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Arc of Justice : A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
Author: Kevin Boyle
Amazon info
The gripping story of Dr. Ossian Sweet who tried to move his family into an all-white section of Detroit in 1925, the violence that ensued, and the trial - led by defense lawyer Clarence Darrow. Although the book dragged a little bit at times, especially when discussing endless NAACP fundraising, this was an interesting and enlightening book. The history of Black America from Reconstruction through the Jazz Age was particularly instructive for me, as I knew very little about this part of history.

What I found most intriguing were the characters of Dr. Ossian Sweet and Clarence Darrow - men that worked hard and did wonderful things, but who were also tragically flawed by seemingly unlimited ego. In a certain sense, they were "all too human". This ties into Darrow's sentiments about racism - he believed it to be an inherent human flaw that couldn't be legislated out of existence, but would only be resolved by time.

This book also gave me a better appreciation for the importance the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and related changes in the 1960s) - as I read about what life was like before legal protections didn't even exist. Of course, legal protections don't solve the problem of racism and the issues faced by Dr. Sweet are still around today.

Only critique is that I expected a little more from this book, after all it was a National Book Award winner, but there were times when the pace was a little slow and the book seemed to digress.

Recommended to all readers.

Posted by Richard Berger at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since my blog was being overwhelmed with spam, I decided it was time to update the MT-Blacklist program I was using. To my surprise, I found that it no longer exists! It has been folded into the core MT software (with a very nice note from the original author). Thus, I had to bite the bullet and upgrade from MovableType 2.64 to 3.2.

I was a bit nervous, as I am not very Perl-savvy, but the process went smoothly. I followed the installation instructions and ran into only one problem - the usual Internal Error 500. Using this useful link, the problem was quickly identified - I needed to update the Perl path on all my cgi pages. Yucky, but it worked. Or at least I think it worked. Which is why I creating this test post.

Posted by Richard Berger at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Tipping Point: How Small Things Can Make a Big Difference
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Amazon info

I came to this book with fairly high expectations and those expectations were only partially fulfilled. The topic is certainly fascinating - what causes a new idea to gain critical mass and reach the"tipping point" where it spills over into very wide adoption. Gladwell identifies the key factors in creating tipping points, including: The Law of the Few, Stickiness, Fundamental Error of Attribution, and The Rule of 150. Most of these are not new and some are misstated - for example, the "Fax Effect" is actually the "Network Effect" and has been known long before faxes. I learned the Rule of 150 and the Fundamental Attribution Error in business school nearly 15 years ago.

I thought his real contribution was the claim that small changes can have a big impact - and he showed how this can happen through three groups of people - Mavens, Connectors, and Salespeople. Mavens are the people that have deep knowledge in an area and share that knowledge for free, connectors know everyone in the world, and salespeople can convince people of things. Basically a maven finds something of interest, tells a connector, who mentions it to a salesperson - and things can start to take off - if the idea is "sticky" and the context is right. The key is that epidemics start very small and that small changes have big effects (of course, this is a fundamental tenet of chaos theory).

Gladwell cites a number of examples, many of which are fascinating - but I didn't feel that he considered alternative theories strongly enough. For example, he traces the decline in NYC subway violence to a dedicated campaign to keep the trains clean. Is this really what made the critical difference? What were the other changes? There is no statistical proof of Gladwell's claims.

Even more concerning is that the book does not help you identify which small change you should make to create a tipping point. There are so many little things that one could do - how to choose the one to do? (Even assuming the theory is correct). But the book has been a big hit - so perhaps Gladwell does know something about how to create a tipping point - and used it to make his book a best seller. I guess we will know for sure with his next book - if that is also a big seller, then he has figured out something.

Recommended as light reading, but it didn't turn out to be as essential a business book as I had thought it might be.

Posted by Richard Berger at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night Matthew asked me if I knew what Elliot used to heart in Kindergarten. Without waiting for an answer, Matthew explained that Elliot used to heart rolling up into a ball. By this point, I am a bit confused. But then it hits me, Matthew is using the word "heart" as it would be used on a bumper sticker as in "I (heart) Running". I asked him if that is what he meant by "heart" and the theory was confirmed. Definitely a phrase only a little kid would use.

Posted by Richard Berger at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author: Mark Haddon
Amazon info

I enjoyed this book tremendously. The narrator (Christopher Boone) is described in the book's editorial summary as "mathematically gifted and socially hopeless" so you can see his obvious appeal to me. The book's highlight was Christopher, a character nearly on par with Ignatius J. Reilly. What was a little scary to me was how much sense Christopher makes - the things that are confusing to him are nearly as confusing to me. OK, sure, I don't avoid the colors brown and yellow, but I have always pondered about the scope of "Keep off the grass" signs.

The story concerns a curious incident that happens to the neighbor's dog and Christopher's taking on the role of a detective to resolve the mystery. Along the way, we encounter complex family dynamics and emotions, all of which are dealt with quite logically by Christopher. Apparently, that strikes reviewers as quite unusual, but it all made sense to me.

The author worked with autistic children and he provides an enjoyable glimpse into the mind of an autistic child. Highly recommended to all, especially those who are borderline Asperger's Syndrome types.

Posted by Richard Berger at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)