Dan Erwin

The Unique Gifts of Reading

Back in 2020 I wrote that 'I've always wanted to say something very direct when an acquaintance or a client asked why I read so much, but I was always a bit too cautious to verbalize my real beliefs out loud.

But if a prominent, knowledgeable person  supports my beliefs publicly, I'll happily repeat them. I followed up then with a quote from General Mattis verbalizing my actual beliefs in the context of the military: If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain sustain you. Any commander who claims he is "too busy to read" is going to fill body bags with his troops as he learns the hard way.  
Boy, have I changed my mind since then.

In a recent study, I retrieved tons of personal stories, revealing my profoundly unconscious growth as a result of my reading from as early as the fifth grade, I began learning basic "noticing" and "analytical" skills in the fifth grade by reading kid detective stories like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes. Some of these stories are really just "kid stuff," but phenomenally useful to this fifth-grade kid. 

I learned to question the elementary ethics that had been pounded into my head by my mother and in Sunday School by reading the works of Mark Twain. His Huck Finn was a show-stopper in my life, causing me to rethink, helping to decide what to hold on to and what to discard. Robinson Crusoe taught me that I could sometimes learn without help from others. And the Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes taught me the opposite--the value of associates in learning. And some of those books were not even "great literature."

The Secret to Great Reading

I would never have thought about the secret to literature as well as history and the arts except that recently I finished Mark Edmundson’s fabulous little book, “Why Read,” for at least the third time. The book has been so enlightening for me that this was my third actual copy of the book. I read my first copy, shortly after it came out in 2004, and marked it up, along with about two pages of notes in the front. Then six or seven years ago, I picked up Edmundson’s book on the humanities which included three books, “Why Teach? Why Write? And a second copy for me of “Why Read?” All three copies of “Why Read?” have sets of my notes that are reflective of the different perspectives that were shaping my life during just these last twenty years.

Surprisingly, this third copy has the most notes throughout the book and in the front pages. There are four full pages of notes in that copy and different responses throughout most of the pages. Clearly, this last read surfaced issues out of my past that were not yet clear in the earlier reads. I’ve had a very busy brain for the last twenty years. It’s had no off-switch.

Informative versus illuminating
What Edmundson explains so well is the distinction between writing that merely informs and literature which illuminates. The distinction is important. Writing that is informative focuses on data, facts, statistics, things known that provide the basis for reasoning or calculation. Illumination, in contrast, focuses upon change which can impact the individual, enhancing not merely their understanding, but their life.

Top Ten Books for College Orientation

Many students heading off to college for the first time this fall already have a college-level assignment. In preparation for their first year, they’re expected to have read a book over the summer and come prepared to discuss it in class.

It was not just any book, but a “common reading.” It was a specific book selected by their institution to not only create a shared experience, but also planned to be the subject of discussions by college freshmen and their teachers. As you look through the list, compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education, you’ll notice that many of them are intended to help raise awareness of social issues.

The term “occurrences” refers to the number of colleges using the book in the “one book, one campus” program--not to the fact that I lost the six-grade spelling bee by misspelling “occurrence.” And that’s another fact, jogging my 76-year-old memory. Ha!

Here’s the list of the top ten books, in order of selection numbers. I’ll also add a comment or two about each of the books.

1. Just Mercy: A story of justice and redemption, by Bryan Stevenson (73 occurrences). Bryan Stevenson grew up poor in Delaware, the great grandson of slaves. His grandfather was murdered in a Philadelphia housing project when Stevenson was a teenager. After graduating from college, he went on to Harvard Law, and then began representing poor clients in the South.
2. Educated: A memoir, by Tara Westover (57 occurrences). If you thought Hillbilly Elegie was great, it’s tame in contrast to Westover’s story of going to college with no education. Her ignorance of the Holocaust, and discoveries of Napoleon and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as the fact of learning that Europe is not a country is all excruciating. Yet soon enough, she’s off to a fellowship at Cambridge University, where a renowned professor exclaims upon meeting her: “How marvelous. It’s as if I’ve stepped into Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion.’”
3. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nahisi Coates (35 occurrences). The well-known writer and commentator delivers his book in the form of a letter to his son. It overflows with insights about the embodied state of blackness and the logic of white supremacy. If you’re an avid reader you’ll know that a lot of his insights about being Black in a White world are being strongly challenged, making it still more important for the reader. 

A Tour de Force On, Of All Things, National Policy

After reading Ganesh Sitaraman's brilliant and highly creative tome on The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution:Why economic inequality threatens our republic, I couldn't wait for his and Anne Alstott's little book, The Public Option: How to expand freedom, increase opportunity and promote equality. Usually, I'd think a book like this might be boring--but that notion is miles away from the truth. It's a real page-turner.

Before I get into the book, let me emphasize that it's immensely readable. Illustrations, examples, caveats, questions, theory, solutions: the whole package. Fact of the matter, I ran a quick test of its literacy level, finding that the book was written at the level of high school seniors and college freshman. I suspect that was exactly what they intended. And although the back page reviews are effusive, as far as I'm concerned they could be still more effusive.

So the President is a MotherF**ker??

On several occasions I've written about swearing and rhetoric as well as about expletive naming. In a recent article, Emma Byrne adds to my ideas by writing about the "scientific case for calling the president a motherf*cker."   Byrne especially likes the Rep. Rashida Tlaib's remark, noting that she used the swear word in rhetorically correct fashion.  As Byrne writes, rhetoric reveals that this kind of language signals trust and a sense of belonging--and it also "fosters closeness and suggests a greater degree of authenticity."

Tlaib's swearing differs significantly from Trump's graphic description of sexual advances and his assault of women. While Trump's language intensifies feelings of disgust and revulsion, Tlaib's language has an instinct for the power of words and and the feelings of her colleagues and constituency. There's a sense of comeuppance in her language. It just feels good to say what she's saying about him.

One of the more intriguing insights that Byrne brings to her book on swearing is the distinction, the shit-fuck ratio, of these two swear words. "Shit" is inevitably negative, and  I'm aware of only one positive use of the term, a use that I've never heard except from my Methodist Grandmother Butterworth. She was born and raised in Arkansas and settled in Western Kentucky, spending most of her life as the widowed owner of a tobacco farm. Her world was late 19th and first half of the twentieth century. She used it to refer to me when I said or did something that was "smart alecky." In a positive, and humorous comment--and with a smile--she'd call me "a little shit." I understood it as a high compliment.

Fifty Years of Curiosity

For more than 50 years, I’ve been trying to understand why dealing with powerful people was initially so nerve-wracking and scary. When I told one of my daughters about these fears, she was shocked. “But dad,” she responded, “you’re a very powerful and intelligent guy yourself.” That’s not where I started out. Fact of the matter, in a piece of feedback at my 50^th high school anniversary, eight of my classmates said they didn’t really recognize me. When I asked why, they responded in unison that the guy they knew as “Dan” was “shy, quiet and withdrawn.” Not the Dan sitting in front of them in 2002.

What changed it all was that I understood that if I was to be successful in my vocation, I’d have to change my behaviors—drastically. I was very fortunate. With tons of education, mentoring and feedback, I was able to make the changes. Though obvious now, for a long time I failed to understand my shyness and withdrawal. I thought it was just a natural characteristic.

Where fear comes from
I grew up with a highly narcissistic mother. Going through the psychiatric classification of mental disorders, the DSM-5, I noted that she knocked seven of the nine defining narcissistic categories out of the ballpark. As my brother said over her grave, she was a “mean lady.” I learned early on that I’d have to work hard to please her, take care of her, defer to her opinions and agree with how she understood the world. Of course, I also learned that if I disagreed or didn’t do what she expected, she was liable to abuse me emotionally and withdraw any and all rewards. 

So, going away to college—far, far away, offered freedom at last...

I Never Thought I’d Read a Psych Book this Enlightening—and This Much Fun!

               Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do
                    By John Bargh, PhD

Last Spring, I got cornered by one of my friends, a psych analyst, while vacationing with her and her husband. We’d been having some heavy discussions and I’d been taking a solid position on the conscious brain and ignoring the unconscious (Only nerds like me do such things.) Finally, she asked the question: “Well, Dan, do you believe in the unconscious?” Recognizing she was probably pissed, I stared at her for about 30 very quiet seconds and finally responded, “I’m agnostic.” That discussion went no further.

But after working through John Bargh’s book, I’m a convert to the phenomenal role of the unconscious brain. Bargh had me from the first line of his book: “In college, I majored in psychology and minored in Led Zeppelin. Or maybe it was the other way around.” The scholarship doesn’t get any better, and the fun never stops. . 

Deciding Whether to Buy a Book. . . .

Or, why I bought Yascha Mounk’s The People vs Democracy.

If you have only so much time to read and you’re watching your pennies, how do you decide whether to buy a new book outside your area of expertise? One way to go at that is to check out who’s reviewing the book. You may not know all the reviewers, but you can probably flag bias pretty quickly if you read a few of the online reviews. Next you have to ask yourself what you think about the bias. And then, decide. I bought Mounk’s book on the above basis!

Mounk’s recent book The People vs. Democracy has been reviewed or commented about positively in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Economist, Washington Post, The Atlantic and the New Yorker. That says “buy me.” I had read his earlier book with much admiration, and this was another fascinating study to buy and digest.

Mounk points out that democracy—not just in the US—is going through its worst crisis since..

Information Overload Anxiety (IOA)

. . . And how to overcome it.

Our world is a poly-saturated, paper and internet-polluted society. A world in which those with the right information have power. A world where fortunes are made or lost, careers are secured or shot, health is enhanced or damaged by one factor--information. Indirectly, I built my business out of a love of cutting-edge information. I was enlightened of its importance by a Pillsbury client about 25 years ago. I had just recommended a book to an IT director and he responded with a strong rejection--and a comment: "We pay you to read for us."

I thought it was a stupid comment. But I took it to the bank for big bucks.

This, however, is not the 1980s. Anyone with a slight excess of gray matter understands the necessity of reading, study and learning today--just to keep up and build a little career security. As a consequence, I'm regularly asked what I'm reading--and how I stay on top of stuff. Since I'm currently reworking my reading habits, now's a good time to respond to that question. 

Over the past couple years I've been cutting back on my newspapers, journals and magazines. For a number of reasons. The overlap in some results in needless ...

Intellectually Curious? A Potpourri of Insights for the End of the Year

The Eavesdropper: Saving the lost art of conversation. Sherry Turkle, MIT’s digital psychologist, (an academic interested in the relationship between humans and machines) has an enlightening interview with Atlantic’s Megan Garber. Conversation is messy, full of pauses, interruptions and topic changes, she admits. So Turkle and Garber take us on a tour through a local Apple stores, noting that everybody’s talking, but nobody’s talking about anything except what’s on the machines—to prove her point. My protégé recently responded quite affirmatively to my comment that techies are usually the poorest conversationalists in an organization, especially when compared with folk in, say. . . marketing. But I have no complaints. Their inadequacies brought in big consulting bucks. In her new book she’s going to “out” herself as a “partisan of conversation.” Why do you think that’s actually important? I can give you a pot full of reasons.

In a formal recant, Ross Douthat gives us Confessions of a Columnist. I suspect he’s taking a tip from David Brooks’ paean for humility. Douthat intrigues us with several important big mistakes which he made in 2013. He told us, in effect, that he’s a poor predictor. . .

What Are You Reading? Here Are Five Especially on Career Development

What’s often frustrating about the plethora of web material on personal development is the difficulty of sorting the highly useful recommendations from the fluff or the just plain wrong-headed. A terrific amount of so-called career research suffers from the halo effect—the bias that because an attribute is productive in one occasion, then the other related attributes will also be productive—and in other situations. The halo effect is also at work in the distinction between cause and correlation. Still, there is far more empirical, social science and humanistic research in the field than most would imagine, so whenever that’s available, I recommend it to my clients. On other occasions, I recommend the work of well-known authorities. Here are a number of potentially useful recommendations.

Stanford’s Bob Sutton, on Five signs that your mentor is giving you bad advice, an expert in the field of career and behavior, supplies us with an unusual, even unique set of valuable insights. Sutton reminds us of the struggle to take something that works well in one place and replicate it in another (the halo effect). As Sutton points out to mentees, they “have to play an active role in judging the advice they get.” Sheryl Sandberg is among those who reveal that mentors have played a key role in her success, but that she’s learned . . .