economics-times

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who considers issues around freedom and community, experience and empiricism (I would include both therapists and coaches in this category). Block's eloquent writing identifies some of the significant flaws our Western culture makes in bowing to the gods of empiricism and data to the exclusion of experience and community.

An excellent book by a man with a unique perspective on the American culture of capitalism.

A carefully presented essay on the importance of personal purpose and meaning and the dangers to ourselves and our world of the instrumental world to which we are subjecting ourselves. The book is beautifully set out and easy to read. The philosophy and advice, though useful and cogent, is much the same as that to be found in a whole range of similar books concerned with personal development. There is perhaps particular value in his distinction between personal intimacy and the ersatz, commercialized 'customer intimacy' that is so much touted in books on marketing.

BLOCK'S FLAWLESS CONSULTING OPENED MY EYES TO EFFECTIVENESS IN MY FIELD AS AN ADVISOR AND A COACH AFTER MANY YEARS AS A BANKER AND CORPORATE EXECUTIVE. BLOCK'S RECENT WORK, THE ANSWER TO HOW? IS YES AFFIRMS THE EXPERIENCES I HAVE HAD IN ORGANIZATIONS FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS. I AM SO PLEASED TO HAVE FINALLY MATURED SUFFICIENTLY TO "LISTEN" TO HIS WORDS AND FEEL AFFIRMED IN WHAT I THOUGHT I WAS SEEING AND KNEW I WAS FEELING. THIS BOOK MAKES A REAL DIFFERENCE, BUT ONLY IF ONE HAS THE COURAGE TO BOTH ABSORB WHAT IT SAYS AND ACT ON WHAT IT MEANS!

although this book is quite entertaining, and she quite accurately describes pilers like myself, her approach is too 'dumbed-down'. She kept me laughing as she described situations which could have easily happened in my own home, but gave little actual information I felt I could use.

This humorous, helpful and practical book is a must for women with Attention Deficit Disorder. We "pilers" have long been misunderstood, but this book tell us that it's okay to need to see your things and you can still get organized when you're a piler. After reading this book, I went out and bought plastic crates for my piles of work projects, giving each project at least one box and one location.

I had also been using file folders (those beige ones) for organizing within the boxes and the author suggested to me that I get different colors, for example, blue folders for one project, red for another, and so forth. That way, I can tell at a glance which box is the one I want.

If the above sounds weird or impractical to you, you are not a piler and will never get it. But if it makes some sense, get this book, right away! You will love it. In fact, if you are a filer rather than a piler, you'll gain insight as well.

Christine Adamec, Author, Moms with ADD

I love this book as it describes what I am looking at...right now! If I had a webcam trained on the room this computer is in, you'd see pile after pile of computer mags, books, papers, etc. Both my mate and I are pilers. Sad to say.

Now, I am attempting to use the systems in this book on our piles of piles. We are going to see if being "differently organized" works because the other books I tried frankly failed. (I loved Clutter's Last Stand and started pitching stuff, but my mate had no use for it.) We need a system we both can agree on. So stay tuned, I will post results and see if we can get Mount Ever-Messed down to a mere molehill.

I think this is best for people who have some major blind spots when it comes to other people's responsibilities and to their own boundaries. Yes, it gives examples and solutions. But it all seemed obvious.
I don't think I had any "ah ha" moments. If you agree that it's for people with major blind spots, I think you'll agree it should address the readership as well, since such big blind spots generally come with other issues that can get in the way of following the advice in this kind of book.
In my corporate experience, it is usually the more subtle behaviors that don't get addressed and fester, or problems that are more systemic and pervasive as part of the company's culture. But The Addictive Organization it isn't. If it went farther, it could be a codependence recovery book about deeper changes that have to happen to deftly handle the situations it addresses.
If the folks that gave those five star reviews can come back a year later and say that their work lives were really changed, then I'd be more open to the idea that this book is relevant.

A lot of books about organizing only deal with time management. In this book, the author deals with other types of disorganization. I had to laugh when I read the part about the deceptive chaos creating boss. I now think of that former boss as only a guy with nothing more than a clean desk and a leather Day-Timer. On the surface, he looked organized, in reality, he was never prepared for many of the meetings.

At last!!!! Harriet Schecthter's inspirational book "Conquering Chaos at Work" is here and it's a gem, providing practical, no nonsense solutions to those organizational challenges that frustrate us daily at work.

"Conquering Chaos at Work" fills a gaping void in previous organizational literature by not only addressing and resolving where our personal attempts to get organized may have failed, but also providing vital suggestions and systems to encourage and help the organizationally impaired people around us who may impact negatively on our own effectivess.

"Conquering Chaos at Work" is a must for anyone who aspires to becoming more effective at work and at life.

Do yourself and your organization a big favour and pop one in your shopping trolley now!!!!

This is an excellent, easy-to-read guide to success in management. Belker provides tips to managing diverse types of people (lazy, motivated, nit-pickers, etc), hiring, firing, performance reviews, time management, public speaking, and many other issues related to successful performance as a manager. I recommend this book for any new manager or anyone interested in pursuing a career in management.

I am a freshman at Keene State College located in New Hampshire. Although I haven't had much experience in the business environment, I find everything in this book to be very helpful and completely true. I have never been a big fan of reading, but I can honestly say this book is hard to put down if you take an interest in management. This down-to-earth, humane view of management makes complete sense and I am ambitious to get out in the world and apply all of my new knowledge.
BUY THIS BOOK!

This book covers the A-Z of managment for the first time manager, as well as the more experienced. The author consentrates on getting your mind into the correct thaught pattern to get the absolute most out of your staff in virtually any industry. Easy to read and can also be used as a quick reference guide. I'd also recommend it to empolyees who would like a promotion but don't know what they need to do to be managment material.

IN this book written in late 1940s, Polanyi argues that free-market policies advocated by liberal economists were pushing human society to a breaking points -- he implies that the world wars were the results of these policies. According to Polanyi, these liberal theorists did not understand that the market has always been a human institution, inextricably tied to the social fabric. Their policies are distrastrous for the world because their theories assumed that human beings act solely for financial motives, Polanyi argued. Only the society's reaction to protect itself against the abuses of the market -- the second prong of what Polanyi calls the "Double Movement" -- was the damage of liberalization mitigated.

All this probably sounds obvious today, but I assume that it was quite revolutionary when Polanyi wrote it. So this book is worth reading as intellectual history. I wouldn't recommend it as economic history per se because Polanyi has a habit of glossing over the historical evidences that he uses to make his argument, and his rhetoric sounds over-heated to me at times. Perhaps this reflects his background as a journalist. It made me think that he was overreaching even though I am quite sympathetic to his arguments.

Polanyi's "The Great Transformation" is a broad, sweeping work that encompasses history, sociology, economics and political science. MacIver writes that the book's particular relevance for a political scientist is that "it will help him to restate old issues and to evaluate old doctrines" (xi). However, with the recent renaissance of liberal/classical economic doctrines (what Polanyi would scornfully call the utopia of the "self-adjusting market") it seems that the issues restated and the doctrines evaluated by Polanyi are not so "old" after all. For this reason, the book has even more relevance now than it did for past readers, even just twenty years after its publication, when the heyday of planned economics appeared to be carrying out Polanyi's proposed remedies for the excesses of free marketism, and blunting the force of his critique as applied to post-transformation society. But in the era of WTO and NAFTA, a strong case can be made that his critique has attained newfound relevance beyond even its original application.

This critique can be phrased into a causal historical argument as follows: The Great Depression and two World Wars are Polanyi's dependent variable (the outcome to be explained). For Polanyi, this turmoil of 1917-1945 was a catastrophic indicator that 19th Century civilization had collapsed. And since 19th Century civilization rested upon the "classical" economic liberal doctrine of a self-regulating market, (with accompanying balance-of-power system, gold standard, and laissez-faire liberal state that defended property rights above all else and viewed human labor as no more than a commodity) it is this doctrine that is Polanyi's independent, explanatory variable. For him, the "utopian" and unattainable ideal of the self-regulating market was in reality a destructive force that robbed humanity of its freedom, by causing one hundred years of relative peace (the veritable calm before the storm) and then unleashing heretofore unheard of levels of economic dislocation and political repression. The "Great Transformation" itself is merely the mechanism by which this causal relationship unfolded. It is the process by which the ideal of the self-regulating market utopia brought about the destruction of the old world and the dawning of a new, more dangerous world.

Polanyi's evidence for this process is both deductive and inductive. Most of the book masquerades as a straightforward historical account of the Great Transformation and its exact social processes, but at times Polanyi reads less like an empiricist and more like a deductive rationalist. For instance, he proposes a general covering law of historical causality whereby countries that are apparently "opposed to the status quo would be quick to discover the weakness of the existing institutional order and to anticipate the creation of institutions better adapted to their interests" (28). He then gives Germany in the 1930s as an example of such a process, Germany for him being one of the "catalyst" states that sped up the Great Transformation by abandoning market liberalism in favor of fascism. While the example is fascinating and has obvious historical merit, it's not clear how Polanyi arrived at the general law of which Germany is an example, not to mention whether he truly believes that such a law applies consistently throughout history, or whether he merely means to inductively show the importance of Germany's opposition to the status quo for the particular historical causal mechanism of the Great Transformation.

Polanyi's work obviously runs counter to a great deal of conventional wisdom on the topic of economic and political doctrines and their relationship to social change in the 19th Century. For instance, the 19th century is often called the "age of nationalism," but Polanyi's Great Transformation, like the work of Marx, minimizes the role of the nation-state in shaping the lives of its own citizens, by arguing that state governments were merely pawns for the ideal of the self-regulating market and its stooges in power, both financial and political. Indeed, as a remedy to the negative effects of the Great Transformation, Polanyi seems to advocate a rise in the power of the nation-state, through the active securing of freedom and rights by its citizens in opposition to the stateless self-regulating market. One could brand Polanyi a collectivist for this reason, although he would resist such a charge precisely because of his defense of individual freedom against the market and his warnings about the dangers of erring on the other side: the potential loss of human freedom that would come from free individuals attempting to subjugate and regulate markets through government. "Regulation both extends and restricts freedom; only the balance of the freedoms lost and won is significant" (254). In other words, Polanyi is certainly not a Marxist, because of his lack of both economic determinism and any clear theory of class conflict and revolution, but neither can he be an apologist for capitalism since he seeks to shatter the myth of the self-regulating market as being a "natural" ideal independent of social moorings and above general social welfare. Therefore, instead of these two extremes, he strikes a middle ground that is as paradoxically complex as it is eloquently defended.

Polanyi's masterpiece, 'The Great Transformation' dealt with the same question as his forerunners like Marx, Weber, Durkheim: 'how our world come into being?' or as its subtitle, 'the political and economic origins of our time'. But he didn't suggest any name except banal title of 'The Great Transformation' which is barely used in his book and does barely play the explanatory role in the analysis contrary to his forerunners systemic edifice, for example, Marx's 'capital' or Weber's 'rationalization'. All his writings are the venture to overhaul existing concept, above all, the market. His world is different from forerunners' world 1 or 2 generation ago. The age of masters is over. Now it's time for exegesis. The weight of thought is realized through not only speculating but also historical event. His world was literally the aftermath of liberalism, he argued. His world located between 2 Great Wars one of which he participated in as army officer of the Habsburg Empire and another is the time when he wrote his influential work, 'The Great Transformation' (1944). We need to peep into what he had seen and felt then.
The chasm between generation before World War 1 and after, is reflected in the lack of optimism about path of western civilization in 'The Great Transformation'. Polanyi disdained that kind of optimism as '(liberal) cree'. That kind of attitude is different from his forerunners. Marx had unquestionable faith in 'progress'. And judging from his studies of religion, even pessimistic Weber seems to have shared that kind of view. His forerunners were optimistic about the attaining of rationality and liberty. But the confidence scattered away in the mid of 2 World Wars. Overarching intellectual climate of social scientists in Europe between wars, can be symbolized by the word, obsession. Polanyi's masterpiece was written in this atmosphere. For as Jews of Frankfurt school froze in front of Auschwitz, Polanyi was thus overwhelmed with the magnitude of catastrophe.
German citizen's confidence in Nazi lay not in the psychological disposition as Frankfurt school claimed or nihilist determinism as Krockow asserted but in disillusion caused by inability of Weimar republic to cope with Great Depression and political disorder. Their choice was not irrational but rational at that point. There were 2 choices before them: liberalism, communism. Liberalism seemed too inept to solve the problems they faced. Bolshevism seemed the serious threat to many classes who were troubled with riots since 1918. Nazism was the second best.
This was the bankruptcy of liberalism i.e., 19th century of civilization. It was not limited to Germany but worldwide phenomenon; the signal was sent by England's going off gold standard (1931). Collapse of gold standard means there is no standard for exchange between currencies. So next step in chain reaction was giving up free trade. The economic protectionism caught up world economy, which led in so called the bloc economy; Pound bloc, Franc bloc, Mark bloc, Dollar bloc, Yen bloc. Polanyi argued the failure of liberalism is traced back to fin de siecle and beyond.

This book is an invaluable resource for someone looking to buy their first home: Glink takes the reader through the home buying process step by step, and the amortization tables in the appendix definitely come in handy. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for someone looking to buy a co-op or a condo. When I was looking to buy a co-op apartment in the city, I found the CO-OP BIBLE to be much more helpful--it was the book I turned to when I needed help with every aspect of that process.

I bought this book about a year before I started looking for my first house (when I knew ABSOLUTELY nothing beyond the fact I wanted to buy) and I found this book to be an indespensible aid. The real beauty of it, for me at least, is Ms. Glink's ability to get you thinking about all the myriad issues involved in buying a home (including the biggie - do you even want to do it) in a constructive way with language that is easy to understand. I love that she includes the emotional issues (that are so often overlooked) alongside the financial, legal and practical issues. The breakdowns of real-estate language and the worksheets are nice touches, too. I have recommended this book to everyone I know who utters that magic phrase, "I'd love to buy a house someday...".

I am a 25 year old looking into buying a condo in Chicago. I just finished the book and it taught me so much about what to expect going into this major purchase. The author explains what you can reasonably assume a bank will loan you, different financing techniques and important emotional and financial issues you will have to resolve before choosing a home. Its easy to read and engaging. I usually have a short attention span for manuals, but I read this cover to cover in a week. I never lost interest. If you're a renter and at the point where you're starting to think you want to buy, read this book for some great tips and advice so you don't fall into any "gotchas" ahead.

ACT6! for Dummies is not only extremely informative, it is fun and easy to read. It is a great starting place to learn the many aspects of the program and it is a great reference once you are using the program regularly. If you can figure out how to use this program to its fullest by using the book supplied by ACT, you are probably not in sales, you have a lot of extra time on your hands, and you love to watch paint dry. Unless you are selling real estate in South Florida and one of my competitors, buy ACT6! for Dummies and get yourself on track fast.

I'm not a computer buff so I bought this book and was gratefully taken through an overview of the basics of Act! 6 and then the details. It not only showed how to use Act! 6, but also how to maximize the use of Act! 6.

The important thing about the book is that it is written for the reader (not in tech-speak), with a wonderful sense of humor. In fact, it's as if the author is right there with you as you go through and learn/use the program. After having used Act! 6 for a while, if I have more sophisticated needs, I look them up in the book and have the answer quickly and painlessly.

I hesitated buying Act! 6 for a while, but once I bought the program, I also bought this book. Now I am a confident and effective user.

As one of the leading ACT! trainers in the United States, I know what it takes to really teach people the program. And this book has it all. It's clear and concise, and the features are laid out in a logical fashion for incremental learning. The graphics are perfect references to the written text, and readers will have no trouble following along as they learn the features of the program. The author uses plain, descriptive language and doesn't get bogged down in "tech talk." If you want to learn ACT! on your own, this is the book for you!

I did not find ANYTHING new or interesting about leadership in Mr. Phillip's book. More or less a bunch of tired old cliche's in hardcover or softcover - your choice. Save your money, I wish I had.

Phillips' book is an excellent read for understanding how the founding fathers led in our country's early history and how we can apply these concepts today.

Among the interesting points Phillips covers include:

1. Being a team leader and member.
2. Turning a positive into a negative.
3. Be a learner and refuse to lose.
4. Leaders are risk-takers and change agents.
5. Leaders must understand human nature.
6. Leaders create a favorable culture and climate.
7. Excellent leaders are persistent and follow through.
8. Spend time in the field with the troops.

Read and understand that leadership principles that worked in the early history of the U.S. still work today!

CASE FOR:
The best part about this book is not some ground-breaking secrets of the founding fathers, but their history that illustrate some important principals of leadership. I was inspired after listening to the book on CD.

He author takes you through their life, battling England, taking you through their successes and failures. After you listen, you understand what really works, and why it is so important to do what is required of the leader. And of course he tells you what it is, he nicely sums it up at the end of each chapter.

He says, "changing times needs new approaches", "The greater the risk, the greater the glory" you will truly understand the meaning of such phrases from that book. I love this quotes, "We must make the best of the men as they are, since we cannot have them as we wish" I believe that was by George Washington.

I got this book on CD already thinking what they can offer me what I haven't already heard, after I was done with it, I was informed and inspired.

CASE AGAINST:
Donald's book finished little low, but in general I enjoyed his book.

Everyone working in America today should read "Simplify Your Work Life." People in the U.S. work way too much--and for what? Work is important, but it shouldn't be the only thing you do with your life. Elaine St. James offers simple suggestions to eliminate unnecessary work and stress from our lives. It's sad that our culture today thinks that people who work under 40 hours a week are "lazy". St. James tells us this is not true, and we can get as much work done working under 40 hours a week as working 60 hours a week, if only we learned how to manage our time better. People can get overwhelmed with our modern work society (with email, faxes, internet, etc.), but St. James says it doesn't have to be this way.

My only complaint about the book is that it seems biased towards salaried professionals who work in offices. Her suggestions about reducing your work time, taking more breaks, etc., aren't relevant to hourly wage workers who HAVE to work a certain amount of hours or else get a cut in pay. Those same workers also can't take breaks whenever they want to. A lot of her examples revolve around people who have their own businesses (much like herself). Of course THEY can manage their own time--they're their own boss!

Even so, a lot of the other tips she gives can be applied to everyone. Whether you need ways to find more time for yourself or need to reduce the stress in your life, this is the book for you! Easy to read and to the point.

This book has enough "new" ideas and presents them in an excellent fashion, so it warrants a five-star rating. It is a quick read and easy to incorporate immediately.

Having read or heard other books by Elaine St. James (SIMPLIFY
YOUR LIFE, INNER SIMPLICITY, etc.), I found myself looking
forward to reading her latest: SIMPLY YOUR WORK LIFE . . . I
was not disappointed in it, and you won't be either--even if you
have not read anything else by the author . . . she presents
both big and small ways to scale down and simplify life on
the job . . . in doing so, she will help you understand the
difference between making work easier and making it
easier to do more work.

For example, there were these thought-provoking passages:
One way to seize time is to get into the habit of taking
five minutes at the end of your day to clean up your space
and get organized for the next day's work. Even if you're
in the middle of a project you want to continue with the
next day, you'll find it helpful to straighten up your paper
and files and put away books, folders, notes, and other
materials for which you don't have an immediate need.

One of the most important steps you can take to
reduce the pressure you put on yourself is to avoid
making promises you can't keep that will throw the rest of your
life out of balance. So if your boss asks when you expect to have
a particular project completed, never, ever answer on the spot.
Always respond with "Let me figure it out and I'll get back to
you." Then actually take the time to realistically estimate,
given your other duties, when you could have the project
completed. Then double that estimate.

One of the main concerns Marie had when she was trying
to decide whether to take the leap and go for her doctorate
was that she was too old. I pointed out that I hadn't written
my first book until I was forty-five. Julia child didn't make her
first television appearance until she was fifty-five. Thomas
Edison didn't discover electricity until he was fifty-nine.
Eleanor Roosevelt didn't become a delegate to the United
Nations until she was sixty. And, as it turned out, Marie's
own husband, Joe, didn't do his most creative engineering
until he was sixty-two.