The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism

Book Description

Today's “managerial” capitalism has grown hopelessly out of touch with the people it should be serving. The Support Economy explores the chasm between people and corporations and reveals a new society of individuals who seek relationships of advocacy and trust that provide support for their complex lives.

Unlocking the wealth of these new markets can unleash the next great wave of wealth creation, but it requires a radically new approach—“distributed” capitalism. The Support Economy is a call to action for every citizen who cares about the future.

Customer Reviews:

It is Beginning to Happen.......2007-02-11

I purchased the hardback version when it was first available because I had found Ms Zuboff's other book and her presentations to be enlightening and perceptive regarding the impact of the computer and information technology. That was a few years ago but I have continued to look for markers indicating the concepts in The Support Economy were as perceptive as they seemed. Many of those markers are appearing. Individual pods of services that will be required are now appearing in startup companies and old line service vendors. It will be a while before the necessary institutional compromises will occur that ties the services together but it is happening.

I repeatedly loaned out the hardcopy and recently bought a softback copy to insure I had a reference copy available. If an electronic copy is later made available I will purchase it as well (I find reference information in an electronic version is so much more efficient).

I am smarter than you !.......2005-11-04

The core of the book is correct, but much is an attempt to show how clever the writers are and how much research they have collected over the years. Sure a business does need the people who drive their own car to a passenger's home 150 miles away to deliver a birthday present left on their aircraft, but if you have more than a few of these, you go broke. If things look too good compared to the world around them then they probably they are just too good to be real. Markets are a fine balance bewteen giving paying customers what they will pay for, and having a few layers of very thin gold plate (based on extreme service stories) that make the offer look better than what they are paying for today. Ask anyone who started a business (and gets paid last after the staff and the government) if they believe in the tooth fairy of good times capitalism, and they will tell you if this exists, they are yet to see it.

An Outstanding Diagnosis.......2004-01-06

I strongly recommend The Support Economy.

I'll start with the negatives -- it took me about 100 pages to really get into it; like most business books the authors repeat themselves; the future state they outline is sketchy; and they don't even really attempt to describe how we get from here to there.

The reason I'm recommending it is that Zuboff and Maxmin absolutely nail the diagnosis of what's wrong with the interaction between producers and consumers today -- the way that individuals (at home and at work) are the shock absorbers between what enterprises know how to do and what people today need; the reason that managerial capitalism has to give way to, well, something new that they call "distributed capitalism;" the need to move beyond the relentless optimization of transactions and towards the maximization of value in the context of people's lives. And, thinking about my own situation and those of many of my peers, it just rings true. My personal trainer (who is also an event planner) is a kind of poster child for this new capitalism.

While "support" is in the title, this isn't a book about technical support -- it's about a new value proposition of people helping people, not just better-products-cheaper. That being said, it is strongly influencing my thinking about technical support in general and my consulting company's value proposition in particular.

Stellar!!.......2003-09-17

This book has changed the way I think about the world and business. I never thought about the fact that when markets change the way we do business must change. The book calls us ' history's shock absorbers" as we live with the pain and opportunity that arises when one business model is dying and another is being born. The book is packed with insights, facts and theory that open the mind to a new way of doing business. It is ground breaking stuff. We never think about capitalism in our everyday business lives but maybe we should have done . We are part of history and we can make more money and build better corporations if we really understood this. I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a great read and a map to a new future.

A Pedantic Mess of a Good Idea.......2003-09-10

These authors are on the right track but they are more interested in impressing readers with their vocabulary than following through with some do-able solutions. I firmly believe that corporations need to catch up to what the customer really wants but this book meanders through a maze of technical and non-related issues which distract from the great theme it is about. I trudged through the whole book waiting for an answer to the problem I could understand but there was absolutely no common sense I could grasp that would lead me to a satisfactory conclusion. Felt like I was back in school again. Ugh!

The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism

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The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IOEWP2

Book Description

Managing Organizational Change, by Palmer/Dunford/Akin, provides managers with an awareness of the issues involved in managing change, moving them beyond "one-best way" approaches and providing them with access to multiple perspectives that they can draw upon in order to enhance their success in producing organizational change. These multiple perspectives provide a theme for the text as well as a framework for the way each chapter outlines different options open to managers in helping them to identify, in a reflective way, the actions and choices open to them. The authors favor using multiple perspectives to ensure that change managers are not trapped by a "one-best way" of approaching change which limits their options for action. Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying, as muddling-through and creative a process as it is a rational one. This book recognizes these tensions for those involved in managing organizational change. Rather than pretend that they do not exist it confronts them head on, identifying why they are there, how they can be managed and the limits they create for what the manager of organizational change can achieve.

Book Description

Rice represents a unique opportunity for improvement through genetic engineering. This new book provides a detailed review of past and present developments in the genetic engineering of rice, as well as an informed examination of current genetic engineering material and methods.

Customer Reviews:

Comment.......1999-07-06

In the preface, the author admits that the main body of this book is the fourth of its five chapters, entitled "Rice Transformation", an area in which the author is an undisputed expert. This topic is preceded with Chapter 1 which summarizes the worldwide importance and general botany of rice, and chapters 2 and 3 which present a historical overview of tissue culture in rice. The author rounds out this book on rice biotechnology with Chapter 5 which addresses the introduction of rice genes into other crops via genetic engineering. With this book, the author strove to present a comprehensive and up-to-date review of rice biotechnology. Some new and significant accomplishments are herein presented. The portion of the book dedicated to the author's specific expertise was laced with several interesting comments from the author's own experience, but was somewhat difficult to read due to intentional repetition as well as some unintentional errors. The sections on rice transformation, as the "meat" of this book, could be said to be "plentiful and tasty but a bit gristly". However, the "top slice of bread" on the "sandwich", Chapters 1, 2, and 3, was "stale" and had some holes. This book contains much important information, but I would suggest that readers supplement its reading with the following sources: (1) Khush, G.S., and G.H. Toenniessen, eds. 1991. Rice Biotechnology. CAB International, Wallingford. (2) Ayres, N.N. and W.D. Park. 1994. Genetic transformation of rice. Crit. Rev. in Plant Sci. 13:219-239.

Book Description

As a young man growing up near Basel, Jung was fascinated and disturbed by tales of Nietzsche's brilliance, eccentricity, and eventual decline into permanent psychosis. These volumes, the transcript of a previously unpublished private seminar, reveal the fruits of his initial curiosity: Nietzsche's works, which he read as a student at the University of Basel, had moved him profoundly and had a lifelong influence on his thought. During the sessions the mature Jung spoke informally to members of his inner circle about a thinker whose works had not only overwhelmed him with the depth of their understanding of human nature but also provided the philosophical sources of many of his own psychological and metapsychological ideas. Above all, he demonstrated how the remarkable book Thus Spake Zarathustra illustrates both Nietzsche's genius and his neurotic and prepsychotic tendencies.

Since there was at that time no thought of the seminar notes being published, Jung felt free to joke, to lash out at people and events that irritated or angered him, and to comment unreservedly on political, economic, and other public concerns of the time. This seminar and others, including the one recorded in Dream Analysis, were given in English in Zurich during the 1920s and 1930s.

Customer Reviews:

One of the most insightful guides to Nietzsche's symbolism.......1998-01-28

This is one of the most valuble guides to the study of Nietzsche's philosophy. Symbolism was at the heart of Nietzsche's project, and Jung is the master of symbolic interpretation. Anyone who is attempting to fully grasp Nietzsche's Zarathustra must consult this text. This edition includes an exceptional index, useful in a work of this size and scope.

Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra

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Where philosophy and analytical psychology collide
Jung contra Nietzsche, round 1.
the depth of Jung's knowledge....

Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra

Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691017387

Book Description

Nietzsche's infamous work Thus Spake Zarathustra is filled with a strange sense of religiosity that seems to run counter to the philosopher's usual polemics against religious faith. For some scholars, this book marks little but a mental decline in the great philosopher; for C. G. Jung, Zarathustra was an invaluable demonstration of the unconscious at work, one that illuminated both Nietzsche's psychology and spirituality and that of the modern world in general. The original two-volume edition of Jung's lively seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra has been an important source for specialists in depth psychology. This new abridged paperback edition allows interested readers to participate with Jung as he probes the underlying meaning of Nietzsche's great work.

Customer Reviews:

Where philosophy and analytical psychology collide.......2002-03-06

As always it is amazing to experience C.G.Jung's depth of knowledge of religious systems. Searching for symbols of individuation in his patient's dreams while interacting with these patients might be acceptable, but doing the same thing based on a work of poetic philosophy is a completely different thing. However, here they are treated as being identical- Zarathustra is reduced to an unconscious byproduct of "Nietzsche's revolt against god".
While I am impressed by C.G. Jung's pattern matching abilities, this is also what makes this book ridiculous- Jung's seeing hints and references that are not at all obvious in the analyzed text and even contrary to the author's opinion & stated intent.
This book is useful for getting some inspiration on how to reinterpret Zarathustra- but for a more reliable interpretation, based on the actual text and Nietzsche's other works you should turn to a philsophical book instead.

Unfortunately analytical psychology & psychoanalysis are non-scientific systems making any attempts of discussion futile. This book is very helpful in showing this fact, as you can read how seminar attendants offer equally (im-)plausible interpretations that are simply ignored by Jung without much of a refutation.

Jung contra Nietzsche, round 1........2001-03-31

Wonderful analysis, completely devoid of logical gaps or special requests from the reader: everything said, every assertation, is capable of hitting home and clarifying what was before a quirky throw-back of Nietzsche's. And *interesting* to boot -- this book is no long-winded scrutiny of Zarathustra, but rather the transcription of a private group analysis led by Jung, so it never loses itself in the lofty kingdoms of thought that are the bane of so much criticism.

There's a definite sense of total respect for Nietzsche from Jung . . . almost as though Jung himself (one of the more exceptional intellects of our species) was struggling with the great, monstrous geist of Nietzsche for understanding. Which is a nice touch, having so often seen the man debunked as a megalomaniac, or, worse, a run-of-the-mill madman. This book is a must have for any Nietzsche scholar (no matter what the age or education) and, I imagine, quite useful in understanding Jung as well.

the depth of Jung's knowledge...........2000-06-02

...was simply incredible, as you see it applied here to Nietzsche and his most famous work. Jung goes step by step through it, explaining and amplifying. To his diagnosis of Nietzsche as an inflated and ungrounded intuitive, a slow death by syphillis should perhaps be added. Anyway, a remarkable two-volume exposition.

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Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra
C. G.; Jarrett, James L.; Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav) Jung
Manufacturer: Bollingen Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KY678K

Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934 - 1939 (2 Volume Set)

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Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934 - 1939 (2 Volume Set)
James L. Jarrett C. G. Jung
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU4NMO

Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934-1939 by C. G. Jung (Bollingen Series XCIX)

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Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934-1939 by C. G. Jung (Bollingen Series XCIX)
C. Jung
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBNY5K

Psychological analysis of Nietzche's Zarathustra: Notes on the seminar given by Prof. Dr. C.G. Jung, Zurich, Winter 1935

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Psychological analysis of Nietzche's Zarathustra: Notes on the seminar given by Prof. Dr. C.G. Jung, Zurich, Winter 1935
C. G Jung
Manufacturer: C.G. Jung?
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B0006EFUNW

Book Description

The Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia is recognized globally as an outstanding ecological research centre. The evolution of the Institute of Ecology paralleled the emergence of ecology as a major discipline along with the environmental awareness movement during the last half of the 20th century. Holistic Science: The Evolution of the Georgia Institute of Ecology (1940-2000) assists the reader in understanding not only the challenges, opportunities, and personalities that are bound with the history of the Georgia Institute of Ecology, but also the challenges and obstacles that are involved in establishing an effective interdisciplinary research programme within traditionally fragmented boundaries. Scholars and policy makers increasingly recognize that holistic approaches are needed to address major environmental issues and problems in the 21st century.

Book Description

Bread and circuses were what the Romans demanded of their emperors, and for more than 500 years spectacular events in amphitheaters, circuses, and theaters were the most important leisure activities of the masses in all parts of the Roman empire. In Rome itself, public holidays featuring magnificent and costly shows occupied more than half the year. Comedies and tragedies, pantomimes and bawdy folk plays were staged in the theaters, while in the arena of the Colosseum, opened in a.d. 80, gladiators fought in pairs or with wild animals to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd, and hundreds of thousands of race-goers packed the stands of the Circus Maximus to enjoy the thrills of chariot racing.
The organization of games came to be part and parcel of electioneering in towns and cities and was increasingly used as a means to consolidate the power of the reigning emperor. Like the sports stars of today, the top gladiators, charioteers, and actors were folk heroes, and the power of their universal appeal was recognized and exploited by politicians and emperors alike.
Two thousand years later, the Roman games may seem remote, but, as this superbly illustrated book shows, they satisfied the same need for excitement and hero-worship that gives rise to the intense media coverage of sports in our own time.

Customer Reviews:

For someone that doesn't know about gladiators.......2007-05-17

For me, coming from re-enacting Roman gladiators, I did not find this very informative. I guess I was expecting more out of the book but not really sure what to expect. It came very highly recommanded.

I didn't find it very helpful because I knew the classes of gladiators, what type of armor they wore, who they paired against, the lifestyle they lead, etc....

The only thing that really impressed me were the pictures of gladiator artifacts, and modern Roman gladiators in there gear!

For someone that doesn't know anything or only a little I would recommend this book.

An excellent book about Rome sports and spectacles!!!.......2003-12-21

This is the best book that I found about this subject. It is about gladiators,chariot races in Circus Maximus,theatre,greek sports assimilated by the Romans and Venatio. I liked the way that they depicted the gladiators. They don't use drawings or paintings but instead of it they use actors dressed in the way of the ancient gladiators!!! The reconstitution is bona fide thanks to the work of Doctor Marcus Junkelmann,an archeologist specialized in ancient Rome. The tactics and strategy of the diferent kinds of gladiators is explained as well as their equipment,weapons,rules and life in Rome. The chapter about theatre is gorgeous,it show us masks used by the actors(Masks that change the facial expression depending on the angle that the audience see it!). I liked the timeline and how gladiators affect politics and power in ancient Rome,and how caesars utilize them to satisfy the lust of blood and recreation of the population(just for manipulation!).

A Vivid View of Ancient Sports.......2001-01-12

The authors of _Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome_ (University of California Press; edited by Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben) can't help drawing parallels to our own games, or our modern depictions of them. You won't find remarks on the authenticity of the recent movie _Gladiator_, but you can learn plenty about _Ben Hur_. The book shows in profuse illustrations the different categories of gladiator, the weapons each was assigned, and the role they played in the games. It goes into the fates of those who were sentenced to the amphitheater; those sentenced to be torn by wild beasts had no chance, but there were others who were sentenced to gladiatorial school and could possibly gain freedom, money, and celebrity. Of course, they had to survive plenty of mortal combat to do so. The book tells repeatedly about how different Caesars used the games to defuse public anger about governmental conditions. The scholars are complimentary about _Ben Hur_: "Although there are a number of inaccuracies, the film as a whole thrillingly conveys the character and atmosphere, one might even say the quintessence, of such a sporting event, in a way that scholarly attention to detail could never have done on its own."

A handsome, profusely illustrated, big (though paperbound) book, _Gladiators and Caesars_ has thorough detail about a facet of sports history which we can be glad is now past, but which was important in consolidating power in an empire whose history still affects us. Those who enjoy sports will especially find the analogies to modern competition, hero-worship, and media superstardom amusing and enlightening. Those who have no interest in sports will perhaps remember the brutality of gladiatorial combat, and confronted with endless bowl games or professional wrestling while scanning for something good on TV, will be thankful things aren't worse.

Outstanding.......2000-12-29

I originally purchased this book under the presumption that it would some nice lite reading to add to my knowledge about Roman society only to be delightfully surprised that this was an indepth, accurate and insightful look into not only the world of the gladiator, but of all public preformers of Rome

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great skill review

Know It All! Grades 6-8 Reading (K-12 Study Aids)
Princeton Review , and Russell Kahn
Manufacturer: Princeton Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Know It All! Grades 6-8 Math (K-12 Study Aids)

Mastering Essential Math Skills: 20 Minutes a Day to Success, Book 2: Middle Grades/High School

Scholastic Success with Tests: Math Workbook Grade 7-8 (Grades 7-8)

Know It All! Grades 9-12 Reading (K-12 Study Aids)

Know It All! Grades 3-5 Reading (K-12 Study Aids)

ASIN: 0375763791
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Book Description

We Get Results
We know what it takes to succeed in the classroom and on tests. This book includes strategies that are proven to improve student performance. We provide

• content review, detailed lessons, and practice exercises modeled on the skills tested by standardized tests
• proven test-taking skills and techniques such as how to determine the main idea of a passage and write answers to open-response questions

Customer Reviews:

great skill review.......2006-07-14

This book provides quick reading skill lessons with follow up practice. I find the short passages and variety of comprehension questions to be a good review. The passages are shorter than you would expect to see on a state test for grades 6-8, however it good practice for kids who need the extra help. I like the way the story can be read and the questions answered in a short time, making it perfect for a quick review session. Good strategy tips and the passages are kid friendly and interesting.

Book Description

Is it true, as the novelist Cees Nooteboom once wrote, that memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases? Where do the long, lazy summers of our childhood go? Why, as we grow older, does time seem to condense, speed up and elude us, while in old age, significant events from our distant past can seem as vivid and real as what happened yesterday? Douwe Draaisma, author of the internationally acclaimed Metaphors of Memory (Cambridge, 2001), explores the nature of autobiographical memory. Applying a unique blend of scholarship, poetic sensibility, and keen observation, he tackles such extraordinary phenomena as deja-vu, near-death experiences, the memory feats of idiot savants, and the effects of extreme trauma on memory recall. Raising almost as many questions as it answers, this fascinating book will not fail to affect you at the same time as it educates and entertains. Douwe Draaisma is Professor of the History of Psychology in the Department of Theory and History of Psychology at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He has published books on time and memory and his articles have appeared in professional journals as diverse as Annals of Science, Psychological Medicine, and Nature. The original Dutch version of Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older has won several scientific and literary awards.

Customer Reviews:

Writing and the arrow of time.......2005-06-12

This is a truly wonderful book, from which I have received many inputs for my own scholarly endeavours. Here I would just like to point out what is probably a slip of the keyboard, on p. 211 of the English edition. In the formula "'before' to the left of 'after'", occurring twice, in the first occurrence 'left' should presumably be 'right'. Writing from the right to left, as Israelis do, does indeed seem to suggest a different direction of the flow of time.

Evaluation of Our Real Memories.......2005-02-26

Every psychiatrist has some quick tests to check on how your memory is working: reciting digits forward and backward, recalling the presidents sequentially, remembering three objects after three minutes, and so on. Such functions of memory are important, but they are not what we think of as real, personal memory, the subjective recall of what has gone on in our lives, the family reunions, childhood joys and traumas, successive homes, and so on. These stored personal experiences form our "autobiographical memory." It has only been known as such for about twenty years, basically because the other types of memory (like digit recall) have been more easily subject to psychological testing. The autobiographical memory is the main subject of essays in _Why Life Speeds Up as You Get Older: How Memory Shapes Our Past_ (Cambridge University Press) by Douwe Draaisma (translated from the Dutch by Arnold and Erica Pomerans). There are surprisingly few hard answers in this book. In writing about the near-death experience, for instance, Draaisma says that examining the hypotheses that might explain it makes clear that "... all they amount to is a handful of conjectures, a few statistical links and suggestive analogies." Nonetheless, our autobiographical memories are such an integral part of ourselves that it is fascinating to learn how scientists have been trying to explain just how this vital part of personality operates, and how much of the memory capacity that we take for granted is still mysterious and beyond even initial probes.

To start with, despite the book's title which is taken from just one of its chapters, there is not a fully accepted reason for older people to think that life is going faster for them than it did when they were younger. William James himself in 1890 explained that in youth, there were novel experiences, something new every day, but every passing year brought routine which smoothed the days, weeks, and years into a collapse of time. A period full of memories, viewed in retrospect, seems to expand and be fuller and longer. There is a chapter to examine the universal phenomenon that that none of us remember our earliest year or two, not at all. "We shall have to wait and see if our life ends with memory loss," Draaisma writes, "what is certain is that it starts with it." We did have working memories at the time; we were adding buckets of words to our vocabularies, and we had a daily capacity of remembering our relatives, our pets, our routines. A possible explanation for the veil drawn over the first years of memory is that the child has yet to develop full consciousness; if there is no "I" within, there can be no autobiographical memory.

As befits an expert writing for laymen, Draaisma writes powerfully using comparisons. In discussing the "tip of the tongue" phenomenon, where you remember you know something but cannot remember the thing itself, he writes that there is something that has stayed back in the memory, "something like the discoloured patch on the wall whose outlines tell you what used to hang there for years." There is a good range of chapters here to cover aspects of an appealing subject, including the memory and calculating power of so-called idiot savants, the "flashbulb memory" that enables us to tell exactly (or maybe not) what we were doing when we heard of an earth-shattering event like the 9/11 attacks, the scientific evaluation of déjà vu, the examination of why smells can produce such evocative memories, a checkers grandmaster explaining (or being unable to explain) how he plays multiple blindfold games simultaneously, and why we remember humiliating memories so clearly and permanently. It is fascinating that with such tools as brain scans, we are getting closer to understanding how the mind works, but the memory we take for granted every day has barely begun to yield its secrets.

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