The Day the World Ended

The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn : a Lakota History
by Joseph Marshall III

We recently had an opportunity to drive to Montana for a funeral. Along the way we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. A fascinating place. Most enlightening was the Indian Memorial. The quotes from Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull made a deep impression on me.



It's no surprise that a book on the New Non Fiction shelf jumped into my hands. I've read very little about this turning point in American history, so enjoyed learning something new. There were two nuggets in this book that I want to remember.

First, the Lakota apparently have no word equivalent to the English "authority." Their culture and governance had no need for such a word. The chiefs led by example and reputation. If a family in a chief's village didn't like what the chief was proposing, they voted with their feet. It was not unusual for a new family to appear in the village overnight. Villages were relatively small, and the next two were within a days walk. A nomadic life style allows that. Our sedentary style doesn't. If I don't like what the President does, it's a little more difficult to move to France.

The second nugget in this book has a little more impact on how I think about our country today. In the days before the battle at Little Bighorn, the Lakota people were doing their best. Women were cooking and caring for the household. The young people were learning the necessary skills from the elders. The hunters were bringing home plenty of food and supplies, even when the Buffalo was in steep decline because of the white man. Even the warriors did well, winning various skirmishes with the Long Knives. All were doing what they were supposed to do. And they were doing it well.

Their society was complex and well run. Elders made decisions. The tribe produced the food and goods necessary for a good life. They all traded with the white man for various supplies. And they were reasonably successful at creating a good life.

Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse knew their world was ending, but the common people really couldn't comprehend the change. Who among the Lakota or the Cheyenne knew the numbers of people and products that were massing to the east?

Then came the battle at Little Bighorn. And they won. Decisively.

But they lost the war.

Reading this, I jumped to comparing the life of a common Lakota family to ours. I work to bring home food and supplies, Judy maintains the home. The children learned their skills and created a life for themselves. And all did reasonably well. In fact, we feel darned good about it. I can only imagine that the Lakota did, too.

Do most of us not know or truly understand the masses of people and products that are gathering outside our borders? I was surprised to learn that the Mall of America in Bloomington is not even in the top ten shopping centers in the world today. New York is a small city compared to dozens around the world. India and China are educating thousands more people at the college level than we are.

Is there a comparison between the Lakota experience and ours. I believe there is some, and we need to be more aware than they were of the forces awakening in the world around us. Isolation and walls are not the answer. Fighting and wars are not the answer. Somehow, we must work with the rest of the world to avoid becoming an afterthought.

No, I don't have the silver bullet for this question. I'd like to vote for someone who has at least an inkling of a way to maintain our culture.

= = = = = =

Next is a book whose title drew me in immediately. We'll see if it's worth reading all the way to the end.

The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead
by David Shields

Super Crunchers

Super Crunchers : How Thinking by Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
by Ian Ayres

Ian was on the BBC one night talking about this book. He's a very persuasive speaker. The stories he told convinced me to get this book from the library. It's quite the book.

This is one of the books that I did not finish. There was enough there for me to take home the one piece of information necessary from every book. Life got a little too complicated, then the library wanted the book back and wouldn't let me renew it!

The first thing Ian talks about is how corporations, governments and large institutions use data mining to improve their business. Think Wal Mart supply chain. When you purchase something at Wal Mart, the entire supply chain is notified and the replacement process starts. All the way back to inland China. They derive outstanding efficiency by doing that. This is not news.

The news to me is how the Internet can be used to do instantaneous market research. I should not have been surprised, because it's so simple.

Ever notice the little ads on virtually every page you load from the Internet? (Me, neither.) They are supplied by the likes of Google, Yahoo!, and many others. They can be related to the content of the page, perhaps from cookie crumbs you've left behind, or whatever.

The market research comes through supplying slightly different ads to the thousands of people looking at the page. For example, one might advertise "All inclusive vacations" and the other "Complete vacation packages." Then, by simply watching the click through rates for the two ads, the researchers know exactly which words have the highest impact. And the cost, almost nothing!

Compared to the dollars and days cost of the old focus groups, this is a great tool for research.

This wasn't a bad book, I actually did try to renew it. But I've moved on to

The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn
a Lakota History
by Joseph Marshall III

The Post American World

The Post American World
by Fareed Zakaria

Newsweek has been my favorite for almost forty years. Fareed Zakaria has been a favorite columnist there ever since I noticed his articles. This is an excellent book. He digs behind the hyperbole and spin to help us understand what is happening in today's world.

By examining what is happening in China and India, by reflecting on this history of Great Britain, he comes to the conclusion that America is not fading into a has-been nation. Rather, the rest of the world is catching up to us.

That's a distinct difference.

China has a long ways to go before they really catch up to us. The author gets to the root of the fear mongering numbers so beloved by politicians For example: China graduates ten times as many engineers as American universities. Once you realize that someone with a two year degree in auto mechanics is called an engineer in China, it's clear that the numbers are misleading.

The last chapters discuss the role of America in policing the world. With our large military and vast influence, America is the one so many countries turn to for leadership. Who asks India to resolve a world problem? The author asks us and our elected officials in Washington to move away from fear as a political statement. Instead, he proposes that we work with the rest of the world, choose what we truly need, then compromise where necessary to accomplish our true goals.

Did I mention that Mr Zakaria is no fan of the current administration?

Enjoy the book. I bought it, and recommend that you might consider the same.

Why do I Love These People?

Why do I Love These People?
by Po Bronson

Our trip to my Uncle Melvin's funeral was quite productive on the reading front. This was the third book of the Montana series.

Much like the book The Art of Aging, this author uses vignettes of real people to illustrate his points. Each person or family faces a challenge or crisis event, and they figure out how to live through it and prosper.

Allow me to use my negative and twisted logic on you for a moment. This is a personal mantra, perfectly illustrated in this book.

1 - Life sucks - Every life is complete with massive and seemingly unsurmountable challenges. My life has been. People I know face tough problems. The person down the hall probably has challenges you've never faced.

2 - Get used to it - There is no way to live life to the fullest without those challenges. They are unavoidable. Even staying home causes ugly, difficult situations.

3 - Life is great - A good life is based on finding what's good in what you already have, then working for it. Those challenges? They are there as a challenge. A positive one. Every negative experience, and every positive experience, provide a base for a good life. It's all in what you're looking for.

The author quoted Shakespeare , "It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."

This book has good lessons, and is a nice read. If you find yourself on a twenty hour drive, pick up the CD.

The Art of Aging

The Art of Aging
by Sherwin Nuland

We read this as an audio book while driving to my uncle's funeral in Montana. It was a pleasant diversion. Dr Nuland gives examples of older people who exemplify the best of each trait. His lessons are thoughtful and worth remembering, but they are not revolutionary. You've heard every one of them before.

• Don't smoke, wear your seat belt
• Eat less ... (See In Defense of Food)
  
• Keep flexible through regular exercise
  
• You're losing it all the time ... you just don't notice until you cross a threshold
• Don't just learn from the mistakes you make, learn from your successes, too
• Keep a positive attitude
  

We enjoyed the stories, and got the message.

So, what have I done to change myself after reading this book? Something learned in childhood from my mother and grandmother. Remember how she always told you to clean your plate? Well, I'm always going to leave something behind. Depending on the serving size, my goal is as much as one-third to one-half of the meal. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now and find that it makes no difference on how hungry I feel after a meal.

Maybe someday it will show up as a change to the reading on the bathroom scale?

= = = = Guy

unChristian

unChristian
by David Kinnaman

The author made the case that many of the non-Christian's negative observations of Christians were brought on by the Christians own behavior.

Those negative observations are:

• Hypocritical
• Too focused on getting converts
• Anti homosexual
  
• Sheltered
• Too political
• Judgmental
  

It would be difficult for me to disagree, as many publicly Christian people do exhibit these tendencies.

The author takes you through many examples of each trait, and offers suggestions for ways Christians can change their behavior to change the perception of the activities. Unfortunately, he offers no ideas on how to change the actual negative behaviors.

This is actually a book I did not finish. We were in Montana for an uncle's funeral. This book went to breakfast with me each morning. After reading the introductory chapters, the table of contents, and a chapter on being hypocritical, it lost my interest.

Check it out from the library, not a book store.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch

First ... my apologies for running off at the mouth. This post far exceeds my personal limits for how much I would ever read in a blog posting. If you do nothing else, watch the video and get the book. Have you ever read a book cover to cover without getting out of the chair? This is one of those books.


You may have seen the popular YouTube video (watch video) about a Carnegie Mellon University professor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. (See the lecture on Randy's home page, look on the lower left hand side of the page. Click to view.) The video is one of the most inspiring things I saw on the web in 2007. This is partly because I watched it while visiting my brother, who was recovering from kidney cancer surgery. Randy appears to be the kind of person I would love to be. I have much to be thankful for, but to have his positive outlook and creative energy would be icing on the cake.

His major goal for the last several months of his life has been to leave something for his three young children and wonderful wife. He believes they need something to help them remember who he was and how much he wanted to be there for them. This project has left something for all of us to look up to. His book is a very public part of the equation. The book is also called The Last Lecture, and is a quick and easy read.

This is where I'd recommend that you click over to B&N to order the book, or (even better) turn off the computer and head to your local book store for a copy of The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch .

Each chapter has a particular lesson, complete with plenty of personal stories.

• "When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you." Assistant coach
• "I don't believe in the no-win scenario." Wm Shatner
• Question from a guest: "What time does the park close?" Walt Disney World worker reply: "The park is open until eight PM."
• Pour the Coke onto the upholstery before the kids have an accident. It's only a car.
• "Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something." Randy

One of the more interesting chapters is about Time Management. The chapter apparently was good enough that he created a second video, which he considers at least as useful as the first. It's also on Randy's home page.

• Time must be explicitly managed, like money
• You can always change your plans, but only if you have one
• Ask yourself: Are spending yout time on the right things?
• Develop a good filing system
• Rethink the telephone
• Stand up when you're talking
• Hang up on telemarketers while you're talking. (Not when they're talking.)
• Call someone when they want to go to lunch
• Delegate
• Take a time out (do not do work email on vacation)
• Leave a very difficult, but possible, path for people to find your phone number

"Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think!" -Randy

Give your kids permission to break the rules now and then ... they don't always have to be in by bed time.

When Mom says "Stop leaning back in that chair," Tell her " If I break the chair, I'll replace the dining room set." How to meet people (work groups)

• Exchange contact info, pronounce their name correctly
• Find things you have in common
• Let everyone talk
• Check your ego at the door
• Praise each other
• Phrase alternatives as questions. Not "I think we should do A." Instead "What if we did A instead of B?"

As I was working on this review, I realized that every chapter wanted a piece of me. There's just too much to say about this book. Here's something you don't hear me say very often: You must read this book.




More pithy things I want to remember from the book.

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Seneca (Roman philosopher 5 BCE

Send a Thank you note. On Paper. Hand written. Do something on the same scale. If they did a big thing, do a big thing for them.

How to apologize

1. What I did was wrong.
2. I feel badly that I hurt you
3. How do I make this better?

Tell the truth.

No job is beneath you.

All you have to do is ask.

Make a decision ... Tigger or Eeyore?

However well they did on the project, the response is "Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better." No matter how good it was!

Virtual world programming: http://www.alice.org