MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/49191
BOOK REVIEWS I MOVED YOUR CHEESE BOOK REVIEW BY RIC GETTER When Spencer Johnson's cutesy parable made the bestseller lists in 1998, it was partially on the strength of the copies managers bought for their workers. That book's intent was to motivate (hardly an apt term as used here) employees to stay in line and go with the flow. It did manage to inspire countless water-cooler diatribes and, unquestionably would have been well received by the kind of creative and independent minds that are drawn to this magazine. Though couched in a similar allegory of mice, mazes and the pursuit of cheese, Deepak Malhotra's takes on a very different point of view. The book's three long-tailed protagonists, each for their own reasons, refuse to be ruled by the chase for cheddar or the limitations and artificial challenges of a constantly changing maze. The thoughtful and philosophical Zed gives voice to questions that none of his kind would think to ask or dare to answer. Young Max is driven by the idea that there must be something more than the narrow and meandering boundaries that define his world. And Big's priorities just never lined up with those of his fellow maze dwelling, cheese-chasers, a trait that opened his mind to new ideas and perspectives. The crux of the book can be summed up in a -like observation expressed by Zed, " …the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse." We can become so conditioned to and accepting of a structure that is imposed on us that we can blind ourselves to any other way of thinking or living. Though it's (unfortunately) growing in popularity as a framework for motivational business books, fables with furry characters can quickly become quite tiresome if not totally trite. Sometimes narrowly but often with surprising success, Malhotra manages to sidestep these pitfalls of the genre by presenting a series of challenging and thought-provoking ideas. The author's choice of character and setting is clearly motivated by is desire to pose a rebuttal to Johnson's book, however he manages to extract something closer to Orwell's than a treacle-coated fable. As a teacher, Malhotra is as good as you'd expect from a professor at Harvard's Business School. is equally challenging and liberating to read. At just over a hundred pages, you should be able to get through it in part of an evening. However, you're apt to spend far longer mulling over the many messages in the story of these three very visionary mice. by Deepak Malhotra; $19.95, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (bkconnection.com) 2011; 103 pages, ISBN: 978-1-60994-065-2. MacDirectory 37 W M y C h e e s e h o M o v e d n o t I Y o u r C h e e s e M o v e d M a t r i x A n i m a l F a r m I M o v e d Y o u r C h e e s e I M o v e d Y o u r C h e e s e