Push Has Come to Shove by Steve Perry

Steve Perry is the kind of guy I wouldn't mind working for. He demands excellence, doesn't accept excuses, is for whatever works, and occasionally swears.

In Push Has Come to Shove, Perry lays out in no uncertain terms what he thinks is wrong with American schools. I tend to agree with much, but not all, of his analysis. His dedication to kids and the concern he has for the present and future of America is great.

Anyone with an interest in education, and why it doesn't seem to be working as well as we think it should, will find Push Has Come to Shove to be stimulating, thought-provoking, and sometimes even inspirational. On the other hand, his suggestion that people get together and enter into class action lawsuits against school districts for failing to properly educate children is, well, crazy. If anyone (especially lawyers) thought there was a chance that schools could be sued into better performance, it would have been tried long ago, I'm quite sure.

Perry states that he wrote the book to inform parents how to demand better for their kids. Some teachers might find it a bit hard to take in places. I think it is refreshingly blunt. Educators need to hear that not all is well in their profession, that not everyone is trying to do their best, and that trying to do your best and failing just doesn't cut it. Harsh words Dr. Perry, harsh words.

He slams teacher unions about as hard as they can be slammed without being over-the-top rabid. In fairness, all unions exist to benefit their members first and foremost, and there is nothing wrong with doing a good job of it. Could and should the unions work more as partners with school districts to improve education? Sure, but Perry gives no indication he thinks that is possible. Maybe it isn't.

Although the prep school where Dr. Perry is principal has and continues to do an excellent job in a tough district, he gives the impression that he thinks everyone should go to college. It is not clear whether or not he actually believes that, but he doesn't seem to have much regard for the trade professions. If he does, it doesn't come out in this book.

Perry is focused on how better teachers and better teaching are the key to better results. He might be a bit out of the loop when it comes to understanding the difference between teaching and learning. Perry places nearly all responsibility for a child's education squarely on the shoulders of teachers with administrators and parents coming in second, while at the same time professing no tolerance for kids who don't do their homework.

He is for school choice and vouchers, is fine with the privatization of public education, and sees the potential benefits of technology in the classroom. He even gives a nod to individualized learning. He seems to be willing to mix and match ideas that work, no matter their source, political correctness and the unproven theories of scholars and pundits be damned. Dr. Perry is the kind of school leader, who if given the correct information, will make the right decisions to move a school forward and advance achievement. He is for truth, for reality, and for kids. Good deal.

We all need to have what we think is the right thing to do for kids to be challenged from time to time. Dr. Perry is tough customer with a sharp intellect honed by front-line experience and success. I'd hate to have to face him in a debate on how to improve student achievement. I'd probably lose, even if I was right.

The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

 In The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder chronicles a year at Data General, as an engineering team is tasked with creating a new computer on an impossible schedule.

Cover of The Soul of a New Machine (Peter A Harrington)

The year is 1979. Data General had earned a reputation as a renegade computer company with an aggressive sales force and compelling products. Competitors told their customers to watch out for Data General, that they were bad news. But this only led to increased exposure and more interest from buyers. Their 16-bit Nova and Eclipse machines had been successful and the company was flush with cash, but there was trouble on the horizon. Digital Equipment Corporation had come out with their 32-bit "super-mini" - the VAX, and Data General didn't have anything to compete with it.

Data General's Project Eagle

Tracy Kidder, who at the time had one previous book under his belt, spent a year at Data General chronicling the efforts, conflicts, stumbles and victories of a team of hardware and software engineers that were tasked, almost begrudgingly, by a seemingly cold and uncaring management team, with creating the company's own 32-bit machine to compete with the VAX. There was a lot of money to be made, if only they could get to market before the VAX came to dominate.

Code-named "Eagle" the new machine almost never got the chance. The company had recently moved a research and development team to a new location in another state and most resources for a 32-bit machine (code-named "Fountainhead") were funneled there. However, a guy named Tom West managed to keep an independent team working on Eagle as sort of an insurance policy in case Fountainhead didn't work out. If the much better funded and staffed Fountainhead project succeeded before they did it would be a colossal waste of time and money. People would probably get fired.

The All-Consuming Machines

Two prototypes of the Eagle were built and these machines came to dominate the lives of the protagonists. There is no one central character (with the exception of perhaps West), and Kidder weaves individuals in and out of the tale as they assume important roles in the project. Most of them agreed that they weren't in it for the money (which was decent for the time), but for the challenge, and to be involved at the lowest level in creating a new computer. At one point, the engineers discovered that the hourly technicians actually made more money than they did.

One might think that this book could only appeal to a computer geek, but not so. It's an adventure as well as a techno-drama. Will they pull it off or go crazy? Will the Fountainhead team come in first and make their efforts a huge waste of time? Will the 12-18 hour days take too much of a toll on personal lives? Is there a big payoff in terms of prestige, money and stock options in the end? They are never quite sure, but they keep going. And for the true computer or engineering geek, The Soul of a New Machine is pure inspiration.

An excerpt of The Soul of a New Machine can be found at Businessweek.com

References

The Soul of a New Machine, 1981, Tracy Kidder, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, ISBN 0-316-49170-5

Note: This review first appeared at Suite101.com and is of the 1981 edition published by Little, Brown, and Co.

Adapt by Tim Harford

The subtitle of Adapt is "Why Success Always Starts With Failure." Fitting. The history of great ideas is littered with examples of failure. In just about any endeavor, failure is much more common than success. Using a diverse range of examples and case studies, Tim Harford (who is known as the Undercover Economist and writes the Dear Economist column for the London-based Financial Times) makes a strong case for failure being a critical component of success.

There are a lot of ways for a business, organization, or even a lone person to be successful in an ever changing landscape of whim, desire, need, and mind-share. Using examples from the war in Iraq, Google, the company that makes GORE-TEX, the "too big to fail" financial meltdown, the problems caused by carbon, and a Twyla Tharp musical (among others), Harford presents a strong case for the necessity of failure. Failure may be necessary, but it is only useful if you learn something from it.

Fail, Fail, Fail -----> Succeed!

Harford begins with some pretty harsh (but fair) criticism of the way the Unites States initially conducted the war in Iraq and makes no bones about exactly who was to blame for years of questionable results. Chalk it all up to a failure to recognize reality and a failure to adapt. A war can not be molded to fit the abilities of an army, an army must mold itself to fit the needs of the conflict and Harford gives numerous examples of how that has largely been accomplished (once Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was removed from the scene).

Google is well know for a few really successful products like Google Search and Gmail. They are also known for a long list of colossal failures (like Wave and Buzz). No matter, the success of their few winners more than compensates for any loss resulting from their failures. Google succeeds over the long haul because they are willing to let people use company time to develop their own ideas. The good ideas survive peer review and perhaps garner support from above. The ones that don't, well, they are left to die. But the important thing is, a killed idea is no biggie. Google expects most ideas to fail. Indeed, so do the other successful companies and people discussed in the book.

How to Fail and Still Succeed

Most success is fleeting. There is always someone trying to do things better, or invent something we didn't even know we needed. Change is disruptive and it's hard to make a good idea last. One good idea must lead to another, and another, and so on for success to have any legs. How do you do that?

You must be able to adapt.  There has to be a mechanism in a person or an organization that allows for experimentation, with the understanding that most experiments will fail. The few that work out lead to market-leading products, like Elixer guitar strings, or war-winning aircraft designs like the Spitfire of World War II.

There are plenty of nuggets of helpful information to be gleaned from a careful reading of Adapt. However, if one could summarize the theme of this book in a few lines, it would be hard to improve upon the three principles Harford attributes to an unfortunate Russian engineer named Peter Palchinsky (unfortunate because he happened to be a smart, no-nonsense guy living during the Stalin era). The "Palchinsky Principles" are:

1. Seek out new ideas and try new things
2. Try new things on a small scale so that failure is survivable.
3. Seek feedback and learn from your mistakes as you go.

We are wise to accept failure as a useful (no, not merely useful—necessary) part of a process that, along with healthy dose of perseverance and a reasonable amount of intelligence, can result in something truly great. Because, as Harford summarizes near the end of his excellent book "...we're unlikely to get it right the first time."

References

Adapt: Why Success Always Begins With Failure. Tim Harford. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, NY, 2011

The Element by Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson gets a lot of respect from educators and just about everyone else who is interested in creativity and learning. He is well known for his views on how schools tend to have the opposite effect of that desired. He claims schools kill creativity in children and, more often than we'd like to admit, turn them into cogs in the giant wheel of industry. He's not far wrong on that.

In The Element Robinson discusses the importance of "finding one's element." He defines one's "element" as that thing which ignites passion and drive in a person, leading them to pursue it until ultimately success and great personal satisfaction are achieved. A personal element could be music, dance, a sport, a technology, or an idea. Anything really.

Sit Ken (yes, he is a Knight) writes in a pleasant and conversational style, which makes the book quite a pleasure to read. But can it help YOU find your element? If you are looking for a step-by-step guide for finding your element and making it big, you won't find it here. I admit, I was kind of hoping for that! But, alas...

What Robinson does do though is provide an extensive series of personal stories about the lives of people who have indeed found their element. These stories are interesting and inspiring even. One thing seems to stand out too. Almost none of the people profiled in The Element (some you have heard of and some you haven't) liked school and in most cases they weren't even very good at it. They were interested in other things besides learning a rote curriculum. Things that were, as often as not, not valued by parents, teachers or friends. School in fact, seems to play a relatively minor role in person's overall success in life. Interesting eh?

The take home message seems to be this:

1. Work hard at what you love.
2. Do not be discouraged by naysayers, even if they happen to be husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, or parents (that's does seem hard doesn't it?).
3. Stick with it.

When you are working on something that inspires you to do those three things, you will have found your element. When you are in your element, that is when you are most likely to find a great deal of success and personal satisfaction in what you do. It's pretty hard to argue with that.

For those who are unfamiliar with Ken Robinson's ideas on creativity and education, I invite you to watch his TED talk presented in the following video.

Uranium by Tom Zoellner

Uranium. It's nature's heaviest naturally occurring element. Tom Zoellner examines the history, science, and politics surrounding this controversial metal.

Continuing on a geological theme he began with The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds (2006), Tom Zoellner provides a sweeping account of uranium. Few metals have been surrounded by as much intrigue, danger and promise as the 92nd element of the periodic table.

Uranium Geology and Uranium Mining

Uranium is not rare. It is the 40th most abundant element on earth (30 times more abundant than silver). The author takes the reader on a tour of uranium history beginning with its discovery and purification, and the discovery of uranium radioactivity and nuclear fission.

Mining uranium ore is dangerous business. Although the book does not go into a lot of detail, you will finish it with some idea of its hazards, where the major ore deposits are, and how it is processed into yellow cake (urania–a uranium oxide) and transported around the world. If you like rocks it's great; if not, then it's probably boring.

Zoellner does a nice job of describing the early scramble of governments that tried to obtain as much uranium as they could. The uranium prospecting boom of the 50's was an interesting time. As could be expected, there have been (and continue to be) numerous rip-off schemes surrounding uranium prospecting and mining, the sale of uranium mine stock, and other uranium investment schemes.

Uranium as a Weapon

The story of the weaponization of uranium to make atomic bombs is by now a familiar one. Zoellner spends little time retelling the history of the Manhattan Project and Soviet era weapons development programs. Outside of a few interesting anecdotes, these episodes in uranium history have been left to other accounts (of which there are many).

The current state of nuclear security, or more accurately the lack thereof, in the former Russian republics is discussed and a number of examples of known nuclear theft are recounted. A significant amount of nuclear material has gone missing from various parts of the world and Zoellner provides some speculation as to what might have happened to it.

The outline of how Pakistan came to achieve the bomb and posses a nuclear arsenal of perhaps one hundred warheads is enlightening. Given that Pakistan is a country of 175 million people with a literacy rate of 30%, currently in the throws of a fundamentalist uprising, it holds one's interest.

The nuclear ambitions of Iran are also covered. The reader is left with the impression that Iran's intents are not entirely peaceful. Throw in the little known nuclear energy project in Yemen, and there is plenty of worrisome information to digest.

Uranium Politics and Business

There has always been political intrigue and business scheming surrounding uranium. This is no surprise given its use as an energy source and of course as a weapon-making material. In the early days, the price of uranium was kept artificially high by a cartel of producers that conspired to control prices and divide the sales up so none would go out of business.

During the later part of the 20th century the value of uranium plummeted as nuclear power fell out of favor for environmental reasons and after several high-profile reactor accidents. Times are changing though and Zoellner reviews the current state of the uranium market (yellow cake is selling for $50-$70 a pound in mid 2009) and the prospect for a resurgence in reactor building and employment for nuclear engineers.

For anyone with an interest in nuclear energy, weapons proliferation, or the intersection of science, technology and politics Uranium is worth the time. It reads almost like a novel, with a minimum of technical jargon, making it accessible to just about anyone with a desire to learn more about this fascinating metal.

References

Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World, 2009, Tom Zoellner, Penguin Books Ltd., London, ISBN 978-0-670-02064-5

Note: This article first appeared at Suite101.com.