Book Description
A mericas favorite investigative reporter, John Stossel, tackles our favorite myths in his characteristic style and challenges us to look at life differently. Myths and Misconceptions covered in the book include: lIs the media unbiased? lAre our schools helping or hurting our kids? lDo singles have a better sex life than married people? lDo we have less free time than we used to? lIs outsourcing bad for American workers? lSuburban sprawl is ruining America. lMoney makes people happier. lThe world is too crowded. lWere drowning in garbage. lProfiteering is evil. lSweatshops exploit people. John Stossel takes on these and many more misconceptions, misunderstandings, and plain old stupidity in this collection that will offer much to love for Give Me a Break fans, and show everyone why conventional wisdomeconomic, political, or socialis often wrong.
Customer Reviews:
Sock It To 'Em Journalism.......2007-10-08
This is the book version, for the most part, of Stossel's 20/20 and other tv consumer reporting. It is an attack on a lot of the cherised myths of the left but also takes shots at others. It is a very entertaining read and a real eye-opener in some cases. The exposes and rebutalls of liberal and left-wing myths and beliefs are a great counterpoint to what much of the liberal media peddles. However, the presentations are obviously one-sided. Stossel never gives the other side an equal opportunity to respond in kind or in full. The transcripts presentation from on air material are the ones that have obviously been chosen to portray Stossel's targets in the worst light possible. Can the mistakes be so lopsided against one side? I addition, since I am aware in some cases of much more complex issues that are not discussed, it leads me to wonder how much I should know but don't, and is not being shared by Stossel, that might give me a more balanced view. I guess in the end Stossel is preaching to the choir on the ideological issues, and as a member of that choir, in some cases, I found myself rooting for him as he shed light on some of the issues where logic and reason has failed to prevail. To be fair, there is plenty here also on non-political consumer issues, some of which are also entertaining and enlightening. I highly recommned the book, but peharps a read of the other side on the more controversial issues is required for a fair and balanced understanding.
Do you know what you know you know.......2007-09-24
I work in a major book store and have only read a small fraction of the book -- particularly on global warming. However, his staement on the melting of the icecaps makes total sense -- if you fill a glass with ice, then fill it with water and set it down, letting the ice melt, does your glass of water overflow? NO! It doesn't. About three quarters of each and every iceberg is under water, so if they all melted at once, how much would that effect the water level of the oceans/seas of the world? Zero!
I will read the remainder of the book at some point, because of that one entry. Yes, we the depletion of the world's foiliage threatens our extention, but we haven't used more than a quarter of our forests, so I do not buy all the tree-hugger's nonsense. Stossel was dead-on with his exert on the icecaps, so that's reson enough to read onl
He's right about education........2007-09-18
John Stossel is right about education in America. Compared to many other countries, our college-level education is equivalent to a high school education. He's also right that schools don't need more money to teach. A lot of the money they already have is being paid to the teachers who don't teach anything. These teachers have tenure; this makes it very hard to get rid of them, even if they are terrible teachers. I know this from experience. And many other people can probably remember at least one teacher like this, ones who don't do their job but get a check anyway because they're tenured.
I think it's pitiful that so many students graduate from high school without having learned to read. This is not a joke that Stossel made up. I have been out of high school for four years and can remember many students who couldn't read at their own level. I recently learned that it is illegal to hold back a student until they get to the third grade in Kentucky. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. A friend of mine who is an elementary education major told me that in a class of twenty-five third graders, only a few of them could read. The rest were able to read words like "the," "and," and "but." I don't understand why they wait until the third grade. They should tackle the problem immediately. Apparently, this idea is from the No Child Left Behind campaign.
Stossel's book could've been better if he had used more schools as examples. Using primarily South Carolina and New York as examples was not the greatest idea. He could've examined several more schools across more states.
Brandon Simpson
Some good, some bad: use discretion.......2007-09-15
Stossel brings us to many topics where conventional "wisdom" is less wise or true than most think. This is a good thing! His goal of exposing truth is laudable; however, his performance is mixed.
The good: He does a good job of exposing certain scams and myths in our society. For example, his history of how diamonds became popular is fascinating and seldom-told. It makes you rethink your opinion of those sparkly little rocks. His "consumer cons" section is the best part of the book by far; if you only have time to read one part, read that chapter.
The bad: His arrogance wears thin very quickly. Also, some of his arguments are unconvincing; he often takes examples (which may or may not be extreme) and uses them to formulate his entire argument. We often do not hear what experts on various sides have to say. The book has a wham-bam feel that doesn't delve deeply into any particular issue, so don't let your research stop with this book.
Finally, I quickly got tired of his way of describing others. He uses very little nuancing, nor does he substantiate many of his descriptors. For example, he derisively calls college-student activists "rich" without presenting any proof. (Hey, you might say, he just means that they are richer than sweatshop laborers. Well, he should say that, then, because it sure sounds to me like he's just using "rich" to discredit them in the eyes of the public by making them seem like pampered idiots.)
Overall, just remember that Stossel is not a neutral party; he picks what information to include, which arguments to showcase, and what direction or slant to take that material. That's simply the nature of this genre. Be suspicious of his loose descriptors and his smug perspective, but be open to his ideas- they may surprise you and change your thinking!
Stossel for President.......2007-09-09
I have always admired and respected (not always agreed with) John Stossel's observations. After reading (and verifying) many of his observations and claims in this book I'd be willing to vote for him as Commander-in-Chief (a Libertarian - for the first time in my 54 years). Keep up the excellent reporting and writing - the mirror you hold up reflects all of us at our most stupid and inane. You prove (yet again) that Common Sense is an uncommon commodity. U.S. Voters - Get Out the Shovel!
Average customer rating:
- Computer marketing explained in an entertaining way
- A grim, but highly instructive and entertaining story
- Reading what you already know but didn't realise
- It's for anyone in marketing
- New, updated edition of a classic
|
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition
Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman
Manufacturer: Apress
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ASIN: 1590597214 |
Book Description
In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition is National Lampoon meets Peter Drucker. It's a funny and well-written business book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies of the last twenty years. Through the dark glass of hindsight, it provides an educational and entertaining look at why these philosophies didn't work for many of the country's largest and best-known high-tech companies.
Marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes you on a hilarious ride in this book, which is richly illustrated with cartoons and reproductions of many of the actual campaigns used at the time. Filled with personal anecdotes spanning Chapman's remarkable career (he was present at many now-famous meetings and events), In Search of Stupidity, Second Edition examines the best of the worst marketing ideas and business decisions in the last twenty years of the technology industry.
The second edition includes new chapters on Google and on how to avoid stupidity, plus the extensive analyses of all chapters from the first edition. You'll want to get a copy because it
- Features an interesting preface and interview with Joel Spolsky of "Joel on Software"
- Offers practical advice on avoiding PR disaster
- Features actual pictures of some of the worst PR and marketing material ever created
- Is highly readable and funny
- Includes theme-based cartoons for every chapter
Download Description
In Search of Stupidity is National Lampoon meets Peter Drucker. A funny and well written business book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies of the last twenty years and, through the dark glass of hindsight, provides an educational and vastly entertaining examination of why they didn't work the for many of the country's largest and best known high tech companies. Make no mistake; most of them did not work.
Richly illustrated with cartoons and reproductions of many of the actual campaigns used at the time, marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes readers on a hilarious ride through the last twenty years. Filled with personal anecdotes spanning Chapman's remarkable career (he was present at many now famous meetings and events), In Search of Stupidity is a no-holds-barred look at the best of the worst hopeless marketing ideas and business decisions in the last twenty years of the technology industry.
"The history of marketing and technology is riddled with cautionary stories that stick up like dung covered punji sticks. Read this, and avoid stepping on one."
Jeff 'Hemos' Bates
Director OSDN Online
Exec. Editor Slashdot.org
"Rick Chapman knows where the bodies are buried -- when most people have forgotten there was even a murder. This history of tech marketing disasters is well-written, enjoyable, and gets its facts straight."
Jonathan Angel
Senior Editor, West Coast
Adweek's TECHNOLOGY MARKETING magazine
"In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disaster" gives us an amusing (and sometimes embarrassing) array of anecdotes of how far we've come (and not come) in high technology, as well as the path we've tread along the way. This is a fun read, with many invaluable lessons."
Brenda Bennett South
Vice President
Weber Shandwick
"In Search of Stupidity is an invaluable history lesson in how to avoid monumental marketing mistakes that are unfortunately common in the software industry. Perhaps caused by the lack of institutional knowledge Rick points out that is caused by the youth of the industry, the only thing that would be stupid now is to not read the book! If you don't do it for your career, do it out of fear that Rick will highlight you in a sequel!"
Alyssa Dver
BusinessWeek special sections contributor
"'In Search of Stupidity' is a delightful and deceptively useful chronicle of what went wrong in the high-tech industry. Having followed many of these companies and products over the years, I'd often wondered why such smart people made such weird choices. Rick Chapman has many of the answers. Anyone who has ever yelled at the computer screen will enjoy this book."
James Fallows
Former editor in chief of US News and World Report and a regular writer for The Atlantic.
Customer Reviews:
Computer marketing explained in an entertaining way.......2007-05-27
As a techie, I find most marketing books boring. This one was lively enough to keep me interested. The author uses plenty of hyperbole and sarcasm, so it's sometimes hard to tell fact from opinion, but in general, his analyses ring true.
A grim, but highly instructive and entertaining story.......2007-04-04
I have been in IT since '79 and have seen all the companies Rick talks about come and go. The errors that were made, and still -are- made are mind boggling. All these proverbs about history repeating itself? They are right, when you don't learn from mistakes!
Reading what you already know but didn't realise.......2007-03-08
What I liked most about this book that it puts a lot of known "history" in perspective, especially with regards to Microsoft.
The author puts a lot of humor into this book and understands how to put things into perspective. I do hope that there will be a third revised edition in the coming years.
It's for anyone in marketing.......2007-02-08
The book is well-done and has some of the best software anecdotes... and discussions of marketing... that I have read in quite some time. I'm not in the software biz, but i have always been fascinated by it... and how its personalities can enhance, and in the cases you cited, undermine what are often very good products. I have been a marketer all of my career, and i felt that the paragraph on p 276 starting with "And then an awful realization..." was one of the best descriptions of what B2B marketing managers face and how difficult marketing management can be that i have ever encountered. I recommend the book highly for both entertainment and for marketing insights.
New, updated edition of a classic.......2007-01-15
This is the second edition of Merril R. Chapman's best-seller In Search of Stupidity. To the first edition's collection of episodes of strategic blunders, marketing disasters and outright hubris on part of various high-technology companies during the 80's and the 90's, the new edition adds a few notable episodes. Companies listed include: IBM, Digital Research, Apple, Microsoft, MicroPro, Ashton-Tate, Siebel, Borland, Intel, Motorola, Google, Novell, Netscape, and various dot-coms from the Internet bubble times.
Apart from being a fun and enjoyable read, In Search of Stupidity is also a valuable resource for high-tech entrepreneurs, marketers and geeks wanting to turn their technical prowess into a profit. There's nothing like learning from the mistakes of others in order to avoid repeating them, and one of the merits of this book is that it does not limit itself to making fun of clueless companies, but extracts and digests from their tales a number of immediately useful advice.
So you can expect to learn how to avoid the same sort of positioning mistakes that doomed MicroPro, how not to inimicate the developer community that constitutes the lifeblood of your products, like Ashton-Tate constantly did, how to avoid damaging your relationships with the press, and many other useful tidbits. In this respect, the Stupid Analysis chapter at the end of the book is especially useful, in case you missed some of the more subtle lessons that were contained in the narrative presented in previous chapters.
In summary, this books is valuable both to entrepreneurs and managers, and to geeks who want to enter marketing, management or start their own company. Even if you are content with keeping a purely technical role, should you start recognizing the signs of stupidity on part of your company, you could at least be prepared to polish up your resume.
To be honest, it could be argued that some of the most egregious screw-ups described in the book were, at least in part, due to sheer bad luck, and that hindsight is always 20/20. Still I think that the stories told here teach some extremely valuable lessons. External circumstances alone cannot account for all that happened; it takes much stupidity and arrogance to turn unfavorable events into total disasters.
If you want to be picky, there is a couple of instances where the message of the book sounds a bit off. The first one can be found in the story of Google's fight with [...] over the issue of privacy, and its supposed bowing to the censorship imposed by the Chinese government. You can argue how much you like that Google acted stupidly in these circumstances. Its behavior might have tarnished its ethical image--"Don't be evil", remember?. However, it doesn't seem to have affected Google in any serious way; few people remember the episodes and Google is going as strong as ever. Compared to the other examples found in the book, this is a case of very mild stupidity, if at all, and it looks like Chapman seriously wanted to pick on Google but couldn't find any real damning evidence.
The second point is in chapter 12, The Strange Case of Dr. Open and Mr. Proprietary, where the author traces the beginnings of the Free Software movement to the first hackers who started out by illegally copying Microsoft's Altair BASIC. If one didn't know better, one might start to think that Free Software pioneers were just a bunch of freeloaders, if not thieves. In the rest of the chapter, however, Chapman makes it abundantly clear that the only example of stupidity, in this case, can be found on the side of proprietary companies who failed to understand the Open Source/Free Software movement and its effect on the software industry.
To sum it up, In Search of Stupidity is a very good book, especially if you missed the first edition. Five stars are well deserved.
Average customer rating:
- SOOOO FUNNY
- Unintelligent Designs
- I'm so ashamed!
- Proof of Stupidity
- The Darwin Awards 2
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The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection
Wendy Northcutt
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The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design (Darwin Awards)
ASIN: 0525946233
Release Date: 2001-10-29 |
Book Description
Welcome to the next evolution in humor.
In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection brings together a fresh collection of magnificent misadventures, honoring those who continue to improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in a sublimely idiotic fashion.
Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Heed the story of the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own "strange and unusual passion for jumping into rivers." And watch Darwin Award winners selflessly join the ongoing fight against the seven deadly sins as lust, vanity, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy and wrath all exact their evolutionary toll on the overindulgent.
Featuring science and safety discussions designed to aid those vigilant enough to avoid the scythe of natural selection, and including the most inspiring dozen Darwin Awards from the last century, this new compendium of serious humor and cautionary tales -- verified by the author and endorsed by website readers -- shows us anew how uncommon sense can be.
Customer Reviews:
SOOOO FUNNY.......2005-11-17
This book was funnier than the first one. It just made me laugh and laugh. I could never put it down. I took it with me everywhere I went just so that I could read another story of what someone did that was stupid. It is so funny to me of how dumb some people can be. They dont even think about what they are doing before they do it. Like one lady who was mad at her ex-lover so she pulled out a knife and stabbed him. The worst part was that he was piloting the plane they were in. She did not think that one through. That is not even the funniest of stories that they have in the book. This will be the best book that you ever buy.
Unintelligent Designs.......2005-09-01
In a media atmosphere that values balance - that is the unfiltered broadcast of diametrically opposing views - there is a need for a voice that seprates the truth from the chaff. Wendy Northcutt and her Darwin Awards team is one of those voices.
Northcutt presents confirmed incidents, known urban legends and personal accounts (all carefully dated, labeled and annotated) to form a highly readable and very entertaining gumbo of the lunacy of human beings. The Darwin Awards, of course, are given to those who have improved the human gene pool by removing themselves from it. The stupider, more unlikely and bizarre the manner, the better.
From the guy who played Russian Roulette (with deadly results) to impress girls, to the guy who literally lost his head looked down a malfunctioning fireworks tube, to the Egyptian shepherd shot by one of his own flock, the examples of human carelessness, arrogance and stupidity just keep coming.
Northcutt is doing a real public service; not only helping the rest of us separate fact from fancy, but (hopefully) teaching her readers that being careful is not just prudent but can help them keep their heads.
I'm so ashamed!.......2005-01-20
I bought this book in a moment of weakness. I knew about the Darwin Awards, having received samples of same over the internet. The better part of my nature informed me that the very notion of finding something funny in stories of stupid misadventures with tragic consequences was . . . (how you say?) . . . wrong. Wrong and stupid. If a dim-witted child guffaws at these stories, one makes allowances. For an adult to enjoy them is beyond the pale.
There are some who are horrified at the practice of book-burning. Well, I am not. I love books, but I had a nice little bonfire with this one, and the world was a better place for it.
Proof of Stupidity.......2004-10-09
Volume II of the Darwin Awards is great for anyone that likes to have a good chuckle. These stories are short so you can read about multiple peoples lack of common sense in just a short time.
The Darwin Awards 2.......2004-10-05
The Darwin Awards 2 is a great book if you like comedy. The Darwin Awards 2 is a series of stories of people doing the stupidest stuff. The stories in The Darwin Awards 2 will make laugh harder than you've ever laughed before.
Wendy Northcutt's writings are mostly comedy. Wendy Northcutt also writes The Darwin Awards and The Darwin Awards 3. Wendy Northcutt does a lot of things well in her books but one of the things she does really well is that she doesn't make each story long and boring but that she shortens them and gets down to the point. I would recommend this book to anyone.
~kevin stubbs~
Book Description
The first new Darwin Awards book in three years, The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design is the latest addition to one of the most popular and successful humor franchises on bookshelves today.
Named after Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards pays homage to those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.
Most of us know instinctively that the phrase “trust me, light this fuse” is a recipe for disaster. Darwin Award winners do not. Most of us have basic sound judgment that eliminates the need for NO SMOKING signs at gas stations. Darwin Award winners do not. No warning label could have prevented evolution from creeping up on the homeowner who filled his house with natural gas to kill termites, the easy rider who decided to steer his motorcycle with his feet, or the winner who tried to weld a hand grenade onto a chain. Filled with more than one hundred new tales of evolution in action, and complete with essential science and safety discussions, The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design shows that when it comes to common sense, natural selection still has a long way to go.
Customer Reviews:
Laughing at death?.......2007-09-28
I've followed the Darwin Awards through the website for many years now, and have often laughed at the sometimes outrageous stories I've read. People apparently have the capacity to get themselves killed in ways nobody could ever have imagined beforehand. This is the first book of the series I've read, and the format suits the contents very well.
One common criticism of the Darwin Awards is the apparent cruelty of laughing at other people's tragedy, especially considering the family and friends who are left behind. Those critics fail to see that we don't laugh at the tragedy of it all, but the stupidity that lead up to it. People who commit acts of monumental stupidity has to be ridiculed as much as possible, because that is the best way of ensuring that other people learn from their mistakes. When someone tries to weld a live handgrenade to a chain in order to clean the chimney, it would be immoral NOT to bring the story to light, and to make sure everybody understands that if they ever do anything remotely similar, they too will be the laughing stock of millions.
Of course, if this view on life and death offends you, this book is not for you. It is also not the book for anybody who has a religious view that conflicts with modern science, because that is another key point in the philosophy behind the Darwin Awards, promoting science and knowledge, as part of the battle against stupidity. A losing battle it might seem, by the constant influx of new material...
This comes across clearly in the extra material in the book. The book is structured with the Darwin Awards themselves sorted into categories which each make a chapter. There is a chapter dedicated to death by explosives and fireworks, another dedicated to death by water. There is also a separate chapter for the female Darwin Award winners, who seem to be a more rare breed than their male counterparts.
Introducing each chapter is a short essay written by various knowledgable people, covering a wide variety of popular science.
Now you know what the book is all about, but the question remains, is it any good?
The answer is yes, it is very good. I'm tempted to give it top marks, but there are a few things that I feel detract a little. First of all, although the stories are for the most part excellent, and clearly worthy winners of the Award, there are one or two who, to me, are less an issue of blatant stupidity and more an issue of being somewhat stupid, but also just unlucky. This is always a personal feeling, and it did little to influence my overall enjoyment of the book, which was still very high. The other point is that the scientific portion of the book occasionally was slightly inaccurate. I was probably more sensitive to that matter as the essay concerned covered my own field of expertise, and I must stress the point that it was overall a good essay.
Those are the "bad" parts. It is not much, but it needs to be mentioned in a thorough review. The good parts are far more numerous, and includes the main part of the book, the stories. There is a lot of them, and they are all very good. Wendy Northcutt is a talented writer and editor, and the stories are usually very well chosen. The essays are all enjoyable and enlightening, and are a nice break from the Awards themselves.
All in all I can highly recommend this book if you enjoy the concept of the Darwin Awards, and if you like to read interesting articles and essays.
A celebration of stupidity.......2007-05-14
The general principle behind natural selection is that members of a species with favorable traits will have the best chance of reproducing and those less able will not, allowing the species to evolve into an improved form (at least for continuing to reproduce). Thus, those bacteria that can resist antibiotics prosper and make the drugs ineffective. Ideally, the human race would similarly get more intelligent if the stupid people just killed themselves. It is, of course, not that simple, but the Darwin Awards do honor those people who take themselves out of the gene pool due to their own idiocy.
Intelligent Design is the subtitle of the fourth volume of Darwin Awards books, dedicated to telling stories about people doing stupid things, usually through the improper use of machinery, vehicles, explosives or guns. Alcohol is often involved.
On the one hand, there is little doubt that the people described in this book are really dumb, such as the guy who decides to take a picture of his motorcycle in motion by standing on the handlebars as it moves. Or the fellow who buried a land mine and then decided to pound down the dirt with his shovel.
On the other hand, the writing, principally by Wendy Northcutt is not all that impressive. Many of these stories can be pretty amusing in a morbid way, but her writing - while not awful - isn't as clever as it could be. In a humor book, I should laugh every now-and-then, not merely smile. In addition, compared to some of the truly great Darwin Award winners (which I would guess were in previous volumes), these people aren't really stupid in any truly original fashions. I suppose it makes sense: it's a lot to expect creativity from the moron set.
It's not really proper to make fun of people due to race, gender, sexual orientation or physical or mental handicap. That could put a real crimp in humor, but fortunately, it's still perfectly fine to make fun of the stupid. If you aren't familiar with the Darwin Awards, this book may make you chuckle, but for those fans of the Awards who've followed the many anecdotes on the Internet over the years, this book will not really be that great, just a low three stars.
Audio book.......2007-05-12
This was my second audio book to purchase, and it was great for traveling to ball games. The short stories are great for stops and starts. I have always enjoyed Darwin awards because it is amazing what humans can do, even though many end tragically. Learning from others mistakes can be beneficial.
Hilarious and Informative!.......2007-04-07
Not only does the brilliant Wendy Northcutt once again provide exceedingly hilarious anecdotes about "individuals who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it," but she also incorporates clever scientific essays at the beginning of each chapter to both enlighten and amuse her readers.
Take Chapter 2, which begins with Stephen Darksyde's discussion of Elaine Morgan's controversial hypothesis on human evolution. One of the great anthropological questions of today asks the following question: Why have humans evolved to become obligate bipeds, despite the fact that bipedalism leads to all sorts of complications, such as fallen arches, shin splints, hernias, and back problems? Morgan attempted to solve this mystery by suggesting that our human ancestors lived near the water for extended periods of time, making bipedalism a useful and plausible adaptation. What better way to hang around in the water than to have your head up top to breathe? Also, the problems of converting from quadrupedalism to bipedalism (like back problems, for instance) are alleviated by the near-weightlessness of living in an aquatic environment. Even though this hypothesis has been criticized by the scientific community for its lack of empirical support, it is a great segue into a chapter about Darwin Awards involving water.
Now this is not to say that the Darwin Awards should be placed in the Science section at Barnes & Noble. All I am saying is that it is so refreshing to find a book that can crack its readers up and teach us something too.
The Darwin Awards is perfect for anyone with a sense of humor and a hungry intellect!
Darwin Does It Again.......2007-02-06
Hard to believe there are so many people like this out there but Darwin proves again that not everyone should remain in the gene pool. Sad but funny at the same time...people keep finding more and more creative ways to take themselves out of the pool. A must for anyone who has even read one of the previous Darwin Awards books. I couldn't put it down until I had read the whole book.
Book Description
A hilarious collection of lists, statistics, news items, quotations, and facts detailing stupid acts of Americans from all walks of life—by the authors of the bestselling The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said
Everyone knows that America is “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” but sometimes that means we’re free to be as bravely stupid as we want! In Unusually Stupid Americans, Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras assemble choice bits of stupidity, U.S.A.-style, including
•the top seriously flawed American advertising moments, including Pacific Airlines’ brilliant “You’re scared of flying? So’s our pilot!” ad campaign, which led the airline to bankruptcy within two months of the campaign’s inception
•the Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration in Florida, where a plaque was un-veiled that was intended to honor the actor James Earl Jones but instead read, “Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive” (an unfortunate slip-up, as James Earl Ray was King’s assassin)
•and much more!
Customer Reviews:
Well, call it 3.5 stars.......2007-08-20
Lots of little vignettes about various stupid, inefficient, or outright criminal things going on in American life. No one is spared, like the Simpsons or South Park they are equal opportunity offenders. Big government, big business, and mom and pop alike all have their foibles pointed out and their less brilliant decisions skewered. Lots of stats, lots of examples, breezy writing style- it's a great afternoon read or, more likely, a book to be picked up here and there and read randomly. It won't change your life, but it actually has quite a few important points to make in the midst of all the overall silliness. Most of all it is what you want in a humor book; it's actually funny.
I have more fund at 'news of the weird'.......2007-04-03
Very typical trash written only to make money. I didn't buy it, I read some of it at my daughter's house.
Biting criticism.......2007-01-10
The book is initially funny but after a few pages becomes boringI .
Funny collection of acts made by stupid Americans!.......2004-11-23
There's a statistic that says that one out of every three people out there in the nation is stupid. Consequently, if you look to the left and then look to the right . . . and if either person isn't stupid . . . then you must be the one who is.
I thought of this when I read UNUSUALLY STUPID AMERICANS by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras . . . this is a funny collection of lists, statistics, news items, quotations, and facts detailing stupid acts of Americans from all walks of life.
I laughed out loud at many of these . . . furthermore, they got me thinking about what if the authors included examples from around the world . . . methinks that they'd have enough material
for at least several books that I know that I'd certainly want to get.
What amazed me most was the fact that some of the "contributions" were from folks who otherwise were pretty bright . . . for example, award-winning adman Stan Freberg wrote the following-a full-page newspaper ad for a small Pacific Airline. Two months after the campaign
started, the airline went bankrupt. Perhaps the ad was involved.
Hey there! You with the sweat in your palms. It's about time an airline faced up to something. Most people are scared witless of flying. Deep down inside, every time that big plane lifts off that runway, you wonder if this is it, right? You want to know something, fella? So does the pilot, deep down
inside.
There were several other amusing tidbits; among them:
Three New Jersey townships--Upper Pittsgrove, Alloway and Quinton--in 1993 contracted for elevator inspectors, as per the orders of the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA). One problem: There are no elevators in any of the three towns. That's no excuse, according to a DCA
spokesman. The towns have to get and pay for inspectors, "otherwise, the Uniform Construction Code would no longer be uniform."
Lauderhill, Florida, held a ceremony in tribute to Martin Luther King's life at which a plaque honoring actor and activist James Earl Jones was unveiled. It read: Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive. Unfortunately, James Earl Ray was Martin Luther King's
assassin.
There have been a number of complaints and lawsuits concerning secondhand smoke but perhaps none as mind-boggling as this one:
A Floridian filed a complaint with the state Division of Consumer Services, upset that he had been exposed to secondhand smoke.
He had attended a live theater performance of Noel Cowards' PRIVATE LIVES--and the actors on stage had, as the script dictated, been smoking.
American Outrageousness.......2004-05-10
Brother and sister act Kathryn and Ross Petras have made a name for themselves in the publishing business by writing books about the silly, the outrageous, and the incredibly stupid members of society. This book follows that trend with chapters on stupidity as it relates to government, law, business, education, entertainment, taxes, and other subjects.
Some of the quotes and acts of silliness presented here were committed by well- known entertainers, politicians, sports personalities, and other famous people and they make for some of the book's most memorable and funniest moments. Al Gore, Bill Gates, Justine Bateman, Bob Ney (Ohio Republican representative), and other members of the fraternal order of the rich and famous are quoted in the book at length, showing how they either made a silly- sounding comment or twisted the truth to get themselves out of trouble.
Not all of the comments and acts of zaniness involved in this book center around the well-to-do. There are plenty of quotes and acts of stupidity committed by ordinary people too. And some of them will have you rolling on the floor with laughter while others will have you a little bit concerned about the condition of Americans and politics in general. Most of the stuff included in this book is flat out funny with nothing further to contemplate. But other things make you wonder if certain laws and/or conventional wisdom have gone too far. Like the case of some kids in a school getting arrested for allegedly possessing and distributed an illegal substance that turned out to be a package of grape kool- aid. Or a woman who stole a firecracker from someone's home, mistook it for a candle, was injured when it blew up, and then sued the homeowners for not labeling the stolen good as a firecracker.
Each chapter of this book is laid out in a reference- style format, with highlighted and bulleted text. In addition to the stupid sayings and actions, there are also lists that are unusual and often very funny. Like the "most unusual items ever auctioned at Ebay" or the "worst vehicles ever manufactured".
Overall, this is a fun and entertaining book that makes a great way to pass the time and a nice idea for a gift. It presents some of the unusual, wacky, and silly antics that famous people and ordinary Americans partake in each and every day.
Book Description
If there’s one thing history teaches, again and again, it’s this: Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. The Book of the Dumb chronicles some of the biggest and funniest moments of folly in every field of human endeavor. From idiotic utterances to dumb decisions like vegetable-flavored Jell-O or land wars during bitterly cold Russian winters, it’s all here in a format perfect for samplings or extended reads. Chapters include the Dumbest Fad of the 20th Century (pole-sitting), the Dumbest Dead-End Technology Ever (the much-maligned 8-track tape), and the Dumbest Baseball Trade (Red Sox trade Babe Ruth). This latest addition to the best-selling series also offers stupid quotes, crackpot theories, and more in a celebration of all things stupid.
Customer Reviews:
Dissapointed faithful reader of the series.......2006-01-07
I love the bathroom reader series, and the content of this book is mostly up to their usual standards, but I have to agree with the last reviewer. Uses large text, wide margins, and half empty pages to get the page number so high. Could have easily fit into less than 100 pages.
Funny, but not worth it for the money.
Very funny, but too quick a read for the price.......2005-03-05
The anecdotes, stories and articles featured in Uncle John's Presents The Book of the Dumb are very, very funny. It's hard for me to believe that so much idiocy exists in the world (well, outside of the men in my family), but writer Scalzi's collection of dumb acts, dumb criminals, dumb movies, and dumb quotes proves that stupidity is everywhere.
The only thing that bothered me was that I felt somewhat stupid for having bought this book, or should I say this half-book. Large type, wide margins, and lavish use of white space makes this book seem far smaller than 312 pages. Perhaps this book would better suit a reader who enjoys reading at a very leisurely pace, say ten pages a day. Those who like to plow through a book might feel disappointed.
Smart Buy!.......2004-12-16
This is a sensational collection of tales of stupid people, governments or decisions which span for one or two pages each. This easy to read format makes the book ideal to read as either a few stories at a time or from cover to cover. Dumb movie festival is an excellent inclusion in this collection as well where you get to actually read negative reviews by real publications and not just the positive ones the public relations departments of the film industry put out. I have read many of this genre of books such as The Darwin Awards Trilogy, Ripley's Believe it or Not and other Uncle John's collections and I have no doubt that this is the best of them all. You'll laugh, you'll smile, you'll be glad you bought this masterpiece.
A Fine Example of Stupidity.......2004-08-22
I have enjoyed this book greatly both times I have read it. The examples of stupidity contained in it made me laugh out loud.
Laugh Your Head Off!.......2004-02-19
If you've ever done anything stupid, take heart...Book of the Dumb will make you feel much better about yourself. Within the pages of this book you'll read true stories that will dumbfound you. Letterman should add Stupid Human Tricks to his show and bring some of these characters on to tell their tales...if they are not too ashamed or embarrassed, but they're probably too dumb to notice that we're laughing at them and not with them.
The book is full of the kinds of stories you read out loud to your family and friends and provides hours of laughter and entertainment. A good gift for someone who is down in the dumps, but be careful about giving it to someone in the hospital, they might bust a gut or their stitches laughing.
Book Description
It¿s not feelings of superiority that make us suspect the universe is filled with dumb people: The universe really is filled with dumb people, as it¿s easy to see in the pages of Leland Gregory¿s sharp new offering, Hey Idiot!Gregory, a former Saturday Night Live writer, is the smart cookie who¿s previously showed us gray matter¿challenged examples in everything from the criminal world to the hallowed halls of government. This time, though, everyone, everywhere is fair game if they¿ve exhibited outrageously stupid behavior.Consider: The forgetful fireman who left cooking oil on the stove and returned from a call to find the station house burned to the ground.A lung cancer patient who caused an explosion when he lit up a cigarette¿in his oxygen tent.A 58-year-old billiards player who was suspended from competition after testing positive for a muscle-building hormone.F. Edward Hebert, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who said, ¿The only way we¿ll get a volunteer army is to draft them.¿Hey Idiot! lets everyone from bosses to public officials, doctors to sports heroes, skewer themselves with their moronic words and action. Readers¿and there are loads of them who can¿t turn away from ¿America¿s funniest and dumbest¿ TV shows¿will howl with laughter at the more than 200 examples of boneheadedness and buffoonery. Potential readers are also guaranteed to hear about Hey Idiot! since the only thing Gregory does better than tracking nitwits and nincompoops is to appear on high-profile programs such as the Today show, Inside Edition, and on MSNBC to plug his highly readable books. Wise up and don¿t miss Hey Idiot! Stupid sells.
Customer Reviews:
Stupidity is not illegal.......2007-02-27
This book would make a great stocking stuffer for your pal Bubba,who hasn't read a book since he got out of Middle School.The reason he didn't go to High School was he never came across anyone who he thought it did any good. Almost anyone will get a chuckle out of these little stories;although our pal Bubba may have trouble "getting" some of them;and there will be others that will have him asking;"What's funny about that?"
Most of the stories are short enough to be read in 30 seconds,unless the simplest idea leaves one with the sense of stupefaction.
Here's one that gives you a flavor of the book. Try this one on Bubba and you'll get my point.
"F.Edward Hebert of the House Armed Services Committee,who said,"The only way we'll get a volunteer army is to draft them."
Wait for Bubba's studious comment;
"Who is F.Edward Hebert?"
or,
"Well isn't it?
or,
"Who organized that committee;it must'a been set up by our dumb Mayor Zeke,and he's probably got his friends and relatives on it?"
or,
"I agree;who's gonna volunteer for the army,they gotta pay them;any dummy can tell ya that!"
Or maybe he'll just look at you in complere bafflement and say;
"I don't get it!"
Another reviewer gave Einstein's of infinity.Here are a couple of thoughts on Stupidity;
"If you're Ignorant,you can always learn;but if you're Stupid,its
permanent."
"Stupidity has a certain charm.Ignorance does not."
"Stupidity often saves a man from going mad."
"When a man does does a thoroughly stupid thing,it is always from the
noblest motives."
Not everybody gave this little tome a high rating;nor do I suppose Bubba would!
Hey, Idiot is funny and light reading!.......2006-05-24
I found this book both funny and light reading. It was perfect for the time when you don't want to get into a novel or don't have the time. Some of the people do the darndest things. Makes you wonder how the human race ever got this far. I recommend it as long as you don't take humanity too seriously.
dumb de dumb dumb.......2004-02-12
I believe it was Einstein who said that only two things were infinite, the universe and human stupidity. Enterprising writers have turned the latter into a cottage industry, News of the Weird and The Darwin Awards being two of the more well-known examples. This book is a worthy contender, with nearly 250 pages of prime Grade-A idiocy. While I've docked it one star for lack of documentation (I suspect a few fictional and/or urban legend stories may have snuck in), those merely looking for a good laugh at the expense of other members of our highly-evolved(?) species will get their money's worth. Categorized into 12 chapters, each of which could probably have been a book in itself.
Not great,but not awful.......2003-11-28
I wasn't thrilled by this book, but by the same token, I wasn't impelled to get my money back. It's...well, okay, I guess. Much of the info here, as was noted, isn't verified, and I have a feeling that a lot is bogus. I was hoping for something more along the lines of the Darwin Awards. That said, one does get some laughs here.
Hey, Idiot! Review.......2003-11-25
While the book does have a lot of off the wall events written down, it is absolutely worthless as a piece of research. A few Urban Legends are presented here as real stories. There are almost no newspapers cited, no dates, no years. Given that it then lacks any sense of having been really researched, I'm left with no reason to believe anything in the book, no matter how clever the author can write.
Amazon.com
Warning: The Darwin Awards are not for the tenderhearted. The vastly popular Web site, now a book, recognizes "individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion." Who wins a Darwin Award? Terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, blowing themselves up. Folks who put garlands around a Bengal tiger's neck. Guys in Cambodia who took turns stomping on a land mine they'd brought into a bar. The six Egyptians who drowned trying to rescue a chicken that fell into a well. (The chicken alone survived.) The Buenos Aires husband who threw his wife out an eighth-floor window during a spat, noticed she'd gotten caught in power lines, and jumped after her, "angrily trying to finish the job, or remorsefully hoping to rescue her." He went splat; she escaped unscathed. There are some urban legends, like the sergeant said to have attached a Jet-Assisted Take-Off unit to his Chevy and hit a cliff 125 feet up (not true, says author Wendy Northcutt), and all-too-true honorable mentions, like the man who put weather balloons on his lawn chair, soared to 16,000 feet, crashed into power lines, blacked out Long Beach, California, and told police, "A man can't just sit around." My favorite winner: the man who was bitten nine times by the same king brown snake because he put it in a bag on his car seat and kept sticking his hand back into the bag. Why did he pick up the snake with his left hand? "Because I was holding a beer in my right one." And where did this take place? In Darwin, Australia. If you think somebody up there doesn't have a wicked sense of humor, The Darwin Awards may change your mind. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
"Only two things are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein
Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards vividly portrays the finest examples of evolution in action, and shows us just how uncommon common sense can be.
Marvel at the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current. Gape at the lawnchair jockey who floats to a height of 16,000 feet suspended by helium balloons. Learn from the man who peers into a gasoline can using a cigarette lighter. All three -- and many more -- contend for Darwin Awards when their choices culminate in magnificent misadventures.
These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error--verified by the author and endorsed by website readers--illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory.
Customer Reviews:
Macabre and Funny!.......2007-01-10
If you can find descriptions of events in which people die of their own stupidity funny -- which I did -- you'll love this book. The premise itself is funny: We are all lucky that folks who die of their own idiocy are therefore removed from the gene pool. Terrific.
tyhe darwin awards.......2006-11-18
THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! THE MAIN REASON I LIKE THIS BOOK IS BECAUSE IT IS FUNNY TO HEAR HOW PEOPLE DIE IN FREAK ACCIDENTS. I THINK IT'S AMAZING TO HEAR HOW STUPID SOME PEOPLE ARE THIS SCREWED UP WORLD WE LIVE IN.TEH DARWIN AWARDS IS A GOOD BOOK FOR KIDS TO READ BECAUSE, IT'S REALLY WASY TO FOLLOW ALLONG WITH THIS STORY IF IT IS ABOUT SOME STUPID GUY WHO IS ABOUT TO DIE IN SOME FREAK ACCIDENT. IN THE END, I THINK THAT THIS BOOK ROCKS! WHO EVER IS READING THIS REVIEW I REALLY THINK YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK, AND READ ALL THE DARWIN AWARDS!
Darwin Awards.......2006-10-26
October 23, 2006
Non-Fiction
The Darwin Awards
By: Wendy Northcutt
Thirty gallons of rhino diarrhea! Thirty gallons! That story is still hilarious to me every time I think of it 20 days after I read it. There's a lot of death and Darwin's Theory of elimination in this book while there's a lot of comic relief in the book as well. Not only is there the process of elimination, but there's also a lot of false statements like stuff that was confirmed by Darwin in 1999. The truth is that Charles Robert Darwin died on April 19, 1889, one hundred and ten years after he died. This was a really good book from all the witticism, unexpected and amusingly weird stuff.
The requirements to get a Darwin Award are as listed: Survival of the Fittest: The candidate must remove himself from the gene pool, The candidate must be the cause of his own demise, The candidate must be capable of sound judgment, The event must be verified. Charles Darwin Theory of Evolution: A species must show variation, Variations must be inherited, Not all individuals in a population survive to reproduce, Some individuals can cope with selective pressures better than others.
There are some examples of stupidity and some of just being to smart and looking over what could happen, mostly plain stupidity. For example: guy goes to Russia and glues hand to rhino butt. Guy ends up in 30 gallons of rhino diarrhea. I think this is a great book because it shows how stupid people really are and how they can be so stupid as to try to blow up a hamster with extra strength nicotine stain remover. Wendy Northcutt's style of writing is so good because, I don't really know, I just think it is.
Excellent and hilarious book.......2006-08-29
The Darwin Awards: Evolution in action is one of the funniest books ever written.It has couple hundred stories of Darwin award winners(people who die or lose their means of reproduction in an extremely stupid way),Darwin award honorable mentions(Usually unconfirmed stories of people doing stupid stuff that don't die),Urban legends and personal accounts of people doing stupid stuff. If you think that it is funny to read a story about someone being crushed by a vending machine while trying to tip out a free bottle of soda, then this book is definately for you.
The Darwin Awards.......2006-02-06
The Darwin Awards is a collection of stories about real people who did something so stupid that they died or they almost died. The stories are put in categories like Natural Selection: Animal Disasters, or Relatively Dangerous: A Family Affair. Many people think that these stories are hilarious but I do not, I don't see how reading about people that died is funny. One of the stories talked about a woman who had a problem with her horse throwing his head back every time she tried to ride him, she decided to wrap the end of a rope around the horses neck and the other end around her waist. When the horse threw his head back it threw her onto the gowned and he ran over her and killed her. Most of the stories are like this, and do not seem funny to me at all. The writing of these stories is perfectly fine, but the stories just made me feel bad. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless they think someone dieing because they didn't know any better was funny. I am giving this book two stars because I did not like this book at all.
Book Description
"There are three things required for happiness: good health, selfishness, and stupidity, and without stupidity the others are useless." -- Gustave Flaubert
There is something about stupidity that is untrackable; it evades our cognitive scanners and turns up as the uncanny double of mastery or intelligence.
The political and social implications of stupidity have been articulated by Marx, Nietzsche, Deleuze, among others. Urgent yet recalcitrant, stupidity provokes a crisis in our understanding of politics, ethics, and psychoanalysis. The dilemma posed by the limited subject involves national identity, masochism and sexual politics, as well as the relation of poetic utterance to the stammer in which it originates. Essentially linked to the philosophical primal scene of stupor, stupidity also points to what has been historically inappropriable, as when Hannah Arendt considers Eichmann in terms not only of the banality but also the stupidity of evil.
Avital Ronell's work studies the fading empire of cognition, modulating stupidity into idiocy, puerility, and the figure of the ridiculous philosopher instituted by Kant. Investigating ignorance, dumbfoundedness, and the limits of reason, Stupidity probes the pervasive practice of theory-bashing and related forms of paranoid aggression. A section on prolonged and debilitating illness pushes the text to an edge of a corporeal hermeneutics, "at the limits of what the body knows and tells."
Customer Reviews:
A very modern approach to a current topic.......2005-01-12
This book is much better than any explanation can convey. The topic itself, STUPIDITY, defies any subtitle that could limit this consideration to any particular time and place, but the handling which it receives from Avital Ronell contains all the elements necessary to illustrate how thoroughly modern and "unparalleled disruption of meaning extends well into the twentysomething century." (p. 148). I might have been paying close attention because this was near the end of a paragraph on writers who "fortifying philosophical reflection with pornographic poses, will never be forgiven for the way they introduced the unintelligible . . ." (p. 148). Published by the University of Illinois Press in 2002, STUPIDITY demonstrates that the intellectual foundation for a field of knowledge on this topic currently exists, and that most of its investigations are likely to exceed the level of fun that might be discovered in competing fields. If politics is considered one of those fields, how apt is it that the only page listed in the index of this book for Ronald Reagan directs the reader to the thought:
". . . that Ronald Reagan and subsequent replicants are now said to have had a personality, that you have to watch your weight, that they got away with it, . . ." (pp. 72-73) ?
The single page of Contents has short titles for an Introduction and four regular chapters, with a drawing and three italicized titles for deconstructive subsections: Kierkegaard Satellite, Wordsworth Satellite: "The Idiot Boy" and Kant Satellite: The Figure of the Ridiculous Philosopher; or, Why I Am So Popular. Notes on pages 313-351 often contain lengthy comments. The Introduction on pages 3-29 has 56 notes. Though a number of philosophers show up in this book, Nietzsche, one of my favorites, gets major credit right at the start. `While stupidity is "what is there," it cannot be simply located or evenly scored. Not since Nietzsche pulled the switch and got the powerful forces of alternative valences going.' (p. 3). `Raising it, he more or less forgets stupidity, like an umbrella.' (p. 4). Nietzsche can be quoted on "successfully posing as more stupid than one is--which in everyday life is often as desirable as an umbrella--is called enthusiasm." (p. 4, from BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, section 288).
The index has numerous entries for Nietzsche, but did not direct readers to note 27 on page 323 in which Avital Ronell mentions her previous effort:
I have explored the logic and valuations of immunodeficiency in Nietzsche in "Queens of the Night," FINITUDE'S SCORE: ESSAYS FOR THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 41-61.
A few philosophical themes appear more often than I expected, as you might guess from the first entry in the index:
Abraham, 211, 266; Derrida on, 351n; Kafka on, 13-14, 280, 287-294, 306-310; Kant on, 280, 284, 287, 297, 300, 302; Kierkegaard on, 280, 289, 349n; Lacan on, 351n; Spiegel on, 351n
The three notes on page 351 are all about Abraham. As one starts, "Take still another Abraham, one who stages a collusion . . ." to bring about Lacan's function of the superego.
There are 23 lines in the index for Friedrich von Schlegel, and his LUCINDE is a major topic between pages 132 and 166. There are eighteen lines in the index for Robert Musil, who is quoted at the beginning of chapter 2:
Is this lady stupid? (Ist diese Dame dumm?). . . But politeness as well as justice demand the concession that she is not absolutely and always stupid. -- Robert Musil, "On Stupidity" (p. 62).
First pictured in this book at an early stage:
If stupidity were that simple--if stupidity were that stupid--it would not have traded depths for the pits and acted as such a terror for Roland Barthes or Robert Musil or preschoolers. (The little ones receive their first interdictory instruction when told that they musn't call anyone "stupid"--the ur-curse, the renunciation of which primes socialization in this culture.) (p. 10).
Musil is listed in the index for seventeen topics, such as:
on intellectuals vs. women, 22, 53, 72, 76, 78, 79-81;
and Musil also appears on a page labeled Infotag: EXPOSITORY PROSE
"That Kant writes like a pig is stated repeatedly by Jean Paul, by Heine, by Nietzsche, by Musil, and by other beautiful writers, mostly ironists, but first of all by Kant himself: Kant's inability to write wounds and embarrasses the philosopher. . . . He couldn't help it, and it wasn't his fault. Philosophy cannot present itself directly; it is fragile, . . ." (p. 282).
The more you learn about this field, the more stupidity becomes a topic that is a lot of fun. It might even reach further than you think:
"At this point, rather suddenly, Dostoevsky makes an attempt to purify the air around idiocy, if only by clearing the way for stupidity and ordinariness. As it turns out, that way has already been cleared and its name is Gogol, who can be credited with having brought to the fore the inescapable power and range of sheer stupidity." (p. 217).
Mark, A reader.......2003-01-22
A good read; a book that ought to be read and read again.
Pretentious to the point of being, well... stupid.......2003-01-04
I am sorry, but there is something about a book about titled "Stupidity" which contains page after page of sentences like:
"From the culture that has been inscribed by Marx and Nietzsche as being inextricably involved with stupidity - German "culture" has brought us Simplicius Simplicissimus, the Taugenichts, Eulenspiegel, the schlemiel, and other literary cognates of historical dumbing - we also have, owing to Robert Musil, a number of intense reflections on what constitutes stupidity, its figural status and serial developments as something of a concept."
I kept reading waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the self-irony to be acknowledged. For the book to become interesting and readable; humorous. It never happened, and I came to the horrible realization that this was, in fact, a dead serious, completely impenetrable, unreadable book on the subject of stupidity. As such, I can only deem it stupid.
Not only that, but it is full of jargon and obscure jargon and unexplained literary references, an example of academia at its most loathsome and most removed from the real world.
It reminds me of the words of a much better commentator on foolishness, John Ralston Saul (whose books I all recommend most highly), regarding the degredation of language by philosophers and other specialists.
"The example of philosophy actually verges on comedy. Socrates, Descartes, Bacon, Locke and Voltaire did not write in a specialized dialect. They wrote in basic Greek, French and English and they wrote for the general reader of the day. Their language is clear, eloquent and often both moving and amusing. The contemporary philosopher does not write in the basic language of our day. He is not acceptable to the public. . . . This means that almost anyone with a precent pre-university level education can still pick up Bacon or Descartes, Voltaire or Locke and read them with both ease and pleasure. Yet even a university graduate is hard pressed to make his way through interpretations of these same thinkers by leading contemporary intellectuals..."
Somewhere in the process of reading about and buying this book I saw Avital Ronell described as something along the lines of a leading contemporary intellectual. This book certainly establishes that in my mind...
Try it.......2002-03-31
Read this book like a science fiction--then you will enjoy it.
A MUST READ.......2002-03-05
Avital Ronell is one of the most provocative, street-savvy, and theoretically sophisticated thinkers of this age. If you've not yet encountered her explosive work (her other books: Dictations, The Telephone Book, Crack Wars, Finitude's Score), Stupidity will most definitely blow you away. And if you are already a die-hard Ronell fan, Stupidity will ... blow you away. (No amount of prep will brace you sufficiently.) Like Ronell's other works, Stupidity offers a kind of post-critical or nonrepresentational analysis, going after a seemingly recognizable and knowable signifier (stupidity) but tracking it so closely that it quickly becomes unrecognizable, exceeding its object-status, overflowing itself as a concept. Explicitly breaking with scholarly tradition, a tradition that over-values mastery and certitude, Ronell engages her "object" of study at the level of its radical singularity, tracking it through poets, novelists, philosophers, literary/critical theorists, and preschoolers. But the closer she brings us to it, each time, the less knowable it appears--and (so) the less representable.
With her trademark wit and style, Ronell prepares us for this post-critical critique right up front: "Stupidity exceeds and undercuts materiality, runs loose, wins a few rounds, recedes, gets carried home in a clutch of denial-and returns. Essentially linked to the inexhaustible, stupidity is also that which fatigues knowledge and wears down history." And more, still from the very first page: "I hesitate to say here what stupidity is because, eluding descriptive analysis, it switches and regroups, turns around and even fascinates.... While stupidity is 'what is there,' it cannot be simply located or evenly scored." Right at the beginning stupidity is both linked to "the most dangerous failures of human endeavor" and also associated (via Nietzsche) with the promotion of "life and growth"--it's linked both to error (where philosophy would like to keep it) and to sheer thought (the near stupor and extreme surrender involved in the poetic act).
There are sections in the work that are explicitly political, where Ronell zeros in on the "secret beneficiaries of stupidity's hegemony," examining, for example, the invention of the word moron, a label meaning "a little below average," which routinely has been slapped on immigrant children to justify holding them back. But Stupidity makes a larger (less explicitly and more astonishingly) political gesture: it exposes a kind of "transcendental stupidity" that appears to operate structurally, at and as the very ground of our being and of our being-with. Though stupidity is usually something that is loaded up and pointed at others, in the name of truth or morals or whatever, Ronell brings it home, redescribing it--to switch metaphors--as a kind of over-arching dome within which all claims to knowledge and intelligence take place. The ethical implications of this observation are profound. Though an imperative to understand does and must remain operative, one is not capable finally of *having understood* (fully). Indeed, Ronell suggests that the only possible ethical position may be: "I am stupid before the other."
Book Description
Culled from business headlines and corporate files, this examination of the ultimate in boardroom breakdown describes, in entertaining anecdotes, the mega-mistakes made by highly regarded leaders in business and public life.
Customer Reviews:
Satisfied Customer.......2007-07-25
The item was delivered very, very quickly and in good conditions. I am very happy with my purchase. My only complaint is that the delivery time offered at the time of the purchase seems to be intentionally inflated. I am in favor of underpromossing and overdelivering but taken to an extreme this is sandbaging.
Must read for aspiring executives.......2000-08-14
I have spent my entire career on Wall Street and have witnessed first hand a lot of the pitfalls outlined in this book. It is easy to see it in others, but how can you stop doing it yourself? How do you keep yourself from doing dumb things especially when the more success you have, the less people are honest with you?
I highly recommend this book for aspiring executives and entrepreneurs, just to make sure that they stay humble and avoid some of the traps on the road to success. The book shocked me because it clearly provides examples of past presidents, celebrities, and business executives and then outlines step by step how and why they blew it.
The first half of the book had me wondering if it was too late for me, a president of a growing software company. But the second half of the book is full of recomendations and survival tips that are insightful and applicable. I make sure that anyone around me who aspires to any leadership position reads this book.
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