Average Rating: 
Rating:  - weakly developed metaphor
I agree with reviewers who said beware if your company starts handing out this book. In fact, the only reason I read a copy is because a friend got one after her company went through layoffs. Admittedly, the advice on this level is sound: don't get too comfortable; we ain't running a charity here. There is nothing profound about the tale unless people really are astounded to hear that their job (small business, romantic relationship, etc.) is not an entitlement but something they have to work at, take responsibility for, and be prepared to replace if they have to. On the other hand, people do make a lot of plans--buying a house, raising kids--that are contingent on their "cheese" staying in one place for a while. So it's insensitive for this kind of message to be sent out from upper management. I also agree that this book says nothing about business process. It appears to be a guide to self-preservation under anarchic conditions. This is a useful skill, surely, but not one that a functioning business should rely on as the path to success. It's also insulting on the level that all success is reduced to "cheese" given by some mysterious benevolence. Haw doesn't consider leaving the maze, getting some cows and making his own cheese. The post-discussion is insulting as well. Can't the reader draw his or her own conclusions? Just how insulting is this little book? Let me count the ways... no enough has been said about this already. Without even criticizing the message, I just think that the story is weakly developed. There are the mice, who respond to change well because they don't really plan on things staying the same. There are the humans who get comfortable and resist change. Hem refuses to respond to change. Haw reluctantly responds to change and becomes self-empowered, finding something better than he lost. The story is almost entirely about Haw. The point of the mice is not very clear. Presumably, the mice also represent human responses to change, just less sophisticated ones. But very little is said about the mice apart from their specific strategies. Sniff senses cheese, Scurry just moves around a lot (I guess) till he finds some. Are there other strategies that could be identified? What is special about these two? It is unclear whether the mouse characters serve any purpose other than to establish the maze setting for the story. The reader is mostly invited to identify with Haw. But why not the mice? It is stated that Haw is smarter than the mice. Other than his ability to express himself in trite platitudes, there is little to support that contention. Hem is a non entity, just a thinly developed example of who not to be like. Nobody will identify with such a shallow complaining character, so his role is not very effective. From a purely utilitarian standpoint, the mice seem to have the right idea (don't get too comfortable; nobody's running a charity; get ready to move on when you have to). There is no way in which Haw is at any advantage over the mice. He doesn't think his way to the cheese; he uses the same search techniques as the mice, but he delays until it gets dangerous. His mind only serves as emotional accompanyment. This appears to be the author's understanding of the human experience. It does not take you to any higher levels than animal instincts; it merely annoys and amuses you in uniquely human ways. It appears that the best strategy would be to emulate the mice, but we just don't because we would rather complain a bit first. If I had to summarize the allegory in one word, I'd say "lazy." There's nothing especially challenging here, nothing that a moderately realistic person would disagree with. But many elements of the tale are just filler, or if there is some specific purpose to them, it is not made clear. There are no compelling take-aways that could not be stated much more simply.
Rating: - Advice In A Hurry
Back in the days when I worked in dot-com land, Who Moved My Cheese was required reading for all management types in my company. Like other requirements of my job, including drinking too much, overeating, strip bar visits and early morning golf games, I avoided it. Hence, I reached the glass ceiling of corporate America. Now that I have much less income and far more self-respect, I decided to circle back around to reading it, checked out from the library, of course. Who Moved My Cheese is written in parable format, with big type like Reader's Digest for the vision impaired. It's also incredibly short, something you could read in an hour. I presume the format of the book, written by the same guys who brought you The One Minute Manager, is designed for those go go go executive types who think they don't have enough time to read anything. The book gets to the bottom line pronto, which is: change or be ground down by the quickly changing nature of life, especially in business. The message is sound and thought provoking, but I was left slightly unsettled by pro-boss tone of the book. It seemed to imply that anything done by your bosses to stay competitive was OK, and if you didn't agree, you were just being resistant to change, demanding that your "cheese" stay in one place. Maybe that's me reading into it based on my own experiences in a company that struggled to find a vision or maybe it's endemic to much of the business world today. It's worth pondering if you have an hour to read the book.
Rating: - First we got chain-email, now chain-book
If you've read the reviews below, you probably noticed that people don't give very high ratings for this book. Then how come the book sells so well? I think it was Amazon's best selling book a few years back. The reason is because it uses the same strategy as those chain emails. It has a nice little idea that is packaged with a referral suggestion. You'd be surprised how many people will follow the suggestion and spread out the word. Companies are also suggested to buy books for their employees, and that means hundreds or thousands of books per purchase.Just like emails, it doesn't cost much to refer the book to other people. It doesn't cost a lot to buy the book neither. So I think that's how the book became so popular. Pesonally I don't hate the book as much as some people here. It's a nice parable that might be applicable to some instances of my life.
|
