Rock Creek No newspapers, no cell service, no internet, no television, no plumbing, and only power from a car battery and some solar cells we brought along: sweet! Almost two days of chores, which we actually enjoyed, before we could wet a line. Third cast, I caught a beautiful, good size brown trout. Lucky days! Life is good! Am I on vacation or what?
Reading has been interesting and besides catching up on sleep, boy we needed it, that’s what we’re doing.
Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims was loaned to me on the West Coast recently by a friend. It’s one of those kind of Malcolm Gladwell books that are so popular these days that draw large conclusions from small evidence. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that great either. In terms of organizing, Sims borrowed a definition from psychologist Karl Weick to define “small wins,” which was interesting: “…a concrete, complete implemented outcome of moderate importance.” Another psychologist said these were “landmarks” indicating whether we are on the right direction or not. Interesting. Some right on points about the importance of “really listening,” which I wholeheartedly endorse. A fascinating story about Procter & Gamble’s efforts to expand in lower income communities around the world was fascinating to me. P&G hires ethnographers to “actually live with representative users” in a program they call “Living it.” Along with senior managers they “spend time in low-income homes around the world to better understand what matters in their lives, including their desires, aspirations, and needs.” Scary smart. None of this was probably worth the $25.00 for the book, and if any of us have to read one more story about how they operate at Steve Jobs Nexus and animation outfit, we’ll all shoot ourselves, but not bad either for plane rides and the like.
One I’m really liking is a book by Keith Heyer Meldahl called, Hard Road West: History and Geology along the Gold Rush Trial. I’m going to leave this one in the Silver Bullet on Rock Creek. He weaves the rough road for the 49ers and farmers with the geology they are passing. Having driven most of these trails on earlier trips West, it is riveting, and manages to make geology interesting. Maybe not John McPhee interesting, but darned good!
The one that is closer to work, but very well written and actually a brilliant history that I’m enjoying is Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution by Linda Hirshman. Her understanding of social movements and how they develop is spot on, and the history and the players are not as well known to me, so she’s teaching me things that are critical. Got a ways to go, but I’d recommend this history with four stars!
Plowed into two recent novels yesterday as well to good effect. One is Richard Ford ‘s new work, Canada. I like Richard for his work with ACORN in New Orleans after Katrina, and a book called Canada has to have value. Couple that with the setting in Montana, and I was halfway through before I realized. Finally I started True Believers: A Novel by Kurt Andersen. The review had caught my eye as a different tale of the 60’s with reference points many of us who remember them would enjoy. Add some politics to that, and who knows, it might be interesting. I’m not hating it so far!
