#zuckerbook

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Facebook are you ok

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"NO” Reacts Only

Me: *scrolls down* "ooo what's thi-" Facebook: "DON'T LOOK AT THAT!" *refreshes timeline*

[overdrivebookbytes]

Reviewing Creativity, Inc., the 5th Zuckerbook

I can still remember the awe I felt the first time I saw Toy Story in the theaters. I loved everything about it, from the animation, to the story, to the casting (shout out to Tom Hanks; be my friend!), I thought everything about that movie was perfect, and that this Pixar Animation Studios might be something special. What I didn’t realize was how important Pixar would become to my own life and how many memories I would have based around their movies: seeing Finding Nemo with my friends immediately following our last final our senior year of high school, cathartically crying (ok, weeping) during Toy Story 3 as I reflected on my own life changes, screaming and jumping on furniture at my parent’s house after their cats brought us a mouse immediately after the end credits rolled on Ratatouille. But as many memories and lessons I have from Pixar, Ed Catmull, founder and president, has infinitely more, and many insights into the workforce as well in his book Creativity, Inc., the most recent Zuckerbook.

In the spirit of honesty, I am not a big reader/lover of business titles, and I was apprehensive when I heard that this was the new Zuckerbook. When I saw the cover, with its silhouette of Buzz Lightyear as an orchestra conductor, I felt the faintest glimmer of hope. This book succeeds at being many things to many different groups. It is not just a memoir of the founding and successes of Pixar, nor is it just a manual of best practices by Catmull, rather it is a seamless compilation of many different books in to one amazing work. What Catmull has to say about the workforce and the need for it to be a place where people feel comfortable expressing their ideas and trying new things is something of which everyone who runs, plans to run, or works in an organization must be cognizant. This was so important that he and Steve Jobs, former owner, insisted that this workplace freedom continue even as they were being acquired by Disney Studios.

Catmull starts with his own beginnings, both as a computer engineer and as a boss, and is not afraid to address his failures just as candidly as he tells of his successes. The ragtag group of dreamers that founded Pixar created new worlds on screen and a new way to operate behind the scenes. With the help of Jobs, Catmull and the Pixar family has been able to make an atmosphere where quality trumps quantity and honest, open dialogue is not only encouraged, it is required. Reading about the working environment at Pixar, you see that they work hard, for long hours, but the amount of buy-in and pride that every person has in their work makes their product the premier work that it is. Catmull strives for this, calling to mind Toyota’s model of worker driven quality and other models.

What caps off this incredibly interesting work is Catmull’s remembrance to Steve Jobs at the end of the book. Immediately following that is a section of “Starting Points, which breaks down many of the main points within the book for easy comprehension. The weaving of personal anecdotes with leadership tips makes this book readable for many different audiences, and made me interested in a business book in a way that has never happened for me before. Pixar has an emotional hold on many of us, and after seeing behind-the-scenes, Catmull and his team still have a friend (and a fan) in me.

Meghan Volchko is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive, and like Syndrome from The Incredibles, she has a tendency to monologue.

[overdrivebookbytes]

Reviewing On Immunity, the 4th Zuckerbook

I cannot speak to the mind of Mark Zuckerberg, but I get the feeling that if not for the recent measles outbreaks all over the country (with special emphasis on his home state of California), we would not have been reading by Eula Biss. Regardless, this book could not come at a better time, for what Biss presents in this short work (the audiobook clocks in at just over 6 hours, including endnotes, and the eBook is under 200 pages, also with notes, so reading is a breeze) is a well thought out, well researched tome of a mother trying to make the best choices for her son, ultimately deciding to vaccinate.

As I am not a mother, I cannot fully grasp the anxiety that can accompany the decisions made in regards to a child’s health, and I was enlightened by Biss’s honest discussion of all of the thoughts that went through her head as she when it came time to vaccinate her own child. What also intrigued me is that she did hesitate, even though her father is a physician, and she knew all of the good that they could provide. The acknowledgement of a parent’s fears, specifically her own, is liberating and provides for a much more frank discussion with her readers. It is at the moments where she is discussing these concerns that I found her most relatable, almost like as conversation with a friend over coffee.

Personal anecdotes aside, the research that Biss put into this book is all encompassing. Not only did she go to traditional sources to find her information on disease, immunity, and its effects on society, but she reached into the literary worlds as well. Her use of metaphor is a familiar (especially those who have read the works of Susan Sontag), but very effective tool, notably when she is addressing some of the more sensitive issues surrounding vaccination, such as race and class. Towards the conclusion of her work, she uses vampires as metaphor for the symbiotic relationship between the individual and society (and of course, blood), and this is the type of out-of-the-box yet perfect comparison she uses throughout.

The whole topic of vaccinations right now is a bit of a “third rail” in the U.S., with everyone having a strong, nearly unswayable position. The responses of people of all opinions are passionate and emotional, not necessarily creating an environment that one would want to wade into for any reason, but the grace and understanding that Biss shows throughout her book is to be admired. She is never harsh, but generous with her facts and feelings. This is an academic’s approach to motherhood and coping with all of the changes and choices that come with it. The result is an informative, interesting look into the history and necessity of inoculations and understanding immunity, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Meghan Volchko is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive, and she is up-to-date on all of her shots.

[overdrivebookbytes]

Reviewing Gang Leader for a Day, the 3rd Zuckerbook

We are now in the third installment in the Mark Zuckerberg list of Zuckerbooks, and the overall theme of getting the world to read books that will open their eyes to new ideas and ways that the world works persists. The book Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh fits into this theme perfectly, and while it shares some themes with the last book, as a reader, it was nice to have something a bit (ok, a lot) shorter with a narrative feel. I read the first 100 pages of this book in one, quick sitting, completely engrossed. This book proves old adage of the truth being stranger than fiction.

Venkatesh tells his own story as a brand new Sociology grad student at the University of Chicago in the mid to late 1990s. His field is one that requires in-depth studies of human existence, and he chooses to study the African American populations in the housing projects just outside the realm of the university,though they might as well be on a different planet for how similar they are to each other. He begins his study by awkwardly stumbling into the Robert Taylor Homes with an ill-conceived survey for the residents, and is held there by local Black Kings (BKs) gang members as they try to figure out which rival gang he might be from and what his motives are in visiting them (mostly because they cannot conceive that he would be so naïve as to wander into unfamiliar gang territories). It is during this time that he is introduced to JT, the leader of the local branch of the BKs, and the man who would be his guide into how not only how gang members live, but also those in the Robert Taylor Homes whose lives are intertwined with the BKs.

By getting to know the leader of a gang, Venkatesh hopes that he will be able to learn more about the economic structure which gangs use to operate, viewing them as a business model. It is this desire to know the structure and inner workings of the BKs that leads him to eventually be “gang leader” for a day (hence the title), and spend the day with JT and his associates as they go about a normal workday. It is this research that made Venkatesh stand out among his peers, and get him a featured spot in the book Freakonomics later in his career.It is a hidden side of gang life, and fans of shows like The Wire will appreciate the many different layers of the BKs that we are shown.

We are presented a world of drugs, violence, and desperation, as Venkatesh writes that all are “hustlers”, himself included. I appreciated Venkatesh’s battle with himself to remain an impartial observer of their actions. The language is rough and uncensored, and anyone who is sensitive to such things would be advised to avoid reading. Regardless, we are given a glimpse into the end of the Robert Taylor Homes and into the lives of the residents in a way that few have been before, all because Venkatesh won the trust of those around him by genuinely caring about them and being interested in their lives. This is an important, empathetic read for all.

Meghan Volchko is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive, and she will continue to remember that everyone has a story to tell.

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