What The Dog Saw: Conclusion

The rest of the book had a couple interesting articles, as well as a few average articles. The article on the homeless people reminded me of the global warming chapter in Super Freakonomics. It restated the idea that we often look for the more complex and expensive solutions to our problems when simpler solutions would suffice quite well. The other article I enjoyed was the article on choking v. panicking. Choking is thinking too much, panicking is thinking too little.
Goal: Read most of Blink over break.

TOTAL READING TIME: 80 hr.

Page: Complete 410 Pages

What The Dog Saw

I read through the first of three sections he has in his book. The first article about the kitchen inventor was pretty boring. The ketchup article was interesting. I learned that ketchup caters to all of the taste receptors on the tongue. I do love ketchup. The third article about the smart investor who didn't take chances was nothing extraordinary. The one about hair color was also a bit of a snoozer. The last two were the most interesting. The article about the Pill was intriguing since the primary inventor was a devout Catholic. When I think of the Pill, I think of loose college women who use it as a prevention to pregnancy while having multiple sexual partners. I don't think of Catholics using the Pill to help with their "rhythm" method. The article also talks about the new health benefits of the Pill. I can see how it is a controversial topic in our church because it's common sense that the main reason people take the Pill is not to ensure reduced chances of getting cancer. It was a thought-provoking section. The last article was about "The Dog Whisperer". I've seen the show, and I've also seen parodies of the show = both enjoyable. The idea of body language and "phrasing" is an interesting topic to me. Good stuff.

TOTAL READING TIME: 73 hr.

Page: 149

The Tipping Point

I enjoyed reading this book. It dealt with three fairly simple factors responsible for starting epidemics: The Law of the Few, Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. In the chapter on stickiness, Gladwell mentions an experiment done in which students were given pamphlets on tetanus shots in which it was most effective, or "sticky", to give directions along with fear inducing pictures. This experiment was also mentioned in The Social Animal in the chapter on persuasion. His conclusion was that persuasion is most effective with specific directions along with fear. This conclusion can be explain by Gladwell's stickiness explanation. Another experiment cited by Gladwell was the experiment in which a prison is simulated in a basement to see how volunteers would act in the environment. This experiment was also talked about in The Social Animal as well.

Gladwell brings up the idea that humans can, on average, retain up to about six or seven (7-number of God, coincidence? I think not) things in a certain area of information at a time, such as phone numbers, tones, or sizes of dots. I thought of Outliers, in which it talks about Asians being able to remember numbers and add better than Americans because of the shortness of their numbers in the system.

TOTAL READING TIME: 67 hr.

Page: Complete 259 Pages

I Am America (And So Can You!)

Just got done reading this book, which I borrowed from the lovely, baby-face, Josh Trapp (hold your applause til the end. Thank You). It was written by Stephen Colbert. It was a funny and entertaining book; twas a fun and humorous read. The book is just a long segment of his TV series, along with all the commentary on his own writing in the margins, expressing viewpoints along the lines of an extreme conservative, Christian Republican.

TOTAL READING TIME: 59 hr.

Page: Complete 223 Pages

Last Words: Conclusion

The class this book most relates to is probably Religion due to the fact that Carlin has a specific routine called "There Is No God". In his routine, he points out that religion is one of the biggest scams of all time. To a point there is some truth to this. I believe the Bible to be completely true, but the steps certain churches take to get money to do things irrelevant to spreading the Word is ridiculous. This is not limited to the Christian churches. Some churches get so far and extreme that they provide comics like George Carlin reasons to question the sincerity and truth of that religion. Ironically, he grew up a Catholic, a church that is founded on irrelevant relics and works that are ridiculous.

TOTAL READING TIME: 52 hr.

Page: Complete 293 pages

Last Words

I've read to the point in his life when he is a very famous comedian on several well known variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show. The only problem is that he is completely sick and tied of the superficial and utterly fake behavior of everyone that he deals with on these shows. He doesn't want to have staged conversations with people during the show to give the appearance of friendship with someone he doesn't even like. Along with this problem, his wife has started drinking because of his extended absences, just as their child is under three years old. In his own words, "I was on a treadmill to nowhere. Without a clue how to get off."

This story so far had me thinking how George Carlin was going to change comedy. He is known for being edgy on politics and what not without having any inhibitions on what he said. At the point in the book I am in, he is in the middle of a pleasant, pleasing routine to make his money: selling-out. After the chapter I just read, I felt a change in the winds, directing his path in a new direction. So the song I thought of was "Wind of Change" by The Scorpions (great song and band). Enjoy


http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=0yQeSKa4RsU&pop_ads=0


TOTAL READING TIME: 48 hr.


Page: 137

Last Words

This is a book written by the famous comedian, George Carlin, who died in June 2008. He was not exactly the most self-censored comedian, but he had many insights on the type of conventional wisdom Americans accept as norms. Having read several books about sociological and general psychological topics, I wanted to read a book about one person to apply the things I've learned from the books. What book better than an autobiography by a famous comic I've heard of?
So far he's covered information on his parents, (Dad-alcoholic child-beater, like many Irish dads of that time. Mother-devout Catholic with high expectations from George) his brother (Beaten more as a child, mischievous with 3 court-martials in the Air Force), and his time in the Air Force (two court-martials).

TOTAL READING TIME: 46 hr.

Page: 69

Outliers: Conclusion

Legacy
The second half of the book is about the importance of cultural legacies. It's a good point that he makes, but it is also a potentially dangerous when people start stereotyping, which he says in the book. There is obviously a lot of truth behind the importance of cultural legacy. I thought the American summer vacations from school was an interesting topic. I think it's pretty interesting that no one ever discusses that, or at least if they do, they don't get much media coverage about the idea (or maybe I'm just not seeing the coverage). I personally, along with most students I'd assume, wouldn't want to deal with the work load of the KIPP school mentioned in the book. However, I agree with the idea that longer school days would help with understanding subjects, especially math. The kids that don't like math or aren't good at it are the ones that don't take the required time to fully comprehend the ideas. Not many students do there homework outisde of school, especially when they're parents don't pay much attention to theiur school work. Laziness is the primary reason most kids are doing poorly in math. The lack of parental guidance compounds the problem.
I enjoyed reading this book. The author does a good job at sticking to one point and driving it home with stories and intriguing statistics. I'll probably end up reading The Tipping Point soon

TOTAL READING TIME: 44 hr.

Page: Complete 285 Pages

Outliers

The Three Lessons Of Joe Flom
This section wraps up the ideas of opportunity in the first half of the book. To be successful, it helps a lot to have been born at te right time, have a special opputunity to et your 10,000 hours in, and had the right parents. the book so far is pretty good. Now I get to learn how legacy affects success.

TOTAL READING TIME: 41 hr.

Page: 161

Outliers

The Trouble With Geniuses Parts I & II
The first part of the section deals with the idea that IQ matters to a certain point, such as height in the NBA. The second part of the section deals with the idea of self-entitlement being necessary for extremely gifted people to make it in this world. Gifted kids to learn how to "strong arm" their way to get their necessary needs. Gladwell says that poor children aren't taught this skill like the children of middle-class and above parents. I think that this skill now-a-days can be learned by simply watching television. Any kids show these days have child stars that constantly talk back to their parents. People are always saying kids pick up on violence from TV, so why couldn't they pick up that assertiveness as well? The sense of entitlement will still have a gap considering the amount of personal belongings a child has, but I would argue that it isn't as impossible as Gladwell says for poor kids to learn the savvy required to be successful.

TOTAL READING TIME: 40 hr.

Page: 117

Outliers

The Matthew Effect and The 10,000 Hour Rule
Both of these chapters deal with the importance of special opportunities that significant outliers received on their path to fame and success. This idea caused me to think about the famous anti-slavery leaders we hold on pedestals, such as Abe Lincoln, Henry Clay, John Brown, and William Lloyd Garrison. These men were in the right place at the right time to start this movement. With the industrial revolution starting to take a toll on America, the need for slaves was becoming less significant. The incentive for enslaving fellow human beings was declining, allowing morals to resurface on the topic. Of course, as said in American Lives 2, not all slave owners and other whites agreed with slavery. The need for slaves was just too high to make a forceful attempt to abolish it. I think there's a lot of untold reasons for slavery and for its abolition

TOTAL READING TIME: 39 hr.

Page: 70

Who Speaks For God?: Conclusion

The Third Test Of Politics: Civility
The author again talks about homosexuals. He dives in deeper to his points he is trying to convey. I agree that we shouldn't demonize homosexuals, pointing at them as the problem to failing families. It is obvious that the lowered moral standards of sexuality have a much larger role in causing those problems. I strongly believe that homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry though, but also think they should be allowed to have some rights as family. I basically agree with what the pastor is saying, although I would've liked to see him take a stance on what he believes about the topic as he did later on abortion.
This entire book as calling on people to make drastic behavioral changes, which are extremely hard to do, especially in a group as large as our society. It's good that he gives specific directions as to what he suggests to solve the problem, even though I don't think some of his solutions will work with grown adults (like gang summits and tidy talks with criminals). I also find it amusing that he constantly refers to the need to save "the children". We need to change for the sake of "the children". I just thought it was a bit funny that he used that card, even though there is truth to his point.
Overall I enjoyed this book. It was a different topic that was pretty interesting.

TOTAL READING TIME: 37 hr.

Page: Complete 193 Pages