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1. 

   Robert W on January 3, 2022 at 10:42 am

   Thank you for sharing the list, I’m going to check out the Pentagon Wars based on your review in the other book post.

   if you have space for it, I am interested in your SSH analysis perspective on ‘The Hail Mary Project’ by Andy Weir. Like his earlier book The Martian, it is a very nuts & bolts sci-fi work that engages rational problem solving with mostly current technology by a man alone against his hostile environment. Is the protagonist a gamma? Does that impact his heroism? What can men learn from this story/type of story?

   This one mixes in heaps of first contact with alien life, interstellar travel, and one world governance. The audiobook version is probably the strongest delivery method since it includes some of the sound cues that impact the story.
   It’ll probably be a serialized mini-series soon enough anyways, the Martian was snapped up into a faithful movie very quickly.

   RE Five Love Languages By Gary Chapman:
   My wife and I read this as part of a group study within the first two years of our marriage. It was a useful read but seems like it was a 24-page brochure puffed up to a 120-page book. The core concept of people experiencing incoming love in different ways and express outgoing love in different ways has a broad application beyond romance. In any type of customer-facing context, it’s good to pick up on how people respond. Just listening to the problems (quality time) or taking charge immediately (acts of service) or just a replacement latte (gifts) or a statement of appreciation for bringing it up (words of affirmation) all come into play.
   Chapman (author) has made a real cash cow out of this whole thing though, there’s a half dozen different variations on this book that are all, years after release, still in the top sellers of relationships book. It makes me think people are looking for quick and easy fixes for handling people, and this promises quick and easy without having to do any work on one’s own self, at most just changes in how to respond to other people.

   I would find your perspective on it interesting, in particular on how applicable (or not) it is in cross-cultural (eg USA/India) dynamics.

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     Didact on January 6, 2022 at 7:13 am

     if you have space for it, I am interested in your SSH analysis perspective on ‘The Hail Mary Project’ by Andy Weir. Like his earlier book The Martian, it is a very nuts & bolts sci-fi work that engages rational problem solving with mostly current technology by a man alone against his hostile environment. Is the protagonist a gamma? Does that impact his heroism? What can men learn from this story/type of story?

     I will put this on my reading list and get back to you when I’m done with the book. I have never read Andy Weir’s work before, so this should be interesting.

     It was a useful read but seems like it was a 24-page brochure puffed up to a 120-page book.

     I agree. It contained some very useful advice that helped me figure out some major issues in my relationship with my lady – and when I say, “major”, I mean, “full-on screaming meltdowns that last hours if not days”. But overall, like most self-help books, it takes one basic concept and REALLY makes a meal out of it.

     Chapman (author) has made a real cash cow out of this whole thing though, there’s a half dozen different variations on this book that are all, years after release, still in the top sellers of relationships book. It makes me think people are looking for quick and easy fixes for handling people, and this promises quick and easy without having to do any work on one’s own self, at most just changes in how to respond to other people.

     Of course, because people are mostly lazy (self VERY much included). As humans, we are wired to expend the least amount of energy to get what we need, and this inevitably means that, when it comes to relationships, we try to find an easy way out as quickly as possible. Gary Chapman’s work has merit, certainly, and to his credit, he does require people to face up to their own failings in his book. But, overall, like most self-help books, it is really all about solving a relationship issue with minimal effort and pain.

     I would find your perspective on it interesting, in particular on how applicable (or not) it is in cross-cultural (eg USA/India) dynamics.

     I should be able to oblige in a Domain Query podcast later.

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