Guinea Pig diaries: My Life is Experiment is the latest work by A.J. Jacobs who is rather famous for his work The Year of Living Biblically. One might be surprised that I like his work as much as I do. He is, after all, a white, able-bodied, homosexual man and I find most of this group's work stereotypically mundane unless it's Shakespeare. Although, whether Shakespeare was straight is a matter of debate that I won't get into here.
There were 6 CDs in this book. Every CD had either 1 or, at most, 2 experiments. You see, that's what A.J. Jacobs does with his life. He gets somebody to pay him to write a book in which he immerses himself in that particular topic. He lives by the bible in The Year of Living Biblically. He memorizes the encyclopedia in Know it all. And he had some kind of internet relationship which I'm not too clear about in his book The Other Net. All these books are en route to me or in my house at the moment and I'm eagerly waiting to review them. For this book, as far as I recall it, A.J. conducted 8 experiments. In the first, he helped his nanny find a boyfriend by signing her up on several internet dating sites and ghostwriting her replies. He says it was to eliminate creeps from her potential pile of suiters which, as a person who has recently become involved in Internet dating, makes me want to rent him. There are some "interesting" people on those websites. His second experiment was to outsource a lot of his personal responsibilities to outsourcing firms in India, one of which charged him $40 and another $1000. If I ever make it really big in the writing world, I am totally going to do this, that way I won't have to devote hours of my life to learning about ridiculous things that editors, for whatever reason, want me to worry about such as ferrets or tide pools (two assignments I actually had). Some nice Indian will do all the research and provide me with an appropriate summary. It's not like they leave out any relevant facts, you just don't have to spend hours worry about them yourself. This leaves you more time for the higher end and more fun aspect of writing, namely actually writing. I did, however, find it slightly creepy when he had his Indian assistant read his kid a bedtime story because he was too busy. I kept thinking how much do you know about this person who now knows your kid? I wonder if he hasn't watched enough Dateline to learn about transnational kidnapping
For chapter 3, he tried something called radical honesty. Apparently this is a concept that has really taken off. In order to comply with it, one must be 100% honest with everyone in life 100% of the time excluding overt officials or, as the creator of the concept stipulates, if you have Anne Frank in your attic and the Nazis come looking her you should lie. I found this concept so interesting that I actually order on a inter-library loan. However, I think if I employ this certain people in my life may never speak to me again. It might be beneficial to a degree for my relationships with my mother and ex-girlfriend. I'll let you know how it goes and what I decide to do. I think I'll consult the book first.
Another one of A.J.'s experiments involves behaving as Washingtonian. That is as possible as in George not the State. Not being much of a history buff, I was not aware that Washington lived by many rules. Some of them make sense to me: Don't be a bad winner, don't spit in public, don't (and here I have to giggle because it was very common among 18th century men) adjust genitalia or underwear in public. Other rules don't make much sense to me including being as expressionless as possible at all times.
I'm not going to describe all of the experiments because I want people to read this book. I do, however have to talk about the last one in some detail because it was so humorous. A.J. Jacobs agreed to let his wife make every decision in the household for a month. personally, I think that I would get tired of making every small decision from where we went to dinner to what movie we saw without any input, but she didn't, so I can't guarantee. One thing A.J. learned, as does every man who does this sort of swap with his wife, is that women always do more of the work than men think. This is true even among egalitarian-minded men. The Jacobs learned a lot about each other. If I ever get involved in a relationship at this level, I'm never going to try this. I think it would be interesting for me because I am such a control freak by nature. I'm quite sure I would learn a lot if I had to give up control for an entire month. Mind you, if I started feeling homicidal toward the person I was with or was being abused, I would halt the experiment and reevaluate whether I still wanted to be in the relationship. Ideally, I think that before two people tie the knot giving up a month of control each with an intervening month to do experiments so there is no residual anger would be a pretty good test.
I rate this book a 9.25 out of ten. I think this is the highest rating I've ever given a book or anything I have ever reviewed on this blog. You should read it and I I think the audio book version will be even more enjoyable. I don't recommend listening to it while driving on a busy highway or you will end up in a situation like A.J. in the multi-tasking experiment. Don't ask, you have to read the book to find out what I mean.
posted by cripfemme at 9:26 PM | add or view comments (0) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry
Commentary: It's Funny what Kids Think
When I was a kid, I assumed that I would learn how to walk or die because until I was about 12 I'd never seen a grown-up in a wheelchair. I became very excited when an adult in a wheelchair came on the TV in a commercial. I asked my mother to come into the room, so I could show her this person. She was underwhelmed and asked me didn't I know there were grown-up people like me. I said no and asked where I could go meet some. She looked kind of sad, called my babysitter to take me out, and spent the rest of the afternoon, unbeknownst to me making phone calls to summer camp for kids with disabilities. She made sure they had counselors with disabilities. I think, for a little while, she thought she damaged my psyched by not exposing me to adults with impairments like mine.
When I was a kid I also thought that the only places black people lived were Africa and the U.S. I figured that a couple of them were in other places because after about 1980 they could travel by air to other countries where they remained for long periods. Of course, post-Harry Potter and Youtube as well as having grown up a lot since then, I know that is not the case.
What were the funny things you thought when you were a kid that seem ridiculous now?
is the latest work by A.J. Jacobs who is rather famous for his work The Year of Living Biblically. One might be surprised that I like his work as much as I do. He is, after all, a white, able-bodied, homosexual man and I find most of this group's work stereotypically mundane unless it's Shakespeare. Although, whether Shakespeare was straight is a matter of debate that I won't get into here.
There were 6 CDs in this book. Every CD had either 1 or, at most, 2 experiments. You see, that's what A.J. Jacobs does with his life. He gets somebody to pay him to write a book in which he immerses himself in that particular topic. He lives by the bible in The Year of Living Biblically. He memorizes the encyclopedia in Know it all. And he had some kind of internet relationship which I'm not too clear about in his book The Other Net. All these books are en route to me or in my house at the moment and I'm eagerly waiting to review them. For this book, as far as I recall it, A.J. conducted 8 experiments. In the first, he helped his nanny find a boyfriend by signing her up on several internet dating sites and ghostwriting her replies. He says it was to eliminate creeps from her potential pile of suiters which, as a person who has recently become involved in Internet dating, makes me want to rent him. There are some "interesting" people on those websites. His second experiment was to outsource a lot of his personal responsibilities to outsourcing firms in India, one of which charged him $40 and another $1000. If I ever make it really big in the writing world, I am totally going to do this, that way I won't have to devote hours of my life to learning about ridiculous things that editors, for whatever reason, want me to worry about such as ferrets or tide pools (two assignments I actually had). Some nice Indian will do all the research and provide me with an appropriate summary. It's not like they leave out any relevant facts, you just don't have to spend hours worry about them yourself. This leaves you more time for the higher end and more fun aspect of writing, namely actually writing. I did, however, find it slightly creepy when he had his Indian assistant read his kid a bedtime story because he was too busy. I kept thinking how much do you know about this person who now knows your kid? I wonder if he hasn't watched enough Dateline to learn about transnational kidnapping
For chapter 3, he tried something called radical honesty. Apparently this is a concept that has really taken off. In order to comply with it, one must be 100% honest with everyone in life 100% of the time excluding overt officials or, as the creator of the concept stipulates, if you have Anne Frank in your attic and the Nazis come looking her you should lie. I found this concept so interesting that I actually order on a inter-library loan. However, I think if I employ this certain people in my life may never speak to me again. It might be beneficial to a degree for my relationships with my mother and ex-girlfriend. I'll let you know how it goes and what I decide to do. I think I'll consult the book first.
Another one of A.J.'s experiments involves behaving as Washingtonian. That is as possible as in George not the State. Not being much of a history buff, I was not aware that Washington lived by many rules. Some of them make sense to me: Don't be a bad winner, don't spit in public, don't (and here I have to giggle because it was very common among 18th century men) adjust genitalia or underwear in public. Other rules don't make much sense to me including being as expressionless as possible at all times.
I'm not going to describe all of the experiments because I want people to read this book. I do, however have to talk about the last one in some detail because it was so humorous. A.J. Jacobs agreed to let his wife make every decision in the household for a month. personally, I think that I would get tired of making every small decision from where we went to dinner to what movie we saw without any input, but she didn't, so I can't guarantee. One thing A.J. learned, as does every man who does this sort of swap with his wife, is that women always do more of the work than men think. This is true even among egalitarian-minded men. The Jacobs learned a lot about each other. If I ever get involved in a relationship at this level, I'm never going to try this. I think it would be interesting for me because I am such a control freak by nature. I'm quite sure I would learn a lot if I had to give up control for an entire month. Mind you, if I started feeling homicidal toward the person I was with or was being abused, I would halt the experiment and reevaluate whether I still wanted to be in the relationship. Ideally, I think that before two people tie the knot giving up a month of control each with an intervening month to do experiments so there is no residual anger would be a pretty good test.
I rate this book a 9.25 out of ten. I think this is the highest rating I've ever given a book or anything I have ever reviewed on this blog. You should read it and I I think the audio book version will be even more enjoyable. I don't recommend listening to it while driving on a busy highway or you will end up in a situation like A.J. in the multi-tasking experiment. Don't ask, you have to read the book to find out what I mean.
posted by cripfemme at 9:26 PM | add or view comments (0) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry
Commentary: It's Funny what Kids Think
When I was a kid, I assumed that I would learn how to walk or die because until I was about 12 I'd never seen a grown-up in a wheelchair. I became very excited when an adult in a wheelchair came on the TV in a commercial. I asked my mother to come into the room, so I could show her this person. She was underwhelmed and asked me didn't I know there were grown-up people like me. I said no and asked where I could go meet some. She looked kind of sad, called my babysitter to take me out, and spent the rest of the afternoon, unbeknownst to me making phone calls to summer camp for kids with disabilities. She made sure they had counselors with disabilities. I think, for a little while, she thought she damaged my psyched by not exposing me to adults with impairments like mine.
When I was a kid I also thought that the only places black people lived were Africa and the U.S. I figured that a couple of them were in other places because after about 1980 they could travel by air to other countries where they remained for long periods. Of course, post-Harry Potter and Youtube as well as having grown up a lot since then, I know that is not the case.
What were the funny things you thought when you were a kid that seem ridiculous now?
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