Books to return to the library for May 2007
I reserve books from the library, and sometimes they stack up at home before I get a chance to read them. Here's some notes from this month's purge so that I get a chance to go surfing to find more to read.
Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat. Archibald Putt, 1981. Datamation-era book on getting ahead in technology careers, with a heavy dose of Dilbert, Systemantics, and the Peter Principle thrown in. Some choice quotes:
Putt's Law: Every technical hierarchy, in time, develops a competence inversion.
In nontechnical organizations, key positions, once they are filled by incompetent people, remain blocked. In a technical hierarchy, however, incompetent individuals continue to rise. Incompetence is thus flushed out of the lower levels, leaving competent people behind to do the work. In fact, Putt's Law can be regarded as the prime reason for the continued success of technology even in the face of an ever-growing bureaucracy.
There's a 2006 updated edition in print, but none of the libraries I had access to had it; best to read some of these in their originals since the typeface and the old-book smell give you a better sense for the era.
Michael Penn, Resigned. I pulled a copy of his Walter Reed from Podbop - he came to Ann Arbor - and decided to get some of his older work for a listen.
The Dice Man, Luke Rheinhart, 1972. Some bit of profundity (live your entire life by the roll of the dice) is hidden by deep misogyny. I couldn't read more than a few pages. Back to Wayne State University's "storage" for you.
Tyranny of the Moment, Thomas Eriksen 2001. Pre web 2.0 lament at the loss of "slow time" and the ever-increasing instantaneous demands on our time. (2007: e.g. Twitter).
Finn, Jon Clinch 2007. A retelling of the Huck Finn story from the perspective of his father. It looks like a good book club book, or a good reason to read the original again; it didn't pass the open to a page at random and read to see if you get hooked test.
Making Sense of the Organization, Karl Weick 2001. A reader that includes his 1984 classic "Small wins: redefining the scale of social problems". Back to the library it goes, though I'd keep it just for that essay.
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