|
|
What do you want to see on this website? Send me questions and suggestions. I'll address them here. tad@lastingcontribution.com Q: Why did you write this book?
A: I see many well-intentioned people in the world who are trying to do good work, but because they don’t understand economics or game theory or statistics or some other field, they are not as effective as they could be. Since not everybody has the time or inclination to study all of these fields, I took an idea from the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi who said, “The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap.” My goal was to bring the insights from various fields of study to more people so they could be more effective in their well-intentioned pursuits.
Q: What do you hope to get out of having written it?
A: The book is the result of over 25 years of exploring ideas that are at once useful and mind-blowing. On the one hand, I want to share these ideas and have people say, “That is so cool!” On the other hand, I want the book to be an opportunity for people to tell me, “That reminds me of _____.” Ideally, people will e-mail me their insights and I’ll post them on the book’s website so everybody can both have fun with and benefit from the ideas.
Q: What went into writing it?
A: I synthesized thought from East and West, science and the humanities, ancient and modern, practical and theoretical.
Q: What were your sources?
A: Between my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I’ve taken course in 21 different departments. I’m fluent in Chinese and have traveled to over 25 countries. My expertise is in measurement and evaluation, which is to say that I’ve spent my career determining what worked and why. Finally, in terms of writing, I have over 300 publications so I believe I’ve made some of the more obscure ideas accessible to people who haven’t studied them in depth.
Q: Who do you hope will benefit most from this book?
A: The book is targeted to people who want to make a difference in the world. As I originally saw it, this broke down into two groups of people:
• Thinkers who already have a sophisticated understanding of the world, but who don’t know how to translate that understanding into results.
• Doers who are prone to action, but who want their actions to have a greater impact on the world.
But targeting is an imprecise science and I’ve found a third group of people are also seeking to benefit from this book. I am often asked, “How can I use these ideas to raise my children?” The image that pops into my head is that of a mushroom: Raise your children such that they have a fair degree of breadth of learning. This assures that they are generally competent and that they’ve tried enough different things to discover where their strengths are. Encourage them to go deep into the area where they have strength. Then apply strength to world.
Q: What is the relationship between making a lasting contribution and achieving professional success?
A: I don’t really know what “professional success” is. Success is success, and there is no distinction between the professional and the personal. I know plenty of miserable ‘successful’ people. They are rich, but empty. In comparison, I have a dirt-poor friend who grows garlic and home-schooled his daughter. He is happy and his daughter (also happy) is blowing through college at age 14. Who do you think is more successful? My point is the same as the poet Louise Erdrich’s:
Pursue the authentic—decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
This is the path to true success.
Q: How are people who’ve already read it reacting to Lasting Contribution?
A: Different people read the book very differently. Some people read it simply for entertainment. They like the squirrels that cause avalanches, the pachyderms that turn into cheetahs, the singing vorpal blades, and the high-casualty cocktail parties. Other people read it for the utility they can extract from it. They find useful the explanation of the essence of business, the application of minimax, and the analysis of how to become wealthy. Still others are into the ideas, citing in particular that they didn’t know that hermeneutics, information theory, and the notion of emergent properties have so much in common. Finally, some people are most drawn to the overall idea of a systematic way of thinking about how to contribute to the world and to have a meaningful life. Everybody appreciates that it can be read in an hour and a half.
Q: What do you want readers to take away with them after reading the book?
A: To become more sophisticated in thought and action so that they make the world a better place and have more meaningful lives.
Q: For example?
A: Suppose you see a parent lose patience with a screaming baby. Like any decent person, you would feel moved to help, but what could you do? Offer to carry the groceries? Play peek-a-boo? Give the kid a lolly? You could do what Jean Ann Lynch did. She asked: Why is the baby crying? In many cases, she understood, that the baby is uncomfortable due to diaper rash, caused by the parents being unable to afford diapers. Lynch created an organization, called Baby Basics, which gathers donations to give diapers to working-poor families. More diapers means less diaper rash. Less rash means less crying. Less crying, means less child abuse.
Q: What books do you recommend for would-be non-fiction authors? A: In addition to a good dictionary, start with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Joseph Williams' Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, and Bruce Larson's Effective Writing. When you've mastered those, move onto Sol Stein's Stein on Writing and Robert Harris' Writing with Clarity and Style. Robert McKee's Story is for screenwriting, but is still helpful. George Orwell's Why I Write is also helpful. If you want to get fancy, then read Arthur Quinn's Figures of Speech. Q: Do you link share? A: Sure. Here's one: http://www.selfgrowth.com/ SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self -Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web. Yeats reflected upon his intellectual life and found it “a preparation for something that never happens.” Waddington offers us a contrast – a reflection upon preparation for what is happening.—Ted Hayes, PhD, Principal Research Scientist, The Gallup Organization |
|
|