Ben Casnocha: The Blog

Book Review: Smile When You're Lying

Chuck Thompson's book Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer is a delicious collection of travel stories and rants. In addition to recounting his own adventures, in endlessly original and engaging language, he also directs missiles at his fellow travel writers and the travel industry more generally. Anyone who's read guidebooks or travel memoirs will sympathize with Thompson's take-downs. He rails against their trite, superlative-laden descriptions; their tendency to remarkable-tize everything and anything; their collusion with the very people they're supposed to be writing about in an objective manner. His thoughts here reminded me of my visit to India a couple years ago when I was comparing what my Lonely Planet guide was telling me and what the, um, messy reality outside actually was.

His own stories are entertaining, if a bit hard-to-believe at times. One chapter it's hookers in Thailand, the next it's the "Penis Olympics" in Japan. Through and through, though, he tells the stories with striking vividness.

Some favorite excerpts below. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys international travel.

On Manila, Philippines:

Like Bangkok, Jakarta, and a handful of other festering, beggar-laden Third World megatropolises, Manila is one of the great sprawling shitholes of Asia, a reeking mess of poverty, traffic, smog, crime, corruption, and filth. Bursting with people who somehow maintain a bulletproof optimism in the face of decay, disorder, and daily tragedy, these are frentic slum-cities where anything, from blow jobs to military coups, can happen at any time. Cities that you love just slightly more than you loathe.

Rules on life and travel:

• Clean up your own mess, no matter how tough a job it is.
• Foreigners are almost never as bad as you think they'll be.
• A lot of interesting things can happen when you run out of gas.
• If the world can forgive the Germans, it can forgive anybody.
• Just when you think you've seen the best the world has to offer, there'll always be Canada.

One of many hits on travel writers:

Their bidding is done by an army of doltish travel writers whose inability to seize upon anything beyond the obvious and trite is based on either a profound inexperience abroad or by the kind of tittering acceptance that turns everything foreign, no matter how mundane or evil, into a "charming," "authentic," or "hilarious" cultural experience.

On Thailand and sex:

There are two kinds of girls you have sex with in Thailand. Those you pay and those you marry.

On why we should be more grateful for one of the "most complex, cooperative, and successful private systems ever constructed":

At DFW Airport in Dallas, a wildlife control office keeps a room filled with birds -- barn owls, doves, geese, and so on -- collected from troublesome avian populations that refuse to be driven from runway areas. Because birds can damage and potentially bring down a plane if enough of them get sucked into an engine, autopsies are performed on the salvaged birds to determine what they've been eating to eradicate their food source. That's called obsessive attention to detail, and an A-plus commitment to safety rarely seen by the public.

On why Chinatowns anywhere are overrated:

Every Chinatown distills the worst of the obligatory tourist trap: worthless trinkets, no public bathrooms, impossible parking, hit-and-miss food. Most of the guys cooking aren’t even real chefs; they’re recent immigrants dragooned into manning the grill. Chinatowns have stolen more time from weekend vacations than weather at O’Hare.

What I've Been Reading

A few recent reads:

1. The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan. Tons already written about this on the blogosphere. One of the most influential political science books in recent years. Here's Bryan's article length summary on Cato Unbound which is a good starting point. I liked this book. I'll be writing more about it in a future post.

2. Who's Your City? by Richard Florida. Richard is a provocative thinker and always presents fascinating insights on cities and how place affects our well-being. This book continues the tradition, as he discusses why, contrary to popular belief, place matters more than ever in the age of globalization, how and why clustering happens in certain geographies, and the relationship between where one lives and happiness. I highly recommend the book.

3. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. This had some fun moments and insights, but frankly didn't meet my expectations. I know by now that humans are irrational and we undergo all sorts of weird mental jujitsu when making decisions. I guess I have some fatigue with the behavioral science / pop econ genre at this point.

4. How'd You Score That Gig by Alexandra Levit. Here's my blurb in the book: "First, Alexandra Levit broadens your imagination about what kinds of careers are possible, and then after tantalizing you, she provides specific tips for breaking into the field. Enormously valuable!" It's a good resource for any young person wondering what s/he could do for a job...

5. Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek. If you've heard me speak you've heard me talk about "entrepreneurship as life idea." So I smiled when I got introduced to the authors of a new book on the topic. Christopher and Gregg take a slightly different tack than me -- they emphasize the "purpose" part of life, I talk more about the nitty gritty of entrepreneurial approaches to activities. If you liked Bill George's and Peter Sims' True North, you'll probably like this book as there's some overlap.

6. Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business by Bob Rice. Bob and I share a publisher and shared an editor. He's not only a very successful businessperson but also an accomplished chess player and founder of the Wall Street Chess Club. This book explores the chess-life analogy. He creatively explores how chess concepts and pieces (bishop, knight, etc.) map to business. The problem with the book is it tries to appeal to non-chess players, too, hence preventing him from going deep on chess examples. And though he smartly acknowledges the limits of a single analogy driving the book, there are still moments where the analogy is a stretch.

7. Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson. This is the Stanford drama / acting teacher abstracting life lessons from the world of improv. Amazon reviews are all five stars and someone recommended this to me. I found her advice good and endearing but ultimately not very impactful or original.

This list was largely motivated by trying to keep up with friends' books and whatever is hot off the press. This summer I'll be reading more novels, and longer / older books.

Book Review: Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

I recommend Garr Reynolds' new book Presentation Zen if you want to give more creative and compelling presentations.

Last year, I gave about 30 speeches, did 25 live radio interviews, and 6 or 7 live TV interviews. From 2001 - 2005, I did at least 150 in-person sales presentations, and many hundred telephone cold calls. What makes these experiences unique is they required me to make a core point in a limited amount of time (5 min to 60 min) with relatively high stakes ($$ or reputation in the eyes of lots and lots of people). When a one-time moment is "live," either you perform or you don't, either all your preparation and focus allow you to deliver when it matters, or you choke.

As an athlete I loved the opportunity to shoot the last free throw of the game that was the pinnacle of hundreds of hours of effort all season long. The professional world proved no different in the sense that I spent hundreds of hours studying the art of sales, taping myself doing presentations, analyzing other people demo software....all so I could execute when it counted.

The main thing I've learned in my seven years studying and doing presentations is that the standard for presentations / public speaking in the professional world is low, and as such it's easy to be seen as great. When most people suck at something, all you have to do is suck less. And when I discovered I had a natural knack for communication, I identified speaking / communicating / presenting as one of my natural strengths that, if built upon, could become an unstoppable strength thanks not only to my own capabilities but because of how I would be perceived relative to the masses.

I read the blog Presentation Zen as part of my on-going self-improvement process on this front. It's been a reliably helpful resource on how to give better presentations. The blogger, Garr Reynolds, just released a book under the same name. It should be in the library of anyone who wants to be a better presenter. What makes Reynolds different than other presentation gurus is he spends a good deal of time talking about mindset and philosophy and the Japanese aesthetic (he lives in Osaka), instead of micro-analyzing PowerPoint slides. Yes, it's stunning how bad people's PowerPoints are, and Cliff Atikson and Seth Godin among others have done a good job breaking this down. Yet Reynolds' book -- which takes an hour max to read -- discusses larger issues like creativity, empty space, solitude, etc. and their relationship to strong presentations.

The Japanese / Zen aesthetic has long intrigued me. The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco is one of my favorite places - any Japanese style garden is gorgeously tranquil. I've tried Zazen meditation at a meditation center. I've wandered through shrines in Kyoto. Stillness / solitude / peacefulness are all concepts which (hopefully) are part of my life.

I think it's awesome that Reynolds applies these things to presentations.

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Should you end your talk / presentation with "thank you"? In my earlier post on The Best Speaking Advice Ever, I excerpt Harry Winston's advice:

Don’t thank the audience. It makes it seem like they did you a favor by listening to your boring babble.

End with a salute. Compliment without thanking. (i.e., “You’ve been a great audience, I hope you learned a lot about how to give a great talk.”)

I've given two speeches since that post and I followed this advice. I've decided this bit of advice is not worth following. The fact is that "thank you" remains the expected indicator for applause and when you don't say it, there's some hesitation / awkwardness on the part of the audience. Next week, when I give the Baldwin Free Enterprise Lecture at the University of Nebraska, I will try this ending: "You've been a great audience, and it will now be my pleasure to take your questions at this time. Thank you."

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Does the utterance of a couple words (like "thank you" at the end) really make a difference? I think so. In my post on giving advice, Ian Graham offers this useful tip on substituting "and" for "but":

"And" provides a warming, smoother transition than “but” which can often be perceived as abrupt. This works better for constructive criticism and could also apply to advice.

Example:

You did a great job on that assignment, but if you work harder you will do even better.

You did a great job on that assignment and if you continue to work hard you will do even better on the next one.

Book Review: Lasso the Wind by Tim Egan

Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West by Timothy Egan is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone who lives in the West or is generally intrigued by the ideas behind places. Egan, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New York Times, deftly combines original reporting with personal reflection. He conveys his awe at the natural beauty of the West without resorting to clichéd superlatives. He also expertly discusses some of the inherent tensions of the land -- like how America came to own it or how desert earth stays so green and wet (ie, water rights).

I've lived in the West my whole life. Growing up in California, my school outdoor ed excursions included camping stays in Yosemite National Park, Pinnacles National Monument, Sequoia National Park, and the Marin Headlands. Friends and I fished near the American river in Sacramento. Family vacations growing up tended to involve getting in a car and driving to big sky country. We camped and visited Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Parks, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Death Valley National Park, Lava Beds National Monument, and others. We stayed with my aunt in Albuquerque, and I remember being pleasantly startled at the brown and red New Mexico heat. To grow up in a Western city is to have access to good urban living -- and the hustle bustle and pulse that cities imply -- but also to be in close proximity to nature. A two-for-one that, if properly utilized, will turn every young bud into a conservationist.

My interest in the outdoors continued into my late teens. Last year, while living in Colorado, I befriended the Rockies and the wide plains which greet you immediately after leaving Denver airport. And during my 5,000 mile road trip in April, I stayed at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona which literally took my breath away. I spent many days driving across vast expanses of open space in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and elsewhere. I remember one road trip day in particular where I was on a conference call and got so wrapped up in the call that I missed my turn and ended up deep within a tall enclave of Utah canyons. I lost cell reception and no other cars were near me. I pulled off to the side of the road ostensibly to find a map, but more to just pause and gape at the power of the red clay that surrounded me left, right, up, and down.

It's not just the physical features which have a hold on my imagination -- but the psychological aspects, too. The idea of the West. The idea that it's out here where you can unbutton the top button and explore a bit. Find your own square of land. Reinvent yourself. Find forward-thinking, open-minded people. Create your own fortune. Cut ties. Be happy. Fail. Move.

Egan explores these emotions and the places responsible for them. It's a great read. Below are some sentences from the book which caught my attention, either for their point or for the writing. (Photo credit for above photo)

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• Snow muffled the Teton Range, forcing elk down into the valley and a sudden intimacy on all of us.
• Wilderness can cleanse the toxins from a tarred soul, but it takes several days, at least, for the antidote to work.
• A person puts on a cowboy hat anywhere in the world, even if alone in a room, and starts acting differently -- sometimes stupidly, sometimes nobly, but it is a new personality.
• In Jackson Hole, $5-million residences were being built on spec, and anything under a million was considered a starter castle. The terraces above the valley were stuffed with log mansions, some with a dozen fieldstone fireplaces. A home with twelve hearths is a home without a heart, deeply confused.
• Statues are scarce in the West, for good reason: sometimes, it takes longer for concrete to dry than it does for today's consensus to become tomorrow's historical heresy. It may be easier to lasso the wind than to find a sustaining story for the American West. Still, as storytellers it is our obligation to keep trying.
• We both come from a part of the West where green is the dominant color and chlorophyll is an uncontrolled substance. In the Wet West, that strip from the Pacific shore to the Cascade Mountain crest, no square inch of soot in a sidewalk crack or roof is safe from invasion of some fast-growing transplant. After settling down in New Mexico, Frank needed several years to get over "brownshock," as he called it. I walk around as if in a planetarium, head spinning. The rusted tablelands, the baldness of the land, the mesas of potato-skin color. The wind announces itself in advance. My skin, used to the daily facial of Northwest drizzle, feels as if it's been next to a radiator.
• Ted Turner owns more than a thousand square miles of New Mexico -- 1.5% of the state.
• The way to counter the Western malaise of drift and rootlessness, says the poet Gary Snyder, is to find your place, dig in, and defend it.
• The West has the lowest rate of church participation of any region in the country.
• New Mexico has most of the strands of the modern West, with a heavy Spanish and Pueblo texture. Its cities are full of urban exiles looking to the glow of nearby mountains to put an extra dimension in their lives. People run up and down mesas, trying to squeeze meaning from the land. New Agers come and go, sampling the rarified air but never letting it get into their bones.
• [The Colorado river] flows one way, to the west, in a canal that pumps excessive expectations into Southern California.
• The axiom that water flows uphill to money became the guiding principle of the West.
• Tucson has learned to live in the desert without the massive water diversions. Cacti, brittlebush, aloe, and other native plants were used for landscaping, and the city slowed down, looked at what it was doing to the desert and mountains on which its glow of life depended.
• "If you want to make money in a casino, own one." - Steve Wynn
• Patricia Mulroy is head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. She can move rivers, keep cities alive, make other states tremble, destroy farms, eliminate entire species.
• Sitting around a campfire at night, naked to the outdoors, was for Twain, "the very summit and culmination of earthly luxury."
• Utah is American life lite, without cynicism or corruption, producing more babies per capita and healthier adults than any other state. Smoke-free and nonalcoholic were part of the Mormon canon long before they became the stuff of presidential initiatives.
• The more you stir a manure pile, the more it stinks.
• There is no institutional memory in the West, only dawn.
• Cowboys of the open range knew full well what I learned that summer: the job sucks....How it became one of the most romantic, glorified, and iconic roles in America will have to remain a mystery, and a prime debating point at those fractious conferences between New West and Old West historians.
• "In my book a pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung bob-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water, cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land, and called it progress." - Charley Russell, cowboy artist
• I feel about Montana now the way you feel about good friends at the end of a lengthy dinner.
• Kelly cooks like he fishes: eyes on the prize, always aware of his next move, the picture of self-confidence.
• Salsa is the number one condiment in America. Salsa is bigger than ketchup.
• Not two days ago the water around me was in a north-facing cranny of the High Sierra, snowbound. And several days from now, the water will be spit out of a sprinkler in a desert cul-de-sac in Moreno Valley, in homes protected by lasers and armed response, a covenant-bound conclave where neighbors sue each other over oddly-placed basketball hoops.
• There are more Koreans in California than any place outside of Seoul and more people of Mexican ancestry in Los Angeles than in any community other than Mexico City. The Golden State is seen by some as a tremulous new world where everyone is a minority. At Hollywood High School, eighty languages are spoken.

What I've Been Reading

1. China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise by Susan Shirk. Shirk was a lead diplomat to China for the United States in the Clinton administration. This is an excellent overview of the political state of China. She argues that the insecurity of China's leaders might derail its rise. Prosperity and stability are inversely correlated so long as the current governing structure is in place. The richer China gets, the more freedoms the people demand, the more the govt tries to crack down on such expressions of freedom...and the pot is boiling. What I liked about this book is it avoids the breathless hype about how China is going to take over the world and instead offers a nuanced and comprehensive insider's look on what's happening and what will likely happen over the next several years.

2. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke. A classic book about death and mortality by the German Handke. It is an account of his mother's illness and subsequent suicide. Saddening and moving. Some experimental aspects of the prose also make it interesting.

3. Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This is an older, academic book probably only of interest to those studying the formal elements of rhetoric. It's a good albeit dry explanation of how metaphor underpins much of our language and conception of reality.

4. The Body by Jenny Boully. This is a highly experimental book. The entire text lies in footnotes and the body of each page is blank. So each page consists of a blank main section and a few footnotes at the bottom. I found it a maddening reading experience -- inventiveness by itself doesn't make a good book. Still, if the notion of an all-footnote book with lots of different plot threads (often out of order) intrigues you, check it out.

5. Coast of Dreams by Kevin Starr. This is a contemporary history of California by the State's leading historian. I'm half-way through it and deciding whether to plow on. Each chapter is short and filled with facts and nuggets about California happenings the past couple decades. What I'm missing is some overarching narrative. I want him to wax poetic on the state of the frontier. I want some deeper analysis of the place that promises everything and only sometimes delivers. Basically, I want fewer footnotes and news stories and instead a richer, slower perspective. This is not a bad book -- I'm sure it will be a valuable resource for historians in the future -- but it's not scratching any itch of mine at the moment.

Book Notes: American Creation by Joseph Ellis

Joseph Ellis' new book American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic is vintage Ellis: clear, lucid prose, a focused topic, and an engaging blend of historical facts and action-packed storytelling.

He looks at the founding of America by examining key moments which illustrate the awe-inspiring accomplishments of the founders and their tragic missteps. Indeed, sometimes those moments are one and the same.

I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in the American founding.

I typed over 2,000 words of rough notes on the book over at the BookOutlines wiki: here's the direct link to my notes on American Creation.

Formal Book Review / Essay on Entrepreneurial Capitalism

Below is a book review / essay on the ideas in the book Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity by Baumol, Litan, and Schramm, in which the authors argue that "entrepreneurial capitalism" is crucial for economic growth. Other books were consulted but it's difficult to paste footnotes into a blog post, so if you want all citations, email me.

Economic growth is desirable for all countries because it improves the material standard of living and spawns moral benefits, i.e. it “fosters greater opportunity, tolerance of diversity, social mobility, commitment to fairness, and dedication to democracy.” Of the various causes of economic growth, I believe one value is paramount: entrepreneurship. William Baumol, Robert Litan, and Carl Schramm call the importance of this value “entrepreneurial capitalism,” which is when small firms play a significant role in an economy. Countries which prize entrepreneurship make it easy to start a business by minimizing bureaucratic roadblocks. These economies also have cultures conducive to entrepreneurial thinking; they adopt entrepreneurship as a local value. I will briefly explore how the U.S. and China embrace this to different extents – and how Japan and Western Europe do not.

•••

What makes an economy entrepreneurial? First, it must be easy to start a new business. The less red tape, the better. Second, there must be incentives for entrepreneurs to innovate. Creativity should be rewarded with a functional intellectual property system, for example. There also should be a cultural / social incentive – starting a business should not be frowned upon by friends and family as a low status undertaking. Third, there must be big firms which can refine and scale the innovations created by small firms. A successful entrepreneurial economy has a blend of small and big firms, with the small firms producing the radical innovations and the big firms honing and building upon those inventions. Fourth, entrepreneurial capitalism requires capitalism – that is, minimal government intervention in the market so as not to pervert incentives for the small business owners trying to succeed. Beware of the government which tries to arbitrarily "divide up the economic pie rather than increase its total size."

•••

The United States is the most successful model of entrepreneurial capitalism. First, it is extremely easy (and inexpensive) to start a business (only in Denmark and New Zealand is it cheaper). Second, there are appropriate incentives to encourage innovation and a legal structure to protect innovation. Culturally, there is a “cool” incentive: the media and society glorify entrepreneurs. Third, there is the right mix of big and small firms. In the technology sector, start-ups like Yahoo or Google were supported by established companies like HP or Apple. Finally, for the most part, the government does not over regulate industry and allows maximal flexibility for competition in the market. The US was ranked fifth in that regard in the 2007 Economic Freedom of the World report. At its founding, America’s leaders – Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, others – enshrined the country with entrepreneurship as a key local value by celebrating self-determination, and that value persists and has made the U.S. the largest economy in the world.

•••

China is an example of a developing country that increasingly but perhaps begrudgingly accepts entrepreneurial values as a necessary ingredient to economic growth. And what growth it’s been: China reported 11.2% fourth quarter 2007 GDP, its fastest growth rate in years, making it the world’s fourth largest economy. While once heavily centrally planned, China now shelters bounties of entrepreneurs and start-up ventures:

Whether by design or by necessity, Beijing has decentralized economic and political decision-making to the provincial and municipal governments, which in turn have used their expanded freedom to engage in productive ventures…Chinese officials have tolerated the formation of countless numbers of other entrepreneurial ventures that have sprung up largely in the eastern, richer half of China, and by at least one measure, small- and medium-sized enterprises by 2003 accounted for half of the economy’s GDP.

To be sure, government regulatory infrastructure there is not yet mature. A basic legal framework to protect inventions hardly exists. Corruption and other institutional failings plague the entrepreneur. Still, China’s amazing economic prosperity the past decade can in part be attributed to the rise of entrepreneurial capitalism; they ditched state-run banks for private ones, for example, and made it on average 13 days quicker per person to start a business.

•••

Part of the imperative for entrepreneurial capitalism is that the global economy is fast paced and interconnected and punishes countries unwilling to adapt to a new, “flatter” competitive landscape. Japan and Western Europe are two examples of developed regions and mature democracies which risk stagnant growth in the future if they do not embrace entrepreneurial capitalism. Already, there are troubling signs: over the past ten years per capita GDP growth rates in Western Europe and Japan slowed relative to the U.S. Unemployment rates in Europe have hovered in double digits; in Japan they’ve stayed at 4-5 percent. Both have sizable elderly populations: 30% of citizens are over age 65 in Japan, 25% in Western Europe.

Why the slow growth?

First, both regions are defined by dominant big firms, with small, innovative firms either not being started or not scaling to any meaningful size. Consequently, Western Europe lacks much “creative destruction”: of the twenty five of the largest companies in 1998, all twenty five were already large in 1960. Contrast this to the US, where eight of the top twenty five companies did not exist or were very small in 1960. When there’s not turnover, there is not enough destruction and creation and entrepreneurial dynamism. In Japan, it is difficult to identify any new company which has emerged of late; behemoths like Sony, Panasonic, and Toyota still dominate.

Second, entrepreneurial capitalism requires capitalism itself. But capitalism is not a given in some places in Western Europe. A survey of 22 countries reported that only France’s residents did not believe the “free market economy” was the best economic system.  Capitalism also necessitates the free movement of labor, but both Western Europe and Japan restrict their labor market so that hiring and firing employees is exceedingly difficult. Some countries mandate 35 hour work weeks.

Third, economist Edmund Phelps has argued that Western Europe’s slow economic growth could be because of a lack of entrepreneurial culture. Culture is essential for entrepreneurial attitudes. Yet “culture” is nebulous – it is hard to pinpoint how mores become entrenched, and how one goes about changing them. To start, it seems obvious that no matter how much a country talks about shaping the hearts and minds of the next generation with a flair for entrepreneurship, in the end government policy and regulation matter most. The brightest entrepreneurial spirit will still be quashed by onerous government regulation or a capital markets system which disadvantages the small business looking for a loan or a labor market which prevents the hiring and firing of the best talent. It seems that the most important commitment places like Japan or Western Europe can make at this point is to align official government policy with its entrepreneurial aspirations, assuming they have them.

In summary, Japan and Western Europe need to move toward entrepreneurial capitalism if they’re to remain competitive against rising Asian powers.

•••

Global capitalism comes in many flavors. Countries which are experiencing economic growth emphasize entrepreneurial capitalism: they make the doings of innovative, small firm entrepreneurs a central focus. Even non-democratic countries like China can be entrepreneurial and realize economic growth, and ultimately, the moral benefits that follow material prosperity. Just as China (and India) in the developing world and the United States in the developed world show the positive impact that entrepreneurial attitudes can have, Japan and Western Europe are examples of the sluggishness that can occur in its absence. The next 50 years are certain to bring a change in world order. American hegemony is nearing its end. Which countries will emerge as economic players and which will fall behind? Which countries will implement capitalism in a way that jibes with local culture? How will increasing economic interdependence in the world affect a nation’s domestic economy? For the answers to these and other questions, pondering the entrepreneurial nature of a country, its people, and its economic framework would be a fruitful starting point.

Optimize Activity for Location

A few weeks ago Auren made a point that I always think about when I'm on airplanes and see people squeeze their elbows in and struggle to open and use their laptops. Unless you're in a spacious first class cabin, working on your laptop during a flight is almost always sub-optimal from a productivity perspective.

Your efficiency at the activity is affected by the physical environment you find yourself in. Flights can be bumpy, elbow room skimpy, and wi-fi or power sources non-existent. Yet many people make it a habit to work on their laptop all during a flight. Sure, there are some times when you absolutely have to get some work done, but this isn't every day.

The single most efficient activity to do on a plane, in my opinion, is reading. I get tons of reading done of a flight, due to my physical immobility, consistent light, and general quiet (especially if you're wearing a Bose headset).

To take the reading point one step further, some types of reading are better for different environments. I usually read harder stuff / academic books on airplanes because I have maximum concentration. I usually read magazines and lighter fare (paperback) on the stationary bike because there are noises and, well, I'm exercising. In the car I listen primarily to fiction audiobooks, because I have less a desire to underline / take notes with fiction. In bed I read hard stuff (and anything I want to remember -- we remember that which we read / do right before going to bed). At restaurants or cafes, when I'm reading alone, I usually bring magazines or articles because they're easier to fold and place on a table while you're eating (impossible with hardbacks).

So, when thinking about what you're going to do, think about where you're going to be, and how that place will affect your productivity at completing the activity.

Book Short: Libertarianism: A Primer

I was in Washington, D.C. last week and met tons of interesting people. One of them was David Boaz, Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute. David is author of probably the best introduction to libertarianism. The book is called Libertarianism: A Primer.

It is an excellent survey of the intellectual roots of libertarianism as well as commentary on current issues. In the introduction David defines libertarianism thusly:

Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person's right to life, liberty, and property -- rights that people possess naturally, before governments are created. In the libertarian view, all human relationships should be voluntary; the only actions that should be forbidden by law are those that involve the initiation of force against those who have not themselves used force -- actions like murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and fraud.

Most people habitually believe in and live by this code of ethics. Libertarians believe this code should be applied consistently -- and specifically, that it should be applied to actions by governments as well as by individuals. Governments should exist to protect rights, to protect us from others who might use force against us. When governments use force against people who have not violated the rights of others, then governments themselves become rights violators. Thus libertarians condemn such government action as censorship, the draft, price controls, confiscation of property, and regulation of our personal and economic lives.

I highly recommend this book.

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For a simpler definition of libertarianism, enter Auren Hoffman:

Democrats say -- "Give a man a fish."
Republicans say -- "Teach a man to fish."
Libertarians say -- "Go fish!"

Best Excerpts from the Best American Essays 2007

I already posted my favorite excerpts from the The Best American Essays of 2001. Below are my favorite excerpts from the Best American Essays of 2007.

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"Loaded" by Garrett Keizer in The New Republic

A pro gun-rights essay that's eloquent and persuasive (without really meaning to be). He says to talk about guns in America is to talk about race, as guns were the great equalizer among whites and blacks in the slave era. Keizer, of course, owns a gun today, and here's what he says about it:

I hope that I shall never have to confront anyone with my gun, but owning a gun has forced me to confront myself. Anyone who owns firearms for reasons other than hunting and sport shooting (neither of which I do) has admitted that he or she is willing to kill another human being -- as opposed to the more civilized course of allowing human beings to be killed by paid functionaries on his or her behalf. Owning a gun does not enhance my sense of power; it enhances my sense of compromise and contingency -- a feeling curiously like that of holding down a job. In other words, it is one more glaring proof that I am not Mahatma Gandhi or even Che Guevara, just another soft-bellied schlimazel trying to keep the lawn mowed and the psychopaths off the lawn.

At the end of his essay, he somewhat leaves his gun argument and says that, contra Saul Alinsky, "we are in need of a liberalism that goes back into the room and starts the fight. We are possibly in need of some civil unrest." He says he doesn't come to this conclusion lightly; he's historically been a nonviolent noncooperator. But times change. His last graf is a call to action, of sorts:

The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Still, if asked to choose between an urban guerilla armed with an AK-47 and a protester armed with a song sheet and a map showing how to get to the designated "free speech zone," I would decline on the grounds of insufficient faith and negligible inspiration. Rather, give me some people with very fanatical ideas about the sanctity of habeas corpus and the length of time an African American or any other American ought to have to wait on line to vote. Give me some people who are not so evolved that they have forgotten what it is to stand firm under fire or even to squat near the fire in a cave. Give me an accountant who can still throw a rock.

---

"Iraq: The War of the Imagination" by Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books

A 12,000 word overview of how and why America got entangled in the Iraq war. Brilliant. Comprehensive in its analysis. He deconstructs how smart individuals can be made stupid when operating as a collective in the warped hallways of Washington bureaucracy. The most jaw-dropping part of the essay for me was the backstory to Paul Bremer's taking over Baghdad. Here's a guy who knew absolutely nothing about the Middle East -- his foreign experience was limited to running the embassy in the Netherlands! -- and on his very first day, he carried out orders to "de-Baathify" Baghdad In other words, fire all the Baathists -- who mostly held leadership positions -- in the government and military. It proved a colossal mistake which plunged Baghdad into chaos almost immediately.

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"Afternoon of the Sex Children" by Mark Greif in N+1

This is a long, complicated, at times inaccessible essay on the sexualization of youth. I didn't understand the big picture point, but some paragraphs jumped out at me:

The college years -- of all times -- stand out as the apex of sex childhood. Even if college is routinized and undemanding, it is still inevitably residential, and therefore the place to perfect one's life as a sex child. You move away from home into a setting where you are with other children -- strangers all. You must be patient for four years just to get a degree. So there can be little to do but fornicate. Certainly from the wider culture, of MTV and rumor, you know four years is all you will get. The semester provides an interruption between institutionalized sex jubilees: spring break, or just the weekends. The frat-house party assumes a gothic significance, not only for the prurient adults but for the collegians themselves, who report, on Monday, their decadence.

As a college student today, you always know what things could be like. The "Girls Gone Wild" cameras show a world where at this very moment someone is spontaneously lifting her shirt for a logoed hat. You might think the whole thing was a put-on except that everyone seems so earnest...The new full-scale campus sex magazines -- for example, Boston University's Boink (2005) and Harvard's H-Bomb (2004) -- seek truth in naked self-photography and accounts of sex with strangers, as if each incident were God's revelation on Sinai. The lesson each time is that sleeping with strangers or being photographed naked lets the authors know themselves better. Many of these institutions are driven by women. Perhaps they, even more than young men, feel an urgency to know themselves while they can, since America curses them with a premonition of disappointment: when flesh sags, freedom will wane.

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"Disappointment" by Richard Rodriguez in California

A pessimistic piece on the idea of California. This noted California writer says:

The traditional task of the writer in California has been to write about what it means to be human in a place advertised as paradise. Not the Buckeye or the Empire, not the Can-do or the Show-me, California is the Postlapsarian State. Disappointment has always been the theme of California....Disappointment continued to be mined in California's literature throughout the twentieth century. Joan Didion gave us domestic broken dreamers, not so much driven as driving. In the great Didion essays of the sixties, the dystopian mother abandons her daughter on the median of the San Bernardino freeway; dirty dishes pile up in the sink; the hot wind blows from the desert.

I like that last image - hot wind blowing from the desert. Rodriguez's downtrodden theme continues:

Americans feel disappointment so keenly because our optimism is so large and is so often insisted upon by historians. And so often justified by history. The stock market measures optimism. If you don't feel optimistic, there must be something wrong with you. There are pills for disappointment.

The California Dream was a codicil to the American Dream, an opening. Internal immigrants sought from California at least a softer winter, a wider sky, at least a thousand miles' distance between themselves and whatever dissatisfaction they felt with "home".

And on literature:

In the time of your life, live was Saroyan's advice. I believe the difference between the literature of California's past and the literature to come will be the difference of expectation. There are children growing up in California today who take it as a given that the 101 North, the 405 South, and the 10 East are unavailable after two in the afternoon.

An essay I don't happen to agree with, but that last sentence is just perfect.

Best Excerpts from the Best American Essays 2001

Anthologies of essays are good to read when traveling -- if one essay is bad, you simply skip it. If the novel you bring on your trip is bad, you're screwed. I recently read The Best American Essays of 2001 and the Best American Essays of 2007. All in all, about 40 essays on a range of topics. Below are my favorite excerpts from the 2001 edition. In another post, I'll excerpt my favorites from the 2007 edition.

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"India's American Imports" by Adam Hochschild in The American Scholar

Hochschild, an American, observes how pervasive his own country's values, brands, and dreams are in India, where he lived and lectured for a year. His moment of insight came watching a Hindi-language film in a poor town in the North. The story was about India, but the images, not so much:

But the West itself, paying no fee, was the real product placement, from the California-sleek furnishings of the characters' homes to the distinctly un-Indian rolling green pastures of the hero's imagined ream landscape, through which the heroine runs in a gauzy white dress. So: an Indian film without India in it.

This reminds me of when I watched a film in a Bombay movie theater. The moviegoers were traditionally dressed, middle class Indians. The content of the movie, however, surprised me: tons of skin, promiscuity, expensive cars and houses. Staggering poverty lay just outside the theater, and hardly anyone dressed provocatively. At times I turned my eyes from the screen and watched the conservatively dressed women in the seats next to me. How were they reacting to such blatant sexualized themes, such Western shows of material excess?

Hochschild continues:

But travel anywhere for an American today involves getting to know not something totally unfamiliar but a combination, often an uneasy one, of the unfamiliar and the familiar.

True. And then the money line:

To a country like this, what gets imported is seldom America at its best: a commitment to human rights, American informality and skepticism toward authority, equality between men and women, a school system that values individual creativity more than rote learning. Instead, cultural imports are mainly those things that someone can make money selling. Ideas travel slowly. The desire for objects travels at the speed of a TV transmission.

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"Refugium" by Barbara Hurd in The Georgia Review

An essay about refuge by explaining how minks live in swamps. She connects refuge with solitude:

Those who are fond of various retreats -- writers, ecstatics, parents with young children -- often comment on the silence such time away allows. Silence becomes something present, almost palpable. The central task shifts from keeping the world at a safe decibel distance to letting more of the world in. Thomas Aquinas said that beauty arrests motion. He meant, I think, that in the presence of something gorgeous or sublime we stop our natterings, our foot twitchings and restless tongues. Whatever our fretful hunger is, it seems momentarily filled in the presence of beauty. To Aquinas's wisdom I'd add that silence arrests flight, that in its refuge our need to flee the chaos of noise diminishes. We let the world creep closer; we drop to our knees as if to let the heart, like a small animal, get its legs on the ground.

Beautiful. Later, more on being alone:

Part of the appeal of a refuge is surely its isolation. There nobody can see you still weeping over a lover who hunched off with another some thirty years ago. Nobody is there to notice whether you stand straight or slouch, or how you suck your stomach in. Or don't. A refuge is like a locked bathroom door where you can practice the fine art of extending your tongue until you can finally touch the tip of your nose, which you also feel free to pick as thoroughly as you want. Nobody's watching; you can do whatever you want.

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"On Impact" by Stephen King in The New Yorker

King tells the story of how he was hit by a car and almost died. At the end of his essay, he tells how he began writing again, and there are some beautiful sentences:

On some days, that writing is a pretty grim slog. On others -- more and more of them, as my mind reaccustoms itself to its old routine -- I feel that buzz of happiness, that sense of having found the right words and put them in a line. It's like lifting off in an airline: you're on the ground, on the ground, on the ground...and then you're up, riding on a cushion of air and the prince of all you survey.

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"Facing the Village" by Lenore Look in Manoa

Her story about going with her father to visit the remote Chinese village that was his birthplace. A second generation immigrant to America, she writes about how she tried to shed her Chinese heritage, a process made easy in a country where "remaking oneself is nearly a national religion." When she and her parents decided to visit her father's village, she thought of it opportunistically -- maybe there's a novel or story in the trip. But when she arrives, she discovers the powerful tug of physical roots:

Ironically, it was my arrogance that had brought me to the village: I came looking for what I could take from it. Details for a novel in progress. But somewhere between my desire and the fulfillment of it, I fell into an abyss. Like my father, I heard my name called in that place -- audible only to my ears perhaps, but maybe not -- and I tumbled headlong after him into that strong morning light, undeserving. In that place full of beginnings and ends and everything in between, I knew that I, too, had come home. Here was the home that I sought. I cannot turn from it -- it is more than I deserve, and it is enough.

Looking Back at 2007 Reading

I read 62 books in 2007. This is down from 83 in 2006 and 99 in 2005. (Here are all the books I've read from June '04 - Dec '07.) I don't like the downward trend! One big reason is starting college, which has proven to be a time drain. Reading is a big part of college, but weirdly, I feel like I was reading more when I was on my own.

In any event, it's about quality not quantity. Here were my favorite books from 2007:

• 

  Frank McCourt: Teacher Man: A Memoir
  Beautiful story about teaching and life. Must-read for any teacher.

• 

  Orhan Pamuk: Snow
  Complex, sad, beautiful. A wonderful novel by this Nobel prize winning Turkish writer.

• 

  Samuel P. Huntington: Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity
  An excellent, provocative read on Americanism and immigration. See my formal book review.

• 

  Susan Shapiro: Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus
  Excellent memoir on writing and mentors. See my quick review.

• 

  Tobias Wolff: Old School
  An awesome novel, particularly for those interested in books and reading. Here's my review.

• 

  Ethan Watters: Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?
  An interesting quasi-memoir, quasi-anthropological sketch. See my formal book review.

• 

  Francine Prose: Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.)
  A fun, instructive guide for writers. Uses tons of excerpts and close reading to make its points.

• 

  Nando Parrado: Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
  Stunning, inspiring, beautiful. See my review.

• 

  Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
  A good archive of first-person accounts from entrepreneurs. Buy with my book and save on Amazon!

• 

  Po Bronson: "Why Do I Love These People?": Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family
  An excellent collection of stories about families who have overcome challenges. See my quick write up.

• 

  Michael Lewis: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
  An excellent storytelling job by Lewis. Highly recommended. See quick post.

• 

  Lauren Weisberger: The Devil Wears Prada
  A solid work of chick lit and good lesson for any recent college grad. See my brief review.

• 

  David McCullough: John Adams
  Wonderful look at this fascinating man. See my brief review.

• 

  Neil Strauss: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
  Fascinating and provocative book inside a world I didn't know existed. Here's my review.

• 

  Gene O'Kelly: Chasing Daylight
  Truly extraordinary. A must-read. See my review.

• 

  Walter Isaacson: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
  A fantastic biography of one of history's most extraordinary people. See my review / notes

• 

  David McCullough: 1776
  Awesome telling of that fateful year - my review.

• 

  Marci Alboher: One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success
  A good guide to building a customized career around the "slash". See my brief review.

• 

  Jeremy Blachman: Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel
  Hilarious satire of a big L.A. law firm written in the form of blog entries. Must read for anyone in a law firm or considering that path.

• 

  Geeta Anand: The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children
  Inspiring book about how far a parent will go to save his children. See my post.

• 

  David Shenk: The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain
  An awesome book on chess -- some history, some strategy, and some humor too. My brief review.

• 

  Ian Mcewan: Saturday
  An excellent novel by one of Britain's leading writers. See my short review.

What I've Been Reading

1. Orhan Pamuk: Snow. Complex, sad, beautiful. A wonderful novel by this Nobel prize winning Turkish writer. Vivid images of Turkey - now I want to go there! It can be hard to follow the different threads, but I highly recommend this, especially if you don't know much about Turkey or Turkish people.

2. Peter Greenberg: The Complete Travel Detective Bible: The Consummate Insider Tells You What You Need to Know in an Increasingly Complex World. Solid compendium of tips and how-to's for the travel buff in us all. On the health/sanitation front I learned not to drink water served on airplanes unless you've seen them twist open the bottle water cap and to never snuggle up in the comforter in hotel rooms which is rarely washed. I also learned about "Rule 270" of airline travel - if your flight is delayed more than two hours for non-weather reasons on a major carrier, you can demand transfer to another airline's flight.

3. P. J. O'Rourke: Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism. I love O'Rourke but this is not his best. Some funny lines for sure, but I'd pass and check out other of his work.

4. Frank McCourt: Teacher Man. Awesome. Why had I never heard of McCourt? This is a beautiful memoir about McCourt's teaching years in New York City. Certainly one of the best I've read about teaching. I can't imagine any teacher disliking this book.

I've also read two "Best American Essays" anthologies -- will summarize and excerpt from those in a later post.

Best, Best, Best: Books of '07

I love books, and I love the "best of" lists that come out at the end of each year. Amazon.com's worthwhile blog Omnivoracious: Hungry for the Next Great Book has a useful round-up of the recent NYT "Top 10 Books of 2007" list. I've heard of all of them. I've read none.

• Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
• The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
• The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh by Linda Colley
• The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross

I'll be posting my '07 book roundup in a few weeks.

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Apologies for the light posting, a stomach bug has taken hold. Fear not, new, original content is coming soon to a blog near you.

What I've Been Reading

School has slowed my pleasure reading, but I'm a fighter.

1. Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them by Philippe Legrain. A solid argument for a liberal immigration policy. Legrain presents loads of data to argue for the economic advantages of immigration, and addresses some of the cultural arguments raised by Huntington. If you're for closing the borders but open to changing your mind, add this book to your pile.

2. An American Hedge Fund by Tim Sykes. This is an engaging, first-person account of how Tim "made $2 million as as stock operator and created a hedge fund" -- all while going to college. It's well written and funny. It could use more explanation of the stock market techniques Tim employs -- and this is a book about the stock market, not creating a company -- but still recommended to anyone who enjoys rollercoaster sagas, especially from the perspective of someone young.

3. Broken Fever: Reflections of Gay Boyhood by James Morrison. This is a beautiful childhood memoir by my academic advisor at Claremont. I'm just starting, but I'm taken by his way with words. Here's an early graf:

This books tracks a developmental narrative shaped by the regulatory mechanisms of many of the institutions of modern mass culture: those of education or medicine, those of the state, the law, the church. Yet again and again -- for in the grandiosity and rawness of childhood, every phenomenon is new even in its thousandth coming -- the story shows the systematic failures of these institutions, themselves so systematic, to regulate, to acculturate, "properly." The only triumph this book recognizes lies in the fact that our culture, so often bent on eliminating gayness, so often produces it, enables it.

4. Supercrunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart by Ian Ayres. This book has gotten lots of hype, and it didn't quite live up to it for me. The take-aways didn't strike me as terribly new: experts are often wrong, data trump anecdote, most people don't understand basic statistics, etc etc. There's some fun stories in here about awesome data mining and Freakonomics-esque conclusions, but I'd pass.

5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. No surprise here: this one's a winner. Kite Runner fans rejoice.

Book Short: Microtrends by Mark Penn

Mark Penn, the longtime Clinton pollster and advisor, has a new book out called Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes. It's a fun book -- every few pages is a new tidbit gleaned from polls and demographic data. For example:

• Splitters: A growing number of middle-class residents are shuttling between two homes, creating new communities and dynamics in the real estate market.
• Sun Haters: Environmentalists, skin cancer survivors, and parents concerned about the impact the sun is having on our health.
• Philo-semites: A growing number of people want to date Jewish men and women.
• Sex Ratio Singles: With gay men outnumbering lesbians by approximately 2:1, the female-to-male straight sex ratio has tipped all the way to 53:47, leaving more women than ever single. No wonder they're raising their own children and buying their own homes.
• Classical Music Dads: Older men who are fathers in their 40's and 50's and taking on a larger role in the nurturing of their children and becoming an important factor in consumer culture for kids.

If you're a data junkie, like quirky facts, or think that there's something to the thesis that we can understand the future by understanding lots of little trends, I recommend this book highly.

Book Review: Who Are We? by Sam Huntington

From time to time I write longer book reviews on books I find particularly interesting. Some previous formal book reviews have been on national security, the CIA and Afghanistan, the prodigious mind of David Foster Wallace, 21st century college life according to Tom Wolfe, the 4 Hour Workweek, and Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?. This review is about Huntington's latest book on American identity and immigration.

Samuel Huntington, in Who Are We?, offers the following argument. America historically has defined itself through race, ethnicity, ideology, and culture. As we are now a multiethnic and multicultural society, our two remaining pillars of unity are our Anglo-Protestant culture and our ideology (or creed). Our Anglo-Protestant culture is being fractured by the proliferation of the Spanish language and Latino culture, and by cosmopolitan elites who subordinate their American identity to a global variation. Without a common culture, our sole unifying factor is the American Creed, something not strong enough to maintain a national identity. American identity, then, will evolve in one of a few directions: a purely creedal America; a bifurcated America with two languages and cultures; an exclusivist America once again defined by race; or, Huntington's clear (and ambiguous) preference, "a revitalized America reaffirming its historic Anglo-Protestant culture, religious commitments, and values and bolstered by confrontations with an unfriendly world."

I believe his book succeeds in raising the important issue of immigration and the many challenges it poses for America. Yet it fails on four fronts. First, he exaggerates the isolation and lack of assimilation of Mexican culture in America. Second, he incorrectly juxtaposes "cosmopolitanism" and "nationalism" as mutually exclusive. Third, he undervalues the integration power of just an American Creed. Finally, he fails the test of realism: he describes many problems but offers no solutions. When the issue is immigration, the train has already left the station, and pragmatism should reign.

The crux of Huntington's argument concerns recent Mexican immigrants' lack of assimilation. Whereas past immigrants learned the English language, adopted American customs, and identified themselves foremost as "Americans," Huntington thinks today's Mexican immigrants are doing none of these things. This is highly arguable. Kwame Anthony Appiah, in discussing his book Ethics of Identity, says, "New immigrants, like the old, learn English…Not only do Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States learn English de facto, they believe in learning English. 97% of Spanish-speaking immigrants say it is very important for their children to learn English."  Philippe Legrain, author of Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, devotes a chapter of his book refuting Huntington's charges. He tells the American Enterprise Institute: "While only one in three foreign-born Latinos describe themselves as American, this rises to 85 percent among their US-born children--and 97 percent among the US-born kids of US-born Latino parents."  So, Huntington overstates Mexican-Americans' lack of assimilation.

Huntington's second failure is opposing "nationalism" with "cosmopolitanism". He repeatedly bashes the elites who hold cosmopolitan views. These elites consider themselves citizens of the world and consider their multi-national corporations as global entities rather than strictly American ones. So what? I consider myself cosmopolitan. I have traveled widely, sampled diverse cultures, and project an identity that is a synthetic of many tastes, products, personalities, and beliefs. I also consider myself American. Contrary to what Huntington says, it is the very essence of Americanism – its porous nature – that allows someone to have one foot in his national culture and one foot out in the world. Appiah has argued: "I defend a cosmopolitanism that recognizes that we have collective human identity and also the crucial importance of many more local forms of identity, and that many forms of identity crosscut national identities."  I would concede that my commitment to national interests has diminished as a result of my more global attitudes, but it has not disappeared. Nationalism and national identity has its place, but Huntington does not explain why it has to exist alone rather than alongside of a cosmopolitan worldview.

Huntington posits that American identity can not sustain on the Creed – or political principles – alone. It must, in other words, maintain the Anglo-Protestant culture. I disagree. First, it is not clear what Anglo-Protestant culture actually entails. As Alan Wolfe points out in his Foreign Affairs review, "Protestants have disagreed vehemently with each other over what that culture is."  Second, even if there were consensus, I don't think it needs to be the common thread. We should welcome diverse cultures for the excitement and indeed economic advantages such diversity confers, so long as all immigrants adopt a few core ideas. The most important of which, according to Appiah, is the celebration of individuality and the "individual conscience as sovereign" a la John Stuart Mill. This is a value that influenced the Founding Fathers and as such they placed an individual's liberty and related skepticism of government at the center of their concerns. This is the American creed. It is unique. It is accessible to anyone who chooses to believe in it. If you do, and you live in America and pay your taxes, you are American.

Finally, Huntington fails the realism test. Sure, we should be grateful he tackles these important issues with focused passion. The impact of immigration is important and worthy of debate more serious than the politically charged back-and-forth that occurs in Washington. But serious passion is not enough. Solutions are better. Huntington, in his advanced age, will not experience the impact of all the immigration he details. We young bucks will. How, exactly, should we screen and integrate immigrants? How should dual-nationality work? How do we continue doing a better job than Europe at assimilating Muslims? Like it or hate it, immigrants will continue flooding over the border; regular people (not just elites) will gain exposure to more and more global cultures and probably become more cosmopolitan thanks to cheaper travel options; and America will continue to accommodate these changes by changing itself. Huntington's last paragraph begins: "America becomes the world. The world becomes America. America remains America. Cosmopolitan? Imperial? National?" This is a false choice, una pregunta falsa. The answer is all of the above. The better question is, What are we going to do about it?

What I'm Reading

The days of reading whatever tickled my fancy are over -- at least for now.

The PhDs in my life have me reading all of the following, all at once:

• Genesis
• The Koran
• Saul Alinsky
• Tao Te Ching
• Sam Huntington
• Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Federalist Papers
• MLK, Lincoln, Douglas speeches
• Hobbes
• Aristotle

It's good to shore up my base understanding of the classic works in politics, philosophy, religion, etc.

Book Review: Only as Good as Your Word

I was honored that Susan Shapiro self-identified as a loyal blog reader and sent me a copy of her new book Only as Good as Your Word, a delightful memoir about her writing career and the mentors who helped her create it. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the career trajectory of an ambitious, brash writer  / journalist trying to make it in New York City.

Shapiro introduces us to several of her mentors and provides highly entertaining color on what the relationships were like: how she sought them out, how she cultivated the interactions to become meaningful, and most interestingly, how over time her former mentor would ask her for favors and advice, a role reversal that I suppose is inevitable in the waning years of anyone's career.

She is remarkably honest about everything. This makes the book both entertaining and surprisingly useful for the aspiring writer, since practical lessons shine through when there isn't any bullshit or political correctness. She nicely recaps her advice at the end of the book, with headlines like "Act Entitled, Get Deleted," or "Don't Trash Yourself" (I've never understood why people self-bash in the attempt to self-deprecate). Finding mentors, being a mentor, being mentored -- these are all hard, essential skills. Shapiro comments on them in the context of real life stories, almost always a more effective vehicle than straight, stripped down how-to.

Oh, did I mention she doesn't self-censor? Here's Shapiro on being approached by a young writer looking for help:

I prayed she wasn't going to ask me to read and edit her experimental poetry opus, eight-hundred-page great American autobiographical novel, or memoir about her fucked-up family.

There are more such gems.

Book Notes: Discover Your Inner Economist

Tyler Cowen's new book Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist is a delightful read, chock-full of nuggets that can improve your life or at the least sharpen your understanding of why certain things are the way they are.

The title comes from Tyler's insistence that economic thinking can be applied to various everyday situations. He's proves this point by running the reader through a multitude of heavenly examples, touching on every category -- high and low culture, medicine, food, business, torture, and so forth. As loyal readers of Marginal Revolution know, Tyler's range is awe-inspiring. He has a certain gift for the "mind grenade". This book is less polemic than a series of woven mind grenades.

Below are some of the nuggets from the book, as direct or paraphrased quotes. Enjoy the hacks, but to understand the context, do buy the book.

• When asked what makes people tick, the responding participants cited "recognition and respect" as the number-one motivating factor in the workplace. "Achievement and accomplishment" came in second.
• One study compared two methods for cleaning up a school. Authorities could a) lecture students that they should be neat and tidy, or b) compliment them for being neat and tidy. The lecturing had no effect, but the praise increased litter collection by a factor of three.
• Rewards and penalites often fail when individauls feel a resulting loss of control. When we do apply incentives, we should frame them with respect and at least the appearance of consultation.
• Behavior psychology suggests that the duration of a pain has little bearing on our memory of fhow bad that pain was. Instead, we tend to remember how bad the worst pain was, and we also remember how much pain we experienced at the beginning and at the end of the experience.
• For the most part, getting a lot out of culture is an acquired skill, dependent on periodic immersion in a cultural environment, combined with a willingness to learn and adjust.
• Admit that we don't care as much about culture -- at least any particular part of culture -- as we like to think we do. If we force ourselves to "enjoy everything in the proper way" we often end up avoiding culture altogether.
• When you go through each room in a museum, ask yourself which picture you would take home -- if you could take home just one -- and why. Force yourself to pay attention. This tactic appeals to the "Me Factor". And when visiting a blockbuster exhibit, skip room #1 altogether because there is too much human traffic because people haven't yet admitted to themselves that they don't care about what's on the wall.
• When reading a complex novel, read some middle or end chapters first. They may pique your interest. Don't obsess over sequence. When reading through the novel the first time, get interested in at least one character, even if the rest is a cipher. Then re-read the book as a whole in order.
• Put down books when you become uninterested; walk out of movies mid-way through.
• The best way to impress a woman is to do something that impresses other men.
• The best gives are often those that we, as gift-givers, do not ourselves value very much. This is why women like when men give them flowers and diamonds.
• Purchasing certain kinds of insurance is more about signaling commitment and loyalty than the actual insurance...product warranties are often not worth it.
• Most stereotypes about liars aren't true. If they have any detectable physical traits, they tend to move their arms, hands, and fingers less when they talk. They also blink less. When it comes to speech, liars make fewer stumbles or grammatical errors than do truth-tellers. They are less likely to backtrack and go back and fill in parts of the story "they forgot". In sum, they try not to make mistakes for fear of looking like liars.
• To get a person's real opinion, ask what she thinks everyone else believes. This is the best way to get an honest opinion - "Bayesian truth serum".
• When to counter-signal: When we have good news, we should often withhold it, at least if we can afford to wait. Sooner or later the news will come out anyway. If need be, let a supposedly disinterested third party carry the report. Our audiences and friends will marvel, "What a modest type he is!"
• Group brainstorming is not usually productive.
• At fancy and expensive restaurants, order the item that sounds least appetizing and the dish you're least likely to want to order. An item won't be on the menu unless there is a good reason for its presence. If it sounds bad, it probably tastes especially good. Most popular-sounding items can be just slightly below the menu's average quality. Beware roast chicken. Too many people like roast chicken, so it will be on the menu, but it doesn't hit the highest peaks of taste. The flip side: when cooking at home, be wary of trying something new.
• When at a restaurant, ask a waiter, "What is best?" Don't ask, "What should I get?"
• Tips for ethnic restaurants: appetizers are often better than main courses; avoid desserts at ethnic resaturants in America. Eat in countries with a lot of inequality -- rich people who will want tasty food, and poor people who will cook for the rich people. The higher the level of wages at the bottom, the harder it is to employ labor to cook the food, prepare raw ingredients, etc. High wages are one reason why Western Europe is losing is role as culinary leader.
• The people with the best cooking ideas are not always the people with the most money. Few immigrant families -- who presumably cook the best, most authentic food of their type -- live in high end neighborhoods.
• Eat unhealthy food outside the home. Restaurants know how to make good unhealthy food. At home, eat healthy. And don't take recipes too seriously.
• In poor countries give money to those not asking for it. Don't give to beggars.
• Tipping is restaurants is not a great way to help the world. Most tipping occurs in relatively wealthy countries. The workers in restaurants have jobs. They are usually young and have high job prospects. And, if everyone started tipping 25 percent, employers would just pay less. So tip 15 percent, even if the waitress is cute, and send the rest abroad.

Book Short: Recruit or Die

Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent is a must-read handbook for any HR director or recruiter at a large corporation.

It's co-authored by my friends Ramit Sethi, Ian Ybarra, and Chris Resto and they do a great job laying out the keys to recruiting talented college graduates successfully, especially when you're competing against firms such as Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, or McKinsey. The book is chock full of specific examples, exercises, and stories which make it immediately useful for any HR director. While there are many books which talk about the importance of "talent" in today's world, few specifically show how companies can attract the best.

If you are the target audience for this book, you can't go wrong with Recruit or Die.

Congrats Ramit, Ian, and Chris!

Rich People Read. Books.

Many a friend have sent me this popular NYT article about CEO's reading habits and how they oftentimes include non-business books.

Arnold Kling adds:

Back when I had my relocation web site, we got hold of some zip-code level marketing data. When I looked for purchases that correlated with affluence, hardback books was one of the strongest.

Rich people read.  Books. 

I have actually increased my reading of books in recent years. I've cut back on the time I spend with the newspaper (typically less than 5 minutes now, when it used to be at least half an hour). My magazine reading has shifted. I used to get tech/business porn like Wired and Fast Company.  Now, I get Claremont Review, The New Atlantis, The Atlantic, and MIT Technology Review.   TV is pretty much limited to the Super Bowl and the World Series.

I'm doing less newspaper now, too. My magazines are The Economist, The Atlantic, Harpers, the Claremont Review of Books, the New Yorker, Wired, and a variety of pubs only online like Slate, NY Review of Books, BusinessWeek, and others.

I see less and less value keeping up day-to-day.

Book Review: Old School by Tobias Wolff

Old School by Tobias Wolff is a wonderful novel and I highly recommend it, especially if you're interested in books or writing. Fellow bookslut Brad Feld also has raved about it.

Instead of a simple plot summary (it is a simple plot), I will excerpt below some of my favorite sentences, ideas, or words from the book. Wolff rewards the slow reader.

On sensing the faults of your father's character:

Say you've just read Faulkner's "Barn Burning." Like the son in the story, you've sensed the faults in your father's character. Thinking about them makes you uncomfortable; left alone, you'd probably close the book and move on to other thoughts. But instead you are taken in hand by a tall, brooding man with a distinguished limp who involves you and a roomful of other boys in a consideration of what it means to be a son. The loyalty that is your duty and your worth and your problem. The goodness of loyalty and its difficulties and snares, how loyalty might also become betrayal -- of the self and the world outside the circle of blood.

On the importance of taking risks, putting yourself out there:

George's benevolence did not serve his writing well. For all its fluent sympathy, it was toothless.

On how privileged prep-school kids think about their privilege:

Class was a fact. Not just the clothes a boy wore, but how he wore them. How he spent his summers. The sports he knew how to play. His way of turning cold at the mention of money, or at the spectacle of ambition too nakedly revealed. You felt it as a depth of ease in certain boys, their innate, affable assurance that they would not have to struggle for a place in the world, that it had already been reserved for them; a depth of ease or, in the case of Purcell and a few others, a sullen antipathy toward the padding that hemmed them in and muffled the edges of life. Yet even in the act of kicking against it they were defined by it, and protected by it, and to some extent unconscious of it. Purcell himself had a collection of first editions you'd almost have to own a mine to pay for.