economics-times

This book was hysterical. Anyone who has ever worked in an office or a giant corporation will identify with the situations and the characters he so vividly brings to life. Plus, he has the best made up last names I've ever come across, but the funny thing is you know exactly who he's talking about. I may not fly with the chairman on the corporate jet, but I relate to most everything he writes about, and I laughed the entire time reading. Bing is the thinking man's Dilbert.

For anyone who has ever worked for a living; for anyone who has ever had a boss or been a boss; THE BIG BING is a must read! The collection is a quick and humerous study of human behavior in corporate America. Nobody tells this story better than Stanley Bing!

This was one of the best reads of the year, honestly. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I took it on a six hour train ride and couldn't put it down. The collection of columns run the gamut of emotions -- most of them really, really funny, but others are eerily prescient, especially for anyone who has worked in corporate America -- and before I knew it, the train ride was over and I was still reading. Whether you're a fat-cat CEO, mid-level pencil pusher or rookie junior executive, this book has it all. Just don't try to expense it.

This book is great for people who need serious organizational help. It provides lots of useful tips. I, however, was looking more for information on how much time I am realistically going to have to spend on my home business, and the most efficient way to allocate that time, rather than how to use a day planner and how to organize a cupboard or closet, etc. I pulled a few good tips out though.

This book was just what I was looking for! I have two babies at home (two years and eight months), and this book really helped me get organized for my new scrapbook business. If you're looking for a book that will help you get organized and learn to use your time wisely--even with kids in the home--this is a great book for you....

This book was incredible!! I read it from cover to cover in just a few hours. (and I have 4 going on 5 children under the age of 7) What a help. I have implemented the filing organization to my home office and it is running so smoothly now. I also reorganized my children's closet (for the 100th time) but I used the principles from this book and it has maintained the same level of organization for over 5 months! All my children share one average sized room and a normal closet, They are able to keep it clean and tidy almost by themselves, and like I said they are 6, 5, 3, and 1. (the 1year old doesn't help much; YET) I am looking forward to tackling the garage with my husband and by the way he loves the book too. He even tracked Juli down and hired her to help him organize his new Retail Store filing system and office. He was very impressed at how all she did was the same things she suggests in her book; only catered to his specific needs. All I can say now is: BUY IT, READ IT, and you'll use it over and over and over.

Since the title is "7 Simple Steps" I thought the book would offer a clear, specific program for getting organized. Instead, it's more of a general advice book for overall self-improvement. The first chapter, for example, is about losing weight and getting in shape, and the advice is frustratingly familiar. Eat lowfat foods, exercise every day, etc. etc. There's not much in this book that the average reader of women's magazine won't already know.

Donna is a master at sharing simple, practical and easy-to-use ideas. I absolutely love this book. It's become my handy little constant reminder whenever I allow my life and my office, in particular, to fill up with unnecessary stuff. It's definitely a "must-read" and "must-have" addition to everyone's library. Hope you enjoy putting Donna's ideas into practice as much as I have.

I highly recommend this book. It provides very practical ideas in an organized, accessible way. Changed my life !!

I gave it one star because you cannot give it less.

It is a simplistic collection of stupid tidbits that you already have thought about. "Purchase used furniture"(pp. 41-2), "Program voice mail number codes into your speed dial to save time"(p. 33), or "File things where you can find them again,"(pp. 24-5) are three average suggestions from this useless book.

Don't waste your valuable time with this one.

Lonier's short, snappy reference book packs money-saving ideas in a quick read format. Most ideas are plain common sense packaged logically, and expanded beyond the average business owner's imagination. Some ideas solve problems that may have been driving you crazy for years, like curling printer and photocopy paper. This problem can really screw up the job when you are printing on both sides of the paper. Lonier tells you to microwave each ream for two minutes on high.

If your a first timer looking for great tips, tricks & wisdom, take a look at this book offered in Apple computers small business edition 6500/250 Power PC. They threw this book in for first timers, it's a godsend. I love it.

Last time I job hunted was so long ago (got caught by a downsizing a few months ago) I'd forgotten a lot about the process and was a nervous wreak. This really helped me organize my thoughts and get my act together. I felt free to call people for help getting informational interviews who I never would have called to ask for help getting "in" someplace. Those interviews made me realize my weakness so I'm taking some courses before I go out there. I loved not having to read a whole book for a few ideas. Short and to the point was just what I needed.

Found this a good reminder of some of the things about looking for a new job that I forgot after being in the same job for so long. I also had never tried the informational interview route, and it's proving a great way to discover what moves I could make. A real advantage of this kind of summary of so many things is it shows me where I need to expand my knowledge further and what I don't have to worry about.

Great guide. It helped me find out what I didn't know and had to learn about looking for a new job when working. Good reminders about being careful not to be careless and let your colleagues and supervisors discover what you are doing just because you are so comfortable at your current job. Also helpful to those of us who last job-hunted before the Internet--and that was not that long ago. For example, it was nice to realize that this time around I don't have to spend a lot of time and money (fancy paper, etc.) on my resume.

I think this book is best for someone who's read Mr. Tracey's other books or listened to any of his audio cassette programs and wants a handy, pocket-size "memory jogger" of his basic ideas and insights. If you have not read other books on time management these "quotes" are likely to be of marginal use. While I've enjoyed Mr. Tracy other works I was somewhat disappointed in this one; I thought more could have been included even in a "little book" format. I do recommend his "Mastering Your Time" audio program, Alan Lakein's "How To Get Control of Your Time and Your Life" (my favorite, though it's only available in a mass market paperback now) and Julie Morgenstern's "Time Management From the Inside Out."

Good things come in small packages, and Brian Tracy's book, "Great Little Book On Mastering Your Time," lives up to that expectation. This is an easy book to read, with powerful concepts simply stated. Brian Tracy pulls no punches in his statements: "Most people engage in activities that are tension-relieving rather than goal-achieving". This book restates key aspects using different phrasing in several places in the book, to drive home points through repetition. It deals with the fundamental fact that without clearly defined goals we can not hope to maximise our use of time. How we use our time directly impacts our ability to accomplish whatever is truly important to us. Brian Tracy reminds us of the importance of spending a large quantity of time with our families, with unbroken chunks of time devoted to each of the most important people in our life. Focusing on the quality of the 2,000 hours per year a typical person works - planning and managing that time effectively - is key to leading a prosperous and balanced life that brings peace of mind for us and security for those we love.

This book is designed for those who need time management the most, and have the least knowledge about the subject. I'll be brief, as a result.

The book is a collection of over 250 sayings, questions, and quotes (very few of the last) on the subject of why time is important and how to get the most out of it.

I have read extensively on this subject, and did not see any major area of thinking that was not reflected somewhere in the book. So you will have a good overview of the principles for how to improve when you are done. You won't have detailed directions, but other books can help you with that when you are ready for them.

The book covers why time is important, goal-setting about time, use of goals, the application of Pareto's Law (80/20 Rule), planning, delegation, priorities, outsourcing, happiness, getting rid of time wasters, rewards from becoming more effective, reading and learning more effectively, and the impact on your personal life.

If you allocate 2 minutes a day to this book, you should soon be saving significant amounts of time and becoming more effective. You could do that while sitting through commercials on television or during moments of enforced idleness when it is safe to read (riding the bus, waiting in line at the bank, etc.).

By starting to take control of your time, you'll end up with a life you would like to lead! Use the additional time well to make a difference for those you care about!

The two stars are to give credit to the authors for an otherwise useful work. However, this format is unacceptable. I'll be pursuing a refund (yeah, right).

Here's how it went:

1) Go through the hassle of booting a Windows box.
2) Download and install the Adobe eBook reader (15 minutes, reboot)
3) Download the book itself.
4) Can't print a page. Can't copy a page to write on.
5) The reader application itself seems weird, and is not integrated with the Windows GUI very well.
6) 45 seconds and ten page flips later, "Application Adobe eBook has crashed due to an unhandled error."

So, I ... have nothing to show for it. You'd be wise to learn from my mistake.

My advice: kill a tree and actually get access to the information you paid for. The Adobe solution is [not good].

If you need to know Is-136, this is the book. Very good done!

An excellent guide to how IS-136 really works. Found it very helpful in understanding the basics of the architecture. Love those books by Adrian Smith. So clear and lucid.

This book is an uninspiring analysis of Smith's work. Nobody who has even a cursory knowledge of Smith's writings would be surprised by what Muller has to say. The basic point that Smith was not a philosopher of unbridled greed is unsurprising. It is not that the thesis of the book is wrong, but it is simply something that could have been said in an article or less. Obviously a lot of hard work went into the book, but it is the product of a mediocre mind.

a very good description of everything

I couldn't disagree more with the review of Max Hayes. It would and does shock people to learn that Adam Smith wasn't primarily an economist as we think of the term. The fact that his work was centered around moral philosophy and making people "decent" is widely unknown and most people have never even heard of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Robert Heilbroner said it best when he called Smith "the most quoted and least read of the worldly philophers."

This book is not a biography of Smith, which would probably be pretty boring. It is an examination of his ideas. Muller starts by placing the book in its intellectual context of earlier traditions. Than he turns to an examination of Smith's work as a whole. This is important because to often Smith is limited to The Wealth of Nations, which is only one element of his thought. Muller examines The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Lectures on Jurisprudence to form a more complete picture of Smith as a moral philisopher.

The most important element of this book is the demonstration that Smith was not a defender of unrestrained greed. Smith sought to defend and construct institutions that would channel individual self-interest into benefical results for the whole of society. Nor was he an enemy of government. While it is true that he thought government often proved a danger to the market because of the influence of what we call special interests, Smith did not reject government regulation totally. In fact he argued for regulation of banking and interest rates and advocated using the government to try and correct the negative effects capitalism had on the intellect of the people through public financed education.

Muller writes a compelling book demonstrating that Smith is not the proto-libertarian so many people claim. That in fact Smith would probably be quite dismayed at the uses to which his thoughts have been applied.

This book reads like the review of your hometown, where you know the reviewer has passing familiarity with the subject, but the information comes across as a pay-by-the-word exercise rather than a useful guide.

Much of this comes across as stating the obvious. Do you really need to pay to have someone tell you that if the phone line is long, go across the street and try another one; or sillier yet, go check the "restricted access" area of the hotel for a phone? Or that if you're carrying a lot of SWAG (i.e., stuff we all get) you might not want to walk back to your hotel because it might be awkward and your bag might break?

As to travel arrangements, is there really a big audience of attendees who are paying their own way and can't figure out just to call a travel agent and ask for the cheapest fare and leave it at that?

The "gonzo tours" were lame. Las Vegas, for instance. "Drive out to Red Rock Canyon". Any possibility of adding a little more descriptive information so someone would actually have a reason to check it out? The main tour consists mainly of trolling the boulevard in a pimp mobile. What about rating (or even mentioning!) the rides, for example, and maybe suggesting the best time to go for the shortest lines. Or mention why you might actually want to spring for expensive tickets to Cirque du Soleil. Or if you have a day off, one of the most spectacular places on earth, Zion N. P., is 3 1/2 hours away. And the largest (or one of the largest) roller coasters in the world is about a half hour away. The Las Vegas tours section looks like 5 minutes was spent on the web before writing it.

It seemed like every chapter I read left me waiting for real substance. For example, under the heading "Wear Comfortable Shoes", there isn't one helpful tip to elaborate. The authors should have stopped while they were ahead, i.e., after the heading. Maybe that was the point; it wasn't really written to be useful. It's really some guys' version of a humorous take on trade shows.

The other thing that really started to grate on me was the fact that they didn't even bother to use a spell checker or editor (apparently). A few examples: "PRESENTAION", "Freemont St." (It's FREMONT!), and "steady gate" (as opposed to steady gait).

In summary, you'd really do better with your own common sense or advice from a co-worker than you would spending your money on this mass of verbiage. "Hot tips" is really false advertising.

It's about time somebody wrote a book lampooning trade shows! I've been going to high-tech trade shows for years, and was thrilled to find some kindred (and extremely funny) spirits who could see through all of the hype to find the humor in these overblown events.This book is filled with wry observations and laughs. It's really more of a humor book than a traditional "how-to." It's also more of a take on the computer industry as a whole, with all of its huge egos and wacky marketing schemes. Therefore, although specific information on some shows may be dated, the essence of what makes these shows tick (and sometimes frustrate) remains true. The satire in this book is right on!A funny, entertaining read. Highly recommended!

A wonderful, funny guide to those big technology shows that populate Las Vegas. If you're going to Comdex as a visitor, get this one!

This book isn't designed to help exhibitors get more out of their show, but exhibitors will learn ways to keep themselves entertained after the show closes.

While the book uses the title "Guerrilla", it's not part of the series of Guerrilla Marketing books by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Get the book and get ready to laugh!

You are bound to be disappointed if you want to learn how to manage projects from this book.

This book is a very introductory and basic book that describes project management and projects, and then delves into aspects that the author considers interesting. It can best be described as an elementary introduction to the field.

I liked the "Fast Forward MBA in Project Management" much more than this book. It gives one a set of tools and a process for managing projects.

This book is very helpful to knowledge workers. It is now translated into Chinese and doing well in China -- the first printing sold out quickly. It is friendly written and interesting. It concentrates on real issues on projects. These are not techniques, but people issues. Frame has good technique book called New Project Management. Managing Projects in Organizations has many examples that are realistic and apply in all industries and cultures. I find it especially useful for practioners in the financial and information technology sectors.

This book is a refreshing look at what is most important in achieving project success: people functioning in organizations. While it reviews key tools and techniques in a user-friendly fashion, its chief goal is to raise readers' awareness of the central role of people and organizations in delivering successful projects. What's more, it is an easy read, filled with practical examples of real world scenarios. It is particularly useful for knowledge workers in businesses like IT, finance, telecoms, R&D and training because it does not get bogged down in painfully detailed treatment of techniques that are marginally useful on real-world projects.