Thursday, December 14, 2006
If You Want This Product, You Don't Need This Product
by Tom Bozzo
In fact, befitting a site whose solution to the problem of "so many great business books, so little time" is "read less, learn more" (**), the summaries themselves start out with executive summaries. Whether any meaning can be preserved in a summary of a summary of a popular business book is left as an exercise for the reader.
And now who says our executives are overpaid?
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(*) "...But if you literally do it, for chrissakes keep it out of your divorce proceedings lest do-gooders make you give back some of your retirement perks." (***)
(**) Given the subject matter under consideration, I have no reason not to consider this to be true.
(***) Note that the summary promises that its readers will learn "How to find a job that you will love, get a promotion and manage a work-life balance."
I don't know why it caught my eye as funny only yesterday, but nevertheless I had to laugh at the idea — implanted by a back-section-of-the-W$J ad — of someone buying the Cliff's Notes version of Jack and Suzy Welch's Winning because (a) they don't have the 90 minutes to read the real thing, or more like (b) they can't intuit the Welch Winning Way of "Have a compliant board, and don't be afraid to f*** people to get ahead." (*)
In fact, befitting a site whose solution to the problem of "so many great business books, so little time" is "read less, learn more" (**), the summaries themselves start out with executive summaries. Whether any meaning can be preserved in a summary of a summary of a popular business book is left as an exercise for the reader.
And now who says our executives are overpaid?
-----------------------
(*) "...But if you literally do it, for chrissakes keep it out of your divorce proceedings lest do-gooders make you give back some of your retirement perks." (***)
(**) Given the subject matter under consideration, I have no reason not to consider this to be true.
(***) Note that the summary promises that its readers will learn "How to find a job that you will love, get a promotion and manage a work-life balance."
