Why We Hate the Oil Companies—Straight Talk from an Energy Insider
By John Hofmeister
Reviewed by Marty Vanags

I am going to play the role of the old guy…”I remember when I was a kid; gasoline was 29 cents a gallon; the gas station attendant would come out and fill up the tank, wash your windows and sometimes check your oil, if you asked. Ah, yes, those were the good old days.” I am actually old enough to remember those days. Today, we think gas at $3.00 a gallon is high (Central Illinois price).  In fact, just a couple of summers ago, gas prices were over $4.00 a gallon. There is no place on Earth where gas prices get watched so closely than in the United States. Here, we are so connected to our personal cars that the price of gas has a huge impact on people’s daily lives.

The debate today is whether there is enough oil to serve the rest of mankind’s days. All this talk of how much oil we have left in the world is really somewhat silly. Think about oil. What is it, really? It is decomposed plant life. Oil is a result of biological and geological forces being married. If we can figure out where there is an abundance of this type of activity, then we can figure out how much oil we have. Now, how much oil do we have? How does anyone really, honestly know?  My guess is that no one does. So the roll of the dice we are making with oil, the selfish attitude most of us have grown up with, is that we surely have enough oil to last my lifetime. I am almost 50 (I know, my picture doesn’t make me look that way – I don’t look a day over 30, right? Please indulge me.). I know I have another 35 to 40 years left if I keep myself healthy.  I know there is enough oil to last my lifetime…to hell with everyone else!

Alright, that isn’t how I truly feel. The energy policy in this country is non-existent. Do we need a policy? If we want internal combustion vehicles that burn oil-based products, if we want this for our children and grandchildren, if we want them to live in a healthy world where the air is clean enough to breathe and there are an abundance of species and flora and fauna, then we probably need to do something about how we produce and use energy.  John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company, has written a new book called Why We Hate the Oil Companies – Straight Talk from and Energy Insider that delves into the various issues and dynamics of the United States’ current energy usage, policies and future. His insights come from someone formerly involved in the oil industry and someone who wasn’t necessarily liked by his oil company peers (according to the author).

I heard Hofmeister talk at an International Economic Development Council meeting in Houston this year, and one of the things he said made a lot of sense to me. He said it wasn’t a matter of whether we are going to pick solar, wind, hydrogen, water, nuclear, coal, natural gas or good old crude oil as our source of energy in the future, instead, it was more a matter of how much time and resources we have to devote to all of them. We should be spending our time exploiting every opportunity to determine which source of energy will work for the type of future we will be experiencing. He feels that energy policy is key to our national security, our long-term economic growth and our ability to be competitive in the 21^st century.  Hofmeister feels that if we don’t fix our energy policies, we will turn into a country of energy “haves and have-nots,” which goes against a country founded on the “commitment to develop and protect a society in which economic and social equality is provided to all citizens under the law.”

Hofmeister does a very good job describing and recounting the history of energy in the country. One major theme of the book is the lost opportunities we have had since the Nixon administration. Every administration since Nixon has proposed but not delivered on a comprehensive energy plan, according to the book.  Another theme is the impact of the heavy hand of politics, and he outlines this in his chapter, “Beware the Reckless Right and Ludicrous Left.”

Some of the lessons learned from the experience with politics include that the demands of both right and left are inconsistent with the expressed needs of the broader public which has said they want a better balance between more energy and the appropriate amount of environmental protection. Witness the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Kalamazoo River and the economic and social upheaval they created. The author says that the energy industry must “take seriously the emotional and cultural sensitivities reflected in public concerns.” Again, a plea for the wishes of the community and citizens. His third point basically says be careful with the NIMBYs and that there must be comprehensive short, medium and long-term plans to meet the energy needs of the country.

There are many other issues with our energy policy, or lack of policy, according to Hofmeister. For example, the free market fans would be surprised to know that there are no free markets in the energy field. There is a lack of connection between the costs of cleaner, more efficient electric plants, for example, and the potential for a carbon restricted future. All this means is higher costs in the future. The lack of free market means that the idea of green jobs, wind, solar and other alternative energy is a waste of time, or as Hofmeister calls it, “fodder for unthinking herds.”

Hofmeister says some really interesting things in this book, but, frankly, I don’t know where he really stands. On one hand, I could see him standing on the stage with Sarah Palin, yelling “drill, baby, drill” and on the other hand, he is supporting land use and land conservation programs and criticizing the City of Houston for its lack of zoning and planning. There are many parts of this book that read like a primer for Political Science 101. One chapter called, “Our Government is  Broken,” discusses his anecdotal experiences on Capitol Hill. He uses simple sentences and observations like, “Partisanship is one of two root causes preventing this country from securing our future energy security and affordability. Partisanship is ugly.” Really? In the side where I write notes, I placed a simple “Duh” to explain my thoughts about this entry.

In the end, Hofmeister describes a solution to all of our energy woes. He suggests a federal agency structured similar to the Federal Reserve be established. But, instead of dealing with the money supply, which is the primary mission of the Federal Reserve, this Federal Energy Resources Board and its subsidiary regional boards would regulate energy supply, technology choices, environmental protection and infrastructure choices.

I had a hard time reading this book. His speech made sense when I saw him speak in January, but I feel this book doesn’t provide the breakthrough ideas about our energy policy that I thought it would.  In fact, in the very end, the author recommends a grassroots effort be put forward that would get everybody in the country moving forward.  He says that if government fails us, we need to use our grassroots authority.  He says, “time and time again, when government has failed to act or has acted in ways that seemed to be detrimental to the interests of the people, grassroots movements have surfaced.” He cites the civil rights movement, Earth Day observances (that moved President Nixon to create the Environmental Protection Agency), anti-Vietnam War movement and anti-Iraqi War movement as examples. Putting the civil rights movement in with the anti-Iraqi War movement seems to stretch the notion a bit. The civil rights movement actually resulted in significant changes in our laws and how we view each other as human beings. The anti-Iraqi War movement? Nothing resulted from protests in the streets of our major cities and around the world. The war continued and only just recently, after nearly a decade, we have reduced our troops to a mere 50,000 after several thousand deaths of our youngest and brightest and injuries of young men and women that will impact us for a lifetime. What was the result of that grassroots effort again?

I like the overall message in this book, however: We don’t have an energy policy, we never have; and if we want to have national security, have economic growth, and want low-cost energy that is affordable for everyone, we need to change; change our habits, change our assumptions, and be innovative. On this, Hofmeister has hit the right button. The solutions such as a “federal  energy reserve board,” I feel, is a bit reaching on his part and really introduces regulation to an industry that seems to need some deregulation, at least in some sense. Moreover, can a reserve board apparatus work within the confines of a highly regulated and subsidized economy? These are questions that need to be answered in light of the proposal he presents.

We will probably never see 29 cent/gallon gas ever again. We may never see $1.50/gallon gas, but we should work towards every innovation we can muster and develop every new idea that has economic, social and moral value so that our children and grandchildren have a world where they can live safely,  breathe clean, fresh air and have the same opportunities we had (and more). This is a message that this books gives, but nothing much more of substance.

The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
Written by Ben Hewitt

The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity
Written by Richard Florida

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

One of my favorite quotes comes from an old curmudgeon I once knew. I was sitting with him and an assortment of fellows at a coffee shop in a town where I once worked. We were talking about the changing landscape of the community and the world. This guy was usually very talkative, just like the other guys that were part of this coffee klatch. But, today he sat a little bit removed from the tables we had pulled together to enjoy our dirty jokes and teasing of each other. At age 40, I was by far the youngest of the group, with the oldest well into his seventies. I can’t remember his name, so let’s call him Ralph. As the the conversation went on, we started arguing about some local political activity until, finally, Ralph threw up both hands, slammed one down on the table in front of him causing a seismic stir among the coffee cups, water glasses and spoons on the table and declared in his loud sonorous voice, “I want progress, it’s change I don’t like.” Whaaaat???

Needless to say, we were taken by surprise and shocked into a very momentary silence until one of the guys broke out in big guffaws, which were quickly followed by everyone else.  While the quote is funny, ol’ Ralph was dead serious, and he had to think about it for second before he could wrestle a small smile out of the corner of his mouth and laugh at himself as well.

Ralph was experiencing the angst anyone has when they see the world as they know it change. The angst is usually precipitated by an acute change in their environment they don’t like. In the ‘60s, it was the hippies and the peace generation that caused anxiety when the world changed. In the ‘70s, it was sexual freedom and women’s rights that shook up the social order. In the ‘80s it was—well, I am not sure what it was—M.C. Hammer or Vanilla Ice? Moving through the ‘80s and ‘90s and into this decade, the world has continued to change—socially, culturally and economically. Do you want progress, but with very little change? How about “progressive change,” or “change that marches towards progress.” Ralph wasn’t talking about any of that. He was concerned that all the things he understood to be the world were changing for him, and frankly, he wasn’t open to it or prepared for it.

The recent changes in the economy have forced us to thank about change and progress. Can Ralph live his life of progress with no change? Can we have “progressive change?” Two books I have recently read talk about this. One book addresses changes to a local economy; the other, changes to our global economy. One is by an author of whom you have probably not heard; the other, by one I have reviewed here before.

In the first book, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt, we learn about Hardwick, Vermont—a small town of 3,200 people –and how the local food movement took hold in that community. The author is a local small farmer and writer who takes time to explore the people, places and nuances that make up a local economy in one small town. The town, like many others throughout the country, has had multiple economic personalities and is currently in the throes of change. Established in March 1795, the town was at one time the center of the Vermont granite industry. Today it is undergoing change and becoming, for better or worse, a town centered on the idea that people ought to buy local food from local providers.

The second book is by Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City? and well-known among those interested in economics, urban issues and economic development. Florida presents his idea that the economy, at home and abroad, is in a period of change. The title of the book, The Great Reset, says it all. Enormous changes are occurring in our society and our world that will reshape our economy and our country as we know it. Florida, as he is so good at doing, provides plenty of empirical data to support his argument, whether one wants to agree with it or not.

Ben Hewitt started reporting on Hardwick, Vermont as a reporter for Gourmet magazine in 2008. Prior to this, a number of stories had been written in national media outlets such as the New York Times outlining the changes occurring in Hardwick. As with many stories like this, people became interested and wanted to learn more. What was occurring in this small out-of-the-way town that was so compelling? Was it a model for sustainability for other communities throughout the country who have gone through similar economic problems, perhaps here in the Midwest? Or was it a nice story about a bunch of characters who have stumbled upon a momentary idea and movement that is generating short-lived notoriety for its residents?

Hewitt does a great job developing the story which is really about a cast of characters—mainly, Tom Stearns, an “agrepreneur” (Hewitt’s word), founder of High Mowing Seed Company that has become the self-appointed spokesperson and media darling for the food movement that has developed in Hardwick. Stearns is a polarizing figure in Hardwick where half the people love him for what he has brought to the community, and the other half, who just want progress and no change, characterize him as the antithesis of that ideal. Stearns comes from an interesting background. Raised in agricultural boarding schools, he created an organic seed company that provides over 600 types of seeds people can buy and plant in their own gardens. According to Stearns, it all starts with seeds; even the cotton shirt one is wearing starts with seeds.

Other characters in this story include Steve Gorelick and Suzanna Jones, who operate a small farm on 40 acres and live off the grid. Their view on the Hardwick phenomena is less than complimentary. Hewitt describes a dinner he has with the couple whose sole purpose is to dissuade him from being taken in by the movement. Influenced by quasi-anarchical writers and thought leaders, Gorelick and Jones’ primary issue is with the fact that business people and entrepreneurs have “taken over” an already existing movement of “farmer-to-farmer” exchanges and sharing. Gorelick and Jones’ objections are less about this existing network and more about their primitive view of economics and capitalism.

In the end, Hewitt did an excellent job outlining and describing the characters that make up Hardwick. Furthermore, he clearly outlined through the descriptions of these characters the conflict and tension between those who have conducted the “back-to-basics” farming so revered by the local food movement for years and those who have purported to have discovered it and are now using it for financial gain. The descriptions of each player in the Hardwick play is vivid and provides a sense that one is really there and witnessing the conversations, the smell of the wood fires, the smell of the compost piles, the rich turned earth and the slaughter of pigs and chickens.

Hewitt’s book is a tome on the conflict that occurs when any system is upended or deconstructed. Living in the Midwest, we are so often led to believe that the fields of corn and soybeans right outside our windows are growing food, when in fact they are really producing an input for a large industrialized system of producing products that is sold as food in our local grocery stores. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, “Try Organic Food—Or as your grandparents called it, ‘Food.’” This is the true seed of the local food movement. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, says we ought to eat food our grandparents or great-grandparents would recognize, or in his words, “eat food, not so much, mostly plants”—a cure for the obesity problem in this country, maybe—but a solution to local economies on a small scale, probably. This conflict between food systems is evident, as is the conflict between those who want progress (or perhaps not) but little change.

Hewitt’s description of what is going on in Hardwick is the type of change that Richard Florida describes in his book, The Great Reset, but on a more macro level. Using history as his guide (as most social scientists are apt to do), he looks at critical times in the past 150 years—the 1870 economic meltdown and the 1930s’ Great Depression—as predictors of our current times. Reading Florida’s book on the heels of reading Hewitt’s, I was struck by the model Hardwick provided for a micro reset occurring before our very eyes.

If one is familiar with Florida’s work, one knows that his books are filled with well-researched data and analysis. This book is the first of his books that is void of tables and charts, but amply footnoted with information supporting his theories. Fans of creative class concepts have been quick to criticize Florida’s new thought pattern in this book and his previous book in abandoning the idea that cities can be revived by attracting a new creative class and building a new innovation economy. Florida doesn’t spend too much time on these topics and, instead, spends more time looking back at what has happened over the past 100 years that has brought us to the current day. He appropriately suggests that we quit pointing fingers and move forward with the huge investments and creation of social compacts that will propel us into the future.

Comparatively short for a Florida book, he delves into issues like consumerism and how there may be new pattern emerging that suggests the era of “ownership” of cars and houses may be on the wane, quite a reversal of a mere 10 years ago at the beginning of the Bush-led “ownership society.” He also describes the idea of transforming service workers into a new wave of innovators; in other words, engaging our maids, fast-food workers and others to develop new and innovative ways to provide cleaner hotel rooms and better-tasting hamburgers. Of course, no forward-thinking economist worth his salt would leave out a discussion of high-speed rail and its potential on our economy. Finally, Florida reaches back into his last book to discuss the idea of “megaregions” such as “Bos-Wash,” the megaregion that stretches from Boston to Washington D.C. and includes New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and everything in-between. The closest megaregion to Central Illinois would be Chi-Pitts, the second largest in the country with over 100,000 square miles, 46 million people and $1.6 trillion in economic output.

Florida’s book is actually a pretty fast read. It started from an essay he had written in The Atlantic Monthly and turned into this book which, frankly, is an opinion piece on his views of all the new ideas that are currently “hot” and being talked about. This is mostly evident in the very last part of the book called “A New Way of Life,” where he discusses new migration patterns (covered in Who’s your City?), green and sustainable trends, high-speed rail, renting versus owning and new jobs.

How does Florida’s book reconcile itself with Hewitt’s story about Hardwick? Florida talks about massive changes occurring in our landscape and society. He discusses how megaregions are going to drive the growth of economies and how in the new reset, people will be drawn to these areas more and more. We will create new urban centers in suburbs which were once examples of sprawl, but now must be connected by investment in new infrastructure like high-speed rail and high-speed fiber for easy communications. Florida talks about change as does Hewitt. For those folks living off the grid in northern Vermont hoping for an anarchical revolution where we all migrate back to the rural areas, grow our own food and trade a pig’s belly for some chickens with our neighbors, I am afraid there is bad news if you read Florida’s book. However, in some strange way, the people in Hardwick are living and experiencing a local economy that can’t be found in an economist’s study. They have created their own reset, as Florida describes. On a very local level they have changed and moved their own economy forward through innovation, hard work and dedication to common age-old principles that stand the test of time. Perhaps this is a more sustainable approach to jobs and economic development.

Whether one identifies with the agrepreneurs of Hardwick or gets excited about the ability to travel on high-speed rail within the Chi-Pitts megaregion and enjoy the idea of outsourcing your business to global locations, one would have to agree that change is upon us. The economic bubbles of the past 12 years (technology and housing), globalization, energy security, terrorism and banking meltdowns have people looking at the cost of progress and the value of all their possessions. These are two excellent books that look at the macro and micro changes that are occurring and impacting this view.

Sorry, Ralph (if you still get together for coffee with the old boys)—progress will always occur, and it can’t help but result in change. You may not like it, but it’s time to adapt.

Written by Terra Brockman

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

I enjoy listening to the local director of the McLean County Museum of History talk about the local economic and business history of our area. Once, while entertaining about 35 consulates general from Chicago, our organization asked him to speak about the local economic history. It was fascinating, and in his speech as I recall, all commerce was local. At the turn of the century and before that time, many of the things we enjoyed in our community were often manufactured locally or did not come from too far away. And when a product did come from, say—New York City or beyond—it was looked upon as very special and, indeed, sometimes exotic.  The farther away it from where it came, the greater its mysticism and allure.

It is interesting to note that almost every town at one time had a manufacturer of automobiles. It was usually the entrepreneurial buggy-maker in town who simply attached an electric motor to buggies and, immediately, he was in the car manufacturing business. However, another entrepreneur with even bigger plans a couple states over soon commoditized the manufacture of vehicles, and in short order we all waited for delivery of our automobiles from Detroit, certainly a place with less allure than New York City, but far away nonetheless.

So it goes with many other things, and there are those who bemoan this fact. From labor unions to manufacturers, from the political right to the left and the common citizen, we ask ourselves “why does everything come from so far away?” China, India, Indonesia, Chile, Russia—all seem to have cornered our marketplace with their products. Why? There are a number of reasons why, but I am neither the expert nor is there enough room in this review to discuss it. But, manufactured products are not the only thing that arrives from off-shore.

So, where does our food come from?  I know some people who think their food comes from a box. And, indeed, in their case it may very well be true. The food issue is wrought with all types of political ideas, concepts of health, carbon fuel, security and, ultimately, taste. The idea of local food or regional food has become more and more popular in recent days, and it has been raising interest for some time in the United States.  According to the Wikipedia definition, local food or the local food movement is a “collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies – one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place.”

Recently, a group of people have shown interest in creating a local food processing center in our area. While working with them to determine the best way to apply for a grant to achieve this endeavor, I learned that one of them, Terra Brockman, was an author of a recent book, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm – A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm.  In this book, she takes a look at what life is like for a farmer who chose a different path in his life to achieve an American Dream unlike any that are often conjured in that phrase. Henry’s American Dream is one where he gets to spend time with the earth, plants, sun, wind, microbes, dogs, chickens, varmints and family. It is a life many might consider a nightmare, rather than a dream. This dream provides no time for hanging out at the pub, shopping at the mall, eating at Olive Garden or playing video games or golf. Instead, life on Henry’s Farm is a fulfilling life which seems to consume every minute of every day of the entire year with thoughts about the farm and much hard labor, according to the author who also happens to be Henry’s sister.

What is life like on Henry’s farm? Brockman divides her book into weeks, and right away we are entertained by an ample description of what it takes to plant garlic. Rather than starting in the first week of January with the descriptions of life, Brockman starts appropriately enough in the week that represents the last week of the season for the Brockman family, yet the first step towards prosperity in the next year. I thought it was a great place to start. As we amble through the weeks, we come to learn more about Henry, his family and the obvious respect that they have for the earth, the food we eat and how it gets to the table. The book is heavy on the multitude of varieties that Henry plants on his farm, and it is frustrating to think that unless you buy from Henry, you are getting short-changed at the local market. Even garlic comes in a wide variety of tastes and nuances that due to the consumption of chopped garlic in a bottle, garlic powder or spray, we have probably lost the ability to differentiate.

The Seasons on Henry’s Farm is an easy read, and the author’s descriptions of all aspects of life on the farm brings the reader to appreciate the hard work it takes to manage such a variety of activities. Many of our ancestors were farmers of the type that Henry represents: growing food for the table (their own table), and anything left over going to the neighbors or sold or traded to other folks nearby. Today, most farmers we see are growing corn and beans to be purchased by anonymous corporations and foreign governments for processing into many other substances. Henry represents the farmer we most likely read about as children: the type with chickens, dogs, sheep, a couple cows and, maybe, a horse.

The book requires us to reflect. Is Henry’s life on the farm a romantic notion that is available to a select few farmers and gives us capitalistic, carbon-consuming urbanites an opportunity to feel better by buying his product?  Is Brockman’s book painting a picture of a life that itself is unsustainable?  As one reads the author’s descriptions of everything from duck sex to the temperature and consistency of the soil and the ongoing relentless nature of the work involved to maintain a farm like this, one senses that sustainable or not—romantic or not—Henry and his family probably don’t think about it. In fact, I believe there is a sense of Zen-like “being” in Henry’s family about what they do. They feel that this is what they need to do, that it is a way for their family to be together and a way to bring about happiness, all the while respecting Earth and its resources.

Brockman’s book is a current nominee for a 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for writing. The James Beard Foundation, named for the original American “foodie” James Beard, honors everyone from writers to chefs and restaurants each year. Brockman will find out if she is the recipient of this very important award on May 2.  This is certainly a high honor and important as well. The book illustrates what a local economy looks like. It shows how economic development can occur even in the least likely places. It provides us a glimpse into another world, one where food production is done in a very earnest, honest and nurturing way. This honesty translates easily into words on a page and finds its way into your emotions, your heart and, ultimately, to your table.

If you read this book, you will appreciate life on the farm, and your thinking about how and what you consume will be challenged. Only you can decide what is important for you and your family, but be assured that people like Henry are concerned about what you consume, and it comes alive in a confident way in this book.  Consuming local food is good not only for your health, but also for the local economy. Let’s do it, so our food doesn’t go the way of the local buggy-maker.

Written by Jim Collins

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When General Motors was on the cusp of failure late last year, it was my belief that we should go ahead and let the company fail. The risk-reward function of business, the philosophical underpinning of why people go into business, was at stake here. If we bailed out the company, we were merely rewarding the countless number of decisions that were made over the past 100 years by company executives and their union partners. The decision to price themselves out of the marketplace, the decision to continue building cars that people didn’t want or that the marketplace couldn’t support, and the inability to read the future and make adjustments were made by countless executives over the years, but with little consequences. Failure to grow and expand and make a profit one year was rewarded by outlandish executive pay and bonuses only a couple of years later when things seemed to have turned around. But, digging deeper, one may have found the five stages of failure that Jim Collins outlines in his latest book, How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In (Harper Collins, 182 pages). Collins is well-known for his national bestsellers Good to Great and Built to Last and is known for backing up his books with a vast array of research and sound numbers. Collins can be found working at his management laboratory in Boulder, Colo. and holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Very quickly, Collins jumps to a five-stage process of failure among the great companies and provides plenty of analysis and examples. Everyone from Motorola to Newell to Zenith is looked at, and we get a clue into why some of them failed while others succeeded, despite some pretty daunting odds.

The federal government came to the rescue of GM, along with a host of other financial institutions. We will argue for a generation of the value and worthiness of that rescue and whether it should have happened. Collins doesn’t get into the proposition of whether failure of the biggest companies is a good idea or not; he does, however, deconstruct past failures and give us the warning posts to look for.

Collins’ style is methodical and easy to read. I read this book in a weekend, and he laid it out very clearly. So, what are the five stages and what do they look like?

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success. Great enterprises can be insulated by success. They succeed in spite of themselves, and they become arrogant with the idea that they cannot fail. Those looking at them from the outside see a company that has the “golden touch.”  Luck, chance and big gambles are part of this stage. Some companies stay with one great idea and never evolve.

They relish their Stage 1 successes and try to live off that greatness. Collins says these companies must take the company off autopilot and “exit definitively or renew obsessively, but do not ever neglect a primary flywheel.” This means you have to be careful to recognize what got you to the dance. Once on the dance floor, it is ok to try new moves, but always remember that fundamental step you learned that first day of dance class. That step, that move, was how you got on the dance floor in the first place.

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Hubris from stage 1 leads right into stage 2 – undisciplined pursuit of more and more. This is the opposite of complacency. The attitude is that we can do anything, and nothing can stop us, so let’s pursue projects and ideas that we really have no business going after.

Companies can continue to grow without understanding the “why” of their growth – pursuit of more. That is the American birthright and, in fact, some would argue, institutionalized in the Constitution.  Collins argues that companies that pursue for the sake of pursuing don’t necessarily survive. It is one thing to set goals that one is going to grow and achieve, but then, that is merely activity. What is the quality of that growth, and is it sustainable? I have seen it myself working in municipalities and other organizations. Communities grow for the mere sake of growing. They continue to build without regard to whether the growth is sustainable and if the community can survive. Why? Because of the effects of Stage 1. “We are the best! No one can stop us because we are who we are.”

Pursuit of growth isn’t necessarily bad, according to Collins, but the “undisciplined” pursuit of growth can lead to major issues for longevity. Collins invokes Packard’s Law, which states, “No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.” The law, named after David Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard, provides the ultimate guide in growth. Are the right people in the right seats? One person who advises me regarding our own organization asks the question this way, “Is everyone on the team an ‘A Player’?” If there are “B Players”, you need to move them up to an A. If they are a “C Player,” they need to think about leaving…and soon.

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril. Although data is clear, it is explained ambiguously at best. Information is explained away as “cyclical,” “temporary” or “not that bad.” Bad news is spun to look at the positive.  It seems no one wants to be responsible anymore. Constant denial launches companies into projects and programs that steer them headlong into Stage 4.

How many financial services companies and banks fell into this trap over the past several years? Buoyed by hubris (Stage 1) and undisciplined pursuit of more (Stage 2), big companies, the ones too big to fail, repeatedly ignored the signs of impending doom and failure. We have lived this during the recession of the past year, and it has not only hurt the companies, banks and financial institutions that practiced these poor habits, they took the entire economy down with them.

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation. All the denial that occurred in Stage 3 has now manifested itself in Stage 4 where the weaknesses and failures of the company are visible to all. “Saviors” come into play here; someone who will come in and appear to save the day with a bold new strategy, product or concept, but ultimately fails. Initial results are positive, but don’t really take.

Remember the stories about “Chainsaw Al” who was to come and save the day at Sunbeam? Well, after a few blustery years, his personality was overcome by reality. The company was doomed to fail even with the savior having just walked through the door. You see this in politics and public life, as well. It reminds me of the sheriff in Arizona who requires his inmates to wear pink jumpsuits and does all types of unconventional things in the pursuit of his job. Is it to make headlines? Or does it really mean something that will be sustainable and worthwhile in the end?  Those who will deny what is really coming through the door, are there for short-term successes and not long-term sustainability.

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. All the fancy efforts tried in previous stages, particularly Stage 4, are tried again and, after a while, people are either demoralized or the saviors of the companies sell out and head for the door. The company either becomes insignificant or dies a spectacular death publicly.

You can’t get out of Stage 5, but you can come crawling back from the depths of Stage 4. Some have done it. IBM is an example. Will car companies like GM and Chrysler do it?

I have to admit, I have never read Collins’ other books, but I am familiar with his concepts and ideas. What I do know about his work is that it is well-researched and well-documented. This book ends after 123 pages, and pages 128 through 182 are appendices and notes to the text. Over 80 pages of strong documentation and examples of research are supporting his ideas.

In the end, Collins argues that we all need setbacks, but the great companies who are not practicing or manifesting the five stages of failure can deal with these setbacks and bounce back. We all know people who have had significant setbacks and come back to be as successful as before or more successful than ever.  I’m sure many are waiting to see if Tiger Woods can become that person who came from total and colossal failure in his personal life (assuming all the tabloid articles are true), and be, once again, at the top of the golf world.

Collins himself outlines the abject failures of what most would consider one of the most successful people of the 20th century, Winston Churchill. His decisions and failures leading up to World War II were well-chronicled and he was at once vilified and disdained as one who could not lead. Yet, in the throes of crises he stood up against the Nazis and unified a country. Churchill’s core legacy was to never give in, and he never did. He never gave in; he just changed tactics. That, according to Collins, is the key to survival and success. Failure is only in the eye of the beholder.

Now, what will it take to get you into that Impala today?

Over a year ago, I started doing business book reviews for our newsletter. One of the great things about doing a book review is that it forces me to actually read something fairly consistently each month. It has been fun looking at the books in retrospect and writing something about them and what they mean personally to me. These book reviews are hardly the scathing tough-minded review one might find in The New Yorker magazine, New York Times or some other literary publication. Instead, these reviews are meant to provide life to an otherwise inanimate object. I hope I achieved that with some measure of success.  I have to admit that I didn’t do all the reviews. My thanks go out to staff member Ken Springer for reviewing Freakonomics and Harlan Geiser, board member, for reviewing The Great Game of Business.

I have many books already in mind to review next year. I am looking for books on leadership and new thoughts about business, leadership, how people use their minds, etc. You won’t see me reviewing political books or books about very divisive topics facing our world today. I have my opinions, and sometimes they are strong opinions about these topics, but having me spew those forward in the form of a book review would be unfair to the people I work with and work for. There are already many unproductive opinions about how things are or are not working, and I’m not sure I could add anything to that conversation (or shouting) as it may be.

I did want to reflect in this essay my fondness for the few books that stood out over the past year. One book I found very useful and has helped me understand a number of trends in current business is the book written by Donald Tapscott, Grown Up Digital. This book is very good at explaining the differences between generations, how they think and why they act the way they do. Donald Tapscott has been around for a while. I first saw him in 1994 at a real estate conference talking about his book, Paradigm Shift.  Yes, you can blame him for reintroducing the word “paradigm” into our lexicon. Just as fast as it came in to use, it was overused. Nevertheless, Tapscott has written a great book describing why we need to understand the youngest generation about to hit the workforce. They have much to say, they certainly work differently than other generations and they are all digital, all the time.

Another book I found useful was Groundswell:  Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.  This book digs into the details of why people are using social media technologies, who is using these technologies and how they are transforming the world of communication. Both authors are researchers at Forrester Research, a media research organization, so the book comes with a lot of research and empirical evidence to back it up.

There were a couple of books I found merely interesting, not because of a business reason, but because they were just good reads. First was From the Bottom Up by Chad Pregracke with Jeff Burrow. Pregracke has created an organization that has spent the past 10 years cleaning up the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries. He started with equipment he could beg, borrow or…ok, he didn’t steal anything, but often the equipment he did get to help his cause did come as a “steal.” Pregracke is an inspiration to anyone who feels their progress in the world has been hampered by obstacles they can’t overcome. He proves you can skip the research part and merely start “doing” and ask permission later. The other book I enjoyed was The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It is a short book about how the world would look after the human species became extinct through disease or other means.

All of the books I reviewed are worth reading. There will be more next year. Are there books you would like me to review? Or is there someone out there who would like to give reviewing a book a try? Give me a call or email me with your suggestions.

Written by Gary Vaynerchuk

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

In 1985, I took a series of wine classes at a retail wine store in the Chicago suburbs where I was living and working while attending graduate school. We started with German wines and worked our way through all the different types of wines and regions that were considered appropriate at the time (Europe and California).  The last class was the kicker – “Champagnes, Cognacs and Sherries.” I had to call a cab to get home after that class as I was unable to make it in one piece without risking my life, jail time and my new career. It was a great class, and I learned a great deal; particularly, that wine is to be enjoyed, and you can pair any wine with any meal or food as long as you like it. No wine snob can tell you what to do. We did learn, however, that certain foods taste better with certain wines, and I suppose that is the purpose of the pairing process.

So along comes the Internet and some guy from New Jersey spitting into his New York Jets bucket after each tasting on a video blog called Wine Library TV. I had never seen an episode of this wine tasting show until I became familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, the video star, as a speaker and Internet social media maven. Now, one can see him everywhere talking about his passion for what he does – at social media events, on mainstream television talk shows and now with a new book named Why Now is the Time to Crush It! Cash In on Your Passion.

If you have been following the burgeoning growth of social media these days, you might be familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk. He is the impassioned, over-the-top, obnoxious, in-your-face, crazy man of video blogging and Wine Library TV. Gary Vaynerchuk launched his every-man wine tasting online party in 1997, long before video blogging was something that might be considered mainstream. And from there, he has risen to the top of the social media world and is considered a must-have at any blogging, Twitter or video blogging boot camp or convention. He has taken this new medium and turned his persona into part and parcel of the product he is trying to sell.

Some people would call his effort egotistical or even narcissistic, yet Vaynerchuk tends to pull it off, and if you don’t mind his rapid-fire, frank and sometimes humorous description of how wine tastes, you won’t mind Gary. In fact, you will like him. And if you need a football coach-type of pep talk about getting off your butt and doing something you want to do with your life, he’s your man.  Vaynerchuk is the darling of social media types and has turned his success of making a Jersey liquor store one of the leading seller of wines in the country from a single location into being a top purveyor of “you-can-do-anything-you-set-your-mind-to-as-long-as-you-work-hard” industry. This is nothing short of amazing.  Watching him work a video blog is like fighting a brown paper leaf bag. You can open it, but it’s never complete.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really wanted to like it because at a base level I love people like Gary Vaynerchuk. Another example is Oprah. I don’t like to watch her show. I don’t DVR her daily broadcast. But, I like what she has done with her life. She didn’t have the easiest upbringing, yet she persevered. Today she sits upon an empire of media, only and mostly because she worked hard at it for many years. The opportunities come to her now, and she doesn’t have to work at it as hard as she used to, but no one handed her a media empire. She did it herself.

Vaynerchuk’s story is different from Oprah’s, but it’s a good one. Even though his book is fairly simple, it tells the story of a guy who came to the United States with his émigré parents and an uncertain story. I love the immigrant story, particularly the ones that include success, and Vaynerchuk has certainly parlayed his hard work into success.

The book is basically how to develop your own “personal brand.” That is the talk of social media these days, and many people are uncomfortable with it. Social media begs the user to create a persona and to build upon it. A corporate persona doesn’t work. It is not authentic. Social media requires individuals to promote themselves; if you are uncomfortable with yourself, you will be uncomfortable with social media.  Chapter titles include somewhat cliché headings like, “Passion is Everything” (Chapter1); “Keep it Real…Very Real” (Chapter 7); “Roll with It” (Chapter 12); and a conclusion titled “The Time is Now, the Message is Forever.”  These are all really nice, if not smarmy, titles to chapters from a guy who pushes authenticity.

Early in the book, Vaynerchuk says people must do what they are good at, what their passion is. Ok, I believe that, but isn’t that the message of just about any inspirational speaker or leadership writer in the past 50 years? He says he is not good at writing, but that he is good at talking and his book has been transcribed from a tape. When one reads it, that is very apparent. Kudos to Gary for recognizing it and making that disclosure, because it certainly doesn’t read like someone who has spent much time writing.

Those who are fans of Gary Vaynerchuk and his in-your-face style of communication will love this book. As I read it, I can hear his voice. Loud, fast, quick and to the point. There is advice in this book I was eager to get my hands on, for I don’t have the time to wander through his Web site and get all his tidbits of wisdom. I like books like this because they are quick and easy to read. They give easy advice to follow. If you are looking for deep wisdom and the underlying basis as to how people think about social media and the communication theories behind it, you have picked up the wrong book. If you are seeking hard information for how to do a lot of things on the social media front, you are headed in the right direction. Gary V. fans will love this book. Those who don’t know anything about Gary will find it a bit juvenile.

At the end, I found this book to be pretty much what I expected: full of “Gary-isms.” One annoying thing he does is tell us to do or try something, and then in the middle of the page he tells us to tell him about it by including his email address. Odd for the middle of text, but fully part of the way he presents himself verbally, which is to say how he transcribed it.  After all the reading I did, I felt like I watched a Wine Library TV episode. His voice kept coming through. I suppose that is what a book is supposed to do, and I still don’t know what he means by “crush-it.” I don’t think I missed the point of the book, but “crush-it,” really?

Written by Tom Rath – Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Brooke Weishaupt

StrengthsFinder 2.0 is not your typical business book. It is part of a larger strengths discovery program created by Gallup, the organization famous for its research and polls. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the updated version of Gallup’s original book, Now, Discover Your Strengths.

In the back of each book, there is a unique code that allows you to access the online test. Therefore, it is not a book you can borrow or buy used. The test takes about 20 minutes and is comprised of questions that have you choose to what degree the statement describes you. The test only allows you a few seconds per question, as the theory behind it says your first instinct is usually the correct one.

Once you are finished with the test, you are presented with your top five strengths, a description of each and a list of activities to help you take advantage of them. The book is basically all the descriptions and suggestions gathered in one spot; however, the book also includes suggestions to help you work with or understand people who have strengths other than yours.

My strengths are: Input, Intellection, Learner, Achiever and Futuristic. After reading the descriptions of each, I have to say I agree with the assessment. I enjoy not just the outcome, but the process of learning and discovering new information. I can also be quite the perfectionist and a stickler for details, which shows up in the Achiever strength. My big dreams and plans for the future are showcased in the Futuristic strength.

The premise of the book/test is that you should focus on enhancing your strengths (what comes naturally to you), rather than trying to improve your weaknesses. While this is a good idea in theory, you cannot entirely discount working on your weaknesses. For example, if one of your weaknesses is adhering to deadlines, you cannot just set it aside. There could be severe implications for this, including failing a class if you are in school or getting fired from your job if you are consistently late in completing work. To its credit, the book does suggest pairing with people with strengths other than yours, such as a person with the strength, “Focused,” if your strength is one in which you are prone to distractions. However, you cannot always count on others; sometimes that option is not available.

I would suggest a combination approach: for the major things in life (i.e. your career, your volunteer work, etc.), focus on areas in which your strengths can shine. For example, someone with the “Developer” strength would excel in a field such as coaching or teaching, where it allows them to help others reach their potential. That same person may not do such a good job or enjoy their work as much if they worked in a career where they were isolated most of the day with little interaction with others.

By incorporating your strengths into the major areas of your life, you will be a more fulfilled person. You can then work on getting past your weaknesses without having them consume your life and cause more stress.

I would encourage people to read this book and take the test. At the very least, it helps you validate who you are and what you do best. If you’re not sure what direction you should take, it can help to guide you and draw out the qualities you should invest in. For more information or to purchase the book, visit www.strengthsfinder.com.

Written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Ken Springer

In the best-selling work Freakonomics, Drs. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have attempted to do for the field of economic analysis what Stephen Hawking successfully pulled off for physics with A Brief History of Time – taking a complex technical field and making it accessible to the lay reader.

Freakonomics has a very simple format. The author takes a socio-economic question and applies statistical analysis to attempt to answer that question. Sounds like a college term paper, right? Sort of.  Levitt and Dubner have the tendency to ask some very interesting, if not unorthodox, questions. The chapters in Freakonomics focus on subjects like the business models and economic incentives that undergird crack dealing in Chicago, the rise and fall of the Klu Klux Klan in the 1920’s and several other “edgy” topics. The authors address each of their subjects using statistical data analysis with the findings provided in casual prose instead of traditional academic-speak.

This approach comes not without certain flaws. Firstly, the lay nature of the book leads those with above-average curiosity or backgrounds in stats to desire more exposition on the types of analysis used for each hypothesis. The authors very often simply say “we analyzed the data and reached this conclusion” without going any further. Since none of the math is printed, readers are forced to accept these conclusions as factual when in reality, almost any statistic can be called into question if scrutinized hard enough. I’d be shocked if this book did not spark a feeding frenzy of junior economists with chips on shoulders, bent on discrediting Freakonomics’ conclusions. My second gripe is that the book is way too short – it can easily be read in a single afternoon. Each of the book’s chapters is very short and concerns itself with a single, isolated topic. This is probably intentional, as most of the chapters were initially published as part of Levitt’s regular column in the New York Times magazine.

I’d ask those unfamiliar with Levitt and Dubner’s work to forgive the garish title of this book – it can be supposed that a certain amount of shock treatment is required to motivate the average American to plunge into a morass of statistical analysis. This book was hyped to death on the blogosphere and in the popular press at the time of its release, sending book sales and Levitt’s speaker fees into the stratosphere. In fact, about a third of the book itself is spent notifying the reader of Levitt’s clout as a researcher and educator. At times the back-patting and academic name-dropping grow tiresome (especially in the later chapters), but a lot of these accolades are deserved by the authors. We should be praising Levitt and Dubner for their work. The authors’ crowning achievement isn’t so much in answering difficult questions, but rather taking a (traditionally) very boring academic field and making it interesting. That feat is the truly “freaky” part about Freakonomics.

Written by Richard Florida - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. He convinced the Queen of Portugal to finance his trip so he could discover a new passage to the riches of the Far East. As we all know now, he was way ahead of his time in many ways. Of course, we were all taught that he was “thinking out of the box” when he said that the world is round and not flat like many believed at the time. And, while he did not actually find his great passage to the east, he did prove to some degree that there was a world yet to be explored.

Fast forward about 500 years, when author Thomas Freidman reversed the idea of a round world with his book, The World is Flat. In his book, Freidman spends 608 pages describing how through technology and interconnection the world as we Americans once knew it has changed. Because much of what is being produced in the information age can be transported through communication networks that are becoming cheaper and cheaper, many parts of the world we once thought to be “underdeveloped”  are beginning to provide a cheap source of labor as economic controls and open markets become ubiquitous. Whether we celebrate this phenomena as an obvious outcome of the Cold War (open markets and economic freedom for all, even those once considered Third World), or we lament the loss of jobs here at home, Freidman tells us we need to recognize and adjust to this new world and become accustomed to the United States’ new position in a global economy.  People can live anywhere, Freidman says, and their quality of life will increase.  People can live anywhere, but will they?

Along comes Richard Florida, author of the 2002 bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class, which received The Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award for that year and was later named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004. The New York Times called it “an important book for those who feel passionately about the future of the urban center.” Cities and regions across the United States and the world have embarked on new creativity strategies based on Florida’s ideas. A subsequent book called The Flight of the Creative Class, which examines the global competition for creative talent, was published in March 2005. Florida follows these two books with one more book, titled Who’s your City? – How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. In Florida’s newest book he challenges Freidman’s idea of the flat world.

 Florida’s main premise in Who’s Your City? is that the world is, in fact, “spiky,” and people make very deliberate decisions about where they live based upon a number of factors.  This spikiness is a result of some very descriptive and interesting maps creative by a co-researcher. These maps show what look like very steep rocky mountains to depict the increase of population in the largest metropolitan areas throughout the world.  In Who’s Your City?, Florida supports his creativity index first rolled out in The Rise of the Creative Class study wherein he argues the fastest-growing and most economically-stable communities are those which harbor and welcome the most creative people in our world. This “clustering force,” as he calls it, is a very strong trend creating “mega-cities.” Through this clustering, these mega-cities are the engines of economic growth. 

Florida is not some pop-demographer whose main forte is selling books; rather, Florida is the professor of business and creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. At Rotman, he is the academic-director of the Lloyd & Delphine Martin Prosperity Institute. He has also spent time at Carnegie Mellon University, is a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Known as an economic demographer, Florida has scholastic credentials and mounds of data, which he is not shy about revealing and discussing in this particularly telling and informative book.

Economic developers love to hear what Florida has to say, but few have managed to take his ideas and principles and use them to their advantage. Florida’s current book informs us about the status of the world’s current population trends and how they ultimately impact our economic future. Can a community like Bloomington-Normal exist and, more importantly, prosper in Florida’s spiky world? Or should we give up and allow the mega-cities like Chi-Pitts, the region that stretches from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Milwaukee to Minneapolis, dominate our economy? According to Florida, we don’t have a choice.  This region, by the way, is the closest Bloomington-Normal gets to a mega-city, but apparently we don’t have enough population between here and Joliet to fill in the gap. Rest assured there must be some spin-off from the third largest mega-region, according to Florida, that pumps out $1.6 trillion in economic product. 

In 2004, Richard Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine, published a book called Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness. He would say that Bloomington- Normal does indeed have a chance. Inherently less scientific and rigorous than Florida’s research, Karlgaard divides the United States into categories with fun and interesting names such as “Happy Hootervilles” which are towns and communities under 25,000 with reasonable house prices for white collar professionals fleeing pricey urban coasts. Places like Douglas, Georgia or East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania fall into this category. Bloomington-Normal falls into the category of “Porch-Swing Communities,” which are described by Karlgaard as places for people seeking a “Norman Rockwell hometown feeling – vintage American suffused with parades, country fairs and summer evenings playing kick-the-can.” Karlgaard indicates, through a series of anecdotal stories from when he learned to fly a plane at age 45 and flew around the country to see how America had reacted to the promise of technology, that not everybody is fleeing to the large regions despite what Florida’s research tells us. Mixed messages, but hope for those not located in or near a mega-region.

In the final part of this book, Florida delves into “Where we Live Now” by looking at three categories: The Young and the Restless, Married with Children and When the Kids are Gone. In each category he tells of the places these age groups are living and how they select their places of residence. Most interesting is his analysis of the Young and the Restless which, as one might have guessed, are those in the age range of 18 to 30. Florida says that more than ever he and his researchers have concluded this age group has a propensity to decide where they want to live, then seek out a job once there. One of the primary decision points in this locational decision rests with the influence of friends and mating. The Young and the Restless want to go where their friends are and where they are most likely to find someone with whom to “hook up” with or even the more antiquated idea of getting married.  In a post-nuclear family world, being with friends seems to be a major decision point for young people.

Florida’s new book, once again, is filled with so much information that a once-over read is probably not enough. As an economic developer I seek his information to see how it might inform our attraction strategies and our economic development policies as a community. What are the things the Young and the Restless are seeking (other than a “mate”) that would attract them to Bloomington-Normal? What about the more creative members of our society? What do we have to offer that would attract and retain them here? Or are we a “Porch-Swing” community as proposed by Karlgaard, which relegates us to permanent kick-the-can status? I would like to think that Florida’s well-researched book informs economic development practitioners, city council members, business executives, entrepreneurs and many others who care about the future of their local community environment and can help them develop sound strategies. In grade school we were taught how Columbus discovered a new world, and we were also told if we work hard enough we could be anything we wanted to be. This still holds true for our community, as Richard Florida has shown, whether he knows it or not.

Written by Alan Weisman - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When I was ten years old, my family and I took a summer vacation trip to the Colorado Rockies. We drove all the way to Colorado, five people, in a 1966 Chevy Impala sans air conditioning across Iowa, Nebraska and up into the Continental divide. In our plush, easy-living world of today, it’s hard to imagine driving anywhere in the summer time without air conditioning, a multi-speaker sound system and global positioning map system mounted on the dashboard. The Interstate system was still relatively young then, and as we got to Colorado, we drove on local roads and mountain highways with some fear and trepidation as my father assured us, in his heavy accent, that driving in the mountains is something he experienced in the “old country,” and as the back end of the car nearly skidded off the side of a mountain, we could only pray he wasn’t kidding. Only later we found out the “old country” tallest mountain elevation was no higher than the glacial till aftermath of a bunny ski hill in southern Wisconsin.

At that time Colorado was still wild in many areas. Many parts of the state still had bad roads, and the nouveau riche had yet to discover many of the plush ski resorts and hip artist colonies. What this meant and what excited me most were the many ghost towns and abandoned mines we saw along the way. I was utterly fascinated that entire towns, or at least several buildings, that might have consisted of a small cluster of living human inhabitants would be abandoned or lost to time. These buildings were uniformly dark in color, and often times one would see a tree growing through the roof or weeds blocking the entrance to the door. I desperately wanted to stop and explore and see if we could discover old bones, artifacts or maybe encounter a ghost. My mind was full of imaginative ideas about what was located in these old ghost towns.

I’m not sure ghost towns still exist, and I’m positive these wooden structures have fallen down by now. The idea that people could or would disappear in this situation was foreign to me, and I did not give it much thought. How could people pick up and disappear? Why would they? It’s clear that many of these ghost towns existed to mine ore from the earth, perhaps gold or silver or even other less exotic minerals. Their disappearance, or at least the absence of humans, was likely “economic adjustment.” It is unlikely the federal government was there with a bailout for some of these towns back then.

This experience and listening to State Farm CEO Ed Rust talk about the absence or corruption of the Internet and its impact on the economy at Illinois State University’s Business Week keynote address made me think about the impact of our species (humans) on Earth and the reality we have created for ourselves. These lines of thought are explored quite aptly in a book titled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.  This compelling tome describes in its many chapters what the world would look like if all of a sudden every human being managed to disappear off the face of the earth. Through famine, disease, rapture or whatever method you might imagine, the author explores what would take place on the earth should we manage to drive ourselves into extinction.  Unfortunately, he did not explore Colorado ghost towns or delve into whether computers would take over the world if we ceased to exist.

The author is not a scientist, but relies on many interviews with experts in the field and takes us on a sometimes difficult journey to imagine. To those who are staunch environmentalists, the book reads like a “see, I told you so” bible of parables and prophecies. To those who are resisting the green movement and need ammunition for the idea that the earth is flexible and resilient, you will find that as well. In either case, Weisman takes us on a trip to explore specific projects and human feats of engineering to show the precarious nature of man’s existence and the over-achieving characteristics of the natural world. If not for man’s ability to create and develop reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) solutions to our problems and challenges of living like civil human beings, many of the areas Weisman explores couldn’t be imagined or reviewed. Nevertheless, he paints an interesting picture of what happens when nature takes over.

In an early part of the book, Chapter 2, Weisman gives us a preview of what would happen to our homes when we disappear. Just imagine the house long abandoned by your noisy and ill-regarded neighbors, the ones you keep calling the city about to have condemned and torn down. It’s easy to imagine what gravity, water and the natural forces of a Central Illinois climate might do to the organic portions of your home. Wood, drywall, wallpaper and curtains would decompose quickly, and pretty soon the only thing standing would be the toilet and just about every piece of plastic. Plastic doesn’t decompose very well, but most scientists quoted in the book indicate microbes and other little animals that decompose our organic material haven’t evolved enough to figure out how to break down plastic, but will one day…perhaps in another million years.  Chapter 9, “Polymers are Forever,” goes into detail on that subject.

The most interesting chapters have to do with our nuclear plants, our chemical manufacturing facilities and other more intense man-made behemoths. The breakdown of nuclear fuel and plants, once the equipment that must constantly be maintained is no longer in the hands of capable engineers, technicians and computers, will cause the cooling water to boil off and cause at least 441 (that is how many operating nuclear plants exist) melt-downs. And while this process won’t cause a meltdown to the core of the earth and through the other side, it will eventually spew radioactivity into the atmosphere for many, many years to come.  Weisman also tackles the Panama Canal, farming and animals.

In the end, while new species rise and fall with our absence, new types of growing green plants will take over our buildings and institutions we call home, school and work will become unrecognizable. Our man-made things quickly deteriorate when we aren’t around to maintain them. One merely has to think of the roads and other public amenities we often take for granted. However, the one trace of our existence that will always exist and can’t be taken away will be our transmissions of radio waves. From the beginning of the electronic age, our radio transmissions continue to move through the universe like light, and according to the author Lucy Ricardo, will always be with us.

This fascinating book is often slowed down by the need of the author to go backwards to see the future. Delving into the past, whether it’s the description of the evolution of homo sapiens or the breakdown of compounds into chemistry, the author takes you on a journey that is sometimes tedious or reads like your high school chemistry or physics course. In the end, if Weisman’s goal was to show us how poorly we have managed our resources and destroyed our environment through the old adage of “better living through chemistry,” he nearly completes the task, but the hope I carry from this book is the unique and creative resources the species called “human” has been able to use to harness what we thought at the time is or was important to our existence. Whether it is chemistry, polycarbons or nuclear energy, as human beings we are the only species on the earth that has the capability and the intellectual understanding to create and then solve our greatest problems. As humans we have done some incredibly stupid things to our earth and, by association, to ourselves, but in almost every case we have managed to figure out what we need to do to fix it. Sometimes the solution is not elegant, but in the end, it drives our existence. More importantly, we need to recognize our errors and have the political will and courage to fix them.

The book also makes one think of the topics and projects on the mind of almost everyone these days. Whether it is presidential political campaigns, architectural or building design standards, local building codes, worldwide energy consumption, war or the cost of gasoline at the gas pump, no one can deny that the efficient and effective use of our resources have great impact on our economy. Can our own little corner of the world impact this global issue? ISU’s alternative energy major (just introduced), ethanol production from corn and wind energy farms is recognition of this fact, and all have impact on our economy. This can also create great opportunities for jobs, new business and capital investment in our community. 

If you read The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, keep these important economic aspects in mind. Weisman brought back memories of ghost towns, history and recent history…the world without the Internet. He goes back into history, recent and prehistoric, to help us understand the future and the precariousness of our existence. However, Weisman also brings us great hope in understanding the opportunities and action we can take to secure our immediate future and the future of children and grandchildren.