As we traverse fortune this month, we must understand what the implications of that fortune are. We’ll take a journey with Allan G. Johnson to look at the ways our privilege effects us and those around us. We will examine this topic in the areas of race, gender, and physical disability status to gain some insights and takeaways.
This month’s theme is Desire, and specifically how our cravings effect us. It will be important to not why we want the things we want as well.
William Irvine is philosopher who has done extensive work on this subject and has published a book that does not revel in the theoretical aspects of his topics alone. He unveils the topic’s practical elements and makes his study something we can all learn from.
In the late 1960’s Walter Mischel asked kids to delay their satisfaction for a greater reward later. The results of the experiment spawned a breakthrough in psychology.
In this book Walter walks us through the experiment, its findings, and practical applications in casual language that is worthwhile to you whether you are a psychologist or just want to learn better self-control techniques.
This year we started our book club and just barely survived the holiday season and cranked out 13 books. Each in the category of non fiction spanning subject matter from feminism, to behavioral economics, to physics, and design.
We will no doubt traverse even greater variety in 2015 but definitely add these to your book lists if you are looking to pick a few nuggets of insight or perspective.
I’ll say that personally, How To Be A Woman was most impactful as I had never been given a plain language description of the female experience with humor, wit, and anecdote. It is a book every man should read.
Props Catilin.
The most challenging read was not Relativity by Albert Einstein. It was instead Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth from R. Buckminster Fuller. He plotted his course in a non-linear way that had me going back chapters and re-reading to make sure I could follow him. It was a great read but also left me feeling a little bit like I had been lectured.
Thanks Bucky.
There was no hands down favorite in my view, it was more about the conversations we had on the chat room. Now we’ll look to possibly change from the chatroom format to reddit.com and see how things go there.
I thank everyone that read with us this year, I can’t wait to flip more pages with you in 2015.
Maceo
December: FINISHED
The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art Of Turning Trials Into Triumph
by Ryan Holiday
November: FINISHED
Relativity: The Special And General Theory
by Albert Einstein
October: FINISHED
Here Comes Everybody: The Power Of Organizing Without Organizations
by Clay Shirky
Septembert: FINISHED
No Contest: The Case Against Competition
by Alfie Kohn
August: FINISHED
Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth
by Buckminster Fuller
July: Finished
Cities Are Good For You
by Leo Hollis
The Genius Of The Metropolis
June: Finished
The Language Of Things
By Deyan Sudjic
Understanding The World Of Desirable Objects
May: Finished
Be brave! We suggest choosing the book that is the furthest departure from the beliefs you currently hold.
The Experience of God
David Bentley Hart used a multi-theistic approach to prove the existence of God.
The Happy Atheist
PZ Myers wields science and reason as vehicle to reveal the belief in a supernatural power as false.
April: Finished
Language Wars: A History Of Proper English
By Henry Hitchings
Understanding English History and Variances
March: Finished
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
By Richard H Thaler and Cass R. Sustein
Behavioral economics applied to every day life choices.
February:Finished
How To Be A Woman
by Caitlin Moran
Personal story of sex, love, marriage, pregnancy, and everything it is to be a woman in a modern world.
January: Finished
Teach Us To Sit Still (A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing)
by Tim Parks.
Writer’s journey to healing breath work ease chronic pain, where traditional medicine has failed.
None of us are immune to facing trouble on our path to achieve our goals. Even the greatest most powerful men have had to learn ways of moving beyond the obstacles set before them. Author, Ryan Holiday delves into this topic and shows how we can learn from our trials using in depth historical reference. From the stoic perspective of Marcus Aurelius, Holiday puts to use practical philosophy, history, and logic to expand on the idea that “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Ryan Holiday is a media strategist for notorious clients like Tucker Max and Dov Charney. After dropping out of college at 19 to apprentice under the strategist Robert Greene, he went on to advise many bestselling authors and multi-platinum musicians. He is the Director of Marketing at American Apparel, where his work in advertising was internationally known. His strategies are used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube and Google and have been written about in AdAge, The New York Times, Gawker and Fast Company. His first book, Trust Me I’m Lying was a Wall Street.
As we explore our relationship to the spaces we inhabit, the city is a construct that we can not explore, this month we take a look at the city from many perspectives and dive into its possibilities with author Leo Hollis. We reached out to Leo and he prepare this primer for the read especially for Citizens Of Culture Book Club readers:
In 2007 the world became 50% urban and this percentage is only going to grow. We are becoming an urban species but what does that mean? So often we associate the city with bad things: pollution, congestion, poverty, crime and illness. My book tries to look at the city in a different way and to identify the ways that city can transform our lives. In the course of writing, I visited a number of cities from Latin America to China and the US and found that there is a lot to be positive about when it comes to the future of urban living. Metropolitan life might sometimes feel like an exhausting trial but it can also make you richer, more creative, fitter, greener and perhaps even happier. Taking in thinkers, architects, politicians, scientists, activists and the everyday lives of people like you and me, I hope that I have shown some of the ways that Cities can be good for you.
-Leo Hollis-
In the book, Leo takes us along the historical narrative as well as give us an ideological perspective on the city as well. It’s sure to be a great read.
Have you ever spoken to someone who you could not understand at all even though you were both speaking English? Maybe they were from a different region of the country than you, or from a different country altogether. In America there are so many different accents that it can be difficult to understand some one from rural Louisiana if you are from Seattle. Also since English is a language that is spoken in many other countries all of those dialects can come in to play as well. These accents and hybridizations all make communicating very difficult and can even be the source of conflict. So who is right? The rules set by Standard American English are hardly followed any where in the world. Even in England there are variances so its tough to say what “real” English is.
Henry Hitchings discusses these point and more in his book Language Wars. A lot of what we’ll cover this month can be found in this book which makes it the perfect book to read while we take our journey online. We are trying something new with the book club this month as well. Instead of the book club being a separate experience on line, we are going to have the book club review during The Break Fast Club at the end of the month. So if you are in Los Angeles and reading the book, carve our the morning of April 27th to join in discussing the book as well as other elements of language and communication.
As usual, if this is your first foray into the Book Club the first book is on us, just fill out the form below and sign up for the forum and your paperback or ebook will arrive in a few days (continental US).
As Citizens Of Culture investigates our cultural perspective on Money: Personal Finance, Choice, and the Creative Economy we look to also uncover some information about how we make decisions in our environment and what amount of input we prefer from outside sources.
If you have ever asked a waiter at a restaurant “What’s good here?” You have given them the opportunity to nudge you in the direction, you would most prefer based on their knowledge of the restaurant. The wait staff, is familiar with the menu and what is most popular, this concept is one of the core principles within nudge.
This section in the Introduction was of particular interest:
Carolyn is what we will be calling a choice architect. A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions. Although Carolyn is a figment of our imagination, many real people turn out to be choice architects, most without realizing it. If you design the ballot voters use to choose candidates, you are a choice architect. If you are a doctor and must describe the alternative treatments available to a patient, you are a choice architect. If you design the form that new employees fill out to enroll in the company health care plan, you are a choice architect. If you are a parent, describing possible educational options to your son or daughter, you are a choice architect. If you are a salesperson, you are a choice architect (but you already knew that).
….. As we shall see, small and apparently insignificant details can have major impact on people’s behavior. A good rue of thumb is to assume that “everything matters.” In many cases, the power of these small details come from focusing the attention of users in a particular direction. A wonderful example of this principle come from, of all place, the men’s room at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are increased. According to the man who came up with the idea, it works wonders. “It improves the aim,” says Aad Kieboom. “If a man sees a fly, he aims at it.” Kieboom, an economist, directs Schiphol’s building expansion. His staff conducted fly-in urinal trials and found that etchings reduce spillage by 80 percent.
*******
The ideas presented in this book will be of value to any of us that are choice architects. Be it employers, designers, parents, or marketing professionals but the greater context of this book will be our own personal lives. Availing us a new opportunity to see how we manage our own choices, in wealth, health, and life to and nudge ourselves in better directions.
We invite you to read along.
As usual, if this is your first foray into the Book Club the first book is on us, just fill out the form below and sign up for the forum and your paperback or ebook will arrive in a few days (continental US).
In a month when we are discuss gender roles, relationships, and intimacy things can have the potential to get very dicey if you do not have an open mind to the discussions we are having. We would like everyone to evaluate the topic, not from a gender neutral position but conversely digging into what it means to live the best example of a man or woman you can be.
From that perspective it makes perfect sense to crack open Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman. The book was recommended to me by a woman and initially one might not think it is relevant to both sexes but it absolutely is.
The chapter list alone was compelling:
I Start Bleeding!
I Become Furry!
I Don’t Know What To Call My Breasts!
I Am A Feminist!
I Need A Bra!
I Am Fat!
I Encounter Some Sexism!
I Am in Love!
I Go Lap Dancing!
I Get Married!
I Get into Fashion!
Why You Should Have Children
Why You Shouldn’t Have Children
Role Models and What We Do With Them
Abortion
Intervention
Moran, presents some of these uniquely female topics, not as womanhood stories, but as humanhood stories. You don’t have to be a work in law enforcement to enjoy CSI, and you don’t have to be a woman to enjoy How To Be A Woman, but I’m sure it certainly helps if you are.
At just about 300 pages you should be fine to finish this month if you carve out about 20 pages per day. That’s only a half our of great reading per day.
As usual, if this is your first foray into the Book Club the first book is on us, just fill out the form below and sign up for the forum and your paperback or ebook will arrive in a few days (continental US).
Enjoi.
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