cesspool, devoid of loyalties and filled with predators.
Customer Reviews:
Good book overall.......2007-07-16
This book is not really what the subtitle, "A season on the run with a maverick baseball agent", recommends. It is more of a description of the Sosnick-Cobbe sports agency, Matt Sosnick's biography, Sosnick's business approach, a history of baseball agents, a picture of the cutthroat business, Scott Boras' biography, and a basic how to of the agent business. All this information is randomly spewn about. It is like a picture you look at closely and think that it looks sloppy but when you take a look at the whole thing it is a masterpiece. Read the whole book before you make an opinion.
For Hardcore Fans Only.......2006-01-15
Not the most exciting book out there. But if you like minor league baseball, this book's worth a quick read.
Great topic, mediocre writing = a fascinating book.......2005-10-27
Despite the fact that the book seems quickly written and is organized rather poorly, Jerry Crasnick offers a fascinating study of the sports agent's life. "License to Deal" causes one to root for the up-and-coming agents and against the behemoths, like Scott Boras, that control so many of the top free agents in baseball.
After reading the book, I have a new understanding of the business behind baseball and the battle for new prospects still developing in the farm systems and high schools. In recent months, Sosnick was in the L.A. media surrounding the signing of Luke Hochevar, the Dodgers' top pick this year. Hochevar's negotiations with the Dodgers were strained when he switched from Matt Sosnick's agency to Scott Boras in mid stream. (See the excellent article in "Baseball America" by John Manuel and Kevin Goldstein on September 9, 2005.)
I highly recommend this book for its fascinating portrayal of Matt Sosnick and his agency.
Original and works.......2005-10-25
When looking for good sports books, this is the kind of project that should stop you in your tracks. It is an orginal idea, well-written, and, most importantly, holds the reader's interest throughout the entire package. Well done.
Crasnick Pitches a Gem.......2005-10-14
As some one who is very familiar with the agent business which is at the heart of Mr. Crasnick's book, I appreciate how interstingly and thoughtfully he has explored the topic. By focusing on young agents trying to enter the business he has found a perfect vehicle to let his readers understand the emotions of the business from the elation in landing a new client to the depression of having another , more experienced agent steal his clients. One can sense the commitment made by these young agents to their players as well as their naivete in expecting that such a commitment woujld be sufficient to retain those players as clients. Crasnick also does a nice job in exploring the relationships, both positive and negative, that exist between agents and major league organizations. For one of the first times, an author has focused a non-condescending, literary light on the essence of the agent business, allowing the public to better understand an agent's role both as an influence on the financial aspects of his client's career as well as the development of that career. It's a must read for anyone thinking about entering the business and an enjoyable read for any baseball fan.
Amazon.com
The surgeon-as-rock-star mystique seems like it must have come straight out of Hollywood, but the myth had to begin more concretely. A good candidate is Minnesota's Dr. Walt Lillehei, the hard-working, hard-playing father of open-heart surgery, whose life is told in garish color in King of Hearts by journalist G. Wayne Miller. From his early brilliance, recovery from deadly lymphatic cancer, and dramatic repair of seemingly hopeless heart cases to the disintegration of his career at its peak thanks to an army of personal enemies and conviction on tax evasion counts, his story is consistently surprising and engaging. Fast cars, hard drinking, and plenty of women filled his time when he wasn't turning lives around with a few strokes of his scalpel, and the reader will find the surgeon's actions almost unbelievable--rarely endearing, but occasionally saintly. Combining this melodramatic biography with the fascinating story of the struggle for open-heart surgery, considered impossible little more than a generation ago, Miller makes a compelling case that the daring scientist was simply another side of the arrogant, absent-minded playboy. No ordinary biography, King of Hearts is breathless reading--you'll find yourself surfacing every few chapters to remind yourself its nonfiction. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
Few of the great stories of medicine are as palpably dramatic as the invention of open-heart surgery, yet, until now, no journalist has ever brought all of the thrilling specifics of this triumph to life.
This is the story of the surgeon many call the father of open-heart surgery, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who, along with colleagues at University Hospital in Minneapolis and a small band of pioneers elsewhere, accomplished what many experts considered to be an impossible feat: He opened the heart, repaired fatal defects, and made the miraculous routine.
Acclaimed author G. Wayne Miller draws on archival research and exclusive interviews with Lillehei and legendary pioneers such as Michael DeBakey and Christiaan Barnard, taking readers into the lives of these doctors and their patients as they progress toward their landmark achievement. In the tradition of works by Richard Rhodes and Tracy Kidder,
King of Hearts tells the story of an important and gripping piece of forgotten science history.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Inspired me to want to know more!.......2007-09-23
When a friend gave me this book to read, I thought I'd skim a few chapters and either get bored with the technical details or be bothered by them since I have had heart surgery for congenital heart defects myself.
I thumbed though the first chapter and I was hooked! The writing demonstrates the intensity found in intense pediatric cases very well and uses that and the determination of Dr. Lillehei to move the story along at a fast clip. I finished it in about 36 hours!
I had gotten to the point there I was trying to take care of myself well as an adult with congenital heart disease (treated defects), but I hadn't quite grasped the details of my own surgeries nor did I want to. After I read this book I ordered my surgical records immediately and was excited to read them! The book filled the descriptions of the surgeries with such excitement that it carried over into my own personal education about my health.
I like how they told the story of Dr. Lillehei as a person who did great things, but was also human being as much as his patients - with faults of his own - but also clearly, great gifts.
For more information about the long-term outcome of patients with congenital heart defects/disease and how we continue to lead the longest and healthiest lives possible for us, please visit the Adult Congenital Heart Association's website at www.achaheart.org
Excellent and interresting through and through.......2007-05-12
Once I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down. What a fascinating subject and such wonderful storyteller. From the mom of a "heart baby" it just amazes me how far we've come in such a short amount of time.
One star deducted for his incredible unlikability.......2006-03-23
It's a good story, and Dr. Lillehei blazed an amazing trail, but this man appeared to be a sociopath who destroyed everything and everybody he touched - except, of course, his patients. I can't believe nobody addressed this yet, or maybe they were so fascinated by the story that they missed - or dismissed - it completely. This was more than a massive ego; this guy could have been a Dr. Swango had things been just a wee bit different.
I realize the book was about Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, but his brother Richard was also a transplant surgeon, as are his sons Craig and Kevin.
Better than Best.......2004-03-26
When I read the first paragraph of this book, I was engrossed! I started to read it for a report. It gave plenty of information, and was extremely interesting. You feel like you are in the operating room. I affects your emotion. I highly recommend this book!
A Very Moving Book.......2002-12-09
As I read this book, I was profoundly moved. I was was born with a ASD & pulmonary valve defect. Dr Richard Varco and Lellehei did my surgery At the Variety Club Heart hospital in 1955 . I was one of the 1st one hundred surgeries done at the U of Minn.What incredable dedication , hard work, these men had. In my early twenties, I again needed heart surgery. This time again a very brillent, dedicated surgeon by the name of U Scott Page did a total correction.I have been able to live a wonderful. active life thanks the The King of Heart and team and Dr Page. I owe my life to the many, many dogs used to perfect progress of open heart surgery. I am a nurse, I have cared for many open heart patients. Thank you Dr Varco, Dr Lillehei and Dr S Page
Book Description
Raising thriving, emotionally healthy sons does not require a man around the house! That's the conclusion of a groundbreaking research study that will open eyes, stir debate, and reassure nearly 10 million single mothers. As the number of single-mom and two-mom households has grown, so have concerns about the possible damage to boys caused by the lack of a male role model in the house. Peggy F. Drexler, Ph.D., listened to all the dire warnings; but her training as a research psychologist told her she had to see the evidence. So she embarked on a long-term study comparing boys raised in female-headed families with those whose fathers were present throughout their childhood. What Dr. Drexler discovered is as heartening as it is startling:
Customer Reviews:
Utter claptrap.......2007-10-01
This schlock was recommended by an acquaintance and I'm stunned. It's simplistic and often silly without really saying much of anything. It is a book of assumptions and common sense and the only people who would need to read it are those so out of the mainstream, such as a rich professor of psychology, and not those that are actually raising children without a partner. There are few if any citations to speak of, and essentially I found this book to be a complete waste of time.
Reader beware, you have been warned.
Hogwash.......2007-09-16
Absolute hogwash and drivel. The author projects her own unresolved issues with her father on to every case study and creates fantastic conclusions based on shoddy and inaccurate science
could we have a balanced review?.......2007-02-16
I'm more stunned by the reviews than by the book. I think the book has interesting information and a valid perspective that isn't heard often.
But to understand that, one needs to actually read the book and also to understand sociological methods of study - studying human experience is not like studying cause and effect in a lab. One also needs to hear and grasp the difference between studies on boys with fathers who have abandoned them - the studies most often cited and associated with stats about the negative effects of not having a father - and this study which is on boys who do not have a father in the picture and never have. In this way, this is new research.
The book doesn't, to me, say that men are not necessary to boys - in fact the author spends a great deal of the book talking about how boys who do not have fathers get access to (and are encouraged by their "maverick moms" to get access to) men and male role models. She finds this to be of benefit for the boys.
She does also say that, based on this research, she sees boys being raised in this specific circumstance (boys without fathers who have abandoned them and who are being raised by a mom or moms) doing very well and developing in a very balanced and healthy manner.
My issue with the book is two-fold. I'd like to see more research and a follow-up with the subjects of her research - I think that would lend itself to a stronger work.
I also just found the writing to be generally unorganized and a bit repetitive. This was very distracting to me as I read.
So interesting information - would like more research and more data - writing itself only so-so.
Shoddy research.......2007-01-15
Drexler seems to forget that anecdotal evidence cannot be used to justify the type of claims she's making in this book, which is riddled with biased sample and hasty generalization fallacies. Drexler makes sweeping statements about the efficacy of single mother parenting without even attempting to clearly define her definition, let alone establish a double blind study or make any other attempt whatsoever to compensate for her bias. Instead, she relies on anecdotal evidence supplied by individuals who were clearly selected based on whether or not their stories support her conclusions.
An Excellent and Much-Needed Book.......2006-11-17
It is inarguable that basic types of families in this country have changed drastically in the last few decades. Whether your politics are from the left or the right, whether you accept these new varieties of family with liberal openness, or reject them with conservative parsimony, you cannot dispute that they exist. As Peggy Drexler informs us in her book Raising Boys Without Men, "The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that only 23.5 percent of households in the United States now contain...the Father Knows Best kind [of families], with a married mom and dad and their children."
For those of you who are math challenged, that means less than a quarter of all homes have what we used to think of as a normal (i.e. the classic nuclear) family. Drexler also mentions that half of all marriages will end in divorce, and forty percent of babies are born out of wedlock (an interesting word which has nothing to do with padlocks, but rather comes from the Old English wedd for pledge and lâc, a suffix expressing activity). "The number of families headed by single mothers increased 25 percent between 1990 and 2000, to more than 7.5 million households."
Plainly speaking, families are way more diverse than they used to be. Because advances in medicine and technology (artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization) have allowed for the role reduction of previously-thought-to-be-essential partners in reproduction (i.e. men), and because increasing numbers of women are either having children in lesbian couples; remaining as divorced and single parents; having children without getting married in the first place; adopting; or otherwise finding ways to have and raise children without men, an increasing number of families simply contain no male parent. Dr. Drexler refers to all of these kinds of mothers-without-men by the term "maverick moms."
The book is explicitly intended to challenge the "tide of opinion and the research arguing that boys need fathers in order to grow to manliness." It is a laudable goal, and mostly Dr. Drexler succeeds. Apparently there are lots of folks out there who believe that without men around, the sons of maverick moms will become warped, perverted, sissified, or (any contradiction here?) "violent, drug-using hellions...boys who present no positive maleness, all due to the combination of Mom's presence and Dad's absence." The idea that "two women could raise a boy to a man without warping his manhood...challenges the preconceptions of social scientists, health care professionals, judges, politicians, pundits, and parents."
One of my quibbles with the book is that too often, instead of citing actual and specific sources, Dr. Drexler cites vague things like "the tide of opinion," or "recent studies," or unnamed "researchers," which to my mind is too much like saying "people say that..." (or, only marginally better: "scientists say that"). I believe she does her thesis and her political position a disservice by being so fuzzy and nebulous with both supporting and opposing statements and data. It would have done this book great benefit had Dr. Drexler actually shown us some of these folks she is arguing with in absentia and told us what they actually said. Otherwise, they seem like straw men.
The mother is supposed to be responsible for everything her son is and will become. It's as if she holds all the cards. If she's a good mother, her son will turn out okay. If she's a bad mother, she winds up with a bad son. And, curiously enough, the father plays a minor role in taking the blame for the problems the children may have. It's a double bind for moms because fathers seem to carry much less responsibility for the problems their sons may have, but in the popular culture of today, they are considered absolutely essential to raising good sons.
Dr. Drexler is quite up front about her intentions and political viewpoint. She believes there is no reason boys cannot grow up to be terrific, balanced, successful (by any standard you might imagine) men, even in households that lack a paternal male presence. She points out that what is of basic and paramount importance is good parenting, and not the gender of the parent(s). She asserts that "The number of times you eat dinner with your kids is a better guide to how well they'll turn out than the number or gender of the parents at the dinner table." And further that parental socioeconomic status will be a stronger predictor of how well kids will do than "almost any other index of child welfare." Which leaves me wondering about that "almost." What is a stronger predictor?
In addition to doing extensive research of the literature on maverick mom childrearing--her doctoral dissertation was on whether and how sons of lesbian mothers developed moral character "without the presence of a moralizing father figure"--Dr. Drexler also did what anthropologists call "participant observation" and what Anna Freud called "direct observation" of children and their maverick moms. She spent several years observing, interviewing, spending time with a great many of these mothers and their sons. Her interactions and conversations with the boys are sprinkled throughout the book, and sometimes seem cute, funny, illustrative and true, but sometimes seem a bit forced and too much like filler, as though she needed to water down the more academic-y material in order to make this a more popularly palatable work.
One of her findings that should come as no surprise to anyone but the most sightless and bigoted of reactionary fundamentalists, is that children of maverick moms are overwhelmingly planned for in comparison with the general population of children with both a mother and a father. Their children "are thought about and brought into the world with care and preparation." Parents who make these kinds of conscious and deliberate decisions tend to be older than couples who merely become pregnant without forethought and planning. This in turn means that "lesbian mothers tended to be better educated and more financially secure than average moms." (Recall the paragraph above regarding the socioeconomic status of parents.)
What might come as a surprise to many is that not only do boys in such (no-longer-so) unorthodox families tend to do well, they actually seem to do significantly better than the average boys from so-called "normal" families! Let me state that again for those of you who missed it. Boys raised by maverick moms tend to do better, on average, than boys from so-called "normal" families. Really.
One of the contributing factors to the relative success of these boys is another counterintuitive fact: boys in fatherless families, tend to have a greater number of male role models than boys who actually have a male parent in the house. This is because both the boys themselves and their maverick mothers tend to look for other kinds of males to sit in for the missing fathers. The boys and/or their mothers tend to grab onto coaches, male teachers, neighbors, fathers of their friends, and so on. But the effect of this is that the boys seem to actually spend more time, and more quality time with the men they select as father figures than so-called-normal boys do with their actual fathers. "It has been reported that the typical American father spends, on average, only 11 minutes each day with his children." (See what I mean? Reported where?)
One of the things Dr. Drexler finds is that there is pretty much the same dynamic between children and their mom-mom dyads as between children and their mother-father dyad. The illustrative stories sprinkled throughout the book sound like regular kids and regular parents. I believe this may be her point. She is asserting that the gender of various members of a household is not nearly as significant to a child's successful upbringing, socialization and well-being, as the care, love, and attention the child gets, irregardless of the shape of the genitals possessed by the parent. And (not to take away from the book here) that seems pretty obvious.
Why then is it necessary for a book such as this? Mostly, it would seem, because there are so many people who believe otherwise. If you imagine that fathers are an essential sine qua non in order for boys to become normal, healthy, flourishing, adults, then this book will open your eyes. Apparently that is truly not so. Good parenting can come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. As Dr. Drexler says, "Gender is simply not a tidy way of organizing what we know about human beings." Nor what we are.
Amazon.com
Using a computer to beat Wall Street from afar is, arguably, the new American dream. While it will remain just that for most of us, an offbeat gang of academics turned financial wizards is showing it can be done. Led by acclaimed physicists Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard, the Santa Fe-based Prediction Company has proven since its 1991 founding in an adobe bungalow furnished with plastic lawn chairs and top-of-the-line Sun workstations that it is indeed possible to make millions in the world's financial markets by anticipating trends and developing software that automatically capitalizes on them. In The Predictors, Thomas A. Bass colorfully relates their tale of fiscal triumph--and reveals in the process how even an unorthodox group of antibusiness intellectuals in far-off New Mexico can make the world's biggest institutions sit up and take notice.
Long esteemed in the scientific community, Farmer and Packard have become legendary in hacker circles since their failed attempt to beat the roulette tables in Las Vegas with toe-operated computers was chronicled in Bass's well-regarded 1985 book called
The Eudaemonic Pie. This time, though, the two hit the jackpot with their cutting-edge computer programs and the company they created to trade German marks, Chicago commodities, Japanese treasury bonds, Texas oil futures, and New York securities. Bass's prose is a bit flowery at times, but his perceptive you-are-there account is nonetheless entertaining and sure to cement the pair's reputation as today's ultimate masters of "phynance," the successful, and now oft-copied, merger of physics and finance. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Excerpted in The New Yorker and hailed by the business press, The Predictors is destined to become a classic of its generation--an antic, subversive odyssey into a universe defined by the mystical convergence of physics and finance. How could a couple of rumpled physicists in sandals and Eat-the-Rich T-shirts, piling computers into an adobe house in Santa Fe, hope to take on the masters of the universe from Morgan Stanley? Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard may never have read The Wall Street Journal, but they happen to be among the founders of the new sciences of chaos and complexity. Who better to try to find order in the apparently unreasoned chaos of the global financial markets? Thomas A. Bass takes us inside their start-up company, following it from its inception as a motley collection of longhaired Ph.D.s to its passage into the centers of financial power, where "the predictors" find investors and finally go live with real money. The Predictors is a dizzying, often hilarious tale of genius and greed.
Customer Reviews:
boring,,,i dont care about the weather.......2006-06-07
this book could be better, but the author is giving too much details of some unnecessary objects, like describing the weather and shape of the chin of someone or what sandwich some unrelated guy is eating and what underwears they like for 2 paragraphs. suddenly he jumps to talk about the history of sante fe and the Zozoba a couple of times which i still dont know what the heck is it.
i got so irritated readin about the excessive writings on completely unrelated objects and subjects that i paid less attention even when he is talking about the related characters.
after all the mental abuse, we are left with nothing about how the adventure eventaully goes...REFUND!Not a recommended read, skip!
Required Reading Before Trying to 'Beat the Market'.......2006-01-31
With over 80,000,000 Americans investing in the stock market, many believe that they can quickly and easily go in and 'out-think' all those other traders who "just aren't as smart as I am." Well, before you go in and compete against the big boys, you might want to read this book to get a good understanding of who and what you are competing against.
There is an old saying that goes "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out." Yeah, well, maybe not. But, when you try to outwit the market, you better realize that you are competing against rocket scientists, and physicists, and mathematicians who attack the market in ways the average investor can't even comprehend. Yet, that is who you compete against in the market.
This book tells the story of a group of physicists and their friends who set out to build an automated trading system that would rule the market. Did they succeed? Well, I wouldn't want to give away the ending. But, needless to say, before you jump into the stock market and get your ego and pocketbook devastated, you might want to read about how difficult it is to 'rule the market' even when you have some of the best brains in the US tackling the problem with resources that you and I will never have.
This book should be required reading before a person can invest in the stock market.
Interesting Reading.......2005-03-11
Plenty of facts here and good first reading for someone wanting to understand the world markets - it will whet your appetite.
The book jumps around a lot from events to biographies of the people involved, so try to hang on.
There is no technical information given on the methods used other than generalizations. The books leaves you thinking that the company will be a huge success. Its hard to tell if this is the case by looking at the company's website at www.predict.com.
The book is the best thing to happen to this company - better than its technology.
Interesting Topic not Handled Well.......2004-04-12
I agree with many of the other reviewers. This book is 90% filler. Instead of discussing the topic at hand, we are repeatedly bombarded with a desciption of the weather, the El Paso fiesta season, etc... This is a story about a group of (in my opinion, uninteresting) characters, and not a book on Investing or Science. Not recommended.
Another book about a start-up.......2003-11-28
This book is less about the market and more about the personal relationships and dealings of a business start-up. I'm surprised that the book lists its category as BUSINESS/SCIENCE when truly it lies in the former. I guess mentioning chaos theory, neural networks and genetic algorithms was all that was needed.
Regardless, it was an entertaining story about a group of physicists, being totally ignorant of the market, decide that they can predict the market. The storyline follows what I would consider typical of any start-up; the fights, arguments, doubts, meetings galore, etc... As I said, entertaining but not too much different from any other story about a start-up.
My two biggest complaints:
1) The back cover from the San Francisco Chronicle calls this book "one of the best books ever written about commodities, currency, and derivatives trading." I don't think they even read the book since this book isn't about trading but all about the traders.
2) The over use of descriptive fashion and landscape. I lost track of how many times we needed to be told who was wearing what and how blue the sky was in Santa Fe. It really got annoying after awhile.
Book Description
Author Ben Z. Rose brings to life the legendary hero of the New England Militia during America's War of Independence. Born in Colonial New Hampshire to Scotch Irish immigrants, John Stark survived Indian captivity, and later fought alongside the British in the French and Indian War as part of Rogers Rangers, a legendary militia company which pioneered the tactics of modern guerilla warfare. Stark's Scotch Irish roots, first hand exposure to second class citizenship in the British army and his desire to prove his talent as a general drove him to achieve victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Later, his surprise attack against British hired mercenaries at the Battle of Bennington turned the tide of the war in favor of the young American army.
Staunchly independent, John Stark disdained politics and was considered something of a renegade, even among his friends. Like General George Patton of a later ear, Stark was brash, outspoken, and suspicious of politicians who meddled in military affairs. Stark would live to the age of 94, outlasting all but one general of the revolution.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating, in-depth portrait of a military genius .......2007-08-05
Written by securities analyst and American history buff Ben Z. Rose, John Stark: Maverick General is the true story of John Stark, a brilliant battlefield commander hailing from New Hampshire, whose skill in leading the New England militia was critical in turning the tide of the American Revolutionary War. Chapters chronicle not only Stark's life, but also his character, which was fiercely independent and utterly distrustful of authority. His tactics included unconventional combat, and he applied his extensive knowledge of British military methods to seize victory in key battles. A fascinating, in-depth portrait of a military genius who shares responsibility with George Washington and the Founding Fathers for the birth of America.
New Hampshire's native son receives his proper due.......2007-07-22
This book is extremely well done and easy to read. I am a professor of History in New Hampshire and a transplanted rebel. I found Ben's book to be alive and captivating, from Stark's early life in Roger's Rangers through the Revolution to his later years. Ben's attention to detail is first rate. He has helped me understand General Stark even better. General Stark was a man of a few words, he let his actions speak volumes for him. The title alone describes John Stark to a "T". He was the "Maverick General", a true rebel and a devoted patriot. Ben's book captures the essence of the man and his service to the new United States of America. He has shown General Stark as the citizen turned hero to answer his country's call and then he returns to civilian life, seeking no glory for himself. I am requiring my fall American History classes to read this book.
The obscure history behind a visible legacy.......2007-07-20
Ben Rose's "John Stark" illuminates the life and exploits of an unsung Revolutionary War hero whose creed "Live Free or Die" became the Motto of the State of New Hampshire and is familiar to all New Englanders who see it on New Hampshire license plates every day. In addition to elaborating on the life of the General, the book provides new details on the well-known battle on Breed's Hill (more commonly known as the Battle of Bunker Hill) and the Lake Champlain campaigns. A good read, especially for Revolutionary War buffs.
very well composed.......2007-06-07
As a NH native it is nice to find a read about a local hero.It is easy to recite Live Free or Die yet forget the circumstances behind it. Well written in sense of highlighting Stark's accomplishments but also showing how it fit into the great picture of what was happening, and giving credit to others. In a time where battles and wars are waged or not based on political and public outcry or lack thereof, it is revealing to see what men will do for their cause with full knowledge of what will happen if they fail. A grand salute to the common man who can become an extraordinary one.
Live Free or Die.......2007-04-28
The Shaara father / son team has nothing on Mr. Rose. As a fan of civil war writings I have lots to compare this new author to. Rose really seems to know his stuff and this is the most complete work on a truly great American that I've read.
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