Reviews and Comments

Nord's chapter 4, Motivation Drive and Wanting, strikes directly at the crux of my personal life challenges. The difference between wanting and pleasure. I want, and I have sometimes extreme drive, but I do not feel good about it, and am almost always disappointed. The countless times I have finished doing something and found myself pretending to be happy about it for the sake of others…

I enjoying these, specifically the account of drama beetween neighborhood cats which I just finished. A nice book I don't have to pay much attention to, but am glad to, when I do. A reminder to take delight where I can, not just think hard about everything and stay busy.

Pertinent for our time, considering the "culture war," politics, nuclear family dynamics and all the other divisive factors of modern life.

The book I've been looking for all my life (really)

I began this book over a year ago, but today is a good day to take it up again.

As an anarchist systems thinker I have to say I don't appreciate how they clearly and emphatically imply that social systems are necessarily hierarchical. They draw a false dichotomy between community and systems. Systems are not diametrically opposed to communities. Systems are just repeating and interrelated behavior patterns plus the other resources that support those behavior patterns. Communities have systems, sometimes named, sometimes unrealized, sometimes designed, sometimes appreciated, and sometimes dysfunctional. Systems are a way to match complicated dynamics with declarative semantics so it can be acknowledged and manipulated, instantiated, moderated, or ended. Hierarchical organizations are just one type of a huge range of human systems.

I am committed to at least taking in everything published by #Graeber eventually

In ch 6, Chen takes aim at the pathology mindset (and ingrained dysfunction) of the medical industry. Chen, then, moves on to eugenics. This is one of those chapters I want to be played on popular radio.

Excellent life story of an (apparently 🤷🏻) influential figure in ethnobotany. Everything Quave says checks out wrt the corruption and failures of the medical industry from my amateur bio-literate mind. Her life-long quest to shine light on the immense depth of plant chemistry for the good of humanity is inspiring, and I am grateful for her work and the context this book elucidates.

necessary reading if I'm going to develop an #ArtificialExecutive

Although I somehow expected to get more out of the book that I could use as a father of two young kids, I did learn a lot about Rogers' life and associations, and some of the interesting tangential happenings in Pittsburgh. Also, the big takeaway was to encourage and engage the kids in unstructured creative play. Although I already was aware of the reasons, the importance of doing so is worth taking time to consider.

I think my expectations were too high. I learned some interesting things about Mr Rogers, and some of his prescient genius was excavated, but I didn't take away much that I didn't already know. Perhaps because I have already been through a shelf of parenting and education books.